The Shintaro Higashi Show - Mattia Galbiati

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

In this episode, Shintaro talks to the bronze medalist of the World Sambo Championships and an old friend, Mattia Galbiati. Please support us on Patreon if you can: https://www.patreon.com/shintaro_higashi_show. Any amount helps!

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi podcast. Today, I'm going to have a conversation with an old friend of mine who just took a bronze medal at the World Sambo Championships. His name is Mattia Gabbiati. We go way back, right, Mattia? Okay, yes, we go back. Yeah, way back. We go back for how long ago did we meet each other? Oh, in 2007, New York City.

2007? 2007, yes, of course, man. Long time. Yeah. You were 100 kilos. That's right. I'm about 90 now, so not that much lighter. And how many kilos are you right now?

You mean the real weight, body weight? Yeah, yeah. 72 kilos. 72. Okay, and you compete at what weight? Yes, of course. What weight do you compete at? By that, I compete at 68 kilos.

68 kilos. Okay, I'm going to put that in there. 68 kgs. Boom. All right. And, yeah, for those of you who don't know you know matia came to new york and when we did judo together you stayed above the dojo right there was a little room oh yes several years that's right that's right and i still i still dream sometimes about it good time so good memories. That's right. Sometimes I

dream to be in New York and I dream about training with your father or I dream often I dream of Aziz. Yeah. All the people we are training in New York Athletic Club. That's right. Yeah, there's a whole thing. You know, like you're a competitor international from Italy representing the country. I think you were number two or three at the time in Italy, right, for judo? Yeah, number two.

Number two. Was it behind Elio Verde? Was that right? Yeah, right. That's right. And then you would come to New York and then you would just to new york and then you would just stay for the summer and train yes right then you could come to my club you could go to the new york i'm actually wearing their shirt look see new york ac right i don't know i can see yeah i don't have one i'll get you i'll send you one oh i have to buy it because it was so much. And it's always, it was good.

It's really fun to train in NIAC because a lot of people go to New York City. So sometimes you can, you were able to meet good people from around the world to make a roundery. It was nice. And I was there when Jimmy Venetti opened ITC. I was there the first training. That's a long time ago. They moved locations since then. It's in a different location now.

Ah, different location. Yeah, different location. It's right underneath the train station in Astoria. It's a nice little spot. And they do judo, BJJ, Muay Thai. They do all that. The New York Athletic Club is still there overlooking Central Park. It's a nice

beautiful dojo. Remember that? Then you go do judo and then we hang out. Good times. Good times. What is Kano Martial Arts? Kano Martial Arts is on 27th and 8th. 28th and 8th okay 28th and 7th

nice yeah so right off the subway probably like a block from the dojo block from the subway it's a great location you gotta come visit too

you know so now oh so nostalgic yeah yeah I have to you know family sometimes not so easy oh yeah yeah

you have a 7 year old daughter and you're married and all this stuff, right? And you're living in Italy now? Yes. Yeah, yeah. I live close to Lake Como. That's right. That's right.

And you are still a professional grappler? How does that work? Because I remember when you were doing judo. My professional judo player time is over. I am a policeman. In the last seven years, I've been working as a policeman. So I train every day, but after my duty. Nice.

So what's it like being a police officer in Italy? environment and environment in English illegal illegal stuff about environment yeah okay that's pretty cool so if someone's dumping chemicals in the water you're like hey what's up chemicals in the water can make something like that those sea turtles, right? One of those guys. Not really. It's more like about maybe dangerous chemical garbage from around the world. Got it. Got it. It's nice.

It's, it's interesting job and I'm allowed to, to have time with my family and to train in perfect way so everything is have a balance in my life ah nice nice that's great man that's great so you're doing judo for a long time right so like we know each other from the judo mat and you were doing judo and then you started to venture off into mma too right yes striking, and you had a couple of professional fights, right? What was that transition like from judo to MMA? Yeah, I have – actually, I have eight matches.

The transition, it was – how to say? I didn't plan it. I was in Mexico because my wife is Mexican and before going there for a Christmas my friend there MMA trainer say okay I have if you want to fight we can make a debate so I start to train a little bit there that month I won and then I just I was already in Sambo and I didn't think about it you know here enough later I got into again in some in MMA I fought for Venator in Italy I fought for cage warriors in United

Kingdom and in a moment I was in a moment in which I had to choose. Like two, three years ago, it was like, okay, I can get a good MMA career. Yeah. Or I can keep on Sambo. But I chose Sambo because there was the qualification for European Games. And so I say, no, I want to qualify for European Games of last year. And I qualified. Congratulations. Thank you.

I got sixth place. It was fine. It was very cool. It was like a small Olympic game. Well, not so small, but it was cool. Yeah. And then I had a final match against an american guy in a international event here in europe i won and i won bonus fight of the night and then nothing more even because

last year i had a surgery and my knee for retinal detachment oh in your eye? Yes. No, I was going to say, it's okay. I'm a zombie. The MMA is for fun. It's okay. Yeah. So how's your vision out of the right eye? Now I have my optical lenses. How do you say in English?

Yeah, optical lens. Yeah, that sounds about right. Otherwise, not very well. Oh oh you can't see out of your right eye no i can't read like no with the the left one it's okay the right one is like uh like this if i want to read the book yes of course brutal is that from a punch or something no it was like you know a lot of traumas in the time and in a moment. I just, I was watching, I was seeing some, sorry, but sometimes I think in Italian and Spanish and it's hard to find the words in English. How to say when it's raining so hard that you have oh raining cats and

dogs no when it rains of course when it rains it pours no how to say I don't have the word but anyway I say it's okay maybe it's time to go to the hospital because it's not normal and they say okay call your wife and tell her to bring you something for the night because in three hours we will yeah we will uh operate you yes i i risked i risked to lose my eye by anyway oh my god yeah i feel like i remember you wearing an eye patch on Facebook or something. Yes, it was like three weeks after the surgery because I tried to go to last year

World Championship in Korea. Yeah. In Korea and I had little time to train so world championship was not good but anyway I was training like this because first time was delicate

they say okay you can train but step by step yeah now you must have had a lot of injuries because you've been doing this for so long right i mean i'm still doing it but i'm not like really competing i saw you did were you not at the sambo championships when i was there in 2016 in morocco in 2015 in casablanca 15 oh that's right we did meet there yeah and you know what because i see you every couple years at a tournament somewhere

right we saw each other in miami for the World Cup or the Grand Prix or something. I see you at Casablanca. That's the beauty of being an international competitor. You know, every couple of years you bump into people like, yeah, yeah. You know, like, are you here? Like, did you see Kash Batars competing? You know, it's crazy. Yes. Even because I was waiting for the official weigh-in and I found... ...Chintaro. I remember I said, do you play Sambo?

He said, oh yes, Mattia. I thought, okay, cool. Yeah, and it was like three years I wasn't going to New York City, so it was nice to see you. Yeah. Yes, sport friendships are really deep. Yeah, it's very nice to see you yes sport sport sport friendship are really deep yeah it's very nice too you know so man you've been in this for a long time uh you must be you must have a lot of injuries right yes many surgeries and injuries of course because i remember when i first saw you had a knee surgery too you had just come out of a knee injury right i had yes two surgeries

there and several other surgeries so man no sometimes it's hard to fight and i had to i had to change a lot my style of fighting there are a lot of things that i'm not able to do anymore because my body yeah i remember your judo style a little bit but can you tell me how your judo style evolved over the course of the like the last 10 years my judo style didn't evolve because when I started sambo I started to to leave judo competitions and judo now it's really really different different yeah you're right so sometimes when i yeah go ahead you go no when i do rendering judo sometimes i feel me uh out of place i would say it's like okay i don't know what to do because i can't do this anymore i can do this i can do

this ah yeah yeah so it's like i can't manage very well and you said your club does judo and sambo yes in judo sambo we are of it's like 80 judo and 20 sambo so uh sambo guys we have to mix with judo several days and several days we we we train just sample so for example when you have boundary maybe you make free sample boundaries and free to the runways ah gotcha gotcha what about wrestling do you ever train with wrestlers over there? Yes, last year I prepared Italian Championship in freestyle. It was a short time so it wasn't good and I had a really hard throw. So the worst throw ever. I got it. So it was like, okay, the draw is out of my

league right now and I had a short time to understand the rules, to apply rules, how to apply rules. So I fought two matches, but nothing good. But this year, I want to try

in Greek Roman. I feel better in Greek Roman. I tried. And every week, I train one or two times in Greek Roman. And I feel me, how do you say? I feel me better than freestyle yeah so your Samba styles a lot more upper body than leg grabs no no no I'm more like leg reps even because for my injury sometimes it's hard to to rotate my back so I change a lot so I stay a lot of I try to cross cross grips cross grips and so I make different style of kataguruma and stuff like this yeah and then I I got a good level in knee bars and an ankle lock. Oh, great.

Yeah. Nice. What are your favorite entries into that? Excuse me? What are your favorite entries into the knee bars and the leg locks? For example, I like to make like Uchimata rotate under his legs and then grab the knee for making a knee bar. So when you do, do you do cross grip over the back Uchimata and then rolling knee bar? Is that what you do? Yes, rolling.

What hand position do you have before you go into the Uchimata and to the rolling leg grab? Cross grip? You asked me how no yeah which grip do you like to use before you go oh no it's okay it's like maybe even in uh or a classic one oh okay or classic one or sometimes even uh with um like cross grip and try a scary move i just did a video about that on my YouTube it's scary stuff man Sambo is crazy so they let you do anything that you want

you know Sambo is dirty from the eye of a judo guy it's dirty but it's funny because when I do judo I try to do this stuff sometimes. And people are like, no, I'm scared, I'm scared. Yeah.

Man, Sambo is an awesome sport, man. It's just so not that popular yet. I know in the European countries and the Russian countries, yes, but if you come over to the Americas, the Pan American Championships that I fought in for Sambo, there's not a lot of time. People don't know what it is. You know, it's just not depth.

It's increasing. It's increasing the level. Even in Pan America, since you won, I think you won in 2016, maybe? Yeah, something like that. Increased so much. Increased so much even the average level the average level in these five years increase I know enormous because now you have a lot of countries that before were weak now There are good countries. There are more people because now when you go to a world championship you are like

100 countries but it's hard to see people don't know what to do because sometimes people used to say okay there is I don't know the Dominican guy okay Dominican guy now Dominican Republic is

good Colombia is good Venezuela is good and even Canada is making good steps. United States, there's Bob Clark, he's making good job. And I think you are getting more people every year. But I can see normally for example in Italy we try to catch judo guys and switch up to Sambo and in United States

wrestling they bring from wrestling and bring to Sambo because I saw this year in Serbia all American guys were wrestlers.

Were they good? Except for Wojtek. Wojtek, yeah. Wojtek, yeah. Wojtek. I almost went, man. I was like this close, but it's like when Bob Clark

and the coaches called me like, hey, you want to go to this World Championships Ensemble in Serbia? And I was like, yeah, man, I have not trained in eight months. You know, I don't know about you, but I have not been training. You know, we locked everything down. Dojo has been closed. I was like, I, man, I have not trained in eight months. You know, I don't know about you, but I have not been training.

You know, we locked everything down. Dojo has been closed. I was like, I'm going to go. And, you know, the last time I fought in the World's Ensemble, I got Russia first round. You know, the guy killed me. He was a world champion. He was a six-time world champion.

In 90 kilos, correct? Yeah, yeah, he was a killer. But I remember you made a good match. Yeah, I think I was like I lasted longer than everyone else he killed everybody but then i fought a guy from kyrgyzstan or something and then i was so confident i was like ah you know what i'm gonna go out there and throw him and then he freaking threw me because he was a judo champ too all right i looked him up online he was like a top 20 judoka in the world i I'm like, geez, I wish I would have known that. Then I wouldn't have came up standing upright trying to do judo.

Yeah, even because a lot of guys from those countries, they made both. They made judo and sambo so for example my my final for bronze medal now in serbia i won with the the world the former world champion donald and sue donald and sue in judo is like may top 20 in the world ranking in judo too so i bet he's yeah i bet he's good you know, IJF used to say if you do judo internationally, you can't compete in anything else. Is that still a rule?

Yes. Some judokas were, let's say, get some penalties, but I think not directly from IJF, I think from the National Judo Federation.

Because I see some people do both and some people stop. But anyway, if you could come now to play in a samba competition, you would say, wow. It's incredible. Because the average level, because the high level always was high level. But now the average level is high. It's not like judo, okay?

But it's high. It's like, okay, now it's hard to find easy matches. It's hard. You know what? Also, the production quality of the tournament was amazing,

right? Like, beautiful layout, the mats, and then the, everything about it was super professional. I think they're really

trying to make a push for it, right? FIAS? You know, I would love to see it. Yeah. They got that oil money,

right? They got the, what is it? Gazprom? the Russian money. Russian, Kazakhstan money. When you compete in those countries, the sport hall are full. It's like 3,000 people. It's crazy.

Last year, European Games were in Minsk, in Belarus. Yeah. Yeah. Sambo sport hall was full like this. It was like 4,000 people. The day after, we went to see judo. Judo was okay, but Sambo was like crazy. People, when you walk through the cities the cities people it's like oh you do

sambo get a photo you say okay they're crazy man i'll tell you man i fought in that world championships was amazing because it's like when you're watching sambo it's like you could watch sports sambo and then you're watching combat sambo right like right next to each other i don't know if they still do that but it was amazing it. It's like, I'm watching some grappling. I'm watching them striking, you know, these two guys back in the, I don't know if you're allowed to do it, but this guy like pummeling, grabbing, they fricking headbutting, kneeing, and then throwing. It was insane. You know? Yeah. It was just crazy. I saw this guy literally just headbutt the guy and then knee him and then throw him. It was like, wow. And then I could go back to watch him grappling it was really cool man you know yeah but now they will split combat and

sport sambo yeah because um two years ago sambo got the olympic um olympic dignity So now they are making the next step is to get into the Olympic program. And the Olympic committee says, okay, but forget about combat. So I think they

will separate all competitions and they try maybe to make some professional leagues or something like that. I don't know. I wonder why they would do that because, you know, sports Sambo, it's like there's already judo in the Olympics.

There's already wrestling in the Olympics. There's no MMA in the Olympics, right? And then combat Sambo is like a close, you know, thing to MMA without it being like a full-blown fighting situation. Yeah. You know what I mean? I know I got you, but MMA is not recognized by the Olympic Committee. So there's no way.

Anyway, MMA is a professional sport and was born as professional. So, honestly, I don't think MMA shares Olympic values. You know what I mean? It's not like judo or wrestling. So, it's okay. True, true. You have your professional leagues and cool like this. So, what was it like competing at the Worlds this year

amidst COVID and all this stuff? Like, it must have been crazy, right? You know, when they did the judo tournament in the first judo tournament back on the IJF, the Italian team all tested positive, so they didn't let them compete. You know, did that, all that stuff, was it kind of stressful?

Or were you training this whole time? We had two anti-COVID tests before going there. Yeah. 48 hours before. Then we had our flight, but the Serbian airline closed it. So we got there by car, 12 hours by car. Wow. No, but it's okay because I was the first one to fight and I had two days.

So it's okay. No problem. Yeah. We were like in a... We were separated from the city because we were allowed to stay in the hotel and sport hall. Nothing more. So it was all really closed and it was strange. Not many countries, we were like 40, 45 countries, but high level because you know strong countries were there. Except for Georgia, Armenia, everybody was there.

So you have less matches, but strong. Because, you know, the draw was hard. Were you training this whole time, though? Were you training while COVID was happening? Were you still grappling? What do you mean? No, like working out, doing judo practices, ensemble practices while COVID was happening

or were the dojos shut down? We had some shut down, some open. But for example, the last two weeks before going there, they shut down gyms. So me and a teammate teammate we were preparing in my garage we got uh tatamis put in garage and trained there i had all weight lifting my weight lifting program from my coach and i had all stuff for training but it was something was something like that like rocky when uh he he goes to russia to fight yeah that's right yeah it's the same right you're italian you went

and compete in this sambo thing yeah in your garage you know no problem we're excited and we got it we got it yeah let me ask you a. Do you still do this thing, this thing, before you warm up? Oh, yes. Always. I just thought of that. I just thought of that. I don't know why I thought of that, but it's so funny. Always, always.

Yeah. So what's it like over there now? Are you training full-time, like everything back to normal, or do you train every day what is the professional i'm training every day uh we are allowed to make individual preparation so we can go to gyms but with distance we have to to respect this personal distances and we can do weight lifting and preparation. But if you have some

competition, you can do everything. So for example, in two partners, for example, me and my Sambo partner, we are allowed to make Sambo in the gym. But just you can take just your partner and you can change

so it's like um i don't know it's like that italian situation that you can do it but you have a lot of exceptions so you can do it yeah okay that's good yeah you say okay if you if you if uh rules allow us to make sambo we make sambo if but it's not it's not normal now covid is decreasing we because we get we had like a semi uh shutdown so but we are not out of it. Yeah. New York's going like this. We're always a little bit behind Italy when it comes to this. I know because you guys had the crazy uptrend situation that New York sort of followed. I remember talking to you in March like, yo, what's going on over there in Italy?

And then everything that happened over there happened over here. You guys got the lockdowns. New York is starting to lock down now. So, you know, it's kind of crazy. Hopefully, we don't have to lock down. You know, I don't want to lock down. You know, when are you coming back to New York to train? I would like to next year for sure.

Yeah, you got to bring your whole family though. Yes, I have. I'm waiting for my wife to get an Italian citizenship so it would be easy to go there because she's Mexican and she needs some visas and a lot of checks at US. Is she staying over there in Italy? Is she in Italy right now? Of course. Yeah, that's right. We are married. That's right. No, but for a long time you guys were in Italy.

She was in Mexico, no? No, not a long time. People think every person I meet says, where is your wife? Last time I checked, she was at home. But no, because I know for a long time you were not really. It was like maybe two months, three months, and then she came. She was pregnant, but not so much time. You know what it is? It's because you're always traveling.

That's why. Because you're always flying and competing, flying, competing. And, you know, when you're flying and competing, you never bring your significant other usually, right? So that's why it's like every time I see you in competition, your wife is not there. You know, like no one brings their wife to these things, right, because you're flying here, flying there, training camp here, training.

You know, so that's why, you know. Yeah, no, but it was fun because sometimes in – because I told you, in judo I just do national team competition. So people in judo don't see me so much yeah for several years they met me and says oh but you came from Mexico to to play in nationals it says not really I live here like five hours far from here but but you you're not leaving Mexico, no? Okay, I thought you were there with your wife, but many people, I don't know, say no, I'm here.

Do you go to Mexico a lot now? Excuse me? Do you go visit Mexico a lot? We go there every two years. Every two years we go there. We would more, but it's expensive. I mean, free. In Mexico? No, it's expensive to go there because it's like three round ticket. And then when you go there, of course, we go to my wife's janitors, but then you start to travel around. So even if you're paying in pesos, you are in free people. And then you start to travel around so even even if you're paying in pesos You are in free purse in three people and then you're straight

That's what happens when you have a family right it's like before back in the day It's like you buy one cheap ticket you go you sleep anywhere you want But now it's like you can't sleep anywhere you want you have to get a hotel or I don't know about what it is with Mexico but like you have to pay for three people, right? I don't know about what it is with Mexico, but you have to pay for three people, right? It's always three people. But no, it's more like tickets. Even because we can go there in August usually, and August is high season, so tickets are crazy.

Sometimes you spend like three tickets, like 4,000 euros. It's like like okay. And then even because even because we want to travel around the world so you can go there every year. Otherwise you will not have time and money for traveling

around. It's true. I'm sure a lot of our guys because I see some comments about money and judo and stuff like that and I know you had an interesting situation as a professional can you talk a little bit about being a professional

judoka in Italy what was that like in Italy sports like judo wrestling you know like poor sports don't have private clubs that pay you. So you can win, I would say, public concourse, I would say in English, public, you like, for example, police, a force or other military, military units,

they have their sport group. So they recruit you and send to their, to say to their sport group. For example, I was in police. They got me, They recruited me. But I wasn't a policeman. I was a judoka, fight for police. Okay? And I had my salary.

And then I got extra money from national team too. That's right. They do that in Canada too like if you're a top level a level guy you get x amount of dollars you know i think someone just said civil service or richard's always on with us thank you richard right can you see that yeah no it's not like it's not like civil service it's i can say it's like a public public um it's like in italy is like a public organization of sport it's like okay if you want to do this

kind of sports professionally nobody will pay you there will it's not like soccer. It's not NBA. Nobody will pay you. So how can we give you money? We recruit you in police. We recruit you in army. We recruit you in the Air Force. But we send them to a military sport group. So officially you are a policeman, but you just do your sport until you are until you are good of course a good

level otherwise they tell you okay you stop as sport man but you can stay and make your duty for example it was I chose when I switched from from judo to Sambo because I was I was stressed up and I wasn't happy about Italian judo to Sambo because I was stressed up and I wasn't happy about Italian judo situation, about national team and all this stuff and they say you know what I don't want this in my life so I had the chance to go to Sambo but Sambo nobody there are no like military sport group for Sambo so I said, okay, I will stay in police I will make my duty as policeman

and I will have time to train after, it's no problem and I'm happier now even if it's harder to to make a balance in my life I'm happier now because I do it just for myself.

It's not like, whoa, I have to do because military sport group, blah, blah, blah. No, I do Sambo. I fight because I love it because this is my essence. So it's okay. So what do you do like your day-to-day? What does your day look like from the time you wake up? Do you work out in the morning or do you just go to work right away? What does your day look like?

It depends. It depends. Sometimes I have maybe workout in the morning and then technical training like Sambo in the evening. So, for example, yesterday I woke up at 5.30 a.m. I had my workout. Then I went to make my duty. Well, yesterday it was like eight hours. Then I came back at home.

I played Identikit with my daughter and then I went to train again to the gym good that's how it's got to be right now you've always been an early riser you get up so early to train that's awesome then always been an early riser you know what it's like I have the fire I feel the fire so it's like I want to do it sometimes of course it's it's heavy to do it but yeah you know when you have routine you know because you were a high level athlete so you know when you have the fire you do everything do you know Bukor

Civitian? yeah what which weight class Civitian maybe they'll respond I'm taking questions from the audience now so your job is kind of your sponsor

yeah it was we can say something like that from the audience now. All right. So your job is kind of your sponsor. Yeah. It was. It was. We can say something like that. It was. But now, no. Now I'm a real policeman. Now you're a real policeman.

Before yet. When I was a judo professional, yes, we can say something like that. They do that in Japan too. Like you get hired by Toyota or one of these major corporations and you're on the judo team. And they know that you're not going to be able to put together an Excel

spreadsheet or do this or do financial model. They know you can't do that stuff, you know, coming out of college, just doing judo. So you fight for judo and then they pay you, you know, and it's kind of like that.

Right. Yeah. But in this case, in Italy is public is like police that pay you. And I think maybe Toyota, they pay more than the police. But anyway, it's not a bad salary. It's not a bad salary. Do they have like all the anti-defund the police stuff going on in Italy?

Excuse me? They have like the police brutality stuff and the anti-police stuff going on in Italy? No, not like, no. It's rare to hear about it. Sometimes we have a really bad situation last year that a guy died.

But no, it's rare. even because it's a very large to explain. But anyway, no, that's not brutality. You ever hear about what's happening in the united states oh of course we know yeah no it's crazy for us but you know because for us it's incredible that uh people have weapons you know it's really hard in Italy to have a weapon

for yourself so when you hear about everybody has a gun in their homes it's like it's crazy it's out of our mentality yeah Japan too Ivan Vasičuk

of course I know Ivan Vasičuk excuse me yes yes of course great even as it is the master of me bar I gotta look him up on YouTube and check it out yes yes I could a good website the C la par it's nice but no, anyway brutality in police is really rare even because you can get a lot of penalties hard penalties in Italy

you need a shotgun by the that's American for you American Texas you know go for world champion in the main yeah in judo Go for it He's a world champion in MMA Yeah

In judo There's always new people coming up for the ranks So it's like I can't even follow And keep track of all this stuff New names this, new champion that I don't know Maybe in USA not But in Italy everybody is MMA champion

Yeah Everybody He says you need a shotgun by the bed because you can't judo throw everyone I mean it's kind of true right you know what if we really start this this this topic i think will not finish even because we are in two different planets in this country so we will not conciliate and it's other reality in italy uh it's really nobody will think that nobody knows it's not like this because sometimes you hear people they say oh you know we have to make like

in America and everybody got a shot a gun if something happened you can defend yourself or you can defend people down the street and they say no the problem is everybody has a gun so everybody makes craps in the

street because everybody has a gun so everybody makes uh traps in the street because everybody has a gun so you but it's not too different but in italy gun laws are much more relaxed no gun laws in italy is very restricted really restricted really he must be thinking of Italian Americans that's probably because I'm a policeman I know what I say when I talk about Italy do the police officers have guns

in Italy? yes of course we have it depends by your duty you have a gun sometimes you have reef rifle I'll say yes rifle no yeah yeah right folder depends what you what you have to do yeah because we get you like in New York you're not allowed that you know New York City you know they're very strict you can't

really like have one I mean people do but, it's a weird, interesting topic. I mean, what time is it in Italy, by the way, over there? In Italy, it's 3 and 40 a.m. Man, dude, thank you for staying up late and doing this. Yeah, you're not tired? Not really because I went to sleep after training. I got pizza, and they say it's okay if I go to sleep because I will be on uh

shintaro higashi show yeah i mean this isn't the shintaro higashi show but it's like live streaming it's something i'm trying you know like uh talk about judo it's my favorite thing and i love judo so i want to talk about it i love samba i love all grappling martial arts. You know, so, yeah, we'll see. Hopefully this thing gets more popular. You're an open mind even because your father grew up, made you grow up with a lot of martial arts. Yeah, yeah, yep. That's very true.

And I love all the martial arts, you know. Yeah, I know. Look, Shintaro Higashi show on all podcast platforms. Go check it out, right? Yeah, I know. you have that over there for the podcast okay my friend i live in italy i don't live in kyrgyzstan sorry kyrgyzstan i love kyrgyzstan it's like i'm like i i have all modern stuff and tools but you know you never know like what kind of platforms right like you go to china about italy sometimes about italy ital, sometimes people ask me strange things about. But you make your pizza by yourself? No. You make your olive oil by yourself?

No. I go and buy at supermarket as everybody. Or once in Canada, a guy asked me, every Italian has a Ferrari? No. Why? Because Ferrari isian and you are italian it's not like this i mean you have a bear why because canada is full of bear and you're canadian so you should have yeah yeah it's funny the questions people ask and assume about you know right right how's the pizza over there by the way you said you made pizza tonight you made it or you

bought it no i'm not able to make pizza i have several several friends of mine they are able to make pizza but normally you go to pizzeria and buy one yeah is it true that the pizza in new york city is better than in italy every new yorker asked me i can tell you new york i can tell you i like it i like it new york pizza yeah it's different but i like it uh because normally i never i never try italian cuisine outside of italy never what you've had pizza with me in new York City, no? In New York City, yes, of course, because I like to get slight pizza. And even because it's like a tradition in New York, so it's like you live like New York. And I like it. Your pizza is okay.

But normally pizza is Italian cuisine when you go abroad. and then when you are out of your country is I think he enriched you to try local cuisine that's true yeah like chicken parmigiana it's amazing you ever have that in New York but not not so much it's okay pizza maybe next time we try parmigiana, but not sure we like it. I try. Yeah. This guy asked a question with the dojo challenger. This is from an earlier podcast that I did. So I was talking about, yeah, these guys come in and challenge you,

and then I was telling about this guy. I didn't really tell the full story. Part two, I don't know if you listened to the whole podcast, but I outweighed the guy a lot. And then, you know, yeah. I don't know what you want to know about it. Does that happen over there too in Italy? People come to your dojo and challenge you?

I like ancient Japan where people from different schools, they walk by. No, it's not like I want to challenge you it's like can I come to the dojo and train with us ok no problem and then you challenge because ok and our sensei is like ok a new club

is coming here you have to beat them all that's true ok no problem yes and say yes and you know you're also doing the thing like you're working out with somebody but you're looking out the corner of your eye like i wonder what that guy's doing right he's like oh he did tire i gotta watch out for that time oh he's right side i gotta watch out for that when i was when i was used to train with with in New York City, yes, honestly,

sometimes I felt myself like the first time like the challenger. So I was like, okay, I will beat them up. But anyway, my gym – no, it's not my gym. I mean, I'm not the owner. I'm just an athlete. It's close to Milan. Nice. It's close to Milan. Nice. Le Combe, right? Near Switzerland?

My original sensei, yes, but the club in which I train in the last 14 years is close to Milan. It's more like suburban area of Milan. 14 years is close to Milan it's more like suburban area of Milan

you know those kind of area when you leave your car you're not sure you will get there when you finish your training says okay another day with my car yes

go at home yeah that's amazing man it's like you work out judo you hang out and train and then you're a police officer it's a good life it's a good life amazing daughter right yes no i'm i feel me happy and I feel me blessed maybe I think like maybe I work well and life is paying me it's paying me back something like that when are you gonna retire for how old are you now

you're the same age right 44 34 34 yeah yeah all right man your fingers are messed up you got to get that checked out let me see your hands yeah yeah you got some crazy judo hands mine are not as bad mine not that bad not really but i have even um mma fracture so yeah okay it's nice because every every scar remember some fights and something yeah i don't know about the jiu-jitsu judo judo judo clubs in italy is full of it's full of judo club even brazil jiu-jitsu now you can train everywhere yeah yeah brazil jiu-Jitsu is pretty commercial, so you can find it everywhere.

Yeah. Even because right now, even people, they have a gym, but they don't do martial arts. They put maybe a BJJ course because people go there. Yeah. What is this? What does that mean? Buona sera. Buona sera. You write half in Italian and half in spanish but it's okay buona sera means good evening good evening oh interesting yeah good stuff any

other questions in america no in italian america i love italian americas because when they meet italians like who i remember my my grandfather when I was a kid, he used to say something like, and they start to try to say, like, manage, manage, mamma mia, maro, maro. Yeah. You ever watch The Sopranos? Yes, not all the seasons, but. Not all the seasons, man. It's a great show.

You got to watch it. It was a great show, but I was a kid, and it was like midnight, and I was like 14 years old. So in a moment, I was tired. But I promised to myself that I will get all season and watch it. You got to do it.

It's an amazing show, man. Yeah, I know, I know. It is. It's unbelievably entertaining. It is. It's kind of exactly like that, right? In Italy over the New Jersey Italians and the Italian Italians.

Very similar culture. Italian-Italian-American? No. No, my friend. That's what I hear. No, because I mean, Italian Americans of like

maybe second, third or fourth generation Yeah. They lost their heritage. Or maybe it's hard to even because Italian culture to get Italian culture

you have to speak the language and dialects. So if you don't have this kind of root, it's hard to understand Italian. For example, when I meet all the Italian-Americans, maybe their fathers, their fathers and mothers were Italian, and they were used to not speak Italian. They were used to speak dialects. So sometimes they start to speak to me, but maybe they speak Napolitan dialect, Sicilian, or other kind of dialects. They say, this is not standard Italian. What do you mean?

This is a dialect, but I know you think you are speaking Italian. Because Italians that emigrated, they were poor people, so they have like, how can I say, they have like a popular, a rich popular culture, but they weren't able to speak standard Italian. So it's nice because all of these old people, they speak their dialects. And it's like, if you go to,

uh, uh, Naples center of the, of Naples, it says, wow, I'm in New York. And this old man is speaking Napolitan.

I can, I can understand anything, but it's nice. It's so funny, man. You say that because, you know, before I met you,

my Italian thing was like you remember my friend terry yeah that's right i was talking about terry with valter like five or six days ago we all remember terry he's crazy guy yeah he's super super new york italian american back he's a little different now you You know, it's been 10 years. But, like, back in the day, he was like, oh, bro, you know, I'm freaking Italian. You know, I'm from Jersey, Staten Island. You know, he had the headband with the Nike, with the guinea tea, with the gold chain. You know, he was like, ah, I'm from freaking New York.

And then, like, I thought that was Italian because I never met anyone from Italy. You know what I mean? And then when I met you right and then Terry would be like we'll go get the mozzarella and then you used to be like we don't say it like that and Terry's like trying to teach you how to say it in Italian and you were like bro I'm from Italy yes I remember but I remember that Terry that time those, he was drunk most of the time. We had so much fun with Terry, so much fun. I have good memories with him, good guy.

But he's half Irish. So he says, oh, I'm Italian, Italian-American. No, you look Irish. You are redhead. Yeah, that's right. You don't look Irish. You are red redhead. Yeah, that's right. You don't look Italian. I know. Pizza mozzarella. Okay, Terry. Mozzarella. Yeah.

He used to say, what did he say? Mozzarella? Mozzarella. Mozzarella. Yeah, yeah. He used to say, he used to call it mozzarella. Mozzarella. He's like, that's how everybody says it in Italy. And then you were like, no, that's not how you say it, right? It's just so funny. Yeah, but it depends when you go to Italy because I told you there are a lot of dialects.

So accents change so much in Italy, so much. But it's funny. When you meet people, they try to imitate Italian. Even in Mexico, when I go there with my wife, and they start to, like, they have, like, jokes about Italian, and they start to speak like this, but in Spanish. And it's okay. We're not like this, but maybe we move a lot our hands.

This is true. Yeah, yeah. That is true. Yeah, yeah. That is true. That is true. You do. Yeah. No, it's nice. How about this one?

Italian shampoo commercial. How about this? See this? You like that? Yes, of course. Oh, my God. I should. But there was a time you had your long hair.

Yeah. You know, it was kind of getting too much. I cut short. My mom cut my hair this time because, you know, COVID and everything. Oh, yes, of course. My wife. Yeah, I told my parents. I was like, oh, I'm going to talk to Mattia today.

And they were like, oh, shoot, say hi. So they remember you. You know, I fought to your father much time you know when you think about your wife your life and good memories i always remember your father and without with i don't know so much respect and uh and and love for him because he's like a real Japanese person and I don't know I feel he's

he's a man with integrity you know yeah yeah he's an OG you know done judo his whole life and that's all he does and then you came and doing judo and throwing down and he loved it you know what i mean it's like such a cool thing you know like there's a lot of mutual respect you know when you are a

grappler because dude grappling is tough you know it man it's freaking hard right so when you know someone that's a lifelong grappler like me and you and you know my dad it's like you know walter it's like oh yeah you know like there's a different level of respect you know, my dad, it's like, you know, Walter, it's like, oh, yeah, you know, like there's a different level of respect. You know, when someone I talk to now and I meet someone and they don't do any grappling, I'm kind of like, they don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They don't know, you know. You ever see Harry Potter? I read all books and watched all movies.

You know, they talk about muggles being like you know no magic just regular people that's how i view regular people i just we call them like normies almost you know i think they'll pop a little point that term it's like man that guy you don't grapple he can't grapple you know like and i know that's very uh discriminatory but there's a whole nother level of respect i have for the people that are in our world you know you wrestle, all in your life is easy. That's very true, man. When you practice like us and you get over your limit, you have a different discipline.

I can see it. Maybe not like me. Maybe like you. I don't know if I belong in that category because I don't train as hard. I'm heavier too. Heavier weights are different, man. Heavy weights don't train like that. The middle weights have it the hardest.

Maybe. Middle weights have it the hardest. But you have your slim title time. You were like 81 maybe. They told me. I saw some photos. Yeah, yeah. I fought 81.

That was horrible. Getting down to that weight, you know, tough, weight cutting. It's amazing that you're 34 and you're still out there grappling. You know, it's amazing. You know, I just – sometimes I feel alone like, whoa, old people my age retire or they they retire and even people younger than me they retire yeah then i say i ask myself why what i'm doing i say because i love it i'm still there when i trained i put all my efforts and my sacrifice like before.

So I say until we have this kind of mentality and discipline, I will fight. And even if my body is injured, but I feel me, how to say, firm. Not firm. I'm 100% in my sport career. I mean, 100%, yes, with my job, but percent in my career. And you know what? I got my bronze medal right now. I beat the former world champion.

I have something more to say. That's a huge accolade, man. Massive, massive congratulations to you, man. I know you worked hard this whole time. I'll put that Mattia Gabbiati Sambo thing for you. And you deserve it, man. You absolutely deserve it. And I was very happy to see you. I was actually very ensemble thing for you. And you deserve it, man. You know, you absolutely deserve it. And I was very happy to see you.

I was actually very happy to see you. You know, I was going to go, but I decided not to go last second. But, man, when I saw that result, I was very, very, very happy for you. Thank you. Thank you, my friend. I miss you all. I miss you all. I miss you.

I miss you, Andy. I miss your father, your cousins cousins and adam clapper everybody everybody i just saw adam yesterday i just saw him yesterday i'll tell him you said hi tell him you said he got a lot better sometimes i wrote please say hello to uh andy because andy is not anywhere he's not on instagram he's not on no yeah he's not on Facebook. No, yeah. He's a ghost. He's a ghost. He's a ghost. Yeah. And I hope he still has the same spirit.

Definitely. Same guy. So funny guy. Same guy. Really funny guy. Yeah. But anyway, man, if you're ever in New York again, you have a home. Everybody knows you.

And the same crop of people are still training here. So, yeah, very exciting. And I would love to see you and Anthony go a couple of rounds of Tachibaza. You know, we're going to have to do one round, you know, Sambo rules, one round Judo rules because, you know. One round MMA, whatever. Yeah. I tried everything.

So, I'm ready for everything. No, it's cool. One more thing before we go. I want to answer this question. Can you elaborate on your training condition? It's like a really long question. Can you elaborate on your training conditioning region? I have a personal trainer about conditioning

and he's a wrestler too so he knows what it fits for me even because he knows my physical condition so he puts me in the right exercises but it's really

long to answer this question even because it's pretty technical. Yeah. Well, you train hard. You train hard. I train hard. Train every day, you know. Train every day, work every day, study every day,

because I subscribe again at university, so I'm getting another university degree. Congratulations. Yeah, do it up. What are you going to do after you retire? I don't know. I'm still young. We'll see.

Yeah, very young. I will coach even because national team last year put me as one of national coach of under 18 and under 20 sample team so for example I was the head coach of Italian

national team for junior European championship so they started to put me a little bit in technical spots. But we'll see anyway. Don't know. Really don't know.

Maybe we'll move. Maybe we'll move to the United States. Maybe also. That's an option? It's an option. It's an option for my wife too. Even because about combat sports, United States, you have a lot of chances to create your path.

In Italy, it's harder, but sometimes I feel it's not the way I want. What does your wife do? Still really don't know. I would like to coach high-level athletes. I would like to coach high-level athletes. Otherwise, for example, I love what

Seth Lager is doing in Albuquerque. Okay. Oh, yeahque oh yeah yeah yeah Harry Harry or for example were you doing your dojo with Gary would be would be a good solution

we'll see anyway what does your wife do? my wife? She's vice director of a big restaurant close to our place.

Nice. Good stuff. Good stuff even because she worked hard. She started as a waitress and then step up. Nice. Good stuff. You know like even immigrant history she came from Mexico yeah yeah well there's restaurant New York and then there's dojos in New York so maybe I convince you to come out she's full of talents good she just needs a little bit of discipline, but she's a really talented person.

She's going to see this though, man. I always, because you are Mexican, you have no discipline every time. Whoa! I spend half of my time to make Russian jokes about Mexico every year, every second. With my wife's genitals, with all our Mexican family there. No way! You can understand. I should take a video when I'm there in Mexico and start to make my jokes. No, but really, I love Mexico.

I'm getting my Mexican citizenship and not really. I feel me half Italian, half Mexican, but it's nice to make even because Italian, we Mexican, but it's nice to make, even because Italian, we really have a black humor. For example, now in the United States, you have a lot of problems about, you know,

black and feminism. But in Italy, maybe we have not this kind of problem or not so hard, but we have really bad jokes about everybody and about ourselves about everybody so it's our way to maybe exercise um social problems you know so it's like yeah if you joke and you make it easier maybe with oh but it's funny and Mexico whatever Mexico wife is is cool because it's like a life full of colors very true which question this guy

he wants me to ask you a question which question buddy Let's ask it again. Let's see. Let's see. Yeah, man. Yeah, that was pretty funny. Okay. She's going to be mad at you, man, tomorrow. You're going to be in trouble.

No problem. It's like a Shintaro. Shintaro show is like Kimmel kimmel you know jimmy kimmel show it's like you can talk about everything oh man you really can't talk about anything in new york now man it's like if you you get canceled now cancel culture is real now in the united states you People get in trouble. I know, I know. Hard times for expressing yourself. For us old dogs who are used to saying whatever we want, right? Because I'm 35. We're from that generation of no Facebook, no Instagram. You can say whatever you want.

No one knows it. I think we are maybe the last generation of you can say shit about people but in a moment you will face it yeah now it's like Shintaro and a cunt what does that mean? Rosa means red. Nelle means in the. Donna is woman. Contura. Maybe cintura, belt.

Red belt in a woman. But contura doesn't mean anything maybe cintura with eye but like this I can help you Angelo beat her every day oh my god Jesus Christ even because she beat me Oh my God, Jesus Christ.

No. Even because she beat me. And she's really strong. No, no. When I talk about discipline, I mean, like, if you have a goal, you have to make all necessary steps to get the goal. It's not like, I want the goal, but I want to make the sacrifice before. It is discipline.

You want to win the Olympics, you have to make all steps. It's not like, you know what, today I will train 50%. No, it's not this. It's not like, oof, this is the final match. I'm spoiled. I can't fight. Okay, silver medal is okay. No, it's not like, oof, this is the final match. I'm spoiled. I can't fight. Okay, silver medal is okay.

No, it's not okay. Because it's not like because you won silver medal. It's because you are losing gold medal in your mind. So this is discipline. I don't know what people understood now for discipline, but this is what I mean. For my wife, sometimes needs more discipline is this because she has good projects but it's like okay and i have to do this effort these things and then she stopped there um yeah before to start but she has a lot of talents this is what says wife wife you need discipline if you have made

oh my god jesus i hear you man though it's like when you're doing grappling you know that's sort of that's the way you know what i mean it's like you have to do everything you can to compete and you train and you eat right and you sleep right and you do your nutrition because when you go out there you know that other guy who's your grappling did that right so it's like in the back of your mind like oh man i didn't fully prepare and that affects you mentally when you're performing you know so you have to have that kind of a mindset when you're grappling and you know training for stuff i think you know so you're absolutely right about that i don't know about some of the other stuff that you said that kind of made me a little uncomfortable but it's okay i uncomfortable but i know it's a delicate situation over there

but you know to you have to smile sometimes to get easier otherwise we will be um we will be um how to say pressed down by this uh new society we will be oppressed. We will be oppressed. We don't want to be oppressed. Not oppressed, but our, because we put too many categories, social categories. We don't look at the individual. It says, oh, okay, you are white.

I don't know, homosexual and Catholic. Okay, but I like to paint and those stuffs. I'm Matteo Galbiati, it's not like I'm white. For example, now people says you are white and Italian says, what do you mean I'm white? Because I'm Italian. We never thought about ourselves as white people

and now people say society tell us you are white and you have to accept it no, why? it's not like this it's a skin color I can't understand what do you mean it's white, it's black, it doesn't matter

yeah should you start judo? Yes. You have to or beat you. We will find you and beat you, Oliver. Oh, man, here's another good one. Does Italy put equal focus on relaxing and rest as much as training and discipline? Yeah, Italians love wine, right, and pizza and pasta.

So, yes. Pizza, pasta, aperitivo, of course. We put a lot of relaxing time. If you come here, you will have your good time. Yeah. And even because, you know, Italians, I don't know. It's really hard to define Italians because, I don't know. We are like, you know, when I'm in New York,

every time I do something and people say, they don't understand me, say, oh, sorry, I'm Italian. And people say, oh, okay, okay. And my friend in New York once says hey every time you do something and people don't understand or tell you something you say sorry i'm italian it's like you know it's like a disease when you have oh i'm italian oh poor you are italian and since when no i was born Italian oh poor guy you Italian it's like this that's funny man Jesus well I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation

Mattia thank you me too I'll talk to you soon you know great seeing your face it's been too long me too it's nice to see you even because age you don't have age. You were like this.

Yeah. Just the lighting. Please say hello to your parents. I will. I will do that. Big, big, big,

big greetings to your family. Big greetings. We'll do. Thank you guys for watching. And then, uh, yeah. Comment down below.

If you guys have any questions. And I'm sure Matteo will get to them one day, right? Of course. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Shintaro. Have a good day or a good evening. Ciao. All right.

Ciao.