The Sevan Podcast - #415 - Ricky Simon

Episode Date: May 25, 2022

UFC Bantamweight Fighter, Ricky Simon. Sign up for our email: https://thesevanpodcast.com/ ------------------------- Partners: https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://thesevanpodcast.com/ - OUR WEBSITE https://sogosnacks.com/ - SAVE15 coupon code - the snacks my kids eat - tell them Sevan sent you! https://www.hybridathletics.com/produ... - THE BARBELL BRUSH https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS https://usekilo.com - OUR WEBSITE PROVIDER ------------------------- #TheSevanPodcast #CrossFitGames #CrossFit 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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Yep. God, you're live. Oh, now I can hear you. Oh, it's because my headphones weren't on. You're running the show from a coffee shop? Yep. God, you're badass. Say that again? There's a lot of them around here. Where are you? Knoxville still. Are you working the Mac next week too? Yeah, I'll be there.

I don't know how we're going to do that. I got so much crazy stuff going on. Greg's coming into town. He's giving some lectures. I was looking at the schedule. You guys might have to do it without me. Don't be scared. Not really. I'm on podcast without you. No, it wouldn't be. Ricky, what's up? Good morning, dude.

Hey, what's up going on, guys? Are you in L.A.? Vancouver, Washington. Okay, so you're west coast too it's early as shit for you too yep yep i i'm always surprised when people on the west coast take the podcast at 7 a.m yeah no i usually i'm just drinking coffee and stretching anyway so i was like why not jump on get get a conversation going? Oh, you the man. You the man. I didn't even – you know, when I scheduled this, I didn't even know you were fighting Jack. Yeah, I think it – I mean, we kind of all came together quickly the last couple of weeks.

So I think right around the time we were scheduling. Crazy. Yeah. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Yeah. Holy shit. I hope people realize what an amazing fight that's going to be. I mean, you guys, that's two savages colliding.

Yeah. I mean, it's, we're kind of, I feel like we're very similar in the grappling at least and the wall wrestling and he's 16 to know. So it'd be nice to put a one on his record for sure. Yeah. Hey, are you born in Oregon? Actually, yeah, I was born in Pendleton, Oregon. I lived in Vancouver, Washington my entire life.

And where is Pendleton or Pendleton? Pendleton. Yeah, there's a D in there, yeah. Where is that? Is it north? You're in the south of Oregon now, but no, no. Wait, you're in, sorry, I'm all confused. You're in Washington, you're in Vancouver, Washington,

which is just north of Portland. Yes, this is very close i i trained in portland so it's like 20 minutes to the gym yeah just right on the right on the border and then uh penalty would be another you know four hours by east um in in a in a normal town uh you could probably beat up everybody. But in Portland, you could beat up any five guys at the same time. Yeah, I try to be Jim in Portland. That's about it.

When I think of Portland, I spent a bunch of time there in the last few years, and I watched one of the greatest towns in the world just completely take a fucking shit nose dive what what what a tragedy what happened there between the politics and the drug use but man it was it was like a place of such creativity and there were so many like it was where the cool hipsters were and then over the last couple years it just fucking went completely woke and drug addicts and i'm just and the dudes aren't even dudes there anymore it's just bizarre i don't know if you see if you see that but it's crazy it's everywhere man it's everywhere yeah especially the homeless and the tents and just taking over like plots of land you know and the police not being able to do stuff about that so it's been it's been getting worse and uh yeah i i trained in portland but

that's about the only reason i go to portland do they in the gym there you train at america top team there yep under uh fabiano scherner oh and you just got your black belt in december from him congratulations oh yeah thank you yeah i got. I got a picture of that. Do you see that, Caleb? If not, I can pull it up too. Yeah, that's awesome. How long were you working to get that? Must have been like a little over 11 years. So it's been, I never even really thought about the, you know, they say not to think about the belts or whatever. And I wasn't, I was just, you know, doing MMA and doing jiu-jitsu. You know, I love it. But, you know, the belt or whatever. And I wasn't. I was just doing MMA and doing jiu-jitsu.

I love it. But then the belted ceremonies would come up every year or so or whatever. I don't know. You see people getting their black belt, and you're like, damn. That would be a crazy moment after all this work. And it kind of was. It was great to get my black belt from Coach Fabiano. We're super close. It was a good moment for sure.

Let's see. I got it here. And, and do you even know? No, I didn't know. I, I, I had like a, one more degree to go on my Brown belt. So I thought I was going to get that and then maybe, you know, in a year or so, get the black belt. So I was, I was a little surprised. And do you, and do you talk to him afterwards? Oh shit.

I'm all over this. Do you talk to him afterwards? Uh, yeah, of course. And what, what does he say anything to you? Words of encouragement, tell you how great you are. How does that play out? Um, I think, I think specifically that night, I mean, it was just, you know, congratulations and stuff like that. And, um, you know, um, you got to come in here and wear the gi more often too. So those are the conversations.

Because, um, you, you're just almost strictly no gi. Uh, well for, especially training for fights and stuff, when you got, you know, three workouts a day, it's just hard to, uh, add that in, when you got you know three workouts a day it's just hard to uh add that in add in you know gi a couple times a week or or whatever but you know it's definitely you know beneficial it's always you know it's it's part of it it's fun uh why why even wear gi yeah i've only been following this i've been following uh ufc just you know dedicating every saturday to it for fucking seven years right and then about three or four years ago my boys got into jujitsu i have two five-year-olds and a seven-year-old and and then i

started getting into like the all the um the nikki rodriguez and his brother and gordon wright and sort of like watching all that stuff on flow. And it just seems like everything is going more and more towards no gi. Yeah, it does. It does. It seems to be more popular for sure. And doesn't it more functional? Yeah, I think so. They like the, you know, say like, you're not always just going to be wearing, you know, like the minimum clothes. Like if you're going to get like in a street fight or something,

they're going to be wearing sweatshirts and jackets and stuff like that so you know you're gonna have more more to grab on to but i mean i definitely prefer it especially for what we're doing you know yeah there's no sweatshirts or jackets in uh at your day job yeah yeah it's just booty shorts yeah finding our underwear that's about it. This is my work outfit, mom. Can you watch this? Just a fucking bikini. You're – and he says – so why would a 19 and 3 who has 22 professional fights go to a belt ceremony.

Aren't you too big time for that? Shouldn't you, they've called your name, Ricky Simone, your black belt. And you're like, you're signing an autograph somewhere. Not quite like that.

Not, not in my gym, at least. I don't know. You don't get that kind of, you don't get that kind of pull, but you know, I mean,

it's good. We're definitely like a family over there. So, I mean, I want, I want to be there. Definitely not too big time for it. Something like that like a family over there. So, I mean, I want to be there. Definitely not too big time for something like that. I want to see the guys get rewarded for their hard work.

Yeah, that's cool shit. So you're born in Pendleton. And you – tell me about that. You're born with mom and dad at home. How many siblings, all that stuff? Yeah, well, just – we weren't living in Pendleton at the time. you got you you're born with mom and dad at home how many siblings all that stuff yeah um well just we weren't living in pendleton at the time it was just i think the closest hospital but we live we live in a mountain free water oregon it's a small town probably like 30 minutes out from pendleton uh grew up with three other brothers um yeah i mean we all wrestled beat each other up

every day we're all pretty pretty close in age as well. So I had plenty of wrestling partners and sparring partners growing up. I kind of felt like, yeah, those are those ugly guys right there. Which one are you? I am the left. With the black shirt? Yeah, yeah, with that nice button up. Are you the oldest?

I am the second oldest. Which dude's the oldest? The dude next to you, just in the, like, with the 49er jersey or something? No, in the middle, the top middle. It was him, and then me, and then the far right in the jersey, and the bottom one. And what is that age spread right there? Seems like every two years or so wow brother me yeah every by every two years same mom and dad yeah yeah wow are your parents still

together no they're not they they separated when i was in high school and my mom had two more kids another boy and then she got a girl the very last attempt. So there's six of you all together. Yep. Holy cow. And are you close to the, are you four pretty close? Yeah, I would say so. Pretty, pretty close.

Always hanging out. Usually our trade still gets some training together as well. All, all four of you dudes fucking scrap yeah they don't uh really compete the youngest one will compete in jiu-jitsu but we just mostly just trained and uh we got like a gym in one of my older brother's garage and on sundays uh we'll go out and get get some training sessions in and work out some positions that maybe um someone was running into during the. I have another cousin who's a professional fighter as well, so he comes over and we all just kind of work. Oh, shit. So before a fight,

you could go over there, you could call the boys over, go over and be like, I heard that, I don't know how true this is, but it seems like it's the truth. I heard Volkanovski went over to B-team, and they were just fucking sinking in guillotines as deep as they could go, taking turns on him, and then starting the match there so that he could deal with Brian Ortega. So you could do that with your – you got five guys, so you could just call up, meet me at the fucking garage, put me in this position, and I'm going to work out of it. And they'll just – they're game? Oh, yeah. They're always game. Yeah. That's why, I mean, during like the early stages of the pandemic,

I would run like jog over to my brother's house a few miles and they'd be, they'd be ready. And I'd like have them, you know, wrestle me in certain positions or even like spar me like for more for fun for me. But so yeah, I mean, always good, always good work with those guys um you you don't you don't have any kids yet huh no no kids for me not yet well um you have no fucking i have three boys you have no fucking idea how amazing your mom is you haven't dude you guys must have wrecked shop in the house i think about that all the time um yeah we were

we were crazy breaking breaking everything putting holes in everything yeah yeah i definitely as i as i got i've gotten older i feel bad for my parents what we put up there for sure yeah you ate everything you guys wrecked shop you guys i mean if my kids aren't outside, something bad's happening. If they're inside, like they're like taken apart, like something, you know what I mean? They're outside. They're like, take their take. Like, they're trying to like, see who can throw a rock at the side of the car as hard as they can.

I'm like, wow, who came up with that game? You know? Yeah. Yeah. That was a common phrase in our household. Like, just go outside, go outside. Um, and, uh oh at a very young age you started wrestling yeah probably sometime in elementary school probably around like eight

or nine or something like that whose idea was that um i had a buddy doing it and i loved wwf at the time and i thought that might be some WWF wrestling. My dad took me to the practice, and it was way harder than that, and it wasn't the same thing, but I loved it, and I was good at it right away. I was a little chubby boy, and I would double-leg people and pick them up and pin them. here you are at 13 at 135 pounds and now you're 16 16 years later you are fighting at the very highest level that can fight on planet earth at the same weight yeah that's funny yeah like i said i was a chubby boy but yeah yeah that's why i think about that i'm like damn i've been the same weight class forever um Did you eat like shit? Is that why you were chubby?

Growing up in a Mexican household, probably. All the tortillas and everything like that. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I ate like shit. Both your mom and dad are Mexican? Just my dad. Just my dad.

My dad's from Mexico. My mom was from the Idaho area. So you're first generation on your dad's side did your dad grind did he work his ass off oh yeah oh yeah i was talking about it that's how that's how i learned how to work hard for sure what do you remember about that what did he do what were his hours oh they were always changing i remember that and you know it could be i remember he would switch his hours like um depending on what which season we were in for sports you know and he wanted to make it to all our stuff and he usually did so he'd be working swing shift or graveyard and some crazy hours for sure and doing what um he worked for a um well when i was younger he'd go to alaska and work

on the uh fishing boat oh shit yeah and then um then he landed a job over here in micklewood washington um for like um a paving company um and like asphalt and gravel and and then he started becoming like a diesel mechanic and that's kind of like what he's been doing for like for forever now can you imagine the stress and the pressure on your dad with four boys and a wife at home i mean it's nuts and they were young too they had they had had popped out four kids early 20s. So, like, I think about that all the time in my late 20s. I don't have one yet. I'm like, dang, you guys took it all on right away.

You know, I've been thinking about this more and more. Like, a lot of people say, like, hey, man, you can't have people running for office who are 75 years old. Like, this is just fucked up we get there you know you can't be president until you're 35 but there should be some rule like you can't be president if you're 80 or whatever but another thing i think about all the time like if you don't have kids like there's a there's a part of you that just doesn't doesn't see the world right yet like when like yeah it's hard to explain but once you have kids there's there's a whole shift i mean he wasn't he he sure as fuck wasn't going to go to alaska and fish that shit if it wasn't for you four i mean you know what i mean that's like all for you

guys right oh yeah for sure huh yeah it's nuts um is he does he trip on how far you've taken it what's your dad say about about that you're a professional athlete at the at this in this crazy sport yeah i mean he's he's probably the reason why i got into it i mean he would rent like pride and the early ufcs on the vhs from wherever he could get them you know he'd buy them rent them and then we would just watch them all the time i'd watch um you know the tournaments and just be like hours of fights and you know i my older brother my dad loved it and i just thought these guys were kind of a little crazy but as i got older i definitely like kind of you know i got better at wrestling and i you know i loved to fight and then started training right after high school and my dad was always super supportive he was like he always thought i could like you know make it and i

you know i i didn't have that kind of confidence especially when i was that young i was like i'm not even sure like you know if i'm gonna go pro and this and that he was always like you know you definitely should you definitely should do this keep going you know he he'd always be like yeah you're gonna make it i think and that was always super like nice to have like coming from my dad because you know you got you got people especially like this is not an easy sport to come up in telling you hey you should probably you know go back to school or you should probably you know go go do this instead you should probably stop stop playing around with this the sport you're not going nowhere with it you know i have plenty of people kind of tell me that because of where mma was but never from my dad you you are uh a beautiful young man with a

fucking insane record and and you're in the very top of the league and it it doesn't look easy i mean you are a very special-looking character. I was digging through your Instagram. I mean like you could fucking be in movies. I mean you look like you fell out of some fucking Native American warrior movie in some of these pictures with your fucking mullet. It's fucking nuts. Oh, I want to come back to that confidence. I took a note here because I wanted to ask you. But go ahead.

Pull that up, Caleb. I want to ask him about that picture right there. Do you have – are you gifted genetically? Do you have abnormal wingspan? Look at how long from your shoulder to your elbow and then your elbow to your fingertips. It's like you have the torso of like a doo-doo 6'3 on a doo-doo 5'5. How tall are you? I'm probably like 5'6 on a good day okay don't say five

five give me that one inch five six okay i'm five five so five you're five so you're a giant at some point i just stopped like growing this way and i just started kept growing this way i mean look how broad you are you're like a flying squirrel do you know what your wingspan is uh 70 inches and go back the ufc gets me a 69 to 70 inches okay so so so that's you so you do have the wingspan of a guy who's 5'10 yeah i think it was like the way my me and all my brothers are kind of built my dad's very like that short and just his shoulders are super stocky yeah crazy um caleb can you pull up any pictures of him like just where it's just him and his mullet and he just looks fierce like he looks like he should have a spear in his hand and on a horse has it people tell you that all the time right

that you look native yeah yeah yes i get that often yeah you have such a great look hey what's the most you've ever weighed in your life um i think after my uh first ufc fight uh like a week later i was like 178 pounds you never broke you never cracked 200 no never cracked 200 no but definitely close like about 180 do you start freaking out when you get that heavy? Yeah, well, that was like younger in my career for sure. Like I'm good at keeping it lower for sure these days, living a healthier lifestyle and trying to balloon up so much.

But it's not easy making 135 pounds for sure. But with the height height disadvantage at in these like uh in the ufc especially when all these guys are so good and know how to use that reach um that i just feel like 135 is the best weight class for me but it's not easy to make it's not fun to make it um but you know we're spoiled now with the ufc like they was nutritionist and send us out food and fight week they cook all our food for us and everything so it's been easier these days could could uh could trifecta make me i'm 55 165 i work out every day could trifecta make me 135 i would love to fucking get a see

what i look like like that like this but i think what you could do first is what they when someone's thinking about going to a new weight class or something the ufc will put you in like one of their deca scans or they and they'll weigh your like muscular skeleton and see which what weight you should be fighting in and then you'll take the you, you'll have the right diet. They'll plan you up to get you down to the most possible weight before you do a water cut. I can't just, I can't just call Trifecta or go to their website and say, I want the Ricky Simone diet.

I want the Ricky Simone body. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think it's specific for me and I'm not sharing the secret. Sorry. No, I'm just kidding hey so literally the the weeks leading up so so it i think in there you say you went from uh i wrote it down like 168 to 135 in six weeks is that correct that that sounds like it sounds like me being a fat boy, yeah. Okay, sorry, sorry.

Sorry, you go from 160, thank you, Caleb, from 160 to 134.8 in seven weeks. So you don't have to do shit. You just stay on your training regimen, and they just send you boxes of food, and that's what you eat? Yeah, for the most part and i like i like uh you know sometimes fresh food and sometimes i can get boring um eating the same meals that get sent over you know um dry frozen or whatever um so i'll cook or add or substitute a carb or add a protein or or whatever for whatever practice i'm going to so but yeah that's But yeah, that's usually the case. They make it way easier on us.

Yeah, that's awesome. That must take a lot of stress off. What do you think when guys don't make weight? Do you have compassion for it? Or are you like, yeah, I can see how that happens? Or are you like, fuck you? It's definitely annoying. I mean, kind of both.

I've never missed weight in wrestling or in um in my fighting career so i definitely think there's like no excuse for it but i mean people are pushing the limits they're cutting a bunch of weight it's just weird when they miss by like several pounds you know like the one pound the one and a half pounds i was like yeah i've been there where you think like I can't sweat anymore, you know. But like when you're coming, some of these guys come in missing four pounds, five pounds plus like, man, you should be heavily fined. And like what's the percentage of these guys that miss weight like that and win? I think it's pretty high.

So it's definitely. Oh, that would be an interesting stat. Yeah. And it took this is the kind of stupid things that like took me five years or seven years to learn. I'd be like, what's the big deal if he weighs a couple of pounds more, but the big deal is is that he didn't have to go through the struggle and do the damage to himself to lose the weight. Right.

It's not necessarily that he's heavier said he didn't put the strain on his body to lose the weight. Right. Yeah. That's definitely part of it. Yeah. Yeah yeah and then they're going to be you know they didn't suffer that extra sometimes that the extra four pounds it takes people different different times to get it off or whatever so someone might have been struggling for two hours trying to get that last little bit off why the other person just decided to show up on the scales overweight i don't think a lot of people realize, I know I didn't realize until I started talking to more and more UFC fighters,

that also there becomes a point like where Oliveira was, where you're 155.5, and I can't imagine this, but I believe it, that you can go in the sauna, fucking jump rope, and you still won't break a sweat. I mean, I break a sweat getting out of bed and walking over to the coffee maker, but I guess you guys get so fucking dehydrated

that not a drop will come out. I mean, yeah. I mean, I've never really gotten to that point where like no sweat would come out, but it took a long time. It took a long time to start the sweat, you know. You'll be in a sauna or doing whatever, cooking for too long

trying to trying to get that sweat going but yeah it's tough it is tough especially if you don't if you miscalculate the weight during camp or maybe you ate too much the week before and your weight's higher the travel messed something up it's a lot kind of goes into it especially fight week um if you think i don't know the exact details, but if you think about what happened to Olivera, right? The psychological implications too. So he misses weight and he has the title stripped from him. So I think right there, maybe he like loses like 30% of his purse, right?

Yeah, I think, I think, yeah, usually it starts at 20%. And then depending on how much it can go up from there and then maybe he lost supposedly from just the dumb shit that I know only the champs get part of the pay per view so then he lost that oh did he really?

I don't know I was speculating but then you know for the next fight when he fights the title he probably is not going to get I mean he probably lost millions of dollars because of that. Or at least close, right? That's why you don't ever see me missing weight. I'm too stingy with my money. Are you good with your money?

Try to be, for sure. Try to be. I just purchased a house right now. Good on you. I've been dealing with that the last couple of weeks and stuff like that but it's definitely a learning curve when you're in this kind of profession for sure what interest rate did you get?

do you know? like 5.6 I believe holy fuck dude yeah it's just crazy how it's just a couple years ago or a year ago, it was like 2.8. Yeah, I'm kicking myself.

I was waiting too long. I was like, I don't know. It seems kind of like a crazy time to buy a house. Yeah, it is a crazy time. But I was just ready to make the move, I guess. Yeah, I think it's smart. I think it's smart either way. I think it's smart because that's the money that, um, that you're not going to spend that money. You know what I mean?

Now every, I just think of mortgage payments as saving money. I like to hear that. Did, did, um, are you married? Yes, I am. Yeah. Did she do do all that does she do all the adult stuff like do you just be like okay i want that house and then she does all the paperwork and all that stuff um yeah basically i'd like to say oh good that's how that yeah that's so good you don't have time for that shit like they they bring this whole stack of papers and they're like you have to sign every sheet i'm like honey can you just talk to this dude and do all this she's like okay yeah my my brother-in-law is uh a lender so we we uh we went through him and they

just made it so easy on me and i have a sponsored uh graham gentry who's a real estate agent so between those those three they just killed it and and I just got to train and help move. That's awesome. Yeah, I saw that he was threatened with a left hook or something if he didn't find you the right house. Yeah, I was ready to hit him in the body for sure. And you know what? That makes sense too because I'm hearing a lot of people in my area getting over 6%. So it sounds like they got you a good interest rate relative to how fucked up everything is right now.

Yes. Yeah, I think so. When did you realize – you said when you were younger you didn't have the definition of confidence is and how you either cultivate it or how it grows or – when I was a kid, I always heard the word focus, and I still – it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I was like, oh, shit, that's what focus means. People would be like, focus, focus, but I never thought what it meant. I'm guessing confidence is kind of like one of those words too. You don't realize that you lack confidence until one day you get a little. Like you're like 17. You're like, fuck, I'm – oh, shit, I didn't realize how insecure I was. Yeah, I mean I would think I was always like confident in my abilities

and like in my preparation, but I just never really – I kind of – because there was no blueprint on how to make it to the UFC at the time, especially it seemed that way. So I just didn't like think that it would, you know, that I would be able to make it to the UFC. It seemed so prestigious at the time for sure. But I mean, I had a really good amateur career and it was kind of a quick one. And then I went pro and I was just kind of like um you know building up that experience in the cage and I think with that and then I was putting the right team around me so I got the confidence from the experience and then I got the confidence from the preparation and then after that I mean I and

I've you know I've won plenty of fights and then I've lost some fights and so I've kind of felt like I've dealt with with it all uh you know as far as, you know, winning and losing. And, you know, I've lost some big fights, and I've won some big fights. So I'm just at a point in my career and in my life where I'm so confident in my abilities. And like I said, in the preparation, and I have the experience of this go-around, especially on the come-up in the rankings. So I don't know. I just feel very comfortable and very confident lately. I mean, even as a young man, as a 13-year-old wrestler,

when you stepped up against someone, did you know you were going to win or what was the mindset? No, I never knew I was going to win, but I've always been so confident. I was very like,

I was in middle school, I was very into wrestling, my main sport. But even with I lost very few in wrestling. It's my main sport. So, but even with especially

for like being confident, but it's mostly the outcomes and I'm just Oh, you're breaking up pretty bad.

Can you No, I can bad. I got that. No, I can't. I can bet you sound like a real... You turned into a transformer. Uh-oh. Did we lose you? I got us. Someone's on the roof fucking with the antenna.

Yikes. I hear you five uh when when when you go into the ring with you at the ufc um can you have what can you only enter with the ideal mindset like like if you go in there can there be any doubt or or maybe i don't even know what I'm talking about. Maybe you always enter with all doubt and that's what makes you fucking go nuts in there. But what's it like, what's it, what is that? And does, is it changing from second to second until you guys collide? Oh yeah. I think there's, for me, I,

I don't get too nervous until like I'm right about to walk out and I'll be like a few moments where I'm just waiting in the back and there's a bunch of like the B roll or whatever the interviews are rolling, the highlights are rolling and we're just bouncing in the back curtain. And I'm just like, hey, I'd like to make this walk now instead of waiting five minutes, you know. But then once you once I start the walk out and then get in the cage, then it's like the nerves kind of subside. And, and, and are you, are you like, you're ready to fight? Like as you're coming out there, you're ready to just start throwing punches. It's like, you're ready. Yeah. I mean, uh, I'm ready to, uh, I don't know, I just feel focused and I'm ready to, we have a game plan and, you know, and I don't know, I just, I feel like I'm in the zone. I've ever felt in there as far as like, um, you know, like the training leading up to the fight and then just how fight week,

how easy fight week went for me. Um, you know, I think I've done it enough times, especially in the UFC. Now my next, this next one will be my 10th UFC fight. So I think I'm just getting more comfortable with the walk. It's a, it's a crazy card you're on to the, uh, the main event is Yair and Ortega. Yeah, it's going to be a crazy one. I mean, it's going to be hard to beat those guys out for a fight of the night. For them, I mean, I guess I talk about this with almost all the fighters I've had on. It's a trippy sport because,

well, for a bunch of reasons, but every fight is a Super Bowl. There are no, it's not like the NBA or MLB where you can lose a game. You really cannot lose. There's no homeostasis. If you lose, it's a big step back. I mean, you can just look at all the fights you have. You should be a fucking, you you know a top five fighter that you uh who a merab or gilashvili or whatever that guy's name is you beat him and he's higher than you but it's just it's you're a victim of circumstance right and and your loss is to rob font who's arguably one of the best in the division easily um

the pressure must be enormous, right? Like you have to win. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it definitely feels that way at times. But yeah, you gave that guy his only loss. Holy shit. No, no, no. He's oh, no. OK, he's seven and three.

Yeah. Click his name. Where is he ranked now? Caleb Merab. Click Merab's name. Sorry, he ranked now, Caleb? Merab. Click Merab's name. Sorry, you were going to say what, Ricky? It's definitely what? Oh, well, I think Merab's been on a seven-fight win streak since our fight. And I thought that was a fight that might be next before I got this Jack Shore fight.

I thought they wanted to run that one back. I think he was ranked i think he's ranked currently like maybe sixth unless some something's moved around but but um i don't know what ended up happening to that i don't think he ever got offered it um and uh now i got this uh jack shore fight but i mean uh equally as excited i get to you know paid the same either way so um I just need to go make a statement against a 16-0 cat. I think I'll get the push that I deserve. He's an English guy, right?

He's a Welshman. Welshman, okay. Was there a certain age that you realized that you were tough? That you were like, okay, I'm okay getting hit in, um, that you realized that, um, you were tough, that you were like, okay, I can't, I'm okay getting hit in the face. Like that you accept that. Um, we fought all the time growing up. So, uh, I never knew that I didn't mind getting like hit in the face, like a fight or boxing, whatever. But, uh, I realized that like later on when, when I started seeing some of my other friends

throw on the boxing gloves and they would be scared to get hit or you know they didn't want it then someone you know a lot of luck is don't even want to fight you know but i always wanted to fight i always wanted to hit somebody i didn't mind getting hit yeah um my sister and i uh wrestled a lot but but we kind of had a there there was an unspoken rule, no face punches. But you're right. My boys will just walk up and punch each other in the face. There's no rules. Yeah, yeah.

Kick someone in the back. Yeah, kick someone in the back. Like even if you're not mad at them, like someone's just like in the toy room, you just walk by and just kick them in the back, and then it's just on. Yeah, how can I push this guy's buttons? Yeah. come in the back and then it's just on yeah how can i push this guy's buttons yeah uh are our kids in our kids in the um in in the future for you is it something like you're thinking about yeah i think so i think so um my my wife has a good job and i feel like we're in a good place. I don't know. I think for the longest time we were just two, both very focused on our careers and and you know,

wanting to travel and stuff like that. But I think that's definitely a possibility in the future. Does she have concerns about your job, about you getting hurt? And if she does, she just pushed, do you think she just hides them? Just pushes them down? Um, I don't know. I think,

I think, um, she's, she's been around like the entire time I've, I've been trying this. So, uh, I think there's been waves of it,

you know, some good, you know, like, you know, but I think luckily I've had a lot of success in the sport so far, and I've been able to avoid major injuries. The UFC takes great care of me.

I've got some stem cells in my shoulders. The physical therapy team at the performances too is great. Heather Linden and Bobby and Tara and all of them do a great job of taking care of us so um i don't know i i think um yeah obviously she's worried about like you know major injuries and me getting hurt and stuff like that but she knows that i take my recovery super seriously and that i'm in good hands so um you know it's a sport at the end of the day and i'm i love to go compete it it takes a a special mate um because you have a your time commitment too right i mean you're putting your life on the line every time you go in there and so your commitment to to succeeding has to be before everything else and you i guess you have to have a really

kind of a drama free understanding mate right to succeed in this sport oh yeah 100 and i i see it on um and like a lot of other fighters or they might get you know they might match up with someone who who doesn't like what they're doing or doesn't like how much they're missing you know whatever quality time at home or whatever but we got we got to be at practice no matter the day no matter the holiday or whatever you know so i've missed plenty of holidays throughout the years but you know it's never been she she knows why i'm doing it yeah that's awesome you're stoked you're you're you're you're really really stoked why why are you staying up there um you i'm assuming you bought a house near where you train have you thought about moving like florida southern california somewhere warmer texas why are you staying up there family yeah

did you hear me sorry oops sorry why are you staying up there a little bit why why haven't you moved out of there why are you staying up there there's so many there's so many great places to do fighting warmer conditions why are you. And you just bought a house there, so you're kind of like doubling down on your commitment to the area. Um, but you know, I got all my family out here, um, and I got great training partners out here as well. And a great team out here. We have the America top team, Portland. I feel like it was the best team in the area. And, and, um, you know, I have everything I need there.

And I, I've done a great job at, um, traveling and training in orange County at team, team on Yamas. And I, and I've been doing that like every month every other month um so i don't think it just came down to um i love i love um the area i you know i grew up here and um just just mostly family i think we wanted to be close to family my wife's family's here my family's here um so i think we're just so family oriented it was hard for us to to leave but we do we do plenty of of traveling and maybe another spot somewhere else in, in the future will be, will be, you know, will be great too. And your record is so good. It's kind of, it's kind of,

and you've been so successful. It's, it's, I was just thinking about you moving to Vegas. It would be all new training partners, whole new scene. And if something new scene and if something came on fucked it could it could like get in your head right like oh shit what did i do um look i um i train in vegas all the time i i'm oh my cousin is my cousin is vince morales uh he's a ufc bantamweight uh he lives out there he trains with syndicate so uh whenever i go to vegas to Vegas, I'll stay with him at his house. We'll get great training at the performances too and at Syndicate under John Wood. They have a great program over there, so I feel comfortable going over there. That's why I felt like I almost wanted to make the move, but couldn't do it. Yeah, and you have the best of both worlds because I guess you could just go there anytime, right? Plus 20% bonus Avion reward points. That's like 2.8 cents per liter for a total value of 7 cents per liter. Don't leave these savings behind.

Find out more at rbc.com slash petro dash Canada. Conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Disney's Young Woman in the Sea. Now streaming on Disney+. I've decided to swim the English Channel. A woman? I believe she'll die in that water. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joachim Roening comes the must-see

true story, Daisy Ridley. I go to England or die trying. Trudy, you don't have to do this. Don't let anyone take me out of the water, no matter what. Disney's Young Woman and the Sea. Now streaming on Disney+. What are the chances of you guys running into that's how i

figure it what are the chances of you and vince running into each other uh we always we always joke about that but i don't think i i don't think uh i would ever want that to happen we're you know my cousin and i are super close too but unless it was for like a belt or something, we're making some stupid money. Um, then, uh, then that would be, that would be quite the storyline, I think. Yeah. So it's avoid, it's, it's avoidable unless it gets, unless you guys have to both, there's only one seat at the top, unless it gets to that.

Yeah, I think so. I think there's plenty of uh of matchups and um were managed both under radium sports agency and jason house so i i doubt something like that would pop up hey uh that video of you fighting i think it's for the lfa championships and and herzog grabs you and you kind of like wiggle, wiggle out of there. Did you guys, did you and him talk about that afterwards? Um, not, not really talk about, I messaged him up and told him it was nothing against him. I was just, you know, emotions were high for me, uh, especially where I was at in my career. And, and, um, you know, yeah, just emotions were very high for me and, uh, I didn't do anything, you know, yeah, just emotions were very high for me. And I didn't do anything, you know, intentionally malicious towards him.

It was just in that moment and that level of competition and where we were at and what was on the line, I think, I think kind of got to me a little bit. And I was feeling a little salty. It was legit. Yeah, it was. Oh, wait, why were you a little salty? Sorry, say that again. Just because I wasn't, you know, I wasn't signed to the UFC yet. I was kind of touted as the top prospect unsigned at the weight class.

I fought in Contender Series, and I won, and I didn't get signed. And then I fought Chico Camus for the belt, LFA world title. I beat him in a five-round title. He hadn't lost since he lost to Henry Cejudo. He was on a good win streak outside the UFC. Then I still didn't get signed. At that point, I had been fighting for quite a while. Bills are stacking up a little bit. Cause everything I had was going

into it, into fighting and I'm working part-time and, you know, it was just, it was just a lot. I was like, I feel like if I put my energy in anything else like this much, I would be, you know, killing it. And I just wasn't, um, I wasn't, uh, um, loving the journey at the time. I wasn't appreciating it at the time for sure. And I was just ready to, you know, I felt like I could have been competing in the UFC before that and make good money. So I think that's why I was like,

it's my time. You know, I get this win. It's going to happen. I almost thought about calling a quiz. I didn't have it after that fight. Really? Yeah,

I did. I did. You didn't, you didn't, it's not like you pushed him he just grabbed you from the back and you kind of just wiggled out it was definitely nothing it's pretty obvious that it was it was a heat of the moment thing when you when you said to him hey no hard feelings uh sorry did he respond to you like hey it's cool i get it yeah yeah hers is a cool cool dude and and i've had the chance to run into him at u events and in the back and stuff like that.

And he's always been a super cool guy, always gives me knuckles. It's nice to see a ref out there who doesn't look like a fat pile of shit who drinks eight days of the week. So I got mad respect for that handsome young man. the week so so i i i got mad respect for that handsome young man uh also on that same note and you know you probably talked about it ad nauseum um michael bisbing said something about you beating a ranked opponent and you and you very nicely said you know it's not your first ranked opponent and then later on he commented on it i thought it was cool later on that he commented upon it but he totally misread you. Like, well, you tell me. Like, either he has brain damage or he's an egomaniac or it was just too loud in there and he completely misunderstood you.

Because I sense no dick from you. Was there any dick? Were you trying to be a dick? No, I wasn't. I definitely wasn't trying to. Yeah, no, it's i mean i didn't mean to come off that way but and you did not come off that way he either misunderstood or he's an egomaniac or brain damage those are the three and i like the guy but yeah and i i guess like when he

said i hadn't beat a ranked opponent before i was like i i was ranked top 15 a couple years ago i'd be ronnie yaya he's a legend of the sport and he was ranked at the time on a big win streak. So in my head, I was kind of like, I want my accolades to kind of be able to speak for themselves. But if you're misrepresenting that, then I'm going to correct you. It was no different than he said, well, it's not raining. Let's go outside. And you went, oh, no, it's starting to rain. It was just like that.

It was that chill. You was just like that it was that chill you were just like well how dare you correct me in front anyway he's a good he seems like a good dude but but for for it is always fun um i think uh what what did barnum and bailey say like any any media is good media or whatever one of those like fuck it i think it was good for you that he talked some shit to you yeah and we i think we tweeted at each other like later on uh when like some articles started coming out and i think we're i think we're cool we'll see you next fight week i guess you should tweet him i'm gonna beat your ass when i see you just just for a little bit more uh you try to get me in trouble that's what you're trying to

do seven is there a is there um is there a is there like a holy shit – a position, holy shit, I can't believe I have this in the UFC? Like whenever I see someone get someone in a crucifix, like I always fucking get all – like I'm at home and I'm just like, holy fuck. I can't believe this is happening to – no matter – even if I want the guy to lose, I'm not happy for anyone. I could hate you, and if someone has you in a crucifix i feel horrible for you is that position that bad or is there a position that you get someone in and you're like oh this sucks for this dude yeah i mean that's that there's like a couple positions like the crucifix that like you know you don't want to be in that position And I've even been in that position early on in my career. I put someone in that position, I'm elbowing them.

And like for a split second, I'm like, man, this is, this is kind of messed up. Yeah. It's, it's, it's like, um, like one of those positions you get your brother and when you're sitting on his chest and his arms are trapped and like, you're tapping on his chest and like, you're like, well, fuck I own i own you i mean i'm just completely yeah do you train from that position ever like hey put me in a crucifix like like is that one of those ones that you have to like consciously like work on to get out of some to make sure it never happens to you yeah of course it's something that we would train to put people in and

then also we're like all right if we get put in this what are the best routes of you know to escape it without taking so much damage because it looks like um who big country roy nelson was like so good at doing that like it seemed like back in the day he would take guys down crucifix them and then he would just like pop shot him. And he would like count out loud for the ref to hear how many punches he lands. No shit. Yeah, yeah, he used to do that. He used to even do that in Ultimate Fighter back in the day. No shit.

Wow. Yeah, for those of you who can see, I've actually – I don't actually ever remember seeing it from underneath like that. The one I always see is the I think the guys on top but either way it's horrible you see like you have both the guys arms and you can just mash his face oh man who do you think is going to win

out of Yair and Ortega it's going to be a bad loss for one of them I think like like emotionally it's going to be really tough for one of them if whoever loses yeah that is a uh i think it's a great fight it's going to be exciting for sure i think for sure i think uh maybe or i think for some reason i'm leaning towards ortega um maybe because the grappling i mean, yeah, he is great at the distance but he does later on in the rounds he starts

grappling up a little bit more, I think Ortega will have an advantage there but I mean, it's going to be a great fight either way The 35 and the 45 class, they're a little scary the guys in there because everyone can just take such a beating you know like like cater and holloway and rob font i mean these are guys who like

we've seen them beat into a pulp and they just keep going or or or uh i think he got dropped from the ufc but chris uh montanillo who sean o'malley used his face as a punching bag for fucking three rounds do you remember that fight uh barely yeah he basically just he just he just he just beat his face for three rounds and chris just kept coming forward i don't think chris got in one punch. Or maybe in the third round he did. Yeah, I think that, I don't know. I feel like maybe O'Malley just wasn't hitting too hard or something. Because that kid fought his next fight and got finished in the first round.

Right, right. Maybe it just depends on the opponent and the shots they're hitting him with. You would like to um beat him up huh mr o'malley uh i mean if yeah yeah i mean i i can't lie i would i would like to i would like to crucify him i think is if when you fight him is that are you going to put him in a crucifix is that what he gets When you fight him, are you going to put him in a crucifix? Is that what he gets?

I definitely feel like I could. With his skinny, lanky body, he'll be an easy position to get into. He would definitely be trying to keep his distance from you the entire fight, right? If you got in the ring with him? Oh, yeah, I think so. I think so. But, I mean, he's pretty good at that already he does a good job at like managing distance and angling uh with most opponents he's had so far but i don't think he's fought the same kind of competition that i've fought for sure and you

think you could get your hands on him i definitely i definitely think that and And that would be bad for him. Yeah, I mean, well. I mean, it's bad for anyone if you get their hands on them, right? Yeah, I mean, especially if I'm able to start, like, racking up the takedowns and stuff like that. But I just, I feel like when he got tested that one time, really, I mean, his biggest test had been Chito Vera. And Chito, you know, kicked his leg off and then elbowed him in the face. I am excited about his next fight with Pedro.

That's a great fight. Pedro, even though he's taken some losses lately, he's a hard hitter. It's definitely a great test for O'Malley. I like to see that he's fighting tougher competition, for sure. There was a fight against a guy named parello i think that you had i i don't maybe i'm confusing this but oh yeah yeah it is against parello you do a spinning back fist into a double leg yeah did you practice that or is that just like fucking god working through you in the moment you just fucking the shit's just coming together

no i i get people like pinned up in that double leg all the time so what i try to do is throw a spinning bag elbow from that and then um the double leg after kind of i just saw it but um that's a position that i worked with coach oyama actually with and alex perez i would drill you know shooting in all the doubles spinning off and uh i actually landed that elbow and must have caught it wrong because my elbow was like a balloon the next morning. It must be kind of crazy for a guy. You throw a spinning back elbow at him.

Let's say he dodges it. If he celebrates for even one second and admires his work even for one second, it's too late. He fucking then gets double-legged and the party's over. That pressure's coming. In another fight, you did this move that I'd never seen anyone do. You know how guys will throw elbows? I don't even know how you did it, and they'll usually just throw one.

You chase the guy across the ring throw, and you throw three in a row, like jabs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, a row like like jabs yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i think it's the same one i ear did to korean zombie or something right or like knocked him out with like a half a second left in the fight you're coming you're chasing a guy across the ring like this i never had um do you remember that fight what i'm talking about yeah yeah it was a keller fight you're're giving away all my secret elbow training. Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. But I see that shit and I'm like, I would never fucking think to do that. If I were a fighter, I'd fight like Nate Diaz. I'd just be slapping people.

Slapping you in the ear and shit. But it doesn't even make sense to me what you were doing, but it looked horrible for the other guy. Yeah. I have been working on that specific elbow with coach Oyama for a while and I have a lot of success with it. And I don't know if loosening up in the third round felt like a good time to throw it. Yeah.

The other guy's face is great. Kelleher's face is great. Like he doesn't even know what the fuck is happening. He's just running backwards. Like what the fuck is fuck is this yeah have you ever seen anyone else do that use an elbow like a jab um that up that up one i was thinking not really on the left side i see it like anastasia silva threw it like on the right side off her right hand and then stepped through with it um against tony prickling back in the day so i feel like it's kind of similar to that but it's the it's the lead arm instead yeah it was it was it was crazy it was crazy

one of the guys in your early fights compares your pressure to uh tony ferguson your pace yeah that is cool right that's that's yeah Yeah, Tony is the man. Tony is the man. I never heard that one, so I'm going to take that. Yeah, he was comparing your pace. What is – how good is your cardio? Have you ever got gassed in the ring? I used to always get so mad because I do – I've always been like a cardio machine, and I feel like you always get tired in there. Five- five minute rounds are that's a lot to be fighting for five

minutes you see most street fights those things last like 15 30 seconds you know right super quick people get gassed out and you know we got it's a long time in there so i i realize like you're you're gonna get tired but the better shape you're in you can recover faster so we really we really focus on that, on the recovery time, especially that one minute in between or, you know, get into positions that I feel like I can recover better in, but I've always had so much confidence in my cardio. And that's why I feel like I can like keep,

keep that kind of pressure because I know that it's going to wear, wear on my opponents, you know, before or more than it's going to wear on me. It seems like it's the worst thing that could happen to you in a ring besides getting knocked out running out of gas right oh getting tired and getting beat up like not being able to like make the right moves because your legs feel like they weigh you know an extra 100 pounds or your arms do or you feel like you can't get out of position because you're tired yeah you don't want to you don't want to be that

that type of fighter for sure yeah i can't remember who i was interviewing but they basically said that they've been they were so gassed one time that they were seeing punches come in that they could have easily dodged but they just couldn't get their body to do it yeah that sounds fucking horrible it sounds like one of those dreams where you're where you're trying to fight someone but but your punches feel like they're going through syrup have you ever had that dream yeah yeah i haven't like i can't close my fists all the way and i'm like trying to punch them and i'm like oh i'm not like getting these i'm not like getting any power on these punches that's how i feel in dreams sometimes oh good i'm glad you have those fucked up dreams too.

Finally, don't get mad at me. Another one of your insane weapons that just pops out of nowhere is the flying knee. Like you'll just be just all of a sudden your knee's just up and it's high and it's vicious. But I never – I haven't seen one of those really connect yet, Like, like, like a Ben Askren connection. Are you looking forward to that? And is that, is that one of your favorite moves? I mean, you throw them great and they come out of nowhere. Yeah. I mean, I've landed them or just about landed a fly knee and,

and so many different fights. And one of my coaches, my boxing coach gives me so much shit for it. He's like, he's like, you rock somebody. The the instead of going in with some boxing you go go to miss a fly a d but i'm like day you know that could have been a fifty thousand dollar deal though you know so i'm gonna throw it yeah and and and you throw it far too um you don't necessarily you don't even need to be close to you and you'll throw it like you like it's it's all it's always uh it's always a threat and do are those trained too or is that just your just your athleticism or do you have to train the shit out of that to be that good at it um i think in in the beginning it was athleticism

and then as the years got as the years gone on and you know i did practice something and it's you know it's gotten more technical as well and with the setups and and how to and how to throw it when when when you get in the ring with someone and they first feel you um do you have any idea what they feel like do you think you know like are they like oh shit he's stronger than i thought or he's faster than i thought or do you have any idea like what or this is too much pressure like your opponents what is the thing that they're always probably like oh shit uh well I hope they they think I'm stronger than they thought because uh I I honestly feel like I'm one of the strongest bandwagon weights in the world um yeah so I I mean I I don't know what they're thinking but I hope when I'm lifting them up in a double leg, they're thinking, oh, shit, this guy's strong.

Yeah, it seems like you can just about pick up anyone anytime. That's how I feel sometimes, especially at the cage. Pick him up, run him over to my corner. Yeah, is that you do do that? Yeah, I've seen you do that in fights. Why do you do that? So just is that show or is that so that you can be close to your, your guys or what's the deal with that? flaring double legs running running over to my corner and why why not like it's so discouraging for it has to be for the other guy to for me to pick him up and run him over to my coaches and

then my coaches are all like chirping at him talking some shit and while i like that they do do that in the ufc the coaches will chirp at the other guys i mean depending if you got tyson nam in your corner like I do sometimes, oh, yeah, for sure. Like you'll punch a dude in the face and he'll be like, damn, that dude got fucked up or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he didn't like that.

Oh, well, give him another one. Right. Something like that. It could be something along those lines. You fought two fights. In the UFC, you fought two fights in a month. Yeah? um you you fought two in the ufc you fought two fights in a month yeah did you that was a fun time did you like that yeah tell me about that did you like that um yeah there was like some definitely some positives to it like i was already in shape i didn't have to go through a crazy grueling training camp. But on the downside of it, I just fought. My body was banged up.

And then I was in Abu Dhabi. So I had to make a long flight right back home. And I fought like within like three weeks or so, something like that. So it was just like, you know, kind of, you know, my body was a little banged up and everything. my body was a little banged up and everything, but I mean, I just felt like I was ready to go and, um, you know, didn't take much injuries from the fight before. And I thought I could make it and get the win and the next fight, you know, I thought it was a good matchup against Brian Kelleher. So, um, yeah.

And so I got, you know, paid twice in a month, month's time. And so I, you know, I'm glad, I'm glad I got to experience that and um you know I'd be open to something like that again in the future and you got a house yeah I got a stack of these UFC paychecks when when you go into the Kelleher fight do you have any aches and pains from the previous fight three weeks earlier uh yeah yeah i definitely did definitely did but um like i said uh that fight was in the first one was an abu dhabi the second was in vegas so i you know i gotta like uh hang out at the ufcpi for the for the last week and and uh get get some recovery going and feel good once the fight, uh, approached. Do you take it? What, what are the things you think about when you take the fight?

Do you think, okay, this is the, the, um, Burns, um, uh, Usman, uh, card, and this is a good card to be on. Uh, it's extra money. Um, I think I can beat Brian Keller her like what, what are the, what, I don't want to say no to the UFC. What are, what are the pieces that go into making that decision? Definitely all of those. And, uh, I mean,

I got the fight offer when I was walking out of the cage from that, the previous fight in Abu Dhabi, my manager ran up to me and he's like, well, you want to get that Brian Kelleher fight in three weeks. Jason house runs up to you and asks you that. Yeah. Like right,

right after, right after he's like, cause because I had just called him out on the mic. And so he's like, hey, you just called him out. The UFC is saying if you want to run that one. Because we had been matched up so many times and the fight had fallen off. So, yeah, it kind of happened super quick. Like, you're not joking.

Like, literally, you fucked this dude up. You're coming out of the ring. You still got people's blood and spit on you. And you're walking backstage, and he says that to you. You want that fight? Yeah. And what did you say? Yeah, and I was like, I just got to see how, like, my body is.

Because, like, I have a couple things, of things, you know? And then, um, I think we got back to the hotel and, uh, he got a couple of beers in me and then I was just like, yeah, let's do it three weeks. That's kind of, that's kind of how it happened. Crazy, crazy, crazy. What was it like being on that card? Was that a unique experience? Cause that was such a huge fight? Yeah, I was actually – I think I was supposed to be on the prelims,

and then Bobby Green had some medical issues. And so I got bumped to – Brian and I got bumped to the pay-per-view portion of the card, and it just seemed like it worked out great. It seemed like it was – I took seemed like you know it was you know took the fight on like you know shorter notice and got the bump and got got more eyes on the fight and you know it was cool it was cool i've been on pay-per-view a couple times now so it's always i think it's always better and you get more viewers when you get that slot yeah you definitely are popping up into people yeah i totally agree i the numbers must

be i'm guessing the numbers must be so different i mean i watch the early prelims and the prelims and the fight and then if i don't get to see him i go back and watch him i sit on a on an assault bike and watch him but i think most people just get the pay-per-view and I think that's like the only way yeah I think that's the only way I mean it's crazy and it's crazy I mean you see this fight

that you're fighting against Jack Shore this could be like if people just knew who you two were this could be a fucking massive pay-per-view event they just don't know but this is a fucking, this is not, this is a gnarly fight.

This is a huge fight, but, but, but since you're, you know what I mean? I mean, like this could be in, in,

uh, if you guys didn't meet up here in two years, this could be a year. This could be the championship fight and it could be fucking sell a million pay-per-views. It's just nuts. I wonder if they think about that when they make when they make the fights yeah i mean they have so much going into it for sure i mean and i feel like they do a pretty good job out of dana and mick and

and sean shelby doing a great job on the matchups but um but i mean, hopefully, hopefully after this, after this, uh, Jack short fight, cause I I'm actually going back in the rankings a little bit. He's ranked 14. I'm ranked 12. So hopefully with the win over him, I can get someone in the top 10 and start making, making the climb more towards like, um, number one contender fight or something, you know?

Yeah. Can I see Caleb, can you pull up the rankings? Like if I'm them them i don't know who would you are you glad you're fighting here who would you have liked to have fought um i would have liked to have fought um frankie edgar i had called for that fight i would have liked a rematch with uh marab um since i was his last loss and he's ranked number six um and or uh the sean o'malley fight would have been great because there's been talks about that for a while but but jack shores has a tough fight 16 and oh and um you know i'm not i've never been one to like pick and choose the fights you know the ufc calls me for a fight and i'm down

yeah i i think that i don't think o'malley's uh uh um i think it would be a mistake for them to have you fight o'malley i would just like let that one keep building i would have let this jack shore keep building and you're right this i would frankie edgar or or marab would have been awesome um and then later on meet jack shore towards the top why um is frankie edgar even fighting uh he's been out for a little bit now since that knockout i think right yeah i feel like i haven't seen him fighting forever for some reason i thought he even moved to like the pfl or some shit i thought he oh dang no i didn't hear that for sure yeah it's a um a... And I don't think Sean O'Malley should even be ranked higher than you.

I don't think he's fought the kind of people you fought either. Well, he fought one and he lost. Is this the UFC rankings? Maybe this isn't the UFC rankings. Is this UFC or just like a total bantamweight? This might not even be the UFC rankings. There's a few different rankings out there, but last time I looked at the UFC rankings, I was ranked one slot ahead of it. But what ranked opponent did he beat?

Who? Sean? I don't think he beat him. No. I never know. I mean, I he beat him. No. I never know. I've never heard of anyone who he's fought, except for the guy who beat him, Chito. Man, what was Chito's last fight? He was savage. That was against the Raw font.

Oh, yeah. That was nuts. That was a great one. Yeah. How was the experience with contender series it was it was great i mean i had a great time doing it i i was like picture myself walking through those doors that um you know that the ultimate fighter guys walked through so just that experience um i don't know it was awesome but there was a lot of pressure you get that one chance to like get in there and uh and right fight right in front of the bosses so it's kind of a lot of pressure but sorry i get my charger my phone's about to die

you're a good dude hey um have you ever been kicked in the cup oh yeah oh yeah several times i think i got my opponent uh that last fight pretty good actually have you ever been kicked in the cup? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Several times. I think I got my opponent that last fight pretty good, actually. Drilled him right off the bat. I felt bad, and I had a dent in my shin from it. I was like, dang, I know that was a good, nice shot, too. Oh, wow.

That's on me. That's on me, my bad. So, so, so it hurts the cup doesn't protect shit I mean it definitely protects but I mean it still hurts I'm still getting that pressure you're still getting that leg

coming up or whatever you know I got scissor need by Alex Soto and Titan FC he did like a flying scissor knee and kneed me right in the nuts and yeah that was probably I dropped down i took a knee i never that never happened to me before but i took a knee i was like whoa hold on

hold on hey and so it's because like i've never been kicked in the nuts but you know like the nuts can be like a really sensitive area like something can just touch it like that and it feels like you're gonna throw up you know so it's like that you're in the ring and your fucking testicles you just have that stomachache testicle smash feeling and you're supposed to get up and fight but you just can't yeah yeah but you get you get uh i think you get up to like five minutes you know to recover from that but yeah it's not it's not definitely not fun yeah it's horrible it's it's like uh and i can never tell i just can't imagine being in there and that happening and then not like i just would want to go home okay i'm done i'll see you guys

tomorrow but but but you gotta get but you gotta just keep going yeah yeah hell yeah it's not stop it's not stopping us do you actually wait till it's better or are you just like fuck it i think sometimes i don't i don't like waiting like as long as as long as it's better or are you just like, fuck it? I think sometimes I don't, I don't like waiting. Like, as long as, as long as it's like, like, I'm not like, it's not stopping me too much, but like, um, with the pressure I bring and, you know, I'm trying to like, you know, exhaust my, my opponents, you know, to, to a certain point. So I'm not trying to give them any free time off, you know?

Right. Do you think that you're mostly in better like do you have the mindset that you're in better shape than your opponents yeah usually i think so i think so i i don't really it's not like i'm counting counting i mean i i do feel like i i train that hard and i'm i'm always doing extra to make sure that you know my cardio is always good so i just i don't know if i think like oh it's definitely gonna be better than this but i know i'm like oh i'm not gonna get like i'm not gonna get more tired than him it usually in my opinion when um when i first started watching fighting uh i i and i saw the first colby covington fight

that was like the first time i'd ever understood what pressure was like i just saw the first Colby Covington fight, that was like the first time I'd ever understood what pressure was. Like, I just saw the pressure he put on someone and I just, I just couldn't even fucking believe it. Same with a mighty mouse. I would see him do that in the early days. The pressure was nuts. Um, in, in your weight class, it's, it's, it's for real, right? Like both guys, it seems like at least everything under 155 and under the pressure is just, it's just relentless 25 minutes of relentless pressure yeah that's how it seems i feel like especially in my weight class everybody is like strong and fast and has good cardio and they're explosive from these positions and it's kind of like all of it you know and you don't see a lot of guys get like getting too

gassed out like in some of the other weight classes. You could tell that they get tired, but they still have more of that explosive pop in their strikes and their grappling throughout the rounds. Are you familiar with this term, pain cave? The term pain cave? Are you familiar with that term the pain cave uh no no so so pain cave yeah the pain cave it's um it's like when you push like if you get on one of those assault bikes and you just push yourself so hard that like you're starting to feel like

you're gonna throw up it's it's it's a it CrossFit term. I think it's a CrossFit term. At least that's where I hear it the most. It's just a really, really dark spot cardio-wise. Like shit starts getting – and then when you're done, you don't feel good for like 30 or 40 minutes. You don't feel like yourself. You feel like maybe you'd hurt yourself on accident. It's bad.

Oh, yeah. I know what you're talking about now. Yeah, right. Right. Being a wrestler, yeah. So you've gone there. Like something's not right. Like you're talking about now. Yeah, right. Being a wrestler, yeah. So you've gone there. Something's not right. You're taking inventory.

Maybe you have the flu or something. You pushed yourself into this weird spot. And it goes away usually in 30 minutes or an hour. How often do you go there in your training? Do you go to some pretty dark places? Yeah, definitely. I feel like I get to that feeling it could be it could be in a conditioning workout it could be in a grappling workout it could be in sparring settings

but it seems like whenever there's like um like a lot of like like a lot of conditioning like uh shark tanks and stuff like that i feel like i can get there like your head even like your head will start tingling or your ears will close up like yeah yeah definitely feels like especially with my uh strength coach just more over at champ camp he he's been working with me for about five years now and he's definitely taking me to that spot a couple times but i think we do a good job of not overdoing it but um but like doing that enough where we're peaking at the right times yeah what what is the the nastiest thing that they have you do there like if you see like do you know what a versa climber is damn i don't know if it's our connection or what right now but do you know what's like a robot like i was earlier uh what's that what's the what's the nastiest machine you

guys use over there what's like do you see like you're like oh shit we're gonna do this today is it like the versa climber or the bike or the rower is there something like you're like oh this thing's gonna kick my ass do you hear any of that dang sorry man no it's okay it's okay it's okay um do you know what a versa climber is a versa climber it's like this machine you stand in it and you go like this do you know that machine the versa climber i'm still breaking up like a robot oh good you're gonna show them caleb perfect do you know what that machine is right there let me see it can you see it it's called it's called a versa climber do you guys use that oh yeah yeah yeah yeah i read that they have one i got one at the gym and they use them over at the pi those things are mean

yeah that that thing's horrible i didn't realize it was so expensive 5200 bucks hey click on that one caleb i want that Henninger, will you send that to me? Jeez Louise. Well, I'm so excited for your fight, Ricky. Thank you for your time. I've had you for an hour and 16 minutes. You da man. Yeah, heck yeah. Thanks for having me on, man. It was great to talk to you. Great to finally meet you. Yeah yeah great to meet you too uh i'll definitely be watching and if there's anything i can ever do for you let me know all right sounds good appreciate all right

dude yep have a good day bye-bye And we're off like a prom dress. Oh, you switched locations. Yeah, the Wi-Fi was shitty. It's a copy shop. I don't know. I couldn't find my groove today. I couldn't find my groove. We didn't get one story.

Did we get any good stories? Did we get anything like, yeah, my dad used to beat me and that's why i fight definitely not one of those but that story about the him coming and doing like a three-week notice fight right after that's pretty wild oh good okay i'm glad i don't think very many people would do that it's fucking nuts i don't think i don't think as a fan either i realize the demand it puts on the guys. Oh, it's crazy. If he had to travel like that, then he's basically recovering for two of the weeks, gets a week of training, and then has to go back to start cutting and getting back into fight weight again, especially if he was fighting at 135.

Oh, right. I didn't even think about the weight cut again. Damn. Yeah, if he's going to go out and start drinking, he probably already gained 20 pounds just from after he did his first weight cut. I'm looking at that thread we're on. It's so funny. It's crazy. The thread from Syndicate? Yeah, it's so funny it's crazy that the thread from uh the weekend from syndicate yeah it's so funny

some of the comments on there are so fucking funny i woke up this morning with like 50 notifications like holy shit somebody's pissed um i need to contact travis bellinghausen i wonder if i had do you have his number that's the guy that makes the shirts for I need to contact Travis Bellinghausen. I wonder if I have, do you have his number? That's the guy that makes the shirts for Hill. Oh, that's the guy that makes the shirts for Hiller. Yeah, I DM with him all the time. Oh.

Will you ask him for his phone number? Yeah. Did you see that? Did I send you an image of that new shirt I want to make? Yeah. That's crazy, right? That would be pretty dope i like that yeah that would be fucking nuts oh you know what i do have his number okay great maybe maybe he's listening and he was he was on here i know i know we lost him i know we lost him don't know. What news am I supposed to share today? Man, I do think there's going to be a lot of – I think there's a lot of crazy news coming down the pipeline.

I think a lot of people think that they know what the crazy news is, but I don't think – Travis Bellinghausen, you are being summoned to Aisle 6. We have a cleanup. We have a cleanup. A child has peed on Aisle 6. Did you ever work at a store like that i used to work at a uh the grocery store i worked at a uh mine was like a like a pharmacy like a cvs it was called drug barn it was like part costco part like you know longs or cvs did you ever work one of those no i didn't i used to teach children swim lessons and there was a lot of accidents in and around the pool. We would do the most fucked up shit. I would wonder what would happen if you mixed bleach with liquid Drano and WD-40.

I would wonder what would happen. I'd put the boxes next to each other and then take a box cutter and cut them and let them slowly drip out on the aisle next to each other and then there'd be a fucking cloud of gas that would start forming that could probably you know like it's probably like chemical warfare and the manager would have to and the manager would have to clear the store the whole store would get cleared i mean i was 16 i was just i didn't even think i was just oh god and i wouldn't even think like i was doing something wrong you story i mean i was 16 i was just i didn't even think i was just oh god and i wouldn't even think like i was doing something wrong you know i mean i was just like just a rock yeah just experimenting i wonder what happens if i slice open this clorox beach box right next to this liquid drano right next to like some other fucking product and then the chemicals would be pouring

out on the floor together and then i'd be like oh shit and it'd be like fucking a hole burning in the floor and yeah that's what it was called it was called drug barn it was called drug barn it was um it was before i'd ever even seen a costco and like we sold shit in bulk it was a trip is that like where like all the local restaurants would pick up all their supplies no no it was still just fucking it was still no well maybe shit i don't know but man you could do some fucking funny shit when you have access to so much stuff they said one time that uh like five percent of the inventory was missing and i knew it was from all the kids who lived who worked there and like it's only five like you like you like there were these three guys who worked there and they were like fucking baseball card fanatics dude the craziest they were so into fucking baseball

so they would have their friends come in and fill a whole shopping cart with thousands and thousands of dollars where the boxes of baseball cards and then like only charge them like a dollar and just shit like that did you guys have like the mechanical registers? Yes, yes. You typed in everything by $2.95, $1.52. Yeah, it was dope. And it made all sorts of cool noises. We didn't sell drugs. No, no, we didn't sell.

It was just called Drug Barn. I know it's a weird name, right? Drug Barn? Man, it was fucking crazy. I didn't really steal from there. Like at lunchtime, like if i was hungry like i would like cut open like like you know like a bag of beef jerky on accident while i was like stocking it and put it in like the you know there's like a a bin for like damage and i'd do that i think i think one time i took a stole a bottle i was going to uh mexico for like

a senior trip in high school and i stole a bottle of like cologne dracar to i don't even know why the fuck i did that you smell good for the foreign ladies yeah i was stupid but i but but i enjoyed but i but i also didn't judge the guys who did it i was like yeah we were just young and dumb young young boys have to be watched young boys young boys need a lot of instruction and discipline or else we just do shit we don't even think about what the like you know what i mean like someone could just have a dozen eggs and just be like hey let's throw these eggs at that car and we just do it like no one's like oh that might be my girlfriend's dad's car or that's not nice no one's thinking that there was always i never did

there's always a massive like dirt mound uh next to like a baseball field and we would just like all of us would get there were just always dirt clods and we'd just throw them at each other and then it we some of us would use it as a ramp and then we just ramp off the dirt the dirt thing and then everybody would like throw dirt clods at you well you mean like while you were on your bike you would ride it on your bike yeah you ride your bike over the hill yeah like your friends would just be throwing dirt clods at you the whole time horrible idea but no one's like hey you might get hit in the head and like and fucking die no one's no one's wearing helmets no helmets whatsoever same same with bb guns like we would get start getting into bb gun wars and like no one's like

hey guys this is a bad idea and then someone's fucking shot and a fucking bb's lodged in their hand they're screaming oh man yeah there was a dude that i went to college with he had like part of his retina was missing because a bb got lodged in his eye like it was complete like you could see like it was just a cut perfect circular cut out next to his eye his eyes still work yeah yeah um there there was a kid in high school he's in the grade younger than me and uh i remember the boys were throwing the tops to like pringles cans or tennis ball cans or something for some reason they had a bunch of tops those steel tops to cans and they were flinging them at each other and fucking one dude fucking got hit in the eye and fucking sliced his eye fucking lost sight in his eye i was like but but no but no one's ever

thinking of that shit yeah right it's like this is just fun all right uh tomorrow uh we i think we have annie thor's daughter on i think so let me see uh tomorrow 7 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, we have Annie Thor's daughter on. Then on Thursday, we have David Lucas on from Kill Tony. And Friday, we have Athena Perez. Oh, here's something you guys should know. I'm having Athena Perez on, and she has a book. If you want to get ahead of the game, we're going to talk about this book. Let me, are you going to pull it up? And it's an audio book also. I highly recommend everyone get this book, start listening to it. It's a fabulous story. Athena has a seminar that she's testing in beta right now. There's a link on all of the Sevan podcast newsletters at the bottom. I forget what the seminar is called, but it's basically a seminar on how to work with large body people, uh, lifting the weight. Yeah. This is a fucking remarkable, uh, human being, Athena Perez. Uh, she has so many, um, uh, she's super talented. So many fascinating, uh, uh, uh, qualities. She's, she's extremely pleasant.

She's, she's a woman of the highest integrity. I re I've been friends with her a long time. Um, and, uh, and we've hit it off. Uh, and so I'm really stoked. This book's been out for a while. Um, she, I had, I bought the paperback and I never read it and then got the audio book and I'm, I'm going through it and she reads it. She also has an extremely beautiful voice. So she will be on Friday. We'll be talking about her journey in the book, but we'll also be talking about her new seminar. And I'm excited. The seminars, I think the seminars, not only if you are a large bodied person and you want to train, there's tips for you in there, but it also teaches you how to work with larger people or people who just aren't – who are just in really, really probably bad shape. And kind of like the L1, you can – like a lot of people think it's for coaching, but it's not. It's not just for coaching. Well, it's for coaching yourself.

Everyone should take that also. Oh, here it is. Okay, Athena Perez builds a morning chalk-up article from April 10, 2022. Athena Perez builds course aimed at educating coaches about working with large bodied athletes. And she's kind of she's kind of my mentor in check sometimes, too, because you guys know that I can kind of go off on large body people, start calling them fat and just fucking lose my mind. So having someone her in my circle to fucking keep me in check is important important and and i and i respect her uh her humility and her ego to be able to deal with my fucking lack of humility and monster ego all right guys uh we will see you tomorrow um oh i will be having uh scott pancheck on in a couple hours to talk about the rope climb incident.

No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Wouldn't you guys like that? All right. So I'll see you guys tomorrow at 7 a.m. I said that in our thread joking and no one picked up on it. That was more just to kind of irritate Mr. Friend a little bit. I thought maybe that would get under his skin a little bit.

All right, guys. Oh, one more final thing. I don't know what we're going to do this weekend in regards to – I started the show off talking about this, what we're going to do in regards to the semifinals this weekend. At worst, the show – half the shows will have to be manned, uh, without me. And so there'll be, um, those are the ones you probably want to watch cause there won't be any cursing or dirty jokes in them. Um, but, uh, we will be doing something. I just don't know what. Um, all right. I will talk to you guys later. Caleb, thanks for checking in. Uh, we'll see you guys tomorrow.