JRE MMA Show #167 with Cory Sandhagen

24:18People like traveling. I hate traveling. It makes me feel like my life is moving on fast forward, which I don't really like. I like feeling, I feel most alive when I'm in a routine and I have time to myself and I could sit and kind of reflect in all of that shit. But, um, but yeah, I, uh, what is the difference between your training, like regular training and then training once you get into camp? Like what is a normal day when you're not in camp for you? It's all the exact same. I'm just less competitive when I'm outside of camp. And I won't, if I, if I'm like beat to shit dead tired, I'll miss a practice.

24:52But that's really the only time that I'm miss practice in camp. I won't miss unless I have like a two week rule. Where if I'm like dragon really bad, I'll make myself go for another week and a half, two weeks until I'm like, okay, I do actually need rest, you know? And then so I'll do that in camp. Um, but yeah, I, uh, but outside of camp is pretty much the exact same. I've been traveling a lot, which I really don't like doing. Um, just because again, like I, I don't really feel like I'm alive. I feel like I'm like fast forward and through a bunch of stuff. Um, but it's been like useful stuff, like seeing family and then like me and my wife going on a honeymoon or whatever.

25:32So it's like normal life shit that I guess I got to check in and do every once in a while. But if it were up to me, it would just be like training camp life all of the time. Just because it's easier. It's way easier. It's fun. It's easy. I go to the gym. I do my hard workouts. I'm competitive as fuck. I get to get that out of me. And then I just hang with my friends for an hour afterwards. When you say you're less competitive when you're just normal training, like, is that conscious? Like do you decide to be less competitive? And why do you do that? I do that because I can't. I think that if I'm too competitive, I won't work on stuff.

26:06Like, like a lot of camp for me is getting better at stuff. And then the last four weeks is figuring out how to win. It's not like, I think that practicing winning is just as important as being able to practice a certain skill. So a lot of my camps will be developing those skills. But then like the last four or five weeks, it's just I need to focus on winning each round, regardless of who it's against or whatever. I'm not like practicing a certain technique or doing anything like that. It's just win, win, win. Just doing whatever it takes to win that round. Exactly. Because that's an important skill to build.

26:41And when you're less competitive when you're just training and you're not in camp, you'll try things. You'll be a little more playful. Try to like sort stuff. Try new skills. And I'm definitely not as far and hard as fuck like I do. Like I won't do that outside of camp unless I got a guy that's been giving me a bunch of rounds in my camps and he has a fight coming up. And then I'll like gear up to give him a good one, you know. But no, outside camp, like just less competitive. I don't show up as early and get my mind right before. When I'm in camp every single spine session that I do, I try to put myself in the locker room while I'm warming up.

27:17I think that that's like, I've had a lot of success doing that. Just making my body make good decisions when I'm in a super elevated, high intensity state is something you got to practice too. I definitely won't do that outside of camp because that's a lot of energy. So you visualize the walk out, you visualize like stepping into the octagon, all that? Essentially. It's not as, so I don't do as much of, I'd more so go off a feel a little bit more now. Where I'll be like, okay, I need to do this today because I know that I really don't want to do it. Or I'll be like, okay, this day for whatever reason I'm really distracted, I'll do a little bit more visualization, mindful stuff for whatever.

27:59Because every day is different and sparring. As you know, where some days you're good to go right off of the bat and then other days you're dragging. It's those days that you're dragging that I make sure that I'm like, those ones I'll be like, okay, fucking visualize because your body doesn't want to do this right now. And I'll put myself in that state twice a week, which is, has helped a lot, a lot, a lot. I know for a while you were organizing your whole camp, right? Yeah. Are you still doing that? No, I don't do that anymore. That has actually been like a super significant piece in one of my life getting a lot better.

28:31And then two, I think that, like it, I think it's going to transfer over really well into my next few fights. For a really long time, for a lot of reasons, I was like really micro -managy over my stuff. I don't like when people do things for me. Like I kind of like live in a way where everything is my responsibility. And if I fuck up, it was like on me regardless of what happens, which is like a fine way to be. But also it's not like crazy realistic either. But that's just kind of the way that I am, just the way that I grew up. Like it was kind of like take care of me type of thing, you know, and if I'm messing stuff up, it's on me.

29:06So I was like that for a really long time. It was actually after the Umar fight where I realized how in the way I got of myself in that fight. Also, overdoing it from insecurity a little bit. Over, like that was my first camp with Trevor too. And Trevor's a phenomenal coach. I've known him for a lot of years. He has a lot of champions. There's no like there's no reason to doubt any of what he has going on or my other coach Carrington banks or anyone really. But because I kind of have this mindset on life or did you have this mindset on life where it was. Hey man, like manage everything, like make sure everyone's doing their work like double blah, like.

29:53After that Umar fight, I really got into. I was like, all right, fuck it guys. Like I messed that one up. I felt like because I was trying to be to micro manage you over this thing. I started getting outside of myself. You guys take over. And the reason that I did that wasn't necessarily because I lost. It's because I'm coaching a couple professionals now and coaching a professional is different than coaching an amateur. Um, it's like it feels like a lot more responsibility. And I realized what was happening when I would try to help these couple guys that I was trying to help. Is that they they are too close to it.

30:27The same way that I'm sure you get too close to your art as well like in comedy. You're too close to it sometimes where you don't really. You can't see things from a perspective that is like true and real because you're so locked into what it is that you're doing. I really big time realized that that was a thing in my other guys. So when I would try to help them and they'd be like, hey man, like. I don't like they'd kind of get a little bit argumentative. I'd be like, you could keep doing that, but I'm a 1000 % sure that I'm right about this. You know, but do your own thing. And I started to realize like, oh, fuck, that's what I do all the time.

31:00I got to say fuck dude, I got to stop being argumentative and just shut the fuck up and listen if I really trust these guys. Right. And so I started doing that big time man and it made my it changed so much stuff for me. I forgot who you fought fought your last fight. Oh, I fought Figgy last. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So that's essentially the same position that you got in with TJ. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's like your, so this is all Ryan Hall stuff, right? Yep. And so you're putting them in a position where if he doesn't know what you're doing and he tries to get out of it, he's going to blows me.

31:33Yep. Essentially, I like 50 50 a lot because one I get to learn it from the guy who essentially invented it and is the best at it in the world. The only guys that I feel like can beat me at 50 50 are guys that train at 50 50. And so it's kind of like what it feels like 50 50 the position and just kind of leg locks in general if you really know how to do them in MMA. Or a spot that you can pull people into and have them be completely lost. Because they have to think what do I do now and you're already moving. It's super niche too. Like understanding the position is super niche. It's like judo almost a little bit in wrestling where it's like, okay, cool.

32:13If this guy's going to just wrestle with me great, but if this guy is good throws, that changes the way that I have to do things. I can pull people into these really niche spots where I know that I'm going to win them. So 50 50 is one of those. It's kind of like what Jiu Jitsu used to be a little bit before people started to understand Jiu Jitsu. But now people fully understand Jiu Jitsu. So you don't really get to like catch people and guioteens or whatever. But 50 50 and allowed at the leg locks and a lot of stuff that Ryan teaches me and does is so niche that like you would need an absolute expert to understand it.

32:47And I like get the fortune of having that. Yeah, that's awesome. He's so fucking smart too. That dude is his analysis of Jiu Jitsu and the way he's broken down different positions. It's really exciting to watch. Is he fighting? You know, he's had like nine surgeries. Yeah, he's had crazy. Yeah, it's like closer to a thousand. But uh, but uh, but yeah, he, I mean, he's doing good. He says he wants to fight again. I hope that he does. Why is he having all these surgeries? Like what's going on? I think it's just one of those things where like you let one thing go and then another thing breaks and then another thing breaks and you kind of like are taping yourself back together and then one day you wake up and you're like, Shit, I got it.

33:26Like take care of this. How many, what are the surgeries that he had? Um, I'm not sure specifically. Like you name it. He's probably had it. Um, like I've never heard of anybody having that many surgeries. There's a couple of knee ones, a couple of shoulder ones. Um, honestly, I quit asking after a certain point. Um, but yeah, I think that he's kind of coming back. Ryan, more than anything, I'm like a super conceptual thinker. Like I don't really like details. Like I don't remember names of stuff. 19. Yeah. So general anesthesia, first of all, that is so bad for him. I know that is really bad for you to go into general 19.

34:02Can you go back up there? What it says there? It says tearing his ACL the following year is in many surgeries. You just, especially, this wasn't out of the woods just yet. That is so crazy. Okay. So we had to fix a planter plate. So that's his foot. Uh, got, got fallen on again. Had to have a tightrope surgery. When the pat my home's got in a lot of the people have had. I don't know what that one is. Do you know what that is? Tightrope surgery? Nope, no idea. ACL got infected. Had to have a couple of septic, uh, septic arthritis. Whoa. The tightrope is actually allergic to the hardware they put in me some.

34:36Oh my god. So you had to have that redone. Boy, came to injuries. You said completely bulletproof for 15 years until his training camp for Toporia. Where he tore his hip right before the fight. Tightrope is, uh, used to stabilize ankle. Oh, wow. That is crazy. Yeah. It's more than half the surgeries of ones where, oops, we screwed up. Let's do that again. Six elbow surgeries and five knee surgeries. Holy shit. Holy shit. Yeah, I don't like taking any type of medication ever. So that would probably really bother me having to be under that much. It would probably really fuck me up. Hotels in Vegas may be booked solid this weekend.

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36:42Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources see dkng .co -audio. General anesthesia is very bad for you. It's kind of scary, dude. It makes fucking scary. I've only had a couple surgeries. How many surgeries have you had? Like under the knife. Like had to go under. Three knee surgeries under the knife. I think those are the only general anesthesia ones that I've had. It's kind of, I get really, I've only had to do it for my elbow. When I tore my tricep. Did you tore that shit off the bone, right? Yeah, it was pretty fucked up. But you still won the fight? I did still win the fight. That one, that was like a whole fucking thing, though.

37:20I got bersitis in that elbow because I got a bunch of loose floating bones and shit in there. So then it just swelled up really bad. And every time I've gotten bersitis, I've gotten really bad staff infections in it. Yeah, because I mean, you got to think it's just like sitting pooled. Oh, yeah. You're in your body and then when you're still in the gym training and it gets like in your blood streamer, whatever, it's just like, it's like a swamp and then it just... Wasn't that what happened to Ben Askerin? Wasn't it a staff infection that turned into pneumonia? Oh, really? I don't know. Is he doing okay?

37:51I never had to do an okay, man. He needs a lung transplant. Oh, fuck. Yeah, he had, I think they call it necrotic pneumonia. So essentially, it was rotting holes in his lung tissue. And so they had to put him on a ventilator and apparently one of his lungs is just gone and they have to replace it. Which is... That's not... That's so crazy because then you have to be on medication for your entire life because your body wants to reject the lung because it's not your lung. So you have to take these immunosuppressant... So now your immune system is severely suppressed because you have to take immunosuppressant drugs in order to have this.

38:28Like I have a friend who had a heart transplant and he's all fucked up because of it. You know, it's just like you're always worried about getting sick because your immune system is very compromised. And that's going to change his life. Oh my God. I mean, he's still a little sick. And he medically induced coma, I believe. I think he's out of the coma now. Like he looks at people and he can kind of talk a little bit. But I mean, this is all going on for many, many weeks now. And I think what happened was he was feeling like shit and he didn't know how bad it was and he went to a Bitcoin conference.

38:59You know, he traveled and then it got real bad. And then he goes, oh, this is serious. So is the staff kind of inside of his lung? Can you see me find that if it was, it started with a staff infection. That sounds like it would really hurt. Cool. Staff infections by themselves hurt really bad. I couldn't imagine having it in your lungs where you're breathing into. I don't think enough people pay attention to staff. I mean, how many guys like fight in there on antibiotics? It happens all the time. Like when when Marab fought Mar apparently he had staff on his shin and he was on antibiotics when he fought.

39:32So did the type of antibiotic that I was on. I forget the name of it unfortunately. But the reason I tore my tricep was because that antibiotic made my ligaments super shitty. Pretty much. Which because dude, like I should never tear my tricep. I pretty sure it happened when he was comorring me. Dude, that shouldn't happen. Right. Like maybe something else, but definitely not tear my tricep. Right. So that's when it happened and then I was like, yeah, what the fuck is that about? That shouldn't happen. And then when I read into it a little bit they told me that specific antibiotic. It doesn't mess with your respiratory stuff.

40:07Like you're conditioning as much. But it makes your ligaments just really not good. No, that's terrible. I know. And then you have to fight. Yeah. Which is crazy. I know. Last camp I didn't get one dude, I was so happy. I didn't get sick. How many times have you had staff? Not too many times, but man, so this time with my elbow against font, I got it really bad. I was on one round of antibiotics for seven days or something and then it came back immediately. So then I was on it for two more weeks and then I got off it the week before the fight. So I was essentially on it for like a month. Oh my god.

40:40Which sucks. And then, and then against Umar, I got it really bad in my knee. Like super bad where. I'm not a crazy anxious person dude, but I finally got to like experience what it was like to have a panic attack because. I was in Virginia training and got it. I was like something's up with my knee. It hurt really bad. Couldn't put weight on my leg. This was probably like a month before the fight, maybe, maybe a little bit before that five weeks or so. I got a really bad knee infection. I started taking the antibiotics, but they told me like, hey man, if this doesn't get better. Like if you start taking these antibiotics and tomorrow it's not better when you do to come in.

41:21We're going to cut your knee open and clean it because that's how they take care of it. And I was like, sure. I was like, I'm not coming back here, you know, like, I'm going to take these antibiotics. Because although as you can't fight, then I can't fight. So, uh, yes, so that was a shitty situation, but, um, just pretty much really bad. Maybe three times. Three times. Yeah, three times. Maybe like pretty bad. Yeah, it's such a scary thing because it fucking kills people. Yeah, it does. It gets, gets systemic, gets in your bloodstream and you can die. Dude, that's why I think I freaked out really bad with my knees because I remember laying in bed and being like, I called my wife and just set the phone next.

42:03I was like, hey, like until you get home, like, can you just be on the phone? Because I'm kind of afraid I'm about to die a little bit. Yeah, it was really, it got like really scary there. Was it swollen? Was it, so it was an external? It was super swollen. Yeah, super swollen. No, no, no, it wasn't an abrasion one. It was like inside of my internal. So is internal. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so that really wasn't good, but I remember every time I've taken antibiotics with the staff infection, my experience has been that it gets really painful and a lot worse for like the first few hours when the antibiotics kick in and start killing it.

42:36And then it starts to get better, but the first couple of hours is like kind of scary. So when I first started taking the antibiotics, that's when I called my wife, because I don't take a lot of medicine. Like if I take a ibuprofen, I will feel that shit working through my entire body. And yeah, so I like took the antibiotics and I started to feel it through my body. And I was like, this is scary. And I was like, hey, like, till you get home, let's be on the phone, because I'm afraid I'm about to pass out and die here. That's fucking terrible. But I didn't want to go to the dock and then get cut open and not be able to fight because that fight had already got canceled and shit.

43:10So I was like, yeah, I know. We're always putting tough spots. I know, but sometimes you just got to do that. Sometimes you have to cancel a fight. And I know nobody likes to hear that, but I know. It's still different than boxing. Boxing, you get so few fight cancellations. You know, it's much less. But when you're wrestling, when you're grappling, you're constantly getting kicked and punched and you're fucking, you're doing so many different things. The odds of you getting injured are so much higher. I know. Gordon got staff for a fucking year. That's why his stomach is all fucked up. Gordon Ryan was on antibiotics for a year.

43:49And his internal gut bacteria, his flora, is just torched. Damn, he's just a mess. Damn, he can't keep food down. He has this like constant fight or flight reaction in his body where he wants to vomit all the time. And he's going through training camps and beating everybody in grappling matches against the best in the world. That's how good he is. Like with staff for 12 years or excuse me, 12 months. And then on top of that, this lingering stomach thing because of that, that no doctor seems to figure out. They can't fix it. He's gone to like every fight they've given a bunch of different shit.

44:22He's tried peptides and this and that and get a little bit of improvement. He starts training hard again, comes back. Yeah. This by some like old lady in the Amazon jungle that knows how to cure that shit. I told him just eat this. Stupid. I told him try like a seven day fast. Do you have something nutty like that? Or like only avocados diet. I mean, it's gotta be something. It's gotta be something. It's gotta be something. But I would think like a fast where you just like you're just like completely let your gut reset. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Do you do those? No. I've done a day. Yeah. I've never done like the long one.

44:58Dana just did a long one. He did like three days. He said it was awesome. Said by the end of you, feel fucking amazing. Yeah. I did the three day one. I was like, fuck, dude, I was just hungry for three days. It's like fuck. I don't feel like a superhero at all. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, maybe it's variable. One thing that I'm really big on is I like won't fuck or like I'm really in touch with what's going on usually with like my body and stuff. I'm really big on I don't know why it doesn't get talked about more but like digestive like things that mess up my digestive system I don't mess around with that.

45:32Like all kind of stuff. Like bread, pizzas, too much cheese stuff like that like I fucking dare before you. It is dude. Every time I eat pizza, I like can't shit the next day. It's not it's not even pizza. It's American pizza. It's our wheat. Our wheat is poisoned. Really is. It's sprayed with folic acid and it's fucking all the nutrients are pulled out of it. There's glyphosate in the wheat. It's like that's what's really going on. It's also a re -engineered wheat so it's got more gluten, more complex gluten so it's got a higher yield per acre so your body's like what is this? Causes all this inflammation.

46:07When I go to Italy I eat pizza over there. You know, whole pizza. I feel great. Oh really? You can shit. Nice the next day. I don't ever have a problem shitting but I do feel bloated like I get up my guts swell so I'll eat a giant bowl of spaghetti or something like that. And then I look like I'm pregnant. So it's horrible. Yeah, I don't feel tired. I feel so tired. Just like I got shot with a tranquilizer. But I'm so dumb. I keep going back to the day. It's hard not to. You're just like surely this will work this time. It's just so delicious. Like I see a plate of lasagna. I'm like fuck it. We're going to end.

46:39You know, but I know what I'm getting into when I do it. I don't actually don't get like that anymore. I have like a weird relationship with food now where that shit is just fuel to me kind of. Yeah. When I'm like low in weight, I get cravings. But right now when I'm like just kind of good, not hungry, not like overdoing it and stuff, I don't really feel like I get too many cravings for sugar stuff. Too many sugar stuff. I use the nutritionist inside my camps. Yeah, she's great. I think what's an average meal for you? I wish that I like actually gave a shit so I could follow and actually be more helpful.

47:11There's two things I really don't care about. It's strength and conditioning and nutrition. I'm like just like tell me I like don't explain it to me. Just like me do. Yeah, just tell me what to do and I'll just do that thing. But it's actually a lot more food than what you think and I can lose a lot of weight when she has me do it. She do it. Trying to think what it is. It's more so a lot of carbs more towards the end of the day. Like before because I really don't sleep good usually when I'm really training a lot. My nervous system is like not ever down. So at night I usually want sleep well. So I'll eat like a big bowl of oatmeal at night.

47:46Everyone is kind of different. What I will say though that I would big time recommend to fighters and stuff is after hard workouts drinking dextrose or gatorade with like some electrolytes. If you have multiple workouts in a day that's a giant game changer. Like because there's a little bit of a window from my understanding. I don't really know how the shit works. But there's a little bit of a window where it's like 45 like 20 to 45 minutes after you're done working where your body will just take sugar and put it back in. And so I'll drink a shit load of sugar after like really hard workouts. Like really hard sparring sessions like 50 60 grams of sugar which is insane.

48:26But not when you're training that hard. Yeah not when you're training that hard. Or maybe with a drink soda. Yeah he drinks like he'll drink a Coca -Cola after training. And it's probably good for you. When you're training that hard like it's not like you know people say oh soda is bad for you. Well sure if you're just drinking soda. But if you're fucking running marathons or something crazy like that or you're doing something like really exhausting. It's really good for you right after work. Yeah definitely. Especially if you have multiple workouts like that's one big thing that she does that I added in.

49:00In the morning it's like a pretty balanced thing though. It's like not like no fat no car. It's like nothing like that. It's like a pretty balanced it's a lot of protein. What was the sources of protein? I drink a lot of protein shakes. I get it I'm like a part owner in this company called vegan so I just get like a shit load of protein for free pretty much. Is that a pea protein? So it's vegan protein? It's vegan protein. The other ones kind of mess up my stomach a little bit like really. Oh really? Just the ones that are made out of like milk and... Oh like way. Yeah. Yeah once you fart like crazy.

49:35Yeah yeah those ones. Yeah if I drink if I take something I almost immediately know if it's going to mess with my digestive system and I can't be having that while I'm like rolling around with it. I know there's certain protein bars like Peter Atia has this great protein bar called David. They're fucking so delicious. But whenever I eat one I have to like go outside. Yeah. Because my farts are so bad. I don't want to be in the house. What is it the fiber of the protein? I don't know it's in them they're delicious. It's low calorie high protein I think it's like a small bar it's like 30 grams of protein.

50:06But whatever it is just your body just like fuck this. What is this? It's just I generally think that anything that does that to you can't be ideal. It just can't be good for you. So I'd rather just eat a piece of steak or something like that. Yeah. It's better for you. This episode is brought to you by Ship Station. Managing an e -commerce business is challenging enough without the added chaos of shipping and order fulfillment. It can feel like trying to herd cats on roller skates. That's where Ship Station comes in. With its simple dashboard Ship Station lets you handle all your shipping needs in one place.

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51:26If the trailer is anything to go by, this new film does not hold back. Liam Neeson is Frank Treben, Jr. son of the celebrated police squad lieutenant from the original films. Let's just say you've never seen Neeson like this. Nor Pamela Anderson or Paul Walter Hauser. A must watch on the big screen The Naked Gun only in theaters August 1st. Yeah. But I also have different cravings in camp too. Like outside of camp I'll do a little bit like more fruits and stuff like that instead of a bunch of rice or potatoes or whatever. You don't have fruits when you're in camp? I still do but it's not as much as you think.

52:03Like it's like maybe a cup, a cup or two a day. I'll do that. It's not a ton of vegetables but it's like specific vegetables. Because I've been getting a lot of staff. It's like ones that counteract like staff stuff. Do you like take fermented stuff like kimchi, things along those lines? That's a piece of it. Fermented stuff is good. It's like a decent amount of garlic stuff like turmeric stuff that that stuff. Then in that garlic apparently there was a study that was done with garlic with like external staff infections and it's as effective or more effective than antibiotics. Yeah. I believe that.

52:38Yeah garlic fucking kills everything. There's a reason why like a lot of people use it in their food. A lot of culture is used in their food. It's to prevent food poisoning. So dude when I got when I got that the knee infection staff, I was like, I'm just going to try to kill this with a bunch of garlic. And dude I was taking like 10 or 15 garlic pills like the high potency ones. Yeah. Dude after about two days of that I shit out every single piece of shit inside my body. That ever existed. The ones that were up in the attic just chilling bro. All of it came out. I was like, ooh little hack there.

53:15You know, so maybe you don't have to fast for three days. You could just fucking eat a bunch of garlic and shit everything out. Why did you go with the pills and not the cloves? Just a little more convenient. Like just eating garlic cloves? Yeah eating garlic cloves. I don't know if I would do that. How do you eat garlic cloves sometimes? You do? Yeah. You cook them? No, I just eat them raw. Okay. Because it feels like it's doing something. Alright. If I'm not feeling good I'll eat garlic. I'll eat raw cloves, like three or four cloves and your body's like, whoa. Oh really? Yeah. They don't give you any digestion and stuff.

53:48A little bit maybe. But really what it does is it feels like you just took a drug. It feels like you took a medicine. Really? Yeah. Alright. How many you eat? Four. Three, four. I'll try that. Fat cloves. Just chew them down. They taste nasty. Okay. Like why you're eating it? I feel like I've tried that. Yeah. I've tried that. Yeah. But I mean I think there's something to like ancient medicine. Like people have been taking garlic. I mean obviously it has something to do with taste. Thousand year old onion and garlic eye remedy kills Merseh. Thousand years old. Whoa look at that cool recipe. Is that the recipe right there?

54:22Is that cool language? What is that language? The English accent. Whoa. Wow. Look how wild that language is. Could be used to draw something. The whole English I guess. Wow. You're probably reading it. So it's time to find it almost completely wiped out a methamcylin resistant staffal collococles. How do you say that? Staffal colloculus. Yeah. I always try to say that. Staffal collococcus. Staffal collococcus. Staphylococcus. Orius. Otherwise known as Merseh. Their findings were presented in National Microbiology Conference. The remedy was found in Balls Leech Book. An old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library.

55:02And that wild man. Like there's stuff that works that people have been doing for thousands of years. But people dismiss it as being food -ew. Yeah. You know what else is a cool one too? Is it like a tip? Do you cramp up a lot ever? No. I take a lot of electrolytes. I used to. I used to. But then I really drink element like on like every day, basically. My PT a long time ago recommended that, because I used to cramp up a lot. Spicy food I guess makes you not cramp up as much. Oh really? Yeah. So like about 10 years ago when he told me that, now I love spicy food and I don't really need to force myself to eat it.

55:36But when he first told me that I started eating a bunch of spicy stuff and I stopped cramping up as much. Maybe that's why I don't cramp up. I eat a lot of spicy food. Yeah. That might be why, because they have these little things that the UFC gives us too called hot shots, where if you're cutting weight, you're supposed to drink it. And it's pretty much just cinnamon and cayenne. And like some other stuff. Yeah. It's supposed to stop you from cramping. It works though. No kidding. I wonder what the mechanism is of that. That's interesting. Yeah, I love hot sauce. So I have my own kind of hot sauce.

56:08Like senior La Chuga made like a little line of three hot sauce. All right. Nice for me. But how to spicy food prevent cramping? Okay. Science is simple. If you're neurons are too busy firing off to your mouth, they won't have time to bother cramping up your muscles. What? That sounds pretty tough. Wow. That's crazy. That sounds pretty tough. Dr. McKinnon Phillips. Just trick them. Just trick them out of your mouth. Just stupid. Just stupid. Look over here. Found that spicy drinks help prevent the short bursts of muscle cramps. He teamed up with a biotech company to produce a product that can be sold online and found on the shelves at select stores.

56:42Hot shot. There it is. A drinkable shot mixed with ginger and cinnamon, Ironman, Champ Craig Alexander's and Avid user of the supplement along with several other real Olympic runners. Interesting. It works, dude. Because the second I started doing that, I stopped cramping up. I still get one every once in a while. It's not like a hundred percent thing, but it works. Yeah. Muscle cramps must be brutal when you're cutting weight, right? Because you're draining your body of basically everything. Yeah. Yeah, I don't. My weight cuts, I'm pretty like, I kind of got down to a science a little bit. I don't really cramp super bad.

57:14How much do you cut? Like, a week before I try to be like 16 to 18 pounds heavy over. And then I'll lose that last bit that week. But I'll walk around if I'm really fat, like on vacation and shit, not given it, just not caring. I'll be about 162 when I'm training good. And like, all of that I'll be about 150, 7158. And then I just got to lose and tell them about 52, 51 the week before and then that week. The week is a calorie restriction in the beginning and then water restriction or how do you do it? It's a decent. So 10 days away I start loading up on water. Like, the rule of thumb is however many pounds you got to lose, that's how many pounds of water you'll drink that day.

57:55So if I have 16 to lose, I'll have to drink two gallons of water. Also don't take any of my advice if you're listening to because I don't really fucking now. I know that like, water shit can get really scary. So I don't, you know, like people chugging distilled water of like, killed themselves and stuff. Distilled water, is that what you drink? No, no, no, no, no, that's not good for you. Yeah. But yeah, 10 days away I start loading up on the water and then on the Tuesday. So we weigh in Friday, so how many days before that is on Tuesday you'll do the, cut the sodium and then that pretty much, you lose a lot when you're chugging that much water and cut sodium.

58:29So I would say on Tuesday a lot of it is water and then it's kind of up to me how crazy I want to go with food. I'm obviously not eating like super huge meals that week but I don't let myself get too hungry. I'm pretty good about a lot of stuff where now I can kind of be like, if I go to bed, like at like an eight amount of hunger instead of like a seven, I'll know almost exactly how much I'll lose the next day which is like kind of cool. How much of a performance hit do you think you have? I mean, obviously you're in phenomenal condition but how much of a hit do you think you have in dehydrating yourself 24 hours before a fight?

59:06Yeah, good. I think it depends on how much water you lose too. I think just off the top of my head maybe 15 or 20? 15 or 20 percent. Maybe. So what would you think about if the UFC instituted more weight classes and they eliminated weight cuts? Like what if they said like, because it is for some guys, it is the most dangerous part of the fight because some guys go hard. Yeah, they do. Some guys are losing 26, 30 pounds within a couple of days and they just look like hell. Yeah. I think that the way to solve that because one's tried doing that with like the rehydration tests and everyone that I talked to that's like been involved with that has been like dude, I could cheat that easy.

59:49Oh really? Yeah. But how do they cheat it? I mean, there's just like, if you know that you're going to get like hydrate tested at a certain time, I'm sure that they probably just drink most of their water during that time or something like that. But then your weight would be higher, right? Yeah, your weight would have to be higher. But I don't know that they like test you. Yeah, I guess I don't really know honestly, but I mean, if they're going to test you, do they test you like, hey, your weight has to be this and then you're high. I think that they just go in and they're like, hey, how yellow is your piss type of thing?

1:00:26You know, I'm pretty sure that that's what it might be. If it's like more scientific than cool, but if it's just be like, hey, it's got to be more scientific because sometimes my piss is pretty yellow. I just meant I drank a lot of vitamins or a lot of water. You know, I think it's a, there's like an actual test where they test the levels. I think that if you added in more weight classes, that wouldn't handle a lot of it. I probably just do 140. Would you, if that would that be ideal for you? That'd be pretty ideal. Yeah, I feel like the UFC should have more weight classes and I've said this for a long time.

1:01:00I just think this, there's some gaps. They're crazy. Like the 85, 205 is nuts. 20 pounds is nuts. That's crazy. That's nuts. That's three way classes at least in between fights. Like that's in between classes rather that's nuts. I just don't understand that. Yeah. I mean, I think the way that old sports kind of do things, they do things for a reason. So like boxing and wrestling, they all have like, it's every seven pounds or whatever it is. And then with the UFC, it's like, oh, too many champions that way, it's too confusing. I'm like, what are you talking about? It's one UFC champion per weight class.

1:01:34Yeah. You'd have more champions and then you could also have more champion versus champion fights. Yeah, for sure. Because it wouldn't be like, Ilya going up 10 pounds is not too crazy. But Alex, when he went from 85 to 205, that was pretty crazy. Yeah, that's a big ass jump man. Yeah. Obviously he could do it because he's one of the craziest weight cutters of all time. He was fighting 85 and weighing in at 226 the day of the day. What? Really? Oh yeah. When he fought out of Sania, he was 226 when he got to the cage. Is that 41 pounds or 31 pounds in that? 41 pounds. So after 36 hours, he put on that 41 pounds.

1:02:10Holy shit. Holy shit. That's crazy. He's also a giant. He's an enormous guy. He's like a lot of body mass. Yeah. And apparently it's easier to cut weight like, you know, we're a marrow style. Like when you're that muscular because most of the muscles water, which is kind of counterintuitive, you think like a fat guy would, you could be able to lose more weight. But no, it's actually to dry out, the big muscular guys can lose more weight. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I have a theory too, like the more ripped you are, the easier it is to sweat too. Because if your muscle is like muscle, then fat, then skin, and you got to like, it's got to travel through the fat.

1:02:43This is how I fucking think. There's no evidence of anything like that. Because there are some fat zones that sweat, but I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, I can just see who's going to be a good sweater and who's not, but that's probably me just being. Yeah, I don't know if there's any science to that. Makes sense in your head kind of. Who makes sense in your head. I kind of see what you're saying. I kind of see what you're saying. But you could also, I guess, make argument that fat makes you warmer too. And maybe that sweats it out too. Yeah. But I don't think that there would be a problem with doing multiple weight classes, because then you would just have like what you do in boxing, where you just have like a ton of, you have like one dude with like eight belts.

1:03:22Right. That would be cool. Like look at Pacquiao. Yeah. Because keeps going up in white classes. Yeah. I think that it just be better for the athletes. And I think it'd be better for the sport in general. You're still going to have like incredible fights, because the level of competition, particularly at the lowest weight classes, is so high right now. I think your weight class, feather weight, and lightweight are the most competitive weight classes in the sport. And there's almost too many top contenders, where guys are forced to take fights that maybe you really shouldn't take that fight, because you're kind of in title contention.

1:03:56And then all you lose a close decision, fuck, now you're back to the drawing board, now you got to fight this guy. All you got injured in camp, fuck, you lose to that guy too. Now you're set back when you could have been a champion. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of like weirdness going on with possibilities and you know, just luck, bad luck, and good luck. Bad luck and good luck, timing, I think is a big thing. Like I think that I'm pretty, I was even saying this before the figurative fight, I was like watch, like if I go out and finish Figgy, which not a lot of people are able to do, the timing of everything is going to be perfect for me, because there will be no one else.

1:04:31And that's me also, you know, coming off of a loss from Umar just a year ago, which anytime you lose, kind of devastating, you're like, oh, it'll never happen for me, you know. But then it's like, oh, wait. No, if I just, if this thing gets timed out, right, you know, like it could work out. So a lot of the shit is coming. It was a competitive slow fight. Yeah, I know. I fucked up. What did you think went wrong? Like you just messed it up. More than anything, okay, it was, it was like a, it's never just one thing. It's always like things get compiled and then they exponentially get worse. One big thing was I knew I was fighting in the Middle East and I wasn't going to get like a nod.

1:05:06Um, if it was a close fight and Umar is a defensive guy and I'm a defensive guy and I knew that it would be, there was potential for rounds to be really close. My game plan wasn't going to be to take him down. So anytime you're going to be like, hey, like I'm committing to striking, there is a little bit of a level of role in the dice because one striking matches in a five minute round are really hard to like hammer down and be like, I won this round against really high level guys. Um, that's my opinion. I thought that I would be able to stuff most of the shots. I was like, okay, most of this thing is going to be done striking.

1:05:44I need to have like big moments in order for me to feel like I'm really winning these rounds so that there can be no argument that I'm losing. And if we just are point score on each other, which Umar is good at and I'm good at, I'm kind of rolling the dice a little bit and kind of leaving it into the hands of who, God knows who the judges are. You know, so a piece of it was I didn't want to lose another close split decision like a lot of my losses or a couple of my losses are just close split decisions and I'm like, fuck, man, I'm not, I'd rather just go for it than lose, you know, but that pulled me out of my game plan.

1:06:15Um, and just the way that I typically fight like I'm not the guy that hunts for knockouts, you know, I'm just not that guy. And so I just got pulled out of my strategy. I got really frustrated in the fight by it not working like me not being able to have really big moments. And now looking back, I'm just like, man, what were you thinking? Like, just go out fight like how you do and you'll do awesome. What do you think specifically like you would have done different in exchanges? Um, I would have fought in the exact same way that I would have fought the first one. Like that entire fight, I was being really defensive and just looking for one big shot.

1:06:51In the first round, I didn't fight like that. The first round I was cool with point scoring. I was like, okay, this guy's going to wrestle me. Let's see how good he is at wrestling and if I can hang. Once I was like, oh, okay, cool. Like I can hang. Then I just started going for big shots, which is just like not a good way to be to really high level guy. It's kind of a lazy game plan, honestly. Like, um, if the plan isn't to completely outclass the person and win in every area and be good enough to do so. In my opinion, that's just like not an expression of the highest level of martial arts. That's a little bit lazy, you know, and I was, I was a little bit lazy and maybe my approach to that, which maybe lazy isn't the right word, but I could have done a lot better at just trusting myself more, being more confident in my ability to just be like, no, like I'll beat him everywhere, you know.

1:07:39Looking for the big shots is always such a trap. Until it's not. Until it's not. And you look real cool. What happened? Oh, my goodness. And we all like looking cool. Yeah, you land the big ones and you've landed a lot of the big ones. Yeah. And you've had so many of those moments like the Frankie Agar fight or, you know, there's been quite the Marlin Marais fight. That was a wild one. That was a great one. That was probably like my happiest moment, maybe ever in life, just because I had just come off the most embarrassing loss ever against Sterling. And they were like, hey, you want to fight the number one guy in Abu Dhabi during COVID?

1:08:09And I was like, and that was like kind of back when Marlin was still a really scary guy. He's kind of been on a skid since then. But back then he was real scary and I was like, I don't know if you guys are setting me up for Marlin, knock me the fuck out, or how this is like what the thinking behind me fighting the number one contender is. But I was like, yeah, cool. Like if you guys are going to give me that shot, I'll take it for sure. And then when I finished it, I was just like, yes. And you finished them with a wheel kick. Yeah, which I during COVID was practicing in my basement with my wife like every day.

1:08:39Is that stupid? I was like, why did I was like, man, you should have asked me for a cut percentage? It's a thing where, you know, if you you don't expect it from a guy who doesn't really throw a lot. Yeah. You know, and so like you see his foot turn, you're like, what's going on here? And before you know it, it's too late. Yeah. And that heel is headed towards your dome. Yeah. People that are good at those two, it's a problem. Oh, yeah. Like that doesn't need to land anywhere specific for it to like rattle your brain enough to knock you down. Oh, it's a terrifying kick. Yeah, it is. It's so much power.

1:09:10Yeah, if there was one thing I would not want to hit with, it would be that. My during my Taikwondo days, I used to feel like I was always going to be fine. Like I'd be, I was like, I felt like, you know, I was young. I was 19. I felt invulnerable and I was really good. And I fought in the nationals in California. And I hit this kid with a wheel kick and he never got up and he was snoring. Like out face plant, out cold, taken over in a stretcher, taken to the hospital. And I never felt the same about fighting again. Because I was always scared that that could happen to me then. Because I was like doing this for nothing.

1:09:47There was no money. I was doing this for nothing. I had no health insurance. I was poor. And I was like, what am I doing? Like this is like I could have easily got hit by that same kick. But I was better than him and I landed. But there's guys that are better than me. And if they hit me like that, face down. I mean, it was my heel hurt for days. I was limping the next day. My knee hurt after the Frankie fight. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah, I heard that was such a good knee though. Yeah, well, yeah. But I kind of felt a similar way where I don't know. I guess you kind of just get used to that where you're just like, but you're a professional.

1:10:21That's your sport. That's your living. This is what you do. For me, I was a young kid doing this thing that I was really good at and it just gave me like some sense of purpose. And then I was like, what the fuck, man? So how like a, so you didn't have like big aspiring dreams to be like a Taekwondo champ or anything? I had dreams to be an Olympic, uh, the Olympic, to go to the Olympics. But was that like a realistic dream? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I was that good. Cool. I had won national tournaments and I had beaten guys that had been in like high ranking now. And I had a very close decision. And I thought I should have won the year that the Taekwondo made it into the Olympics against the national champion.

1:11:03Cool. That was good. It was really young. So I was getting better all the time. Yeah. But then I started kickboxing. And when I started training in kickboxing, I realized that Taekwondo was kind of bullshit. Because my hands sucked and I would spar with kickboxers and I was getting, you know, cornered in the ropes and I just, I didn't have the skills. And I was like, oh, this is like, I have this distorted perception of my ability to fight based on my ability to fight in Taekwondo. Sure. I was really good at that. But then when I started boxing and kickboxing, I was like, this is like that piece that's missing in Taekwondo without the face punching.

1:11:38It nullifies so much of what Taekwondo is good at. But then when I learned that stuff, I realized like, oh, but I have a massive advantage with my legs because they have to close the distance with me and I can do things they can't do. Like regular kickboxers, I was amazed at how many of them were just kind of boxers who learned a few shitty kicks. And they would stand on the outside and they would take a step forward and I just blast them. And they just had no idea what to do. Like a really hard kicker. And then I started doing Muay Thai. And I was like, fuck, leg kicks. And so I went from American kickboxing above the waist to Muay Thai.

1:12:14I was like, there's too much to learn. And then I was doing comedy at the same time. So I just quit fighting. I got to get out before I get hurt. When you start grappling. This episode is brought to you by Visible. I want to let you in on something. Your current wireless carrier does not want you to know about Visible because Visible is the ultimate wireless hack. No confusing plans with surprise fees, no nonsense, just fast speeds, great coverage without the premium cost. With Visible, you get one line wireless with unlimited data powered by Verizon's network for $25 a month, taxes and fees included.

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1:13:36A day in the sun. No, a bottle of rum. Yes, Uber Eats can definitely get you that for almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats order now for alcohol. You must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly product availability varies by region. See app for details. Minos 30. Cool. Yeah, I started grappling right at, I guess it was 29. It was right after the first UFC. Did you like wrestle at all or anything? Yeah, wrestling in high school. But only one year. Because I was doing talk when I was at the same time and I had to pick one and I did a year of both. And then I was like, the problem with this is like, I rather kick someone in knock along conscious.

1:14:17It does. It was so to just whack and hear the whole crowd go silent. It was the wildest thing. Yeah. And watch someone cry. I fucking loved it. It was my favorite thing in life. And I was like wrestling is cool. Like it's good to know it's good to be able to pin people. But there was no UFC back then. So it's like everything you were doing was just like you did a fine thing and get really good at it. But the disillusionment of going from talk window to boxing and kickboxing and then to moitai and then jujitsu. So when I started doing jujitsu, I was like, oh my god, I'm fucking completely helpless.

1:14:51So I had this thing in my head. But at least I know how to like kick. I know how to box now. I know how to fight. Oh my god, I'm tapping out constantly. And so that was like, fuck, I gotta learn how to do jujitsu. But it was this thing where, you know, I feel real fortunate to have grown up in a time where no one knew what was the best style. And then see the UFC emerge in 93 and then watch this incredible transformation of martial arts where martial arts advances more in 10, 20 years than it had in the last 30 ,000 years. It was incredible to watch. Yeah, I'm glad that they did it, man, because that's such a cool question as who's martial arts is the best martial arts.

1:15:32No one knew, man. It's all, and we're all delusional. I was so delusional. Like I remember I used to do a talk window with a friend of mine. We were kickboxing at the time and we were doing it this gym where the judo guys were. And I was like, look at these idiots, this stupid judo. That's useless. Meanwhile, I had no idea if those guys got a hold of me. I was fucking helpless. Yeah, because judo guys will slam you on your head. Dude, rolling with judo guys, like I remember I rolled with Karl Parisi once. I was like, he's like a chimpanzee. Yeah. He was so strong. He didn't make any sense. So we were roughly the same size.

1:16:04And he was just ragged all of me around. I was like, there's something to throwing by all the time. You know, you're taking, if you're a 180 pound guy, you're throwing a 180 pound person over and over and over again. And your whole core is just fucking primed for that. Boom. And their balance and their ability to just your weight and use it against you. Watching it in the Olympics is awesome. Because they'll like spear their own heads. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. I like watching that shit. That's like I'm like, oh my god. I'm like, oh my god. Yeah, oh, you'd have to. Like the way that they land on, yeah.

1:16:39They have many of those guys. Like you see them later in their career. They got like one small arm because the fucking nerves are all shut off. And they had a fused disc. And they're just like, I did a good giant fucking great career. But you can't even walk, man. It's nuts. Every Taekwondo guy now has like one super strong oblique. And they're like shaped like this. Well, you got to learn how to kick from bullsides. That's so important. That's one thing that I really admire about your style. Because I think that there's going to be a time where that is just ubiquitous, where everybody switches.

1:17:11Because there's so many guys that are just like, oh, he's a south ball. Oh, he fights orthodox. Like, man, that's just leaving too much to predictability. Yeah. I think about striking like a dance dance revolution game. Where, like, because you're making all the reads with your eyes, it's like, left arms coming at me move. Like, right leg, whatever. It's not like grappling. We're grappling. We get to interact with each other and feel each other and move each other that way. And I can pretty much sometimes do with my eyes closed. Right. Striking is done mostly with our eyes. So we have to do like these dance dance revolution and like, okay, react to everything that we're seeing.

1:17:48So if I'm just switching my stance and now you have to like read the sentence backwards. Exactly. It gets really hard, you know? And especially if you're just as good with bullsides. Yes. Yes. And I would say that if you're starting, you don't need to be like super stellar at both, but just have a couple good attacks to do from your other stance and then just like build off of there. Yeah. I got, I started switching stances one because I really liked watching Nino D 'Nare who wouldn't like fully switch, but he would have like kind of steps like that there where I was like, oh, cool. And then also I dislocated my elbow really bad about like a week and a half into training just landed on it posted dislocated it.

1:18:26And so I could only or that was my left arm. So I can only use my right arm. So for like six months, I just went lefty and only used my right arm as like my lead hand. And that's how I got really good at it. Yeah. Just forcing yourself to just constantly be in that position because everybody wants to be in the position where they're the most strong, especially if you're trying to be competitive and sparring, right? That's why it's which so important about like the Gracies always talk about keeping things playful. Like learning how to like not don't try to win. You try to develop your skills and to be able to switch.

1:18:58I think like TJ in his prime, like when TJ fought Henan Barale, that fight to me was one of the best championship performances that I ever saw. I agree. Because nobody thought TJ was going to win that fight. Henan Barale was thought to be the number one pound for it was him and Aldo would make the argument who's the best. Henan Barale was I think he was undefeated or maybe had one loss in earlier his career. He was an animal at the time. Animal animal. And TJ pieced him up and he was like he was sparring. He looked so in the zone and relaxed and he was constantly switching stances and footwork and angles.

1:19:33Yeah. They dwayne flew me out for that fight because that's when they were training at Alpha Male to be TJ Sparring partner for one of those fights. I'm almost positive it was that one. I remember the whole time I was like, this isn't going to go good for TJ, you know? Because Barale was just that guy at the time that everyone was afraid of. And then when I watched it I was like, oh shit, that shit really works good. I used to train in the Netherlands a little bit too with Andy Sauer and those guys. Oh really? Yeah, so that was really cool. But it's like traditional like you stand in one stance.

1:20:02Like with this how we do shit here, you know? And I was like switching stances. I was probably like the gay guy at the gym a little bit, you know? Like the kind of flamboyant and like show offy. And so I remember going with some of Sauer's good guys and just good guys that we would spar with. And I wouldn't really get hit that much. And I was like, oh shit, this like actually works. Like this isn't just some like Fufu whatever stuff, you know? It's crazy that Dwayne developed that style, but he didn't fight that way. Yeah. That's what's crazy. Like Dwayne had like more of a traditional, he knows boss, ruden inspired style.

1:20:39And then he realizes like, you know, the best way to fight is actually to constantly be changed. And then he develops this system and you know, Dwayne's like super focused. I know you know this, but for people who don't know Dwayne has like a notebook like fucking which is filled with notes and it's all like he's got his sister's life. Yeah, it's not like what Adesonial likes to call button smashing when you're playing a game like no, it's very systematic. And TJ I think in that Henneparalfight was the greatest expression of what Dwayne teaches. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was a super amazing fight.

1:21:12Yeah, just switching, I mean just simple little stuff, you know? Like it's a lot of striking is just like how coordinated you are. Like that's like a big piece of striking. And then can I just overwhelm you with information? Like that's like a strategy to run, you know? Some people choose like, okay, I'm willing to take a few to like land my big one, you know? That's like a okay strategy. It works for guys like Elia and stuff. Um. But Elia is not that easy to hit. That's true too. He has like a way, way good guard. He rolls with stuff like the Josh Mitz fight. Yeah. He like, he like slides away from stuff and these big bombs are coming his way.

1:21:50He's doing like the highest form like intellectually. He's doing that style at its highest expression with the strategy of I'm about to knock you the fuck out. Which shouldn't be everyone's strategy. You know, you have to have that that touch of death. Yeah, that's true. He's got that God given power. His power is fucking crazy man. It is crazy. Trevor's actually helped me understand why it works really good. So okay, so not to get crazy technical with it. Let's get technical. Let's get in there. Alright, cool. Um. So squared and bladed stances. When you're in a squared stance, you can move really good left to right.

1:22:27That was most of my career was being like, I came from a basketball background. I know that I'm very quick and agile and I can move left to right really good. Um, if I just keep my hands up, whatever, it'll be fine probably, you know. So a lot of squared stance stuff is I'm just going to cut left right over well in this person with all of my weapons and angles and always constantly make them move off of the things I'm doing and not the other way around. That's good, but it's really hard to like get a ton of leverage in anything that you're doing when you're standing square. Like I can't like if I'm going to throw a ball, I don't throw a ball like this.

1:23:05I throw a ball like this. Right. You have your shoulder behind the other shoulder. Yeah. Um, so squared stance is super good for being agile, moving left right and overwhelming people with the amount of attacks that you could throw at them because also if I'm standing square, all of my weapons are really available for me to throw. Like it doesn't take like this is faster than this. And just because it's like six inches for closer or whatever. In a bladed stance, you get a fuck load of leverage because if you watch Ilya, he's always standing like he's about to throw a javelin. And that's pretty much what he's doing is just like, and this is kind of like the science of boxing a little bit.

1:23:41Like I said, that Trevor helped me with so I'm a lot more bladed now than I was because now we're trying to get like some serious leverage on stuff because five round fights, moving the entire time, fighting these really good wrestlers it can get to the point where it's like it just gets quirky and just like a little bitchy looking, you know, and like I don't really want to like tap people to victory, you know. Right. Um, for a long time, I would compensate in being like, all right, but I'll have wheelkicks, knees and elbows. And that like took me a decent amount of ways to where it's like, I'm not going to cool.

1:24:12Now I can finish guys like that also. Um, but these bladed stances where you can make a shit load of leverage with them are really cool. I think finding a balance between the two is really awesome. Ilya is like only, and that's just my expression of my martial arts. I want to be like the Jack of all trades guys and be able to be like, oh, you're that style. I'll just archetype you in this style. But Ilya is like always ready to throw javelin and he's really good at closing space with his lead leg like a, he'll like jab hook and really creep his lead leg near and then just bomb a right hand because he is a shorter guy, but he never seems like he's having that much of an issue getting super inside.

1:24:52Well, it's going to be interesting seeing him at 55. That will be interesting. That's much bigger guys. Like think about Maricio Rufi. Yeah. He's at 55 and he moves good and has leverage. And he's fucking gigantic. Yeah. How tall was Rufi? I mean, he's got to be 6 '1, maybe 6 '2 and he's 55 and he's not thin. I mean, he's lean, but he's not like scrawny. He's got muscle. He's fucking huge for 55. For some 55. And Ilya as powerful as he is, he's not that big. And it's going to be interesting to see because of this 10 pound, 10 pounds is just like, it's a lot of weight man. You know, it's like when you're dealing with 155 pound person, it's a significant percentage of your body weight.

1:25:34Especially when everyone's cutting like 30 pounds. I don't know what Rufi cuts, but when I see him walking around, he looks like he's 190 pounds. Yeah. You know, like Islam. Islam's fucking huge. He's big, when I interview him in the cage afterwards, I'm always like, how? Really? How are you 155? How? I know. How? He's thick as fuck. He's got a giant back. Yeah. And when he gets a hold of guys, it's like he's just got this leverage, this grappling squeeze that it's, I remember when he fought Drew Dober. And like when he got Dober down to the ground, it's like, that's a wrap. Yeah. It's a wrap as soon as he gets on top.

1:26:12And then he starts clamping down, squeezing. And guys are just like, all of aero was tapping like the moment it was on. He was like, fuck this. Yeah. A lot of those really good grappler guys, they're strong definitely, but they're really strong at closing up all of the space. Like I can, if you let me get an under hook, like I can feel pretty strong. Like even if you're much bigger than me, I'll like make you take a couple steps back, which really shouldn't happen. But if I just close up all of the space, which I think is a big component of being a really good grappler, is being able to be like, nope, that's my space.

1:26:42You don't get that this, you know, and you're not going to get inside of mine. I can feel strong as fuck, you know. And yeah, those types of guys, they're just so used to being so compact and never letting anyone get inside their arms or wherever it is that they need to get that it's just, it's like impossible to feel like you can move them. I feel like there's two types of being strong in grappling. There's being strong in like, I don't let you move me. And then there's strong in, I get to move you really good and the good, good guys get to do both. Like if I can grab you and move you really easy, I'll feel really strong.

1:27:17If you grab me and I feel like a rock, I'll feel really strong. And I think that some people do both of those really well and then some people do one or the other really well. But those types of guys like the Islam's, they do both really good. Yeah. And he's also, his striking has leveled up significantly. I guess striking is much, much better than it wasn't as young or was, he's just, he's a threat everywhere. Like when he knocked out Volk with that high kick, yeah, crazy. But granted, if I was in Volk's corner, I would say no. You're not taking it, you've been fucking drinking beer and eating kebabs.

1:27:52Like there's no way you're taking this fight on 10 days notice. I don't care how confident you are. I don't care how much you like fighting. That's a crazy thing. I don't care how much money they're paying you because you look at the slide that his career took, right? He arguably won that first fight with Islam, very close fight, loses a decision. Or was it a draw? It was a decision. Shit, was it a draw? That's actually a good question. I think he lost. I think he lost. I think he lost too. Yeah. Either way, Islam keeps the title. Was it a draw? Why don't I think it was a draw? Maybe one judge had it a draw.

1:28:24Maybe it was something like that. So super close fight with the pound for pound best fighter in the world, 10 pounds up. Everybody's like, Volk might be the best pound for pound fighter in the world. And then he takes that fight on 10 days notice, gets head kicked. And then he comes into the fight with Toporia. What formats later or something like that? Compromised. Clearly, you got head kicked, shined to the dome, stopped unconscious, and then you've got to fight the scariest fucking boxer in the division and you get knocked out. So then this big slide. And then he comes back full year off and you see against Diego Lopez looks like the Volk of old.

1:28:59Looks like he's back. Well, I would like to have seen that Volk versus Ilya. Yeah. That would have been an exciting fight. This one was a decision second one was a KO. Okay. So it was a decision. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like the casuals like to exist in a world where, oh no, if you're a better fighter than you're just a better fighter. It's like no man, like if I have three months to train versus two weeks to train, like that's giant difference. Giant difference. Like giant, I don't do zins. This isn't a zin. What is it? I just don't want. It's like I just started taking them. They're like, they have 50 milligrams of caffeine in them.

1:29:37They're called NZEs. Oh, yeah. I've taken those. Those are good. Yeah, they're like those. I like those. They're brain -stimulates. Yeah. Yeah. I got a one that I got that I bought called alpha. That's pretty good. Although I did kind of get a little annoyed that they ripped off alpha brain. It's, you know, I like these. These are great too. These gummies. These alpha brain gummies are fucking awesome. Um, yeah, I don't do caffeine anymore. That's really one thing that I stopped. Well, I do like this amount of caffeine. I do like 50 milligrams of that. Just 50. Okay. So I can see a small cup of coffee.

1:30:07Yeah, you know, it's crazy is, so, um, I didn't drink like a lot of caffeine or whatever. I would drink like a coffee in the morning, like normal people. But dude, what I learned is, because once I stopped, I immediately had way, way more energy or maybe not immediately, but like 10 days, two weeks afterwards. And you know what I looked up, bro? Is that I already have like low iron, but I notice or I looked up coffee gets in the way of iron absorption. Really? I, yeah. You have low iron. Do you eat red meat? Uh, yeah, I eat a lot of red. It's like a genetic thing. My mom has super low. I think it's like a ginger thing.

1:30:44I go fucking, yeah, we're just born. Caffeine can inhibit iron absorption. Primarily do the presence of tannins and other polyphenols in coffee. Dude, I swear this has changed me big. So now I do the mud water stuff where I drink all the mud water. I like matcha still. So I'll still do like 50 milligrams in the morning, but dude, the coffee I stopped and I immediately started feeling way better. And I don't know how many people don't know this, but this is a thing, bro. I'm a coffee junkie. I know. I really have a problem. It tastes good. I still drink decaf sometimes because I really like the taste of it.

1:31:17I take days off of these things. Like what are those? These are breakers, Lucy's. These are nicotine. I like them when I do podcasts and I like them before I do stand up, but I take days off because I was like, boy, am I addicted to these things? So fucking suck it on these things all day long. But I take a couple days off. I feel fine. I feel fine. But I've taken days off coffee. I'm like, burrr. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It takes like a week or so. I'm falling asleep in the morning. Just like, errr. Yeah. I honestly don't think everyone would have the same experience I did. I think it's because of the iron thing.

1:31:45That makes a lot of sense, man. Drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages with a meal associated with 39 to 90 percent reduction in iron absorption. Dude, it was great. Yeah. So, bro, this is how I found out. It wasn't like I was seeking this. I take an iron supplement in the morning, usually, because I have a little bit of low iron. And when I stop drinking coffee, one of the signs that you are taking too much iron is that you'll get like an iron metallic taste in your mouth. And so about two weeks afterwards, or whenever, I started tasting that taste in my mouth and I looked it up and that's what it was.

1:32:20So I stopped taking the iron supplement because I was actually absorbing the iron from my food and shit. Oh, wow. Is that crazy? That is crazy. Fuck, I might have to try it. Yeah. It was kind of rough, though. Oh, yeah, I bet. Yeah, it was rough. It was like, um, I quit everything at that time just because I was like getting, like, my body was getting anxious. My mind is pretty much like stupid the whole time to life, but my body will get really, uh, I just like noticed different shit. I'll just like be more tired or anxious or whatever, you know? Well, you're so in tune. Yeah. A fighter is probably out of all the professional sports.

1:32:56I think a fighter probably is the most in tune with her body. Probably. Because there's so, like, the consequences of not being in tune are so grave. Like, it's so different than any other sport. Definitely. There's a lot of ways to get hurt and we have to watch what we actually eat most sports. You don't really have to do that. It's just, right. Um, like we're super, like food, the relationship with food for a fighter is way, way different than I think almost everyone else on the planet. I know when you, like, out of Sonyan, never cared about his nutrition, never took care of him. There's some people like older.

1:33:27Yeah. And then he got older. He realized like, hey, I've got a really fucking do everything. I know, dude, I used to, I used to be able to just down a Chipotle burrito with all the hot sauce on it and then just train afterwards. Like, it was nothing. Now I can't do that, which kind of sucks. Yeah, that's also youth. God to be young. When you're really young, you can get away with anything. You really can. I used to just be hung over rolling in and just find a hard, easy, hard, easy, how much you can get away with when you're young. Yeah. But it's like the other thing is like hard training for long, for long periods, years and years and years.

1:34:01You get all these little micro injuries. You see those little things, things are slowing down. You're just demanding so much of your body. If you're not taking care of your nutrition, it's like, are you serious about this or not? I know. Like, what are you doing? You were fucking six hours in the gym and then you're eating pizza. That's crazy. I see people fuck up their waycuts all the time just because after they cut weight, they want to eat like an asshole. And I'm like, what are you doing, dude? You literally did for eight weeks. You were the most disciplined person in the world and now you're eating cake the night before the fight.

1:34:31You're an idiot. So dumb. So dumb and you cake the night before a fight. It's so crazy. Ilya famous. You said he only did it twice, but he was and they made it seem like in the countdown shows that he did it alone. He would drink wine. Yeah. He was weight -cutting. Yeah. The whole time I was watching that, I was like, he doesn't do that every time. He was like, you're absolutely, I was like, come on, this is like media stuff. You know, you're not convincing me that he does that. You know, you did it twice, he said, but I was like, what am I doing? Sounds fun. But you got drunk. You got to get shit off of one glass of wine, which is probably pretty awesome.

1:35:02And your pie taste is so good to be in that hydrated. And then you're dehydrating yourself more because of the wine. So probably it aids a little bit in the water cut because it does dehydrate. Yeah. But then that hangover, when you got no water in your body. Yeah. I don't fuck with hangovers anymore, dude. That's why I stopped drinking. I stopped drinking. I guess it's like close to four months ago. And I used to have days where I would get, you know, I'd work at the club, do stand up, have a couple of drinks, and the next day I'd be working out going, oh, yeah, what did I feel? But I was like, that's just life.

1:35:37Just deal with it, drink your electrolytes, get through it. I have no days like that now. That's nuts. Like even if like last night I only had like five hours sleep, but I worked out this morning. I feel fucking great. Yeah. All the bad days have gone away. It's kind of like, I'm like, you moron. Yeah. I'm poisoning yourself for decades. I feel too. So now I'll still go out and do social shit and just not drink. I'm like, this is just as fun, you idiot. I know. I was like, you could have just been doing this the whole time. I know. That's the thing is like, I thought you missed it. Like I remember Boss Routin telling me that.

1:36:09I quit drinking and not just as much fun. Right. Yeah. Just as much fun. Yeah. But it's true. You're having fun because you're with fun people. And you just have in laughs. You don't have to be drunk to have fun. Yeah. Unless you were me in college. Oh, yeah. A little bit. I think that part, I think a big piece of me thinking drinking was fun is because I would just do really stupid crazy shit and so with my friends. And then we'd just talk about it the next day. Like, hey, that was so stupid and crazy. Yeah. But now that I don't do any of that stuff, I'm like, this isn't fun anymore. Yeah. And not throw a professional athlete too.

1:36:44You're just like, this is just not good for you. Yeah. It's punishing yourself. Yeah. Yeah. At this age, unfortunately, they told me my whole life it was going to happen and now it's happening. Well, it's just becoming wiser too. You know, that's why, like, when you see that John Jones thing, I'm sure you saw the police cam. Did you see that? I did recently. I didn't know if it was older. No, it was. It was a new one. Uh -huh. It's like this week. Yeah. That's a new one. He's drunk on the phone, talking to the cops and like, oh, no. Yeah. I don't know the details of it. Was he driving the car?

1:37:15Who knows? Yeah, the girl in the car said he was drunk. He was driving. The car was wrecked and John was gone and she ratted him out. John Jones did it. And then John's on the phone with the cops and apparently allegedly threatened the cops when he was on the phone, which is not good. Yeah, not good. And he's already got a history of running from accidents. Yeah. Yeah. I hope he gets whatever that is. I hope that he figures it out, you know? Yeah, I hope so too, but, you know, it is what it is. Yeah, something. Something. Yeah. They like riding the lightning, bro. He liked riding that lightning.

1:37:48And I think that's one of the things that made him so good too, because he was so wild. He was just a wild dude. Yeah. And I just genuinely didn't give a fuck and really had this ultimate confidence and so skillful and so smart. But eventually, you know, one more drink, then like that, that, that, that, and then your body's just like not what it used to be. Yeah. And Aspenall is a fucking beast, man. Yeah. I know there's a lot of questions. Never been out of the first round. A lot of questions, but never been out of the first round because he fucks everybody up in the first round. Like, that's a factor.

1:38:22Yeah. Yeah, I really wanted to see that fight, but also at the same time, I kind of, I appreciated it. I forget which interview it was recently, but John was pretty honest in it. He was like, look, man, like, I don't want to fight up and come in tough guys. He was like, I want to fight guys with seasoned champions that have names. And I was like, that could also be interpreted as you don't really want to fight kind of the best guys that there are right now. You want to fight like a certain category of fighter who you're comfortable fighting, but you don't want to fight the guys that are tough and that are saying that you're going to win.

1:38:58And that's okay, but that's essentially how I interpreted what he was saying in different words, which I appreciated the honesty. Well, it's also money fights, right? Yeah. Because I think he's wrong because I think Aspenal's a star. I really do. Yeah, I do too. And I think he's saying he was, he's not, no one. Aspenal's a star. And when I get, when people ask questions to me all the time, like casuals on the street, is John Jones going to fight Tom Aspenal? It's constant. That's like the constant question. To me, the real fight would have been John Jones versus Francis. That's the real one. If I, like clearly, I'm not responsible for making decisions, because I would have made a lot of different decisions.

1:39:39And I would have like Francis. Let's, let's talk. Let's work this out. That guy's a star. Francis is the fucking scariest heavyweight of all time. Yeah. That's a star. You know, like that guy as the heavyweight champion is so fucking marketable. He puts people in the orbit. Yeah. You know, he flatlined steep A. He flatlined Alistair. He flatlines people. He's fucking terrifying. Like that's the heavyweight champion. And for that guy to walk away from the belt and then almost beat Tyson Fury and then get knocked out by Anthony Joshua and then the come back and destroy that dude in PFL. What's his name again?

1:40:19The big tall Brazilian dude that he ground and pounded into unconsciousness. Ferreira. That's right. Okay. That guy's, oh, yeah. Yeah. That guy was even. Yeah. Big Jack guy. And he's the guy that K .O .d Ryan Bader in the first round. He looks phenomenal. He's terrifying. And Francis just destroyed him. I'm like, that's the guy. That's the guy. Like, and everybody knows that's the guy. Like, that's the fight that that's the big fight. It's the shame when that shit happens in the sport, dude. It's the worst. I hate it. I hate it. I see it happen all of the time and I can't help but think a lot of it is like, hopefully it's just maybe money business stuff.

1:40:57But I really, I think that some of it is ego and that's kind of what I try to drift, like just drift away from. My philosophy on winning the belt has always been, if I can't beat whoever it is, if it's like a number 10 ranked UMA or if it's a number 2 ranked whoever, if I can't beat that person then I don't deserve the belt and I don't think that I should get it. Like, it clearly doesn't represent what it represents if it doesn't mean that I beat all the best guys on the way to doing so. Not everyone really has that philosophy and I get it because once you start involving money and then money is taking care of your family which is what is kind of an excuse to be greedy sometimes for people.

1:41:40It's just never really been my philosophy and I think that it's kind of a shame when that stuff happens because in my head we're doing two things. We're seeing who the best fighter in the world is and we're getting people to watch so that the fans can appreciate something that I find to be the most loved thing in my life next to my wife. So I don't know, I think it's a shame when that should happen especially when it's like an ego thing but also at the same time I don't really think that that's too much of what John Jones is doing. I'm more speaking in terms of what I kind of see in other people.

1:42:17I think John Jones also has to have some level of awareness around Tom's a young guy and we age. We age and that's okay. John's not a natural heavyweight either. That too. John still could make 205. Yeah. Yeah, even in his heavyweight fight he looked like a little soft. Yeah, a little soft. Like 240 and a little soft is I mean think about how much pererocots. Right, he could cut that weight. Like he could still make 205 and might still be the champion 205. Yeah. Which is kind of wild. Yeah. Tom Aspen only making 205. That guy is fucking huge. Yeah. And Ghana was not making 205. Francis would cut to get to 265 natural.

1:43:01Sure. Which is just bananas. Yeah. He's a fucking hulking man. Yeah. Yeah, he's a scary dude. How do people get that big? Genetics man. Salad it is. Genetics. Yeah. I mean, that's just pure genetics. If I was that big I'm playing a different sport bro. Playing hockey. Hockey or fucking baseball or football. But football is a brain damage. You get footballs significantly more probably than a brand. Brain damage you get fighting. You like hockey? I do. I like watching. Hockey is pretty cool. Yeah. I like hockey culture. I don't really understand the game because there's too much going on right now.

1:43:35Or like when it's happening it just looks like a chaotic mess sometimes to me. But I recently started watching it because of dude from the abs. I'm getting it. I've been like seeing him at the gym a little bit. He's been training a guy named Nathan McKinnon who's like one of the better guys in the league right now. I've kind of been paying a little bit of attention because me and him will chat sometimes. But dude hockey culture is cool. Like when they score they smile and cheer for a half of a second and then they're all just like stone cold killers back again. Which I really appreciate about sports because I feel like a lot of sports have become like all of this top players are like really super starry like flamboyanty like.

1:44:14So the thing about hockey is it's never been as popular as football. I know. It's always been the steps on. It's like not quite the same. Not in the same. Like they don't reach the same. You have a few Gretzky's, you know, Bobby Orr. You have a few guys that become national celebrities. But for the most part there's not like a whole ton of them that everybody, the general or public knows about. So because of that they're probably a little more dedicated, a little more humble, a little more on the grind. They're cool. They're cool to me. I really like that sport. It's very athletic sport man. The fucking amount of energy that those guys expend.

1:44:52Yeah. The speed. They're fast constantly sprinting on ice, you know, and maneuvering and gliding around those blades is incredible to watch. You like any other sports? I like soccer. I like watching. You do? I want to really enjoy soccer when I went to see a live match. I was like, oh, and then I was talking to my friend Ed who's one of the owners of the Austin Club here. And he was explaining to me like, this is the reason why it never becomes popular in America. They don't take commercial breaks. There's no time for a commercial break. The fucking clock is always running. I never noticed. And these guys, these guys have legs.

1:45:27They're like fucking quarter horses. They're these fucking huge legs. And they're just running constantly. They're constantly sprinting. They have to be an insane shape. You know, it's like as someone who appreciates athletic performance, like this is a crazy sport. Like a really demanding sport. How many miles do you think they run every game? I don't know, man. Right. At least four or five has to be constantly running. Like seven to nine usually. Seven to nine miles every game. That's bananas. And they're not jogging. Yeah. They're fucking sprinting seven to nine miles, which is when I did that time in the Netherlands that I was talking about.

1:46:05I grew up playing soccer a little bit too, but I only did it until like people stopped thinking it was cool. And then I like switched to the sport. So like, when you're growing up, all the, the goal was just to not be called gay. And soccer didn't do that for you. Yeah. That's so true. But dude, just your entire existence as a kid is to not be made fun of in called gay. Yeah, you were a dork if you played soccer. Yeah, but oh, dude, when I went to the Netherlands and I watched some of those kids, play, I was like, oh, this is soccer in Europe because they were like 10, 11, 12 year old kids just freaks, dude.

1:46:42And like crazy athletic, you could just tell that that's like what they do with their entire lives. And I was like, thank God I didn't choose that sport because I just wouldn't be anywhere. Well, you'd have to go overseas. Yeah. And then the competitiveness of the soccer over there or the football, what they call it over there is so much higher than in America. You probably, it would probably be a long adjustment to reach their level. Have you ever been to a game where there's all of the SWAT people in shit because the hooligans and stuff? No, I've only been to the Boston games. It's pretty chill.

1:47:11I went to one in Serbia where they had more SWAT police officers than there were people in the actual stand. Dude, it was wild. I was like, did Serbia's more developed than this man? Like people were climbing on stuff throwing smoke bombs onto the field. I was like, bro, this can't be in basketball. Yeah, they're good at basketball. But we played some clips of basketball games in Serbia and you see the crowd in Serbia. They go home. I know. The cheering is like it gives you goosebumps. Like holy fuck man. These are war like people and they're putting that kind of fucking, as they manage to basketball.

1:47:51They're like, boy, when those guys come over here, everyone's fucked and you're kind of seeing that now. There's a bunch of Serbian players have made their way to the United States and those guys are fucking bad at us. They're ready to fight the entire time, probably. And they're scary hard dudes, man. Which is really interesting to see this influx of guys from Russia, Dagestan, Chechnya, some of these guys that are making the way into the UFC now. These are fucking hard dudes, man. You know, it's really interesting. Really interesting. Yeah, it's really cool. I mean, I really appreciate it. Man, I think that MMA and martial arts just in general is such a fantastic thing for the world.

1:48:32And this to me has brought so many people together kind of like I didn't follow, I didn't know what Dagestan was or actually by Jean was or anything like that. When it was 2014, so you know WKA, the organization. I did their national tournament and if you win, you get to go do the world tournament for them in Italy. So I got to do that in one. And when I was out there, a lot of the competitors were from all over the world. And there was a place called Azure by Jean that I didn't know how to pronounce at all. And they were whooping guys asses, dude. Like bad like spinning hook kicks, like all kinds of crazy shit.

1:49:10And I was like, damn, I hope I don't fight one of those guys. But the entire time I was like the second these guys start getting into the UFC and stuff, they're going to rack a lot of Americans, you know. Yeah. But I really like that. Like just the UFC in general has done a good job in my opinion because they're really the only globalized or one of the only super globalized where people from all over the world are fighting each other. Kind of, I don't know man, it kind of feels like it brings everyone together or at least for me. Like I could feel like I could walk into another country and have something super in common with someone which is just like a cool feeling, you know.

1:49:49I think another thing that's really cool about it is when someone is elite, no one cares what country they from, they just love that guy. You know, it's like if Adesanya gets in there, no one cares just from New Zealand, everybody gets pumped. If Pereira gets in there, it's Alex Pereira's fighting. You don't say, you don't say it. No, they just fucking psyched to see Alex Pereira. Yeah. You know, so it's really great in that regard that you can become a true international superstar and you're embraced essentially by all the nations. Definitely by America. I think that that's a big American culture thing too.

1:50:18Sure. Like we don't really care where people are from. I think about the Russians that are over here, they don't, no one cares. Yeah. No one's like, oh, Russians fuck you. Yeah. You know, they're like, oh, that guy's badass, you know. Yeah. I wonder if it'd be the same in those other countries. I don't think so. Yeah. I bet it's not. I don't. I bet Russia definitely doesn't think I'm as cool as I think they're cool. If I went over to Russia, I'd be like, fuck it's super worried. They'd poison my food. You know, like some crazy Russian like, fucking, fuck this guy, you know, and fucking throw something in your tea.

1:50:47Who knows? You know, like they're fucking, they're hardcore. Yeah. It's like American braces, but we're a melting pot, right? That's the difference between this country and all the other countries is that we are consistent entirely of immigrants. At one point in time, everyone lists your native American. Everyone was an immigrant. Yeah. So it's like, we kind of accept that people come from different parts of the world. Yeah. About 300 years ago, we're like, let's go to this party. I know. I can party over there. I mean, we could do whatever we want over there. I don't know. I was bullshit that we got going on here.

1:51:17It's kind of nutty in that regard. And, you know, boy, it's worked out a lot of ways. Yeah. I'm not really like a, I try not to be like to identify it with anything or whatever or like be to a nationalist, but every time I think of like just how lucky we are to be from here, dude, it's pretty cool. It's pretty amazing. It is. Especially when you see stuff like that's going on with Israel and Iran and all of that stuff. It's kind of like, God, man. Thank you. What's going on here in the UK? People are getting arrested for Facebook posts. Are they? Yeah. Thousands. They still use Facebook, fucking users.

1:51:51Oh, yeah. The fuck they doing is in Facebook. That's how you know it's a political thing. It's all those old people. Old people on Facebook. All my old friends from high school, like my old friends that I was friends with when I was like really young, they are, they're on Facebook. Yeah. Old dudes love Facebook. My mom and dad are on Facebook. They argue about politics on Facebook. Like, fucking, miss me with that shit. Yeah, they're supposed to be about which neighbors. Yeah. I got zero time for any of that stupidity. But this thing that we've done over here is allowing people to express themselves.

1:52:26Whether you agree or disagree, that is just so gigantic. And they're squashing a lot of that in other countries. And that scares the shit out of me. That's what I was really scared about in this last election because on friends with Elon, I knew what was going on in Twitter behind the scenes. I knew how the government was stepping in and silencing posts. And like, this is fucking dangerous, man. Yeah. Because if they get a real grip on social media and you no longer can protest about things and express yourself about things, including a lot of things that happen to be true, like during the COVID crisis, people are getting their accounts banned for posting factual information.

1:53:07Yeah. Yeah. That was scary to me because that's very, very un -American. You have to be okay with that for all the good and the bad that comes with it. You just have to. You have to be okay with people saying things you don't like. It's going to come with a lot of good and a lot of bad, but you have to be okay with it. Because when it's your turn at play, like you're going to want to be, you're going to want to have your opinion respected too. 100%. And that's what people have to realize when it's so easy, when, like, especially in this country, all tech is primarily left. And they have a very strong ideology, this very progressive left -wing ideology, which is like all over the tech world.

1:53:43And when they were in control and they were silencing things, I think the attitude was, this is good because we're right. And we need to stop these fascists or whatever you want to call them. But the problem is then, what if the fucking right gets in place and they use the same rules that you used on them? Now we don't have a country anymore. Now we're fucked. Now we're just like every other dictatorship. I don't really know how you solve it. I've kind of thought about like how to like get to a place where there can be world peace and all of that stuff. I don't know. I think that a lot of people, I know you've talked about it a lot.

1:54:14They get really attached to the egos and the identities that exist inside them. And then they see the world from only that perspective. That's why I think that like a lot of the old religions and the old, like, echo through time, ways of being are to, you know, destroy your ego, eliminate yourself, be like this watcher of your thoughts and all of that stuff. And then start to identify with the watcher of what you think that you really are. And then once you spend enough time doing that, you'll spend enough time realizing that everyone else has that watcher inside them. And maybe they don't realize it yet, but they're still really connected to their egos that are really just a bunch of ideas that were indoctrinated to them based off of our environment or who we grew up with and all of that stuff.

1:54:57And then you can start to love people a little bit more. Absolutely. It's kind of a shame that I just know that that's not super big in the West, that idea. It's kind of an Eastern philosophy, you know, like, we just meditate here. That's just such a like a bitch ass way to think about doing it. Like what you're doing is you're settling in to be unable to watch what you think you really are and be like, hey, if I don't want to be that anymore, I don't have to be that. Or if that doesn't serve me anymore, I don't have to be that. This is one thing that I walk through a lot of my guys with in fighting is it's like, you want to not be scared of something, don't desire anything.

1:55:37And don't be anything if you don't want to be scared because fighting fearless is a really big thing. I think that I do a really good job of performing really well because I'm not scared of a lot of things because I don't have a ton of egos inside of my brain as much anymore. I of course do because we all have to. But yeah, once you start spending a lot of time with that watcher, I think that that's kind of why it always ends on the idea of love being the answer is because once you spend time disconnecting from what we think we are, you always end up in the spot where it's like, oh, that person's that.

1:56:10They just haven't figured it out yet either. And I love them for that still. And that acceptance and love is empowering both to you and to them. Whereas like hate of other people. I mean, it might motivate you in some way, but it's also crippling. You know, what is that old expression that anger is the emotion that poisons the vessel that holds it? You know, this is your wasting energy, your wasting life and you're wasting your potential because you're thinking only in terms of negative all the time and negative is never constructive. You don't have to. You don't have to think like that to be successful or to be competitive or in any way, you can be empty.

1:56:50Yeah, there's a lot of energies in life that will serve you, I think, up to a certain point. That just will stop serving you because it's just not a fuel that you can sustain for long enough, you know. Did you develop this philosophy from reading? Did you retaught it? Like how did you fuck load a mushroom? No, not a ton. Are you kidding? Not a ton. No, I think that's the answer when you were asking me. A little bit. What's the answer to world peace? It might be that. It might be because I mean, that definitely rips you out of your body and fucking scares the shit out of you sometimes. Humbles you.

1:57:24Yeah, it does. Yeah. No, it's a lot of reading. It's a lot of like, I've been fascinated by religion my entire life. I was raised pretty not like crazy, not like religious in like a dogmatic way, but religious in like a hey, think about these things type of way by my parents, which I'm really grateful because I developed a super healthy understanding of those types of ideas where they didn't feel like there was something I was latched on to as much as they were things to be explored. And so it kind of started when I was really young. I just been fascinated by the idea of God like in church when they're like, hey, you're going to burn in hell forever if you don't agree with this?

1:58:06That became number one priority from that day on, dude. I was like, hell, once I get understand. Hell and forever. I was like, that's a load of it. I was like, oh, okay. So nothing else matters in life. Like we got to figure this out right now. So that kind of took me on like a really religious thing. And then after I lost my first fight, that was my big first experience with facing an ego that I didn't have control over when I was your first loss. It was against a guy named Jamal Emmer's who's actually in the UFC now, but it was pretty much just I shit the bed and choked. I would have got signed to the UFC and I just choked and lost and I was supposed to in my head and based off of what everyone around me was telling me I was supposed to be this like super big prospect guy blah, blah, blah.

1:58:54After I lost, I had to face that maybe that's not what I am. When you say choked, like what about your performance? Do you think went wrong? I just didn't show up like the way I mean, I was five and a half. I was still really new to the, you know, being a professional and being able to perform under high stakes. If I would have won, I think I for sure would have gotten signed to the UFC just because I had been training with TJ. My word was around them a lot. It was went back to when you didn't have to get signed by the contender or anything. They just would call you up on a day, but you kind of had to have a little bit of it in or be doing really well or something.

1:59:25So, yeah, so that was like my first big experience with that. I spent about that entire summer as much as I could in the mountains. I didn't even really train because I didn't even know if that's something that I wanted to continue doing just because losing hurt my heart so bad. How did you lose? Just a decision, dude. It wasn't even like Narlay. It was just like afterwards I was like, but I was supposed to win. So I got to work. It's like someone fucked up here, man. I was like, I was supposed to win that. And so it's just like, oh, so maybe this universe doesn't revolve around me and like my ideas and who I think I am and all of that stuff.

2:00:04And then so I spent a lot of time in nature, read a lot of books like Power Now, a lot of Buddhist stuff, a lot of Tiktok Han stuff, a lot of just spirituality books, but just the overarching idea of separating yourself from your thoughts and your body and all of that stuff and just whether it's in our imagination or not because I'm still not fully bought into any of that stuff. Like I don't have any beliefs is what I say now. But I'm willing to entertain a lot of stuff. And I want to believe something really bad because it would make life a lot easier to like navigate through. That's so exactly the same way.

2:00:37Dude, it'd be so much easier if I was just said. Someone come up with a great call. Yeah, do come up with a really great call. I'll join. I'll come up with one. If you fucking like have like a really benevolent leader that really is an actual real guru and it makes sense and no one's fucking everybody. I was gonna say, are we allowing everyone to have sex with each other? No. Well, it's not. It's just a little burger. That might be a little burger. Yeah, leader gets to fuck everything. The leader gets to fuck everybody and he wants your money. Yeah. Yeah. But if that could be avoided. But it would just make things easier but it really wouldn't.

2:01:09Or you're better off without a real belief system but sort of entertaining a lot of belief systems. I kind of land on this idea of, so I've been trying to write a comic book for the last couple of years. Really? Yeah, I know writing is a little gay or whatever but that's why I spend a lot of my gay. And it's gay to some people. But it's like poetry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're afraid of writing, you're gay. So I spend a lot of time writing and it's like what I do with my free time instead of golf in. But I think what kind of write, like how do you write? Well, for the last couple of years it's been trying to write a pretty in depth comic book which has been really fun.

2:01:45Are you comic book fan? I'm a comic book fan but honestly dude, how it happened is I was like I wanted to come up with this really cool story. I'm just an idea machine. Like I just think of ideas all day. Like I don't have many hobbies. I think it's super fun just me hanging out with me inside my head all day. So I, yeah I came up with this really cool idea which is essentially like a bunch of ideas from a bunch of religions that I really like and then putting them into a story. And the story is okay, we got some time for me to explain this. Sure. Okay, I think it's pretty interesting. But I haven't really like broken it down from start to finish really.

2:02:24But I got into writing just because I wanted to make this story of mine. Oh, that's what you asked me. Is it in my into comic books? I tried writing a sentence. Like it started out in the August 5th of 2th and I was like, fuck this dude, we're doing a comic. I can't write sentences. I was like, and I read good books. So I like know what a good sentence is and I was like, oh no, that's good. Take away too long. We're doing only dialogue and pictures. And so that's why I started doing comic books. Although I do really like comic books too. But yeah, so it's kind of this, it's like a compilation of a lot of ideas that I like about religion inside of this world that exists today.

2:03:09I actually put a conversation between you and Duncan, Duncan Trussell in it. I'm not, I'm not going to do anything with the comic book. So it's really fun like to know that I just have fun doing it. Like I'm not. You don't plan on publishing it? Maybe, but I think honestly, it would take like another two, three years for it to be super solid enough for me to want to put out there. But there's a dialogue between you and Duncan Trussell. I really love Duncan Trussell. He's one of my favorite people at all time. I got to meet him at the comedy works in Denver pretty recently. He's the best. Yeah, he's really cool.

2:03:41I love that guy. But pretty much it takes place where this guy goes to the garden of Eden that's being protected by these tribespeople. And inside of the garden of Eden are these trees called calles where when you eat the fruit of them or you eat the crystals of them, you get teleported to a place where the sixth lives. And the sixth is like the God of our universe. The world takes place in densities which are pretty much our chakras. So there's seven of them. The first density, second density, third density, which is what we are as humans. The fourth are aliens. Where like we're humans that have merged with the technologies that we've created.

2:04:27It takes place about 20 or 30 years in the future where AI is a real like actual fucking player in the game, you know. Fourth is aliens. Fifth is like psychedelic creatures, slash angels, slash all of that stuff. Six is the gods of the universe. Seventh is the all. It's just like love. It's everything. And so heavy comic book, man. Yeah, it's pretty in depth, dude. I mean, it's not like simple shit. It's not like fucking some guy goes and saves the world. It's like a pretty, the lore of it is pretty cool, I think. So you go through each density. Our souls do for billions and trillions and however whatever past whatever's past trillions of lifetimes.

2:05:11And you spend time in those densities learning what it is to learn in those densities. So right now in the third density because it's the power chakra of life, what we're trying to do is discover that the positive path of love is what we're really shooting for instead of the negative one. And what that means is the positive path is we're doing things in service of others instead of in service of self. So we're choosing love of others over love of self because love isn't like an emotion in the book. It's like a structural building of the world where everything is love. It's this all. It's this.

2:05:52It's not like Disney shit. It's like a structural way of building the universe. So choosing to be in love of others is what we're doing. But earth is in its late third density, getting ready to move into its fourth density. And the scientists who interacts with this tribe takes a seed from the Kali and grows them and makes it so that the entire world can take this fruit and then interact with God. And then what it would be like in this world today if we were actually able to sit in front of God and ask God questions. And that's kind of the basis of the book. Wow. It's pretty cool. Yeah, there's a lot of them.

2:06:33You're doing the illustrations. Now I call the guy about doing the illustration. I might wait till AI gets good enough because when I got, yeah, which we're pretty close, I fuck around with AI a lot too. But we're pretty close to, I think, getting there with like some apps where you can have consistent characters because it's hard to do stuff because you can't make the character super consistent. But I think we're like a year or two away from being able to do that. I mean, even a year or two away. Yeah, maybe not. I think we're in this very bizarre stage right now where I don't think people realize what's coming.

2:07:02And I think it's going to hit us like a fucking freight train. So I know everyone has like a thousand stories, there's like a thousand stories about AI taking over and all of this stuff. In my book, sorry, this is okay. Yeah. Yeah, okay, cool. I just know it's long. And sometimes I lose track of time. Okay, cool. Um, the AI in this story is the way that we get moved into the fourth density. And the way that we get moved into the fourth density is when we merge with the nanotechnology that merges with like the AI supercomputer called oblivion, which is pretty much just a hive mind. Once we all get merged with that, we either based off of our polarity or our like frequency or whatever that tells us if we're positive or negative.

2:07:52If we go negative, then we pretty much just extinguish each other because all we care about is love for self. And we like kill each other. It doesn't say exactly how, but you can use your imagination. And in the positive way, we move together in this hive mind into being aliens essentially where we live millions and trillions of lifetimes as aliens until we can enter into the fifth, which then we become psychedelic creatures and all of that stuff or angels or whatever. And that's like a non physical realm at that point. But yeah, that's pretty much the idea behind the whole book. It might be actually what really does happen.

2:08:29It's kind of like a positive spin off of it. Well, the best case scenario is we evolve and we merge with AI and we evolve and it's better for everybody. And we become something superior to what we are now. Worst case scenario is we become irrelevant because they don't need us anymore. Yeah. We're outdated. I still think it will still have to be partly us because it was created by us. Like in like a parallel universe where we are not like say we're fucking lizard people in another universe, we see things differently. Our priorities and values are different. We would make a completely different set of AI.

2:09:07Like there's no way that AI is just this thing that isn't connected to humans in some way. So hopefully it's connected to the good parts of us as humans, which is like compassion, love, caring for each other and not like a lizard reptilian. Like, hey, let's just, we got to maximizing capitalism and all of that stuff, you know what I mean? So that's a lot of what the book is about too is it's just about like, hey, maybe it won't be so bad. Like maybe this thing will have more human traits than, or maybe we're more awesome than what we actually think, you know? I think the hive mind thing is promising because and I have a feeling that that's where we're headed.

2:09:47I have a feeling that if with either some wearable or some sort of technology with an implant where we no longer require language to communicate with each other and we essentially have instantaneous access to everyone all the time. And the thing that people are going to have to deal with is that there's going to be no more secrets. There'll be no more lies. There'll be, it's going to be impossible to see if everyone's going to know exactly what's going on in your soul, like how you interface with the world itself. That's cool. I think that's probably where we're headed. I think if we don't we're going to, we're going to become obsolete.

2:10:22I think it's one of two things. Either we come obsolete and AI becomes a new digital form of life that's far more intelligent, far more capable than we are and then it makes better and better versions of itself until it makes God. Or we merge and we just transcend whatever this state of being these primitive territorial apes with very sophisticated weapons, we become something different. If I did have beliefs, I would like to believe that it is going towards a God or something or there is like some point to all of the like hard times that we have in life and we're actually progressing, whether it be through many lifetimes or in other universes or dimensions or whatever.

2:11:07Something inside of us that isn't human but is maybe a watcher or something is progressing towards something great and loving and more beautiful than what we got going on here on earth. If that is true, then AI will probably be pretty awesome. If that is true. Well, that's best case scenario, right? I think it's also very strange that we are in this position. It's very strange that we are living our lives at this unbelievable, unique moment in history where things are going to change in this undeniably radical way. Unless something happens, unless we blow ourselves up or we get hit by an asteroid, it's going to happen and it's going to happen probably within the next 10 years.

2:11:51Like 10 years from now, we're going to be looking back. Remember the old days of 2025? I didn't know what was coming. I know. I want to be like, hey, you're overexaggerating that. But dude, if you think about the world five years ago, it was completely different. It's just a venture of AI. AI wasn't a few years. Yeah, just a few years. We're all like bunker down in our house and ship five years ago. Even the UFC five years ago was crazy. Like life, like I only get to view life through the lens of my job and my love, which is through fighting, which is cool because it helps me understand the macro picture a little bit better.

2:12:25But yeah, man, I mean, like even just five years ago, how different the UFC was, like, life is going to be really weird in 10 years. Yeah, the whole world is going to be really weird. And you know, one of the things that always freaks me out about Elon and Neuralink is one of the statements that he said, you're going to be able to talk without using words. I don't know how that would work. Well, the hive mind. Yeah. We're going to be able to interact with each other. But do we just feel each other's feelings then? Probably. Yeah. Yeah. Or that would be good, maybe. Yeah. That would be good. If it's like, if I don't have like a filter of feeling something, my brain making it into words and then spitting it out, and it was just, I have this feeling and you feel that thing, that might be a really great thing.

2:13:09I've often thought about the parallels of religion with what's currently going on. And one of them being like Christ was born of a virgin mother, right? So Christ was born without sex and emerged. Like, what else is born without a mother? What? AI. AI is born without a mother. AI. Christ is going to come back. AI is coming. Another one is the tower of Babel. Right. Did you come up with that image? That's fucking awesome. Right? It seems like it. That's awesome. Right? If you think that God is going to turn, well, wouldn't it be? Yeah. The completely makes sense. That's awesome. The other one is the tower of Babel.

2:13:48Right? So we, if we all have a universal language and we are working on this fucking tower to get closer to God. To go to the stairway to God. And it's, do it right and you make it there. Do it wrong and it becomes completely chaotic and divided and you're scattered across the world with a thousand different fucking languages and nobody can communicate with each other. So nobody understands each other and it's just chaos, which is what happened to the human race. If we develop a universal language and if this universal language is transmitted through whether it's this implant or wearable, some sort of interface with technology, then we bypass.

2:14:28We bypass this primitive state of chaotic tribal monkeys and we become something superior. Yep. That's awesome. Yeah. The tower of Babel was initially in my story because I've loved that idea for a really long time, which is essentially it's just like a symbol for like, hey, if we all work together, we can actually do this thing, which is kind of the main idea that I got from it. Yeah, dude, that's a, that's a cool ass idea about AI. I'm going to put that in my book. I'm still that idea. Still it. Yeah. If you think about it, what, what, what is AI going to be? Well, if super intelligence gets achieved and then you're attaching that to quantum computing, right?

2:15:08So quantum computing right now is only able to just like do integers and, you know, do equations. But what if quantum computing and AI merge? Then you've got some insane amount of computational power attached to an insane intelligence that is going to make better and better versions of itself. Well, if you scale that up exponentially, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 1000 years, you keep going. You get a God. Yeah. I mean, imagine, I mean, quantum, imagine too, I mean, who knows? Like if we want to go real sci -fi with the idea, like quantum particles communicate to each other. So maybe they'll be able to communicate with the ones there and other dimensions.

2:15:51And that's how we're able to communicate with other dimensions or whatever. Well, that's the freakyest concept about quantum computing when they said that the way it works is so confusing and it's so powerful that they think it might be evidence of the multiverse. Yeah. Now, I talked to Roman Jempelski, who is a scientist who talks about the dangers of AI and he thought that that was all nonsense. He might be right. But maybe there's a lot of scientists that believe that it's correct and that this is why quantum computing is so powerful. Because Mark Andreessen said this and it's the fucking craziest quote ever, that quantum computing, it can solve an equation that if you converted the entire universe, like every molecule, every atom of the universe into a supercomputer, it would take so long for the universe as a supercomputer to solve this problem that the universe would die of heat death before it solved it and quantum computing can solve it in minutes.

2:16:48Yeah, I've seen that Instagram reel. Like what the fuck does that mean? Essentially what we would be doing, I bet you when they were trying to invent electricity, they didn't know that it would be this. And maybe that's what we're in the middle of except like times a thousand billion where it's like, oh, because I always think I'm like, we're only looking through the lens of the future through all of the inventions that we have now. What if we invented something that was like electricity or quantum computing or quantum communication or like if you can change things at a quantum level, like maybe I can turn this thing into the hardest steel metal in the entire world.

2:17:30And then that just completely changes the board game that we're even playing. Like we're not even playing the same board game anymore. So it's like, I don't know, anytime anyone says nothing's possible, I'm like, you sure? Because if we just change the board game, it can get pretty crazy. You can't say nothing's possible because everything that we have today is impossible 200 years ago. Yeah, you're a sorcerer if you go back to the 1400s and show them an iPhone. You know, like there's none of it makes any sense. The fact that you could FaceTime someone in New Zealand right now. That's bananas.

2:18:02All that stuff is fucking completely insane and it's real and it's happening right now. And the other thing about AI being if artificial super intelligence creates something that we can't even imagine. Like we're just dealing with this framework, this structure that's so antiquated because it's all been created by humans. If you get something that's a thousand, 10 ,000 times more intelligent than us, and it's going to have solutions to things that we can't even comprehend. Yeah. Yeah, it's freaky shit. You get real weird. You know, one of the things that always weirded me out about these stories about UFO encounters and in particular, the Bob Lazar story is that when he was working on back engineering, these crafts that were supposedly from somewhere else, one of the things that he said is there's no controls.

2:18:50There's no controls in this thing. Like they don't know what is happening between these beings and this craft that they power it, but they're probably completely connected to this thing. They're probably like what you're seeing with those little grays is probably us in the future. That's probably what every primate eventually becomes once it integrates with technology. It would be really cool if that's like you said, what the religions we're talking about to. Like to me, the science shit is all cool and stuff, but I also like the idea of like intertwining like science modern ideas with really traditional ideas.

2:19:27It would be super cool if it was something where it's like, hey, like once we reach this certain of technological advancement, there is a spiritual religious side to the thing that we also make discoveries in too. That would be cool. It would be cool to have a belief. Yeah. Well, you know, if artificial super intelligence does become live, all belief systems are going to get thrown into the woodchipper. We're not going to know what the fuck is what unless it tells us. Yeah, I mean, yeah, but I have a feeling that a lot of these stories, like these ancient religious stories, they're based on truth.

2:20:01It's just truth that was a spoken word thing by people who really couldn't even read because they were illiterate and that they had these tales that were they're told for a thousand years for anybody wrote them down. They're writing them down in these ancient languages that even when you take those ancient languages and you try to translate into like modern English a lot is lost in the translation. But I think there's something to all of it. And there's something they're trying, they don't, they're not telling stories for no reason. They're, I think they're telling these stories because they're trying to document something.

2:20:35And I just don't think we get a full picture of it, but there's so much truth in those stories. And there's so many lessons in those stories that are applicable and that resonate today. I think it'd be foolish to dismiss them. Definitely. I mean, Carl Young harps on that a lot with their collective unconscious stuff. Do you know Joseph Campbell? Do you follow that guy? I love Joseph Campbell. Oh, it's amazing. I got super into Joseph Campbell around that time when I was kind of doing the whole figuring myself out part after losing. I mean, the idea that there's pretty much a blueprint to all of the stories that are across civilization is crazy.

2:21:17It's like the pyramids being everywhere. Like, it's just naturally ingrained to us four stories to be like, superhero gets called to action, finds a guy, beats monster, beats mega, big monster, returns back home. Like, that's like the blueprint to a lot of stories. I think it just goes underneath the rug because we're just so used to all of the stories being like that. I've messed around, like I said, like I spend a lot of time in my head. I don't really like talk a ton. I kind of just, but I've done the whole like hero's journey thing in my head during the Joseph Campbell time. I can share it with you.

2:21:53It's kind of fun. Sure. Okay. I just come up with stories and shit in my head, but anyway, so I did my own hero's journey during that time when I was trying to eliminate all of the egos inside of me. And the easiest way to identify one of your egos is to ask yourself, what is it that you feel like you desire? You know, that's why I think in Buddhist philosophy and all of that stuff, it's always like let go of attachments, let go of your desires and that will lead. Like just good shit will happen if you do that. And I was like, okay, cool. I'll buy into that a little bit. So I tried to identify all of these egos that were inside of me.

2:22:30I even went as far as naming all of them and giving them characteristics and personalities. Like when I would notice an angry person inside of me, I would just name it Samson, give it a tiger's face and like just treat it as a completely separate imaginative piece of my psyche that I no longer wanted to be attached with anymore. Which is an idea that I came up with myself at the time, but it's an old idea. There's a really good book called Taming Your Gremlins if anyone wants to look into that idea more. That guy does a really good job of doing that. So anyways, I started going through like my heroes' journey and I spend a lot of time like meditating a decent amount, but not just like normal meditating, like fucking around in my own head type of meditating and just seeing what type of unconscious things are kind of below the surface of my everyday like, quarry me.

2:23:23And so I'm walking myself through like, okay, what are all of these things inside me or what are these desires that are inside me? I would name them, I would turn them into a monster and I would kill the monster. And then at the very end of this story and I'm like crying during this process when I was doing it or whatever, in the hero's journey a lot of the time you have a mentor, like a Yoda. You have this thing that kind of guides you through how to defeat all these monsters and all of it. So I get to the end of my story and one part that they never really bring up in heroic stories is the return back home, which is a really big deal.

2:24:02Like you've just eliminated all of this stuff and you got to return back home. So I'm getting ready to return back home and my mentor at the time because I did grow up really religious. It was Jesus at the time where like Jesus was my home at the time, you know, he was like this guy. And so we get done defeating all of these monsters and we're sitting at the cliff and it's like, okay, time to go home. And he's like, amen, like you got one more monster to defeat. And I was like, well, what is it? And he was like me. And I was like, what are you talking about? And he was like, man, like on the last thing that you're attached to, like in order for you to continue on on the thing that you got to defeat.

2:24:40And I was like, well, what is that mean? I'm not about to stab you, bro. And he was like, you have to push me. And I was like, push you off the cliff. He was like, you have to let go of me the same way that you let go of all of your other desires and fears and things inside of you too if you really want to do it. And so I'm like, ball and crying because that's that was like a big like that was a big thing. So I do it. And Jesus falls, but then he grows wings, flies away and says to me, now you can be like me. And then just flies off into the whatever. And then I return back home. And I just remember that being a really big moment for me in my I don't like to use the word spiritual because it sounds stupid.

2:25:24But that was like a big deal for me in my development as a person because it really like made me understand. And they weren't things that I was planning out. They were just unconscious things that were hitting me like over and over and over again. I found that through hypnosis and through like trying to see what's underneath things. You can't talk to it. You can't tell it what to do. You can't control your unconscious. You just have to watch what's underneath there. So it's just like a thing where it's like, now I get to be like you. It was like a really cool thing that just like popped into my head.

2:25:55And I was like, well, shit, that's cool. That is cool. Yeah, I do a lot of crazy shit inside of my own head. I guess probably makes me sound maybe a little bit weird, but that's kind of where it's good. It's me. Yeah, where it is good. What was it like returning to fighting after this, like trying to find yourself period? Yeah. I remember I was folding laundry and they asked me to fight this guy Tahinyo Galval on four weeks notice for LFA. And Tahinyo Galval is fucking savage at the time. Still, still I think is doing pretty well, but literally every YouTube video I could find of him was just knocking people out.

2:26:32He was like six and oh or something and just murdering people, Brazilian guy. And I was like, I don't think that's a good idea. Like, I just lost. I don't really want to lose again. And I remember going back and forth with myself big time. And as I was folding laundry, I kind of got hit with another bit of wisdom that came from wherever, not for myself came from wherever. And in this bit of wisdom, it told me, man, I gave you this life for you to make it up yourself, quit asking me to make decisions for you. And so I was like, all right, fucking, I'll do it. You know, I'll do it. And a big piece of me going through that whole thing and what I learned a lot about it was love of fighting isn't really love of anything.

2:27:18I don't think is like Disney shit. It's like a mega commitment to something that you want to achieve. And it works like a marriage more like a marriage less than like a romantic like, hey, this is a fling. Like, it's like, hey, man, I might not like you every day, you know, but I'm going to commit myself to you and I'm going to do this thing. And it helped me really wrap my head around what kind of true love is because I feel like that's what true love is. And if you want to love this sport and you want to say you love this sport, you got to love it on the months, days, it might last years that you really don't like it.

2:27:52And just trust that on the other end of it is like a good experience. There's a payoff. Yeah. It's a process. Yeah. So how was the fight? It was good. I knocked him out in the first round. Fucking crushed it. Wasn't scared at all going in. Really? Oh, yeah. I don't get scared much like when I'm actually fighting in that mode of like fight or flight, but I've already chosen fight. Like, I'm good. You know, I don't really get too scared going into fights hardly ever. I get scared leading up to things. But in the actual fight itself, like I'm on the goddamn incredible Hulk, you know, you can't convince me otherwise in those moments.

2:28:28Well, I remember one time we talked and you said that you'd made this adjustment in your head from trying to fight and win to really trying to hurt people. These are you still on that same? No, no, not as much. I got a little bit older. One, I think, is a contributor to it. Two is that wasn't a fuel that I could hold on to for super long. It was like angry fuel. Doesn't really like work. It's not super sustainable. I also found two that being that way got distracting to me being able to do what I was trying to do. So any thought can be distracting when you're fighting as you know, like even like silly ones or whatever.

2:29:09But if I'm being too aggro and two, I got to hurt the sky. I got to hurt the sky. That was good for me to learn because I got to learn the all of the different aspects of what it means to be a fighter before that I was really zen peaceful, like whatever happens happens. I'm going to do my best, you know. And then I went way on the other side of the spectrum where it's like, I'm fucking killing people and that's what I'm doing now. To now kind of somewhere a little bit in between where for me now, all of it is about focus in doing the correct thing at the correct time. I think that where I am today as a fighter is very focused on just exactly what I said where what do I need to do right now in order to win and I don't make it angry.

2:29:54I don't make it motivated by anything else. It's just no, this is like the laser focused in doing the right thing. And that's what I found recently has been the most helpful thing. Just a zen state of just existing in whatever comes whatever you're supposed to be doing. You do that. Kind of, but I know where I'm supposed to be now a little bit to like intensity wise. Before I feel like I got like some like super power that I like didn't really know how to control very much. Now I feel like I have harnessed it and I know how to control a little lot better to where it's like, okay, a 10 is too much.

2:30:29Like right now we got to be a 7. We're in the locker room. We're about to walk out. Let's maybe be at a 8 or a 9 right now and we'll be there for the fight. Instead of just 10 hurt the guy. Michael Jordan had a really good quote where he was either Michael or Kobe, but he was they said they never play a game at more than 80%. And I think that that's kind of a cool way to look at it. And that doesn't mean your effort. I think it means your intensity level. You can't think at a 10 sometimes. It gets distracting to burn all of that like angry energy. It's just it's just not sustainable, you know, so.

2:31:06So you're in a position right now where you're next in line. And when you look at Marab, he presents so many unique challenges. Like this is a he's a there's a few guys that are very skillful, but they also have unique physicality. And that's Marab. So like when when you see that fight, first of all, have they given you a date? They haven't there. I think it's one. I mean, that stuff takes a little bit. They told me November, December is when I'm looking for five minutes to screw garden. Yeah, maybe, which I was a little bit against too because I hate the New York State tax thing. But but also at the same time, I was in New York recently.

2:31:47And I was like, oh, shit, it'd be cool to win it in one of the like coolest. Yeah. And if you won the world title in Madison Square Garden, that means a lot. Yeah, it would mean a lot. There's something about Madison Square Garden. Like when you're in the building, you like man, a lot of shit has gone down. It's it's huge. It kind of feels like a gladiator play. It's because it's just huge. Like the floor part is huge, you know, it just feels different. I did stand up there and just being there and walking out to this enormous crowd of masses. I was like, whoa, cool. This is the fucking garden in the center of it.

2:32:22Yeah, in the round. Oh, you did it. Oh, so you were like looking in 300 and 60 degrees. Did you like that? My favorite way. Yeah. Because it's oddly intimate. So even though there's 16 ,000 people, the people on this side are seeing the people laugh on this side. Everyone's seeing everyone laugh and you just walking around in a circle. Oh, cool. It's it's oddly intimate for 16 ,000 people. It's my favorite way to do arenas. I was always really curious because I've seen stand -ups like that. And I was like, I wonder if that's distracting for them to have to. Yeah. It's the most fun. It's I thought it would be distracting too because I've done arenas where you're on stage facing the crowd and it feels oddly impersonal.

2:33:01It's like you're just doing a show for this massive amount of people. It's fun. But that I kind of preferred clubs. But a giant arena in the round seems like a giant club. It really does. It's like, but there's some there's a lot of doing it in Boston was huge because like I did the TD Garden because that was like where I grew up and that's where I started doing stand -up. But there's something about Madison Square Garden for fights where when you go there, it's like there's an extra tingle in the arena like, whoo, boys, we're at the garden. Cool. Yeah. So you fighting Marab at the garden would be fucking insane.

2:33:39Yeah, it'd be crazy. Yeah. Yeah. You think about him. What do you think about this matchup? Like, how do you approach it? I think he has some obviously really good physical traits that make him like his conditioning is a superpower that other people don't get to have. And that's unique to him and he's made a way to weaponize that in a really smart way. Every time I like kind of too technically breakdown things, I feel like I'm trying to be really convincing instead of just believing in it, which has always kind of been a big problem of mine in the past has always been I need evidence in order to believe in something which kind of just and like with that in like fighting for a world champion, what am I going to just walk in and be like, well, I've been a world champion before.

2:34:26So I could do it now like I don't get that luxury of doing that to be a world champion. So recently I've had this realization of belief in self that Trevor and Carrington banks have both helped instill in me big time where I feel like approaching Marab is going to be unique in its own, but I don't need to tailor what it is that I'm doing too much to Marab. I've really bought into this idea where if I can go out and be the best martial artist that there is in all areas be able to wrestle with them be able to strike with them be able to grapple with him. If I can go out and trust and be that I can do it against Umar I did not as good of a job with that I treated him like I had to change in order for me to be able to beat him against Marab I'm not going to do that.

2:35:21I think Marab also has this narrative buzz around him where he's an unbeatable force of freak of nature who has conditioning out of whatever and while that is true to an extent that doesn't mean anything to the fact that the guy can't be beaten. If I look at myself as a fighter and break myself down technically I would say I'm somewhere between Umar and Sean in the task that he'll have in front of him. I think I know that I wrestle a lot better than Sean does although Sean does have really good take down defense his process of getting up is just like a little dated and pretty slow like you're going to lose some minutes doing it the way that Umar Lee does it.

2:36:06I think that I get up super good. Ben Tall and Lanky it's really hard to not let short little guys get underneath you like that shit's going to happen especially if they're springy and fast in our weight class like they're going to you just have to be able to pop right back up immediately which I know that I can do because I fought Umar who's easily one of the best wrestlers in the UFC and I was able to do that whenever I wanted um so that brings me a lot of confidence about that so I get to fight Marab with a lot of confidence going into it about that um on the striking end of things I'm obviously I think a way better striker than Marab is even though he does make his shit work the way that he makes his shit work um but I'm honestly not going to read too much into it man I'm going to keep worrying about getting better every single day um all the way leading up to the fight and I'm going to make Marab deal with me instead of me having to deal with Marab do you have to do anything different to deal with that endurance?

2:37:02I mean man I feel like I try to go in as every time I feel like there is a uh there's like a unique thing that you need to big time prepare for um I go in shape as best as I physically, humanly and capable of in every single fight that I go into as long as I'm not hurt or on antibiotics and bullshit like that um so I already do that kind of so I'm not going to kind of overthink that piece uh I might run a little bit more I hear Marab runs so maybe I'll run a little bit more uh um but no outside that I'll I'll make sure that my legs are really conditioned um that was a big one going against Umar obviously make sure that I'm conditioned enough to be able to get my ass back up every single time which is its own special like wrestling conditioning is a much different type of conditioning than striking um so just make sure that I'm fully wrestling conditioned for that fight and then one of the harder pieces for people in the sport is to wrestle then be able to strike like how they normally do um so just being uh just being conditioned to do that too well I'm pumped for it I can't wait to watch I think you're one of the more exciting guys in the sport and one of the more interesting guys in the sport uh I love listening to thought processes thanks very cool cool thanks thanks for being here man appreciate you very much oh yeah and uh again I can't wait cool I'm looking forward to it thanks to everything yep pleasure all right bye everybody yeah key and I was able to do that whenever I wanted um so that brings me a lot of confidence about that so I get to fight marab with a lot of confidence going into it about that um on the striking end of things I'm obviously I think a way better striker than marab is even though he does make his shit work the way that he makes his shit work um but I'm honestly not going to read too much into it man I'm going to keep worrying about getting better every single day um all the way leading up to the fight and I'm going to make marab deal with me instead of me having to deal with marab do you have to do anything different to deal with that endurance I mean man I feel like I try to go in as every time I feel like there is a there's like a unique thing that you need to big time prepare for um I go in shape as best as I physically humanly and capable of in every single fight that I go into as long as I'm not heard or on antibiotics and and bullshit like that um so I already do that kind of so I'm not going to kind of overthink that piece uh I might run a little bit more I hear um but no outside that I'll I'll make sure that my legs are really conditioned um that was a big one going against humour obviously make sure that I'm conditioned enough to be able to get my ass back up every single time which is its own special like wrestling conditioning is a much different type of conditioning and striking um so just make sure that I'm fully wrestling conditioned for that fight and then one of the harder pieces for people in the sport is to wrestle then be able to strike like how they normally do um so just being uh just being conditioned to do that too well I'm pumped for it I can't wait to watch I think you're one of the more exciting guys in the sport and one of the more interesting guys in the sport I love listening to your thought processes very cool cool thanks for being here man appreciate you very much oh yeah and uh again I can't cool I'm looking forward to it thanks to everything thanks very I think yeah pleasure all right bye everybody