JRE MMA Show #138 with Cory Sandhagen

32:33I try like I make notes every Monday and Saturday I make notes on Monday. I make notes of the things that I'm working on You know like a to -do list like sometimes how I'm doing all of that stuff But I'm super organized in the way that I'm like trying to learn and the things that I'm trying to like progress in whether they're technical things Mental things or whatever and then I recap all of those things on Saturday Made sure that I did them and then I wrote down I write down what worked what didn't work What I need to continue to drill what what I should pull back on because I don't think it's really worth the time because there are so many techniques and Some things just aren't worth the time At at certain points, you know, so I'm super thoughtful.

33:12I'm super organized And I think that that's like probably one thing that separates me is because I like Everyone wants it kind of the same Everyone's a really good athlete. Everyone works really hard physically But like there's got to be some X factors like it has to be everything if you if you really want to like be a world champ Like I say that I want to be when did you start doing this note -taking thing?

33:40Probably seven or eight years ago Seven or eight years ago is when I started working with my sports psychologist He kind of turned me on to it. I also used to train a lot with Dwayne too and Dwayne would like always be writing stuff down Dwayne Ludwig. He's obsessed. Yeah, Dwayne super obsessed too. That guy's an amazing coach. Yeah, he really is It's when you look at his system when he's got his his bang boy tie system and he brought out his notebook And he showed me I was like Jesus Christ. Who the fuck does this? Yeah, when you look at all of his combinations and what sets What up and the way he has it like I was very impressed with that That's like that thoughtfulness that I'm talking about.

34:16Yeah, you know like That's like just a different level of caring and like a different way of showing that you care is just like Like I do that too, you know like I write down like how striking works Hopefully going to be filming some instructional is pretty soon So I've really been like spending hours and hours and hours writing down like How I think striking actually works outside of the way that it's being taught now Hmm So when you are in the process of a camp when you set out a camp and you you're doing this 10 week program Do you have everything planned out like from the moment the camp starts more or less and is it mostly you that's planning everything out?

35:00Yes Yeah, that's like me being the quarterback, you know like I take full responsibility for everything that I do in life, you know like If if I'm not getting to take downs, it's not my wrestling coaches fault is my own fault because I know I'm being taught correct things I've surrounded myself with good people that are teaching me the right things So I don't ever worry about like not being taught the right things if if I don't get good at something I like almost feel pathetic because I'm like man this guy's Like with the wrestling Like if banks has to tell me something week by week by week I start to feel like pathetic.

35:37I'm like why am I not getting better at this, you know So I take responsibility for every single thing that way there's no one for me to blame except for myself if I lose And that's another thing that I don't know that a lot of people are doing too that also causes me to like get into it with Some people sometimes too, which is fine also, you know because they know I love them and they know and I know that they love me So it's not really like a big deal when we do get into it, but I I write down yeah week by week what I'm doing what my Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday looks like when I'm doing my visualizations I incorporate like a decent amount of self hypnosis type things that I like doing too I write down when I'm doing that I write down when I'm flying training partners in when I'm going out to Virginia to train with Ryan Yeah, pretty it's pretty much like to the to the T written out when you say self - Hypnosis like what what are you doing there?

36:33They're like so a lot of them so this dude Michael C. Lee on YouTube does them They're just like 50 to like an hour and 15 minute Hit no C. C. is where they like calm me down for like the first 15 20 minutes They try to get you super present and then I enjoy there's all different kinds of them But I like and I enjoyed doing the ones where They like almost walk you through like Find in your spirit animal or like going on astral travel or something like this I think that there's a lot of substance to get into a really calm place and Then letting your imagination kind of like feed you what's kind of going on deeper inside of you And I do a decent amount of those which sounds a little bit funky and a little bit weird, but I've had some super intense experiences by just literally laying there put my headphones in and listening to this dude talk on YouTube Well, I'd imagine that's I feel like when you're at your level and one of the things is exciting about what's going on right now And the band -a -weight division is that they're so much talent It might be the most talents to act division in the UFC It's hard to say because 55 is great 45 is great.

37:50There's a lot of amazing divisions But for my money I think 35 might be the motherfucker because there's just so many guys There's Mirab there's Pewter there's Marlin. There's you. There's Al Jermaine There's so who does in there now and there's all these guys coming up too that are super high -level Chris Gudiera's is there's some fucking killers and Everyone recognizes that the level is so high in that division and they see a fight like Your fight with Marlin or Mirab's fight with Pewter and it's like Jesus Christ man If you want to compete in that division you got to have everything Right you have to dot your eyes and cross your teeth you got to get that fucking exact amount of rep you got to do everything Hell yeah everything.

38:38Yeah, this is just the most insane pressure cooker that I think any division has ever had because I feel like There's like eight world champions competing for the number one spot any one of these guys could be a world champion any one of these guys and in another time period would be a world champion but Because of what's happening in MMA right now because the skill sets are so high and the talent level is so high that Everyone's recognizing that and you're seeing these fucking insane breakthrough performances like every time from these guys Like Marab versus Pewter like you versus Marlin these breakthrough performances are just like where everybody else is like god damn Gotta go back to work because it's just so Pressure intensive.

39:23I know it's it's actually really awesome Like I reflect on that sometimes where I'm like damn man like you're in the hottest division in the biggest Organization in like the most badass sport right now. Yeah, and that's fucking cool man like When I reflect on that it's awesome and and it also is like it's literally gonna bring out It has to bring out the best in me for the next rest of my career like it's absolutely has to like it's not one of those divisions Where it's like I'm gonna beat that guy. I'm gonna beat that guy and like literally all the way up and like Passed the outside the top 15.

39:59I'm like man if you're not on your peas and cues and you're not working your ass off Like you were a 21 year old kid. You're gonna be fucked and I and so like That I want to have it any other way man like that's what's gonna bring out the best in me And I'm like super just grateful that I get to be a part of it while it's actually happening It's kind of like feels surreal that that's the scenario It's awesome It's awesome that you're embracing it like that because it's awesome for me as a fan to watch this happen Because I think it's very unique. I think it's very special It's like you remember back in like there's a showtime documentary on the golden age of like when Hagler was fighting Leonard and Herons was fighting to ran and to ran was fighting Hagler and these guys They all fed off of each other, but it was only a few of them Like the UFC right now.

40:46It's a goddamn carnival. I mean there's there's a fucking Massive crowd of assassins that are all competing and you'll see these new banemweights that come into the UFC And you know they might have 16 17 fights outside the organization and then you'll see him in their debut You're like Jesus Christ guys world class world class already first fighting the UFC I mean that that to me is so exciting because this sport is the only sport that you could really name that if you go back to 1993 and you look at it from 2023 you're looking at a massive evolution in the game massive massive I mean not even comparable.

41:26There's not a single person from 1993 that looks like they're a world champion in 2023 but if you go back to 1993 in boxing you got a lot of world champions You got Oscar Daniel O 'Hoyle, Julio Cesar Chavez you got fucking assassins who can compete in any division or in any rather Error at any time in boxing you don't have that in the UFC you have this complete new kind of thing that's emerging and evolving and You're seeing these top performers that are just reaching total new heights. Yeah, it's cool It's like it's in like that period of like history where So I'm sure that all the sports went through this but like wrestling is pretty standard, you know like There's certain things that work really really well and of course like people go outside the box sometimes But there's like a proven system of like what works where I feel like an MMA We're not at that point yet, you know like we're kind of like we're all in this like discovery like yeah Who's gonna figure out how to make this thing work the best?

42:29You know like that's almost what I feel like the races right now. Yeah, we're the races like Like I said man, everyone works hard everyone's pretty athletic You know like everyone kind of has like their little quirks and like the ways that they do things or whatever But who's gonna figure out how to be like the best system of MMA because every other sport I feel like has done that That's like why most soccer games look like all the other soccer games Yeah, but in fighting not all the fights look like the same fights And I think that that's just because it's in this like Realm of just full -blown creativity, which is because we're just trying to figure out like who's gonna get the best system first, you know It's pretty fun.

43:12It really is fun. It's so fun to watch and that I think that's really important We just said it's creativity because that's a big part of this Overwhelming style that you have is that it's creative is that you're you're doing things that are unexpected But standard like you're doing punches kicks take downs, but unexpected So you're finding a way to deliver these things inside of these spaces and movements and stance switches It's fucking wild to see man and it's just it's so exciting to witness this growth of this what I think is the greatest Sports that's ever existed and to watch it blossom and bloom and become what it is now.

43:55It totally is man like Fighting's the best sport in the world man There's nothing in my opinion. There's no other sport that's more inspiring either like It's one like fighting is entertaining as hell But like how inspiring is it when you watch like a guy like Volkow fight Islam up a way class, you know like how inspiring is that Sometimes I wonder if that's just me, but I don't really think it is man I think it inspires the world. That's a rocky movement. Yes Seriously man like Israel taking on pariah this week like how inspiring man like the guys lost to him three times And he's like he knows man like he knows that if he loses again like he's probably not gonna fight for a title for a little bit.

44:35Yeah That shit's inspiring dude like how high can how how much higher can the stakes get can't get you get any higher If you've been watching his training footage I've been watching some of the embeddads. He's got his own channel I think it's called freestyle bender and he puts up all these videos of all the shit that they're doing and this month The fuckers going so hard. Yeah, he's going so like you could see he's just broken at the end of some of these sets and training sessions And it's just he's going as hard as he possibly can with this mindset that there's there's a way to conquer this guy There's a way to beat this guy and I'm so fucking pumped.

45:11I can't I'm I'm two fucking days away I know so you gonna call it hell yeah, oh you are not I can't wait lucky I know I thought about going and then I bet I'm going too many weekends, but man I can't wait I can't wait and Mosvod all burns. I kind of want to see who wins that fight too That's a very interesting fight It's it's gonna be interesting to see if Mosvodol can handle the burns take downs and burns is aggression It's just where's Mosvodol in his career, you know, I mean he looked Great in fights in the past, but then you know you see the fight with Camaro He gets KO'd and then he loses the fight to Colby gets overwhelmed like where's he at right now?

45:49Mm -hmm. He's older. Yeah, I think he would he say he's 38 37 or 38 you know at a certain point time You can't do it anymore the same way. That's what he was saying to you right? He was saying if he loses this will probably be his last one Yeah, dude Did you used to watch all of those videos of like the street fights before kind of dude that yeah when I was thinking because I get asked You know sometimes like hey, how'd you get into MMA? I don't ever have like an interesting story, you know I'm like well. I used to watch Kimbo knock people's eyeballs out in backyards Remember that video dude holy shit.

46:23That was crazy. Yeah, that was crazy. They were like fighting your satellite dish There's also just stuff in the backyard. They're gonna move around things seriously Yeah, I remember there was like a stint in my like teenage years where I just would watch world star hip hop like Did you do you ever get on world star hip hop? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Where it would just be like fight compilations and I would just watch for like 40 minutes just like people beat the shit out of each other on the streets And I thought it was so awesome. That's like what got me into fighting I was like oh yeah, I want to fuck some people up like that.

46:54That looks cool It's funny that that got you in but your style is so intelligent. Yeah, it's like yeah your style is like high level chess But that's just madness Yeah, I mean I think every teen it I mean the fantasy I think for most dudes that don't fight is they just want to like you know like be tough like every the everyone wants to be like tough you know and Fighting's the best way to be tough and when I was like younger and just watching that it was like fuck you I don't want to be like so tough and like kill people the way that those people do and you know What's fucked that most people don't understand is The amount of work that's involved just to get your body physically prepared to be able to fight for 25 minutes It's so taxing to the mind.

47:43It's so grueling for your your just Everything gets tested your ambitions get tested your will your fortitude Your commitment your distractions your self -hate and loathing your self -love your ego everything gets tested I can't think of another sport where people go in and probably worry or have to like be super concerned about How tired they're gonna get like can you like a like a I like think about like basketball football, you know like other sports. There's always substitutes Like that's like a major demon to conquer on your way up in MMA is like How do I not be scared of getting tired as hell because it's a most tiring shit in the world Especially when you're coming up and like you're nervous and fights and you don't really know what you're doing your technique isn't as good and I don't I can't think of another sport where they really Where you have to go in and be like man if I get tired.

48:35I'm gonna get my ass kicked like literally get my ass kicked That's like another thing that makes him to make cool It is and that mental battle and wondering whether or not you've done enough in camp Because there's some guys there's some guys that are very very talented But they they're not very disciplined and those guys you could always see that moment where the other guy is in shape And they start to doubt and start to think about maybe I ate too many donuts Maybe I slept in missed a few training sessions that I could have gone to And now I don't have the gas tank and this guy's coming after me.

49:07Yeah That's a horrible spot to be in the horrible spot to be in and there's another thing about MMA is the Management of your energy in a fight and this these calculated maneuvers are when to burst and when to take your foot off the gas And when when to know like have an understanding of your body like what it's capable of at any given moment And it's one of things that drives me nuts about bad refereeing like say if someone Has a big burst for and shoots for it take down massive struggle gets it to the ground and then is Trying to intelligently move to a place where they could do damage But the other person is defending well and then the referee interferes and stands them up I'm like Jesus fucking Christ.

49:53Do you know how hard it is to get someone to the ground and if that person is having a hard time on the bottom They should probably get up figure out how to get up But for you to just the booze of the casuals and you like come on stand them up stand them up and you just interfere in a fight it drives me nuts. I can't I don't really think that they fully understand what it's like from like a fighter's point of view to be like Finally, I got this mother fucker down, right and then like To have him stand back up and then you got to do the shit again. Yeah, and on top of that maybe you know you Empty the gas tank a little bit doing that and this guy's fresh and then you get kicked Yeah, you know, and then all fucking your now your legs compromised now you're switching stances and I trying to relax But now this guy's turn it it on now you have to eat up the gas that you were trying to conserve and now you're moving or it's unnatural It's like you there was an unnatural intervention in the exchange and that was a referee.

50:49I know I I always think about like How because everyone talks about the judging and all that I always wonder how that could actually be like again like reliably fixed to where it's not We're not just like guessing or we're not you know like and it seems like super hard But I don't I don't I think that the problem isn't with the criteria as much as it is with the actual rules like I almost feel like Like say you work real hard you get a takedown and there's three minutes left on the clock And then there's just so much Ambiguity as to like how much is enough damage that like there's so much ambiguity happening that Unfortunately because it'll mess up some other things.

51:31I almost feel like you have to add in rules where like Okay, so I get stood up if I can make it so that this guy can't punch me for 30 seconds or whatever amount of time It is or something But I almost feel like those types of problems only will get solved by rules that they won't get solved by This like ambiguity where like the ref can kind of make whatever decision and each ref is different and each crowd is different And they're just making a bunch of decisions So I think that someone not me should sit down and really think about you know making it Really clear and really straightforward About like the rules so that that kind of stuff doesn't happen Yeah, I think in that sense that it is too subjective It's too subjective and too many referees have different ideas of what's acceptable And also you can see referees reacting to the crowd.

52:20Yeah, we all see that. I think that's ridiculous That shouldn't that should never judge us. Yes for sure. There's a lot of bad judging Jesus Christ some of these decisions lately where you know they like who gave Marlon the fight Uh I don't know somebody gave Marlon the fun. Yeah, yeah, I think that's fucking insane I want you to imagine if there's three people who gave Marlon that fight. I know What if what if one other dude fucked up that night because that guy obviously fucked up But imagine if there was someone else and I like went home a loser like scratching my head like insane insane Yeah, that's the best performances of your career in a fight where everybody who watched thought you won Everybody like the the idea of giving that tomorrow and I'm a Marlon fan.

53:04He didn't win that fight You won that fight. It's clear. So whoever the fuck that judge is You're not doing that anymore like you you can ruin careers. You could take away win bonuses You know, yeah, they need a universal Uh, they need a universal commission. Yes, like I really think that that should because I almost wonder like why the UFC hasn't done it yet Because if I was a UFC it would be in my best interest to make sure that everyone's on the same page so that Uh, someone doesn't like mess something up like Because that fight very well if one other person got it wrong just one other person I could have lost and then like that would have changed a lot of stuff man because I It just would have you know like people care about wins and losses.

53:47I almost feel like they're You know someone should look into making a universal commission so that the rules are laid out clear we have 10 judges that we use at this time the judges are completely 100 % on the same page about what's winning what's not winning that way all of the fighters know that because Right now it's just commissions from different states just deciding on whatever rules they want to do and I really think that like step one is Universal commission. I think there's another step that needs to be taken and that's a abandonment of the 10 point my system I think that system is not our system That system is a system that's applicable to boxing and it works great with boxing You're you're dealing with two weapons.

54:32You have just punches You have a bunch of different ways to apply those punches, but you have a left hand to right hand. That's it There's so many more things going on in MMA. It's exponential. There's there's there's take downs There's submissions. There's ground control. There's being able to dictate the pace There's so much that happens in MMA that doesn't happen in boxing Because of all the the different skill sets and the different weapons and how they get applied and what's more what's more valuable than the other thing I think it should be a very comprehensive system and I think there should be way more than three judges I think I think there's a real good argument to have like something like 10 judges And have because like an experts.

55:18I mean guys like yeah, I mean if you can get I don't know for us a hobby would do it But like that level of expert, you know the guys like safe saoud these fucking world class coaches and and trainers Have guys like that judge fights. Yeah, you'll get a real solid understanding and if you have 10 of those 99 .9 % of the time you're gonna get the right winner, but if you have three and No disrespect but some of these people just shouldn't be judging if if someone judged Marlon winning over you they should not be judging an MMA fight because they either they're not paying attention Maybe they're on drugs, but they definitely didn't see what I saw so it doesn't make any sense to me Even with the 10 point muscle system, which is a fucked up system But if we had a system that tallied like like All the different takedown attempts all of the different strikes all and it was a point system So instead of like 10 .9 you're dealing with like 162 versus 120 the next round like 195 versus 170 and you look at it in that way where you could tallied up at the end sure and look at it I also think there's something that pride had that We really should take into consideration that you judge the fight as a whole And that the last parts of the fight are probably the most important parts Like when you saw Volkanovsky on top of Islam at the end of the fight pounded on him That is fucking gigantic that matters that matters because if this is a schoolyard the schoolyard analogy The teacher's coming break it up and you're on top you fucking won.

56:53Yeah, no one's gonna say Islam won that fight We got him no you didn't yeah, no the teachers stop the fight with Volkanovsky on top you punched you in the face Yeah, he won that fight. It's a great point everybody who saw that at the end was like Volkanov Yeah, that's a great point. I even look back to Gachy and Fazeev's fight like mega close fight But the judges got it right but Gachy at the end was definitely gonna be the guy that if that win another 10 minutes Gachy was winning that fight. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's interesting. That's actually made yeah That's actually a really good idea. I think yeah like like why not make Take downs points.

57:28Yes, like how they do in wrestling right and then why not make it almost the same as collegiate wrestling where if you get up That's a point too, right cap kicks are a point. This is a point and all of it gets tallyed up And so it's significant and you know there's that that thing significant strikes Which is kind of interesting, but sometimes significant strikes are body punches when you're on the ground Which we both know are not as significant as like a like a A front kick to the gut when you're standing up. It's got more power to it. So what is significant strikes? Maybe significant kicks versus significant punches Maybe some kicks are Worth more like a head kick is worth more, you know a calf kick when you see damage when you see someone limp That's worth more like how many points is that work?

58:11Yeah, I agree with you Yeah, I almost feel like that's I mean It's probably the same process that there are same thought process that type one doe went through when they were like creating the rules for their sport too, right like I could see how potentially there would be maybe some issues with like you know like people just touching, you know But even then like I mean you can't ever really tell how hard someone's hitting ever you know like Even a guy like pariah. I was watching some of his like Highlights and stuff earlier this week The way he punches people it doesn't like they come from here And they don't like they don't like look like this But when he hits someone bro, there's a head snaps back.

58:52Yeah, like it's definitely so you can never really tell like that's how long it's Those types of things you can't It would be super hard to like judge from a subjective point But I definitely agree with you that there needs to be like clear set like this is worth more than this This is worth more than this like if I get a takedown, but I've been beating you up for a minute and you get a takedown on me actually Like what what's the balance there so that I don't have to fucking gas fall in the middle of right trying to like beat this guy up Yeah, I think a larger number. I don't think 10 -9. I don't think 10 -9 makes any sense to me.

59:30It's just too much room for Interpretation too much room for subjectivity. I think we should we should have some really large number That's that seems it's just such a different sport than boxing 10 -9 makes sense in boxing 10 -80 got a knockdown makes sense It does not make sense in MMA because like you'll see guys get knocked down and When the round yeah, you know, it's like well how hurt was he on that knockdown and which should that count for? You know, we don't count knockdowns in the same way the boxing counts knockdowns where you like if you're watching Like Caleb plant and Benavitas if Benavitas knocks Caleb plant down.

1:00:06You know, that's a 10 -8 round. Yeah We everybody knows I always got a 10 -8 round you won that round That is not the case in bot in MMA where there's a clear cut Thing that you could point to and say you know, there's so many fights that are so goddamn close like Sugashon and Pielder yarn perfect example like Jesus Christ. That was a close fight Yeah, why and you got to like really look at it to try to figure out who won? I think they got it right but when I first saw it I thought they got it wrong Because I was a first on Pielder was on top at the end of it. I was like I think you got it and like oh Wow, he won him, but I was eating I was a Backstage at a green room after a comedy show hanging out with friends But watching it alone is like okay, that is a complex fight where it's close But I think they got it right I did too.

1:00:51I think there should be a Complete overhaul of the of the scoring system and I think They should have some sort of a conference where they get together with experts and world -class referees and judges and trainers and fighters And everybody has input do it at like that You have seen fighter week thing that they do in July and have a fucking conference where they literally sit down and try to Re -map the way we score fights because there's no reason to keep scoring them this way No one's holding a gun to our head no one's making this 10 -9 thing We just adopted it because when we wanted to be sanctioned and the initial part of it You had to get through the athletic commission and Nevada State athletic commission being the best and all these other ones You know being secondary, but they they had a system that was already in place So we took that system from boxing we applied it to MMA.

1:01:40I agree with you Yeah, I mean they got to do something dude or else it's just it's literally gonna happen like every single month Yeah, and people are gonna be upset about it and it's gonna be a topic of conversation until it gets fixed Yeah, there's just been so many fights recently the angel Lee, Macy barber fight There's been a bunch of these fights where you just you watch it after you like what what the fuck did they watch? I watched that fight in the back a little bit yeah, because that was the same night that I fought Cheeto I remember in my head. I was like oh well you better fucking win this fight by by a margin, you know, I know Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.

1:02:12I know that decision was nuts. I got couldn't I just couldn't understand it There's a lot of those lately and I don't know what the fuck is going on I don't know what the fuck is going on either like I mean I hate to be bringing this up But the fucking Cheeto Cheeto getting a one judge calling that fight over you how How yeah, how I think I might have an idea I so I So that guy was judging or rethin a fight of my guys along like maybe like four years ago my guy was in a My guy was in a rear naked choke, but it wasn't like sink sunk and in his angle was right So it was like, you know, it wasn't in we're yelling at the guy like hey don't stop it don't stop it don't stop it The guy stops it and then you know like I'm like hey man like you really screwed that one up and like Maybe I didn't say it that nice, but that same ref was the judge that scored it for Cheeto So I don't think he like liked me that much maybe That's all speculation of course, but Well that makes a lot of sense might make some sense the only thing that makes And I don't really mean to throw that guy under the bus because I actually only Really realized this like a few days ago when when I looked up what the guy looked like I was like oh, that's the that's the guy that I kind of bitched out for like fucking up four years ago You know and it would definitely it wasn't like Best interaction with that guy, you know But yeah, I don't want to shit on the guy because the guy's already getting so much heat as it is But he should get heat for that might have something to do with it That might have something to do with it and that's the unfortunate aspect of subjectivity of people having their own opinions about things and going into a fight Judging a fight in a biased way Yeah, yeah, it's not good.

1:04:07I also think you know, there's a if you see verdict verdict MMA that's it's an app and people's score from home Oh, I have seen that yeah, I'm not sure how it works But they seem to get it right most of the time that would be funny if we just had the fans vote And be like some gladiator shit. I'm not saying we should but that would be kind of funny problem is when Conner fights the The fucking Irish people would have the servers yeah, totally it would just it would just be about whose country has the most population Yes, it was the most popular person, you know, because if you have casuals They don't really truly understand what's going on there judging it.

1:04:42I don't know if that's the best idea But maybe if you have someone who's verified like, you know, you got these guys that are either former fighters or like hardcore fans practitioners people really understand martial arts trainers And maybe you get verified just like you get verified on twitter for being Cory Sanhaigan Maybe get verified as being a verified judge and so you can participate. Yeah, some people would love that It's not a bad idea. Yeah, yeah At least we should have a secondary score something that doesn't count Like we could say how do the people at home feel? How do the verified You know either athletes or trainers or how do these people who we say this guy understands MMA And he gets to vote and there's like 5 ,000 of them.

1:05:30What do they think yeah, and then you look at like 99 % think Cory won Yeah, I mean that's statistics right like the larger Population size that you have the more right you're gonna make it right which is why you would never do like a drug test on three people You know, you know, they don't do pharmaceutical tests on three people So that's why when you have judges where there's three people judging a very important fight That easily could be for the number one contender position. How the fuck is that? How's that okay? That's not that's not smart. It's not like judges are so fucking expensive We can't afford five of them or six of them like glory has five do they yeah, yeah, it's glorious Glor's still around.

1:06:08Oh, yeah, they mean they they're not around the United States unfortunately You know when they were doing like that um that fucking big tournament in LA and you know they have they were on television in the US I really had high hopes that they were gonna I was really hoping that they would do well because K1 Like in the 90s and the 2000s was the most fucking awesome thing in the entire world the most fucking awesome It was the most awesome thing like I talked to some people now now that I'm like 30 and a little bit older Some people like don't know what it is and I'm like look that up on YouTube and watch every single K1 fight ever It's the most awesome thing in the world just show them a nesto who's highlight real seriously anti -sour.

1:06:51Oh my god Yeah, they need to hug. I mean there's so many guys fucking pitter -ears dude Jerome LeBanner I mean they they had some remy bon josky Yeah, some fucking fights, man dude Whoa, you know what fight I was thinking of the other days. Uh, Chahid versus imbetus Remember that oh, yeah dude that fight that fight has just like disappeared in history But that was one of the most awesome epic fights that's ever happened in history. San Beat is a fucking animal. Yeah, he was awesome. He was awesome. What was he Australian? I think so right he was Greek. Well, is he from Australia? Yeah, yeah, you might be right there it is Dude, this is the most this man.

1:07:33Yeah, he's Greek. This fight was fucking bananas This guy's got in each of his face from the moment the fight started I mean they just fucking went to war look at this. I'm so glad that I got to bring this up for people Yeah, where they're like, you know watch this shit because this is the most awesome fight in the entire most awesome fight Yeah, yeah if I was running the UFC and clearly I'm not but if I was I would not be interested in slap fighting I'd be interested in this. Yeah, this would have a Oh, yeah, yeah, totally. What if you guys want to do something else? Yeah, that's gonna be big How about have pro kickboxing?

1:08:08Yep, because everybody loves high -level kickboxing dude in the small gloves like one Right, and it's or you could do it in these gloves or yeah small gloves is fine These gloves are way better than the glory ones too like the glory ones look bulky and like they they like guard the face too much These look like these are like so dwayne let me put a pair of these on Are these tens or eight dude? They might be eights but but dude. It's your it like literally just covers what it needs to cover They're essentially they feel like MMA gloves It's about the fingers. It's the right number. It's the right number.

1:08:41It's so crazy that like heavyweights are using fours in MMA, right But eight ounces. Yeah, that seems like the right number specifically for these guys, but There's a lot of these guys out there in the world like Cedric Dumbay just got signed Yes, that's good. Yeah, they almost had them sign a while back Which is it sucks because you lost like two years of his prime where you know For some reason it didn't work out and he didn't get in but now Finally that guy is an MMA and you're gonna get to see just elite world -class striking That's awesome and fucking conditioning that guy came to my gym He did my podcast and he came to my gym in LA and I and they wanted to use the gym and so While you know after the training after the podcast session he did a training session So I got to watch the whole thing they do some wild strength and conditioning shit.

1:09:28Oh really so much strength and conditioning It's all sprints on the the treadmill, you know that self -powering treadmill and then run back over to the bag and it's And it's time go and they's doing another thing's doing plyos doing all these different things But it says but that's why that guy's got this insane gas tank When you watch sedric doom bay fight one of the things he does he melts people He just keeps that he's got crazy power super intelligent very creative inside there But also just melts people with that pace He's been around for a while too, right? He has okay. Yeah, cuz I was gonna say I haven't seen much of his fights recently But I know that he's been around for a while.

1:10:06He's a comedian Like a legit comedian. Oh, France. Yeah, he's a funny dude, man. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, sedric doom bay shoots down reports of UFC deal Oh, no The rumors of sedric doom bay signed to the UFC cropped up after the fighter shared a cryptic post on social media Cuz I know he was about to be signed at one point. So what the fuck has that happened yet officially as all oh So he got a call from Dana white and he sent a picture of it. Yeah, here's his last sweet about it He's okay, I know you want to see me at the UFC. I really want to make you love But the choice offered me is really not easy and at 30 it will be the last choice of my life Look how he spelled choice It's French that's French is he spelling it in French.

1:10:50That's what it is. Chois This is my chua Well, I fuck man. I hope they figure that out because when you get guys like peheda or get guys like sedric doom bay you get to see elite striking. Yeah, and it's also you get to see this problem like with peheda You saw it with the autosignify doesn't really know what to do and guys are wrestling them You know when that was a big problem when is he got his back and he couldn't get out of that It's like wow he was a very sluggish on the ground This is like a market difference between the fluidity and the efficiency that he has on his feet And then when autosign you got him on the ground you can say like whoa Because he's gonna have a problem with like the Robert Whittaker's the world or the Marvin Vittoris Big fucks that know how to wrestle.

1:11:34Yeah, there's uh I think grappling is super interesting or at least from like the way that I've kind of learned things And wrestling is because it's so proprioceptive that like you literally I don't feel like can get good at it until you clock all of those hours Like that's like a really cool thing about I mean Everything comes more natural to people of course like striking came really natural to me But I had I started everything at the same time, but Getsu Getsu was so proprioceptive that it like it wasn't natural for me Like I grew up playing basketball like everything is hand -eyed coordination, you know moving your body Uh But like wrestling and grappling it's like uh it's almost like when you you learn a different language And you always have that accent you know, and I mean where it's like oh that that guy didn't grow up doing that You know because I can see by the way that he just does like really small nuancey things And you can't get rid of it unless you just like clock hours and hours and hours of it like that's like striking Is that way to the way?

1:12:31Yeah, I think for some people and that's why I said maybe it's because just the way like I just naturally picked up Striking really easy to but uh for bulky guys For bulky guys striking becomes a real problem. Yeah, cuz moving's a big deal And it's also like guys who are used to grappling they used to moving their body in a very specific way And then all of a sudden they got a snap and explosion. Yeah, it's like a different thing Yeah, and a lot of them like the big bulky guys have a really hard time Picking up fluid striking. Yeah, definitely definitely But if you like you see a guy like Floyd Mayweather or something starting when he was a little kid My my god, it's like a part of his blin it's like blinking.

1:13:07It's just like completely natural movement. Yeah. Yeah, I mean Yeah, cuz when I think about how I because I do think I've made some giant leaps in my wrestling game recently The the reason I think it's happened is cuz banks and I will just like hand fight and pummel for like 20 30 minutes straight on a lot of days like uh like Wednesdays and Saturdays We'll just do that because I really feel like I don't understand things until I can actually just like clock them hours and hours and hours Cuz it can be the difference of oh my shoulders here or my shoulders here Like on someone's chest that like stops them from running me over And like those things you just don't learn unless you just like clocked hours and hours and hours another thing that makes like MMA just so awesome and fascinating too is just There's things that you just can't skit without just clocking hours and hours and hours of it.

1:14:00No shortcuts. No, no Especially at the elite level. It's like you can't because everyone's talented Everyone's motivated. Everyone's driven. Everyone's successful. Everyone has experienced. Yeah, it's just like what a pressure cooker seriously Hmm, it's good though man because like like I said like I don't really have any other hobbies like I don't enjoy doing other things so like I'm like super capable of just like clocking hours and hours and hours because I don't like do other shit in life That's good that you don't do other stuff because you wouldn't have time for it. Yeah, it's it's really it's The question with a lot of elite athletes in MMA is like how long can you maintain that intensity?

1:14:39Yeah Because it is a grind. It's a grind. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in a nice place though because I kind of after that young fight I took a year got better Was able to rest like my nervous system, you know like when you're like want to fight over and over and over again I feel like your nervous system never really gets to chill because it's like right It's like thinking a couple months ahead, you know, yeah But my nervous system feels good right now like it's excited to think a couple months ahead now That's great. Yeah, so the young fight you took on short notice like how much time did you have five weeks five weeks?

1:15:10So half time of what you prefer and what did you get out of that fight? Uh I was super happy with the way that I did those five weeks. I was really happy about that um That was the first time that I had actually gotten Rocked to the point where like my like body wasn't listening to me So that was super interesting um, what did you get hit with? Uh, fucking like a spinning backfist left hook It's it was a pretty badass attack But it happened in the last minute in the third round and I feel like I was fighting fucking awesome Round one round two four minutes into round three got rocked stood up was like okay went back to the corner I don't really remember what happened in between the corner because I was so like oh shit like I just got rocked And for the first time ever in the fourth round uh my eyes Were there were my legs weren't listening to what my eyes were seeing so like I felt like I would see punches coming and my body just wouldn't get the fuck out of the way Which was crazy.

1:16:14So I got my ass whooped in the fourth And then when I went Uh after the fourth before the fifth I remember taking this like deep breath and being like Oh, okay like now I'm back to being myself But then in the fifth I kind of had to fight like a little bit compromised because I was like well fuck if I get hit like that again That could be like lights out you know um But that actually helped me a lot in the song fight because in the song fight I got rocked pretty early too Like just got like really excited like wanted to like crack him with the right hand when I saw an opening And that motherfucker song is fast dude like uh I had never fought someone that I think was that athletic and that fast in my life.

1:16:55So I threw a right hand and song like Fucking chambered his shoulder and threw like a hard left hook as I was turning back in and it rocked me And it didn't phase me anymore because I had been through it in the on fight So uh even though the on fight I of course was upset because I lost like I took that away from it And I feel like it actually helped me win again song big time because after I got rocked I was like Eh I know that I'm okay, you know, which is like when it happens to you the first time you're like Oh fuck me. I'm like am I gonna get knocked out now? Right right right so it so it helped but uh Yeah, I was like more or less happy with how I did just got dropped was compromised.

1:17:36I'll get I'll get out of him again, you know The song fight was amazing because I got to watch that as a spectator cool at the apex cool Which I fucking love I love fights at the apex. I think it's amazing. I hate him Well, you know, the other crowd I would imagine for a leap fighter when you're fighting a big opponent like song you don't it's a very important fight That you would want a giant roaring crowd and you wanted to be at the team mobile But man as a fan to be able to especially where I get to sit like at the desk kind so I'm sitting there right there watching the cage And I don't have to work So I'm just listening and watching and and fuck man what a what a great experience it is watching world class fights in that environment We can hear everything because there was only like 100 people there like maybe right?

1:18:26It's like only people to get invited So you're you're sitting there and watching world class fights almost like it's in a gym. Yeah Songs awesome to man like I really feel like that guy. I mean he lost To me but like that guy kind of gets left on a little bit man like uh This is what we're talking about earlier. There's so many people that vision I'm actually really curious to see how him and Ricky Simone how that fight goes. Yeah, that's gonna be a killer fight That's a great battle killer fight very exciting fight. Yeah, I'm really exciting about us excited about Al Jameen and Henry. Yeah, that's super excited too I know At first, you know like okay, so at first Just being in the division and just like the lens that I have to like walk through life.

1:19:07I was like Yeah, fucking Henry's just coming back Fuck just getting title shot, you know, but then now I'm kind of like Oh shit, this is gonna be like a cool fight, you know like it's gonna be exciting. Yeah, it's it sucks In one way because this guy sort of takes your place or takes a place But in another way, it's like he brings a lot of eyeballs to the division to the division and also he elevates everything Yeah, like that's the reality of a Henry so hudo that guy is a fucking Wolverine. Yeah, I mean he really is He's good too. He's very like like he's kind of dorky on like I know that he tries to be dorky The strange stuff.

1:19:45Yeah, but dude when you watch that guy compete like I remember when I watched him fight Fight crews Like yeah, I always try to like get a read on people Like what what their body language is saying how their eyes look, you know like I I feel like guys that do a lot of like Shifty eyed stuff before a fight aren't always the most focused that might just be something that I think and there's no science behind that But I almost feel like I can like tell But when I watch so hudo fight, I'm like, oh man that guy's locked in and like that guy is locked in he's a hell of a competitor Yeah, elite competitor.

1:20:18I want a gold medal at like 18. Yeah, gold medal in the Olympics two division world champ at MMA I mean he's a fucking monster and you know But I think one of his most impressive performance was his Marlon Marais. Yeah, cuz Marlon had him fucked up in that first round Marlon was teen Marlon is probably one of the most talented guys that just Can't be pushed past a certain level when he gets pushed to a certain level the wheels fall off And it's very interesting. It's I don't know if it's psychological I don't know if it's because he cuts so much weight of its physical if he doesn't have a large gas tank I don't know what it is But if I watch that first round, I'm like oh my god.

1:20:56This guy's a world beater. Yeah, like Jesus Christ Marlon Marais is Fucking Henry, so hudo up. Yeah, and then the second round Henry made an adjustment just started putting it on him Yeah, he did what he had to do he was like all right this shit ain't working We're going after this guy. That was cool. Yeah, Henry's a hell of a competitor You know who else is to those sterling bro. Oh, yeah sterling gets slept on as like the champ and he's a hell of a competitor Yeah, he's a hell of a competitor Well, you saw that in the second pewter yawn fight because I think pewter yawn felt like I'm gonna fuck this guy up He cheated, you know, he won the first fight by pretending he was hurt, which I don't think he was pretending at all And in me put meanwhile the guy gets an artificial disc put in his neck How do you have neck surgery because his neck was fucked Like so that need 100 % fucked him up and then on top of that he has to get this surgery where they're putting a titanium articulating disc in his neck and then he goes and fights again, and then dominates.

1:21:50That's a big deal big deal. Yeah, yeah Yeah, Aljemy doesn't really he doesn't seem like a super boastful guy like for himself Like I always kind of see him when when I watch like this things that I watch on Aljemy and he's Being like silly and like calling fights and all of this stuff. He does he's not this super boastful guy on his own but He's He could be if he wanted to because he's a very good fighter and the neck surgery That's a big deal man coming back from something like that and it's a very big deal Yeah, it's um it's amazing that we have that kind of technology today that they can replace discs and someone's neck At the point where they can fight in a world class and a world championship title fights pretty crazy What did you get out of your fight with him?

1:22:34uh sterling yeah Not to fight like a pussy Don't don't go in there like a pussy No, um, I just wasn't I was kind of I don't know man. I just like uh I went into that fight all wrong Like I was just like way too calm way too like I got this like just being a douche, you know like a freaking and Like I you know like if if one of my fighters was being like that would be like hey man You were kind of a douche, you know like you thought that you were just gonna walk through that guy like you didn't get up at all like you know and and part of it wasn't because I thought that I was like so much better than algebra And I think part of it was just probably just like a compensation inside me that was like somehow afraid to lose so I was just trying to be like some type of character or whatever you know but but long story short I wasn't Up enough at all and Aljmane was up here and I was like here and here is not where you want to be for a fight so It just made for like I remember being in that fight and being like is this fucking guy on my back right now You know like I was like how the hell did he get there like this isn't how this is supposed to be going Just like dumb shit like that like add a lesson competitor type shit And that's actually after that fight that's when I was like I'm getting this shit down now like I'm figuring out how to show up every single night So you think that's a part of the important One of the important things that happens in the process of becoming a great fighter is that you have to make those Mistakes in order to learn and feel the pain of that to know that you have to make some adjustments And you have to make some changes.

1:24:10I think I think from my personal experience Like I always try to catch mistakes before they actually become like problems But in my experience in life The things that I've really fixed haven't been until after I've like cracked you know or like had something horrible happened like When that happens in life I feel like you just take things way way more serious because it's like it becomes a reality when like if you kind of know Something's like that's a problem But I don't really have to worry about that problem right now because it's not in my face But you're always kind of like Hmm that might be a problem one day and then it actually becomes a problem Then you fix that shit, you know like actually after that fight um I'll spend a like a lot of time just you know in my car or whenever just thinking to myself I'd be like is there anything that I'm doing right now That I will hate myself for if I lose this next fight And like what do I need to fix so that that shit doesn't happen, you know And I'm like constantly always asking myself those types of questions where I'm just like Look man If like say you lost tomorrow would you change anything right now And like I asked myself that like a lot a lot You said something the last time we were on the podcast that I actually put up a clip of The other day because it was it's such a profound thing you said you said I wish I could win every fight and feel like I lost Yeah Um Well, yeah, what a I mean maybe not because not now that I'm on the winning side of shit it feels pretty good Uh So maybe I don't mean that but uh As far but it is like the better way to like become yeah great, you know It's a better way to become great like even even like I was wrestling with banks the other day before we came out here And I was like hey like I'm fucking this up this up this up this up this up Like I need to get better at this this like these are the next steps but uh, you know, so uh I have really embraced that I'm glad that I don't actually have to feel like a loser because that shit really really sucks, but uh Yeah, I uh This shit is a marathon man like it's a marathon.

1:26:21It's an ultra marathon It's an ultra marathon and it's gonna last for hopefully the next six seven years in my life. So uh hold you know 30 So 37 you think is the exit strategy? Yeah That seems like for a natural athlete that's the tail end of your efficiency your body's ability to perform at the highest levels I don't want to have my like wife and kids watching me get knocked out a bunch of times, you know like I don't I don't I don't want to go out like that You know, I mentioned Chris Gudiers, but the last Frankie fight Oh, Chris knocked out Frank. He was like I was very apprehensive about that fight We knew that Frankie had a hip replacement surgery and I you know, I mean he's been around for so long I mean he beat BJ pen for the title and Abu Dhabi in like what was that 2006 or something?

1:27:08Yeah, when was it? It was a long time ago. It was when Anderson civil fought Damien Maya And dang that was a long fucking time ago and then you know, you think about those wars that he had with great Maynard and all the fights that Frankie's been in And to see his kids in the audience for that fight. Oh my god. They're gonna come see this fight Dude and Gudi Harris is his nasty. He's so good. He is really good. Look bro when they took that fight I was like why why you know like not not to be offensive towards anyone, but I was like Chris is good man He's very Chris is really good, uh, and he doesn't get the deserve the the attention he deserves because he's in this fucking insane division You know, I mean there's so many guys So many fucking guys in this division.

1:27:51It's just a what a wild ass 135 pound division. It's crazy. Yeah, it is crazy. It's exciting Fuck this excited. Yeah, it's it's fucking cool. It is so interesting to me that you know other than branded marano and davison figurado and You know, there's a few guys at 125 that people care about that division doesn't get nothing compared to the 135 135 pound division sells out T -bowl arena, you know, it's fucking huge pay -per -view fight 125 people like that too small. Yeah, weird. Yeah, it is weird Hmm Yeah, marano's bad us too. I love marano. I love that too. Yeah, yeah, I love that. He's into Legos I love that shit dude.

1:28:33Yeah, and then uh Yeah, it was parade was wearing like some Pokemon gene jacket or something Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was like whatever the fucking ball For real dude, so I shook that guy's hands. So actually I have a lot of respect for that dude. I'll give him like So after he had won the belt The next week his sister was fighting in like the middle of nowhere Iowa and I was their corner in one of my buddies or one of my teammates and he he was there like helping his sister And I was like, oh man, that's really that's like cool to me, you know like you just want a world title against one of like the best Champions that the UFC has had in years and then you're like in the middle of like dude in the middle of nowhere It was like a hour 30 just to the airport like yeah So by anyways dude, I shook that guy's hand and it was like shaking like one of these things man It was like his hand was like this big.

1:29:26I'm huge. Yeah, he's a genetic freak. Yeah, there's a lot going on with that guy He's incredibly mentally tough. He's he's got Insanity in those the power punches and strikes is You watch him hit guys and they you can tell like right away. They're like oh fuck Like you could see it. He puts it on them and they're like oh Jesus Christ Like the danger is so high He's got that one punch KO power one strike KO power and he's so Intelligent about how to place it on a chin. He really knows how to hit people there and then on top of that He's fucking enormous. Yeah, he's big. You can't believe that guy weighs 185 pounds You know I walk around I'm probably 200 pounds.

1:30:09How the fuck is that guy 15 pounds lighter than me He's so much bigger than me. He's huge and then you see him get into the cage He's like 225 when he when he fights when he rehydrates, which is just bananas seriously I so like I was actually watching is he in pariah the the first fight recently and He has his hands in a spot too where he's almost like like hit me. Yeah, like come on hit me He's almost baiting you. Yeah, because he you know like that size of a guy Fighting a guy like Israel that that to me is where I like really understand why that fight went the way that it went a little bit is because When someone that big Compared to you is standing there kind of like this and just like marching you down with their hands down It's a little bit intimidating to just be like Well, do I just like nail this guy?

1:30:57You know because if he slips and I like don't hit him He's gonna like chuck and fuck me up So I think that that's a little bit of like a giant advantage for for that dude It's also he's got a very unusual stance. Yeah, he stands straight up And he keeps his hands like this and he just sort of like straight and then he throws kicks with no telegraph And he doesn't throw him full power But he's got so much power that when he starts throwing those low kicks like I watched the the first fight a few times now Uh the first time I may fight and he he fucked is he's calf up multiple times in that first round with zero telegraph So it's not like one of those like dig in and turn your body over It's just stop Stop he's just top just throw it and it doesn't come out of anywhere You're not you're not you're not seeing any reads.

1:31:45Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the toughest guys to fight honestly The guys that don't telegraph anything. Yeah, you know, you're planning powerful just having all that adrenaline in you You don't need to be loading up too much that said if you go back and watch the first fight Is he was winning that fight? Is he was winning the grappling exchanges? He took him down control them on the ground and he was doing great in the striking rock them in the first round Had them in real trouble that first round is 30 seconds longer. Is he retains this title? So it's one of those things just like I This is not a mismatch and it's not like Boy, I feel so hard for Izzy.

1:32:20No, it's like whoa. How is this gonna go down? Yeah? How is this gonna go down and when you got a guy with a mind like Izzy's Where he's so fucking determined and so smart and so laser focused He thinks he's got the solution. He thinks he's got it. He's gonna figure it out And then you've got this other thing where when someone becomes a champion There's this sort of school thought that they almost immediately become 10 or 20 % better. Yeah, I have heard that I wonder why I mean yeah, when were they they were saying that with Leon and Usman? Yeah, huh? I wonder why well he certainly Leon certainly looked better in the second fight like I feel like Camaro looked a little apprehensive I felt like in that fight like maybe there was something going on So Izzy's the favorite I mean he was winning most of the interesting Yeah, but he lost by tk.

1:33:11Oh, I mean, that's very interesting Very interesting. Yeah, look at the seven and one versus 23 and two or something. Yeah, crazy with MMA It's um, it's I mean, it's a very close line that could change easily if more money comes in on pejada You know 135 and 115 is almost like a pick them fight You'll be better no Now you can't bet when you work for the you yeah, yeah, I was really before do I hate losing money First time I went to Las Vegas and I like lost 20 bucks in like three minutes. I was like fuck this Yeah, well, that's good. It's also something silly like you can't control it I mean like I see Ken if you're really good at poker or blackjack or something like that It's just like I'm not interested in that now do you play those games?

1:33:58No, no, I don't play any other stuff I don't play anything where you don't have to execute I know dude I don't like games where I can't use my body and some yeah, that's why I like pool because in pool It's like strategy. It's it's there's all this thinking of all but you have to make the shot you have to execute under pressure That's exciting to me like like picking the card. Yeah, yeah, anybody can do you can be dead You know, it's like it's just you can play Digital poker video poker like did the people that sit at the things and hit the button all day. Oh my god What do you do? I know you do it poker is a very intelligent game and I respected and appreciated and the guys who win all the time They're they're elite thinkers for sure.

1:34:40I mean, they're in their obsessed people Cuz I'm too physical. I like I like things that you do with your body. Yeah, me too. I'm the same because it's it's also mental Because you have to control the body They controlling the bodies like one of the most exciting things about competition is that you know that there's a lot of pressure But you have to perform while you're under pressure. You ever play spike ball? No, you do know what it is no It's like that little Black and gold game. It's like a little net that they put on the their ground and it's like a part game You hit the ball at the net and then it's too verse two you never seen that no That's our game dude.

1:35:14That's gonna be my second career really. Oh dude. I love spike ball, bro We play on the team. We'll get a bunch of the guys on Saturdays in the summertime. It's this game So it's pretty much like volleyball You're it's like two verse two, but it's a 360 degree game and It's like volleyball but instead of hitting it over the net you hit it at the net But dude, it is so like look at like you just dive around you like pass the ball back you get three hits you hit the board Oh, that's wild dude. This game is so fun. That does look fun It's super fun. Yeah, that's my that's like my gonna be my second career.

1:35:48I'm never hurting of this until now Is this if you heard of this jammy? This is 2016? It's pretty new though. It's a little new. It's like picking out some steam Oh, there's a big good game for the beach. Look at this. This is crazy. It's been on ESPN and whatnot Dude, it's so fun. That looks fun. It's super fun. That's gonna be the next thing. I think so you got to preserve your knees if you want to play that Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of Cutting and jumping and moving around. Yeah. Yeah, we yeah, we play Unfortunately, no one's really good enough to like keep up anymore I know the guys are gonna hate that I say really you getting really good at it.

1:36:25Yeah, I think I'm gonna like join a team and shit I honestly think I'm gonna join like a summer league that's your shit. It is my shit. Wow. I love it Wow, I don't have any other hobbies like I'm thinking about starting fishing just because I like doing shit outside But he live in Colorado a lot of great fishing Yeah, I don't know if it's gonna be my thing or no, you know fucking stand there. Yeah, I don't know if it's my thing But spike balls my chin bow hunting really fuck it. I got my old roommate super into bow hunting. That's dude I've done a lot of shit. Mm -hmm bow hunting like bow hunting a screaming elk That is one of the wildest things really it's so exciting.

1:37:01What do you mean screaming the elk they scream? Like when you hit him no other there's their mating and so they're screaming at each other and fighting. Oh So you're dealing with these 900 pound animals with giant antlers smashing into each other and you're creeping up on them You know, you're trying to like avoid the wind and it's very physically taxing because you're in the mountains So you have to get up to the top of the hills where these guys are and you have to be able to That's what they sound like Um, I do it ball of the western states. It's Utah's one of my favorite places to go. I love going there I go to California.

1:37:40I hunt in California in central California every year. I like to go to Colorado I'm gonna try to get to Arizona either this year or next year. They got elk in Arizona. Oh, yeah Well, they a lot of them they have in these Apache reservations And you know you be by tag from the reservation. Mm -hmm and they're Fucking enormous. It's the most exciting thing like Derek Wolf who you know won the Super Bowl competed in the NFL He said stacking Tom Brady's great when it's not as fun as elk hunter. Oh cool. It was just crazy Shooting an elk with your bow. He said it's more exciting than sacking Tom Brady And then you got to go like find it right?

1:38:23Well, it's not the only you don't have to fight it now Generally with a good shot. It's not going very far. Okay. It's really just about practice and it's really just about you know Bow hunting is one of those things where you look at it like oh you just shoot an arrow at the animal And then once you start doing you like oh there's so many layers to this thing And there's also layers to execution and archery which requires constant practice Archery is something that's a completely perishable skill If I take like a few weeks off of archery and then I go back I'm like oh we're gonna it's all it all feels weird.

1:38:58Mm -hmm But that if I'm practicing every day I kind of know where that arrow is going I want to release that arrow and just watch a shup There's something about shooting an 80 yard shot and watching it go right into the center of the target. It's amazing Yeah, I don't know if I could see that far. No, you can 80 yards, but doing it on an animal like that is it's next level. Yeah, I mean I wouldn't shoot 80 yards You shoot long. I mean I shot 70 yards. I've shot an elk at 70 yards But I only did it because I fucking practice every day for hours and hours and I'm 100 % confident in the shot But it's it's a mind fuck it.

1:39:39It's it's exciting. It's primal and the meat is sensational And you know you have fucking a years worth of meat from one animal. Yeah, yeah I'm definitely gonna get into that at some point. That's fine. Maybe just once. I don't want to fucking practice You would like archery really yeah, man. It's it's one of those things where While you are pulling that bow back and and centering the bubble and centering your peepsight and putting that That dot on the target and you're drawing back. There's nothing else in your mind. Cool. You have no room for anything else It's all about all the different Physical things that have to be in play your elbow has to be high You're pulling with your back muscles you're relaxing your shoulder Releasing like let the grip has to be light but yet you're still stabilizing the bow So it's just like this dance of muscle and thought and then With perfect execution when you watch that arrow strike the target.

1:40:33It's so satisfying Dude wouldn't it be cool to be like among Goliath warrior doing that like my horse back Isn't that how they used to like mess up all of the other yeah, they used because that was like they're like top weapon They don't just like send out fleets of people with horses and just They didn't so many things they were horrific. They were they were incredible dude old school war was Old school was in the right term for it. They're like yeah old school war old school war was bangle war Yeah, if you can watch I mean watching the Mongols sack a city and kill a million people and stack their bodies on top of each other Jereeda there's there's well read there's a great Audio book series.

1:41:11So it's it's really a podcast, but it really is more like an audio book Dan Carlin's hardcore history Yep, I love his podcast. Did you ever hear wrath of the cons? No, it's the best one. Oh really? It's the best all listen to it's all about Jengus Khan and his family Oh, they did do they killed 10 % of the population of earth while he was alive. I They killed so many people that they affected the carbon footprint of human beings on earth when they do core samples of the earth There's like a considerable Decrease in the carbon layer on earth when Jengus Khan was alive because they killed so many people Why would he do that?

1:41:46It was a bad man. Oh, the asshole very bad man very bad man And you know he fucked so many women rape so many women that his genes are in a high percentage of the people that still exist there today It's something nuts, right? What was the we've googled this before was what is the number? It's something crazy Jamie will find it, but when he was alive they killed somewhere between 50 and 60 million people. Jeez Yeah, like 10 % of the world's population yeah Like one out of 10 people on earth was killed by the Mongols That's gonna take me a minute to digest So 2003 study sound evidence that Jengus Khan's DNA is president about 16 million man alive today The Mongolian rulers genetic prowess has stood that's a nice way to say he raped a lot of people It's genetic prowess has stood as an unparalleled accomplishment But he isn't the only managed reproductive activities.

1:42:40It's still so significant genetic impacts entries later Yeah, then what's crazy is that that was like one of the superpowers of the world that everyone was terrified of the Mongol Empire and now Nothing. Yeah, like no one's scared of the Mongols Yeah, obviously they scared of Mongol fighters and they're tough people But there's no like considerable army. Yeah, which is really crazy if you think about that It is thousand years ago if you went back and talked to them they're like, where are we running this shit forever? Yeah, dude. I used to Back when I was like trying to get into war mind I would just like Google like the most badass warriors in time.

1:43:14Yeah, and I'm an idiot. So I like forget everything after a month of learning something but One of the one of the warriors was this Aztec dude and they He got captured by the other team Whatever whoever was they took him they cut off his hands to like try to like Just make him miserable for his entire life. They sent him back to his camp This guy like glues on knives onto his hands and then just commits the rest of his life to just like killing all of these people that I did that and that to me Jesus Christ. Yeah, this might be him Holy no, Jesus Christ according to legend after his right hand was cut off by the Spanish Galvarino boldly held up his left hand offering up for his captives to amputate.

1:43:55Oh after his right hand was cut off He offered up his left hand to the captives to amputate Displayed no emotion as it was cut off and his facial features recorded no pain Spaniards ordered him to return to I can't say that word. How's it? I say that word Copicon To urge him to surrender. Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that this dude like glued on like knives on his hands and and because that's like the type of dude That I was trying to like become sometimes you know where I'm like. Yeah, my life is committed to like you know Yeah, like that wild imagine being that guy Just like having that amount of hatred inside of you to be like you know what we're gluing these on and we're going back Jesus Christ.

1:44:37Yeah, that'd be crazy I guess but I guess when you kind of I sometimes think when you grow up in a society like that and like there's not a lot going on You probably get pretty bored and like commit your life to weird stuff like that Well, I bet he was committed to that the way you're committed to fighting It's probably the same kind of thing like if you're gonna be a warrior You have to be all in and you gotta know there's other warriors like you out there You got to be better than them. Yeah, or harder than them when I had Tyson on I brought up King is Khan and his fucking eyes lit up He knows so much about like Genghis Khan like first of all he knew his name was Tamujin his real name was Tamujin That's his his born name and he told a story about his brother about how his brother was a Stealing fish from him and his other brother so he killed his brother and his mother freaked out and he killed his brother But he's he was a fucking killer from the womb like from the time he was young and Went on to form this empire that to this day is one of the most frightening forces in the history of humanity Like what they did there's a there's this guy who was That the the the Shaw of Chorisma had sent an emissary to Jin China to go to see whether or not they should invade or conquer them Or what you know what was going on there and as they were headed to the city They saw in the distance what they thought was a snow -covered mountain and as they got Closer they realized that it was a stack of bones There was a stack of bodies because everyone in the city had been murdered They had to abandon the roads along the way because they were so littered with human bodies that were decaying That the roads had become mud and caked with filth and just human decay They was like decaying people had destroyed the roads gang there was so much decay that the roads had become mud Gang that's a pretty sad time in history.

1:46:26Oh my god. It's harder They would set up outside of cities of walled cities and just camp out until people ran out of food Yeah, and then when they started killing people they would put them on catapult light them on fire And launch them onto the thatched roofs to start the buildings on fire Shhh Yeah, we don't have it too bad now. I guess, huh? We have it pretty fucking easy. Yeah, we got it pretty good pretty fucking good I think about it. It's almost too good where I feel like the world's gonna end pretty soon Well, I think you probably are onto something historically because you know, that's that old thing that people always say hard times create hard men Hard men create easy times easy times create soft men soft men create hard times We're at soft men create hard times.

1:47:09Yeah, there's a dude quote I just got done reading dude and it goes something along the lines of like men made machines to try to free themselves when really What happened is the men with machines just decided to enslave a bunch of people Where it's kind of like we're almost like making ourselves slaves to these machines Maybe even worse with AI. Oh, yeah, that's pretty scary too The AI is like right about to pop and people are just sitting back going what's going on? What's happening here? Who is that? It's literally like the Nola Gay ready to drop a ball in Hiroshima is really like it's like right there You think that'll be it is AI.

1:47:45I worry. I mean, I don't know. I'm not really the best. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know best case scenario Yeah, best case scenario is we incorporate it into our own biology And then we become some sort of new type of being that's like a cyborg Because if it's not that then you're gonna deal with an artificial intelligent life form That's so superior to us that it creates far superior versions of itself Over and over again because it becomes autonomous and sentient That means it can make decisions and do something you go well my programming is dog shit. Let me just figure out how to do this better Yeah, quantum computing and do it with better technology and and you know nuclear fusion and figure out some way to have power That's not destroying the environment and figure out a way to have something that's completely sustainable and then go better and better than that You know what I hope that they do.

1:48:31I hope that they can clone dinosaurs. So they're gonna do that I hope that they I think I hope that that's what it commits. Well, they're already doing that with woolly mammoths They're calling in them. Yes. They there's a there's a project that's going on right now where they're gonna reintroduce mammoths woolly mammoths to Siberia And the idea is that they're gonna reintroduce them. Yeah, what? Yeah, why? Well see if you can find that Jamie I gotta take a piss. We'll come back and we'll talk about that because it's pretty fast and you should Um, woolly mammoths. Here we go. So scientists are reincarnating the woolly mammoth to return in four years interesting choice and words already reincarnating What the hell that's scary It's not really what they're doing though, right?

1:49:14But it's interesting too because 90 % of all animals that have ever existed are dead they're extinct So it's like are we gonna just keep doing this and what kind of consequences? Is that going to have for the animals that are alive right now? Like what if they start reintroducing saber -toothed tigers? Whether they start reintroducing you know all these animals that at one point in time dominated the earth Dude, I wonder if a Jurassic Park will ever exist like fucking totally can exist. Oh man. I hope it does I really hope it does I'll pay whatever fuck. Yeah. I'll pay whatever they ask to see a target to see a velociraptor Oh my god any amount of money.

1:49:49We know all that ends. I think it's bad Yeah, yeah Yeah, no one stopped to ask should we do it? That's like one of my favorite lines. I mean it adds bad in the move It ends bad in the movie in real life you have fucking jets These fucks Direct no one can stop that one. Oh, yeah, that's right. But that's right. But the end ominous Rex But that's just like the silliness of two three four five, you know Jurassic one was the shit That was really what was that like what did you do? Yeah, you know my favorite fucking part of the movie is Jeff Goldblum When he first sees the the Bronosaurus when he's in the Jeep and he just he gets up He looks at that.

1:50:27They're like what the fuck did you do? You know, I think that's possible man. I think they're probably gonna do it eventually They have to run it's a matter of time before that happens It's probably a matter of time before like we cure cancer and figure out how to live to 500 years like it's a matter of time before anything unless We blow ourselves up unless we blow ourselves up which is also real possible or we get hit with an asteroid Which is also real possible. Oh, that's the big one That would suck. That's the big one. I've been obsessed with that for years really Yeah, because of my conversations with Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock and Graham Hancock is the one who did that There's a recent Netflix special a series.

1:51:09It's really amazing called ancient Ancient catastrophe, right? Do I say it right? Pocclubs ancient apocalypse and this is it's all about what's called the younger driest impact theory Which is somewhere around 11 ,800 years ago the earth got fucking Pelted with asteroids and there's all this physical evidence and in the form of Nano -Diamonds these micro diamonds that that are created upon impact when these giant rocks slam it to the earth Just the heat and the power and the pressure and then also iridium iridium, which is very common in space but very rare on earth There's a layer of iridium all over the earth around this time around 11 ,800 years ago And this also coincides with the end of the ice age and Randall Carlson's life's work has been explaining how this has This impact that happened and they know exactly what it is It's through a very specific meteor shower that we pass through every June and every November and that you see the meteor showers in the sky and every looks at them But passing through that occasionally a big one goes through and those big ones he thinks slammed into The ice that was covering North America because at that point in time during the ice age North America had a sheet of ice covering half of it that was like a mile two miles high And all that stuff is what you see when you see the great lakes that's melted ice and that he thinks that it happened almost instantaneously and that these things slammed into the ice they slammed into parts of the world and that that is the Flood story from the Bible that's the epic of Gilgamesh That's all these different things and it also shows why there's all these like super sophisticated structures It seemed to be thousands of years older than they previously thought they were So what him and Graham Hankark have come up with and that's what's in this ancient apocalypse documentary is that at one point in time There was an incredibly sophisticated society that lived on earth and that's the Africans the Egyptians What they had done in you know, whatever thousands of years it was that they built that stuff because it's under dispute as to how old it really is It's at the very earliest the very least it's 2500 BC But they think it's wailed and not and these people had Technology that we still don't understand we don't know what they use we don't know how they did it But they moved two million three hundred thousand stones that were tons some of them from hundreds of miles They cut obelisks out of the mountains and move them a thousand miles.

1:53:45They don't have no idea how they did it They have no idea what they used to cut them They have no idea what they used to move them and you're talking about people at that point in time You know, you're dealing with five thousand six thousand years ago. We thought they were like hundred gatherers Like how did they do that? Yeah, if it's really 10 ,000 years old 12 ,000 years old 20 ,000 years old What kind of sophisticated culture exist that went on a different path than we went on we went on the path of internal combustion engines and electricity and Computers they might have gone on a similarly advanced or more advanced way But with a completely different Angle they they came at technology from a completely different space and That's what we see when we see those stone structures I'm worried that that could happen to us and I'm worried that if something like that did happen Do it be very little evidence of the society that's left you'd have a small group of people that survived and lived in fucking utter barbaric Conditions and I think that's also why people are so fucking savage when you look at human beings like six thousand five thousand years ago What we're probably seeing according to Graham Hancock a lot of other people now at this point timer or coming to this conclusion Is a re -emergence of civilization not the birth of civilization what we think of as the Emergence of civilization we think of Babylonia and ancient Sumer and this is the first mathematics the first written language the first agriculture and what they think now is this is just a rebirth of complicated society and that for the six thousand years plus After the impacts it was probably hell on earth and the people that survived were fucking monsters Just monsters and that is probably why people were so fucking savage Post the construction of this insanely complex civilization in Egypt I mean what they did in Africa to this day is one of the most puzzling things that archaeologists have to to ponder like how What is this insanely sophisticated society that existed that built these structures and left behind No No record of how they did it yeah All the burning of the library of Alexandria all the ancient work that they had that they had where they had like passed down What had happened all that was gone when they got attacked and they burnt down the library.

1:56:13I know. I love that So much of science is so unknown still. Yeah, isn't that cool man? That's pretty cool like He sometimes I think that our society gets super caught up on like house -fiscated and how smart we all are and this and that and like I think it's like a nice reminder sometimes to have other people question things and And just like come up with different theories and ideas because it reminds everyone that we're not all as smart as we sometimes think You know because I do think that we live in a society where we think there were so much smarter than the humans that were around five six thousand years ago When really is the same body same brain.

1:56:50We just got more shit, you know Yeah, we probably aren't as smart as the Egyptians now It's really likely that what they had figured out again So it's probably it's probably hard for us to understand what kind of technology they used Because it doesn't exist anymore So someone would have to like figure something out that some Ground -breaking breakthrough technology that will people go oh that's how they did it And then we'll know and then we'll understand but right now we're less sophisticated in terms of our ability to move stone and make stone construction Than they are yeah, there's no evidence that there was big machines.

1:57:25There's no hieroglyphs that show cranes or so what what the fuck did they do no one knows Oh, no, I don't even I don't even know how to use a compass. I'd be like one of the first ones dead dude I'd do this is easy. Yeah, I mean just keep it away from magnets it points towards the north Yeah, I like being from Colorado. I'm like that way's west. Yeah, you know like so that's nice But I think that it would be a shame if like the world did and then there was like people scattering to like survive Because I'd spend my whole life just learning how to fight and then like probably be one of the first ones to die Because I have no directional no survival skills you learn them people would learn them You know people adapt they adapt quickly That's pretty figured out, but I mean you look at like all these movies of apocalypse is it's all the same story Like everybody reverts to barbarism.

1:58:11It's just the horrific conditions and people are terrible That's the walking dead. That's like everything the walking dead is not really about zombies. It's about what happens to people. Yeah Yes, that would be sad. Yeah, we're like building something that allows us to somehow or another Change and evolve past our primate savage ancestry But every time that goes away we revert right back to it. Mm -hmm Every time society collapses power goes out no more food. You have to survive on your own. We go right back Yeah, that's the shame, but we kind of know that that's why those movies are so appealing Because we know that if the shit went down it would be horrible.

1:58:52Yeah, it'd be hard and people would do the worst things They possibly could in order to get by shy wonder if I even would sometimes like I wonder if I just be like you know I'm just not gonna do that. I'm just gonna go in this corner and die bro. You'd be fucking strapping animal skins on you Think you armor. Yeah, you would yeah, you would take the same mentality that you have towards fighting and you would apply that towards war Yeah, that's what I think yeah, maybe yeah I think it's a proxy for war. There's an MMA as a proxy for war. I think it's it's a it's like a thing that substitutes What is inside of all of us?

1:59:25It's why it's so appealing. Yeah, that's why dudes love it And it's also what dudes love the fact that you can do that and still be cool to each other afterwards and hug Everybody loves a fucking war and then when dudes high five and hug it's very emotional. Yeah, yeah, I agree Yeah, and yeah MMA is beautiful in so many ways. We're transcending We're I mean, and I think that allows it. It's like MMA is a way the humans transcend and you transcend the barbaric nature that you have and funnel it to something that's absolutely beautiful It's MMA's beautiful. It is it really and you know like there was that famous thing where who was that actress?

2:00:03It said, you know, she's talking about the arts and she said and not mix martial art. Who was that? Oh, yeah Yeah, it's an older lady Merrill Street. Yeah, it was a great actress, but just a no. It's okay She's she's got some silly idea that she thinks acting is the end all be all and that's the arts Yeah, martial arts is a fucking art when I watch your performance against Marlon. That was artistic to me I was like god damn that's beautiful. Thank you. It's beautiful. Yeah, yeah It it totally I think everything's an art if you get good enough at it and you love it enough Uh, like actually, you know what?

2:00:36I I Like love all of the arts, you know like I love poetry music all of it comedy I think that it's beautiful that you guys like sit in a room Think of like all kinds of cool shit about life. That's funny write it down and then like go performing on stage That's pretty cool. It's a fun art. It's a fun. I like it jealous of you guys because your guys's job is to like sit there come up with like funny stuff That connects with people and that's like what you guys do and then at the performing piece of course But like just the writing out stuff that like connects with people that sounds like a really beautiful It's like writing music or something.

2:01:12It's a fun gig and I've been doing it for 30 plus years I'm still obsessed with it. What's like your favorite part about it the creation of new stuff Yeah, that's my favorite part about fighting to hmm interesting. I think what keeps you in interested Yeah, there's probably parallels in everything like when you learn a new skill When you have a new thing and then you can execute it and it becomes a thing and with one of the things that I love about comedy too Is that you have to constantly come up with new stuff and the audience you know They want to hear some of the old stuff because they love the bits But they really want to hear that new shit like hit me with some surprise shit What's some new stuff you've been working on?

2:01:45Yeah, and that's one of the cool things about this place that I That I opened the mothership is that it's designed entirely for the creation of comedy We have two shows in the little room every night and two shows in the big room every night And comics are hopping back and forth from one show to the other and we have this thing that my my friend Brian Simpson hosts this show called Bottom of the barrel and it's a barrel like a little whiskey barrel In the audience at the beginning of the show They get index cards and they get to write down an idea for a premise And it's in the barrel and you reach into the barrel and you pull out a thing and it'll say like reincarnating the woolly mammoth And then you go, okay What do I think about that?

2:02:25I'm going tonight. That's where I'm going right down then I don't think that's the night. That's Tuesday night I love like creative things like that though like a whose line is it anyway? Yeah, dude I used to love whose line is it anyway, you know like just improv like that to me is that's like that's like Yeah, that's that's a art separate from its own like writing down and then stand up That's like its own little art. Yeah, that's like creativity in the moment It's like when you're in a fight and you improvise something out of nowhere Yeah, and it just it works He just see an opening like I think I can do this and he just do it And it's like it's not even like I think I can do it You just recognize that that thing is there and then do it.

2:03:05Yeah, and then yeah like anything that's so like boom Boom boom boom boom is cool freestyle rap is really cool. All of that stuff is super cool Yeah freestyle rap is cool But I I'm a giant fan of like 90s hip hop because those those dudes rode everything out and like the lyrics were so complex And they twisted and turned and like I'm a big fan of gang star and you know listen to some of their old lyrics like god damn They're so creative the Wu Tang clan was super oh my god They were just a bunch of dudes and like probably their basement just like watching kung fu movies and writing Raps. Yeah, how cool is that the coolest the day they transcend to this day Well, you know Wu Tang's for the children were you a Biggie or two pot guy both.

2:03:50Yeah, yeah, both the biggie more. Yeah, meet me too. I love Two -pork two -pork was amazing, but I'm I'm a fan of braggadocious Shit talking hip hop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and nobody did it better than biggie. Do you ever watch like freestyle rap battles on YouTube? Sure, dude. They go at each other with some of the things that they say yeah Yeah, sometimes they'll fucking hit each other and shit kind of shit too. I love I love like watching people be aggressive and Confirntational. I love that shit Well, I like that because you're you although you fight very aggressive and confrontational You're very common relaxed guy.

2:04:25Yeah, definitely I'm like fascinated with people man like soup like I went to school for psychology I worked at a residential treatment facility for kids like I've done everything that I've ever done and is like involved Like some type of psychology or whatever And I love and it sucks to say but I love watching like shitty dating shows too online Because there's did there's so much confrontation that happens And I love witnessing people in confrontational scenarios and just seeing like what happens to the human person as they're like Dealing with a ton of stress like I remember in college bro I used to love going into like test day and just watching everyone freak out like that was like my favorite shit Like I love watching people get nervous It is fun It's fun to watch the nervous system and the mind get overloaded and all the possibilities and the thinking and the Just the fear and just anxiety.

2:05:19How do you just start being weird? I love I love watching people be weird Just because they're nervous. Yeah, it's fun. It is fun. It's well It's also I guess we're also accumulating an information database. We're like educating ourselves as to why and how the The person and we apply to ourselves like what would I do? How would I handle that? Yeah? Yeah? I got to stay cool if that happens to me. Oh, don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Don't don't get in your feelings. Yeah, what I want to like the cool thing that I learned when I used to work at that residential treatment center was uh like we'd have to like Like uh, so is with kids from like five to about like 12 or 13 or whatever All came from like abuse backgrounds But I would love to just see how You could tell that they were feeling a certain way based off their actions just being differently Like I thought that that was really fascinating.

2:06:11It was like my first time in life where I was like Oh, yeah, I guess like when I do pace around a little bit I I guess like that's me just acting out some type of like nervousness that I have going on inside of me Um, but I learned a ton from that place too That was like watching a lot of people being in confrontation all the time and their kids too because kids are just like So innocent and pure and don't know how to hide anything so everything that they're feeling they just feel One of my favorite moments about a fight is the stare down at the winds. Oh, yeah There's something about the stare down the winds, you know where I'm very fortunate that I interview the fighters, right?

2:06:48So I introduce them And then when Dana brings the two of them together I get right there and I look at these guys looking at each other's eyes and some of them are talking shit But there's this there's this thing going on where they're both very aware of this moment And it's like how are you dealing with this and how calm can you stay and how prepared are you and how you know How composed are you and it's it's a wild moment man It is a wild moment. I watch for that when I see my opponents walk out too. I watch for like the same types of things, you know It's interesting you You have a very specific pacing style that you do when you're getting prepared like when you when when Bruce puffer is introducing you By the way, that motherfucker is the best.

2:07:32Yeah, Bruce is the best dude. I heard him practice in one time. Oh really? Yeah, yeah, I was at Forget what hotel it was at or maybe it was at that Vegas one But I like hear something in the background Like him like making noise or him like practicing saying the people's names and I was like damn this full of takes that job serious Oh, yeah, well you have to some of those names are brutal. Yeah, like some of the Russian man Yeah, Jesus Christ. They're so complex. I just thought it was so cool that he was like practicing it I was like I love that. Oh, he's very serious about it and there's no one better man when that guy goes I mean he's fucking close to 70 years old and this fucking dudes head turns like a grape.

2:08:12Yeah, he screamed like one day We're gonna lose him and he's gonna drop dead and it would be like the most appropriate way for a guy like him to die Imagine you have a heart attack like interviewing a world championship fight You know, I mean he needs to have an offspring soon Right, we need a right it'll be the third bird. Yeah, the third buffer You know, he didn't even know his brother until he was like a grown man. I heard that in a while Yeah, that is crazy and then the UFC couldn't afford his brother So they got Bruce because Michael was the fucking man. Let's get ready to rumble Everybody will go crazy.

2:08:46That was the thing and Bruce, you know, if you go back He was kind of learning on the job. I mean he was good at it in the beginning But he became the Bruce buffer that we see now like he was not that intense in the early days He just sort of did it like a regular guy like a regular announcer But then as time went on he just fucking ramped up the into any such a fan I mean that dude fucking loves the fights like I'll meet him backstage and he was like what do you think? What do you think about this? What do you think about that card and we'll start going over the cards? What do you think about that one?

2:09:16Oh, this is exciting. This is exciting And then you see it in his fucking face when he's out there Know when he's when he's when he's right in front of him At a sun It's like whoa, I get goosebumps. Oh, man. Damn. I'm sitting my chair Shit Yeah, you're in for it this weekend. Oh my god. I'm so excited. I know all the things I do man I do a lot of fun things but doing commentary for the UFC is one of the most fucking exciting things a person could ever do Yeah, it's just you just get it's I feel so honored and so privileged that I get to be a Person who's talking about this while people are experiencing it and then I get to just somehow or another Accentuated or give life to it or or give my thoughts to it or there's just express my excitement and that it's contagious Yeah, people feel it and feed off of it live fights are insane Like when I get the chills man when I'm like there and then it's the last fight and all everything goes dark And then just the spotlight the whole arena's dark and just the spotlight are on the two fighters.

2:10:21Oh my god What a moment man. What a moment. It gives me the chills every time. I remember when Senado Connor Saying Connor McGregor's walkout song and the the whole place went dark and then green lights for Ireland And you just like holy shit and just goose bumps on top of goose bumps. It was is this it? Look at this the green lights Dude, this was so fucking intense Which fight was this This is Madison Square Garden. Oh MGM. This is MGM This is insane David What is this an iris song? Yeah, what the foggy do Was this the Jose Aldo fight Might be Right Mendez Mendez Okay, so this is when he won the interim title There he is He looks so different at 45.

2:12:26I know man. He was a skeleton Yeah, there was no one like Con McGregor at that time man You talk about a dude who fucking was big for the way class. Yeah at 145 when he would weigh in He would look like a dead man because that was the days when you had the real weigh in when the guy got on the scale Like you didn't have a chance to rehydrate you actually out had to make weight in front of the crowd So you would see Connor and he looked like a dead man. He looked like a guy who'd been in a concentration camp Like you'd been starving himself and then also the next day Shoo But that was also the days of the IV you were allowed to rehydrate official broadcast they had the two Same thing The bravest fell on the rack we umbell rang more and fully unclear For those who died The And the spring While the world did You want to talk about a dude who just eats pressure He was fearless.

2:13:48Yeah, oh my god That's like what separated Con McGregor that's why I don't know that there will ever be anyone that's really like him is because That dude was walking the walk and he was fearless man like he was fearless and the fight said he would take I think when he fought Chad What it was like short notice right it was short notice and he had a fucked up knee His knee was really fucked up. He really couldn't wrestle on that fight. He couldn't grapple Even taking a fight against Chad on short notice man Chad Mendes was a freak. He was a fucking tank. Yeah. He was a tank He's fighting bare knuckle that's Eddie Alvarez.

2:14:20I saw that wild. That's crazy. I think that's next weekend I think it's next weekend after that. It's soon. It's this month. Yeah, it's in Colorado cold is fighting Mike Perry Yep, it's in Colorado. I'm gonna go. Yeah. What day is that? What is April 29th? Isn't there something else going on that night? Isn't that also the Toronto card?

2:14:47Is that the Toronto UFC card?

2:14:52No, Toronto, but there is a UFC card that night. Oh, it's a fight. Oh, it's a fight night. Bear knuckle seems a little crazy. I do bear knuckle if you got elbow though If you could elbow, I do bear knuckle. I don't want to just punch people and fuck up my hands You definitely would fuck up your hands. If I get elbow people though, I think I would like be able to handle it I wonder why they know all that. I that always confused me too. Yeah They might as well. That'd be awesome. Imagine that'd be a cool sport just punches and elbows Punches and elbows. Yeah, well the really crazy striking sport is left way.

2:15:25Have you ever seen one live left way? Yeah, no I saw one live. They had it in Wyoming. I like went up. It was like the last one dude's head button each of it was David LeDuke there. Did he fight there? Is he like a he's the top guy? He's a f**k. I want to say it was one of the top guys. Is he like a bald white dude? Yeah I think so bald skinny white dude. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. That guy's a f**king savage. Yeah, he was in the back woman up headbutt Yeah, he headbutts pads. Yeah, he incorporates headbutts into his pad work I mean, I don't see I mean why wouldn't you be allowed to headbutt? Why wouldn't you be allowed?

2:16:00I mean Mark You can do way worse shit Mark Coleman when he was the f**king king would take guys down get him in their guard and headbutt The f**k out of them did there was a big part of his strategies beating the shit out of you when you're on the ground including headbutts Oh my god, that would be awesome. Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. I think it should be allowed. Why not? I don't understand why it isn't and I also think that you should be able to knee it down to opponent in the head I do too especially when someone's in a turtle position like if they shoot for a shot and they sprawl and you know You're sitting there why can't you knee them because their knees are on the ground seriously makes zero sense Why what do you think about soccer kicks?

2:16:35So I think soccer kicks should be legal. I do too You should figure out a way to not get soccer kick. Yep. I agree And if the referee thinks that someone is compromised and they're gonna get soccer kicked they want to stop the fight stop the fight Before that happens But if you see what they're doing in one FC where they allow those soccer kicks It's a big factor and it's a real factor in real fighting and this is supposed to be the sport of real fighting Yeah, I think the only argument against it is the cage Because the cage prevents a guy from moving Because you're pressed there and then you get stomped or soccer kicked and there's really no way to get out of that I feel like if you wanted to have soccer kicks and stomps you really should have an open arena Which I've been a supporter of anyway.

2:17:13I think cages get in the way of the view It's a it's a factor in the fight It allows guys to get up where they ordinarily wouldn't be able to there's a lot of things that happen with the octagon I know the octagon's iconic and I know like people love it, but It doesn't really help the fight. How big would you make the arena and make it look a basketball court? That would be awesome if you can fight if you can have basketball in a basketball court And these guys were all running around and doing I mean there's so much room for these guys to run Why can't you have a place where you have a center where you're supposed to compete in and you have a red line That's a considerable size that if it gets too far over that you have to come back in that would be awesome I think it's better.

2:17:53We should start our own promotion That would be fucking boxing with elbows in an arena Well if you have seen was gonna do anything I would want them to do kickboxing because I think that is the untapped thing I know they're all high on the slap boxing thing the slap fighting thing And I know that that gets a lot of money and a lot of people love it and watch on tiktok That's great But if you really wanted to have another thing that that has the potential to be gigantic I think it's world championship kickboxing. I agree with you the one in one. It's awesome. It's awesome It's so awesome. It's awesome There's so many good fights.

2:18:28I love what one's doing. I love that they incorporate grappling matches They have strict grappling matches and then they have these MMA fights and they have kickboxing with little gloves It's fucking great. Yeah kickboxing with the little gloves is cool. It is. It's fucking great And they have these they even they have moiety and they have kickboxing they have different rules for different kinds of competitions They have over there and it expresses all the different aspects of martial arts. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, they should That would be bad -ass. They should 100 % do that. Yeah, it'd be super cool too to just like See how people do in a MMA fight and then have the same two fighting and just a kickboxing fight Oh, yeah, I think people would love that dude I actually think that it's really sad that the sport of kickboxing isn't a lot bigger than what it is right now I think it's sad because it's such a beautiful art.

2:19:13It's the best. I love it. I love watching it I mean look I'm a fan of all combat sports. I love jiu jitsu. I love kickboxing, but I think that's the one thing that's untapped because it's the one of the most exciting aspects of MMA and It's not an individual sport that of note dude imagine getting sunshine in a UFC fight with just small gloves Oh my god against who Are wrestling the way they do the NCAA wrestling. Yeah, what I don't like is the the drop off See the drop off is dangerous. Yeah, and I watched Ben Ascran when you wrestled Jordan Peters or a Jordan Burles rather And Jordan took him over the top.

2:19:50I'm like that's not you can get her back Yeah, you'll break her in the ground then what's that worth it? Just like didn't have it right? Yes That's exactly what I mean have it on the ground and have a space It's even a little bit larger than that and have a red area on the outside It's probably double the size of that outer black area where you cannot like well you get into that area There's plenty of room to make your way back in But the referee makes you get back in and you have to fight in the center And you know have it so that you have to chase a guy down You mean you know and people will boo but guess what when you get a takedown in that environment It's a real takedown and when you get back up You're really gonna have to get back up you can't wall walk you can't make your way up to the side of the cage and press your back up Against it and you know and stand back up.

2:20:31What do you think about no rounds? I like that. I like that too I like that a lot. I think it'd be like you know, maybe like You could still do rounds, but what if we started rounds where the last round ended? That'd be cool, I think why not You know almost like a half time you know like you still get the same amount of points But now it's just a second half But like if you end up on bottom at the end of the first round then you start on bottom in the beginning of the second That's not a bad idea at all. That's not a bad idea at all I mean, I think you know, Chale Sun said it best. He said No one should be fighting for 25 minutes.

2:21:05It's just so hard It's so grueling for you that no one can fight full blast as that you know So you have to pace yourself you have to figure it out It's just you're asking so much of a body to be able to do that. I can't move after Was it like the next day? I literally can't move like Even in the last one where I didn't even take a ton of damage like I'm literally in bed Then my entire body is sore like I'm soren weird places that I had no idea that I had gotten hit And I literally like when I tried to move like I'll sit there with my ankles up because my ankles always get really swollen because I kick knees all the time But I'll sit there with my legs up and like to move over and roll over and go to the bathroom or whatever is like For like an entire day and then it's a little better the next day and then kind of gone by the third day But the next day is horrible does anything mitigate ice baths or anything?

2:21:57I take ice baths and I do the hot tub like For the like Day after the next day after in the next day after just like flush it all out because there's so much swelling that's going on What's the most significant injury you've ever had? I? Don't really get super hurt man like yeah, I really don't I tore my pectoral one time uh I broke this thumb but other than that man not too many like serious things I I was told by a couple people that or by my PT that I have like some of the thickest cheekbones that he's ever seen And then the dentist told me that I have something like the thickest an amulet or whatever it is around my teeth So I think I have like I know I'm skinny and lanky, but I think I have like some pretty Hard -ass bones like I really I don't like break stuff.

2:22:45That's very Beneficial yeah, yeah There's so many fighters that go through their career and they get marred with injuries And they have injury after injury and they either they push through it or they never quite recover And you see the drop off in their performance. They're never quite the same. I super take care of myself though like uh That's like uh, that's like another thing that I think I do really really well is like Step A is like get better, but like slightly underneath that is like don't get hurt Because if you get hurt you can't do anything for like weeks or months. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, the the scariest injury to me in mma is the shin break Yeah, that's a wild one man We've seen that three or four times now and every time you see it the guys really never the same again And the Connor one is fascinating to me because we haven't seen I've seen him sparring and it looks like he's like Using that left leg and throwing kicks and everything, but How is that gonna hold up in an actual fight?

2:23:42Yeah, I hear that they heal pretty decently, but who knows? Well, look at Chris wide run. He's still fucked He's been two years. I mean he had real problems with that He had to get it reset because the bones weren't they weren't healing together properly It's a it's a fucking nightmare. It's a real sport, you know like that. That's what I I was talking to my buddy the other day. I go You know because a lot of it's about the entertainment piece and you know tuck and shit and all of the interviews leading up to it or whatever which I don't always enjoy the most but I like was saying I was like once we're in the cage.

2:24:19There's no more entertainment show happening like it's a fight at that point And like it feels like it's real as hell, you know, it's as real as it gets I mean, no, that used to be the UFC logo as real as it gets. Oh cool That was the catchphrase, but it is as real as it gets. Yeah With the given set of rules that you know, it's the best set of rules that we have for combat sports I don't think what we were talking about before the knees on the ground I think it's huge because I think you shouldn't just be able to turtle up like that It doesn't make any sense doesn't make any sense that all you can do is punch them to the body or kick them to the body or You know take their back Should be able to leave in the head and you saw it in pride when you know Mark Coleman did that a bunch of times when he got guys down He just dropped knees on their heads.

2:24:57Yeah, you know Ben Askerin did that in one when he competed in one who was a market change because now he's allowed to use Not just takedowns, but knee guys in the head when he had them taken down brutal. Yeah, it should be allowed Should be allowed. It's a figure out how to not have that happen to you I mean, it's just one more thing to defend against and I think We're kind of allowing because of the rules set right now. We're allowing these positions Where you're it's it's unrealistically safe. You're not really safe there at all You're in a very vulnerable position But because the rules set you can pull that off and you could actually use it as a strategy to stay in that position Why the guy has to do something different.

2:25:34Yeah How you feel about punching in the back of the head? I definitely don't think that that should be allowed We talked about that recently, but because I think why not because some knockouts are from the back of the head like head kicks Like say if like wonder boy loves to throw that over the shoulder like sneaky kind of question mark style kick When you do that you're hitting the guy in the back of the head You know many times you know a lot of the the head kicks it wraps around and you're really shitting the person on the back of the head Yeah, I guess I would have to know like the science of like the denseness of the skull behind What about the temple though?

2:26:09Yeah, good point Temples like the fucking most vulnerable area your skull. It's so thin. You look look at us If you hold us this is not a real skull, but this area is like it's so fucking vulnerable Your temple like I would not want to get hit here man. This is like it's such a bitch -ass part of your head Like it hurts just poking it right yeah, hold your temple that hurts. Why do we have those? I don't know Why do we just have like whatever balls hanging out? It's like this so much of the design that we get shot off Maybe right I think it's actually a cooling thing. I think it's supposed to be to keep your balls Cooler so that you have more sperm because one of the things that is really affects a sperm growth in development is heat So like if you had your balls inside your body all protected and you were hot from running or something like that you probably have badges Yeah, you don't want badges.

2:26:59You want badges? You want good. Yes. If you want to make babies you want to make babies You got to have cool balls So I guess it's something about the balls being outside the body where it's not as dependent upon the heat of the body I don't know great job evolution Yeah, a lot wacky stuff. Why are eyeballs so vulnerable? You know, oh that's another thing that's going on this weekend as UFC is debuting a new set of gloves Oh cool. Yeah, um, I have maintained that I still do that Trevor Whitman makes the fucking best MMA gloves that have ever existed And I think that everybody should use those gloves are those those I put those on X gloves on before they make your hand Completely curved they still allow grappling, but it keeps your hand like this where you don't have as many eye pokes nice And these new gloves there's a video of Gilbert Burns explaining it and Gilbert is showing.

2:27:46Let's see we go here. Let's put this Does it then yeah He kind of make your your fingers go down so last I hope I like it My hands are relaxed he goes he doesn't stay here. Oh, that's mark way better for no no I hope I like I like these new gloves So this is a new one so hopefully that's going to make a difference I think that's been a thing that a lot of people have complained about is that the old UFC gloves They encourage your hands to be in an open position And when guys are fighting like this and they run like I pokes are one of the worst fucking things about sport I scratch my eye almost every fight really almost every single fight.

2:28:25I have like a So I got that PRK surgery. It's like lasek it's except they like seal up I got it like six seven years ago or whatever And still if I get hit right in the eye or even like a digit goes in my eye even a little bit The rest of my night is ruined because I'm like sitting there all night going like this It happens after almost every single fight. You ever scratch your eye? Yeah, it's the worst pain that I've ever felt in my life It's horrible. I remember one time I did it because it used to happen all the time for me like I don't know if I would regate PRK surgery. It doesn't happen anymore really only on fights, but uh One time it happened and I like remember being on the couch I had to call my mom to come pick me up to take me to the hospital because I thought it was like really messed up And the next day my body hurt because I was doing this just 10 for hours for hours.

2:29:15I was doing that it hurts so bad Jim Miller apparently you talk about a durable guy. That's another guy that's never had an injury a real injury Which is crazy all the fucking wars that guy's been in but he got poked real bad in his last fight And he's got some sort of a cataract now And he's trying to figure out whether or not he should keep competing or get surgery on the eye. We should wear swim goggles That'd be crazy. It would be crazy That would be ridiculous. It would be ridiculous. It would solve the problem I guess but is there a way to put swim goggles on where they wouldn't get fucked up and wouldn't get That would hurt worse.

2:29:50What about blood? What about like if somebody gets a cut on their forehead They're on top of you ground pound they just bleed all your all your goggles And then you get up you can't see and you wipe it away, but you're smeared now you're looking at like a fucking dirty windshield Have you seen that fight where I get armed barred by Yuri? You gotta see it man. You haven't seen that fight. I probably it was early in my career Like my second fight in the UFC or something One of the fights I feel like I'm kind of that I'm kind of known for a little bit But Yuri gets me in like a really bad armed bar and I'm like triangle He's straighting out my arm.

2:30:22I remember yeah Yeah, so this is like early in my career. I even look kind of like a young dude But dude, so he starts hitting me or whatever and blood Pretty soon. Yep. There you have he's just hammering my face But dude, so the blood starts going into my eye So like this situation just gets a hundred times worse because now I'm just having like this pink fog in my eye Oh wow, it was horrible People forgot about Yuri. You'll hear you. Yuri was a beast dude when I fought him. He had 20 UFC fights I remember this because you got out of this and it was wild Yeah, but all of this blood I can't see anything because all of the blood is still in my eye It was crazy, but when you did get out of it.

2:31:02I remember thinking oh shit. I was so mad I was so mad. I was like I'm gonna fucking kill this guy the whole time I was like when I get a fucking out of this it was like a little brother like like had me in like a thing And I was like you mother fucker when I get out of this. I'm gonna beat your ass so bad How bad was your arm? It was pretty hurt It wasn't like broken or anything, but I had bruising from the wrist all the way up So I definitely tore some stuff Did you have to take much time off after that to heal it up? Like a few weeks of elbows here really quick actually like I've never hurt my elbow so bad Where I've had to take more than like six weeks off.

2:31:37There's some arm bar finishes in the UFC where you just go Yeah, like like Jamal Jamal Hill When he fought um Paul Craig Paul Craig dislocated his uh we were sure it was broken We sure he snapped it. I mean probably some bones chip Paul Craig has a mother fucker of a guard That's the dude with the beard. Yeah, yeah, he's a bear Jew Which is one of the greatest nickdames ever But that guy's got a fucking wicked guard man. His guard is so dangerous. Yeah, you know he catches people With that fucking guard real like god damn. It's like a world -class Gizu guard submission artists are awesome They're like just as cool as K .O.

2:32:17artists. Oh for sure Yeah, if you get a real elite one that can pull stuff like that off You know, I mean look at me times Charles Oliver are submitted people. It's like so intense That guy gets like some juice behind his finishes, too That guy knows how to make himself powerful He's a fascinating guy because you want to talk about a guy who are completely transformed Like in the early days of his career. He was talented But when things got hard he would kind of fold And something happened and I think they attributed to the birth of his daughter That he just became just far more serious and far more intense and just like really believe that he was a fucking man And then went on this tear Just a fucking tear did running through guys that happens man like I really think that like A lot of stuff in life is just making like the decision to do it like once you fully commit to the decision to do something That can change your life man.

2:33:10Yeah, and I think that that's what he did It changed him too. It changed his perception the people's perceptions of him because people had this idea of who he was And then once he beat like Gachi and he beat all these oh no one had that perception anymore once he beat Chandler Everyone is like this guy is a mother fucker and it was You watched it all had it wasn't like he had those fights overseas and other organizations and then he figured it out No, he did it in the biggest stage of the world and made that transformation from getting caled by cubs swanson getting beat up by Paul Felder and then all the sudden This guy fucking hits a switch and he's a he's a good destroyer one of the greatest champions ever I really think it's like Sometimes you just make a decision.

2:33:56Yeah, you know, you're like fuck second place for now on fuck second place Do you ever worry that you won't know That you don't have the same commitment that you have now? Yeah, I do um So I used to train with Andy Sauer a bit in in Holland like when I was 22 23 I went out there and I remember talking to him about that and he was like The passion sometimes it's there sometimes it's not like I I sometimes fight for paychecks, you know, and I remember at like 22 that was like such a thing for me to hear you know because I was like Andy Sauer was like my idol, you know, and I love Andy and I don't mean to tell that in a way where like It's just a real that offensive.

2:34:43It is kind of a reality, you know, it's great fighter great fighter and then so I remember like hearing that and I remember being like oh, that's a possibility You know like you just run out of like the competitive juice like yeah, that does scare me I don't I don't know that I'll do it past that unless I'm making like Millions and millions of dollars. They don't maybe like look past that Right if something crazy comes along. Yeah, yeah, I I worry about that because I see it in certain fighters I see fighters that are in contention for the title and they just have this certain type of drive And then you see a few losses and then you see him competing and maybe they just don't look as hard like their body looks different And then their endurance is not the same and you realize this guy's kind of phoning it in What any was a world class fighter at one point.

2:35:31I know. It's kind of a sad thing to see too. It is I Yeah, I really hope to never have to be that way, you know Maybe it'll happen. Maybe it won't I don't know It's a sad thing to see champions when their body is not working right anymore But they think they're gonna be able to pull that magic out. I know and it just doesn't exist anymore Who I think it's like it's probably their loved ones on it's like on those people to tell them Stop huh? I mean because as like a fighter. I don't really know that it would I don't know if it'd be on me to tell me to stop You know like just being the fighter that like being the person that you got to be to be a fighter That really shouldn't have ever crossed your brain.

2:36:12Right. So you probably have to have loved ones around you to be like hey man like We're calling it. I think there's that and then there's also the issue that for many fighters That is their entire identity their entire identity is that they're a fighter and losing that identity by Becoming a former fighter and now being lost in the world and not knowing what direction to take or what to do with yourself It's one of the hardest transitions because fighting is so all in it's so all -encompassing and so Obsessive that once that's gone from from your life Unless you're teaching unless you're running an academy or running a gym or you know working with younger fighters It's hard to find something that will occupy your thoughts in the way that competing does.

2:36:55Yeah Definitely I was talking with someone last week just small talking with them. I was with my fiance He goes so what do you guys like do for fun? Can I kind of like look at Eric? And I'm like the fuck do we do for fun? You know I don't know we don't do anything We watch trash television and then in the summer I'll play spikeball you know that's about it But the identity thing is always something that I think is really interesting to me like Like Just the human experience and trying to like Create this like identity or latch onto some type of identity to me is like one of the things that Humans I think need to dig really deep to try to overcome.

2:37:34I think that that's like a piece of why we're here is to overcome like Just latching on to an identity and rocking with that for your entire life You know like that's like uh that's some I feel like I had to do a lot You know coming up in the sport and just being like okay like you're not a fighter You know like you are a fighter, but only sometimes you're like really what you are is this like other thing But fighter is just like a piece of it, you know It's a human you're a human Yeah, and the fighting thing the thing about identities is that they can be a trap Like you could just like lean into that and use that like to sort of protect you From the just the weirdness of life like just the just the uncertainty the The just the existence so instead you like damn a bad motherfucker I'm gonna this some of that and and you live in that and then when that gets shattered You're kind of fucked because if that gets questioned in a fight if you lose your confidence in that in a fight And that's the thing that you're banking on instead of just existing and trying to make adjustments Now you're questioning like oh my god, and do I suck?

2:38:39Oh my god. What do I do? Who am I? I've been pretending that I'm this thing and now I'm getting my ass kicked. Yeah. How do I recover from this? Yeah, it's like the the the pull to like organize life in a way is you know something that we all kind of have to like Do or deal with or whatever, but it feels better when things are organized, you know and uh and when we have reasons for things When I actually lost my first fight that was when I really started getting into Buddhism was after I lost my first professional fight Who was that to it was against jamaul emmers? It was for LFA or rfa or whatever it was called at the time, but I remember being like oh Shit, what am I if I'm not like this badass fighter that everyone's telling me if I win I'm gonna be in the UFC and I'm gonna be champ and blah blah blah like that like shattered my identity man It like really fucked me up for like The rest of that year like six or eight months.

2:39:33I spent a ton of time in the mountains like hiking and camping and like That's when I started meditating I started getting into Buddhism because Buddhism is really about like let and go of all your attachments And that means like let and go of like the physical stuff But also like the mental creation of whatever persona you're putting on in your life and stuff and The mountains help me do that. They like assisted in all of that, but The battle with identity. I feel like I have like a pretty close Intimate relationship with because it's a son of a bitch to try to let go of all of that stuff But you kind of have to I think at some point in your life if you want to really start being and expressing yourself the way that you want to Well, I think that's what's interesting about this conversation is that you have done so much of this work And you have done so much of this thinking about what that is and how that aids you and how that hurts you and How it gets in the way.

2:40:21Yeah Um, I think that you just have to do it at some point in your life like uh, that's even like I think one of the steps and like I follow Carl young like kind of close He's like a little bit too dense for me to like fully understand But a part of like becoming Individuated or becoming like enlightened or whatever word you want to use for it is Letting go all that shit that like you learned when you were younger because like none of that was really you Those were just things that you got indoctrinated into And like a part of I think the human experience and the human journey needs to be Letting go all of that stuff and like let go all of that stuff really hurts, you know Yeah Just letting go of these preconceived notions and but they the Unnies of uncertainty just haunts people And you try to find these these ways of being that protect you from that This uh Personality that you put on that's like an armor that protects you from from uncertainty Yeah, it it gives you a community It gives you like other people that you feel like you can like walk through this thing with you know, but At the end of the day, it's kind of like just you and I think that like It's only you that can like figure out your shit can't be like a community of people that you're just gonna identify with so that like things run a little bit smoother You know, I don't really think you'll become like a full person How much do you think it helps your career that you teach?

2:41:49Uh A ton I've been teaching for a really long time now though And I've kind of had to pull back a little bit because I realized how much of a commitment it is to have Fighters underneath you, you know, like it's not easy trying to make someone good So I've had to pull back on it a little bit honestly. What's helped me a lot recently Become really good and like really a lot deeply understand things is I've been right now those instructions Uh, and like that's helped me a lot just like organize the things that I'm doing And like oh not like rules because rules can always be broken when I think that you're at a certain level But like man right now writing shit out like how things work Really really has helped me a ton It's interesting because in jujitsu you see that a lot where people start teaching And when they start teaching they get way better.

2:42:40Mm -hmm Yeah, I think I so I have this guy uh, he's he's almost like a little brother I don't even ever like a kid to me his name is Elias Rodriguez But he's like one of my main drilling partners. He's his 21 -year -old kid. I care about him deeply But I'm helping him go through his amateur years right now and uh Uh, it's crazy how much like me helping him is him helping me because I get to watch Like I said like I like watching people and I like watching people in stressful situations because I like to see how they act Like I help Elias and that like has made me better understand things and all of that But also Elias is helping me a lot by me like seeing One if like the things that I'm teaching him is like working in like all types of Bodies, you know like I feel like if you have a really true and tried system It's gonna work for everyone To an extent But uh like just watching Elias go through everything is like really helping me understand the sport a lot better too And that's kind of like because I'm helping him he's able to do that for me but uh Yeah, that's been a really really helpful thing like the instruction piece I feel like I've been doing for so long so I can like kind of teach some people some stuff fairly well now, but uh Like bringing up a fighter has taught me a lot about being a fighter myself and and all of that So you have this big win over Marlin.

2:44:08What happens next? How long do you do the UFC contact you immediately? Do you start talking to them about what's next? Uh, does it wait on the Henry Sir Hudo Al Jermain fight? I think it kind of does I think so I'm pretty sure omali was promised like a title fight after the Sir Hudo Sterling I don't know when that's gonna be. I think that you know Ideally the UFC will want to do it pretty soon like maybe July August soon like not give not give whoever wins that too much of a break Um marab is still there I would love to fight marab. I think that that would be like an amazing challenge for me um There's also umar numeric a meadowff who said that he was gonna be fighting against marab I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I know that the UFC.

2:44:57I think it's pretty high on umar He's a bad motherfucker. He is. He's very good um So it could be one of those guys, but I would I would ideally like to fight in July or August like I said I get married September first and I like May, you know like Erica would understand if I had to be in camp for the wedding But that would like really break her heart kind of so I really want to I don't even care if it's a week before and I don't even think she cares if it's a week before if I fight but Uh, I would really like to fight before September first so that Erica doesn't kill me. Yeah Well the July card is gonna be wild.

2:45:30That's gonna be a good one And I don't know who's on that yet. I don't know if they have an announcement for that But they always do a big card Volkanovsky Iarra Drega is unification about targeted for July. Whoa. That's a good one That is a great one. That's a good one. Oh my goodness Yeah, you're look great against them it. Fuck hey, he did he did great And Volk looked really great against Islam too. He really did. Yeah, but Volk at 145. What a fucking juggernaut seriously Yeah, I am so impressed with that guy. I was so impressed in that market jet fight. I'm like I can't believe how well he did I thought he won I thought he did too thought it was all about the second round I thought he edged him in the second round and I thought that the way he performed in the fifth round I think that should have cemented it.

2:46:13Yeah. Yeah, I was really impressed because I think that the those like Russian guys are obviously really good wrestlers like definitely world class wrestlers But I think what they were doing before a lot of the other people in the UFC is Some people could get people down, but they couldn't really hold them And like those guys know how to hold people down And I think that that's like the most fascinating thing to me about the Russians is that You know like the wrestling piece. There's a lot of good American wrestlers too But the Russians really know how to hold people down and that was like what what I think separates them from like the normal wrestler grappler archetype but Dude the way Vulkanovsky was getting up against him was fantastic.

2:46:50Incredible. It was amazing Yeah amazing especially being down a weight class usually. I was kind of surprised he didn't have a rematch I mean, I know he wanted to defend his title and Yair Rodriguez Obviously he won the interim title so he should get the next shot, but It was such a big fight and such an insane fight I would kind of like to see that again. Oh, definitely. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense Well, Corey, you're a bad motherfucker. I appreciate you very much And I really love your mindset and the way you approach things and it's really fun to watch you Just keep getting better and and and make your way to the top hell.

2:47:22Yeah. Thanks Joe Thanks for having me on me and I appreciate you tell everybody your Instagram and all that stuff so they can find you Corey Sanhaegan MMA on Instagram. I don't use Twitter ever so yep You