JRE MMA Show #162 with Belal Muhammad

[0] Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

[1] The Joe Rogan Experience.

[2] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

[3] All right, what's up?

[4] Good to see you, man. Good to see you, brother.

[5] I appreciate you, man. The champ is here.

[6] Everybody has to shut the fuck up now.

[7] That's the best part right now is now I could just talk as much as possible, and they can't say nothing.

[8] They can't say nothing.

[9] There was so many doubters, so many naysayers, so many people did want you to get that title shot.

[10] It was so unfair, dude.

[11] It was really wild.

[12] It was wild to see.

[13] It really was.

[14] Because I'm like, are you guys not watching his fights?

[15] Like, what the fuck are you guys seeing?

[16] I do not understand when people don't appreciate excellence.

[17] I really don't get it.

[18] I never, like the Sean Brady fight, you see that fight.

[19] You don't think this dude is a fucking problem for everybody.

[20] You see the Wonderboy fights, see all your fights.

[21] And all of them, they've been different, right?

[22] Yeah.

[23] With the Sean Brady, all I did was stand up.

[24] I didn't shoot one take down on him.

[25] Gilbert Burns.

[26] I didn't shoot one takedown.

[27] Wonderboy, I took him down.

[28] Obviously, I'm not going to strike with a kickboxer.

[29] So I've showed you guys all forms of martial arts.

[30] Yeah.

[31] People still hated.

[32] They're like, they're still hating.

[33] So crazy.

[34] Even with the Leon fight, so even for this fight.

[35] I was like, bro.

[36] Leon Fy, I think they have to shut the fuck up.

[37] I think everybody has to shut the fuck up and just recognize what you did.

[38] Because you put so much pressure on him standing up.

[39] You were in his face from the very first second of the very first round.

[40] You just advanced.

[41] And you could tell he wanted that space.

[42] And you could tell it was a different experience than what he thought he was going to get from you.

[43] Yeah.

[44] I mean, when we saw him against Kobe and him against Usmanda, the third fight, we saw that he's an expert at distance.

[45] He manages the distance.

[46] he puts it at his own pace.

[47] So we were like, bro, we got to make this the dirtiest fight, the hardest fight for him.

[48] So we got to step right away.

[49] So even when the ref was like looking to me, telling me to back up, when he looked at Leon and say, you ready, you ready?

[50] I'm walking for it right away.

[51] So I'm right in his face before he even looks up.

[52] So I was like, I got to get him on his back foot right away, make him uncomfortable.

[53] And I knew he's not good uncomfortable.

[54] No strikers really good moving backwards.

[55] Right.

[56] But I knew Leon specifically, I don't want to be in his kick range.

[57] I don't want him at his slow pace.

[58] like he did against Kobe and these guys where he kicks, moves, kicks, moves.

[59] I'm like, I'm going to be in his face nonstop, punching him in his mouth, and taking him down whenever I see an opening.

[60] The Kobe fight, I thought, was going to be different.

[61] I think Kobe broke his foot real early in that fight.

[62] I mean, I think Kobe sucks, but for me, I think that Kobe wasn't, he's just not a good striker.

[63] Even with the fights that we see that he was really good at, it was just because he put a good pace on all these guys.

[64] And he dictated the pace with RDA and Robbie Lawler, all these guys, but none of those guys really had that type of cardio.

[65] When we saw him against Usman, Usman showed you, all right, he could keep up that pace with Kobe, and then Kobe can't take him down, so it ended up being like a kickboxing match.

[66] For Leon, he knew if he dictated a pace with Kobe, Kobe wasn't going to be able to do anything to him.

[67] And I don't think the time off, I think hurt Kobe's distance management because his shot takedowns were terrible in that fight.

[68] Like, he didn't, he wasn't managing it.

[69] He was just shooting at.

[70] If he's telling the truth, though, I think the foot had a big.

[71] factor because I think he broke his foot I think Leon checked a kick real early on or he kicked low and hit the shin and broke his foot hit the knee something I don't I don't remember exactly what happened but apparently in the first round he broke his foot that you know if you can't move against Leon you're in real trouble yeah I mean especially because Leon's so good at his lateral movement yeah and his kicks hurt so hard yeah so for me I was like I can't be in kicking range at all I think I felt like one one body kick early and I was like all right let me step forward on it.

[72] So even with my mindset the whole camp, I probably took 2 to 3 ,000 body kicks and then move forward on each of them.

[73] And if I backed up at all, my coach is yelling on me. Look what you did here.

[74] You did this wrong.

[75] Move forward.

[76] Move forward.

[77] We can't take one step back.

[78] So I was like, I was writing it down.

[79] I was putting it in my head, do not take a step back.

[80] Do not take a step back.

[81] And then it just came out in the fight.

[82] It came out perfect.

[83] It was a master plan.

[84] It really was.

[85] Watching you executed, I was, I was just so, I was so shocked first of all's inability to deal you on the feet because even if it was just a kickboxing match you were you were there was so much pressure and so much volume of strikes you were constantly on them your boxing was so on point man it would look better than it's ever looked yeah i think people just underestimate me when they look at me because they say oh he doesn't have a bunch of knockouts but when you look at my fights and you see the way i pieced up a lot of these you know big names like gilbert and uh sean brady i beat them both on the feet and for for the Leon fight, my gym is small, but we have, I work with, I think, who's the best striker in the UFC right now?

[86] He's a 55, Ignacio Baumundez.

[87] Like, this kid is a monster.

[88] He probably has like, monster.

[89] You saw, yeah, his spinning heel kick knockout.

[90] I'm like, I'm sparring with this dude every single day.

[91] So I'm like, nothing that Leon was going to throw at me was going to surprise me. Nothing was going to make me uncomfortable.

[92] And for me, if you're beating me up, I want to, I want to keep going to you.

[93] So for Nacho, I'm like, bro, throw the kitchen sink at me. I want to, I want you to throw everything you have in your tool bag I mean so whatever Leon throws I'm just going to be comfortable in that fire yeah so for me it was just non -stop non -stop sparring sparring even if it's not hard sparring light sparring just enough to see everything and had my reaction time and I think that helps a lot with the way I've been funny lately how much time did you have to prepare for Leon I had about eight weeks did they did you kind of have an inkling that it was going to happen before that like had you been preparing mentally before that thinking that was the hardest part right the lead up because it was after beating Gilbert they were like you're guaranteed next and then you're like when is it happening they're like well Kobe has to fight first so then I'm sitting there and playing the waiting game and then they offered me Usman they're like well you know if you don't want to wait we can give you Usman so we were at talks with Usman and then Usman ended up fighting Hamza on short notice so then I was like all right well there's nothing else they put in front of me it's going to be me against the winner of Kobe and Leon then that fight happens and then Leon's trying to brush it off like no there's still other guys I could look at and see who's next.

[94] And he even brought up Gilbert Burns.

[95] And I'm like, bro, I just beat Gilbert Burns.

[96] So I'm sitting there in limbo, like, what's happening?

[97] I'm calling my manager every day.

[98] And Ali, he's my manager.

[99] And he's like, bro, trust me, Dana's not going to go against his word.

[100] He's going to give you the shot.

[101] He's going to give you the shot.

[102] And then all of a sudden, 300 comes up.

[103] And I'm like, oh, so we're probably going to be 300.

[104] And then they say, oh, they offered the fight to three other guys.

[105] And I was one of those guys.

[106] So then, like, I'm sitting there like, bro, wait, no way, am I about to get screwed right now?

[107] Are they going to give it to somebody else?

[108] Did you ask, like, why didn't I get the fight at 300?

[109] If they were trying to get Leon to fight at 300, why didn't you get that title shot?

[110] For me, it was just, I put it out there.

[111] I said if they really wanted Leon to fight there, they would have put me on there because I said yes.

[112] You know, they asked, they said they asked Shavka, they said they asked Hamza, and they all said no because of Ramadan, but I fought multiple times during Ramadan.

[113] So for me, I'm like, if they really wanted Leon, they could have had them with me. But I think they just wanted to have that shock fact.

[114] like they're with 300, where it's like, oh, double champ status for Islam.

[115] Right, right, right.

[116] That's obviously a huge star.

[117] He comes back down.

[118] So I think they just wanted that.

[119] And Leah's not a promoter.

[120] He doesn't really promote his fights in general.

[121] Obviously, he's a great fighter.

[122] But for 300, I think they want somebody that's going to try to push the event.

[123] Yeah, but still.

[124] Yeah.

[125] The rules of the rules.

[126] You know, a guy makes it to the top of the heap.

[127] He's supposed to be next in line for a title shot.

[128] Yeah.

[129] I mean, for me, I'm like, what else do I got to do?

[130] All the purists felt that way.

[131] I didn't see anybody who's like a real solid MMA fan who felt that was a lot of the casuals.

[132] A lot of the casuals jumping in with their goofy opinions on things.

[133] But that's the age we live in, right?

[134] The trolleys.

[135] Nobody has a profile picture.

[136] They just say the dumbest stuff.

[137] Well, not only that, you have a dispropo -look.

[138] The reality of the numbers is, I had a joke in my act, that 90 % of all Twitter is done by 10 % of the people, and those people are 100 % retarded.

[139] But it really almost is that, that's, I mean, it's a joke, but it's kind of almost true because are you commenting on shit all the time?

[140] Do you go to someone's YouTube videos and talk shit?

[141] No, no. You're busy.

[142] You're busy being the fucking welterweight champion of the world.

[143] You ain't got out of time for that.

[144] So the people that have time to be doing that all the time are, unfortunately, generally not doing that good.

[145] They're not, Michael Jordan's not leaving YouTube comments.

[146] You know what I'm saying?

[147] It's like the people that are engaged in these attacks on specific fighters, in particular, they're usually just dorks.

[148] And I get it these dorks by pay -per -view, and I get it these dorks.

[149] But they're not most people.

[150] Most people want to see the best people fight the best people.

[151] And would it be exciting to see Islam go up and try to win at 170?

[152] Fuck, yeah, it would be.

[153] I'd be all in for that fight.

[154] Unfortunately, for you, I mean, it sounds great.

[155] But if I was running things, I'd be like, the fights are going to be fucking great anyway.

[156] It's UFC 300.

[157] Everyone's going to be super hyped up.

[158] There's so much on the line.

[159] And it's a crazy fucking card.

[160] That's a great fight.

[161] It's a great fight.

[162] Yeah.

[163] And it's two guys that are on 10 fight win his streaks.

[164] Yeah.

[165] So, I mean.

[166] But how weird was it to have to do the fight at like 5 in the morning?

[167] Oh, my God.

[168] Explain.

[169] So let's explain that to people who don't know.

[170] The UFC that was done in England was done on American pay -per -view time.

[171] So the card had to start.

[172] What did it start?

[173] Like 1 a .m.?

[174] Yeah, it started.

[175] Yeah, the first fight was 1 a .m. First fight of the night.

[176] One -A.

[177] undercard, UFC fight pass, first fight of the night.

[178] That's crazy.

[179] That's so crazy.

[180] As if we can't watch it earlier in the day.

[181] As if UFC fans on a fucking Saturday are going to say, oh, the pay -per -view starts at noon.

[182] Okay.

[183] We watch football games at noon.

[184] We wouldn't watch world title fights at noon.

[185] Making you guys fight at five in the morning to me was bananas.

[186] I was like, that is so contrary to anything.

[187] you would want from optimum physical performance.

[188] Yeah, it was wild.

[189] Like, we got down there the week before on Saturday, and, you know, we're trying, we found a gym, so we were like, let's start trying to work out at 4 a .m., because being the main event, they said it would probably be on around, like, 5, 5 .30.

[190] So the hardest part was just trying to stay up from midnight to 4 a .m. to go to drive to this gym.

[191] And, you know, we had like a big house, so we had a bunch of people with us, but one person yawns, and it's, like, addictive.

[192] And it's like, bro, it's midnight.

[193] We're all just, like, watching Netflix.

[194] And then we, like, we didn't have no games or anything.

[195] So we're just, like, trying to watch movies.

[196] Wow.

[197] And then one guy yawns, you're like, I'm going to go upstairs by myself for a second.

[198] And then just, like, the P .I. is really good because they gave us, like, some jet leg, like, glasses that shine light in your eyes that you're supposed to turn on at, right when the sunset.

[199] Because when the sunsets, you start getting melatonin in your body and makes you want to go to sleep.

[200] So they're, like, put this on when the sun sets.

[201] So it, like, shocks your body, making you think it's.

[202] It's about to be sunlight.

[203] Really?

[204] Oh, wow.

[205] So I'm walking around the house with like these glasses that are like shining light in my eyes.

[206] And it still was hard.

[207] We would jump to the gym.

[208] It's like, fuck you, bitch.

[209] It's three in the morning.

[210] We went to go work out.

[211] So I'm trying to get everybody to work out with me. So like we had maybe us five or six guys with us.

[212] And then the gym was at 30 minutes away.

[213] So by the time we finished working out at night, it was starting.

[214] The sun was rising because it was like 7 a .m. And I'm like, how?

[215] I'm about to fall asleep right now.

[216] So I would like take melatonin, fight week.

[217] And then it would wake me up at like 2 p .m. And I would still be at groggy the rest of the day.

[218] And then you have to do like interviews and stuff like that.

[219] It was hard.

[220] So did you try to stay on Chicago time the whole thing?

[221] I tried, but it was still hard just because, like I said, that time in between where that board time.

[222] Right.

[223] Where we're like, all right, we got to work at at 4 a .m. And then, you know, during the day we had interviews.

[224] interviews and stuff starting at 3 p .m. They adjusted those times so then we would finish everything it would be like 7 p .m. How have they done London cards in the past?

[225] Did they do that in the past?

[226] They've done it once with I think it was busy against hendo twice.

[227] Uh, uh, Hendo 2.

[228] The second one?

[229] Yeah, the second one.

[230] But other than that, they would just do it and, uh, American time zone would be like daytime here.

[231] That's so crazy.

[232] But I think pay -per -view -wise, they expect more people to buy pay -per -views in prime time like 9 p .m. probably yeah yeah I guess but when they go to Abu Dhabi we still fight Abu Dhabi time night time yeah and then over here it's daytime yeah but I wonder if they see like a change of numbers with that and that made them adjust they probably do but whatever yeah that's my feelings whatever like we can't have people fight at five in the morning that's nonsense you can't have an audience there at five in the morning fucking exhausted for a world title fight exhausted can't believe you're still awake for me Yeah, I was like, I hope they are exhausted because I'm like, they're probably going to be booing me anyway, so I'm like, let them get drunk starting at midnight, let them be dead tired once it gets to that level.

[233] How many people were asleep in the audience?

[234] People started leaving early.

[235] It was like the fourth round, and I think I got the last take down and I was like finishing on top of him.

[236] They said people were leaving.

[237] Wow.

[238] And I was like, that's a good sign.

[239] So that just tells me that they know that there's nothing else he could really do.

[240] He had one big moment in the last round, right, when he got on time.

[241] Yeah, I still got it.

[242] right here and it's just like I just keep shaking my head every time I think of it but it just tells me that I still have stuff to fix still have stuff to work on and you can never get like too comfortable especially with him but yeah my coach is my coach is the type that are like tell me everything I did wrong after a fight instead of the stuff I did right so right away something now look at your face now look at you like you like you did that because you took your foot off the gas for one second and something could happen yeah who knows if there's a minute left what what could have happened or blah blah blah I'm like I want coach I'm the word I'm the real champion you chill out but he wants it to be perfect yeah that was uh it was interesting because it was you could see him uh using energy management you know you could see him trying to figure out when to just defend and when to try to break free and you know when to when to plan himself and fire shots and when to just stay stay on the back foot and keep moving like he tried to hold you off a few times but I think whatever you're doing for strength and conditioning your cardio was insane because the volume just of the sheer volume and pressure that you were putting on him and the fact that you keep that up solid five rounds yeah that was insane yeah i think every fighter's fear is to get tired in the cage every fighter's fear is to be in there and not be able to lift up your arms and you've seen it happen with a lot of guys big name guys where you'll see them give up a choke yeah and it'll be like he just lifted up his neck and maybe he was too tired no he just wanted to get out of there for me i had no fear And I know that I could go harder than any of these guys.

[243] And if I'm tired, I know he's going to be twice as tired.

[244] But I think a lot of it, like you said, is just, you know, the team I have around me. I do strength and conditioning with my boy Matt Murphy, but it's not anything outrageous, right?

[245] We're not doing that crazy new stuff that's coming out.

[246] We do heavy weights.

[247] And we do, like, the big muscles, like chest, lower back, and squats.

[248] But we put all this other stuff around it, like the cosmetic stuff, too.

[249] And we're lifting three days a week.

[250] What do you mean by cosmetic stuff?

[251] Like, say if I go heavy on my squat and then we'll still end up doing like lower back chest and like dumbbell with chest and everything on that day.

[252] But like on a heavy chest day, we're going like legs, lunges, like lesser weight.

[253] So we go heavy with like squats, chest and deadlifts one day a week for each of those.

[254] And then we still do full body stuff that same day, but just like lower the weights and higher reps. So you're essentially doing almost like, you.

[255] You're doing like power lifter work.

[256] You're doing bench press, like just power generating stuff.

[257] Yeah.

[258] Do you doing any pliometrics or any of that kind of stuff?

[259] I mean, I do a lot of swimming for like cardio -wise.

[260] And then people make it front of me a lot.

[261] Swimming is fucking hard.

[262] People don't know how to, yeah.

[263] People when I take them to the pool, like when I take a brand new fighter to the pool and if they never swam before, they get so tired.

[264] Yeah.

[265] And I tell them, bro, it's a full body workout.

[266] It's everything you need, especially for fighting.

[267] It's like one of the hardest things you could do.

[268] do especially if you're like built like you because you probably sink like a rock yeah it's hard to stay above water yeah like fat people they say swim is not hard right because you got a floaty on you literally swimming around with a floaty you could float yeah dense dudes just go right under you got a struggle to stay above water and i don't have like the best technique to doing it so i'll still like go there and i'm gonna go a mile and then i'll go and i'll take a little break go take a little break and like said you see like that fat person just going non -stop yeah you're looking at them like bro, I just want to like slap the man out.

[269] What am I doing wrong?

[270] They're cheating.

[271] Yeah.

[272] They're cheating.

[273] They got a human floatie on.

[274] But it's a hard.

[275] I remember Maurice Smith was the first guy that started using swimming for MMA.

[276] You know, Maurice Smith was training with Frank Shamrock when Frank Schamark was just a cardio machine.

[277] Frank, I think Frank Shamark was the first guy in the UFC that had like a full, complete arsenal of MMA weapons.

[278] He could stand.

[279] He could take guys down.

[280] He could strangle you.

[281] He could arm bar you.

[282] He could do everything.

[283] He could submit you.

[284] his back and Frank was just a cardio machine and when Maurice went from kickboxing and got into MMA he was doing a lot of training with Frank and they were real Maurice was super cardio focused yeah so that's like when he beat Mark Coleman he beat Mark Coleman because Mark Coleman got tired yeah and then Maurice defended off of his but and that's the old days bro when they had headbutt that was the headbutt days you know that's crazy and Maurice started tuning them up on the feet once more he's got up to his feet he was just leg kicking the shit out of him and he was talking to him saying come on mark ground me and pound me i thought you were going to ground me and pound me whack whack like he didn't take any crazy chances and you know so he didn't get taken down at the end but he won the heavyweight title it's funny how you say the headbut days i was i was i did an interview yesterday with the chicago news and then the lady's like she had no idea who i was i'm like you didn't do no research because she's like you're the champion of street fighting right oh boy i'm just like imagine that you you're literally the world champion And this person hasn't even done five minutes of research into sport you do.

[285] I was wild and I was like, people still think that.

[286] You should just start making shit up.

[287] Yeah, we mean in alleyways, you know, sunny vids.

[288] You've got to get it on the dark web.

[289] I fight with a roll of nickels in my hand.

[290] I don't give a fuck.

[291] I didn't realize there's still people out here that have that mindset.

[292] Well, there's people in the news that aren't even humans.

[293] They're just robots.

[294] They're like media robots.

[295] All they want to do is be on TV.

[296] They have no opinions, no person.

[297] Personality.

[298] Hi, I hear you're the champion of street fighting.

[299] I'm looking at the teleprompter.

[300] I'm like, I feel like that's all they do is just read the teleprompter.

[301] That's such that's so disrespectful to someone who has risen to the top of the greatest organization ever for combat sports.

[302] We all know that look, I'm a huge boxing fan.

[303] Boxing's amazing.

[304] I love boxing.

[305] But we all know if Francis Ngano and Tyson Fury had a fight fight, that shit would not last one round.

[306] Did not a chance in hell, if they had a fight fight, a real fight, like an MMA fight, boxing is a sport.

[307] MMA is the sport of fighting.

[308] It's the hardest fucking thing to do for an athlete.

[309] The hardest thing to do is what you did.

[310] Become the champion of the world in a tank filled with sharp.

[311] It's not saying that it's not if you were 170 -pound boxer.

[312] It'd be just as difficult.

[313] I'm not saying boxing's not hard to do.

[314] I'm not saying it's hard as fuck to be a Ryan Garcia.

[315] Hard as fuck to be a Javante Davis.

[316] Just the same mentality they have, they would have been world champions in MMA.

[317] But MMA is harder.

[318] It's harder.

[319] And it's more effective.

[320] It's the real sport of fighting.

[321] So for you to reach the pinnacle in the greatest combat sport ever, and this lady to go, you're the champion of street fighting.

[322] And you're on fucking TV.

[323] That's so great.

[324] Why can they bring it an expert?

[325] There's so many people who could have interviewed you.

[326] I was like, yeah, don't you guys have a sportscaster or somebody that's going to interview me?

[327] Call in Ariel Helwani.

[328] Call in somebody.

[329] There's somebody out there that can do this.

[330] This is crazy.

[331] Or do one little second of research.

[332] Yes.

[333] Oh, the UFC.

[334] Yeah, but even then.

[335] They're going to be asking you stupid -ass questions.

[336] You should have someone who knows what the fuck they're talking about.

[337] They have to have a sports guy.

[338] Don't they have a sports guy?

[339] The sports guy's got to know.

[340] They did.

[341] And that's what I was like, why am I getting it with these two?

[342] And she was like, so you do boxing then too?

[343] And I'm like, well, boxing is a part of it.

[344] It's a mixed martial arts.

[345] A lot of thumb wrestling.

[346] Yeah.

[347] That's a real important part of my game added.

[348] We do power slap, yeah.

[349] I'm the champion of that and it's wild.

[350] I have the most powder on my hand when I slap.

[351] The whole, it's just, it's just disrespectful, you know, it's just a bummer that people don't get it yet.

[352] Yeah.

[353] It's like, so many people, way more people get it now than never got it before.

[354] You know, when I first started doing commentary for the UFC was in 97, when I first started doing backstage interviews.

[355] And people were acting like, I was doing porn.

[356] They were like, what are you doing?

[357] Like, why are you doing that?

[358] Are you crazy?

[359] I go, I love it.

[360] It's great.

[361] What the fuck are you talking about?

[362] Yeah, it was like being involved in that was bad for your career.

[363] That's wild.

[364] Yeah, Dana and I have talked about so many times.

[365] Like, people would tell people that he bought the UFC and they'd be like, what the fuck are you doing?

[366] I'm like, God.

[367] That's terrible.

[368] Meanwhile, everybody watched it now.

[369] Yeah, it's going to be up there bigger than, I think, all the other sports.

[370] It'll be bigger than everything but football in America.

[371] Yeah.

[372] You're never going to beat football.

[373] You can't be.

[374] football yeah you're seeing this next younger generation it's just wild how they're coming up like kids are starting my boy nacho ignacio his his brother's 15 years old and he's already 5 and oh pro i'm like i'm like bro you're starting this young 15 yeah and you're crazy i'm like that's wild fighting pro at 50s nuts that's nuts you're fighting pro men at 15 yeah his next fight is for a title against like a 30 year old and i'm just like oh my god that's so great where's this happening it's in uh Columbia yeah That's what I'm thinking.

[375] You go wild down there, boy.

[376] They don't have any fucking rules.

[377] That's funny.

[378] You can fight a 15.

[379] But imagine when he gets to his 20s, the experience he's going to have.

[380] Oh, yeah.

[381] And then if one of these younger guys now that only fought locally in Chicago or something, they see him.

[382] He's going to look at them like, okay, let me show you what I do.

[383] Do you think there's something to be said for not jumping in too quick?

[384] Because I feel like there's some fighters that they just got rushed.

[385] And they weren't really prepared for an elite fighter, and they got tuned up, and they were kind of never the same again.

[386] I think there's been a few guys like that that I think had real potential, but someone rushed them into a top 10 situation way too quick.

[387] Yeah, 100%.

[388] I think Darren Till is probably like the biggest one I think of when I think of that, when they rush him to the title fight.

[389] It's hard to say, though, because Darren Till, when he knocked out Cowboy, see, people have two Darren Till's in their head.

[390] They have Darren Till with knee injuries older later in his career.

[391] and you have Darren Till when he was 170.

[392] Yeah.

[393] Darren Till, when he could make 170, and dude, he was dangerous.

[394] When he fucked up cowboy, I was like, Jesus Christ, this guy's fucking terrifying.

[395] He was ferocious.

[396] But he didn't keep that for whatever reason.

[397] You know, he didn't keep that level of success.

[398] He didn't, and he had mad potential.

[399] So I'm not sure if he got rushed or if he just got injured or if it was this a grappling game.

[400] He was too late taking in the grappling game.

[401] I think there's just a lot of guys that don't know how to take a lot of loss.

[402] I think that once they, you know, he was undefeated, then you get your first loss.

[403] Right.

[404] And then you go back to the gym, your confidence deflated.

[405] You look at, people look at you differently.

[406] Like you don't have that same, you know, mentality, I'm, I'm the biggest one in the room.

[407] Well, then Tyron Woodley, he fought Tyron when Tyrone is in his prime.

[408] That was prime Tyron Woodley and Tyrone Woodley fucked him up.

[409] But Tyrone Woodley in his prime fucked everybody.

[410] Everybody just thinks about that Jake Paul fight.

[411] Get that out of your head.

[412] That's an older athlete at the end of his run doing something only really mostly for money Rusman said it yesterday he said like people are so quick to forget right of the stuff you did when you're great and when you're at the top and especially guys like Woodley where he was one of the best to ever do it one of the best well then later you start losing a couple exactly and then it just tarnishes everything I'm like bro go back to the knockout of Robbie O 'Lara that was crazy the way he did and Robbie was the man at that time I think one of his most impressive performances two of his most impressive performances are performances that weren't even that exciting and that's the Wonder Boy because he fought the perfect fight with Wonderboy he never led, never led he's like let's make it boring I don't give a fuck but then when they had exchanges Tyron hurt Wonderboy Wonderboy never hurt Tyrant Wonderboy is a 57 and O kickboxer one of the greatest strikers the UFC's ever seen but he was so worried about those takedowns that he didn't really commit either and then when and he was always worried about the takedown which, of course, you know, opens up punches.

[413] And Tyrant could fucking crack.

[414] Tyrant could crack back in that.

[415] When he knocked out Lawler with one punch, like, holy shit.

[416] Tyrant could crack.

[417] People forget.

[418] Yeah.

[419] When I fought Wonderboy, that was like one of the fights I watched.

[420] And then I was, that was one of the fights I'm most afraid of because you're looking at him against Woodley, him against Johnny Hendricks.

[421] And none of these guys could take him down.

[422] And then Anthony Pettis told me like, bro, I was like, should I bring in somebody for him?

[423] And he's like, nah, because nobody ever, nobody moves like him.

[424] And he kicks hurt harder than anybody else that brought in it.

[425] Because he brought in like, Sage Northcutting those guys to be like him.

[426] And Mike Biggie Rhodes.

[427] And he's like, bro, and Wonder Boy is just different.

[428] So he said, I would just try to wrestle.

[429] And I was like, all right, let's go.

[430] And then I was like, let me just get ahead of him right away and grab a hold of him and not pull back at all.

[431] So the problem with Wonder Boys, he can do some shit that other people can't do.

[432] And one of them is that lead leg.

[433] That lead leg is a real problem.

[434] because he's got the best front leg side kick in the business and he also throws that round kick off the front leg over your shoulder and his first knockout in the UFC he throws that shit over the shoulder you don't see it until it's up there and you're like oh shit it's too late yeah and he disguises his stuff so beautifully but he disguises it with his personality because before the fight he's hey what's up bro how you doing and then I'm like bro I know you're going to try to kill me tomorrow man but he's genuinely sweet he's not putting like some guys will do that just to try to throw you off but that literally really is Wonder Boy.

[435] He's a sweetheart of a guy.

[436] The nicest.

[437] Happens to be a killer.

[438] You know?

[439] And I feel like Wonderboy, man, he's one of those guys.

[440] Like, he, uh, I feel like if he had gotten into MMA earlier and really learned grappling earlier with that kickbox, like, maybe if he hadn't had 50 kickboxing fights, but only had like, he was an elite at, you know, 20 fights in, I'm sure, 30 fights in.

[441] Yeah.

[442] And got, and really gotten into MMA when he was a younger man. Because the thing about, like, he's 40.

[443] hour, 41, right?

[444] The thing about fighting is if you're not cheating and, you know, you're getting into your 40s, like, there's no way.

[445] There's no way you're the same guy you were when you were 25.

[446] It's not possible.

[447] Yeah.

[448] So if you don't have the same body to work with, it doesn't matter how good the mind is.

[449] It doesn't matter how good.

[450] We've all seen it from the great champs.

[451] They just hung around too long and the body just doesn't perform anymore.

[452] And they know what to do, but the body can't do it.

[453] Yeah, and everything just slows down.

[454] your reflexes even your mindset right because you don't want to it's the hardest thing they train for you have to fight every day in the practice room to train for a fight so these guys who've been doing it for so long you're burnt out so it's like you get to your 40s and you got a family and stuff like do I want to train two to three times a day do I want to go to the gym right now and Russell yeah like I think that's one of the keys that my coach is very good at he like tells all of his guys like we're wrestling three times a week you're if you're not at wrestling practice then you're not going to be at sparring practice like all because a lot of our guys are really great strike is not to have been striking with him since he was 16 years old and he told him like i don't care if you hate this right now you don't know how to wrestle you're going to lose you could be the best striker in the world but all the champions know how to wrestle that's a solid coach right there because every guy needs to learn that because there's so many dudes who don't want to roll because they don't want to get tapped out but they're elite kickboxers there was a bunch of those guys in the early days of the ufc just didn't quite pick that part up and never excelled yeah i see that a lot with guys, like I said, that don't want to get beat up.

[455] Yeah, go to practice and they don't want to get embarrassed.

[456] That's when the eagle comes in, right?

[457] Like, I'm a UFC fighter.

[458] I shouldn't be losing to Joe Schmoe at a jitistu class.

[459] Right.

[460] So there's, like, avoid those guys.

[461] Yeah, I don't think Wonderboy ever avoided anybody like that.

[462] I just think he was late to the game, you know, and he was training a lot with Weidman, who was an awesome wrestler.

[463] But, like, he got his first loss in the UFC, I think was Mike Brown.

[464] Yeah.

[465] And Mike Brown just mauled him.

[466] Just mauled him.

[467] That was Mike Brown in his prime, who was a scary motherfucker.

[468] A dog.

[469] He played no games.

[470] He played no games.

[471] My brother was trying to kill you.

[472] I would wish that I would never get that call to like, hey, do you want to fight Mike Brown?

[473] And I was like, man, I was like, bro, no, my brother's like, call him out.

[474] And I'm like, bro, I'm not going to call him Matt Brown.

[475] My brother's always the type of him.

[476] You can be anybody.

[477] And I was like, no, I'll call him for Matt Brown.

[478] I'll do it, but I'm not going to call him out, though.

[479] You don't want to get him motivated.

[480] Yeah, he's the boogeyman.

[481] I feel like there's some dudes that, for whatever reason, with Matt Brown, you know, he died.

[482] You know, he had overdosed and he had like a serious drug problem.

[483] I think there's guys who see the other side and they come back and they just have a different mentality.

[484] You know, they almost lost their life to some really stupid shit.

[485] And they have like a grip on life that's a little bit different and a drive that's a little different.

[486] There's been a few guys that I know that were like real heavy drug addicts and got off the drugs and just became performance freaks.

[487] Just endurance freaks.

[488] just animals and like so disciplined you're like wow how is it that this guy used to be a drug addict a junkie and now this guy's weighing his food and you know and drinking electrolyte filled water and fucking showing up before anybody and yeah putting in those rounds on the air dime machine after practice like god damn i live with uh jared gordon for uh three years together he's like my best friend same situation he would say i'm gonna go for a jog and i'm like cool and he'll be like come back like three hours later i'm like what you do i just ran 20 miles and i'm It's like, you said you're going for a jog.

[489] That's not a jog.

[490] It's like a marathon.

[491] Yeah.

[492] And he would just do that out of nowhere.

[493] Like you said, they just had that crazy cardio endurance and they'll just go nonstop.

[494] Yeah.

[495] I think it's that type of mindset, right?

[496] I think so.

[497] They're a little extra spooky.

[498] There's a little extra spooky those forward junkies.

[499] I don't know why, man. They're like not playing any fucking games.

[500] You know, guys that have almost died, they are not playing any fucking games with you.

[501] Yeah.

[502] It's interesting.

[503] Because, like, there's, there's, there's, Different things that make a great fighter.

[504] There's a lot of stuff.

[505] There's genetics.

[506] There's gifts.

[507] Some people just have that touch of death, you know?

[508] They just have that one -shot, K -O -power.

[509] Some guys just are born with crazy.

[510] Like, Kane Velasquez, they said, just has genetic cardio.

[511] They said, that motherfucker could take months off the gym, come in, and just smother everybody.

[512] And nobody could deal with them.

[513] They said it was crazy.

[514] Like, nobody had ever seen anything like it.

[515] Like, I think Kane, for sure, was an elite fighter because of his mind, his discipline, his drive, his determination, his skill set.

[516] I mean, he was, I think, in his prime, there's the argument of who's the best heavyweight of all time, and I always throw Kane in there.

[517] I think prime time Kane was, he was a tornado.

[518] He was a tornado.

[519] You couldn't understand how a heavyweight could be throwing so many punches.

[520] He never stopped, and he could take you down.

[521] And if you took him down, he didn't give a fuck.

[522] You get right back up.

[523] Like with Brock Lesnar?

[524] Yeah.

[525] Grow, he was a tornado in that cage.

[526] And I was able to go down to A .K .A. get some work in with the guys on there and Kane was there.

[527] Oh, wow.

[528] Yeah, it was just, I was so intimidated because I'm like, this Kane Blassie's a killer.

[529] Yeah.

[530] And he's like the nicest guy in the world.

[531] Super nice guy.

[532] But seeing how athletic he was, he was like doing cartwheels in the gym and just like seeing how he moves, I'm like, now I could understand why he was such a great heavyweight and such a killer.

[533] He was the perfect model heavyweight in his prime, you know, like 240, not too big.

[534] So he has insane cardio.

[535] You're never going to see a guy like Francis that has the kind of cardio that Kane has.

[536] I don't think it's possible.

[537] I think you'd get a trade.

[538] With Francis, you get the touch of death.

[539] You get that one shot.

[540] Everybody's like, oh, shit!

[541] Like the Alistarovring fight.

[542] God damn!

[543] Like, he had that crazy, crazy power.

[544] But I don't think you get that power with that endurance.

[545] I've never seen anybody that has that kind of power that also, like Connor even.

[546] Yeah.

[547] Amazing power.

[548] But he doesn't have the kind of endurance that some of these guys that have less power do.

[549] Yeah, I'm interested to see how Aspinon is past the first round, right?

[550] Because we've seen him, he looks so fast.

[551] You're like, nobody moves like him.

[552] He looks like a younger cane.

[553] But he just keeps knocking these guys out so quick.

[554] So I'm like, let me see him past the first round to see he has that cardio as well.

[555] It's a bit of a problem for him, right?

[556] Because he has not been tested in that way.

[557] And, you know, you're getting up to elite status where you're calling out John Jones.

[558] Yeah.

[559] Right.

[560] That's the boogeyman.

[561] Like, John Jones is the fucking boogeyman.

[562] And maybe he hasn't died, but he's probably knocked on the door a couple of times.

[563] like what's going on death you get you in there you know john jones has had some trials and tribulations but the skill set and the the ability to push deep into rounds is nuts like john fought when he fought gustafson he had almost no training camp they said he barely showed up like you know i talked to jackson about it and greg jackson was telling he's like he didn't even train for that fight wow and then he pulled that fight off in the fourth and fifth rounds that's when he like really turned it up.

[564] So you're talking about a guy who hasn't even been training.

[565] And then you saw the real John Jones in the second fight.

[566] That's motivated John Jones, who's like, I'm going to show you what the fuck is really up.

[567] And then he just beats a shit out of Gustafs in the second fight.

[568] And I wonder if it's going to get him to that point, all this talking from Aspenov's, they're getting motivated, right?

[569] Or is it going to be a point, like, let me be done with Steve ain't be done with it.

[570] But I don't want a heavyweight motivated John Jones if I'm on the other side.

[571] Yeah.

[572] Yeah.

[573] The way he just pulled gone down so easily and choked him out, I was like, bro.

[574] And then Gahn looks good at the last two fights.

[575] Gone is like one of the most exciting guys on the feet.

[576] He's so athletic in that style.

[577] He's had a weird front kick, too.

[578] You ever notice his front kick?

[579] Yeah.

[580] He's a twisting front kick off the front leg.

[581] Yeah, a little push kick, yeah.

[582] But it's weird because he turns it and snaps it up.

[583] So he jabs you with the toes.

[584] There's a kick in Taekwondo that's kind of a goofy kick.

[585] It's called a twisting kick.

[586] And you kind of do it to the face.

[587] And it's like you swing your leg up and kick like this.

[588] It's like this.

[589] Yeah.

[590] But that's what he's doing in a sideways stance.

[591] He's just doing it to the body.

[592] He's like got a twisting front kick.

[593] Nobody kicks like him.

[594] And he heard Bam Bam with that, right?

[595] He fucked Bam Bam up.

[596] That was like Cyril Gahn at his very best.

[597] A guy like Bam Bam, who just comes forward and takes a hell of a shot.

[598] He's not scared to take one to give one.

[599] I mean, Tui Vasa is one of the most exciting guys of all time, right?

[600] Yeah, and it's crazy how.

[601] But that style with Gond, Gons is this elite striker.

[602] incredible lateral movement counterpunching the ability to move out of range and dive right back in real quick but Aspinall was like we've only seen him smash we've only seen him never seen him be the nail nobody ever right and I thought Pavlovich was going to be the one as like it's going to be a banger and he just puts him to sleep and he took Pavlovich's fight with a fucked up rib he couldn't even wrestle yeah short notice too right imagine you going up against Pavlovich you know the only guys who's ever beat him was over him and overreem took him down beat him up on the ground And you're like, I gotta get this guy down.

[603] This guy's knocking everybody dead.

[604] Yeah.

[605] And he knocks him outstanding.

[606] He's so fast for a heavyweight.

[607] But again, you're saying the right thing.

[608] Like, what is it like in the fifth round with John Jones?

[609] Because if you can't steamroll John Jones and he starts sidekicking your fucking kneecaps, you know?

[610] There's nobody better with distance than John.

[611] The best.

[612] Nobody comes close.

[613] A lot of that, too.

[614] I know you've experienced that.

[615] Man. Yeah.

[616] How many eye surgeries have you had to have?

[617] I've had three.

[618] Wow Yeah They're literally the hardest thing in the world The most depressing thing in the world Yeah I don't think Did you have one after the Leon fight or before I had one after that as well Like even in my My fight in When I fought Luka After the third round I went back to my corner I was like There's something in my eye And like I couldn't see out of my eye And I'm like trying to blink it out And then the cut man Tate He's like Bro ain't nothing wrong with your eyes Stop touching your eye So then I was like All right well whatever So I go back in there to fourth and fifth round And I just can't manage this And I'm like just shooting in And then I was like man There's still something wrong with my eye And then I end up going to the doctor Like two days later Because I thought it was just a scratch cornea or something But it ended up being like a detached lens Oh Jesus Christ So like the whole lens they had to like take out And then like sew back in Yeah And it was my eye was like super bloodshot red For like two weeks And then I ended up doing like a weigh in show With the UFC I have her pay -per -view And everybody's like posting pictures and be like, oh, look, if somebody farted on his pillow because he had like a red eye.

[619] And they're like making it in front of me. And I'm just like, I'm like crying myself in my room.

[620] I don't got pink eye.

[621] It's surgery.

[622] How long did it take to recover from that?

[623] That one wasn't as long.

[624] That one was, uh, the blood was still in there for, I'd be like a month.

[625] The detest rent was the hardest one.

[626] That one is like eight weeks of not doing absolutely nothing.

[627] And I have to be like this.

[628] My head sideways.

[629] for a full eight weeks really yeah and they have like a bubble in your eye the whole time and then even when i'm watching tv i have to like put my head in a massage chair oh wow and there's like a mirror at the top so i aimed a mirror at the tv and i can't do nothing wow but like keep my head down or sideways and how long did you have to stay like that for it was like eight weeks whoa yeah so you're lying did you go to sleep in a massage chair yeah i had to sleep the i had to sleep with my face down in that massage chair the whole time wow yeah it was that was the hardest thing How hard is it to sleep like that?

[630] And I'm a back sleeper, too.

[631] So I hate sleeping on my stomach.

[632] So it was like the worst two months of my life.

[633] And then you're like, you don't know if you're going to be able to train after that and fight after that because the doctor's looking at me like, I'm stupid.

[634] I'm telling them, I'm going back to the gym.

[635] And, yeah, it was rough.

[636] Doctors always want you to stop doing what you're doing.

[637] How'd you hurt your shoulder?

[638] Jitsu.

[639] Oh, you need to quit that.

[640] They always say.

[641] Yeah.

[642] Or you need surgery.

[643] And I just, like, there's no form of rehab or, like, exercises I could do.

[644] And they love to give you surgery.

[645] Right away.

[646] But even with the eye, like, I'm so afraid to even go to the doctor in general.

[647] So, like, I was avoiding it at all costs.

[648] So I would, like, see, like, a little black dot inside of my eye.

[649] And I'm still training.

[650] I'm like, whatever.

[651] And then I was supposed to go with Jared to Brazil when he fought Charles Oliveira.

[652] And I had my ticket booked and everything.

[653] And then, like, the week before I'm sparring with him.

[654] And then all of a sudden, that black dot turned into, like, a black sheet.

[655] and it just went full black and I'm just like I think I should go to a doctor now and then they were like you gotta go under the knife right away so it's like I had to get surgery right there yeah I had a friend of mine who had a detached retina and he didn't go in quick enough and he lost most of his vision in that eye yeah he had a bunch of surgeries they could never fix it he just he said that whoever told him that it wasn't a detached retina fucked him because if he had known right away when he went in to check it that it was a detached retina he would have been able to immediately get surgery and they would have saved it wow yeah that's the hard part because you always think about michael bisbing you're looking at him like exactly i want to be that guy exactly and i was like how gangsters that motherfucker that dude fought 10 times the ufc with one eyeball that's wild couldn't see he memorized the fucking i chart yeah i literally had uh i had moments where i'm looking at myself like am i going to have to do that am i going to figure out something to do to do this yeah well how about um fucking what's his face the uh the pirate oh yeah shot a bullet yeah shara bullet yeah that's crazy that guy's crazy he's only got one eye but it's it's wild right because i mean he still looks like he sees everything when he's fighting right distance management's incredible yeah it makes you think how good was that motherfucker with two eyes i can fight that good with one eye i fought in abdhabi my first time there when when kabib fought uh dustin poria and then he was just like a fan and he came up to me And he said, I'm going to be in the UFC.

[656] And I remember the picture with him because he, like, tagged me. And obviously, you can't forget that face.

[657] Right.

[658] But then when I saw him, like, undefeated killing, I'm like, bro, dang, he wasn't lying.

[659] He is a beast.

[660] Oh, he's a beast.

[661] I watched him fight before he was ever in the UFC when he was on other organizations.

[662] And I was like, Jesus Christ, this guy can kick.

[663] He kicks like you're thinking he's going to get tired from all that kicking.

[664] And he does not get tired.

[665] Yeah.

[666] It's wild.

[667] The volume of kicks.

[668] He reminds you a lot of Yair.

[669] You know?

[670] Yahir is like one of those guys like, yo, you better stop thinking about kicking with him.

[671] Did you ain't kicking with Yahir Rodriguez?

[672] You better figure out a way to get past that shit because that guy can kick in a weird way.

[673] I train with Yair and like even just like light sparring I don't even want to like play with him because he just comes from all different angles.

[674] But he's so good at like he'll get so close.

[675] It'll be like right here and he'll just pull it.

[676] Yeah.

[677] I think that's where I learned a lot from him and then just like when you're going with somebody who flows like that and knows how to move like that it makes you more creative too Right because you're not so tense You're worried about getting knocked out Yeah Yeah that's the best kind of sparring But it's like with a guy like If you're gonna fight a guy like Yahir You gotta find some Taekwondo champion And bring him in but even then They're not gonna know how to punch that good They're not gonna know how to wrestle So you're gonna be missing part of it Because Yahir can submit a lot of people He's fucking wicked off his back His triangle is fast as fuck People don't know how good he is And even his wrestling is really good.

[678] Yeah.

[679] But when he puts it all together.

[680] But I think even when he gets in there, it's just like so much, right?

[681] He puts so much energy into everything.

[682] Yeah.

[683] That sometimes it leaves openings for guys to take him down and hold him down.

[684] And like, if I'm a guy fighting him, I'm like, bro, I don't want to give this guy any distance or any room to do anything.

[685] Yeah, that style is just so taxing.

[686] You've got to, for people that don't see the difference, there's two things in the octagon that are like probably the most taxing that you wouldn't really guess.

[687] the biggest one is the clinch bro you see guys just get drained after the first round in the clinch and they go back to their corner and then everything's coming slower the punches are coming slower the footwork looks slower reaction time is slow they'll take a shot that maybe they could have got away from because they just don't want to move yeah we literally like do this in the gym where it's like all right let's do 20 pushups and then just hand fight for three minutes and then we start sparring it's like little stuff like that because that's when you get lactic ass in your arms you're tired now let's see you throw punches right now and it'll stop people from actually like throwing hard at practice it'll make you want to conserve your energy and stuff but yeah that feeling when you're in there and you can't lift up your arms like Damia shot on me like 30 times and it's the third round I was like bro my arms are like dead right now so if he does take me down I'm gonna be in a bad spot because my arms are so heavy and it's a joke yeah that guy had that creepy grappling strength where he would get a hold of guys and they'd be like what is happening here like how was this guy so fucking struck especially at 170 bro damien my at 170 was terrifying yeah people keep forgetting man they do keep forgetting he got fucked in the kamaro osman fight he got fah ha ha upped he got fucked he got to kamar who's back he had one hook in standing up and they fucking separated them it is one of the greatest tragedies and travesties in the history of the sport that one positional change that is a terrible i don't know what referee it was i don't want to call him out people make mistakes but for Damian Maya he got fucked because he had Camaro's back and Camaro's only loss up to that point was a rear naked choke in his first fight.

[688] Yeah and Camaro was nowhere near the grappler in terms of submissions that Damien was.

[689] Damien will set traps and we'll do shit to you and he just gets a hold of guy like what he did to Neil Magny like Damien gets a hold of dudes and you're like what is happening here.

[690] Yeah this is a different kind of squeeze man and he got fucked.

[691] He got Totally fucked.

[692] But that's crazy, right?

[693] Because a lot of the fights could change off of one ref or one judge could change the whole thing.

[694] Everything could have changed from that fight.

[695] Everything could have changed.

[696] So let's imagine the judge doesn't do that.

[697] There is a 30 % likelihood Camaro's going to get him to the ground and strangle him.

[698] Now, legitimately, you're looking at primetime Damien Maya in the worst possible position.

[699] One hook in, he's got your back.

[700] How are you shaking him off?

[701] Yeah.

[702] You got a 30 % change.

[703] of shaking him off.

[704] You're stuck.

[705] You've got a good chance of holding off until the end of the round.

[706] You might be able to stop him from advancing, but it's perilous.

[707] This is a terrible position you're in.

[708] Damien Myers on your back, and the referee's like, break it up, there's no action here.

[709] Are you a champion street fighter?

[710] Like, it's the same shit.

[711] Like, what are you doing?

[712] This is the sport.

[713] The sport is this guy is a professional strangler, and he's finally gotten, a hold of this guy, oh, boo, the casualers are booing, so you're going to separate it?

[714] This is, it's the worst, for me, the biggest travesty I've ever seen in MMA.

[715] That was the number one.

[716] There's probably been a few, if I really had to go over all of them, I'd probably find a few other ones that were right up there.

[717] They'd be like a top ten.

[718] I mean, even Leon against Camaro two, when Camarro was on top of him and the ref stood them up because the crowd was booing, right?

[719] And then he got head kicked.

[720] Right.

[721] Right.

[722] It's like, bro, he's on top of him the whole five rounds, but now you want him to stand him up because crowd's booing right now.

[723] I believe in no stand -ups.

[724] Yeah.

[725] I know it's boring.

[726] I don't give a fuck.

[727] No stand -ups.

[728] No stand -ups.

[729] I go a step further.

[730] No stand -ups.

[731] And I think the fight should resume exactly what position you were in at the end of the round.

[732] That'll be the game -changer.

[733] That's a real fight, though, right?

[734] That's a real fight.

[735] Like, how did you get back up to your feet?

[736] Oh, the round ended.

[737] Yeah.

[738] Okay.

[739] What are we doing?

[740] We're cheating for the striker?

[741] Because that seems like you're kind of cheating for the striker.

[742] I know everyone's used to do it this way, but if you want to look at it realistically, the striker has an advantage for the striker has an advantage for the striker.

[743] the first few seconds of every fight every fight the fight starts standing so in that perceived that distance where the striker has his advantage it starts off with the striker's advantage so if a grappler gets you to the ground why do you get that advantage back in the next round yeah and it's the hardest thing to get somebody down and figure it out so it's like it's the hardest thing to get up yeah so if you can never get up that's tough shit it's on you it's on you that's the sport the sport is not boo stand them up just breathe you know here it is look at this let's look at this again take it back from the beginning so damien gets the clinch right and camaro's got an overhook on the left arm and he's defending so far so damien's working towards the takedown damien sneaks that leg in and now camaro starts to get in trouble because damien takes that left arm he goes all the way over and cinches the way so now he's he's pretty deep camaro's the thing that's saving camaro here is his right arm that whizzer on his right arm is the thing that's saving him.

[744] But he's in danger.

[745] Now he's in much more danger.

[746] Because now Damien has the hook, and now Damien's pulling that arm over the top of Camaro's whizzer.

[747] So he'll connect his arms, if the referee lets him, what he wants to do is connect his hands in front of Camaro.

[748] Camaro does not want that.

[749] They're hand fighting right here.

[750] But this is a dangerous spot for Camaro, because the only thing that's saving him is that wizard.

[751] Without that wizard, he's fucked right now.

[752] And he knows it, and he's strong as fuck, and he's holding on that wizard with everything he's got.

[753] But Damien is just slowly inching and he's putting leverage with his leg he's using that left look yeah and look he's further now he's even further now he can punch him he's even further so he's progressing so he has gotten to a spot where and the referee is telling him i guess he's grabbing gloves his referee saying just got to grab the wrist and he's closer doing like a twister stanney twister he's closer now now it's even better now it's even better so now damien is trying to figure out when he can get his right hook in and what he's doing with his left arm.

[754] So the wizard is still holding that left arm in place, but Damien at one point in time had sort of threatened to creep it up over the top of Camaro's left shoulder.

[755] And that's what he wants to do here.

[756] So he wants to put all this pressure on, make Camaro do something to defend all the leverage he's putting on his legs, defend these punches.

[757] He's setting up little traps, just trying to open up the space so that he could get that right hook in and that left arm over the top.

[758] So he is on the back now, like fully on the back.

[759] And then the referee stops him.

[760] Wow.

[761] And this is the first round when they're still dry.

[762] Bro, in fucking sane that this referee did this.

[763] In fucking sane.

[764] A travesty.

[765] An unfair advantage for Camaro for sure.

[766] And then Camaro caught him on the left hand or right hand.

[767] He's catching him with jabs.

[768] He shouldn't be in this position now.

[769] Camaro should be still trying to fight out his way out of that clinch.

[770] And guess what?

[771] He might not have fought his way.

[772] way out of that clinch he was like six steps to checkmate you know he was pretty close six out of ten he was in you know it's crazy because it's the first round so it's like first round the crowd's booing it's like bro he just got to the spot yeah this early what damia punched his butt so you're gonna give you don't think a butt punch hurts like he's trying to like do something to get camaro to react he's trying to get movement out of him yeah you want him to make the mistake yeah it's travesty yeah now that i look at that i'm like that's wild travesty Now, imagine.

[773] Damien Ma's submits him.

[774] The world changes.

[775] Camaro goes to that next fight.

[776] Now everybody's looking to submit him.

[777] Things change.

[778] He's not the boogeyman anymore.

[779] Somebody just tapped him.

[780] Maybe his confidence goes down a little bit.

[781] Maybe he doesn't get favorable matchup in his next fight.

[782] Maybe he loses again.

[783] Damien goes, gets the belt.

[784] Damien gets the belt.

[785] Things happen, man. Weird things happen.

[786] Weird things happen in the sport.

[787] That's why it's so incredible when someone reaches the title.

[788] When you actually do it, You become Islam Makachev.

[789] You become Bilal Muhammad.

[790] You get all the way up there and you win the title.

[791] There's so many hurdles.

[792] Like, you've lost fights.

[793] The eye poke with Leon was crazy.

[794] You've had bad moments.

[795] And they get all past that and get to the title.

[796] Yeah.

[797] Just thinking back to all your ups and downs.

[798] Just looking at the journey in general and you're like, why did this happen or why did that happen?

[799] Especially after law, I'm a terrible loser.

[800] So you're like, why is this happening to me?

[801] But then now that I look back at it and thinking about the stuff that I changed.

[802] and then I started doing this more I started fixing this and now it just made me the fighter I am today and it's like I'm glad those downs happen because now the ups feel so good and nobody could take that away right like the mountain I climbed was way higher than anybody else climbed it was a lot harder than anybody else climbed there's a lot to that yeah there's a lot to that there's a lot to that because the guys that come up real fast and like super talented and just fuck everybody up and never get tested like it's I think for some of those guys it's harder to maintain that motivation because you don't know the downs yeah you know like they just they have a belief in themselves like you know b j pen is a good example that in my opinion i i always put b j in the category of one is the greatest of all time i always say you got to look at b j in his prime you have to look at b j when he was beating sean shirk bj when he beat joe daddy stevenson bj was a monster man just a monster he had crazy flexibility unbelievable balance you could try to take him down he would hop around on one leg like he had two it was nuts man but BJ was so fucking talented that I think BJ didn't really like to work that hard you know he didn't really get up for it as much as like some of the other guys that weren't as talented and when BJ did wasn't his prime that's when he was training with the Morinovich's that's what he was doing those crazy pliometric workouts and so he had this insane gas tank with all the talent of a BJ Penn yeah and like you said people forget how good he was these new age fans they never seen him before they never saw him fight They forget.

[803] They think it's the same thing like, like Tyron Woodley, the same kind of thing.

[804] You think about them only when they're at the end of their career.

[805] You don't think about how good they were.

[806] Nobody can maintain that forever.

[807] It's not possible.

[808] It's not possible.

[809] Habib said it from the beginning, right?

[810] He said, you're always going to lose.

[811] There's a time for your thing.

[812] He said it about Kamar.

[813] He said about Tony Ferguson.

[814] He said these guys, they're going to learn the hard way.

[815] And for me, he said if I stayed in, I'd probably end up losing sometime.

[816] I don't think you would lose, but, yeah, like he said it's like, you're thinking.

[817] like I could still go with him and I'm looking at this guy like bro you could be the heavyweight champion right now it's like nuts what does he weigh now he's I think he's probably like 200 because he rolls consistently with everybody and he always says I have to jog 30 minutes a day he always on a treadmill at least 30 minutes but just like him and grappling it's wild because I just be like it was when I first got the fight announced from Dana white I was over there in New Jersey training with Islam for for his fight when he was fighting pourier and then like they announced it and and I'm like Habib's like oh come with me over here at train and then he's just killing me like literally like throwing me around and I'm just like getting murdered then my coach tells me I hey you see Dana Wade announced you got the title fight and I'm looking at myself like really all right all right what's crazy is he's still in his prime yeah that's what's crazy like he get out 29 and oh in his prime it's like I'm done I made a promise to my mom and do it on top no injuries nobody does that nobody does that only the greats right even i mean gsp did it but but gs p came back and he fought when he was older he fought bisping at 85 you know and gsp his uh you know i mean he had gone through some wars and at the end the last one yeah he was just like i need some time off you know yeah i think a lot of these fighters they they need the time off but they don't take it and they try to rush back in after losses and it just adds up you see it with Tony Ferguson prime example I think after that that gatey fight that should have been time off that should have been like all right let me take a year off not do nothing but you want to rush back in there and then all of a sudden the losses start adding up your body's taking damage here's another one so let's imagine Tony Ferguson doesn't trip all of those wires backstage so he's about to fight could be for the title in Madison Square Garden he trips over some wires backstage and tears his knee apart.

[818] Just a freak accident.

[819] Yeah.

[820] Just a freak accident that could happen to anybody, tears his knee apart, has to get knee surgery, misses the title fight, Al Iaquintha steps in, has a good fight with him.

[821] And Tony Ferguson, the one guy that we were always like, how would Tony do?

[822] Because he, in his prime, people forget, in his prime, that motherfucker was terrifying.

[823] He had a long -ass wind streak and fucking everybody up.

[824] He was cutting people, strangling people.

[825] He was a beast, dude.

[826] Tony Ferguson was a fucking monster.

[827] But people forgot.

[828] They forgot.

[829] They only see Tony Ferguson now when he got knocked out by Chandler.

[830] They see Tony Ferguson now when Patty Pimbled beats him.

[831] Like, you don't understand.

[832] He's 40, whatever he is, years old.

[833] Like, he's natural.

[834] The body just can't do what the mind wants it to do anymore.

[835] Man, you're looking for that one point where at least a coach family or somebody that tells him like, ah, you're done.

[836] But you want to, maybe you want to end on a winning note or you don't want to just like...

[837] I think these guys just like it.

[838] They want to fight, and that's all they know.

[839] Yeah.

[840] It's different and different people.

[841] Like, some people get out and they go, I think I did enough, I'm out, and they hold to it, like Khabib, or like Andre Ward.

[842] Andre Ward's another one.

[843] Goes out on top.

[844] Gold medalists in the Olympics, two division world champions, like, that's it.

[845] I'm good.

[846] I think they offered him when Canelo fought Kovalev, when he knocked out Kovalev and won the light heavyweight title, they were saying, Maybe Andre Ward would come back and they were going to throw a lot of money at him and I think he considered it, but I think he said I served boxing better in the position that I am.

[847] So here's a guy, Olympic gold medalist, two division world champion speaks perfectly.

[848] Nothing wrong with him at all.

[849] You know, very religious man, never swears.

[850] Like I did a podcast with him.

[851] He got upset that I said the F word.

[852] He did.

[853] He called me afterwards like, I didn't know that you were going to be swearing.

[854] Oh, wow.

[855] Well, that's because he would want people, like, from his church to listen.

[856] Yeah.

[857] So now he can't say, yeah, he's got to say, don't listen to that one.

[858] Oh, wow.

[859] Joe Rogan's got a potty mouth.

[860] I thought he's a boxing gym, but I was to talk to him like a regular dude.

[861] But he's one of the wise ones that said, that's it, that's it.

[862] That's it, that's it, man. Marvin Hagler, he was another one.

[863] Never came back.

[864] So that's it.

[865] I'm done.

[866] Yeah.

[867] But Ward, I think, even now, like, said in the commentary, the way he breaks stuff down, his new book was so good just him it's like hearing his stories wow yes it's a crazy story but him and canello would have been crazy who that would have been crazy yeah i would love to see that fight i want to see canello and benavita's like come on saudi arabia throw that throw that money throw that money let's see that fight because if crawford if they're not going to have him fight crawford which i did want to see i did want to see even though i know it's crazy it's a giant weight jump yeah but benavita is not a weight jump that's the right weight and that guy's killer and it makes the most sense it makes the most sense but and canel's like give me 200 million dollars and i can see them just offer it yeah let me just go on my bank of car i just give you that check real quick the sotia rabbi guy i well i hope they i hope that benavides and him do fight and i hope it's at 168 because i think that's like benavides his best division i mean he only fought he fought that last fight at 75 against a good guy yeah and he won the fight but he didn't look like the same guy that he looks like at 68 i don't think that power carries quite as much with those bigger guys.

[868] It's a little bit of a step.

[869] It's a step up, you know.

[870] There's very few guys that keep that power as they keep going up and up and up in weight.

[871] And there's so many weight classes in boxing, right?

[872] Yeah.

[873] So you could be, like you said, for Canello and him, it's the fight that makes sense.

[874] So for him, he's like, I need to find the biggest fight and it's, all right, let me move up a couple more pounds here.

[875] Yeah.

[876] And then you think it's not a big jump, but those pounds make a difference.

[877] It makes a difference.

[878] But for Crawford, I think he just wants the big money fight.

[879] Like, what is the big money funding?

[880] And Canelo's the big money fight.

[881] You know, Crawford is one of the best ever.

[882] He's 36.

[883] He's like, maybe this is, you know, let me get one big money fight and get the fuck out of here.

[884] Yeah.

[885] But he's got Boots Ennis, you know, knock on his door, too, which is another amazing fight.

[886] But super dangerous, you know?

[887] Like, just like Benavides is dangerous.

[888] Boots Ennis is very fucking dangerous.

[889] Very dangerous.

[890] There's always somebody coming, right?

[891] Right behind you.

[892] And these guys who've been at the top so long, you're like, all right, let me get somebody that's on my level.

[893] Canelo, he's been in the game just as long as me. And then, all right, let's just do this for his paycheck and then move on.

[894] I think when they get to a certain level and they realize they only have a few fights left, they want the big money fights.

[895] And Canelo is obviously the biggest money fight.

[896] Even though Boots Ennis is a great fighter, most people don't know who he is yet.

[897] Yeah.

[898] And with Canello, everybody knows who Canela is.

[899] You get the Canella fight.

[900] That's Red Panty's night.

[901] Yeah.

[902] You know, like, you're in.

[903] Let's go.

[904] I mean, that's the John Jones effect with Steepa, right?

[905] Yeah.

[906] Not a lot of people know where Aspinall is yet.

[907] Right.

[908] I mean, the real fans know him, but it's like, everybody knows Steepay, right?

[909] Everybody knows he was one of the greatest heavy weights to ever do it.

[910] It's a great thing if John can beat him on his resume.

[911] You know, it's one more notch that John beat the most accomplished heavyweight of all time.

[912] But here's the thing.

[913] Everybody's sleeping on Stepe.

[914] Here's the thing about heavyweights.

[915] Heavy weights mature later, and they get compromised later, too.

[916] Like, heavyweights can fight.

[917] Like, George Foreman won the heavyweight title at 14.

[918] five years old.

[919] And that was in the natural days.

[920] I think there's maybe not natural.

[921] I mean, I don't know what George is doing, but I was thinking of Vanderholy feeling.

[922] Maybe there's something going on.

[923] But my point is that like heavyweight fighters, I think, because it's, there's not as much movement.

[924] It's a different thing.

[925] The body matures, it takes longer there.

[926] They're just bigger human beings.

[927] I could see a guy that's in his 40s still fighting elite.

[928] and we haven't seen Steve A since he got knocked out so we saw that fight against Francis where Francis just looked unstoppable Francis knocks him out and we haven't seen Steve A in years now like how when was the last time Steve A fought I remember it was at the apex and it was in the middle of the pandemic because there was no crowd which was crazy to see a heavyweight title fight with no crowd it was nuts that the pandemic days were wild wild everybody's wearing a mask hanging over their nose it's all so stupid against Francis right yes Yeah, so March 27th, 2021, dude.

[929] 2021, and we're getting real close to 2025.

[930] So 2025, this fight happens in November.

[931] 2025 is just a fucking month away.

[932] That's a long -ass time.

[933] But it's also a long -ass time with no head injuries.

[934] It's a long -ass time without getting, you know, two or three fights, a serial gone fight, another fight, this fight, that fight.

[935] It's a long time without getting beat up.

[936] And you don't know if he comes as a different version himself.

[937] What if he's been working on some stuff?

[938] Yes.

[939] I mean, if he knows he's fighting John Jones, and he probably knew probably for the last year and a half, I'm just studying one guy for a year and a half, just focused on him.

[940] Exactly.

[941] It changes a lot of stuff.

[942] And, you know, he's had time to rest.

[943] Like, let the chin recover.

[944] Because that's a, you know, I think Daniel Cormier landed the picture perfect right hand when he knocked out, Steepay.

[945] But I also think Steepay was probably beaten up from that Francis fight.

[946] That Francis fight was not much, I mean, I don't remember how many months.

[947] How many months was there between Francis, Steep A fighting Francis and then Steep A fighting D .C.?

[948] Seven months?

[949] That was not enough time.

[950] A year before the previous fight.

[951] Yeah.

[952] A year before, that's a different thing.

[953] The Francis fight was the damage.

[954] Francis was in the first round in particular.

[955] He landed some big shots.

[956] He was fucking scary as shit, dude.

[957] So I think him coming in and fighting Daniel, I got to imagine he took some.

[958] heavy blows in that fight and you know like even if he didn't lose uh he had to have gotten some damage like he may have been concussed like he got hit no doubt yeah yeah hard in that fight and then do you go right back in a train you're like no you should take a long ass time with no contact at all and let everything heal up and he probably didn't get a chance to do that i mean i think that's also vulcanowski after islam yeah i think that was his biggest mistake right huge mistake you just want to do mistakes one you don't fight Islam on 10 days notice you just can't that just doesn't make any sense that's crazy he's so hard to be he's so good he's if he's not the best it's you and him for the best pound for pound and you're you're you're gonna risk that on 10 days that's crazy and that again changes the course of his career right that's wild right imagine if he doesn't take that fight he says I can't I'm ready for Ilya teporea that guy's come and he knows how fucking dangerous ilia is and so he doesn't take that fight and then he goes in fresh against ilia and you have a much better fight yeah who knows who would have won but you got to think he was compromised from that i mean he got head kicked yeah head kicked shin to the dome which is just for sure it's going to rattle you for a long time when you're when you're just getting put out cold like that and especially he probably cut a lot of weight to get to that point because he looked kind of flabby in that islam fight so you're taking a fight on 10 days notice there's not a lot of guys that are around their weight class anyway So they're cutting a lot.

[959] Then you have to go, all right, now I'm going to fight Islam, who's number one, pound for pound, and then that head kick.

[960] Islam looked like Michelangelo sculpted him.

[961] He's so big.

[962] And he's so strong, so good.

[963] What does he weigh?

[964] What does he weigh, like, normal?

[965] Like right now, if you called him up.

[966] What do you weigh, brother?

[967] What would he say?

[968] I would say at least minimum, like, 185, 190.

[969] The fuck out of here.

[970] He's 210 pounds.

[971] No, no, Islam.

[972] That guy's 250 pounds.

[973] His strength feels like 250 pounds.

[974] That's right here.

[975] But that's the thing with them.

[976] They're always training.

[977] No matter what they're doing, they always at least run once a day or grapple.

[978] So he's losing roughly 30 pounds to make 55?

[979] From the start, I would say.

[980] Yeah.

[981] He's big.

[982] That's about as big as you can get and keep doing that.

[983] That's big.

[984] Yeah.

[985] And he's tall.

[986] He's lengthy.

[987] And he has power.

[988] He could go up to 70 easily, I think.

[989] Yeah, easily.

[990] He's got real power now on his feet, which is a new addition over the last X amount of years, His stand -up has gotten an elite.

[991] Like, you knocked down Olivera.

[992] He had Oliver in real trouble.

[993] The Volcanowski head kick, though.

[994] And it was also the way he set it up.

[995] He kept kicking to the body.

[996] Oh, my God.

[997] Yeah.

[998] I think people would just assume that all he's going to do is wrestle.

[999] But then when you see him, going there and outstrike somebody's strike.

[1000] He even boxed with Porier.

[1001] Yeah.

[1002] He has some really good hands in there with him.

[1003] Yeah.

[1004] And people are like, oh, wait, he could strike two.

[1005] But his grappling is just as good.

[1006] He could do everything.

[1007] He's as good as it gets.

[1008] He's as good.

[1009] He's the most complete fighter on the rock.

[1010] because he submits people, like he submitted Porreier in the final round.

[1011] Yeah.

[1012] Incredible.

[1013] Incredible submission.

[1014] But he was winning that fight already.

[1015] Yeah.

[1016] But then, you know, he can also knock you out.

[1017] He can, he literally does everything.

[1018] He's one of the best wrestlers in the sport.

[1019] His top control and his squeeze is insane.

[1020] Yeah.

[1021] Like, remember when he tapped out Drew Dover?

[1022] He got a hold of Drew Dover.

[1023] It's like Drew Dover had zero chance of moving.

[1024] He wasn't going anywhere.

[1025] He was just crushed.

[1026] It was like it was like he was fighting a man twice his size.

[1027] I was just bringing that up.

[1028] I was just bringing that up.

[1029] up when I talk about Dan Hooker.

[1030] He just went to war with Gamrod.

[1031] Exactly.

[1032] And Islam just took him down and tapped him out within like the first like two or three minutes.

[1033] And tapped him out to the point where you're like, please tap, please tap.

[1034] Fucking tap.

[1035] Dude, just tap.

[1036] Don't let him do it.

[1037] He looked like he was going to break his fucking arm apart.

[1038] It's so funny because like Habibu will like get guys in there.

[1039] And he's the type that will grapple and like just like talk, have a conversation as he's grappling.

[1040] But he had like Ali and Kumar and he's like laughing and Ali's like tapping.

[1041] And he's just like, ha, brother.

[1042] And brother, give me coffee.

[1043] And he's just like, I'm like, bro.

[1044] to break his arm like at some point like that's a terrible break too that spiral break it's the worst and it's so strong and it's like effortless with them oh their bodies move crazy i remember michael johnson when kabeev got michael and that camora and i was like jesus please tap michael god tap please just tap i was like squirrenged in my chair because i'm waiting to hear crack because i've seen it's like the nougar fight with frank meir remember that yeah you see his arms you hear the snap And he see him, like, look over at his arm, and his arm's, like, halfway hanging.

[1045] That's the, that's a scary part about the whole thing.

[1046] It's so scary.

[1047] Yeah.

[1048] That's such a scary break.

[1049] Because that, your, this arm is never the same again.

[1050] It's never the same again.

[1051] Yeah.

[1052] No matter what, they're going to screw things in there and bolt things.

[1053] All your muscles have been cut.

[1054] All your nerves are fucked up.

[1055] It's never going to be the same arm.

[1056] And then you have guys that are, like, crazy enough to, like, keep fighting after that.

[1057] Yeah, they don't give a fuck.

[1058] With the broken arm.

[1059] Break my arm.

[1060] Yeah, go ahead.

[1061] Tim Sylvia.

[1062] When Frank Mier broke his arm, oh, here it is, with no gear.

[1063] Oh, Jesus, you're going to make me, look at this.

[1064] Ah!

[1065] And he looks down in his arm, like, ah.

[1066] God damn, please, ladies and gentlemen, tap.

[1067] Please tap.

[1068] Sometimes you have to tap.

[1069] I know, I know, but sometimes you got to tap for the future.

[1070] You see that guy Mikey Musumetchy fought in one FC, and he destroyed his leg?

[1071] Yeah.

[1072] The guy wouldn't tap.

[1073] This fucking guy's an animal.

[1074] He would not tap.

[1075] I was tapping at home.

[1076] I couldn't believe it.

[1077] He broke his leg like three times.

[1078] He just kept breaking his knee, left and right and ripping it apart.

[1079] I'm watching his knee.

[1080] I'm like, that's destroyed.

[1081] Yeah.

[1082] There's your LCL.

[1083] There's your, look at this.

[1084] This is so horrible.

[1085] Oh, my God.

[1086] Ah!

[1087] Like right now, his leg is destroyed.

[1088] His leg right now is fully destroyed.

[1089] It's totally twisted.

[1090] All his ligaments are fucked.

[1091] He couldn't walk after this fight.

[1092] I mean, look at his heel is totally the wrong.

[1093] wrong way.

[1094] His knee is twisted completely around.

[1095] That is horrible.

[1096] Oh, he's going that way with it.

[1097] Oh, my God.

[1098] The dude never tapped.

[1099] The dude got his leg destroyed and never fucking tapped.

[1100] But he's probably never going to be the same again.

[1101] Mikey has to have some craziness inside of him just to keep going, though.

[1102] Oh, he's an evil little man. He's has to be evil.

[1103] He's a evil little man. He's a really, really, really nice guy.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] But he's also got a switch.

[1106] There's a switch and he gets into that octagon and what's that?

[1107] Why did you do that to me?

[1108] That's what Mikey said to him.

[1109] Yeah.

[1110] He felt bad that the guy wouldn't tap.

[1111] It was a crazy demonstration, but that poor guy, I mean, I got to think his, what kind of surgery?

[1112] Find out what kind of surgery that guy had to have after that fight?

[1113] I hate leg locks in general.

[1114] Even at practice, I'll tell you guys, if you're going to put leglock, I'm just going to tap.

[1115] Like, I'm not even going to play it because it's...

[1116] Well, I came up before leglock, so I didn't learn leg locks.

[1117] locks until late in my Jiu -Jitsu journey.

[1118] Like, I was already a blackbell before leg locks became the big thing.

[1119] When we already knew about them, like, I had seen Dean Lister use them.

[1120] I went, when Eddie went to Abu Dhabi, I went down there with him, and Dean Lister was tapping people.

[1121] Dean Lister was the first guy to really, like, fuck a lot of guys up with leg locks.

[1122] And a few of those Lute Levera guys were really good at leg locks.

[1123] They would do them.

[1124] But leg locks and jujitsu tournaments were booed.

[1125] Really?

[1126] Yeah, man, because they ruined people's knees, and no one really knew how to defend them.

[1127] torn ACL, torn MCL, torn meniscus, and a broken ankle.

[1128] Oh, my God.

[1129] That's wild.

[1130] He tore everything.

[1131] Mikey said, I'm sick to my stomach.

[1132] I never felt someone's leg explode like that in a match.

[1133] I've been training for 22 years.

[1134] I never broke someone's leg that much.

[1135] I broke it a lot of legs, but that leg exploded.

[1136] I did know what to do, and it was just disgusting and gross.

[1137] I really wish he tapped.

[1138] The result didn't change.

[1139] Now he's in the hospital, so I don't know.

[1140] But what a worry is for showing his will.

[1141] that's why you got to choke people you got to choke people some people just they don't want to tap and they just go to sleep and that's okay that's that's Marcella Garcia's route Marcelo Garcia never used Camoras because Marcella Garcia of course you could do a Camorra he never used come because he felt like Camoras were like a strong man's move because you have to kind of yank it and you're resisting the arm it's not perfect technique so Marcella was all about grabbing your neck like he had the nastiest guillotine did you ever watch Marcella by it oh my god I was there live when he fought Shaolin in Abu Dhabi.

[1142] Oh, my God.

[1143] Oh, my God.

[1144] It was like, what was that dude, the Tasmanian devil from the cartoons?

[1145] That was like, just spinning around him, getting his back, and put him to sleep.

[1146] That's crazy.

[1147] Oh, my God.

[1148] And nobody knew who Marcella was.

[1149] That was what was crazy.

[1150] Like, a lot of people respected him.

[1151] Everybody knew he was a black belt.

[1152] You know, Fabio Gurgel lineage, solid lineage.

[1153] Everybody knew he was good.

[1154] But, God, damn.

[1155] Killer.

[1156] Killer.

[1157] Did you watch that million -dollar tournament?

[1158] with Craig Jones I did Yeah I did That one match Was really good In the semifinals With them two kids Oh yeah Routolo Yeah Who was the other Caddy Fire I forgot But that was a I think they said It's on YouTube It's the greatest Grappling match Of all time Yeah that was a wild one The Ruto Brothers are so good Man They're so good And again Look 20 years old 19 years old Just coming up The young ones Man Young and explosive And wild They do all kinds of Crazy techniques They catch darses From everywhere And I like the ring they did it.

[1159] Andrew Tackett, who's also a killer.

[1160] So it was an incredible match.

[1161] And these guys just went at it.

[1162] I don't like that ring.

[1163] It's fun.

[1164] It's like something different.

[1165] I don't like it.

[1166] I don't like it because it's another obstacle.

[1167] I think they had it right before when there was no obstacles.

[1168] Like this is an obstacle, right?

[1169] This keeps you from being able to get upright.

[1170] It's a thing that you have to think about.

[1171] This is why, like, I've said this before.

[1172] I apologize for everybody who's heard it.

[1173] I think fighting should take place with no cage.

[1174] It would be easier to see and I think it should be on a basketball court and you fight in the center.

[1175] Yeah.

[1176] If you can have basketball in the same arena as where we have UFCs, you take an enormous space you matted up, you put security around it so nobody can get in and nobody, you know, you put ropes up and guys step in and they fight right in front of everybody.

[1177] That would be epic.

[1178] No time limit.

[1179] No, I think you should have time limits.

[1180] I think you should even have rounds, but if I was running things, this is what I'd do.

[1181] Number one, first thing I'd do, cover the fingertips.

[1182] Why are the fingertips open?

[1183] They don't have to be open.

[1184] All you need is the same UFC gloves right now and extend the lever like a mitten, the leather like a mitten over the tips of the front fingers and pull it back in there.

[1185] I think it would help grappling.

[1186] I don't think it would hurt grappling.

[1187] So I don't think grapplers have a problem.

[1188] It would have no difference at all on your striking.

[1189] You would just pull it like a bag glove.

[1190] You know, like those old everlast bag gloves?

[1191] Yeah.

[1192] But not even as thick.

[1193] Just have it.

[1194] So now you have one piece.

[1195] So you don't have nothing that can go in your eyeball.

[1196] Like we've seen fingers go in eyeballs before.

[1197] So that would be eliminated.

[1198] You'd still have some abrasions of the eye.

[1199] You could still run into fingers like that.

[1200] It would suck.

[1201] It would suck less, though.

[1202] Yeah.

[1203] It would suck less.

[1204] So that would be my first thing I would do.

[1205] Second thing I would do, wherever the fuck, nobody gets stood up ever for any reason, unless someone gets injured or some foul or something happens wrong.

[1206] Somebody bites somebody, some crazy shit.

[1207] Then stand people up.

[1208] And then I think you put him right back down to the position after you take the point away or whatever you're going to do.

[1209] but once a guy gets you down it's your job to get back up and at the end of the round if you're on your back and he's mounted you you start the next round with him mounted you you put the arm in the exact same place he had an overhook on the right arm and he's on top and he's got his hand on your bicep okay this is how the round ended this is how we start and everybody looks at the screen and everybody looks at the guys and they go three two one fight that would be wild that would be real yeah that'll be real Because it's not five fights.

[1210] It's one fight.

[1211] It's one fight that's five rounds.

[1212] Why should it start on your feet every round?

[1213] That's crazy.

[1214] Why?

[1215] Because that's how it is in boxing to come out of their corner?

[1216] Who fucking cares?

[1217] That's stupid.

[1218] Yeah.

[1219] Start them where they...

[1220] You got to get better the same way you got sick.

[1221] You got taken down.

[1222] You got to get up.

[1223] Somebody got you down.

[1224] You got to get up.

[1225] Because if you don't get up, then he's winning.

[1226] He's figured out a way to hold you down.

[1227] You don't want to be held down.

[1228] He's holding you down.

[1229] So he's winning.

[1230] Even if he's not doing any damage.

[1231] He's winning.

[1232] He's holding you down.

[1233] Everybody, boo, boo.

[1234] So what?

[1235] So it'll affect your ticket sale.

[1236] So let you'll get less money for pay -per -views.

[1237] So what?

[1238] But this is what real fighting is.

[1239] That's real.

[1240] That's the most pure version of the sport that we could offer.

[1241] Giant matted down space.

[1242] You make it so that, you know, you have security around it so no fucking psychos can rush.

[1243] You know, you put ropes up so people can't pass.

[1244] it, everybody's going to have a clear line of sight, no cages in the way, you still have the big monitors and everything like that, but they fight in an enormous space and you have a danger zone, you got an outside danger zone.

[1245] And if you keep going into that fucking danger zone, they take a point away.

[1246] If you get kicked in the nuts, take a point away, you get poked in the eye, take a point away, you grab the, well, grab the fence, I think, take a point away too, but let's have no fence.

[1247] Yeah.

[1248] No fence.

[1249] So there's no way to take someone down except taking them down.

[1250] You got to actually take them down.

[1251] You can't get them up against the cage and trip them because they're back.

[1252] No, no, no. You have to take them down on a flat ground with no help.

[1253] And he's got to get up without the cage.

[1254] You can't wall walk up to the cage and press his back up and use the leverage.

[1255] Uh -uh.

[1256] Uh -uh.

[1257] Get up.

[1258] You're in the middle of the fucking matted area.

[1259] Get up.

[1260] I'm just imagining guys like MVP and Wonderboy.

[1261] Like to be able to catch those guys in a basketball player would be wild.

[1262] Sean O'Malley.

[1263] Yeah, hard.

[1264] Great for them too.

[1265] Bad for them if they could take.

[1266] taking down though real bad yeah real bad because now you have to actually be able to get up and you're stuck there and imagine getting up with kabib on top of you has anybody ever gotten up dude that guy gets on top of you you're fucked you gotta wait to the rounds over bro like when we when a grapple like the round will be over with and he'll still be going and he's like no brother you have to get up and i'm just like i can't like the bell rang bro you got to get up that's what you mean it'll just stay on top of you it'll be like a 15 minute round it'll be just like that's so crazy non -stop is wild yeah But that mentality is why that camp produces so many assassins.

[1267] I was very impressed with Umar.

[1268] Very impressed.

[1269] Very impressed.

[1270] Because I always knew he was an elite kicker.

[1271] You know, I mean, he's an elite striker, too.

[1272] But to see him fight a guy like Sanhagen, who's so complex, he does so many things well.

[1273] And to see him dominate that fight, I was like, wow, that's really impressive.

[1274] That's really impressive.

[1275] Yeah, I think he still has less than five fights in the UFC.

[1276] He's still...

[1277] Yeah, he's incredible.

[1278] Starting.

[1279] You know, I butcher his name one time So bad I could see it all the time I could It couldn't get out of my mouth Like I don't know what it is Like sometimes my mouth Just don't work right And that's fine if you're doing a podcast You could just say it again But if you're like saying it guys I was like I'm no back Fuck I'm like what did I say I felt so bad Because I really love the guy I think he's awesome And especially after the Sanhagan fight I think he's the most compelling contender In that division after Marab Yeah So after Marab I think he's got to get that shot whoever wins and him against either one of those guys is sensational that's a sensational fight that's like elite top that's like as good as we have to offer today in terms of martial arts talent yeah 100 % like the way he did sand like sanagan's one of my favorite fighters he's so good how good umar did against them and didn't have really any moments of difficulty in there and i was like he's elite yeah he's he's super elite you know i think about san hagen one thing I think about is here's a bummer T .J. Dilshaw.

[1280] Like, T .J. Dillshaw, let's imagine T .J. Dillshaw didn't blow out his shoulders because T .J. Dilsaw beat San Hagan with one leg.

[1281] Yeah.

[1282] Which is crazy.

[1283] And he beat Sanhagen, Sanhagen.

[1284] Sanhagen that fucked up, Marlon, Marys.

[1285] Sanhagen, Sanhagen.

[1286] Like, the Sanhagen of today, you know, that guy is fucking top of the food chain.

[1287] He's very good.

[1288] And T .J. beat him with one leg.

[1289] And a fucked up shoulder.

[1290] His shoulder wasn't good back then either.

[1291] Yeah.

[1292] It was fucked up.

[1293] But he figured out a way to win.

[1294] It wasn't the most exciting fight, but how could it be?

[1295] He had one ACL.

[1296] He blew his fucking knee apart.

[1297] But he still beat him.

[1298] That guy's had so many fucking injuries.

[1299] If you imagine T .J. Dillishaw not having all those injuries.

[1300] And someone talking him out of going down to 25.

[1301] Yeah.

[1302] You see how big he is right now?

[1303] Bro, he's huge.

[1304] It's like 180 pounds.

[1305] It's wild.

[1306] I was like, that's what I would be.

[1307] I wish I was tighter with him because I would have said, do not fucking do it.

[1308] Look at him now.

[1309] Oh, my God.

[1310] Yeah, his piss would melt that U .S. A lot of cup.

[1311] Just put him and Chad Mendes in a room and just have him just like duke it out.

[1312] Do a best body contest.

[1313] DeVos like takes.

[1314] But you got to think, man, how good Cody No Love was when he beat him, you know, when he stopped him.

[1315] Dude, T .J. Dillishar was a bad man. Hennon Barow was the pound for pound considerate of a number one fighter in the world when he was the Bannonweight champion.

[1316] A lot of people, he was in consideration.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] And T .J. just pieced him up.

[1319] And he did it like he was sparring.

[1320] He was all loose and relaxed.

[1321] And he had that, Dwayne Ludwig, I don't know, you ever trained with Dwayne?

[1322] No. He's got an incredible system.

[1323] That bang muay system is one of the most complex and well thought out striking systems I've ever seen.

[1324] Like, he's a maniac.

[1325] He's got notebooks, like binders with all these moves, like locked in.

[1326] And he, if you watch Dwayne fight, though, it's so crazy because he didn't fight that way.

[1327] Yeah.

[1328] Dwayne fought, you know, he had like kind of traditional, like a lot of moitai, a lot of Dutch kickboxing style, nasty striker.

[1329] But he didn't like switch stances all the time and do like T .J. But he figured that out.

[1330] He figured out that this is the way.

[1331] The constant switching and striking from each stance and the constant footwork and movement and all these patterns that they would get guys to lead into certain positions and do it.

[1332] It wasn't just like smashing buttons like Stalabender likes to talk about.

[1333] Dwayne's thought about it as like a real comprehensive striking program.

[1334] And T .J. was his best pupil.

[1335] And T .J. when he fought Hannan Barrault was showing that style in its world -class form.

[1336] But people forget.

[1337] People forget how good T .J. Dillshaw was.

[1338] They forget.

[1339] He has that fight with Sohudo.

[1340] He test positive for EPO.

[1341] Because he's literally dying to make $1 .25.

[1342] He looked like an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor.

[1343] He did.

[1344] He looked like they just opened the doors and let him out of the concentration camp.

[1345] He had no skin in his face.

[1346] His face was just, it was just bones.

[1347] He looked terrible.

[1348] And T .J. is a big guy for 35.

[1349] He's big.

[1350] He's a good, solid, perfect 35 -pound frame.

[1351] And somehow or another, someone talked him into it, or he wanted to do it for the challenge.

[1352] Chasing that greatness.

[1353] Yeah.

[1354] Fuck that, man. Fuck that kind of cut.

[1355] Because he had to be starving to death in camp.

[1356] So he must have been, like, doing his camp while he was starving, literally starting to death.

[1357] Like your organs are shutting down, your brain's not working anymore.

[1358] And then when you're thinking about, was the EPO just because of the weight cut?

[1359] That's what he said.

[1360] Right.

[1361] But then he's thinking if he was using him beforehand, how good Cody Nolove was before he fought him.

[1362] And after him beating Dominique Cruz, that was like the best performance ever seen in my life.

[1363] And then he goes and gets knocked out by him.

[1364] And if he says, because he was an EPO, and it's like, that changed your whole career.

[1365] It does.

[1366] It does change your whole career.

[1367] And, you know, there's guys who have accused him of doing it.

[1368] stuff other than that and I don't I don't know who's telling that's what he looked like grow that's so crazy that is so crazy I wish I was his friend I wish I was tight with him back then and when he was I wish like he would have listened to someone who said just don't do that man don't fucking do that you could be one of the all -time greats at 35 and stay there but you also got to think like how many of his injuries got amplified because of that weight cut how much body deterioration was he going through and then also going through camp so he's pushing hard, he's wrestling, he's hitting the mitts, he's sparring, all this while his body's deteriorating so all his mass is down, all the muscle that's protecting his shoulders which are, you know, his super spenetus has been missing forever.

[1369] His super spinaus has been ripped off the bone from like the beginning of his career.

[1370] We were just, I was talking to a guy yesterday about weight cutting.

[1371] We were at the sushi spot, sushi by scratch, and then the sushi guy who was rolling it, he was like I used to be a weight cutter in high school when I was a wrestler, and I had a heart surgery because I was cutting weight since I was six years old.

[1372] My dad would make me cut weight.

[1373] And I was like, oh my God.

[1374] That'll change your whole life because you started cutting you at that young.

[1375] And he's like, bro, I had so many issues, problems from there.

[1376] And it was just wrestling.

[1377] He said I wasn't even grappling or anything.

[1378] I was just wrestling since the kid.

[1379] My dad just made me cut weight since I was a kid.

[1380] It was like 109 pounds to like 90 pounds.

[1381] And I was like, why are you cutting weight that young?

[1382] It's so bad for you.

[1383] Yeah.

[1384] It stunts your growth.

[1385] There's a lot of wild shit to your body.

[1386] Make your kidneys.

[1387] fail and changed your life changes your life yeah and you don't grow up right it's like you're being poisoned from the time you're a kid your body doesn't develop right who knows what could do to your this the future of your life it might have taken a decade or two off of his life and it just burns you all in general if you go to fighting after that exactly you've been cutting weight since that long now you're a fighter now you have to cut weight right every single fighter I think has like an eating disorder too now after oh yeah yeah I'm sure I'm sure well how much do you have to cut me like i get around to like 190 and then when it's when i'm in fight camp and i'm training i'm walking around at 185 so like oh that's not bad at 15 pounds the most yeah but i i i keep a chef with me for like this last five weeks uh ian larios he'd been with like dc uh cane and all them guys and he lives in my house for five weeks and i tell people it changes your life like you you train so much better off it because he's giving you the right food to eat right before i would sit there when I'm cutting away myself I'm like I'm not going to have breakfast I'm just going to go to the gym and train now I'm waking up and he's giving me like potatoes and eggs and I'm like I can't have carbs what are you giving me these for bro you're not going to train you're not going to have a good workout unless you had this stuff so like there's no thought process with me he just gives me everything my shakes my my food and then I come home from practice and then he has lunch on the table then I come home after another session and he has dinner on the table and is he calculating the calories for each meal and how it's set up that's where it gets fascinating right when they calculate the the calories for each meal, and they give you the exact right amount.

[1388] Yeah, I hate looking at the scale.

[1389] So, like, he'll make me step on the scale, and it'll be five weeks.

[1390] I'm like, bro, no, we're not, we're not.

[1391] We still have, like, five more weeks.

[1392] So, like, get on the scale, so I won't look at it.

[1393] So he'll look at it, cut right in his phone.

[1394] And then he'll just keep track of it the whole time.

[1395] That's an eating disorder.

[1396] It is.

[1397] Yeah, man. You wouldn't even look at it.

[1398] I was like, bro, I don't even want to look at it because then it just, it tells me, like, oh, man, I got to do this or I got to do that more.

[1399] But it don't make me push that much harder at practice.

[1400] but I'm like I'm going to push hard anyway for the fight but I think mentally I just hate scales I won't step on a scale until I have a fight Yo nobody's got an eating disorder like Patty Oh my God Patty Patty celebrates his eating disorder That motherfucker gained 40 pounds after his last fight And that's gonna literally kill him I feel like It's wild It's definitely well he's so good though man I'm so impressed with him Like he keeps getting I thought Jared Gordon beat him And I thought that fight fight to me was that was another one of those fights.

[1401] If Jared Gordon wins, then all of a sudden, Jared Gordon's get another big fight, another big fight.

[1402] He had two blunders in a row, you know, not his fault.

[1403] The other one was the headbutt with Bobby.

[1404] Yeah.

[1405] But the Patty one was a big one, man, because the Patty one, he was fucking winning that fight, man. I felt he was landing the big shots.

[1406] That counter -left hook was sweet.

[1407] He looked good.

[1408] I thought he won the fight.

[1409] I thought it was a good fight, but I thought he won the fight.

[1410] And then Patty fights Bobby Green, and And he looks like a world beater.

[1411] He looks like a world beater.

[1412] The strategy was perfect.

[1413] Stay on the outside.

[1414] Fuck his legs up.

[1415] And then you realize how big Patty is too.

[1416] Like, Patty's a big 55er because Bobby's big.

[1417] Yeah.

[1418] Excuse me, King.

[1419] He's King now.

[1420] That's wild.

[1421] Change his name of King.

[1422] I love that dude.

[1423] Change his name of King.

[1424] So King is, you know, he's a tall dude too for the division.

[1425] Yeah.

[1426] But you realize how big Patty is.

[1427] And people think of Patty only as a grappler, but his kicks were on point, man. His kicks were on point.

[1428] And he's tough in general.

[1429] Yep.

[1430] Those guys, when you hit a guy and he's still staying in front of you, it makes you want to shoot on him.

[1431] Because I'm looking at Bobby like, why would you shoot a taked on a betty?

[1432] I feel like this is the only way of beating you is to catch you in a submission.

[1433] I think his legs were getting fucked up.

[1434] Yeah.

[1435] Yeah.

[1436] But it just makes you uncomfortable.

[1437] So he shot.

[1438] Here it is.

[1439] Yeah, I think he was seeing where this was going.

[1440] Look how big he looks, man. You realize, like, damn, he's a big 55, and he caught him with that inside low kick.

[1441] I mean, it might have been just instinct where Bobby just felt like he had.

[1442] to catch, excuse me, King felt like you had to catch that kick because it was available, but as a trap.

[1443] The crowd in Manchester, when Petty walks out, it's like nuts.

[1444] Yeah, he's a star.

[1445] Yeah, over there, it's crazy.

[1446] When I was sitting in the bag, we were sitting in the bag warming up, and then we just hear the people going nuts, and my family's like texting me like, man, I wish we were fighting so I could just enjoy this right now, watch a Patty walk out.

[1447] He's a scouser.

[1448] He's just fun.

[1449] He looks like he's having a good old time when he's out there.

[1450] and he can back it up so that fight was big for him because that fight moves him into elite status right he goes from Jared Gordon and now you know a couple of the fights now bam Bobby Green bam someone's going to be a big name someone next is going to be a big game so he's thinking right now about Islam he's thinking about those guys at the top of the heap he's at the point where I think one more especially because of his name if he gets like a hooker or a Chandler right and he gets past one of them guys I see them giving a tell shot up I think considering the amount of growth that we've already seen from him, though, like, if you were in his corner, wouldn't you say, couple more, be good, couple more, couple more, don't rush.

[1451] I would, but, like, for money -wise, and I think he's about the big name, especially if the UFC, when you're thinking of lightweight, Olivera just lost, Gatesy just lost, Hooker already lost to Islam.

[1452] If Islam gets past Armand, there's, I mean, if McGregor comes back and he beats Chandler, he's there.

[1453] But, like, there's not a lot of names right now for Islam because Gamrod was who's supposed to be the backup, and he just lost the hooker.

[1454] Yeah.

[1455] But Islam walked through Hooker, so you're like, who is Islam going to fight after Armand?

[1456] Right, right.

[1457] It's a good question, good question.

[1458] You know, because Gamrod was an interesting one.

[1459] We were looking forward to that versus Islam.

[1460] I'm like, that could be interesting because he's such a good grappler.

[1461] But when, you know, people forget about Dan Hooker.

[1462] they forgot about him too he's a dog yeah he's a dog Dan hooker went blow for blow with Dustin Poyer that was as close a fight as you're going to get and again another change of the career right Dustin moves on from that gets the corner fights Dustin Dustin becomes the man yeah people forget about that fight that was a fucking very close fight a very good fight and there was some moments where Dan Hooker was tune in Dustin Poyer up there's a video compilation online of Hooker having Poyer against the rope rap rap rap rap rap rap rap rap he's ripping shots before the end of the round he's a bad motherfucker isn't he got fought with a broken arm yeah he got his arm broken didn't say shit didn't say a goddamn worried about it wins the fight and they're like what happened you are it's just a scratch he's why even in this fight his face was like bleeding in between rounds and he's like I love this stuff well he also loves like you know he had that devastating knockout loss to Chandler right Chandler comes out catches him with that leaping hook and drops him and just puts it on them and like fuck you know this is a big high profile fight and you got caught you know and anybody can get caught that's what's crazy about the sport that's why it's so exciting anybody can get caught but it's like how how can you bounce back how do you bounce can you bounce back and be the same guy after you got caught yeah and that's the hardest part too because you get caught and you don't really feel anything afterward it's not like you went through a war or injury so you want to hop right back into it you're like let me get that up taste on our mouth let me fight again but you need like the coaches or around you.

[1463] I tell you, like, you still got a concussion.

[1464] Chill out.

[1465] Don't fight.

[1466] Take a couple months off.

[1467] Yeah.

[1468] Gatesy's taking a year off.

[1469] Yeah.

[1470] And it's like, you need those guys to hold you back because I've been knocked out before and it's like you, I'm all right.

[1471] I feel good.

[1472] My body feels good.

[1473] Like I don't have no scratches or anything.

[1474] I didn't go through a 15 minute war.

[1475] So I'm like, let me get another fight.

[1476] Let me get another fight.

[1477] Right.

[1478] But you don't know what's going on in your brain.

[1479] You don't know what your brain's dealing with.

[1480] And that's going to be to your future right there.

[1481] Yep, exactly.

[1482] And so many fighters, they're so tough.

[1483] They feel fine.

[1484] Their mind is, you know, their determination is strong.

[1485] Like, I want to get back in there.

[1486] Like, that was the case with Jamal Hill.

[1487] He was going to get right back in after the Paheda fight, and he was going to fight roundtree, which is, who, that's a bad fight if you just got knocked out just a few months ago.

[1488] That's a scary dude.

[1489] And even, like, taking the Paheta fight, he had a torn Achilles, and I think he just got cleared to come back from that Achilles, and it's like, right now you've got to fight Alex in six weeks.

[1490] And I'm like, bro, that's a short camp and you're switching up right away.

[1491] But he's like, 300, it's such a big opportunity.

[1492] Like, you can't say no to that.

[1493] And then, yeah, you get knocked out by Paheda and you're like, all right, I want to get right back in there.

[1494] But you're right back in there is going to be against a monster like roundtree.

[1495] I know, I know.

[1496] It's not a easy fight.

[1497] It was funny because he was on your show and I'm like, listen to him.

[1498] And he's like, I may do a jistice tournament.

[1499] And then I'm like, a week later, he gets a title fight.

[1500] Yeah, I know.

[1501] He was telling the whole time, no. No. No. Fucking way, don't do that.

[1502] Well, you do all that shit when it's over.

[1503] Because I remember Cub Swanson did a jujutor's ACO.

[1504] Yeah, once you know, once you tear some shit doing something stupid and you miss a title shot, you're never going to forgive yourself.

[1505] Yeah.

[1506] Especially Khalil's like 35.

[1507] You know, he's up in that age range too where it's like, now's the time, man. Yeah.

[1508] So it was perfect timing.

[1509] And a lot of people are like, Uncle I, I should have got the title shot.

[1510] But the problem is they already set up that fight with Rackich, which doesn't really totally make sense, right?

[1511] Right?

[1512] If you think, has rackage fought since Yuri beat him up?

[1513] No. Okay.

[1514] So that kind of doesn't make sense a little bit.

[1515] Yeah.

[1516] It'd make more sense if Jamal fought rackage, right?

[1517] Jamal Jalaj.

[1518] But Jamal wants something a little more high profile.

[1519] I understand that.

[1520] But Ankyov, man, no one's beating him.

[1521] Ankolyev had that one draw with Jan Bojovich, and no one's beating him.

[1522] Yeah.

[1523] There's another guy everybody forgets about it, Janbovovich.

[1524] what the fuck that guy almost beat paheda he was right that was such a close fight super close yeah down with the wire everybody's like yeah we already saw that like what what you gotta give yon his deal he was a light heavyweight champion of the fucking world and a destroyer yeah but for whatever reason i think they look at that number they say oh he's 40 years old yeah it's 41 years old whatever he is now so what so what he's still fucked up dominant gray as he still fucks up everybody.

[1525] Jan Bahovic is a murderer.

[1526] Yeah.

[1527] He's a scary dude, man. That's a good fight.

[1528] Man, he's Polish, bro.

[1529] They don't age.

[1530] He's a killer.

[1531] That dude's made out of rocks.

[1532] I remember when Ancolaev and him were going leg kick to leg kick.

[1533] He was kicking his shins and fucking Uncleayev's legs up.

[1534] I was like, this guy is nuts and I'm like, so I went to my coach and I'm like, what kind of low kick was he doing?

[1535] He was.

[1536] I think he was just going shin to shin to shin.

[1537] He was.

[1538] I'm not going to teach that.

[1539] He was just saying, feel Polish bone density.

[1540] slamming those fucking shins into the shins But if I'm up the head out, I'm going to pick all the strikers.

[1541] Like him at Rountry is going to be a crazy one.

[1542] This is only loss against Paul Craig his first fight in the UFC.

[1543] Oh yeah, Uncle I've got caught in a triangle.

[1544] That's right.

[1545] Last second of a third fight where he was...

[1546] Paul Craig has the nastiest triangle in the division.

[1547] For sure.

[1548] One of the nastiest triangles in the sport.

[1549] Look at this.

[1550] Look how quick he snatches that shit up.

[1551] Boom!

[1552] Snap!

[1553] And too late.

[1554] So here we got, I think there was like five seconds to go when he locks this up.

[1555] He tapped Unbelievable, man That is a wild So Uncle Ives had this long -ass win streak He looked real good in his last fight And then they give him a guy who So he beat Johnny Walker twice One of them was Johnny Walker It was like a The injury, right?

[1556] The desert.

[1557] What happened?

[1558] Remember he was in Abu Dhabi And he got a need while he was down And then the doctor came in and he said, Where are you?

[1559] And he said Desert And the doctor stopped it Oh, that's right And he got mad like why are you stopping it yeah that's right that's right but so he has the draw with yon bohovitch he chaos anthony smith beats tiago sances beats vulcan beats all these guys i mean he's beating a lot of guys i mean he's got a really good skill set where you think about with a guy like peheda because he can wrestle he can strike and he can wrestle and he has a knockout a huge knockout against johnny walker last so that's yeah so i guess for him he fights rockage i favor him in that fight but rockage is fucking dangerous as shit man you know rockage has had a long time off of the pro hoska fight and rockets look real good in that fight he was eating uri up before but yuri was just walking through everything yri's like the new age 20 ferguson where you hit me i'm gonna hit you with five other punches yeah and it's gonna make you tired of just hitting me and i'm gonna catch you it just doesn't work with poleton yeah you can't you can't be getting hit by that guy like i want to feel his low kick just because i'm like bro what does he do like he just touches it feels like he just like touches you with his foot and it's like you can't walk afterward he's targeting it too he doesn't ever go shin to shin and even when he checks he doesn't go shin to shin he lifts his leg up like he's playing hacky sack yeah he just lifts his leg up he just goes ankle he just lives his ankle so his foot comes all the way up to his other knee and then he drops it back down and he comes in with a right hand like he's got it down where if you try to ankle kick him he's got so many counters for that calf kick And he feels like he's like on every pay -per -view now Yeah man Hey we need somebody They put the bat symbol out there And he's like all right I'm ready He's still fight anybody Yeah Yeah he's fighting in Salt Lake City Against Roundtree And that's a wild ass fight man That's a wild fight A lot of people say Oh roundtree doesn't deserve it Let me tell you something Roundtree fights like you just Killed his family And lit his house on fire That dude's coming for you Yeah He's coming for everybody And stylistically He's not gonna shoot a takedown Yeah There'll be no takedowns He's fucking dangerous, man. But if you, you know, you think about the, like, Pajeda's striking, like, his overall accomplishments are second to none in an MMA.

[1560] Two -division glory world champion.

[1561] I mean, and the thing about him is that that fucking power is just freakish.

[1562] And he just, like, touches it, though.

[1563] It feels like, bro, what is that?

[1564] You see him hit the power cube, and he got 191 on the power cube with a right hand?

[1565] And that's not even his left hook.

[1566] Like hit it It probably doesn't want anybody to know Yeah Hit it with the left hook That's the sleeper That left hook is the sleeper It'd be like 5 ,000 You're like It's crazy He just touches people And it's when you're starting To see his personality Come on now more It's so fun Because Glover is like The nicest guy in the world And at first Alex was like So quiet And now you're starting to see Glover pull it out of them Even when he wins He's never like Yeah It's always like Yep Another day Yep another day Another day Another day another dude I put to sleep Like even after he beat Izzy He just walked away from him The referee stopped the fight And he just walked away But there's something exciting about that too Like that guy's one of the biggest pay -per -view stars In the country In the world And most people don't even understand what he's saying And he's a star, right?

[1567] He's a huge star All he has to do is make facial expressions But it's also it's scary When he comes out with the bow and arrow Boom boom boom boom boom boom Boom boom boom if you're sitting there watching that guy walked in the cage like oh shit I mean like thinking to myself I gotta come up with some sort of stick like that like I gotta figure out something but I can't think of anything it just like look fake yeah you got to be yourself that's either you or that's not you but that's the coolest thing in the world whenever I've had one of his fights to see that walk out that face dude and the music that is the most terrifying face him walking towards the cage and you're standing there you've been prepping for this dude for 12 weeks and you're like oh Jesus here it comes damn bro I hate seeing that one just because Jamal's my boy and I'm like obviously I'm a fan of peter but man to see him just like catch my boy like oh come on Jamal give one back just to get that taste out of our mouth well there was a weird moment in that fight and we've talked about it before where Jamal accidentally low kicked him and the referee moves in the stop and Jamal stands up straight and relaxes like you okay and when Poetan puts his hand on Herb Dean he advances he makes a little hop step and then he goes right back to fighting and he catches him with the left hook so he closed some distance and it's a game of inches oh especially with that guy yeah he does everything for a reason and then when you see somebody break it down like that like you said everything changes imagine if he didn't imagine the refs that right both you back up you back up yep everything changes Yeah.

[1568] Yeah, everything changes.

[1569] But that's moments and fights, you know, and maybe that will define Jamal's career.

[1570] Maybe Jamal will learn from that and never be, never take his eye off the prize again.

[1571] Yeah.

[1572] Never relax.

[1573] And I guarantee you he won't relax now.

[1574] Yeah.

[1575] Protects yourself at all times.

[1576] And I guess, you know, I see it from Perjana's point of view, too.

[1577] The referee said, okay, keep going.

[1578] And he caught him.

[1579] But he did close that distance because of that low kick.

[1580] So it is a...

[1581] And I think it will open up a lot of fighter's eyes, too, right?

[1582] because you're starting to see these little things.

[1583] Except for me now, I'm like, no, the rep tells me something.

[1584] I'm either taking one step back myself or I'm going to take that step forward and catch that ahead of distance myself.

[1585] You just can't relax ever.

[1586] You can never relax.

[1587] Because it's such a game of impossible things happening at any moment.

[1588] So many guys have pulled out impossible things.

[1589] Head kicks, spinning elbows out of nowhere.

[1590] Things happen.

[1591] And if you're relaxed even for a second.

[1592] Yeah.

[1593] The Korean zombie Yair.

[1594] Oh, my God.

[1595] Upper cut elbow.

[1596] Oh, my God.

[1597] What was this?

[1598] Running away, uppercut, elbow.

[1599] With like two seconds left.

[1600] Yeah, crazy.

[1601] And you're like, how?

[1602] How did this just happen right now?

[1603] When Yair landed that jumping roundhouse kick on Andre feeling.

[1604] Ooh, the scissor kick.

[1605] My God.

[1606] His kicks are so nasty.

[1607] Yeah, it's so interesting to see all these different ways to get elite.

[1608] There's so many different ways.

[1609] You know, some guys are specialists like Paheda, and some guys just dominate all aspects like Islam.

[1610] You know, there's like all these.

[1611] different ways that guys achieve to becoming the best yeah that's my mindset I like I always tell myself I'm behind because I got started late so I'm like I didn't do martial arts as I was a kid so like I always got to tell myself oh we got to do everything there's not like one thing that I'm like amazing at right but people see the fight and they're like all you are is a wrestler all you are is this and that I'm like bro I do everything and I train everything more than everybody else and I like I don't take any days off how old were you when you first started training I was 23 Wow, that's crazy Yeah That's way behind the curve Way behind Way behind And I didn't do no I did like two years Of high school wrestling Wow Yeah At least you had that Yeah That's definitely something Oh no I mean For me it changed my life Because you're in high school Your body's developing Yeah You know your body's developing Where you learn How to take people down Like yeah That helps for sure But if nothing by 23 It's crazy Yeah I mean yeah I always played sports in general No basketball No striking at all Nothing?

[1612] No I mean I would always get in like in street fights in like Chicago just because I'm a trash talker when I play basketball so like we would always sit there and go to the park and then people would see like who these ARABs coming to play basketball and we'll be winning and I'm talking trash and they want to start a fight afterward so it was always the best but what made you start training?

[1613] My high school wrestling coach Lewis Taylor he was like the PFL middleweight champion he was in my high school wrestling coach for two years and then he'd like left and so I'm like whatever happened to him he was like that cool coach that young coach and he was like gone so i stopped wrestling and then i was at school for just i was trying to be like a lawyer and i ended up seeing him in a newspaper he was fighting in strike force so then i just like messes him on facebook and i was like bro you're a fighter and he's like yeah i was like whatever happened to you he's like oh i was still young i still had something left in me so i wanted to start training and he used to be like rampage his roommate in college so he already had like that uh mindset of like oh these guys are fighting i could fight too right right so then he his gym ended up being probably like 10 minutes away from my mom's house.

[1614] So when I'll come home from school on the weekends, I would just start training with him.

[1615] And then it was just like a snowball effect.

[1616] I started like falling in love with it.

[1617] And after my first amateur fight, after like two months, I was like, could I get a fight?

[1618] He's like, yeah.

[1619] Yeah, because I was just like excited about the whole thing.

[1620] And for us two is like we were only training partners.

[1621] So I'm training with him and like I'm learning the hard way.

[1622] Like we're just going straight sparring or straight wrestling.

[1623] And he was like a Division I wrestler.

[1624] He had crazy power, crazy jihitsu.

[1625] So, like, I'm getting good just because he's beating me up the whole time.

[1626] So then I'm like, oh, I can fight amateur.

[1627] And he's like, yeah, let's go, get you one.

[1628] Wow.

[1629] Yeah.

[1630] So then I got it.

[1631] It was, like, the biggest street fight in the world, the amateur fight.

[1632] It was like nothing good about my technique or anything.

[1633] But it's funny because Mark Coleman was a commentator for it.

[1634] Oh, wow.

[1635] Yeah.

[1636] It was like the whole scenario was crazy.

[1637] And it was like, I got at a bar and it was just like, cool.

[1638] So then after that, I was like, bro, all right, I transferred to like a closer school near the gym.

[1639] I started training more with him.

[1640] And then, you know, my parents are telling me, like, stay in school, stay in school.

[1641] So then once I started just, like, getting more wins, more wins, and I decided to go pro.

[1642] I said, I'll go back to school after I lose.

[1643] And then we just kept going until we got to the UFC.

[1644] Wow.

[1645] Yeah, it was wild.

[1646] He's still with me now to this day.

[1647] But even with him, he was 41 years old, and they never gave him a UFC shot.

[1648] But he ended up going to PFL, and he was like a 1 ,200 underdog, and he won the million dollars at 30 seconds with a knockout.

[1649] Wow.

[1650] Yeah, he was fighting a boost.

[1651] Megamatta, the one that's in the UFC now, they were in the finals.

[1652] He beat a boost?

[1653] He beat a boost, 30 -second knock -off.

[1654] Wow.

[1655] A boost is good.

[1656] Yeah, and he was 41 years old, never got his shot.

[1657] And it's crazy how his career ended like that.

[1658] Middleweight champion retired on top now.

[1659] Million dollars.

[1660] And there's a lot of guys that go to UFC that don't hit a million dollars.

[1661] That's true.

[1662] So he's like, my path was that way.

[1663] So even with me, when I was doing all this waiting for this title fight, he was like, patience, it's going to come.

[1664] Like, you saw what I had to go through.

[1665] Your title fight's going to come.

[1666] It's going to come.

[1667] at the right moment so just enjoy the journey can you find that fight let's see if you can find that fight Jamie Lewis Taylor and Abus Magamatov Abus had a great first round with Sean Strickland a great first round but that was like Sean Strickland is just a zombie he just marches towards you and you can't hit him he's hard to hit but he was fucking his legs up I was hoping to knock him out I was like come out of boost please bro he was putting it on him in that first round but he started getting tired yeah by the end of the first round he was tired he threw everything at him yeah Everything was full clip too Full speed, full clip And I was like Because even in the PFL the way he was killing everybody He was like So he was 41 in this fight?

[1668] Yeah That's so crazy So this is the PFL championships In 2018 Yeah And it's crazy because they got rid of the middleweight Division after this So now they don't have middleweight there anymore How is that possible?

[1669] Because they wanted to put the women's division The 55ers So they got rid of the middleweight guys Can I talk to somebody over there A boost See there's a low kick His low kicks are nasty.

[1670] He just, for whatever reason, Abuse has a hard time sustaining it.

[1671] I mean, I think he's getting better in the UFC.

[1672] And I think the Sean Strickland fight was just too quick.

[1673] Oh, left hook.

[1674] Oh, my goodness.

[1675] Back that up again.

[1676] Look at this.

[1677] They go shin, shin.

[1678] Boom.

[1679] Oh, my God.

[1680] The distance he covered with that left hook.

[1681] And it's like a boost is even blocking it, too.

[1682] Like, he just has crazy power.

[1683] There's another thing about guys who are really good at shooting.

[1684] That same ability to cover distance when you make a double leg is the same kind of drive that you need to move forward to punch.

[1685] That's one of the reasons why Randleman was so dangerous.

[1686] Yeah.

[1687] You know, because Randleman had that crazy shot, so he could explode forward and punch you from a distance.

[1688] You really can't punch him.

[1689] That's incredible.

[1690] Look how much distance he covers.

[1691] Jamie just broke it down.

[1692] Look at this.

[1693] Yeah, he hopped in there.

[1694] No, go back a little bit further, please.

[1695] Just a little bit further before he throws the punch.

[1696] He's way back there, dude.

[1697] Watch this.

[1698] Look how far away he is Oh my goodness Abuse made a mistake that he tried to counter He was thinking about countering Before the punch got to him And he just wasn't quick enough That's incredible Good for him man Good for him And that guy's legit man To knock out a guy like that Abuse is legit Yeah When people go back and look at his record He had like 10 first round finishes Wow On his come up But like the UFC just said he was too old They never gave him a shot Oh that's crazy Yeah and I was like Bro if people just saw him And even when he started his career, like I said, I was like one of his main training partners from the beginning.

[1699] If he was like an American top team or like a real gym, because he had kids early, so he didn't want to like leave them.

[1700] So he always trained in Chicago.

[1701] And he's like, I'm going to build up my own guys.

[1702] So we had like a small gym like three or four guys that he just used as the main training partners.

[1703] And there's some dudes that can compete at a world class level deep into their 40s.

[1704] And I always point to Bernard Hopkins.

[1705] Everybody wrote Bernard Hopkins off before he fought Kelly Papen.

[1706] and he beat the shit out of Kelly Pavlik and he just boxed him he just did everything perfect it was a masterclass in boxing a masterclass of world championship caliber boxing against a guy in Kelly Pavlik which was fucking dangerous man wicked puncher tough as shit that Jermaine taylor fight was crazy he was out in that fight and came back to stop Taylor just a warrior a real dog so Bernard was like how old was Bernard when he fought Kelly Pavlik when he fought felix when he fought Felix Trinidad everybody wrote him off.

[1707] He was like 36 or something by the time he fought Trinidad.

[1708] Oh, yeah?

[1709] Yeah, man. Everybody wrote him off.

[1710] Wow.

[1711] Bernard was wild, too.

[1712] He threw the Puerto Rican flag down on the ground in Puerto Rico.

[1713] He had a run.

[1714] People were chasing him.

[1715] He ran?

[1716] He had a run.

[1717] They were trying to kill him.

[1718] Yeah, you can't do that.

[1719] Yeah, he told me the whole story.

[1720] It was hilarious.

[1721] Yeah, he's a, I mean, but how old was Bernard?

[1722] Forty -three years old when he fought Kelly Pavlik.

[1723] Come on, son.

[1724] 43 years old.

[1725] That's so crazy.

[1726] He beat Roy Jones Jr. when he was 45.

[1727] Unbelievable.

[1728] The Chad Dawson fight, bro.

[1729] He was 46 years old and Chad Dawson was a killer.

[1730] Chad Dawson was a vicious knockout artist.

[1731] And he knocked him out in the second round.

[1732] And then he lost it against him the next fight.

[1733] That's how good Chad was.

[1734] Chad was a fucking good fighter.

[1735] That he lost to Kovalev.

[1736] and he lost to Joe Smith Jr., which was a bad one.

[1737] But he was 51 years old when he fought Joe Smith.

[1738] And Joe Smith is another one who's a fucking killer man. He's a dangerous puncher.

[1739] Joe Smith is a mauler, dangerous guy.

[1740] He's 51 years old?

[1741] That's wild.

[1742] Natural?

[1743] 51 years old?

[1744] What do you think of Tyson and Jake?

[1745] I wish he didn't do it.

[1746] I wish it wasn't a thing.

[1747] I wish it wasn't a thing where a 58 -year -old guy was going to fight a 28 -year -old.

[1748] That said, that out the window.

[1749] I fully support his desire to do it.

[1750] What is he going to live forever?

[1751] He's not going to live forever.

[1752] Maybe he wants one more shot at it.

[1753] Maybe his body can do one more fight.

[1754] I don't know.

[1755] He looks great on the Mitz, but that doesn't mean that you know as much as I know.

[1756] I can look good on the Bits.

[1757] Yeah.

[1758] I tell people that, like, bro, Mitz doesn't show anything.

[1759] Especially if you watch in 30 -second clips, which you want to see, is him sparring.

[1760] You want to see him hitting the bag for multiple rounds.

[1761] You'd want to see, like, let's see three rounds.

[1762] hard on the bag.

[1763] I'm going to see what you could do.

[1764] I want to see how your feet move.

[1765] I want to see what it looks like if you're off balance when you're throwing combinations.

[1766] Do you look like Tyson?

[1767] Yeah.

[1768] Remember there's some videos of Tyson hitting the bag when he was like 19 years old?

[1769] And it's like, it's like, it's crazy.

[1770] Watch like the speed and the past.

[1771] See if you find that.

[1772] Mike Tyson hitting the heavy bag when he's young.

[1773] Terrifying.

[1774] Terrifying.

[1775] That to me, a bag is different than Mitz.

[1776] Mitz guys are meeting you halfway, you know, you've got a combination worked out.

[1777] Okay, I want you to go left, right, left of the body, right overhand.

[1778] Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

[1779] Okay, do it again.

[1780] Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, it kind of can look real good.

[1781] Yeah.

[1782] But can you do that with a guy who's moving?

[1783] Can you spar?

[1784] Like, would they bring in a world -class heavyweight?

[1785] Can you do that?

[1786] Like, what, how do you move?

[1787] How are your knees?

[1788] How's your back?

[1789] Like, are you, can you sustain that?

[1790] Can you sustain those kind of explosions?

[1791] or is just a gimmick?

[1792] You know?

[1793] I mean, I don't know.

[1794] I know he used to be able to, but we won't really know.

[1795] So here's him when he's young.

[1796] Michael Tyson.

[1797] Yeah, kill the sound.

[1798] You don't have to see the sound.

[1799] Just look at this.

[1800] And he's young here, man. Young.

[1801] So that's him hitting the bag later in life.

[1802] I would want to see rounds.

[1803] You know, I want to see rounds.

[1804] I want to see what it looks like when he's tired.

[1805] How quick does he get tired?

[1806] I want to see him sparring.

[1807] I wonder if he's going to spar.

[1808] Look at that when he's young, man. Dude, terrifying.

[1809] Those combinations when he...

[1810] Show that again.

[1811] Bro, he was so fast.

[1812] So fast and always moving.

[1813] Always moving.

[1814] Bobbing and weaving.

[1815] He was a target that you couldn't find.

[1816] Just moving at you.

[1817] Constantly advancing.

[1818] Just a mindset.

[1819] Just craziness.

[1820] Madness.

[1821] Just controlled madness in that with perfect technique and ferocious power and awesome genetics.

[1822] You know, they said that Teddy Atlas told me that when he was 13 years old, He would bring him to smokers, and they would go, how old is that kid?

[1823] He's 13.

[1824] He's 16.

[1825] He's like, fine, he's 16.

[1826] And he was 190 at 13 years old.

[1827] What?

[1828] Yeah, 190.

[1829] Wow.

[1830] That's wild.

[1831] What?

[1832] That's God.

[1833] He got a gift.

[1834] He got a God kissed his physique.

[1835] Imagine you're going to smoke.

[1836] You're a 13 -year -old, and you see that guy.

[1837] What the fuck?

[1838] Oh, you got to fight him.

[1839] You're like, wait, what the fuck?

[1840] What are you talking about?

[1841] That's a man. I'm going to pull a guy.

[1842] I said box it Fuck this Yeah and he scared a lot of guys before they even through their first punch You'd see the look like I remember Bruce Selden He missed a left look of Bruce Selden And Bruce Selden went down He's like fuck all this Fuck all this Fuck all this Yeah what do you want to miss Yeah but he's 58 you know I support him I love that guy I fully support I'm a gigantic fan of his Me Meeting him the first I met him at the UFC was there's some star -struck moments where you meet people be like oh shit that's Sugar Ray Leonard you know oh shit that's Mike Tyson and Mike I was even one of the most starstruck moments I ever had really couldn't believe I was meeting Mike Tyson yeah I did a podcast with him I was like I can't believe I'm talking to Mike Tyson it just seemed he was such a huge part of my childhood when I was a kid was when he was coming up I have in my office framed the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 19 wow really yeah it's his kids Did dynamite.

[1843] See if you can find that.

[1844] You had it from back then?

[1845] Oh, no, no, no. Someone gave it to me recently.

[1846] I might have been Sports Illustrated sent it to me. I don't know who sent it to me. Do you know who sent it?

[1847] Somebody sent it to me. Thank you, whoever did it.

[1848] I forgot.

[1849] I'm sorry.

[1850] But that's the cover.

[1851] That's framed in my office.

[1852] At 19 years old on the cover of the sports.

[1853] I think that was 1985.

[1854] Is that what year that was?

[1855] Does it say what year that was?

[1856] See if you can find.

[1857] What was it say?

[1858] 86?

[1859] Okay.

[1860] So that was right before he won the title.

[1861] He won the title when he was 20.

[1862] So I was like just out of high school and he was the guy, like heavyweight boxing had gotten boring.

[1863] Nobody cared.

[1864] After Larry Holmes was like people were bored with heavyweight boxing.

[1865] There was a bunch of champions and nobody heard of.

[1866] It was like they weren't really interested.

[1867] No disrespect to any of those guys, but they didn't excite the public the way Muhammad Ali did, the way George Foreman did.

[1868] It wasn't, heavyweight boxing was kind of dead.

[1869] And then all of a sudden this dude comes along.

[1870] He's like, oh my God.

[1871] He was doing everything you wanted a heavyweight to do, just starching people, just sending them flying.

[1872] He'd hit him with left hooks, they'd go flying.

[1873] He'd like, look at this guy, he's going to become the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.

[1874] And then he fights Trevor Burbank and knocks him out quick.

[1875] How much were paper views back then?

[1876] God, I don't remember.

[1877] But I remember a lot of times people wouldn't want to buy Mike Tyson payper views because they knew the fights could be over so much.

[1878] It was nuts, man. So this is a documentary?

[1879] it says Kid Dynamite 1985 oh so this is him in 1985 yeah this is him when people were just starting to hear about him and he came through the ranks quick he just was fucking everybody up he was having a hard time getting fights and everybody thought this is the guy this is the next destroyer I mean he was just killing people man everybody fought was getting fucked up oh my just the head moving and the inside it's just wild everything And the power, it was just, that's what you wanted to see from a heavyweight.

[1880] So that guy is still alive and he still remembers all these moments.

[1881] It's not like he doesn't know how to put his knuckles on your face.

[1882] The question is, how much does he have left in his body?

[1883] 58 today is not 58 when I was 21.

[1884] It's a different 58, especially if they're not testing him.

[1885] Okay, if they're letting him take hormones and peptides and do all the things that I would recommend 100%.

[1886] I mean, I don't know how you could do it if you're 58 if you're not doing that.

[1887] If he's, if they're allowing him to do all that stuff and get his body to the optimum level that's known to science, you're dealing with a different kind of human being.

[1888] You're dealing with one of the greatest fighters that's ever lived.

[1889] It's just how much does he want to do it?

[1890] Is he doing it for money?

[1891] You know, how much does he have left in the tank?

[1892] Those are all questions that'll make me buy the pay -per -view.

[1893] It's not Netflix, though.

[1894] It's free.

[1895] Yeah, that's right.

[1896] It's free.

[1897] Yeah, I'm going to watch it.

[1898] 100 % I'm going to watch it.

[1899] I'm going to feel bad if he gets knocked out.

[1900] Ah, yeah.

[1901] But, you know.

[1902] There's most recent comments about the fight.

[1903] Tyson addressed the meeting with his usual boldness during the press conference.

[1904] The show's readiness for battle.

[1905] He said, I'm just ready.

[1906] I'm ready.

[1907] I'm going to talk my talk and do my shit, but I'm ready to fight.

[1908] Is he really a young killer?

[1909] Tyson said, discounting any questions on his readiness.

[1910] Reacting to Paul's taunting Tyson's knee to postpone the fight because of an ulcer flare up earlier in the summer, former champion made a strong statement about his unmatched abilities he said I feel a lot better now who else can do it but me who else is going to fight to make this happen you got a YouTuber fighting the greatest fighter that ever lived ooh I want to hear him say that that sounds coming out of his voice would be like well you also have to remember about Mike Tyson is that Mike Tyson knows how to mentally prepare he was trained by Custamato who was a hypnotist and Custamato started hypnotizing him when he was 13 years old really yeah that was part of the reason why he was so terrifying.

[1911] His mindset was just unstoppable.

[1912] He really thought that he could not be stopped.

[1913] He thought he was going to murder everybody.

[1914] And Cuss was his hero.

[1915] Cuss raised him.

[1916] Cuss took him in when he was 13 years old.

[1917] He had this terrible childhood, no love, just in and out of trouble, terrible, bad situation, horrible poverty and crime.

[1918] And then all of a sudden he's being taken care of by this dude who's a master boxer, Master boxing coach.

[1919] He trained world champions like Jose Torres and Floyd Patterson and now he's got this young pupil.

[1920] This is his last hurrah and the greatest shot he's ever had and having a real all -time great.

[1921] I mean, this guy's an all -time great and he's 13.

[1922] Wow, yeah.

[1923] He's a 13 -year -old 190 -pound kid.

[1924] Like, what in the fuck?

[1925] And he's got this kid and he's hypnotizing him and he's telling him you're the greatest and he's getting into his head.

[1926] So from the time he was really, young he was learning mental preparation he was learning how to put himself into a mindset of just an unstoppable juggernaut that had one goal one task and cuss would tell him you don't exist only the task exists like you don't exist what you have to do exists that's what you are wow that's powerful I'm gonna write that down yeah so the question is how much does that guy have left you know conventional wisdom would say this is a terrible fight.

[1927] Conventional wisdom would say there's a 28 -year -old with knockout power, just knocked out Mike Perry, he's real fast, he's young, he's fucking athletic, he's bold as shit.

[1928] He's a good boxer.

[1929] He's a very good boxer.

[1930] People don't want to give him his credit because he's a YouTuber and all that shit.

[1931] Anybody who knocks out Tyrone Woodley with one punch can fucking crack.

[1932] Anybody that can move the way that dude moves and have a fight with Tommy Fury, who's a world -class boxer and he lost that fight, and it was a very good fight he's a good fighter a real good fighter and he's actually training like he's getting better people were just like sleeping on him just because he's just because he's a YouTuber but I'm like he just beat Mike Perry who yeah was killing it yeah and the barrenocle boxing yeah he was like on top but they don't want to give credit it would have been interesting to see him fight Mike Perry bare knuckle though oh that way that's there that changes everything that changes everything Mike Perry is the best at that shit but that's a different it's interesting how that's a different sport because it really is a different sport it's a whole different thing when your hands aren't covered and you feel those bones piercing your skin it's a mindset too yeah it's like he's a 100 % human pit bull that's a 100 % human pit bull that guy has no quit him no quit you know he fucking throws caution to the wind at every possible occasion you can hit him he's going to hit you back he knows how to take punishment he likes it he likes getting hit he broke uh rock old's teeth And I was like, broke Luke Rockhold's teeth.

[1933] He's way bigger, too, Rockhold, yeah.

[1934] Well, imagine, okay, how about him and MVP?

[1935] Okay?

[1936] Him and MVP with the gloves on an MMA fight, you favor MVP, right?

[1937] I favorite MVP.

[1938] MVP is super hard to hit.

[1939] He's got crazy distance management, those kicks in that distance and the long length.

[1940] But he decided to take a challenge and fight Mike Perry bare a knuckle because he thought, look, I can move better than anybody.

[1941] I am the most elite mover in all of MMA and I'm going to fight this flat -footed meathead psychopath and that flat -footed meathead psychopath just walked him down and dropped them a couple times in there yeah man crazy crazy it changes everything changes everything and just the scarring on you like your knuckles and your faces after that yeah your face is getting sliced open but they're starting to pay these guys when you see guys like Eddie Alvarez and Chen Mendes go over there you're like Yeah.

[1942] Mike McGregor, like, an owner part of it now, too.

[1943] Yeah.

[1944] But McGregor's grimy, though, after Mike Perry lost and he said, yeah, I'm cut it there now.

[1945] Like, bro, who just tweeted?

[1946] I wonder if this guy tweeting for himself?

[1947] He's tweeting for fun.

[1948] Apparently, Mike Perry has a piece of bare -knuckle, too.

[1949] Oh, does he?

[1950] Yeah.

[1951] I think that's what he said.

[1952] He's like, I'm one of the owners, too, motherfucker.

[1953] He's the face of it.

[1954] Like, there's not, like, I wouldn't even be watching it if Mike Perry was not on there.

[1955] I think regular boxing is just very different.

[1956] It's very different.

[1957] What you can get away with, you know, the, fact that you can't really clinch and punch the way those guys do.

[1958] And bare -knuckle boxing, those guys are getting grimy.

[1959] There's a lot of dirty boxing in there.

[1960] It's just so different when those bare knuckles touch you.

[1961] It's just so different.

[1962] You can't guard as much.

[1963] You're still stuff's getting through.

[1964] You don't have the big cushions in front of you.

[1965] Those big cushions mean a lot, man. They stop a lot of shit.

[1966] It's wild.

[1967] The difference is even when we're sparring with big gloves or sparring with smaller gloves that we have.

[1968] It's like it changes everything.

[1969] It changes everything.

[1970] Yeah.

[1971] And then, but even no padding out your knuckles, like, you don't even want to throw is hard.

[1972] Right.

[1973] Yeah.

[1974] And your wrist will break easily, so you have to punch a specific way.

[1975] I think they both, they all have, like, a different format of being the way they punch.

[1976] They just hold their wrists in a different way like this or something like that.

[1977] Like, you remember them old -timey boxing guys?

[1978] Yeah.

[1979] They all were holding their punches like this.

[1980] Yeah.

[1981] Those bare -knuckle guys, they all fought like this.

[1982] They jabbed each other like this.

[1983] They were just trying to only hit with these two knuckles.

[1984] Yeah.

[1985] When we were younger, we would do that.

[1986] Like, we're going to punch somebody in the knee or something like that.

[1987] We'll put that knuckle out there.

[1988] I just think how stupid it was, but, I mean, you could use that bare knuckle.

[1989] Well, you could definitely use it an eyeball.

[1990] Yeah.

[1991] You know, if you punch something like that on purpose or the eyeball?

[1992] Like, that's, that's real.

[1993] I want, has there been eye pokes in a lot of eyepokes in their fighting?

[1994] That's a good question.

[1995] I don't remember any.

[1996] Yeah, like, I haven't really even thought about that, but I don't feel like there has.

[1997] I think in MMA, a lot of them come from this.

[1998] A lot of them come from that distance.

[1999] management yeah and i think that's who i think one point every time poke someone's eye one point and no one will ever do that again everybody'll keep their hands closed yeah you poke someone with the fingers one time one point it should be trained like even at our practice if somebody's putting their fingers out i tell them like yo close your fist yeah that should be like a natural it shouldn't be even thought it shouldn't even be a habit well it's just such a natural instinct to try to push a guy away from you yeah and if a guy's coming at you and you're trying to push him away those fingers go right in there, man. You see the Weidman fight?

[2000] Oh, my God, yeah.

[2001] Oh, my God.

[2002] Oh, my God.

[2003] And that's one of those two where you're like...

[2004] Same thing.

[2005] Bro.

[2006] Right.

[2007] But then I'm like, I'm like, bro, you did poke him in the eye, but he's saying like, oh, he shouldn't have felt like that.

[2008] I'm like, bro, when you get poked an eye that bad...

[2009] Yeah.

[2010] That was the referee's problem.

[2011] Yeah.

[2012] The referee should stop that.

[2013] Should stop that on that last eye poke for sure.

[2014] But maybe he didn't see it.

[2015] Maybe wasn't in a position to see it.

[2016] Yeah, it's just...

[2017] It's hard.

[2018] I mean, I understand how hard it is for a ref. Even with stopping fights.

[2019] Looking at somebody, who was this weekend?

[2020] Gerald Mirchard, where he was getting beat up, and then all of a sudden he caught him a submission.

[2021] After that, you're like, some refs would have stopped the fight in that round.

[2022] So it's like the good rest that give you a longer leash, and then the shorter refs that Dominique Cruz you and Dominique Cruz, you hate you for the rest of your life because you stop a fight too early.

[2023] Who did Jared Cannoneer get stopped by?

[2024] Who was his, Jared, not the last fight, but the fight before that.

[2025] It was a bad stop.

[2026] Imov.

[2027] In Mova.

[2028] Nord.

[2029] Yes, that's right.

[2030] And that was another one in those situations, the same kind of situation where you're like, that's not a stoppage.

[2031] He's standing up.

[2032] He's up.

[2033] Yeah.

[2034] You know, the last one, he got hurt harder by Boholio.

[2035] Where he got dropped, that looked worse than the fight where he got stopped previously.

[2036] And if you beat Imavov, you end up, you're in title contention again because he was on a streak.

[2037] But now you're on a two -fight losing streak.

[2038] Yeah.

[2039] And it's 40.

[2040] A rough stopped it.

[2041] Yeah.

[2042] Yeah, it's crazy how those little moments in a fight can change the entire career of a fighter.

[2043] You never know.

[2044] Like, at any moment, something screwy can happen, you know?

[2045] So is this it?

[2046] So here it is.

[2047] Imov is hitting him with some good shots for sure.

[2048] Jared's definitely getting hit.

[2049] But he's firing back, and the referee stops it.

[2050] And he's like, what the fuck are you doing?

[2051] And Herzl is a good ref. He's a very good ref. And he faced some serious criticism after that fight, and I think, you know, he made a mistake.

[2052] Yeah.

[2053] You know, he was probably trying to save Jared from further punishment.

[2054] He thought it was over, but Jared was like, I got a lot left.

[2055] I was not as badly hurt as he thought.

[2056] You know, the thing is, the problem is when a guy is teeing off on you, even if you're not getting hurt, it looks bad.

[2057] Even if you're moving away and covering up and you're getting out of the range, you're stumbling around, you, it looks bad.

[2058] But you could still come back.

[2059] And you've got to give the guy the opportunity.

[2060] to still come back.

[2061] You don't let him take shots when he's out, but you've got to give him the opportunity to be able to come back.

[2062] And when the guy's standing and still throwing back, you've got to give him a chance because fights are fights.

[2063] Things change.

[2064] Guys, he might have got burned out from that because he emptied the gas tank.

[2065] We've seen that happen many times.

[2066] And there's some fighters that just like look bad and they make it look just because the body movement's weird.

[2067] Right.

[2068] I mean, Driscus always looks like he's dead tired and dead in there, and all of a sudden he comes back and wins a fight.

[2069] but there's just guys that just don't have that good look all the time even when taking punches.

[2070] Everybody's baffled by Drickus.

[2071] Oh my God.

[2072] He's like, what is going on?

[2073] How's he beating everybody?

[2074] Like, what is going on?

[2075] It's wild.

[2076] He's a bulldog.

[2077] That dude, I was stunned.

[2078] I was stunned by the Adasania fight.

[2079] I was stunned.

[2080] Because Adisani was looking good.

[2081] He was looking good.

[2082] Yeah.

[2083] But Drickas was looking good too, you know?

[2084] And Drickus was laying a lot of leg kicks.

[2085] He's got that real sneaky left high kick, too.

[2086] That left high kick comes out of nowhere.

[2087] It's just awkward.

[2088] He just, like, move so awkwardly.

[2089] Awkward.

[2090] But game.

[2091] So game.

[2092] He has so much heart.

[2093] Like even when he started taking those bad shots, when he was shooting, he was on his knees and I was like, oh, he's about to break.

[2094] And then all of a sudden you see him still have a lot left in a tank.

[2095] Oh, he's a tank.

[2096] Yeah.

[2097] He is a tank.

[2098] He marches forward, man. And the way he capitalized, he hurt Izzy with a couple good punches, one good left hook.

[2099] He hurt Lizzie, and Izzy moved away.

[2100] And then they got into another exchange.

[2101] He'd hit him with those two right hands from the.

[2102] clinch and then got his back and once he got his back it was like that yeah it was quick he went right to the choke right to the choke and cinched it up i mean between the time or he hit izzie to the time where izzie was tapping was just a few seconds yeah for me i thought is he like looked like he got a lot tired faster than he normally does and i was like he looked like he put a lot more muscle on yeah so that could have been a a key in it where it's his body wasn't used to move in like that maybe with the extra muscle but i was like bro he's moving a lot slower than usual in this third round i always wonder and I was wanting to talk to him about this is if he was ever considered doing like one of those Marb Morinovich type camps.

[2103] So Marv Marev Marenevich, they had this philosophy that the most important thing was your gas tank and you already know how to fight.

[2104] You already know how to fight.

[2105] All you're getting better has already been done.

[2106] And in the six weeks or eight weeks, whatever your camp is, you should be only concentrating on cardio.

[2107] And they would do these explosive, pliometric things.

[2108] BJ hated it.

[2109] He hated it.

[2110] But if you look at his, gas tank from those fights, it was unstoppable.

[2111] And when a fighter's not tired, and the other fighter is tired, and you realize all that work is paid off, and you start putting it on them, and you've got this unlimited gas tank, and you also haven't been beat up in training for six to eight weeks.

[2112] Because you're really not sparring.

[2113] You're really not doing much of anything other than your cardio.

[2114] They're just doing pliometrics.

[2115] It's all just jumping around and shit.

[2116] You ever seen Marv -Marinovich?

[2117] See if you can find Marv -Marinovich trains BJP They had BJ doing all kinds of wild shit.

[2118] That's all they would do, man. That's all they would do.

[2119] Nick Curzon came on the podcast, and he was a protege of those guys, and that's his philosophy as well.

[2120] He was telling me that it's really an elite fighter that's fighting in a world championship fight.

[2121] They already know how to fight.

[2122] You just got to give him the unstoppable gas tank.

[2123] And if you concentrate only on that, it's the most important thing.

[2124] Because when a fighter gets tired, like when Izzy got tired in that fourth round with Trichus, you could see he's not the same Izzy.

[2125] round that's like lightning fast and moving and countering and controlling distance and getting out of the range of shots this is a isy that's experiencing fatigue yeah but he already knows how to fight like the fighting is in his DNA at this point he knows how to fuck people up yeah and if he had like here's here's bj training with the marinovich's so it's all these pliometrics even with the arms it's all this explosive shit everything is done for time and distance and they they measure everything and he just breaks guys down physically to the point where when they get into that octagon they just have the craziest fucking gas tank of all time it's an interesting philosophy yeah my mindset going around eagle eye alex paredes spots israel a sonya injury draws partial confession from stylebender he said this guy knows me said is he was injured he said he was noticed and he wasn't throwing kicks like he might have been injured and then as he was like it's almost like this guy knows me or something.

[2126] So he's sort of admitting to being injured, but not.

[2127] Well, they clash in a bunch of times.

[2128] I mean, it could have happened in the fight, but the problem is he was still tired.

[2129] Yeah.

[2130] He's still tired.

[2131] I mean, I'm sure he was injured.

[2132] Yeah.

[2133] It's a crazy fight.

[2134] You get injured.

[2135] In general, camps, you get so injured in camps.

[2136] Yeah.

[2137] Like, the hardest thing.

[2138] Even if a fight's quick, people don't realize that I just had an eight -week camp of non -stop training.

[2139] You get more injuries in training camp than you do in the fight.

[2140] What's the worst injury you ever went into a fight with?

[2141] Um, it's funny, I was, uh, I was in Australia and I was fighting Tim Beans.

[2142] And then me and my coach were in the back warming up.

[2143] And, uh, we ended up going like knee to knee in the back during the warm up.

[2144] And, like, I could have put my knee down to the ground after that.

[2145] And it was like before the fight.

[2146] So I was like, what the heck?

[2147] I thought we just classed knees.

[2148] So it was like sore.

[2149] So like even in the fight, it just felt weird.

[2150] So then after the fight, we went and, uh, I still could put my knee down to the floor for like two or three weeks.

[2151] And then I ended up tearing my, it was a torn meniscus.

[2152] Oh, wow.

[2153] Yeah.

[2154] but like right before the fight we just like clash knee to knee and it's like you said it's so many just random stuff that could happen to you because I like to spar in the back before my fights I like really I like to feel it so I'll have them put the shingards on a head gear and I'm throwing a lot harder than them but I want to feel that so I can feel the distance so I want to go out to the fight like it's my third or fourth round right because I usually I usually start slow when I'm at practice but in the fight I wanted to be going right away and I have like cardio for it so like I want to feel like it's It's the third round already when I go out there.

[2155] Well, they always say that.

[2156] You should do that anyway, like really elevate your heart rate and then cool down and then compete.

[2157] Yeah.

[2158] Some guys like to hit Mitz, but for me, I like to spar.

[2159] So I have my training partner to come down there with me. And then you got to have a controlled guy that's not going to hurt you.

[2160] But, yeah, we just go in the back.

[2161] We throw.

[2162] Wow.

[2163] Yeah, we're throwing.

[2164] So he'll have big gloves on.

[2165] And, like, I get to the point where I hit me because I want to feel it.

[2166] So, even in this fight with Leon, he threw, like, 50 kicks at me hard at the back.

[2167] Wow.

[2168] So I wanted to go out there, like, all right, my arms feel it, my legs feel it.

[2169] Right.

[2170] And my body's already going to adjust to it.

[2171] Yeah.

[2172] That's so risky.

[2173] It's risky.

[2174] But I'm about going to fight anyway.

[2175] Right, right, right.

[2176] And once you get that adrenaline, like, you don't really feel nothing.

[2177] And I'll feel it afterward.

[2178] But, like, the biggest risk is just a headbutter, like, catching your blood or something like that.

[2179] Right.

[2180] So that's why I make it wear a headgear.

[2181] Right.

[2182] And, you know, like I said, you have to have the perfect training partner for it.

[2183] Right.

[2184] Where he's going to throw the right stuff at you.

[2185] He's there for you.

[2186] Yeah, yeah, he's not going to...

[2187] It's not really sparring.

[2188] He's there for you.

[2189] Yeah, so if I tell you, all right, he'll hit me here hard, he'll hit me here hard, but it's not like, we're not going to just sit there and bang in the back.

[2190] Right, right.

[2191] Wow.

[2192] Who else does it that way?

[2193] I don't know.

[2194] Like, for us, we caught ourselves doing it.

[2195] Like, I feel like I'm one of the first guys that started doing it that I know, and then I'll start telling my other teammates when I go corner to them, like, let's do the same thing.

[2196] And they'll like it, too.

[2197] But, yeah, there's not a lot of guys that just, I know a lot of guys that just, like, hitting Mitz.

[2198] and then you go out there and then you start a lot slower but for me I'm like bro we're going to fight like I don't need a hit miss right now I'd rather feel you throwing punches at me so I catch distance so I look at the punches coming at me and then I know where I'm backing up where I'm not backing up you're already loose for real loose yeah because even when I spar I'm sparring like five or six rounds regardless so I know I could go five rounds easy in the cage especially with that extra adrenaline so like if I do those extra two rounds in the back it's not going to affect me and you're going into the fight completely warmed up psychologically too you're much closer psychologically to a fight than just hitting mitts and then all of a sudden someone's throwing back yeah the mindset is the hardest thing right to get locked in because when I first started fighting I was like I'm another guy I don't like to curse but then I was like I was telling myself I got to listen to rap music I got a curse as I'm in the back and I'm like trying to hit myself to hide myself up but because I feel like I'm too calm but my coach is like bro that's a good thing like you being calm it's good for you.

[2199] You don't have to sit there and be something you're not.

[2200] So then I was like, all right, well, let's stay calm, but then let's start adding and sparring.

[2201] So now I feel that.

[2202] So I'll just get it through that.

[2203] Yeah.

[2204] Wow.

[2205] Yeah, because you try different things at practices, and I'd be like, all right, when did I feel good at sparring?

[2206] I'll take notes of everything.

[2207] I felt good on this sparring day and I did this type of drilling beforehand or I did this type of warm up beforehand because my coach, he's like, he tries to mimic to fight with everything, so he'll tell us, all, warm up on your own.

[2208] do your own thing that we're going to get your five spine rounds in a cage so for me I'm trying to adjust to make my style just help me better today what did I eat today let me write that down this is when I felt the best I had the most energy doing this I had the most energy eating this so now I got it down to like a system that I like more than anything what is the food do you take before you train before I train yeah what's the stuff that makes you feel the best like white rice usually my guy would make me like bright rice eggs and like turkey bacon so it's protein with good carbs so it's not heavy not heavy yeah something's gonna digest fight fast yeah yeah like I said before I would just think I have to starve myself and then he came in and he was like what are you doing like you you're not gonna have good practices with this way but my mind said I don't really care because I was just like I know how to push myself no matter what yeah well having you've gone through camps with Ramadan and that's where it gets and you we should tell people there's ways to kind of make that a little easier on yourself where you sleep during the day and then you get up and then at nighttime once you can eat and drink then you do that but you don't do that yeah i've had i had multiple times multiple camps during it where i would still stick to my normal schedule of training where i'll train at 10 30 a .m. and i can't eat or drink in the morning so i wake up at uh 5 a .m for our morning prayer you get your your last sip of water before the sun rises and then i'll have like a protein shake uh dates or something like that that'll give me some energy for the morning and then at 10 a .m. I have my morning practice and then I have another practice.

[2209] And you can't drink water in between rounds, nothing.

[2210] No. After the first So you're training with no water.

[2211] No water or food.

[2212] Yeah.

[2213] So after like the first three or four days, your body just adjust.

[2214] It feels good honestly because it makes you feel like mentally you're in a different place.

[2215] Like spiritually you're in a different place in general because it's Ramadan and that's where like for any Muslim that's like the best time because you're not stressing out about other things and you know that you're doing it for god and you know god's going to give you the strength to push through no matter what so for myself for the reasons i'm doing it i know i can push through and i know that whoever i'm training for is not doing what i'm doing so i can push myself harder than them when it gets into the cage when i can't drink when i can't eat so i think mentally it just puts me in a different place but for fight camps like after it's time to break my fast when it's sun and sunsets that's when i have to be the smartest that's where i got to put the carbs in a lot of in and then I got to make sure I'm getting my electrolytes, my salts, and just getting all those fluids back in, like, I just finished cutting weight.

[2216] Right, right, right, right.

[2217] Because if I don't do it the right way, then the next morning, I'll be screwed.

[2218] Right.

[2219] Because I'll feel super drained.

[2220] That's interesting.

[2221] So you've got to treat it like you're cutting weight almost.

[2222] Yeah.

[2223] So, like, every night I'm treating, like, a weight cut.

[2224] I have my shakes, had my protein that I'm getting in the right way.

[2225] And I try to hit a certain, at least a gallon and a half of water before bedtime.

[2226] Yeah.

[2227] Okay.

[2228] Yeah.

[2229] Yeah.

[2230] So it carries you on at least a little bit in the morning.

[2231] Yeah.

[2232] And then like I said, after first, your body honestly just figures it out.

[2233] But you wouldn't want to defend the title that way.

[2234] No, no. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

[2235] Yeah.

[2236] Yeah.

[2237] Before I was trying to chase everything, right?

[2238] I was trying to chase the next ranked guy.

[2239] I was trying to chase this.

[2240] And I felt like I couldn't say no to anything.

[2241] Right.

[2242] Because I was always looking for these guys to say yes, and I can't waste an opportunity.

[2243] But now I am the opportunity.

[2244] Now I am the champion.

[2245] So now I feel like it gives me more leeway to be like, like, no, I want to wait a little bit longer.

[2246] This one feels better for me. My body's healthy now because it took me so long to get here.

[2247] So now I don't have to go through a camp there on Ramadan for it.

[2248] Well, now it's about your legacy.

[2249] Yeah.

[2250] As a champion.

[2251] And you, and exactly all the things we were talking about before, the little thing can change your life, a little loss here, little loss there.

[2252] Fuck all taking those fights on 10 days notice.

[2253] Yeah.

[2254] If UFC calls you 10 days before an event, change your number.

[2255] Change your fucking number, man. Don't let him talk you into it You can beat them I know you work out all the time And you start thinking yeah I do work out all the time And they're like we're gonna offer you X amount of money Like oh shit that's a lot of money And you start spending that money That's the hard part right now Is because like Like you said For me I hate saying no in general Just because I have the fighter mentality Like I ain't scared I'll say yes to anything The Gilbert Burns fight It was three weeks notice It was during Ramadan And they were like you win, you know, do it for the fans that just bought their ticket to their first event.

[2256] And I was like, yeah, I do want to do it for those fans.

[2257] I'm not afraid of Gilbert.

[2258] And Gilbert started chirping on Twitter like, oh, he's afraid.

[2259] He doesn't want to fight.

[2260] So then I'm like, I do want to fight.

[2261] I'm not afraid of you.

[2262] So then I say, yeah, no matter what, then it's like I'm thinking to myself, bro, I'm on a nine -fight winning streak.

[2263] I'm taking this fight on three -year -st notice.

[2264] Why did I do this?

[2265] I'm stupid.

[2266] Like, if I lose, I'm back of the line again.

[2267] I was one fight away.

[2268] Now if I lose this fight, I'm done.

[2269] but yeah it changes like your mindset but like fighters are dumb like we we just want the glory no matter what right i want to prove who i want to for me i want to prove everybody wrong it's like you have to temper that mindset yeah you know you have to think about the overall big picture because what got you to the dance is that mindset like anybody anytime let's go who am i fighting i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready but once you got the title it's like you got to keep the dog but you also got to be intelligent about what fights you take and when you take them yeah and no one don't fight injured you know there's so many guys to take fights I had a broken foot coming into this fight like what yeah afterward right yeah what and those are the guys that like for me as a fighter if I lose I lost that's it right I hate guys who come up with a million excuses afterward right because then it like for the guy that won it's like people are not going to give them credit for that win.

[2270] And then for me, like, when I lost my fight, it was like, all right, I got to change this.

[2271] I lost.

[2272] That's it.

[2273] Like, that was always my mindset.

[2274] Don't give excuses.

[2275] If we're going a tough fight injured, we accepted it injured.

[2276] That's it.

[2277] That's it.

[2278] Put it out of your head.

[2279] Because if you go in there overthinking about it, like, oh, I got an injured ankle.

[2280] I got an injured rib.

[2281] No, I should never take this fight in between rounds.

[2282] You never want to second guess yourself in the fight.

[2283] And for me, I just try to clear my head of anything.

[2284] Once we said, yes, our name's on the contract.

[2285] That's it.

[2286] We're all in.

[2287] So, Who do you think is next?

[2288] There's talk of Shavkat and there's talk of Kamar al -Uzman, right?

[2289] Those are the ones that I hear mostly.

[2290] I think, like you said, for legacy -wise, Usman is obviously the bigger name and he was the guy that Dana said it was the best welter ray behind GSP or in front of GSP.

[2291] But for boogeyman -wise and to shut up the naysayers, I think it's Shavkot because he is undefeated.

[2292] He is the guy that everybody thinks is this killer.

[2293] Yeah.

[2294] And then for myself, It's like, either one of them does a lot for me. Usman, obviously, you'll probably be bigger pay -per -view numbers, and then beating him, my resume's up there with GSP.

[2295] Because then I have Usman on my resume, Leon, Maya, Wonderboy, like all these big -name guys, Gilbert Burns, Brady.

[2296] And it's like, look at that resume.

[2297] It's neck -and -neck with his.

[2298] But shockouts also that, oh, this young guy is going to come out here and beat you.

[2299] Right after being Leon, everybody's comments.

[2300] Oh, shock.

[2301] You can't do the church.

[2302] Shotcott, though.

[2303] Shopcott will kill you.

[2304] And my chip in my shoulders is like, all right, let's go.

[2305] I'm going to prove you guys wrong.

[2306] Now I'm going to show you guys what I could do.

[2307] Because for me, like you said, with BJ Penn, where it was like the strength conditioning was his whole camp that one.

[2308] For us, we strategize everything.

[2309] My coach is so good at breaking down stuff.

[2310] We're so good at breaking down fighters that I have a game plan for everybody and a strategy for every single one of these fighters.

[2311] And I already have a strategy for Shotka.

[2312] I already have a strategy for Usman because I was chasing him so long.

[2313] and I've been watching tape on these guys for so long so I don't see anything from either one of them too where I'm looking at them like I'm afraid of this guy because of this I'm afraid of this guy because of that I think Goosema's a tougher fight than Shopcott if I'm being honest but I do see many ways where I can beat them both because there's a lot of guys in the division that have to fight a certain way they're specialists where they're either grapplers or strikers I can strike with you or I could grapple with you I could wrestle with you I can move laterally.

[2314] I can move forward.

[2315] Every time you see me in the cage, it's something different.

[2316] And I think that that comes from my team and the strategy that we bring to fighting.

[2317] We look at it like a real sport instead of, I'm in shape, let's go fight.

[2318] We look at it as like, what's this guy's weakest point?

[2319] Oh, Leon can't move backwards.

[2320] Let's move it backwards.

[2321] Gilbert Burns, he can't take you down.

[2322] He's going to gas out.

[2323] He's not going to take me down.

[2324] Let's beat him up on the feet a little bit.

[2325] Brady, he's only good on the ground.

[2326] All right, let's strike with him.

[2327] It's like, I look at guys.

[2328] I look at fights in a different way than a lot of these other fighters where some of these guys that's going there, I see red, I don't care what happens.

[2329] Right.

[2330] Yeah.

[2331] I think for legacy, Usman's an important name.

[2332] Also because Usman probably won't be fighting that much longer.

[2333] You know, he's kind of at the end of his career.

[2334] And I feel like the UFC owes him a little bit something for the Hamzaat fight.

[2335] Takes Hamza on short notice.

[2336] That was like 11 days notice too, right?

[2337] Yeah.

[2338] And Al -Badabadi.

[2339] That's crazy.

[2340] That's crazy.

[2341] That's crazy.

[2342] And it was close.

[2343] Very close.

[2344] And he was winning the third round.

[2345] But I was going to say earlier about Oliver and Saryukian, like that's another fight where I felt like that is a five -round fight.

[2346] That should be a five -round fight.

[2347] And Charles almost caught him a couple times in that fight.

[2348] I'm like, that's a wild, close fight between two top of the Fujian guys.

[2349] It seems wrong to have that fight three rounds.

[2350] Especially for number one contender status.

[2351] Yeah.

[2352] Especially Charles, who's been in there for so long, was the champion and he's like a different type of champion right he comes balls to the wall no matter what so even if it's five rounds you're not expecting it to go five rounds so but in general i felt like it should have been there and he almost caught him a couple of times yeah he got real close a couple of times and charles is i think he's the most successful finisher with submissions in the history of the sport yeah and now he's two fight losing streak himself yeah but the last one was so fucking close and it's against sarukian who's the top of the food chain yeah like that one 55 pound division who it's what what happens if Islam decides to go to 170 I mean for me I would never fight Islam but I mean if I get so how do you do that though so what if you you're gonna okay let's assume you beat Usman let's assume you beat Shopkot I'm calling out Druscus is that what you do you go to 100 % really yeah wow yeah I feel if there's anybody that can and be willing who deserves it, it would be me because I had to fight five type five guys to get to where I am now.

[2353] So I think at least two more than I can start talking about one middle weight.

[2354] So that's what you would do?

[2355] Yeah.

[2356] Islam would go to 70 and you'd go to 85.

[2357] Yeah, for sure.

[2358] Wow.

[2359] Would you pack on size to go to 85?

[2360] Yeah, I mean, I would put on muscle, but like, in general, I've trained with a lot of 85ers, and I think I have good size for 85.

[2361] Well, Drickers is talking about going up to 2 .05 and fight Alex, which is crazy.

[2362] And maybe he's, vacates the middleweight title or maybe he goes double champ status but i feel like there's so many guys at 85 for him still the fight oh yeah he's fought iz he's fought uh strickland whittaker he fought whittaker you fought yeah you got wittaker but now you still got the young guns right brennan allen who's a dog came against imov the winner i feel like should be there hamsett's still there that people aren't even really talking about anymore if hamzot wants to fight and you know i think hamzat's at 70s the scariest hamzat but that's that way cut's crazy for him though is what does he walk around at he I've seen him out and he looks like over like 2 15th he's like Michael Morales he just fought he just beat Neil Magny yes he came out he came to train with us I brought him in for Leon fight and he was like I was like bro you're huge he's like no yeah I'm like 190 and then my coach like put him on the scale he's like 218 I was like bro I was like bro what do you mean what are you talking about He said, oh, no, I just had bad breakfast But I was like, bro What did you eat?

[2363] He ate a whole ostrich?

[2364] The fuck did you eat?

[2365] But he's so, he's young and he's huge And I'm like, bro, it's not going to last long, bro.

[2366] You can't cut this much weight.

[2367] No, he's big.

[2368] He's good, too.

[2369] He's a dog.

[2370] He's good.

[2371] He's real good.

[2372] Just training with him, he was like another one of those guys we brought in and it was like, he was a perfect training partner where he didn't have Eagle where I'm finding somebody in my weight class.

[2373] He's undefeated and he could come in and say, oh, he's fighting for the bottle and be old crazy with him.

[2374] No, he was such a great guy.

[2375] good kid.

[2376] Yeah, he trained really well with us and then to see him got out there and finished Neil Magni, who he thinks like the perfect gatekeeper for any like up -and -comer, right?

[2377] Yeah.

[2378] He's that test where you go past them.

[2379] It's like you're a real deal.

[2380] Yeah, that's the real deal and he looked great in that fight.

[2381] Yeah, he's a real contender.

[2382] There's so many real contenders and your division is just so filled.

[2383] Yeah, people forget, man. Even Gary, JDM, like all these guys.

[2384] People forget about Jeff Neal.

[2385] You know?

[2386] Jeff Neal's a fucking killer.

[2387] He's going against RDA now.

[2388] Yeah.

[2389] That's funny.

[2390] That's funny.

[2391] That's a wild fight.

[2392] RDA was another guy who trained with Nick Kerson.

[2393] Oh, yeah?

[2394] Yeah, he was using that sort of when RDA was in his prime.

[2395] Yeah.

[2396] Him and his cardio days where he could just go nonstop, punching, strike, and wrestling.

[2397] That's what we're talking about, though.

[2398] That's what it was.

[2399] He was doing that same kind of workout with Nick Kerson.

[2400] That's wild.

[2401] Does he still train people?

[2402] Kerson?

[2403] I'd have to reach out.

[2404] I bet he still does.

[2405] I know he was training a bunch of other athletes and a bunch of different.

[2406] sports as well you know but uh his whole thing is pliometrics and foot strength and your ability to move and continue to move it's it's interesting because i see both ways i see like look sean strickland is the craziest fucking cardio of anybody right because all that guy does is spar yeah he's fighting every day he spars more than anybody in the ufc and he gets hit less that's nuts yeah that's nuts So his cardio is from his being completely comfortable with fighting all the time.

[2407] And I'm sure he does other things too, but most of which, if you talk to Nixik and all those guys that train with him, most of the stuff, what he does is spar.

[2408] Yeah.

[2409] He just loves sparring.

[2410] He loves getting in there and sparring.

[2411] And he spars stupidly.

[2412] Stupidly.

[2413] Yeah.

[2414] Stupily.

[2415] Yeah.

[2416] There's guys that are like spar light and spar for like distance and managing and stuff.

[2417] And there's guys that like, just want to throw it on.

[2418] I'm like, take it to the guy's like.

[2419] But he doesn't get hit much.

[2420] The reason why he's so good at that, first of all, that style is so weird, stands straight up, has the filly shell, and throws punches in weird angles, and he's just peppering you, peppering you, peppering you, keeping them on you, keep teep to the body, front kick to the body, peppering you, keeping on you.

[2421] It's a weird style, man. Yeah.

[2422] It's a weird style.

[2423] It's like agitating, especially if you're a guy like at Asana who wants that distance and wants it to look pretty to have somebody who's like striking looks so ugly just in front of you, just not stop.

[2424] or like against what's his Bochina where he just threw like 55 teeps at him every round I was shocked at that fight but that was a good example of how hard he is to hit he's fucking hard I mean because I think you know for some reason I don't know what happened but I think that I think some fighters they just have like when he when when style under beat bohina like he was kind of a different guy after that fight you know there's some guys they have a fight and for whatever reason they never are the same guy again and it's not even a bad beating it might be like a psychological thing yeah i think it's the undefeated thing he was undefeated in that fight yeah then you get your first loss and you like you're you don't have that same mindset anymore because you were killing everybody then all of a sudden you lose and you lose by finished you're like yeah was i not as good as i thought i was and you get dry humped yeah when izzie triumped is he has the best celebrations like after any fight the fight the fight with peheda when he knocks peheda out and he shoots the three arrows into him that's the greatest to be like beforehand is just wild and then to like put it out there it was so beautiful i don't think he did think about that i think he just did that in the moment yeah yeah that's wild well you know alex always shoots arrows at you in the beginning i don't think there's a better they're can't be a better celebration than that one.

[2425] No, it's the best.

[2426] Nothing's going to come close.

[2427] It's the best.

[2428] And then the speech afterwards makes it even better.

[2429] Yeah.

[2430] You know, the speech was incredible.

[2431] That was really good.

[2432] Yeah.

[2433] Do you think we ever see the third one?

[2434] Who knows, man?

[2435] I don't know if Izzy wants to fight that dude again.

[2436] I don't think he wants to fight him at 205.

[2437] I think 205, you don't get a drained.

[2438] Alex Paheda, you get a destroyer.

[2439] Yeah.

[2440] What he just did to Prohaska, everybody's got to be nervous.

[2441] All yes, dude is one shot.

[2442] Just touch you once.

[2443] and I think at 185 he doesn't take a shot as well either I think that draining of your body and you know your brain dehydrates the whole deal and Drick and Drick has said if you fight something he doesn't want any excuses so he doesn't want Alex to come down 85 he wants to go up to 205 but if you're fighting him like if your first move is not shooting a single leg I don't know what like what kind of coaching you have right because that should be your first goal at least in the first round try to grapple him something yeah you got to do something I never want to sit there and go toe to toe with him it's just too dangerous it's weird it's like some guys just have weird power yeah it's weird it's like it's different than everybody else is by a magnitude so a large gap between his power and everybody else's and with everything with kicks with punches anything he hits you that scissor knee that hit mccalinas with oh yeah and i feel i feel like he's always sparring to himself he's always like posting videos aspiring with like the normal classes yep it's not like he's even have like crazy training partners no he spars light he'll spar like he even sparring to Spard light with Strickland.

[2444] It's the only time Strickland spars light.

[2445] Strickland goes in there spars with him.

[2446] He's like, let's just touch each other.

[2447] Yeah, I don't even want to feel him with big gloves on.

[2448] Yeah, fuck all that.

[2449] Yeah.

[2450] And he's talking about going to heavy weight, which is even crazier.

[2451] Him against Aspinall will be wild, though.

[2452] Wild.

[2453] But you got to think Aspinall can take him down.

[2454] But what does ego want him to take him down?

[2455] Or you're like, all right, let me show you like a strike with you.

[2456] I think Aspinol, the moment he realized, if he can hit him on his feet, he'll try.

[2457] But if he can't, the takedown's always there.

[2458] And he's so much bigger.

[2459] I mean, Aspenol's a solid 255.

[2460] And I think he's a blackout as well, right?

[2461] Yeah.

[2462] Wicked on the ground.

[2463] And he's had nothing but success.

[2464] Other than that one time where he fought Curtis and his knee blew apart, but that, you know, that's just a freak accident.

[2465] Yeah, it's crazy, right?

[2466] Like I can tell people that so many random things could happen in a fight.

[2467] That could happen.

[2468] And then you look at guys that are undefeated for so long, and people don't respect how hard it is to.

[2469] get there.

[2470] Yeah.

[2471] It's a crazy sport, man. It really is.

[2472] And for you, what a journey.

[2473] To be 23 years old and step into a gym for funzies.

[2474] You know, just trying to learn a little martial arts.

[2475] What the hell?

[2476] Next thing you know, you're the champion of the world.

[2477] It's wild, man. Yeah, it's a blessing, right?

[2478] Like, just thinking about the whole journey, man, like spiritually it puts you into a different mindset too because you just thank God for everything no matter what and for myself thinking of what like I said I was going to school to try to be a lawyer and I always tell my mom yeah I'll quit when I lose and it's like now I could have went from that to being able to do something like this every single day and being able to train every day that kind of a fight a world title fight your first world title fight at five in the morning in another country bananas yeah just a crazy accomplishment Enemy territory.

[2479] Enemy territory.

[2480] People die.

[2481] But tired, tired enemy.

[2482] Sleepy.

[2483] But it's wild because the fans out there were crazy.

[2484] There were still so many fans.

[2485] We ended up having a parade that same night because we got out of the fight.

[2486] It was like at 7 a .m. And then we had people out there that set up like a parade for us.

[2487] Oh, wow.

[2488] And Manchester.

[2489] Oh, wow.

[2490] Yeah.

[2491] And the streets were like crazy packed.

[2492] It was full.

[2493] Wow.

[2494] So you just stayed up.

[2495] It was, yeah, because it was like 7.

[2496] am so I went back to the house and you know everybody wants to come see you now so we're just chilling and then all of a sudden it gets to like noon and you take your try to everybody's taking a power nap now because we were off from the night before at midnight so it came up to like two three o 'clock and then everybody started falling asleep so for myself I'm still wide awake I mean we rushed to fight and then they're like let's go get some food and they like surprised me with like a huge parade at like one of their busiest streets in Manchester oh wow and they shut like the streets got like shut down but they have like a huge Muslim population over there in uh england area so like a lot of the even before the fight i was getting a lot of messages for people like you're not in enemy territory this is your home and we were blessed out there because people took care of us the whole time my team had food everything every single day like even the gym when i was first looking for myself a lot of the gyms i was messing out there were like uh no you can't like we're we don't you're fighting lian we can't open the doors for you right yeah but then we met some guys that like open up their gym for us and there were like lawyers driving us around at 4 a .m. They had other jobs, but they were driving us around, staying up with us at 4 a .m. and then having to go to work at like 9 a .m. Wow.

[2497] Yeah.

[2498] Well, they're probably excited to be a part of it.

[2499] Yeah, and that's what they said.

[2500] A lot of them I said, we're just happy to be here.

[2501] We don't want nothing from you.

[2502] That's great.

[2503] That's beautiful.

[2504] Yeah, it was such a cool thing.

[2505] That's amazing.

[2506] And you meet just like new friends, right?

[2507] New people.

[2508] And it was for my team, for my family, like to have that journey all of us together.

[2509] my dad went my mom didn't go what did it feel like when they put that belt around your waist it was wild uh because like i tried to think back to it and for me at first it was like i told you so like i i told you i could beat leon like that was my mind to the whole time i didn't want to think about the belt it was more so to be like i beat leon i you guys thought i was going to lose to him every single i had to live with it for three years of everybody telling me i'm going to lose to this guy he was he would have beat you the last four rounds he would have killed you and for myself for that it was just like I told you I could do it I told you I was better than him and his coach and his team were all talking trash to me before the fight so just to like rub it in their face but then for me to have like to be able to wear the title right and to like be able to to carry my flag with the title and to show people what's possible because I mean obviously you know what's going on right now in the world for Palestine for them to have a champion right now for them to have a win from that fight.

[2510] That meant more than anything because I was getting so many messages from them.

[2511] We had people in Gaza that were watching video of it and it was kids at a refugee camp.

[2512] They were watching videos of the fight and it was such an amazing thing.

[2513] Yeah.

[2514] There's you.

[2515] And even for my coach right there, Mike Valley.

[2516] He's a small gym.

[2517] He doesn't talk big right.

[2518] And for me to stick with them and for us to do it together from the start now he has another real champion.

[2519] We're literally a tiny gym in there and he does so much for a lot of his fighters.

[2520] He brings a lot of guys in from Chile, Mexico, and he puts them in like apartments, doesn't charge them rent, just like helps them grow from their start.

[2521] And they tell them, you just have to work hard.

[2522] That's amazing, man. Yeah.

[2523] So, yeah, a lot of it just comes back down for, for my people in general.

[2524] Me, it was just to prove everybody that I could beat them.

[2525] I could be Leon.

[2526] I told you so.

[2527] But now we got a real title.

[2528] And, It's attention.

[2529] So for me, it's like using that now.

[2530] You're calling the shots.

[2531] Congratulations.

[2532] Thank you, my brother.

[2533] Very impressive.

[2534] Amazing.

[2535] It's a blessing, man. I'm blessed to be here to talk to you.

[2536] I'm blessed to be able to, like, for people now to know my story, hear my story.

[2537] And in general, if I get to have conversation like this and carry this belt around, people will look at me and look at themselves with the dream.

[2538] Look at that's the parade Yeah It was that What a picture God damn What a great picture That picture's incredible That looks like a fake picture That's like AI It's so perfect They literally had smoke And everything It was wild That's amazing Yeah I was so surprised By the whole thing That's amazing Well I can't wait to see you fight again Man I can't wait to see you defend your title Whoever it's gonna be I hope I'm there I can't wait to see it My brother I appreciate it Hopefully it's in the US So you can come a conference Yeah, hopefully, hopefully.

[2539] All right, well, congratulations.

[2540] Thank you, brother.

[2541] Bye, everybody.