The Sevan Podcast - Alex Perez | #5 Ranked UFC Flyweight

Episode Date: June 22, 2024

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That's BetterHelp.com. Prime Day is here. With epic deals exclusively for Prime members, you'll feel like a winner. Behind door number three is Amazing Deals. Shop deals on electronics, home, and more this Prime Day. It's like... So 7 a.m. for you too? Yeah, yeah, no.

I'm up early anyways. Oh, you are? Okay, cool. Hey, I appreciate you doing this. Hey, dude, do you own seven Acai Republic franchises? No, I own one. You do own one? Yeah, I own the one in orange how did you get into that that's awesome when did you get into that uh about two years ago

just wanted to like i liked their product before i even got into the franchise something healthy and obviously fighting like during that stunt i't fighting. I had like some health problems and stuff. So I was able to like, can I invest my money? I'm pretty good with money in the sense like I say, I'm very like frugal. Thanks to my manager. He showed me how to save money and stuff. So obviously, fighting is not going to last forever. So I got to find different ways to

make revenue so that was one of the ways i decided to do it just because i believe in the product myself you know yeah yeah i it's it's really cool um are you glad you did it two years in are you glad you did it like are you like oh yeah that was smart yeah i mean obviously um not having a like background in business and especially in restaurants i've worked in restaurants in the past but um yeah uh learning curve a little bit but i'm glad i did it it's opened up different opportunities for me um just in general all around and it's, you know what I mean? It's put me in a place where like, okay, like kind of like what excites me is that something new.

I have to learn. I have to work. You know, instead of doing the same thing over and over and over again, it's like, hey, this is completely different. I have to work. I have to ask questions. I have to find different mentors in this space, things like that, where like everything else I do, I already have my mentors.

If I want to talk about financials, I go to my manager, Jason House, because I was with him when he first started managing guys. He had three guys in the UFC. He wasn't making the most money kind of thing. I lived with him. I seen how the struggle was at the beginning to see where he's at now. Has over a hundred guys in the UFC, has this, has, you know, has his house, has his, has his business, has everything.

Like he's a beautiful wife. That's what I always remember when I see Jason. Yeah. Yes. You know, so I've seen him grow from, I mean, I wouldn't say a kid because he's older than me but from like young adult to where he is now and all the knowledge he's learned you know things like that um hey dude you know so it's definitely interesting hey uh running a business in

california isn't easy did you have thoughts on the minimum wage increase um so yeah i did have thoughts on that it sucked um but since i don't have x amount of franchises like um since i'll say he's not the biggest franchise like i think you have over x amount of franchises for it to go up we're still considered small business so minimum wage it didn't go up for us. But yeah, it's hard. I've seen a lot of businesses go out of business, especially like my hometown. A lot of guys closed down. It's called Foster Freeze. They closed down.

They've been here for years. They closed down and stuff like that, so definitely impacted. Because of that law? Yeah. Isn't it bizarre that these laws are supposed to be helping people but they're hurting people? I don't get – I never hear the success stories of minimum wage increase. I heard like 10,000 jobs were lost in California. It's almost like it's an attack on the middle class. And then the other day I saw this thing that Trump wants to make – one of the things he wants to do when he gets into office is he wants to make it so tips aren't taxable and i fucking love that because then if i'm working i'm incentivized to be like crazy nice to the um uh patrons right so that i can get tips because

that's like free money right just smiling saying thank you napkins are over there. It's crazy. It's crazy to me how, like, just in general, like, I have a young son. It's crazy to me how, in general, the art of communication is being lost through, you know, these last couple years. Like, I look around. And this happens in my house, too, where we're having dinner. And then you look around, and I'll be on my phone. Like, you know, things like my son will be on his iPad. I'm like, well, what are we doing?

And two, with the tip thing, like I agree with Trump. Like, that would be awesome. But I think people have to realize, too, in my head, you're getting paid to work. A tip is extra. realize too in my head you're getting paid to work a tip is extra like a lot of people like i see these videos of people saying like oh well you didn't tip me does that it's it's a tip it's not required like you're working like you don't go out there and tip the trash man you don't go out there tip the uh guy that's putting your groceries in a bag, right? That is my opinion.

No, no, I totally, I agree 100%. I believe that now with this, if Trump gets into office with him doing that, I think it will incentivize people to be a lot nicer to each other, communicate with each other. And, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, if you want to tip, you with each other and you know i mean like yeah if you want to tip you want to tip you know i tip always and i never like even bad customer service in my head i was thinking man those people just probably having a bad day you know i never take it well they just don't like me like i was you know like i've been there i've been there when i have a shitty day and i'm like ah man fuck this guy or something you know like right and i've been there when i have a shitty day and i'm like ah man fuck this guy or something you know like right and i've been there just a bad day um so yeah i feel like that's good

that's gonna help a lot of people incentivize a lot more people to be more respectful because i've had waiters where they're just rude do i ever check them on my table or do things like that i'm okay you know it is what it is i'm not gonna complain about it to them or whatever i just kind of just let it be but i think it's a good thing i think it's gonna help people could really learn how to communicate with each other be respectful to each other and incentivize to talk to the person because nowadays like i said there's no communication skills whatsoever usually they come check on your table they diffuse it everything looks good cool need a refill okay cool get your refill that's about it maybe one two refills and that's about it they really don't check on you too much more so i think it's gonna help people communicate more

of that go in there be more uh be nice be in there check on you a little bit more be a little bit more attentive just even even eye contact oh uh alex a win for me always is you know let's if i if i go into a place and while i'm ordering then they look down at my kid and they say hi and then and then they say hey by the way napkins are over there come again or hey if that coffee's not hot enough let me know or or the the classic one is this you order something they give you the wrong order and then you tell them nicely and they roll their eyes at you as opposed to it's just so much easier to be like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Keep that. Go ahead and keep that and I'll make you a new one. Or here's a car. You know, sometimes they'll even do this. The guy will be like, hey, here's a car to dollar off your next coffee or something, or if you're waiting too long. And I just – my thing is I want to incentivize all the – I want to use my money to incentivize those people and not give money to the guy who's panhandling on the freeway who I know is going to buy fentanyl.

Like I want to use my money to reward young adults for just being cool. Just be cool. Yeah, crazy story. So a while ago, I went to mexico to go visit my family i took my son we ended up stopping at this danny's like on the way back and uh you know the waitress was super nice we sat down the first thing she did was like bring goldfish to my son bring brought him crayons and everything and then she made sure when we ordered like she made sure his food came out first always bring the kids out first makes our job easier as parents right they're eating they can relax yeah and i was like i was like oh man like this is super nice i ended up tipping her like a hundred dollars you know

she starts like oh my god thank you so much i'm like no like you went above and beyond like to help me out to make sure my son was very taken care of, to make sure, like, my family that was with me was taken care of. Like, not too many people do that anymore, you know, and I ended up tipping her $100, and she was so happy. I was like, like, is this the least I can do, you know? Hopefully, you know, you can tell she was kind of having an off day, you know, but she still did that extra for me. And it's not like she knew who I was, you know what I mean?

She was older. she didn't know who i was so it wasn't like oh this is a ufc fighter this is she was just like she was just being nice and i tipped her and she was so happy you know she was so grateful she said thank you so much i was like oh like i'm glad i can make your day better you know uh and it was cool you know like she was very nice very intent, very like everything we needed. Like, you know, and this is before I tipped her. You know, after I tipped her, she's like, oh, my God, do you need things to go? Like, no, no, we're good.

You know, it was one of those things. She wanted to give you a coffee to go. Yeah. You know, she was super nice. And like I said, like I enjoy rewarding people like that. I don't like rewarding people that have attitude and stuff like that. Like, you know, like that like you know like people like said people nowadays are so entitled to getting tipped it's crazy to me like oh you did like yeah

you're working like that's what you do you don't tip me i fight on the tv you don't they want me to put my point for them online real quick so you guys can tip me for every round i go or something you know so people nowadays are too entitled to to things you know and I feel like that's that's that happened what now because the minimum wage in California has gone up right and just the way we are like we don't communicate things like that so I think a lot of that's starting to build up a lot like I feel like my coach my high school coach told me he's like I feel bad for you guys generation you know like and I feel like my generation my high school coach told me he's like i feel bad for you guys's generation you know like and i feel but like my generation is like oh shit i'm starting to see that you know what he was talking about i feel bad for my son's generation because all you see is ipad kids

all you see is you know like they don't know what socializes kids are six years old on cell phones like what the heck is that you know like i remember i didn't get a cell phone until i was in high school you know i was thinking i i have i have three boys and uh they're not my boys are never allowed to touch my phone like ever ever ever like they're not allowed to even if i they're like hey can i check the tide or um do you want me if my phone rings i don't even let them bring it to me they're just not allowed to touch it and i'm but i homeschool my kids too but i was thinking i'm not going to get them a phone till like ever you know what I mean like till like till 18 or something like I'm just gonna because all the cool kids I know every and it's I don't see too many of them but when I come across a cool kid the earliest they ever got a cell phone is like 15 like my I met this really cool young

man the other day and I'm like hey when'd you get a cell phone he goes oh 15 and i'm like yep yeah so i didn't get so for me like so i come from a very big family there's nine of us nine nine nine brothers and said wiki got it wrong wikipedia says eight yeah well there's eight there's nine of us all together there's eight siblings so nine of us all together so we had to share a cell phone because my mom needs to get a hold of us sometimes so like me and my brother so like my brother will hold it whatever because we all went to high school like i got my own cell phone because i started working oh there you go i had to pay my own bill there you go you know and that's the way it worked for me um but i didn't get into i was in eighth grade going to high school you know yeah i was cutting

sorry what were you gonna say you were going to high school. I was cutting. Sorry, what were you going to say? You were cutting what? Cutting grass? I was cutting grass and doing odd jobs to pay for my cell phone bill. Did you have your own mower or did you work for someone? No, we had our own. I just used the one we used for my house.

We went around doing that. Damn. So you've always had it in you. Hey, when you say there was nine, but there were only eight eight siblings who was the ninth one what was like a cousin or something um so we so my family so my family like so it's me i got three brothers and five sisters so um one of my brothers when we were young ended up passing away uh he was very young so we ended up passing away so we lived in sparks nevada for a long time and then when he passed away we moved out to cal we moved out to california and then that's where we uh in hanford that's where i was born i was raised kind of in between

sparks and hanford and then we ended up moving to limor when i was in sixth grade that's when my mom bought the house. But my house has always been like everybody's lived with us, like cousins at one point in time. My grandma lived with us. Everybody lived with us. At one point in time, it was my five sisters, my two brothers, myself, my grandma living with us. The garage was turned into a room. My cousins have moved in here and there in between, you know, in and out, things like that.

So we've always had like a big family, like everybody comes in, you know, people stay, my friends have stayed for numbers, like weeks, you know, things like that. So my house has always been very wide open. My mom's been very generous to keep my friends in, my family, stuff like that, you know? How did your younger brother pass away? I've never really asked.

We were super young. I was in, like, fifth grade. So I just remember waking up. He was a baby? Yeah, he was a baby. He was probably a couple, probably like, he was young. He was probably like a year or two, maybe. And I just remember waking up and hearing that, like hearing our babysitter at the time, because my mom went to work.

So we had a babysitter come in, like scream, you know, and I was like, oh, shit. And then like, obviously all that stuff happened. So I never really asked, you know, it's kind of shit and then like obviously all that stuff happened so i i never really asked you know it's kind of one of those things when we were young and all that stuff happened so uh yeah i'd never asked why or how what happened kind of just left it let it be you know it's kind of one of those things that i never want to ask my mom and reopen up things yeah so i'd never i'd never ask that's wild um my my dad had including him had 10 siblings and uh and two of them passed away and uh he my dad was raised in um in a small town outside of beirut lebanon and the whole family lived in a 10 by 10 concrete

structure that was built by the french military and their bathroom was outside and they didn't have electricity. And when the siblings died, Alex, they would be as part of, I guess, just the religious. My grandmother was Catholic, I think, as part of the procedure, the baby, the sibling would stay in the house like for five or seven days. Oh, man. procedure the baby the sibling would stay in the house like for five or seven days oh man and so my dad would have to sleep next to the dead sibling yeah it's a fucking wild wild story yeah that's wild yeah but if you're gonna have that many kids if you're gonna have that many kids the odds start going up right yeah you're gonna you know there's going to be some tragedy. Hey, you're – where are you in the pecking order of these eight kids? So I'm the second oldest. Oh, shit. Okay. Yeah, so I'm the second – so my older brother, he's a cop in Long Beach PD.

Oh, cool. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, got his bachelor's, got his master's. Then there's me. I went to junior college basically to wrestle because i knew i was gonna fight uh-huh and then you knew you knew you were gonna fight you knew you were gonna fight yeah i didn't know how far i was gonna be able to take it but i was like i'm not i'm not a school

guy you know coming from like i haven't learned i'm you know dyslexic so school was never interesting for me you know i was like i'll screw this i was really good at math but at the end of the day like unless you're gonna be an architect or something like that like i mean i would sleep through classes and i would pass like algebra 2 calculus like easy but then i was like well i'm not gonna do anything with this and all you gotta really learn in the real world is learn how to count money it's like oh that's easy you gotta calculate it too you know so like uh i was like i'm just going to school i'm just going to school to to wrestle you know because i knew i was going to fight then my little brother he's a diesel mechanic but he has a he graduated with his aa a little sister graduated with her aa and every sip like so i'm like the black sheep of the

family like i'm the one that didn't have doesn't have it like at the older dog doesn't have a degree you're the bad kid yeah got tattoos when i was young you know like i did my own thing uh so like my older brother like out of my family we were we were very blessed like my mom was very hard on us i mean we got like seas on our on our stuff she's like get inside like you, you ain't going nowhere. I mean, my mom sacrificed a lot for us, all three of us, all three. So at one point in time, all three of us were wrestling, me and my two brothers. At the same time, my brother was in high school. I was in junior high.

My little brother was elementary. She was going traveling between tournaments. I mean, wrestling is a cheap sport because the gear, gear you buy shoes in a single in a headgear but the travel and everything especially three of us so we're traveling wrestle every weekend i mean we're going up and down the central valley going out to san jose too as well going up there to wrestle and um yeah so i like i was very fortunate to do all that so all of us even the younger siblings now everybody's done good uh none of us were pregnant in high school uh none of us uh none of us didn't graduate high school so we all had an opportunity to go to a a junior college or a

a division school you know for wrestling and uh you know i mean like all of us have been working out like everybody everybody sees us like a lot of people i think see us like us like i guess we're like kind of stuck up or too too cocky or something but it's like now we're just living life we have so much stuff going on obviously i fight my brother works i mean works for long beach pd and he works i mean i think at one point i mean we're like 30 days in a row you know so like in a pretty crazy spot too the lbc's yeah pretty wild you know my older brother my older brother he uh he's a he's a uh my little brother you know he's nonstop, working long hours and stuff like that.

So it's one of those things. Alex, there's people making fun of you here in the comments. Let's look at this one. This one's great. Where is it? Jake, he's going to come over and beat your ass, dude. Where is it? Let me see this comment.

This is a great one. Where is it? Shit. It was so funny when I read it. Anyway, I can't find it, but he said, hey, does Alex cut his own hair? He said he's frugal. He's making fun of your hair, dude. Hey, man. I gave my – at 52 years old, Alex, one of my kids got lice recently, and I cut my hair for the first time. And I always thought, I said, man, how could I call myself a man if I've never cut my own hair?

And so my kid had lice, so I took him in the backyard, and we shaved each other with a wand. But when I heard you're frugal, I'm guessing that's one of the things you do. You cut your own hair? I get a haircut like every few months. Oh, here it is. Jake Chapman. Does Alex cut his own hair? Where do you go? I'm a super cuts guy before

I cut my own hair. Where do you go? I mean, depending. Some of my friends are barbers and stuff like that. Honestly, it's just hair. I'll grow back. I can care less. Like I said, hopefully Jake has great I can care less. Like I said, hopefully

he has great hair. Turn it on, Papa. Hopefully he has great hair and he's not talking snag because his hair is messed up. Oh, he's a ladies man. This guy's a ladies man. It rains vagina on this guy.

Steven Flores A fellow Mexican My mom has 13 brothers and sisters Yeah I enjoy having a big family Yeah right How old are your kids? So I have one He's 3 years old

He just woke up right now He's over here Yo what's up dude Oh you guys go to the same barber yeah he uh he gets a he gets haircuts way more often than i do that's for sure i get mine like every few months the haircut before for this before this was my last fight week uh was like in April. Like I can care less. My hair is like whatever.

I'm I'm I'm not going to I don't want to pay 50 bucks a haircut nowadays. How old's your other kid? So I only have one. So this is my son. He's three years old. His name's Noah. You think you're going to have a shitload? You think you'll end up having like four, five, six?

My mom's going to ask me. I don't think so just because, man, this sport is very, very selfish. And I feel like I'm a pretty good dad. I mean, I include my son in a lot of stuff. But, man, the time I have to spend apart from him, it kills me. And he's starting to understand when I'm like, hey, daddy has to go to work. Because I travel between California and Vegas a lot, and I do training camps half over there, half over here,

things like that. It is very selfish. And I want to be able to spend as much time with my son. And it's hard to do, obviously, when I'm on the go all the time. Is your wife Mexican? Yes. Does she want a shitload of kids? I don't think so.

I think she would want one more, but for me, we kind of talked, and I was like, hey, like, this is a selfish sport. Like, I can't give, like, you know, like, obviously, I'm sacrificing a lot right now. So when he's older, you know, like, he'll understand or see, like, I'm missing a lot right now. When he's older, he'll understand or see. I'm missing a lot of little moments.

I don't know if I want to do that again because it takes a lot. Every time I go away for a week or two or three, I come back. My son's learning new words. He's got bigger. He's just so quick. It's like, man, do I really want to do that again? got bigger he you know just so quick and it's like man do i really want to do that again yeah yeah and his and his mom takes a lot of uh a lot a lot of the bulk of stuff you know like obviously when i'm when i'm not there she's it's like she's a single mom just because i'm so

focused on competing winning you know training everything i have do. So it's kind of one of those things, like if it happens, great. I'll, you know, be a blessing. But for me, I don't, I, it's hard to say if I really, like I would love to have more. If I had a regular job, I would love to have more because I have a steady schedule, but my, my schedule doesn't change. You could have more in your, I didn't have my,

I had my first kid when I was 39 and then I had twins when I was 43. Oh, really? Yeah, and I'm stoked, and now I got all the free time in the world for them. Yeah, see, so that's the biggest thing. It's just time. I want to make sure I have enough time for them because, like I said, I want to be able to raise my son as a young man, teach him things here and there. As a young man, teach him things here and there, and I think with me being gone, his mom does a great job. His grandparents do a great job because they help a lot, but I want to do that. That's what I want to do. You want to raise your kid?

Yes. Hey, I'm always curious. I think it takes a special, very healthy woman to have a man like you, meaning a man who's dedicated, who's focused, who has the space to excel and be his bigger self. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's not a normal woman. I'm guessing your wife doesn't nag you. Nah. I mean, she does sometimes obviously when I need to be, but she lets me do my thing. She lets me, you know, be, be the person I need to be to get into fighting.

Cause fighting is not a normal job. It's not a normal sport. Obviously, you know what I mean? i need to have a different mindset like it's hard going from being a you know being a loving dad to my son and then having to turn it on and go in there and try to kill somebody you know so she does a great job in main events she's married to a guy who fights main events so we she does a very good job of a very good job of uh like letting me do that you know um and it's like we were together for a very long time so it's like it's not like us recent i think we met during my second pro fight so that was back in 2011

so you know it's been a long long time time. So she understands the job. She understands what it takes mentally and physically. She's helped me weight cut. She's meal preps for me. So she understands the job. How did, what was the courtship process with your wife? How did you meet her? Where do you meet a UFC fighter? We met in college.

We're both going to the same junior college. You were fighting and going to the same junior college and we were fighting fighting and going to junior college uh yeah so in 2010 i uh went to junior college at west hills college little more because i didn't get no do i didn't get no offers so i was kind of pissed off so like i'm gonna wrestle in junior college and then that's it and then we met in 2010, like, yeah, around 2010, 11. And we met at my apartment. And two of my friends were partying. And she ended up coming over.

Like, it was just like my apartment was a party apartment. And I was getting ready to weigh in the next day. So they were being super loud. And I got up and I was like, hey, can you guys keep it down? Whatever. weigh-in the next day so they were being super loud and i went i got up and i was like hey can you guys keep it down whatever and uh i literally looked down and she's like eating some food i'm like what the heck and i looked and i was like my food i was supposed to eat after weigh-ins my roommate i made my roommate my roommate made it my roommate made it for her and i was like what the heck i was i was pissed so then the next day i went over to her apartment cleaned out her refrigerator like i mean you'd say everything i cleaned i mean i

ate everything in that fridge what did you do you're like hey who's that chick who was at my house and they told you and they're like where she lived and you went and ate her food basically that's awesome dude and yeah and then ever since i mean mean, since 2011, you know, we're together. We have a son. You know, everything we have is kind of like she sacrificed a lot for me to get to where I obviously live my dream and stuff. You know, and now it's my turn to help her. I'm trying to get her back into school. You know, she's a medical assistant. She has a certificate to's a medical assistant uh she has a degree to her degree a certificate to be a

medical assistant but um right now she's running my acai shop but she wants to be rn at lbn so uh that's our goal next to like help her get to where she wants to be because i wouldn't be here without her that's for sure uh she sacrificed a lot for me to get to this point And it was my turn to return the favor for her So it's 2024 So you've been at it for 13 years at this level Yep And this last fight By the way, did you watch your last fight? Have you re-watched it?

No, I haven't re-watched it I really don't like watching my fights win or lose just because I don't like seeing myself on TV. It's weird to me still. I was so angry with the commentators. I was so fucking pissed. I was texting a buddy of mine back and forth. Do you think you were winning that fight? Do you think you were winning that fight? Yeah, I thought I won round one. I think it was, in my head, obviously, like, when we're not fighting in there, I thought it was a little bit, I thought it was close, but I thought I sealed it with the takedown.

I thought I was landing more. Like, he hit me with some good shots, but I think I was landing more. I was pushing him back. I thought I was doing more damage. In the second round, I felt like I was starting to land a little bit more before he got the takedown uh-huh uh but yeah a lot of people actually hit me up about the commentary and i was like they're fucking it i was so mad at biz being here's here's here's what i noticed and and i'm i'm just i'm strictly a fan but every saturday i watch the fights right and then i have fighters on the show but if you were throwing if you were throwing combinations so if they like the fighter

they'll be like oh alex is doing great he's throwing combinations and this guy was just throwing single shots and instead of complimenting you for throwing combinations and connecting they're like alex has more of a wild style uh to sorrow or whatever that guy's name has more accuracy i'm like you fucking idiot he acts as beating his ass. I thought you were just all over the place. You were a tornado. Your footwork was crazy. He didn't look comfortable in the ring. You look like you were at home. I was just tripping on how they – and I know they're experts, for 15 years now, and when they do that shit, it was like they already had it planned. You know what I mean? Like, hey, let's blow this guy. It was irritating as all get out. Yeah.

No, I mean, man, it's just one of those things. People are telling me about it, and I was like, dude, I can't control what they say or do. Can't control what they say or do. Can't control what they say or do, you know. Right. It sucks that, you know what I mean, they're biased. But, hey, at the end of the day, they're going to do what they think is best, I guess. I don't know. And if you would have won, they'd have been like, Alex is up for the title.

He's the greatest, most underrated. Like, they would have just switched the script, too, if you would have. Yeah, you know, this game is about what you've done and what you're doing you know he had the kid had all the hype yeah um you know a lot of people were behind the kid and that's great you know um you know everybody's asking me too like how do i feel obviously i got injured and stuff like that and um everybody's asking me how i feel or like why i'm so'm so, I guess, my attitude towards it, you know? Like, I'm bummed out. Don't get me wrong.

I'm upset. But sometimes, too, I can't control what happens. I just got to deal with what's going on, you know? Right. My knee's jacked up. I got to go see a specialist next week. Oh, by the way, they said it was your ankle, too, in the commentary. And, like, me and my buddy are texting, like like what the fuck are these guys looking at yeah my ankle's completely fine it's fat right now because i've fucking eaten so much korean barbecue

but it's not fat from uh it's not fat from uh from the fight uh it was my knee my knees pretty messed up um gotta go see a specialist next week and go from there. But the hindsight is, I guess I can take the brightness from it, is that if they think this kid's going to be the next champ, I fought the two best prospects with Mikhaev and him. I think Mikhaev is better. I think you were going to win this fight if that wouldn't have happened. I think you were going to get out.

Did you think you were going to win it? Going into the second round happened. I think you were going to get out. I think you were going to, did you think you were going to win it? Like going into the second round, you're like, oh shit, I'm winning this shit. Yeah, yeah. You know, I felt confident. I felt like I was doing my thing. I was warming up too, you know. I felt like I was a little off in the first round. I felt like I was getting better.

I get better and better as the rounds go on. That's my style. But like the positive I can take from it is that if they think this kid's that good, I mean, I think i was doing great like if this kid thinks like he's a good kid if he thinks like oh man i was being this kid or i was doing this against his against alex like man he has nothing coming like i don't see him beating any of the top five guys the way he fought you know but yeah i really wanted to see how he was going to weather the storm that was going to be a five round fight right uh yes it's gonna be a five round fight yeah i agree with you 100 yes yeah and his in his face was showing it too his face was red like a tomato yeah you know i actually seen him the day after uh because we were

managed by the same guy and i went to the office he was there cool kid you know i mean i don't take this like i've been doing this for so long so i don't take anything uh to heart or granted people talk shit all online i'm probably one of the most laid back and easygoing guys you'll ever meet you know like uh so like he was cool always very respectful, but like I said, they think that this kid's going to be the next champ. It's like, man, I've been in there with some of the best guys in the world.

He's good. He's good, but I don't think he's crazy. 1-2-1-2. 1-2-2. Is he saying 1-2-1-2, 1-2-2, 1-2-1-2. Is he saying 1-2-1-2? Is he testing the mic? Testing 1-2.

Testing 1-2-1-2. What do you think happened to the knee? Are you limping? Yeah, I mean, I'm limping. I'm able to bend and everything, but, man, knowing knee injuries and being around the sport a lot, I don't think it's anything good, you know? You don't think it's just stretched.

You think something's torn. Oh, yeah. Something has to be torn. My knee's still swollen to this day. I've been icing, doing all that. I think a lot of, like, I'm walking, but I think more of that's more of the mental toughness in me. So, yeah.

When do you go get, you go, when do you get an MRI? So I got an MRI. I got an MRI. So I go back next week to go see a specialist and they'll kind of tell me what's going on. And then basically, basically it's the kind of thing where you think you'll think you think you'll have to have surgery. Who knows? Depending on what's torn and what they suggest.

I know people have... I'm not sure what mine is because I just got my MRI and stuff. It was a holiday, Juneteenth, so they were off and everything. I'm going to jump on the phone with them a little bit later today. We're going to have, we have a call with them and they're going to tell me what's going on. But I mean, I know people that don't have ACLs or meniscus and still compete at the

highest level, you know? So for me, I'm 32 years old. I want to get back in there as soon as possible. I was hoping, you know, win this fight and get one more in this year, maybe two more in this year, maybe two more in this year. But obviously plans change. So I'm hoping, you know, we go see the specialist and figure out what we can do to get me back in there as soon as possible.

And hopefully, I mean, hopefully, like, hey, you can come back by the end of the year. I don't think that's going to happen. I think it'll probably be around February of next year, you know. And yeah, you know, like, I got to take it day by day. We got an MRI. My knee's been so swollen that they weren't able to do imaging right away. Oh, shit. Are peptides legal in the UFC?

You have to. I know some are, some aren't. legal in the UFC? You have to. I know some are, some aren't. So you have to do your research behind it. Talk to Jeff Nowinski and all them about it. So like I said, hoping and praying that it's nothing serious. But yeah, we'll see what

happens. I know I reached out to the stem cell lab in Colombiaumbia you know and like columbia like the country yeah on columbia they have the best like some of the best stem cells out there from what i heard um and uh hoping you know it can just be stem celled up and ready to go but we'll see what happens like i said I got an appointment next week with the specialist and kind of go from there. Today I'm talking to Heather Lynn from the UFC PI a little bit later,

so she'll tell me what's going on and what she thinks the best route is. And then we're scheduled to see a specialist no matter what just to weigh all our options. And I assume every fighter has insurance. Like you got to have insurance like so the ufc the ufc covers your like if you fight they cover their insurance uh their they cover their insurance uh basically like if anything happens like when i uh so a lot of people like i'm very private about my injuries so like uh when i fought pantoja um we ended up like colliding

heads in the first like 30 seconds i ended up breaking my orbital bone right here from my head but yeah so i got metal plate in there and uh the uc covered everything and i got to see one of the best doctors out in orange county um i mean so like they do a very the ufc like it sucks because ufc gets a bad rep, right? Like, obviously, with the pay and all this stuff, yeah, like, UFC gets a bad rep, but they do a very good job of taking care of us for sure. So if you get injured in the ring, they're on it. They give you a resource estimation. Even if I get hurt in training camp, like, you have a $1,500 deductible,

and then they cover up to a large amount, you know? Oh, that's awesome. Okay, that's good. They do a very good job of taking care of us. Like I said, they get a bad rep, but I feel I've been around for a lot of promotions. I've been around for a lot of promotions, and I've seen the way they treat fighters,

and the UFC definitely want the best. And I'm not saying that just because I'm in the company. I'm saying that because I've seen. No, no, I hear you. I've been around, you know, for a long time, and I've gone to different organizations and stuff, you know, and big organizations too, and I'm like, what the heck? So, like I said, they do a very good job taking care of us.

Hey, what did your mom do? What was your mom's job so my mom she worked for she uh so she worked for the county she does uh she works for the county does taxes for the county and then my stepdad uh he worked uh in the fields for uh like like the like salinas valley the farming fields uh yeah i'm central valley so i'm in like uh avenel out in like fresno that kind of area so he worked there is he first generation here uh yes and is your mom first generation here uh no to second generation yes do you know the story of how your family got here how your grandparents got here uh no i don got here? No, I don't know.

And so obviously you saw people who were working their asses off and you think that's where, like, is that where, like, obviously your brothers and sisters, everyone's got great work ethic. You think you got that just straight from watching your parents? Oh yeah. A hundred percent. You know, seeing like there was nine of us and we went without, like we got, like, it wasn't like we're, we're shopping at like, you know, and there's nothing wrong with there. It wasn't like we're shopping at like you know and there's nothing wrong with there it's not we're shopping at like a good world I mean we were

getting like name brand clothes shoes I mean x we had xbox we had a playstation we had ipods uh you know like we had we had everything we needed you know and my mom my mom was like we just saved up you know like it wasn't like we were not like yeah, we got it when it first came out, but we just saved up. We did our best to get you what you guys wanted, but we had more than what we needed. That was for sure. Hey, when you say you're frugal, like give me an example. Like I'm 52, and it wasn't – it was only a year ago I replaced the couch. One of my friends was moving to Costa Rica, so I bought her a couch from her.

But up until then, me and my wife had the couches from when I was in the eighth grade in our living room. Do you do shit like that? Oh, yeah. People always ask me if you look at the way I dress. When I go places, like go out to eat or go anywhere like i'll walk into like a store and i'm like i wear sweatpants and a shirt i'm in you know like shorts and and and shoes like you know i mean like the like basic where i'm like i'm in running shoes or i'm like in the reebok shoes that they gave us or the you know whatever

shoes that they gave us at the time people like that's the way i dress i drive a honda you know what i mean what like an old ass honda civic uh 2017 so before that i had before then i had a honda that was like a 2002 yeah and then once i once i had the bait once we had the baby like i was like i'll get probably get a better car you know a little bit more reliable. So I don't really spend much. When I'm in Vegas, I get free food at the PI. Guess where I'm eating? At the PI.

Yeah. I mean, supplements we get at the PI. I'm very like, hey, boom, boom, boom. My bills are this much, so that's how much I spend for my bills. Maybe I spend a little bit more um i do private lessons i i train people and they and they'll venmo me and uh what i do is like my venmo card i don't have it linked up to my bank account so whatever i make in my private lessons is the money i can spend to go out to eat to go have fun do whatever once that money's out and i can't do that right you know right like i mean obviously i'm charging you know i'm like

i charge depending on what you want to do i charge anywhere from 160 bucks a lesson so and i do i try to do i try to do like four to five of them a week if i can but you know like sometimes when i'm in camp or they don't do them so if i want to go out to eat with a friend and I don't have money on that car, well, guess what? I ain't going kind of thing. I could, I go, of course. Where do you do your private lessons at? So when I'm, I'm in California, when I'm at Timo Yama out there in Irvine. And then when I'm in Vegas, I'll like, I'll take my, Iridium has like a private gym, so I do it there.

Or I take people to the UFC PI. You can do that? So if there's some kid – so let's say someone's watching this and they live in Vegas, and they have a kid who's a high school wrestler. They can be like, hey, Alex, I saw you on the Sevan podcast. Next time you're in Vegas, I'd love to get some lessons from you and you could take the kid to the pi and teach him lessons wrestling so you have to have to be 18 just because um okay the legal stuff so 18 to be to go into the pi um and then if not then we go to like uh we go to the iridium gym and it's right down the street and then uh uh then we go to the pi and get lunch there you know because i obviously for the cafeteria you

don't need to be 18 so like we uh so i'll take i'll take clients there wow i can't believe and and you only charge 100 an hour for that? Yeah. Damn. It also depends what you want to do, right? Like for me, I charge more if it's just me and you because obviously I'm working. I have to put my body and stuff like that. I charge less if it's you and a partner. Yeah. How about –

Go ahead. Sorry. Just because I don't have to like – I can watch you. I can show you technique, and it's easier for me to coach when i can see what you're doing yeah right sometimes when you're like shooting a double leg on me it's kind of hard to correct all your positioning i mean you like coaching you like the teaching part oh i love it one of my favorite things yeah that's awesome you think so you think you'll do that your whole life maybe uh maybe uh the gen like the generation now is a lot different than when I was growing up. But my high school coach always instilled in us,

give back to the support they gave to you. I mean, I started coaching when I was in high school. One of my managers, Jeremy Lucha, I met him when I was 14 years old. I met his son when his son was four years old and I coached him all the way up until high school a little bit you know a little bit in high school but I mean I love coaching I love giving back uh I wouldn't be here if it wasn't people didn't invest in me it's like like high school wrestling coaches are making a shitload of money. I always try to give back.

We're doing a fundraiser for Silverback Wrestling. They're trying to go to Fargo. We do a lot of fundraisers at my acai shop. I try to just, hey, you get 35% back. Bring people in. They use Silverback Wrestling. They use that. Make sure you guys we we give we give them something you know um i i try to donate here and there when i can to to wrestling clubs or like even i like i'll see a post online that hey we're trying to go to fargo can you please donate i'll reach out like hey i'll what's your zelle i'll tell you you know, what I can. Zelle a couple hundred dollars, you know,

because I was in that position before. And I want people, like, that wrestle, especially from the Central Valley, I want them to see the world, you know? A lot of people don't leave small towns, so I'm, like, I always push kids, like, hey, get out of here, go do something. Go do, like, Limor's always going to like, Lemoore's always going to be here.

Central Valley's always going to be here. Go out there and explore. Go out there and train. Who knows? It might open up opportunities to go to a four-year school, you know? And that's my biggest thing. Like, I want kids to go to school. Like, I wish I would go back and take college serious.

I wish I would have done that, you know? Education is key. It might not set you up for the future, but you do learn a lot of stuff, you know. You do learn a lot of great lessons. And like I said, so I'm always trying to give back. I'm always trying to help out, you know, the youth. Even like guys I helped train, like Cody Garber and Sadiq Avil, Carlos Barza, Ricky Simone, like all these guys. I enjoy doing that because they work hard.

And like I said, without support, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. Ricky Simone's awesome. He's a solid dude. Yeah, is he fun to work with? He's one of my favorite people. He's one of my main training partners. I'm in camp or he's in camp. We always make time to train with each other i always have him come to california

though because i ain't going out to washington yeah or oregon yeah i don't blame you yeah he's cool as shit um when you said kids are different uh now then you seem too young to say that what are you seeing you seeing some big shift in kids or what are you seeing oh yeah everybody's entitled nowadays everybody feels like they they deserve it you know like everything i've gotten i've earned um from the house i'm buying to the to my business to everything you know i i i work for that you know i think kids feel like they're more entitled nowadays. And I don't know if it's because of generation or like, you know, like I always tell people, like, my job is for me to make my future easier for my son.

Right. But I still need him to work hard. Like, I'm not going to give him everything like he needs to. His ass needs to work. You know, he needs to learn the value of a dollar he needs to earn the value of working hard how it feels to work and pay taxes and do all that stuff i feel like a lot of people take that too serious where they're like oh my son i'm building this up for my son they give him everything and then at the end it's like well they're still staying at home hey hey every single person i've known that was like like, given shit, like, and when I mean given shit, I mean, like, a lot of shit. Like, you know, some seven-figure shit.

They all went crazy. 100% of them. I've known, like, probably a half dozen. Yeah, probably, like, a half dozen. Even I've seen, like, women marry really rich men, and they just fucking go nuts. They just completely lose their fucking identity. They have no value. They haven't earned anything.

It's nuts. Yeah. It's unhealthy to run into shit to have a life that you didn't earn. It is. You'll do some weird shit. And you see it now more and more nowadays like like everything's like oh you can make money on on social media so you see kids on social media trying to make money now you see kids on youtube like man like for me i biggest thing when i coach

kids in general i tell the parents i'm willing to put in as much time as they want to put in but my one rule is you have to let them be a kid. If the kid doesn't want to go to practice one day, okay. The kid wants to go out and hang out with his friends at night, you know, like go out, go to like a house party or do whatever, you know, go to the movies, whatever. Let them go. If you're not letting them be a kid, then I don't know if I can work with them. They're like, oh, why is that? Like, you know, you shouldn't worry about it. I worry about like because then it makes my job a little bit easier if you're just

making this kid be here and he don't want to be here it's gonna make my hard job a lot harder you know um i think kids nowadays just get a lot of stuff and too i think parents put a lot of pressure on their kids nowadays because they see all these young talents in mma right yeah these young kids in all the sports skateboarding tennis mma wrestling figure skating the the level at like 10 years old already insane right so that but you look at those kids how like how many of those kids are going to be it's hard to say normal because it's really not normal but how many of those kids are going to be able to say they enjoy their childhood or not resent their parents or stuff like that like my son i want him to wrestle right but guess what i don't want to coach him you know i want my son i

want my son to do sports i don't want to coach him i want like i want that father son you know and if he's good great if he's not great like i just want him to do something like my mom really instilled in us like hey no matter what you're gonna get good grades and you're gonna do a sport i don't care what it is you're gonna do a sport and we just chose wrestling and that's what led me to where i'm at today but i feel like kids nowadays don't don't have the same drive anymore to do sports to do things everybody wants to just go out be on their phone all day like and i see myself too like i'll be on an airplane put on airplane mode the first thing i do is turn on go look at instagram go look at facebook i'm like ah shit you know so like when

i'm home i try to do my best to be off my phone i try to do you know when i'm with my son i try to make sure i'm not on my phone things like that um like i said like generation of kids is not the same uh and so i don't know if i'll i'll coach for a very very long time but i enjoy coaching now and like which is like one of my passion projects i i love helping people out i love being part of people's success you know i don't need the credit i i don't need people shouting me out telling me this and that i don't care about that i just want to see people be successful and people care about you know because i invest a lot of time and energy into that you know and like i tell i tell people all the time like if you work hard like i don't care if you win or lose

but if you you're at practice every day you're in shape you're on diet you're doing what you need to do and you bring a good teammate i'll help help you 100%. But if you're not showing up to practice, you're not helping your teammates out, you know, you're lazy, stuff like that, I will not corner, I will not help out. So those are my requirements to be, you know, for me to help. You know, if we are practicing, we're helping each other, great. But to go above and beyond, like, I need those five things, you know. Work ethic.

I need you to be a great teammate because it's an individual sport to a point, but you need your teammates. I need you to put in the maximum effort in your diet, your cardio, everything. The result, we can't control the result, so it's kind of what it like. You go out there, you lose. Man, I support you. You go out there and win, I support you, you know. I can't control the outcome of the fight,

but if you're doing everything before that then i'm down hey i i know this is a little abstract here and it's not like a clear line but a lot of times i see the world as two kinds of people people who feel sorry for people and people who believe in people and i think people who feel sorry for people the reason why they feel sorry for people is I think it's kind of fake. I think that they think that they're better than other people. So they mask it with feeling sorry for people. Right. And so then they try to help and they end up making the situation worse. And what I hear for you is you're more on the believing inside of people. Like you believe in people. You're not, you're not there to like, feel sorry for someone and you're there to you you want

to help people who believe in themselves or if they don't believe in themselves you wanted to help them learn how to believe in themselves and then run with them but you're not interested in the guy who doesn't who's who just wants to feel sorry for himself yeah um you know i don't believe in that victim mindset you know like yeah um for me like i i've had the easiest uh go at things you have not you have not had the easiest go yeah you know like i was i was i was i was i was 17 and four before i got into ufc you know yeah wow i wasn't the first i wasn't the first guy they were gonna call i got a lucky some guy you know sucks to say but I got a lucky, some guy, you know, sucks to say, but I got lucky called because the guy got injured. And two weeks notice, I got to the contender fight. Like I,

everything I work for has, has been awful hard work. I don't play myself as a victim. Well, you know, I don't have the best education. I don't have this. I don't have that. Like, nah, that's just, those are just excuses. At one point in time, you gotta stop being the victim. You gotta, you gotta put your foot forward. Like, I've had friends talk, like, people out there believe in me, talk shit about me. Like, oh, like, you're never gonna make it to the UFC. You're not gonna do this, this, and this. Now I see them, they're all supporting me.

Oh, my God, you know, I knew you could do it. I've had people laugh in my face. I've had people discredit me. i've had people do that like dude stop playing the victim like there's no there's no such thing as a victim mentality like you know i mean like either you're gonna get off your ass and do it or you're not so you're 17 and four and you get a call uh how does that happen in his two weeks notice enough time like tell me that story how Well, I'm always in shape. So, turn it down, Papa.

Turn it down. I'm always in shape. I train all the time. Like, my training schedule doesn't change. Maybe my running changes. But I'm always in shape. And I was on my friend Humberto Ben, and I got a call to UFC to find Mexico City. And he was, like, two and a half weeks, three weeks before he had to go do

medicals. How do you get the phone? You're just at your buddy's house and your phone rings and it's Jason. He's like, yo, Alex, you're never going to believe this. We were driving to go do medicals and we were there. For a different fight or for his fight? For his fight. I drove him.

He didn't have a car, so I drove him. I was on the way back home. I was eating Snickers or something. They're like, like, so I drove him. He didn't have a car, so I drove him. And I was on the way back home. I was eating, like, a Snickers or something. They're like, hey, can you make 125s in two weeks, two and a half weeks? I'm like, uh, I don't know. They're like, well, we got a chance at the contenders. And I was like, okay. And, yeah, we did that. And we went from there and got got the call and we took the

opportunity and uh you know everything worked out for me from there but i turned out who goes to mexico with you uh no so i was so my friend was gonna fight in mexico city and i was gonna fight in las vegas for the dinner white contender series oh okay okay so i was just there helping him out okay oh you were you were already in mexico when you got the call uh so we were in uh where we at we were in we were in california so we're doing medicals out and um what is it i forget what it's called okay so you were in cal in California Yeah we were in California My friend was getting ready to fight in Mexico And I got the call on the way home

And then who goes And then you fight in the Apex when you do that So we fought in the ultimate The old tough gym It wasn't the Apex And I was season one And then so you go in there. Do you remember the guy you fought, his name?

Kevin Gray, yeah. So I went in there. I fought him. I beat him. I choke him out, and I get the contract in 2017. Wow. Yeah. Holy shit.

And you were with Jason already then? Yeah. So Jason has been my manager since I first started. Since I was 18. How nice is that? It's good, man. I love the guy to death. I love his family.

I've met his family. He calls my son his nephew. Christmas, birthdays, he's always sending things. Every time he's in town, he always makes time to see my son his nephew, you know, Christmas, birthdays. He's always sending things. Every time he's in town, he always makes time to see my son. Jason's not just a manager, but he's, you know, he's family to me. And, you know, I mean, I definitely wouldn't be here without his sacrifice. He's fought for me tooth and nail to get to where I'm at, you know, to get me to this place, you know.

And, like I said, I'm super grateful for him and the whole team, Jeremy Lucho. I've known him since I was 14 years old, you know, and he's part of the management and stuff. So like those guys are family to me. I respect them a lot. It's interesting you hear you say that because sometimes I have fighters on here and they'll just talk about how fucking dark and dirty the sport is.

And you and your route, it sounds like you put your roots in a good spot um yeah i mean don't get wrong there's there's there's good and bad in everything right yeah um it's just the people you trust you gotta trust people like i trust jason and my management to do the best thing for me and my son yeah if you don't trust and it's hard right it's hard yeah it's not an easy thing to do but if you don't trust the person that's working for you because people don't always remember like your manager you don't work for your manager manager works for you oh right right right oh is he talking back yet? Turn it down, Papa. He hasn't seen your jab yet. I can tell the way he talks back.

He hasn't seen your jab. I mean, his little butt's gotten a little couple, you know. I'm old school. I don't spank him all the time, but he's pushed the limits a couple times. but he's been he's pushed the limits a couple times you know um when you what so you have this injury and you're gonna get it healed but in your mind no matter what you'll be back in the ring again uh yeah you know obviously i mean i've been through a lot like uh the last couple years you know all the fight cancellations i got sick i mean there's a time i didn't fight for like two years you know um but like my cancellations are crazy dude you're you're sure dog and your tapology is nuts this is nuts i've never seen anything like this yeah man i mean some of them were mine because i

i got injured so a lot of them were like opponents but it doesn't say that on there you know everybody just talked a lot of shit like oh you know this guy canceled all these fights i'm like yeah okay like i'm not really too worried about what social media has to say about me yeah fuck those guys i'm just thinking about the emotional toll yeah you know basically from the start from mark from matt chanel all the way on i was in camp for like a year and a half you know then i fight pantosia lose and I get sick and all that stuff. You know, it was a crazy time. But I think the biggest, even though Dominic shit on me all weekend, I listened to a lot of his stuff where he was going through when he was injured.

Dominic Cruz was? Yeah. He was one of the commentators this week for my fight. So a couple, you know, like, but he does have a very good mindset on things. And the way, you know, he described his stuff. I had to, like, learn that I'm more than just a fighter. I took my, you know, like, I had to be okay with at one point in time because I didn't know if I was going to be able to fight again or not. I had to be okay with not being a fighter like I had to tell myself like hey fighting doesn't

define me it's something I do but it's not who I am you know and I think that helped me mentally grow a lot more than uh anything else you know becausecabi fight, I didn't know if I was going to fight again. And I was able to get three fights this year. You know what I mean? Obviously, one and two isn't the best record, but, you know, the bright side of the last fight is like, hey, I'm hanging in there with this guy. I felt like I was winning.

Obviously, he won. All credit to him. There's nothing I can do about it. But it still shows me I'm there. It still shows me I'm one of the best guys in the world. So with this injury, I just got to tackle it day by day. Am I going to go through some dark times? Of course.

I think every athlete does that, especially coming off a big injury. Right? So for me, it's just day by day, taking it day by day. Like I going to have, like I said, I have some bad, bad moments in the recovery process. Of course, that is part of it. That just, you know, I had that before just getting that mindset, right. Being around the right people, you know, things like that. And, um, I think I'll be back hopefully by, by the beginning of next year. And when you, when you say that you're more than a fighter um a couple a year ago or two

years ago i had this uh athlete on here and she said that like she started she realized that she's her values i think she said she's her value she's not like this athlete are you religious uh yes i'm catholic like you go to church on sund? Is that kind of religious? No. So right now, I'm getting back into it. It's called Pray.com. I listen to the Bible on there every day, every morning. I listen to prayers every morning. I listen to a couple Bible verses on there in the morning while I'm going for my morning walk, trying to get my mind

ready for the day, whether it's business or training. God, that must be an expensive fucking domain. Excuse me. Pray.com. My God, I wonder how much they paid for that. Wow. Is that...

So when you said that you're more than a fighter is that what you did you sort of rooted yourself more like in god or like in your own personal values yeah a little bit of that but also just realizing like i'm a father i'm a brother you know things like that i think i've been i've been in this sport since since i 18 years old. You know, this is the only life I've known. Like, I mean, I've had jobs, you know, but for the most part of my life, everybody knows me as Alex Perez, the fighter, you know? Right. So I had to be okay with not being that fighter.

Yeah. Hey, did you see, I don't know if you have any thoughts on this. Someone texted me this morning, and they were all pissed off that – so I have this feeling that I don't think that you should bring transgender people into kids' schools and have them read to the kids. I'm okay if you brought in cooks or Navy SEALs, but for men who want to dress as women, I just don't think that they should be brought into the public school or public library to be reading to kids and i got and i have my reasons for it but but i'm okay with them partying in san francisco or going to bars or i enjoy going to plays with cross-dressing men like i think that's all like do your thing i think of it as and and then recently louisiana said that uh they're going to make it a law to have the Ten Commandments up in all the schools.

And this guy's like, hey, dude, that's bullshit. Like how can you be okay with that, but you're not okay with trannies reading to kids in the school? And I get their point, but I'm kind of like – I'm not a religious guy, but I still don't have a problem with it. I don't think it should be a law, but I don't have a problem with the Ten Commandments think it should be a law but i don't have a problem with the ten commandments up in the school because i see it as just like a list of values and i think it like i wish someone would have introduced to me at a younger age the idea of what values are you know what i mean like hey you should make some values and root yourself in them i won't hurt people i'll always let a fucking woman go through the door before me like pick some things that like kind of like you know what i mean you won't steal yeah if you have extra you always give it to the guy next to you just

some shit that's like just makes you a good person right a thoughtful person do you have any what do you think about that will you raise your kids religious uh yeah you know i mean i'll raise them religious if they choose to like not follow it you know like eventually yeah and that's that that's your choice but um yeah for me i'm not a big fan of that you know like uh uh you know i mean having a transgender go into a school and reach my son i think nowadays uh school is not being used for what it's used for you know like education and they're trying to teach kids you know oh like you know you can be a girl you can be like these kids they're young they don't understand that you know and i have i have friends i have family that are you know uh you know or are gay you know

things like that and i have no problem with it like i can yeah big difference between being gay and transgender big and and uh you know i have friends that, you know, like, oh, like, I have a friend that converted over to be transgender. I have no problem with that. I still talk to him. I still treat him the same. But you shouldn't. I believe that you shouldn't bring that around kids because you're going to confuse them. Right.

They talk about children's minds, you know, like how, how delicate it is and stuff like that. Like, so then why are we bringing stuff like that into schools? You know, maybe when they're older, they understand. And yeah, maybe we're at like high school. Okay. You know, you're, but as a, as elementary kids, you don't want to confuse kids. You know, they're already, most of them are already confused as it is like what's going on in the world, especially now everything's on most kids have cell phones, you know, so they see a lot of the stuff going on, you know. They're already confused as it is, so why confuse them more?

I think we got to use school for what school is for and all the other agenda, like leave it out. You know, like one thing I remember when I was growing up, every morning did the pledge of allegiance i don't see that anymore like you know i mean i'm i'm proud to be an american i'm proud of this country i'm proud to be you know like we have a lot of benefits a lot of people don't i've been able to travel the world and see different countries and stuff like that and we and see how blessed we are to be in the united states you know like a lot of people have it and they're like, you know, they shit on our country or they, you know, oh, this isn't fair. I was like, man, go to other countries and see what they do to you guys. You know, like I think it's very, I don't think it's the right thing to do. You know, that's my opinion.

So, yeah, like I just don't know. Like I don't know what they're thinking. But like I said, for me, I would not want that, you know, at all for my son. Just because it's confusing them. I don't even, I don't even want my, I wouldn't even want my kid's teacher to like have a nose ring or a tongue piercing. Not because, I just don't want my kids seeing that as like normal. Yeah. Like, like, like, I don't want my kids seeing that as, as like normal. Yeah. Like, like, like I don't care. Like if you want to date, when you're 18,

you want to leave the house, you want to date a chick who's, who's got a tongue piercing more power to you. I just want like a, a kind of like a, uh, I don't know what the word is. I don't want them being influenced in ways that, that, um, I don't think are going to be conducive to their success or distractions. Like you just think of how – I mean that's the key to your success I'm guessing and to all like super high-level performers is to remove distractions, right? Yeah. No, it definitely is.

Like in your cars, kind of like the perfect example. You just have a certain kind of car. You just have a Honda. You drive it. You keep your life simple you come back it's reliable you don't have time for worrying about if it gets scratched or you need to be so relaxed that you can't be like let's say it's before if you're driving a fucking lamborghini and you pull up and you walk out to your car and there's a shopping cart against it maybe it fucks your whole training up you see shopping cart against your honda and you're like fuck that sucks and you go to work, and you go fight. It's like just keep your life simple for your own success.

Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Like I said, I think, too, the norm is a lot different because I remember I have tattoos. But I remember back in the day, you had tattoos. You didn't get a good job. Now the norm is it's okay to have tattoos, which I don don't have a problem that i have tattoos you wish you would have not gotten them does any part of you wish oh wow interesting i've heard that a lot by the way i'd say more people than not when i ask that say i wish i wouldn't have got it interesting yeah i wish i wouldn't have got them but you know i got them so uh you know i live with it and uh

but like you know i mean like nowadays, like I'm still old school. Like I like when I go out to like a dinner or something, I still like I don't show my tattoos. Like I wear long like space because I have tattoos on my forearms and stuff. I wear a long sleeve shirt. You know, I mean, like I'm old school in that sense. Like, yeah, when I'm around my house or on friends, family, I have shirts like this. But when I go even go to my business, i try my best to cover them up you know um just that's the way i was the time i was raised like you know um and there's nothing wrong with it

like just the way i was raised but that's starting to become the norm the norm starting to become the not norm you know it's starting to become the norm is starting the boundaries have been pushed little little by little every every so often you know like i remember like you said like people couldn't have nose rings and you know piercings in the eyebrows things like that they used to have to cover it up yeah you know you see people with band-aids over there or banded over here you know like nowadays that's normal um so for me like i'm still old school so for me like i i like to keep everything very simple and like the way the way i like it i don't i'm not a big fan of change hey do you love training are you like sweating like is this going to be a hard couple weeks for

you oh it's gonna be a hard yeah hard couple you know hard like a whole knock knock i would hopefully it's only a month but it's gonna be a hard hard time, you know, a hard, like, knock on wood, hopefully it's only a month. But it's going to be a hard, hard time because I'm at the gym 24-7. Like, my training schedule doesn't change. Maybe, like, the sparring changes because I really don't spar unless my teammates, like, my teammates are there all the time for me and at the gym all the time. They're like, hey, I need sparring. I'll spar with them. But I train all the time.

I'm training people. I'm literally at the gym. Like, they're like hey i need sparring i'll spar with them but i train all the time i'm training people i'm literally at the gym like i've always had a job like people like oh when i fought for the title that i'm like people always i've always had a job uh when i was fighting i was i was training i was doing my training i was teaching two wrestling classes a week plus two cardio kickboxing classes a week on top of maybe one or two private lessons a week on top of training twice a day. That's just the way I've operated. I don't want to lose that because when fighting is over, it's hard to go back to working. But if I never lose it, I can't say I have to go back to like having i go back to working but if i never lose it i can't say i have to go back so for me making extra money working it's very important to me because like i said like

as crazy as sounds those skills that people lose you know like if you take if you take two weeks off of work you go back to work you're like i don't want to be here i'm not used to you know used to sleeping in look at connor look at connor yeah you know for me it's all about work he took too many days off and i'm guessing just sweating and the clarity of mind and working hard like pushing your body like it's an important part of your psychological health to push yourself really hard every day to where you're panting i tell people all the time like i got the best job in the world i gotta fucking punch people in the face for a living why do you think i'm so mellow you think like you think it's because i'm mellow like nah it's usually because i gotta punch punch people

on the freaking face you know yeah get to hit things get a wrestle get to get my aggression out get things like that i think that definitely plays a big big tool into a big buy into why i'm so mellow you know i mean like obviously i have my days where i'm i'm an asshole but 90 of the time i'm pretty mellow like if you give me to that asshole point you must have done something that really pissed me off because i'm pretty hard to piss off you know um but i think for me that's gonna be the hardest part i'm already dying like i'm put i'm pushing the limit right now even just walking as much as i am you know because my leg would be sore.

It hurts or like bending it because it gave me exercises to do. And I do it three times a day. I'm doing it four or five times a day and my legs sore. I'm like, oh, man, you know, but that's just in my mindset. Like I want to get back. I want to do this and I need something to do. Like I can't chase after my son right now. Like if that guy wants to take off running right now, he's going to beat me 100%. It's definitely going to be hard for me. I'm always at the gym.

I'm always doing something. I'm always on the go. People always laugh at me. Man, you're up early. Even during fight week, I was up at 6 o'clock in the morning. That's the kind of person I am. I always want to go. I want to rest when I'm done fighting. My goal is to retire by the time I'm just, I'm just, that's the kind of person I am. You know, I'm always want to go. I want to rest when I'm done fighting.

My goal is to retire by the time I'm 40. Is that going to happen? Maybe. I want to retire by the time I'm 40 or not work as hard by the time I'm 40. So when my son is wrestling, my son is doing a sport, I can be like, hey, I'm going to take this weekend off. I'm going to go see my son, go see, watch those events, go do all that, spend as much time as I can. So right now I'm working as hard as I can be like, hey, I'm going to take this weekend off. I'm going to go see my son, go watch those events, go do all that, spend as much time as I can. So right now I'm working as hard as I can. So when he's 10, he's 3 years old, so by the time he's 10, 11 years old, starts competing at a high level,

I can go to those things without having to be like, oh, you know what, I can't take time off because I need money, I need business. That's what I'm saying on my future now to get to that. So that's my mindset. I think that's why I work so hard. And that's why I think this time and period is going to be so hard for me because I can't really do anything. I might be able to do some private lessons, but even then it's hard when I can't show you what to do. Right. So it's definitely going to be a learning curve for sure.

Hey, is Kelly Slater's Wave Pool in your hometown? Yep. Only more California. Have you been there? I haven't I'm not a big surfer But I So at Lemoore A lot of people don't know that that's where WEC was originated

If you go watch back when they had like that triangle Like in the 50s? Like in 1953 or 56, whatever? Oh man, it was in the 90s i believe oh it wasn't thousands in 2000s yeah when wc was uh yeah 2000s oh oh i'm confusing it with uh wwe sorry yeah you're confused there yeah wec is where like uh the old school where like uriah favor and all those guys fought in that was in my hometown before Zufa bought them out so there so um a lot of people don't know that rich history of MMA in my my town so you ever see Kelly around

uh no I haven't seen him I haven't gone home in a while because I've been so busy but for the 4th of July we're going back hang out you know taking my son to go see my uh my mom and them and my brother and my nieces. Just go out there, have a good time. I got time now. So, you know, take advantage of it. Can you drive with that leg? Yeah, I can drive.

I can drive. I can't like, like I have to like when I'm walking, I have to remember to bend my knee. I can't act like I have a peg leg. Yeah. You know, so like little things like that. Basically learning how to bend my knee. I can't act like I have a peg leg. Yeah. You know? So, like, little things like that. Basically learning how to re-walk. It's kind of, like, the biggest thing right now just because, not because I forgot how to walk, but I want to baby it.

Yeah. You know? So I got to do all that stuff. Like I said, like, it's good signs that I'm walking and stuff like that. They're even impressed, you know, at the PI. They're impressed with that. Like, hey, man, you're responding very well to this like i said we'll find out today when i talk to him what what's going on in the knee hey dude i really appreciate you coming on i appreciate your internet just only got better usually in the beginning of the show i was like oh we're fucked we're fucked yeah i hear it because i'm out here in norwalk right now um with my son and them

so i hear the service it's kind of like yeah well hey it it pulled through it's great meeting you uh thanks for uh i know you know what's funny too i was so embarrassed i pocket dialed you twice in a row. No, you're good, man. I appreciate you having me. It's fun getting on here and talking to you. All right. I got you my Google alerts.

I'm a huge Alex Perez fan. Thank you so much, dude. And I'll be in touch. Thank you. And congratulations on the beautiful kid and great family, dude. You're a good dude. Thanks, man. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much. All right. Ciao. All right. Ciao. Laters. Alex Perez. Wow. Alex, love your hair. Oh, too late. Can we just have one guest you don't make fun of? All I want to hear about is CrossFit CrossFit CrossFit

It's crazy that it's crazy that this show can have only a hundred live listeners And you have a guys at the top of his game fought for the title fought Alex Pantoja Talking to the greatest interviewer who's ever walked planet or several mitosian And there's a hundred and four people who listen and they'd rather just hear the same bullshit instead of maybe glean something off of someone who's a fucking crazy success Janelle what's up girl Chris what up? Mr. Dillap. Oh, my God, Kenneth.

I have to send you your slag box. Jesus Christ. I'm driving out to Sunnyvale this morning. I'm dreading it a little bit. I'm dreading it a little bit. Hey, you know what's so cool about that dude alex perez is last night he's like hey can i get a link and he's like oh i want it now so i can check to see if it works and like 2 000 guests in no one's ever said that like no one ever gives a shit enough to like to check to works uh dildo uh maybe you did hear your name my god

olivia not all of us want to hear about crossfit some people just want to see me naked yes i'd love to see you naked uh how does matuthian taste uh oh look at that family that looks fun what are you guys doing geez that christmas tree is huge is that in someone's house who uses facebook is facebook still around uh it tastes great i love it my kids love it my kids only use it the other day there was uh i actually set it up on purpose i set the tube of toothpaste and metuthion out on the counter and i and then i went in there with my son joseph i'm like hey you want to brush your teeth for bed he's like yeah and i handed him the tube and he and he set it on the counter

and grabbed the metuthion i was like yeah boy that's my boy it's kind of acquired some people think it's too salty i love the salt. I don't even hardly taste it anymore. And you have to kind of get used to the powdery thing. But there's this like sensation that it's actually cleaning your teeth. That like you don't get from toothpaste. So. A Facebook listener. Yeah, crazy, right?

Patrice. Patrice Polta. Sounds like a famous chess player I'm better I'm better I'm good pray.com I just learned about that what does it say make prayer a priority let me see if I have anything funny in here. My live calling notes. Oh, not really. I don't know. What is this? We already looked at that.

What's the lady's name who hated CrossFit? She was the workout girl. I think she was on America's Biggest Loser or something. Oh, how about this? I'll show you guys this. Look at this. Look at this. Oh, I thought I felt an earthquake.

Do you guys remember the show when there was an earthquake? When I was in my office and there was an earthquake? That was wild. Oh, I thought I felt a little earthquake just now. Okay. Okay, look at this. Fan runs into the field in Cincinnati, does a backflip, and then gets tased by security. Jesus, that's too loud.

Here we go. Look it. Does a backflip. And then, look, tases him. Bam. Now, I want you to think of all the crazy shit. So, you're telling me that someone can run out onto a field where a bunch of people are playing baseball, do a backflip, and get tased. But if a cop pulls someone over and you tell them to put their hands on the steering wheel and they reach over into their glove box, you can't shoot them? Sorry.

Sorry. I'm not saying you do shoot them but i'm saying like everything i see like you're telling me when those people uh approach the capitol building on january 6th you couldn't just open up water cannons on them and just blasted them just blast them you're telling me that uh in um in minnesota where was it uh during the george floyd riots you're telling me when those people fucking tore down the chain link fence at the police station you can't open fire on them you can't open fire on people who are attacking a building with the people in it who are supposed to protect us. There's no fucking way. There's no fucking way it's okay. If you can tase someone for running out onto a grass – I mean there's nothing – that guy is right now no threat.

There's a fucking 50,000 people watching him in person. people watching them in person isn't it a private versus public issue so and so like that guy's like in someone's house right there so you can shoot him if you feel threatened i don't know oh jake chapman speaking of cannons that we checked on greta recently man i'd love to play that if i knew where that was at. God, that made me so happy. Did anyone else enjoy that as much as me? I loved that. Steven Flores, we've entered the unhinged rants part of the show.

I just think that if you jump on the hood of a police car, the cop can roll down the window and shoot you. I think it's totally fine. car the cop can roll down the window and shoot you i think it's totally fine i think if a i think if a crowd of 20 people surround a cop car and stop it from moving i think the cop if he feels threatened even a little bit he can run the people over i just do i don't i i'm paying those i work hard and trick you guys into giving me money, and then some of that money that you guys give me, like half of it, I give to put cops on the street to protect my kids. There's no – there's – they have to protect my family. Yeah, fair. Thank you. Yeah, it's totally fair. Taser versus gun.

But that's my point. That's what I'm saying. Why can you tase? That guy's not doing anything. That guy's just running across the field. People are upset because he's interrupting the game and interrupting like what? Like everyone there. First of all, everyone there loved it.

Well, everyone loved the tasing part too. I mean, it's fun watching him get tased. The whole thing is like adds value to the game. None of those people there at that game ever remember that game if it wasn't for this guy getting tased. It's like the time that you were in line at McDonald's and you shit your pants. That's the only time you're ever going to remember being at McDonald's because you shit your pants. You shit your pants. That's the only time you're ever going to remember being a McDonald's because you shit your pants.

I agree with the cop stuff, just not the private venue comparison. What do you mean? Explain that to me. I'm just saying that relative, if you're going to tase a dude for running onto a baseball field, then then soon as someone starts. Like what if someone I saw someone pouring gasoline around my house like on my fence in my front yard i think i can just shoot them definitely if they pour gasoline and then i see them light a lighter i mean i got fucking three kids here my wife right what if i the gasoline made a ring around my house and I couldn't get out and we all died?

It was a chick they tased? No, no chick can do a backflip like that. That's not a chick. Oh, hey, that dude has a baseball glove on that's funny i think yeah yeah exactly my entire family's law enforcement yeah they need to come home you can't fuck with cops oh yeah uh a taser is less force uh going hands-on it sucks for five seconds then it's over yeah i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm cool with that whatever i i hear you but um first of all that guy's head bounced off the ground when he landed when he got tased watch when he gets tased boom boom oh no his shoulder his shoulder

kind of hit the ground first and his head kind of flopped anyway i'm just saying you can't fuck with cops at all zero the shit I see on the internet. It's It's so fucking crazy Meanwhile Rittenhouse is being charged for they try to get him for a guy Hmm wow fortune.com did an article on high rocks they better hurry up and sell high rocks it's toast

the only thing they had going for was hunter They better hurry up and sell High Rocks. It's toast. The only thing they had going for it was Hunter. Oh, please. I'm not reading this article. All right. I'm making sure I go home every day. Yeah. Good.

All right. Thanks, guys. I'm going to sit in my car now for an hour. I'm taking my kids to sunnyvale the uh the uh professional skater they skate with is i think he's moving to texas crazy right so he's going for a month to scout out texas to see if he wants to move there so we're skipping surf camp to get in one final session with this dude he's so fucking cool you want to see his um website what is it uh uh josh brolin skate youtube oh maybe it's not josh what is what's his last name? John, Josh, uh, skate, skate lessons. Is it skate lessons? Oh, skate park lessons. This is, this is the guy, you know, what's crazy is he's nothing like he is

on his YouTube. He's very serious lessons. I'm JB and I've been a pro skateboard instructor for over 20 years and i'm yeah that's the skate park my kids skate at my wife's gonna be so pissed i think my kid's in some of these videos let me see if i uh intro i don't know uh oldest uh how do you uh videos Intro Oldest how these videos Popular let's go as most popular all these got 711 thousand views damn Anyway, yeah, he's got a cool cool YouTube station Yeah, he's got a cool YouTube station. Oh, yeah.

I sit on that bench all the time. Look at that. That's the bench I sit on. Anyway. If you want to hang out, I'll be at the skate park in Sunnyvale. There's no one there. It's going to be hot as shit. I'm bringing a hat.

I hate him. Blow me. He's so fucking cool. Oh, you hate Hunter. Oh. I do pick trash up at that skate park too i walk around i get every skate park there skate parks around here are so clean anyway that skate park's really clean i was actually at that skate park one time and i saw um air force one fly in like just like basically like i don't know i could have hit it with a bb gun and then uh and

then i saw three of the whatever the helicopters are called i saw three of the helicopters come and then it brought the hell and then biden got on the helicopters and then flew to santa cruz back to where i live are you guys tripping on the debates oh my god kill taylor tomorrow holy shit is tomorrow saturday oh my god Ripping on the debates. Oh my God. Kill Taylor tomorrow. Holy shit. Is tomorrow Saturday? Oh my God. Oh my God.

I got to see the calendar. I can't even believe it. Oh my God. Kill Taylor tomorrow. Oh my God. All right. That's cool. Okay. Love you guys maybe I'll come on tonight you guys want to hang out tonight a little bit

shoot the shit what a crazy video Hiller's last video it's crazy because it's the shit that I feel like I talk about incessantly. And then he makes that video. I mean, it's, it's everywhere. I mean, of course, I mean, it's everywhere. I don't know if you want to, if you want to see here, listen, if you want to see something just absolutely nuts,

watch the video I just posted. I ripped it or go to James O'Keefe's account. I don't care. Go to James O'Keefe's account. I don't care. Go to James O'Keefe's account and watch what he did with Disney. It's a 20-minute video. You'll put it on and just drive somewhere. You won't even believe the crazy racism going on at Disney. It's nuts. Yeah, Hiller's getting hundreds of comments on every post now yeah i know he's on fire like i it seemed it seemed uh out of character for him to

uh at least i thought some of the subject matter that he's doing, I thought was out of character for him. But as a man grows, so do his interests. As a man grows, his penis gets harder and harder. His penis gets harness gets harness gets harness gets harness Wow 26,000 views on this last one peptide for dummies 14,000 CrossFit Insider explains why you don't need HQ 25,000 Yeah, he's killing He's the Alex Perez of CrossFit videos. Daniel Garrity, yes. The coming of age story of a young YouTube sensation, Andrew Hiller.

Okay, guys, tomorrow morning, 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, Kill Taylor. Make sure you're here. Support the show. Even if you're not going to watch it, just turn it on and let me get the you know the the views be a good boy and girl love you guys especially you jethro talk to you soon buh-bye