UNYIELDING: Michael Chandler on Success and Mental Toughness

0:28So, hey, guys, are you frustrated with where you're at right now?

0:33this is the Ed Myron Show all right welcome back to the show everybody so my guest today is Michael Chandler he's like a son to me and he is scheduled to fight Conor McGregor on June 29th he doesn't know this but I'm recording this intro just in case I have a suspicion Conor McGregor doesn't want to fight my dude and so I'm recording this introduction beforehand just in case there's a cancellation. So when I do the interview today, we're going to talk about that fight, but we're going to talk in general more about success, mindset, achievement, pressure, all the things that come with being in a big fight, not just the fight itself, because I have a suspicion McGregor wants nothing to do with my dude.

1:12And so this is an intro I'm doing right before Michael jumps on. He won't even know I'm doing it because I don't want him to know right now. I think that maybe Connor won't show up, but I think Connor might not show up. So this is the intro I'm doing before he gets here and if Conor doesn't show up I knew you didn't want to fight my dude brother that's why I'm doing this intro on June 12th way before the fight knowing you ain't going to show up all right here we go here's me and Michael Chandler quick update everybody hey everybody so just got the word 30 seconds ago just got off the boat to the news that Conor McGregor has backed out of the fight as I suspected you heard in the previous introduction there I just had a feeling Conor's claiming that he's got an injury and you never want to question a man when he says he's injured so we'll take him at his word on that fortunately I had a feeling this was going to happen and so the interview you're about to see is not really about the fight it's more about mindset it's actually one of the best interviews I've ever done on mindset the winner's mindset overcoming setbacks imposter syndrome preparation visualization the reticular activating system it's an incredible interview there's even a surprise from another four-time world champion in boxing that I bring in I surprised Michael in the interview you're going to love that and really the only question that I ask about the fight is the first question and even that I phrase it in such a way that you can hear how to get yourself to believe you're going to win and what you need to do.

2:26I've been honored to be working with Michael on his mental game for this fight and so you'll hear a little bit about how that works as well. Even the first question seems about the fight but it's really about getting yourself to believe. Enjoy. Max out. Welcome back to the show everybody. So the young man I'm going to introduce to you is he's like a second son to me. I'm honored when he calls me dad. He's one of the greatest fighters in the world in the UFC, but he's really one of the greatest people that I've ever met. I love him dearly. He's a good man. He knows how to be successful. And so tonight the podcast is really about two things for those of you listening.

3:03We're going to talk about this huge fight he's got upcoming on June 29th with Conor McGregor. We're going to talk about that fight, but for those of you that aren't fight fans, we're going to spend the majority of the podcast not just talking about that fight, but talking about winning, preparing, mindset, preparation. And so if you're a fight fan, this is an exclusive peek into this fight. And if you're not a fight fan, it's not going to matter because we're going to talk all the time, as we always do on the show, about things you can take notes on and apply to your own life. So June 29th, the great Michael Chandler, Conor McGregor, my guest today is my son from another, I don't know, you say son from another mother is that right i guess so i don't know michael welcome to the show what's up dad man it's uh thank you for the kind intro you're you are the man yeah so how are you the update everybody how are you feeling man i'm feeling good i mean as the as we sit here today we are uh 18 days away from the fight so um it's it's nice when all the hay is in the barn so to speak i mean we've you know we still got a little bit of training left but it's kind of most of the hard stuff is behind us um feeling great feeling phenomenal feeling a little dangerous and uh ready to go out there and compete why are you going to win the fight man i think you know you and i have obviously talked about this a lot over the last year and a half to it throughout this whole process but also really um in depth these last couple months man i just i just believe i've earned it i really do i think i for a guy who never thought that he would be in these kinds of positions that that idea sounded so foreign to me, like I didn't deserve it.

4:37I have now become that man and stepped into that role. And I've done everything right. I've trained years and years and years for this moment. I've grown as a man. I've taken my losses, continued to tick forward. And I was born for a time such as this. So I think this performance will not only be the biggest fight of my life, but the best performance of my life. And I think that's the way it was supposed to happen. It was supposed to be against the biggest name in the sport. It was supposed to be against a guy like Connor, who is a little bit different than me in a lot of ways. I mean, a lot of people would say in a lot of ways.

5:13And it's got a great storyline and I want to be the hero of the story. I love that. Most of you don't know, but I'm honored that I get a little bit of chance, a little bit to work with Michael on this fight, just in his brain a little bit and honored to get a chance to do a little bit of the work with him on that. did you you know what you just said applies to everything in life about success that we earn it that we've been preparing for these moments all of our lives but i'm curious in your case like we'll show the clip right now on youtube we'll do the audio here as well but like you called him out way back when after big w i'm just curious were you planning on doing that if you want to find i've never even asked you this or was it just like random you're like was it like did you know you were going to do that or was that completely like holy spirit or inspired moment standing there after a w i've had i've had a lot of those holy spirit moments but this one was premeditated i think uh you know with the sport of mixed martial arts a it moves fast b we are all victims of of timing and circumstance like whether it be a certain opponent not ready or a certain certain opponent ready too soon and you're not ready um it just the stars were going to align and it made a lot of sense in my mind thinking ahead in the future for right after I knocked out Tony Ferguson that night and he was just on his way coming back talking about coming back the timing was going to work out perfectly um and I wanted to shoot my shot I mean there's every single person in the sport of mixed martial arts within two or three weight classes of Conor McGregor says his name often and there's a reason why he's the biggest name in the sport um and uh I'm a guy who I know that we will create some magic, create some fireworks inside of a UFC octagon, I believe I will be the victor.

6:53And I do believe that I deserved to be in that moment. If anybody was going to have that bright of a light shined on them, if anybody was going to have those high of stakes, I wanted it to be me because why not? I love that. Oh, here's my surprise for you, Mr. Chandler. So I have my really, really good friend joining us today, everybody and Michael. This is Mikey Garcia. who is a four-time, he's a boxing champion, four-division champion, and has had one of the most prolific careers in all of boxing. And I love him, and he's been a guest on my show. And I just thought, you know what? From one champion to another, I thought I'd have him whisper some words of wisdom to you here today, if he would.

7:35So, Mikey, thanks for jumping in, brother. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. And Michael, pleasure to meet you, brother. You as well, man. You are a legend, dude. It's awesome to meet you. Are you surprised? Awesome, man.

7:49that's awesome dude so that's awesome great great and mikey's one of the most giving dudes in the world as long as you buy him dinner at javier's for dinner when you're with him but um so bro i'm just curious mikey if you're talking you've had these huge fights fact i've been at texas stadium with this dude in front of 50 000 people i mean he's had huge huge fights is it different in a big fight mikey like anything you would say to michael you know mentally is there anything different when it's a huge high profile fight as opposed to you know something that no offense to any of great boxers but some casino on the come up compared to you know a big arena Vegas fight or whatever did that affect your mentality did you look at the fight differently or just another fight look you've been in it you know your whole life you know I was in it since I was a little kid so I always took each fight as a big fight because I knew you know winning one fight would lead to the next and move my career forward so getting to the big arena to the big stage you know you talked about you know AT &T Stadium you know in Texas you know and 50 ,000 people there but to me it was just another night I worked my whole life to get there and I think you know I was just excited to finally make it to that you know stage to the highest you know in my career and And what I did do a lot is I visualized that a lot.

9:13I visualized the fight. I visualized, you know, training. I visualized, you know, every scenario during the fight, winning or losing rounds, you know, overcoming challenges in the fight, a cut, a knockdown, whatever it could be. I would always visualize, you know, and that went for every fight, but especially on the big one, because I didn't want anything to be, you know, out of, you know, my norm to scare me or timid me in any way, you know. So for me, it was visualizing everything, the ring walk, you know, the introduction to the fight, just so that I could have that already in my head. when I experienced it, it wasn't as new.

9:55It was already there before. I had already logged it in. I've already seen myself in front of that kind of attendance, that kind of crowd. And I just felt comfortable. I felt normal. It felt like another day. The training obviously was harder. The training was, you know, more vigorous for the training camp and longer weeks and all that because I was fighting a bigger guy. I was fighting a bigger, you know man in the ring on on fight night so i had to prepare a little differently but mentally i was you know strong it was it was like a normal thing like i just need to be here um i visualized every round even even though the fight didn't go the way i originally wanted to i i thought was my first loss but i walked out of that 100 healthy fine we hung out the next day we flew back together You could tell that my mindset was sharp as ever.

10:46I was still confident. I was still having plans for the future. It didn't send me back. It wasn't ever like that. So that's where I got. Let me ask you, by the way, does that sound familiar, Michael, about the visualization? By the way, all of you, this is a gift you're getting today that I didn't intend to give you publicly. And I don't know that I'll put all this out either, by the way. but to have two gladiators talk to one another like this about it what's and by the way Mikey and I did fly back after that fight together and I was like just struck by how calm he was like sorry bro we're gonna another one we're gonna do this we're gonna do that but Mikey what was interesting about what you just said and Michael I'll let you ask Mikey anything you want to that's why I brought him here today but Mikey you would actually visualize negatives too you're okay with visiting i lost around or whatever i'm interested in that um you think that was an okay thing to because i do as well might as well i mean you're going to lose a round you're going to get hit something bad is going to happen to avoid thinking about it to me seems sort of silly why not become familiar with it so you can respond is that why you would do it yes it's just so that you don't get nervous or panic if something does happen during the fight it's better be well prepared for any scenario, including a knockdown or a cut, something of that nature.

12:02But no matter what I envisioned or I visualized, I always came out the winner. I would always visualize myself winning at the end of the night, whether it was I lost a couple of rounds or it was a tough fight. I got dropped in one of the rounds, but I got up and I know how to react and I know how to continue with the remainder of rounds and always winning at the end of the night. in other instances different fights I did get dropped on two separate occasions but I knew what to do I knew how to react I had already planned how to even get up from a knockdown I didn't want to get up in any way that would make the the referee think that I was hurt and stop the fight so I purposely figured how to position myself how to take my time how to take a knee first and then slowly gradually walk up and then walk a little bit towards the neutral corner give my opponent more space more space so that when the fight resumed I wasn't right in front of him you know and he's attacking me I give more space you know so I would visualize that and prepare myself I didn't do it in training camp where I would purposely go down and get up no but I would do it here you know training my mind to be able to react in those scenarios if I got cut i knew exactly to signal my corner let them know that i was cut so they could prepare the medicine so that as soon as the the end of the round was there you know the the bell rang i was already close to the to my corner in fact a lot of the rounds i would walk close to my corner at the 10 second count i walked close to my corner so in case there was anything they'd be the first ones to attend me while my opponent still has to walk all the way across wow to his corner those a few seconds a few seconds extra that i will have that my opponent doesn't have well so i will practice all this what i want everybody to get whether you're an entrepreneur or you're an athlete or i want michael too for this is the specificity of preparation right the specific to think that you would actually and in michael's case it's not quite as easy if he's on the ground but the specific thing that you're actually edging towards your corner early to get those extra for seconds of cuts.

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14:38Now, one thing you were great at, this is more like inside stuff for Michael. One of the things Mikey was most well-known for in boxing was his ability to go in with a game plan for the fight because his brother's the greatest trainer in the world. And so they had a game plan for the fight. But mid-fight, mid-round, begin to pick up on tendencies that he didn't see on film. In other words, react when things don't go the way he expected them to go, Michael. right but that was i think mikey you correct me if i'm wrong i think that was actually your greatest strength in the ring was your ability to adapt to a dude whatever you saw that night first am i right about that and two any insight for him let's say he gets in there with connor right he's gonna have a game plan we're not gonna say what it is but like most fights you know like tyson says everything can change when you get punched in the mouth or just connor comes in there with something totally different right connor's gonna throw some things at him he hasn't seen before how were you were you consciously thinking as you're going or is it some depth perception thing you're using a feel thing like what would you do to read him look I'm I'm looking at my opponent you know I'm taking the first round or two rounds to study my opponent the way I study my opponent is that I feel his his speed I let him punch a few times to be able to time the the You know, time the speed of the punches and also timing his defense.

16:04So I'll jab a couple of times and see how fast he can either block or dodge the punch so I can make my adjustments as the rounds go by. Second round, I'm still feeling him out. But maybe by the third round, you know, I'm already have a good idea of what to do. However, things can change. Like you just mentioned, things change. So I prepared myself to be able to adapt. and as the rounds kept going i'm also listening to the guys breathing i'm listening to the way he's his body's his posture you know are his hands still up high and he's still got the same intensity behind it or is he starting to slow down he's starting to wear out are we tying up if we're hugging if we're tying up is he trying to let loose to continue fighting or is he just kind of trying to rest now it's the eighth round maybe he's just resting a little bit you know So I'm paying attention to all that.

16:52And at the same time, I'm figuring out what I got to do to keep countering his, you know, fight, his game. If he's changing something, if he's still on it, if he's still trying to do something, OK, maybe I got to box a little bit more. Maybe I got to pressure. So all that training came from being in shape in the gym, training hard in the gym, all those weeks of training, you know, all that. There's days in sparring sessions where I would box 12 rounds, beautiful footwork, beautiful speed, counterpunch for 12 rounds so that I knew I can do that for 12 rounds on fight night. But then there was other days where I would switch it, where I'd be fighting, you know, eight rounds, solid, forward, pressure, pressure.

17:34In case I needed to do that on fight night, I know I'm capable of doing that as well. So training, I would do all that. I would do all that in training. A lot of people would say, well, some of that he's got time because there's 12 rounds. But there's a ton of guys in the UFC that are spending time reading. I think of Izzy. He does that. He's reading cadence. He's reading speed. He's reading pace. John Jones. St. Pierre did it. This is done in the UFC as well. They're pacing themselves in the round. These are just things for Michael as he's ready for the fight that I want him to at least have the gift of in considering.

18:09And then just for back and forth. Was there anything? and then Michael, I'll let you ask him something. Anything press-wise that week? This is more of like an inside thing, but like big fights, there's more press. There's more demands on your time, particularly fight week, right? And, I mean, can you imagine McGregor Chandler, what the press demands will be that week? Did you – I mean, it's one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. So anything you did to mentally stay a particular way or pace yourself or that you would think of in dealing with just even press for the week? The press, the media is going to be tough.

18:48It's going to be rough. Everybody's going to be pulling you left and right. Everybody wants, you know, 10 minutes of your time. And you're obligated, you know, to some extent. You have to give, you know, press. You got to give the media some time. You got to give them interviews. It's part of promoting. It's part of being professional, you know, at that level. um but what i what i used to do was any moments that i had free time i go rest i would always make sure i get enough rest even if it was only a 20 30 minute little nap even if you don't go to sleep but just laying down chilling and resting your eyes for those 20 30 minutes will help at the end of the day your number one goal is to perform and fight on saturday night on fight night to your best of your capabilities.

19:35The media can wait a little bit. The media can be put to the side. You got to give them a little bit, but it's not all that matters. The number one thing is winning the fight. That's number one. So you got to give them some time. Yeah, it's part of promoting part of the business, part of marketing the fight. But every moment that I had, every hour, every 30 minutes that I had, I'd go take a break. I'd go take a nap because that would really, really help me continue my day and keep the energy. It's exhausting to be in front of media, repeating the same shit over and over and over and over and you have to have the smile and same energy you're exerting a lot of energy over the days you know you may not be working out as hard anymore because now it's chill week it's lighter work and until you gotta cut weight you're kind of slowing down on the pace of the training but the whole media the whole press it's exhausting so take all the time that you have to rest your body like i said at the end of the day if you really don't feel like doing every single interview you don't have to you don't feel so gay i'm not doing that one i'm only doing the ones that really really matter because i'm contractually obligated i'll do that you know the network or the main ones after that hey i'm done i'm resting because i i want to win the fight yeah these are all things by the way everybody and by the let's just be clear michael's had tons of huge fights madison square garden i mean he's fought in the biggest arena in the world just like mikey has right he's done this but everyone And listening to this, it's getting an inside peek of what top athletes in the world think about and talk about.

21:02Same thing comes in business. Sometimes you've got to say no to meetings because you've got a big close at the end of the week. You've got to be your best and peak at that moment, right? So these are all the same principles. Mikey, Michael, rather, all the big fights you've had, I just wanted to put someone almost the same sport but a little bit different. to just have you think about it just from a little bit out of the box, but still in the same box type thing. Both of you guys have had the biggest fights in the world. You've both won them. This fight, Michael, rather, is going up in weight a little bit per his own decision, so cutting won't be as bad.

21:37You went up in weight too, Mikey, four different times. Michael, anything you want to ask Mikey before I let him go so we can have the rest of the show and talk, but anything you want to ask him? Yeah, I mean, more than anything, I just I love the piggyback off of, like, you know, what you were saying about the visualization. I mean, just for the audience listening and even hearing it from a world class guy like Mikey, who I have watched on TV so many times, knowing that before going into that fight during the visualization isn't all just about success. It's also about overcoming obstacles. Right.

22:09Because who doesn't want to be able to see themselves knowing that, you know, you're going to be in the trenches taking grenades and you're going to be able to get through them. and how you're going to react and respond and seeing yourself become victorious, even when there is a little bit of adversity, as well as, you know, we're not there yet to fight week yet. Next week, I got to go out to New York for a full day to do some press stuff. The press is about to start picking up. And I think for me, realizing that I have such a great crowd of witnesses, this is I've had big fights, but this is even bigger.

22:41so therefore it's even more of a conviction to show up um with a smile on my face as much as i can but also be selfish when i need to uh to take a little bit of time and maybe say no to a couple of them where you're like yeah this one's not exactly uh you know one of the big ones you know um but no that that insight of even just like thinking about and your highlights and the fights that i've seen you in um and thinking about that man because you've always just been that man that dominant guy out there but then also hearing those little idiosyncrasies about the the visualization and all the different things that you looked at and watched and played inside of your head even leading into those fights and they weren't always positive but they always they always ended with your hand getting raised yeah yep yep mikey i gotta tell you man i'm really grateful you did this today bro like you know you didn't need to do it immediately michael just so you know immediately i asked mike he's like yep i got you he was in new york he's like i got it i'll make it happen.

23:39I had to change the time on him. He's like, no problem, bro. And the other thing everybody should know, and I talk about this, Michael, all the time, Mikey saved his money. Mikey saved his money. All you athletes listening. That's why he's real casual on a t-shirt and me and Chandler are still working right now. Chandler saved his money and he's a young, wealthy man, bunch of real estate. He's done really, really well for himself. So I love you, brother. Thank you for jumping in. I appreciate it. I'll text you when we're done here. Let me know. Thanks, Ed. And I want to wish you the very best, Michael.

24:09You know, we know how gangster you are. We know, you know, such a badass you are. You got this. I mean, you've been training your whole life for this. There's nothing, nothing more that, that, that we got to give you, you know, much more tips on fighting. I mean, you've done it. You just got to go in there and take care of business, brother. I wish you the very best. I'll be checking it out. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you, man. And I'm going to have Ed connect us so we can do it today. I'll connect you when we're done. I would love that. You're the man, Mikey. I appreciate you, brother.

24:35we'll go get some dinner after your fight yeah hey yeah what'd you say julio's or where you want to say we're gonna go to javier's but you're gonna win this fight there you go let's go you're gonna win the fight and you're gonna buy us dinner so that's what i got that i got you guys all right brother take care mikey thank you all right how cool was that bro was that cool yeah it's so cool man absolute warrior i mean that was the thing too obviously phenomenal technician phenomenal at boxing but also just a warrior man like yep it's and obviously like you said different sports but they're the same it's it's hand-to-hand combat whether it's wrestling boxing kickboxing these hand-to-hand combat competitions man yep and one of the things that you all should know that you know kind of inside baseball stuff that Mikey and I work on and that Michael and I work on is visualization a lot of you ask about that but it's like really detailed stuff and it's okay to visit failure it's okay to visit a down cycle and in fact I think it's really important because then you can program yourself out of it so anyway I just wanted to have you visit with him for a minute and have the audience listen to the two of you.

25:35So let's go shift a little bit. How did Mikey got there and you've gotten there? Did you get there? How much of this was natural for you? Like you're a college wrestler. How much of where you got was, you know, you're just athletically super gifted and how much of it was the actual grind? Like did you, when you were in college, did you see dudes that were just better than you? Even in college, Did you see guys athletically that were even better than you? And how do you end up being this guy that's on the world stage, one of the most famous fighters, obviously the most electrifying fighter, probably in the history of the UFC?

26:10Was it just gifted talent, or were you always seeing dudes that you thought even were more naturally, physically gifted than you? I think, you know, especially in college, once I've become, you know, more of an adult or a young adult, a young man, if you will, yeah, I mean, a lot of guys had a lot more talent than I did. But yeah, but I think it was, you know, I think we can talk about talent and hard work and how that how they intersect. Right. But you're you're given a certain amount of gifts, but then it's up to you to just continue to see if you can find the edge of those gifts. And then all of a sudden it seems as though those gifts.

26:45Compound on themselves and then you're able to stretch them even more than they compound on themselves and you stretch even more. I mean, I think more than anything, and this is why, you know, you and I talk about it's all up in here as well. You know, obviously I look a certain way. I look like an athlete. I can jump on a box. I can lift weights. I look like an animal inside the cage. Obviously, I have built this man that you see before you who steps into the octagon. I have built him into to who I am. I've got some natural gifts, but there's so much of it was being trapped inside of my mind.

27:17and I can see in the mirror a guy who looks like he should be successful in hand-to-hand combat, but my mind didn't truly believe it. And then once you start adding that belief into it, and you're able to sprinkle a little bit more confidence week by week, month by month, and then all of a sudden you just watch it flourish, and it's that butterfly effect that started back when I was 14 years old when I first started. And then each level up brings about a little bit more confidence, and then you have a couple setbacks you've got to go through. um and i think more than anything i've just been given a i've been given gifts to show what hard work and what is capable if hard work is put in i'm not saying i didn't have any natural talent yeah uh people see my workouts now they're like man i wish i had those kind of gifts and it's like well we can't really tell if i'm gifted or not because i've been doing it non-stop since i was 14 years old 20 28 years yep and that's what everybody needs to get too you know oh success The test does not come as quickly sometimes as we think.

28:13This man's been at this now. How long have you been some sort of combat? 28 years since I was 14 years old. Watch this, everybody. How old were you when you got your UFC contract this time? How old were you? 34. Do you hear that, everyone? That is highly unusual. He got his UFC contract at 34 years old. That's a long time. So a lot of you, there's just a point of where you'll quit. you'll just give up it would have been really easy when he'd lose a fight at bellator bellator yeah yeah he'd lose a fight in bellator or something and you'd think well that's it you know and then to come back and to come back and to win and become a champion again and to get into these huge fights it's just unbelievable so sometimes it's going to take longer than you think it's going to take one thing michael did is he just stuck around long enough to collect on all the deposits he had made he's finally getting a withdrawal now yes what do you do you do you leverage the dark side you know we talk a lot in sports about there's like leveraging the dark side which is you know going to that dark place and coming from there and then there's sort of like the other side which is like dream and vision and chasing the light and chasing the good stuff do you that duality i'm just curious like do you is it fight night you leverage the dark side do you never leverage it is that your main lever like I'm gonna kill this dumb I hate him or how do you do it it's a great question I mean honestly I I've said this numerous times I know I'm about to have the best performance of my life when tears of joy are coming down my face and I'm listening to my music and I'm thinking about my wife and my kids and I'm thinking about some kid who I don't even know his name who's looking up to me some mom who's like thinking, man, I want my son to grow up just like Michael with like thinking about the generational curses and the chains that I'm able to lift off of people that I don't even know that I've never come into contact with.

30:11And obviously, most importantly, my wife, my two sons, that's when I know when the tears of joy are welling up inside of me or I'm getting goosebumps before. That's when I know. So I think I'm so much more tied to the joy and it's just gratitude. I really is crazy. I'm not supposed to be here compared to what my little 14 year old, 18 year old, 20 year old self thought I was going to be doing, you know, athletically, I'm not supposed to be here. If you ask them, you know, with all the self doubt, and it's like I'm living a dream. So I'm so much more tied into that joy. But as the fight gets closer, I do know that I have that kind of pissed off for greatness.

30:56I have my moments. I have my don't take any, any crap from anybody type of mentality, especially when I'm training, when I'm training and I'm in the room, I'm not this guy that, that, you know, and you know, I I'm different. And it's not that I'm trying to hurt anybody or it's not that I'm angry, but there's this little bit of, I don't know what word I would use, but it's like, Hey, you guys know who I am, but I can't be trusted when I'm in here because I'm in my zone. Like this is me in my zone. I'm not going to hurt anybody. I'm not here to, to hurt anybody or, or do anything illegal in a training partner, but like my willingness to go to a place where I don't care whose feelings I hurt or how badly I dominate somebody.

31:36So it's a different, and then all of a sudden the practice is over. I sit there, heart rate comes down. I'm like, okay, I'm going to go grab some lunch. And, you know, and I think it's a gift. I think it's a gift. I think it's, it's beautiful. And I, I love that I can be that guy and my wife doesn't know who that guy is my sons don't know who that guy is the the fans watch that guy on on fight night um but very few people get to see it unless you're really training with me on hard hard days or you're in the cage with me I was watching um just prepping for you and I I was watched uh last week I watched Connor and Diaz too I watched that fight and something really interesting struck me that night he was in And this was a long time ago too, everybody.

32:18But that night, Conor was in the biggest fight at that time in the history of the UFC. And I was just thinking where you were that night about the same time. And it was complete relative obscurity, right, at that time. No one knew Michael Chandler at that time. And he was actually in the middle during that time. I think it was when you had some of that streak that was not going the way that you wanted it to go, ironically. And if you would have said at that time, here's a guy who's, you know, had a couple setbacks at the, what is sort of the B level of the MMA, no offense to Bellator, that's probably not even fair, but B level, at least in notoriety.

32:51Yeah, that is fair. And I admit that. And notoriety. And then you got this dude that night pulling out a W in the biggest fight of the UFC. And if you would have told the world that night, now that dude that's over there in Bellator that's struggling right now, he's going to end up in Vegas June 29, 2024, going head to head with this dude in the biggest fight in the history of the UFC potentially. It just should give everybody hope that anything is possible in their life, man. And you embody all of that. Is there a part of you, though, that has imposter syndrome, if you're being candid with the audience, that you do come from humble beginnings, you have had ups and downs, you are coming off of, you haven't had a six-fight win streak even right now, if we're being candid, right?

33:35So is there a part of you that has to overcome these mental demons, so to speak, of believing you belong, believing you can win, that I think most people struggle with, or have you passed that stage of your life? I think I definitely still have a certain degree of it, but I think I've gotten to the point where it's been revealed to me enough through life, the course of life, that the older you get, the more people you come into contact with, the more people you train with or you're in business with or you watch their work ethic or you watch how they live their lives, both in front of the camera, behind the camera, behind closed doors, in front of, you know, in front of the camera.