JRE MMA Show #184 with Aljamain Sterling

26:42All your ships could fly to different parts of the country, but that would be your base. The mothership would be the base. I'm like, ooh, that's perfect. That's pretty cool. Plus, obviously, I'm obsessed with aliens. That's what I thought it was. Of course. Yeah, I mean, I'm obsessed for whatever reason. Which one? Dark or light? What's the difference? So this one's our limited edition. It's got the number one on it. We're going to be coming out with some different ones. We're actually going through a rebrand right now. This one's aged two to five years, but they're all Jamaican origin. This one's aged under the tropical sun.

27:11Unaged is a silver. Well, bust out that aged under the tropical sun shit. And this one we use ex-Bourbon Cass. So it drinks really nice if you like bourbon. Oh, okay. It's a little bit, it's like, I don't want to say sweet, but it's not as harsh when you drink it. Are you a rum guy? Is that your thing? Is that why you started a rump company? Yes. You've always been a rum guy? My parents are from Jamaica. My parents are from Italy, but I hate grappa. That shit's nasty. Grandpa's not That stuff's nasty I'm gonna take the big one Alright, cheers sir What do you guys say? Salute I thought you guys said something else in Italy I don't know I just got back I was just there last week Yeah Two weeks ago?

28:01Yeah, two weeks ago It's awesome, I love it there We still haven't gone, we wanna go so bad If you wanna eat, that's the place Pasta. I just hear everybody talking about it. I would love to do that. I gained three pounds. I ate nothing but carbs. I ate so much food. I ate, too. I was hurting every night. I was like, I'm going to ignore my diet completely. I worked out every day, but I was like, I'm going to ignore my diet completely and just eat for pleasure. But it's not as bad, though. It's not as bad for you. The food is not as bad. But calories are calories, though. It's just the volume. I'm a glutton.

28:38I ate two pizzas I ate linguine with clams I had burrata and tomatoes and I also had what else did I have? Oh, a bunch of pieces of bread I ate so much in one setting then I got home that night when we sat back and I was like I can't move I've eaten myself to a place where I'm like you ever see one of those lions that eats too much and they just lie like that's how i felt trust me that those were those were my 135 days as soon as the fight's over i'm going in right i remember one time i ran into you at the apex and i was like what do you weigh and you said 176 i was like that's crazy yeah you gotta lose 40 pounds that's crazy the fascinating part is when i went up to 45 i got down and i was lighter and my natural walking around weight still eating the same way I always did.

29:36And I was walking around about 168, sometimes 66, to about 172. And I'm like, this doesn't even make any sense, how much lighter I am from 135. Maybe it's just less anxiety about making the weight. That too. Your body didn't hold on to it as much. Yeah, so the body kind of just recognizes what's happening. Like, oh, this is a nicer weight cut. Yeah, you're healthy now. Yeah. Even though it's still a weight cut. I was going to say, but I just checked my weight last week. when I got, well, actually, two days ago when I got back from... Let me guess. You're at least 170. I'm heavier than that. 175?

30:12North. 80? I was 78. That's when I checked. And I didn't look fat. I was like, this is crazy. It's happening again. It's happening all over again. There's people that don't understand it. Like, I have to explain to my normie friends. They're like, how does he lose all that weight? He doesn't have anything to lose. I'm like, well, you're sucking your muscles dry. That's what's crazy. And your organs. That's what's really dark. Oh, it's dark, dude. It's dark. It's the worst part about fighting. I still think same-day weigh-ins. Well, same-day weigh-ins would change a lot, but also guys would get really hurt because people are still going to lose the weight.

30:49They're still going to do it. But I think that's going to be like a phase. Like people are going to realize how stupid this is. They go, oh, I actually feel better just competing at my weight. Perhaps. but I think you would have to have multiple weight classes added, many weight classes added. There's too many gaps that are too ridiculous. The 15-pound gap would be the most challenging from 55 to 70. What about 85 to 205? That's nuts. 85 to 205 is crazy. 20 pounds is crazy. I always thought there should be an in-between for that one. A hundred percent. There should be every 10 pounds. Every 10 pounds is smart.

31:24You know go 125 35 45 55 60 blow up in the ones that are you know like when you get to 70 make 70 75 You know 85 is already there make a 95 make a 205 and then it gets weird with heavyweight I think you might want to have like a bridger weight like a 220 225 and then giant fellas And then after that it should be as big as the fuck you want to be because that's the weird thing Heavy weight's limited. I remember Tim Sylvia, when Tim Sylvia was saucy. There was a time when Tim Sylvia was big. He was a big fella. And he was cutting weight to make 265, hardcore. He was barely making it. He was so big back then, man.

32:09He's a big man. He's gigantic. Yeah. And that was when he was fucking sick. And I remember watching him struggle to make the 265. I'm like, that's crazy. Why are you making the heavy weight to cut weight? That doesn't make any sense. It takes away from what heavyweight actually means. Yeah. The biggest, baddest motherfucker alive. Yeah. You know, when Mike Tyson was fucking everybody up, people weighed 220. I don't want to say small. Let me not say small. For heavyweight. For heavyweight, he was small. I mean, it doesn't matter. Kane, when Kane was fucking everybody up, he was 240. He was light, too.

32:40Yeah. Fedor, same thing. He was never real big. Fedor was fairly small compared to a lot of other heavyweights. But then you got a guy like Rosabellis Dispen. Oh, that guy's crazy. He's huge seven feet tall. He's gigantic huge that guy is that range is nuts He's like the the modern-day Neanderthal like he's a Amazonian He's a giant a literal giant. He's one of those guys where when I saw that fight that That MVP did with him and Junior Dos Santos. I said, please don't do that fight That that fights aren't right. That's that's one of those fights really tough. It's not right Yeah, this is just too much of a changing of the guard is one guy who is coming off of karate combat, first of all.

33:23One thing, if Junior was a wrestler, if Junior was a sick wrestler, and, you know, oh, maybe he's going to take him down, ground and pound. This is kind of, even though he's older, he's been knocked out a bunch of times, he's still very dangerous. But, you know, Junior had seen his best days back when he knocked out Kane, which was like, what year was that? 2016, 2015? Was it even? I got signed in 2014. I don't I remember Kane not Kane so it was the big it was the big Fox card it was the first card on Fox because I remember they made Kane fight with a blown out knee or they encouraged him to fight with a blown out knee Kane's knee was fucked before that fight and Junior caught him with that perfect right hand 2013 okay that's his debut?

34:13right no that's that fight that's the fight where he knocked out Kane Velasquez Oh, that's the second one. What's the one where he beat Kane? It was right before that. No, right before that. Oh, so he got signed before I did. Yeah, the Fox one. 2011. Okay, so 15 years of wars. Yeah. 15 years of the Steve Miochic fight, which was horrible to watch. Right? That was a brutal, brutal fight. And then you have the second Kane fight, which was horrible to watch. And then I think there was a third Kane fight, too, correct? JDS? Yes. Yeah. Which was also horrible to watch. Two tough fights back to back.

34:50Bro, if you don't take Kane out in that first round, that storm never ends. Yeah. Never ends. You're like, we're going to ride this storm out. No. There was no riding. Prime Kane was a motherfucker, dude. Man, I've always been conflicted with him in D.C. because it kind of reminded me of Marab and I. And I always said, like, if D.C. stayed at heavyweight, he could have arguably, potentially have been the greatest heavyweight of all time. But I do know D.C. always says in the training room, Kane was the man. He was the guy. Yeah, he told me always Kane beat his ass. D.C. should have been a middleweight.

35:31How about that? I don't know. That guy's making middleweight. Discipline D.C. Him and his chicken. If DC went to Dagestan for three years. He's not going to forget. Yeah. Forget three years. If DC made middleweight, and he could have made middleweight, a lot of guys who are way leaner than him have made that weight. So I saw him at my UFC debut, UFC 170, at Mandalay Bay in the back room, cutting weight, doing the workouts, and he looked like he was dying just to make 205. True. So I don't know how he would have done it. Well, he would have had to change his diet. No more papas. Yeah, no more nothing.

36:21No more garbage. I love DC too. He's my favorite person to do commentary with by far. He's the best. He's fun. We have such a good time. We have such a good time. He's such a fun dude. Like genuinely happy fun dude look at him that's 205 DC so 205 DC though You're telling me that like Alex Pereira if he was built like that couldn't lose 20 pounds. Of course he could Yeah, I don't know cuz he's not look if you see the guys that fight at 85 like Joe Pfeiffer Joe Pfeiffer is a giant Did your direct is trick is duplicy is a fucking giant. He's big. He's gigantic. He looks like a heavyweight But look at his rib cage.

36:59And he makes 85. What does that mean? He's sucking it in. He could have made middleweight. He could have made middleweight. If he had like the real, if he just had the drive and did it as a lifestyle change and like did it over the course of like a year and like really leaned himself out, got on like a ketogenic diet, leaned himself out. But then how often would he be able to fight? Depends on how much he actually gets his body weight down to. That's the thing. like dc's only like 5 11 5 10 how tall is he i'm gonna give him 5 11 maybe because i like him maybe i love him he might be might be 5 11 5 5 8 but there's guys with his body that could have but it's not like a thing where you you can make the weight by just dehydrating yourself no he's too big but if he had with his frame if he had slowly but surely leaned himself out and did it healthy smart over like the course of a year.

37:57He'd have to take some time off and really just dedicate himself to just getting lean. His gas tank would be better. Who's going to fuck with that guy at middleweight? Do you remember what he was doing to Dan Henderson? Do you remember that fight? He flipped him like a burger. Bro, he threw him around like a ragdoll. And Dan Henderson's a monster. He's a monster. That guy's a beast. He's such a tank. And DC just ragdolled him. Just ragdolled him. That was two of five, right? Mm-hmm. When Henderson came up. Mm-hmm. Henderson came out. Yeah, you know, because when I would cut down, and I wasn't always this big at 35, but when I would cut down to 35, I would have to do it in stages.

38:34So I couldn't do a three-month turnaround like I did for the one fight. How much time do you need? I needed four months is ideal. That's crazy. It's ideal. That's so long. Because I could slowly get down, and then I could start tripping away. Because I'm in my natural state. I'm fat and happy. And it's not even fat. I'm just at my normal walking weight. And then I get down from 70-whatever to 70. Then I get the next week or the week following, down to 65. After that, I get down to 60. And that's, like, the optimal weight I want to be at. And then I get to 55, and this is, like, where I'm going to be when I'm stepping into the octagon.

39:10So to do that over the periods of time, like, you could do it really quick because I have the wrestler's mentality. I can do it fast, but it doesn't mean everything is going to be where it should be. And I also felt my cardio in rounds four and five, in comparison to doing rounds four and five in the training room, severely different. My gas tank, you would think I was Marab. Right? And just for comparison's sake, right? And then I would go into the fights in rounds four and five. I'm like, I got to serve some energy because I'm slowing down. I can feel it. But I'm trying not to show it. Is there a difference between when you were allowed to use the IV and when they took the IVs away?

39:44I used the IV once. Only once? And that was in like 2015. I thought it was stupid. It took forever to get it. I'm like, I could have been eating right now, and I'm the same weight that I was when I just ate. I'd much rather just stuff my face. I think the idea is that it hydrates you more efficiently. Because instead of having to go through your stomach, it goes right into your veins, and then it hydrates your muscles more efficiently. I didn't really feel like a performance difference, if I'm being honest. Interesting. But I'm different. Some people call me an anomaly, and they say you can't do what I do.

40:16I drink in training camp and people think I'm crazy. Yeah. I drink the night before the fight. What? Yeah. Come on. I have one glass. Sometimes two. Really? Three is like we're getting crazy. The night before the fight? After you've cut weight? Yeah. Why do you do that? I'm not John Jones. That guy is built. I'm built different, but he's built different than me. Well, I think John is just so fucking talented and so fucking smart that he was able to get by and dominate at a world championship level by putting himself at a deficit like that. Whereas if John, you say that, but John's a different person.

40:54He wouldn't be the same guy. He's wild. There's something about John that's one of the reasons why he's so good is that he's wild. He's intelligent and wild at the same time. And that's why you can't compare. It's like whatever makes you happy. I remember Kyle Diggs said something like he'll eat ice cream, not right before a match, but in his training, he's like, because it makes him happy. I want to have a drink because throughout the training camp, I'm already going through this hard grind. After sparring, and I feel like I hit a threshold where my conditioning is at a place where I want it to be, it's like a checkpoint.

41:29I'm like, okay, this is my checkpoint. I hit it. Have you ever worn an aura ring or a whoop strap or any of those things? Yeah, that thing's stupid. They lie to you. That thing's attacking me every day. Because what it's saying is that the alcohol is affecting your sleep. Stop attacking me. Took that shit off and threw it in the corner somewhere. Fuck you with your facts. No, serious. Facts and data. I remember I brought out Adrian Giannis. I brought him out twice. The first time, though, it was for the P.O. Dejan rematch. And he stays at my house for about a week. We spar. I think it was a Thursday.

42:04I take him to Johnny McGorry's. And I bring him to my guy, Rishi. What's Johnny McGorry's? It's a pub on Long Island. in Massapequa. They got two now. But I bring him over there. And the guy I talked to over there who I deal with, Rishi, he's the man. He's good friends with Weidman and Vellante from the college days back at Hofstra. And he's a big MMA fan. So I love that. So instantly we kicked it off when I met him the first time. So I bring him over there. And it's after this part. I'm like, yeah, we're going to get some food. We go there. And then he sees me and I order a drink. And I was like, yeah, get one for him too.

42:36He was like, yo, bro, what are you doing? I was like, no, no, this is normal trust me he's like you he looks at me he's just like dumbfounded he's like you drink in training camp like it was the biggest like taboo thing on earth i'm like yeah dude like we just had some good rounds today this is my reward you deserve one too like you're in shape i'm in shape let's have one or two and uh and i always get my thai chili wings over there and so whenever i go in long island i'm finishing up a camp on the east coast i'm fighting home on the east coast Rishi always hit me up he goes we're gonna do the ritual get the Thai chili wings get my IPAs and yeah but like I said everyone's different whatever makes you feel comfortable if you're gonna do it you can't like for me like having a drink the night before the fight and people go like you're not worried it's gonna affect your performance and I go if I lose because of this one drink I wasn't supposed to win point blank period okay but let me let me push back on that Imagine you're fighting a guy who you and him are like that.

43:41Neck and neck. Neck and neck. Mozart? Neck and neck. Yeah, right? Neck and neck. And the difference is whether or not you got that extra REM sleep the night before. Where you could push when you lay off, when you lay back on the gas, when you really maybe could like, if you were a little bit more rested, you could just one extra move, one extra transition, one extra guard pass, one extra attempt at a submission. One extra thing that gets you the round. You know what I'm saying? I take my naps before the fight. I take my naps before the fight. Recharge that battery. Well, listen, Ilya Taborea used to drink wine at the weigh-ins.

44:21He was weighing in while he was cutting weight. He was drinking wine. It's no perfect formula, yeah. Yeah, there's no perfect formula. I mean, also, there's something to be said for doing what makes you happy. Always. I think enthusiasm is a very important thing. enthusiasm and joy is a very important thing. It's underrated. Yeah. So my friend, Dennis Buzukia, he just fought in the Albania card. Bad stoppage by the ref. And I like Jason Herzog, but bad stoppage. He said he tapped. He didn't tap. But I remember his second contender fight, he's cutting weight, and Morab is having a party at his house in Vegas.

44:56That tap, that was a weird one. That tap was weird. He went from locking his hands to finding his leg and pushing off the leg, and he ruled it as a tap. I just don't understand that tap. I go, Jason, I've trained with Jason. And I'm not attacking him because I don't want people to think, I don't like to attack people unless they really deserve it. But I go, if you're not sure, because he said he wasn't sure. He said it looked like a type. So I go, if you think it looked like it and you weren't sure, why not just wait? Because if it was, he would do it again. Yes. But his immediate action after pushing off the leg was to grab between his leg where you kind of lock your hand from the head and arm.

45:32To defend. I have the hardest time ever finishing Dennis, and I'm a pretty good black belt in jiu-jitsu, and that's a good position for me. And I struggle. I could count on my hands how many times I've probably finished him in that position. It's also the classic defense. You grab the leg, and that's the best way to prevent the guy from putting all the pressure on the neck, the head and arm. Do you ever go to—do you know what the impaler is? Eddie Bravo calls the impaler. to get out of that position you you slide the knee to the sternum and you finish with the knee on the sternum for the bottom guy for the top guy so when the guy's defending yes yeah you go knee to sternum it's fucking brutal man because now you're brutal you're being attacked on two different fronts uh-huh you're being crushed your sternum's being crushed and this defense does not work as good anymore it still gives you a little bit the the grabbing the leg and looping over like that gives you a little bit but there's something about that crushing on the sternum and along with the squeeze of the head and arm choke yeah it's nasty the difference with that i would imagine you at least when i've tried it i try to get it before they get on their side because once they're perpendicular with the ground it's a little bit hard to get the exact course pressure point of what you want and i go i try this literally the very next day and i go there's no way you could submit somebody with your ass in the air you're you could be squeezing as hard as you want but If your ass is in the air and this guy is on the side, it's going to be really difficult to make somebody tap in that position.

47:00Very hard. Depending upon your squeeze ability, right? That too. Did you see Amosov? When Amosov finished that dude, he did that thing. He's a nasty grappler. Bro. And it's crazy because he lost to Jason Jackson. And I'm not saying that as a slight. Bro, Jason Jackson's a beast. But it's just like, how good is Jason Jackson? Jason Jackson's real fucking good. And that's my Jamaican brother. He's not signed yet. Real good. He needs to be signed to the UFC 100. 100%. That guy could crack. And he took him out, man. He took him out. He didn't just beat him. Yeah. He took Amosav out. Cross promote?

47:32Well, that's not going to happen. I know Dana's not going to happen. I wish Santa Claus was real. But I was like, why don't we just find out who's, make it like boxing, you know, where we can find out who's actually. So look at this, how he finishes. DC and I were actually talking about this because he goes knee to the belly. See how he does that? Across. Now if you're grabbing the leg, so if he was grabbing his leg, you would go knee across the chest and you put it right down on the sternum But he did that to make sure he was flattened out. Yes to make sure that he couldn't go to the side, but this dude is so good wicked Joel's just looking like I can't do anything about that.

48:10Of course he can fucking Of course he can breakdance bro breakdancing is a great base for jiu-jitsu We had a bunch of guys Richie Martinez and Gio Martinez these guys that came into 10th planet way back in the early 2000s and um we were all like oh shit break dancing like we never even thought gymnastics everybody knew like a guy who could do gymnastics a guy who was like really good at tumbling that kind of explosive ability and balance and control and body strength totally translate to jiu-jitsu yeah but we didn't think about it like break dancing is kind of like a gymnastics you know these dudes are doing weird shit where they're on one arm with their legs lotus position above of their head and they're hopping around on one arm.

48:53That's crazy. It is. Because I try to do it and I'm like, yeah, I can't do that. Eddie started doing breakdancing practice as a part of strength and conditioning training for jiu-jitsu. He started trying breakdancing moves. Eddie's so open-minded. He's always willing to try something out. The thing about Eddie's classes, too, if somebody finishes somebody with something, Eddie will stop the class. What did you do? And he's like, oh, I do this and I grab my foot here. And he's like, okay. Everybody look at this. Come over. Come over. And he'll bring everybody over. He'll show it to us. Show us how you set it up.

49:25And he'll show them how you set it up. And they go, who thinks they can get out of this? Who thinks they got a move to get out of this? And then they would all practice different ways to get out of this. And they go, well, what if a guy does this? What if a guy does that? And they break it down. Like, he is very, very, like, open to new moves. You know? It makes his classes very interesting in that regard. You guys still train? I don't. I haven't trained in a while. I was training with Gabe Tuttle out here for a little bit. But I got one knee, man, that just keeps fucking up. And I do too many.

49:56I like to do too many things to want to go through another surgery or to deal with something. I just don't want to. It's like everybody I know that gets to my age that still trains gets a disc replacement, gets another surgery, gets another surgery. And then when you start getting like back surgeries or like Matt, Sarah just got a knee replacement recently. You start getting to that range. It's like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. This shit's forever. You got to walk around. You got to play with your kids. You got to be able to go hiking. You got to be able to do things. And if you break your body down, especially through grappling, I still hit the bag.

50:34I still train kickboxing. I still do a lot of working out. I work out constantly. But every time I start doing jujitsu again, my knee starts throbbing. Yeah, that's kind of similar to Al. I Quinta. It sucks. I always go like, I wonder how much more he had in a tank. Bro, he gave Khabib a hell of a fight on no notice. Yeah. No notice. And the Khabib fans don't give him any credit for it. They go, he was playing with him. I go, really? Tell me one fighter who goes out there and tells you that they're just going to play with their opponent. In prime time, Al was a beast. Yeah. He was a beast. And he was tough as shit and game, you know.

51:17Isn't he selling real estate now? Mm-hmm. Shout out to Al Iaquinta. Yeah, he's doing really well, man. Good for him. We were working together for a little bit, but then it got to the point where I was like, dude, I just don't have the time. I got to make a decision, and that's when I started doing the rum company and everything. You see how fast time gets absorbed with things. Oh, yeah. With everything. Yeah. I wish I had multiple lives so I could do multiple different things, multiple different lives. You might be in another dimension. Maybe. I would love to. But in this dimension, I have too many interests.

51:50I almost wish I didn't have as many things that I'd love to do. I could whittle them down to a few. Yeah. You know? I still want to learn how you do your spinning back kick. I throw mine, but I know you do yours a little bit of a different way. I remember the video you did with GSP showing him how you do yours. But I like to spin. I like to spin to win. Listen, if it lands, the amount of torque that you get on a spin is crazy. Come on. It's not good. What do you do different than the way I do it? I don't know. I know you're supposed to step, turn the heel, look over the shoulder. You can jump as well.

52:32You don't have to step. The whole thing is just getting it out in a straight line. And the problem with most people that didn't train like in a classic Taekwondo school is that it's a circle. A circle can land. It can land, and it can be really powerful if it lands. but it's not going to be as powerful as the way I do it. The way I do it is a turn. And then I always say spinning back kick when I do commentary because everybody understands that. But it's a turning side kick is the way we talked about it in Taekwondo. It's a turning side kick. So the side kick is straight. Yeah, I'm getting maximum amount of energy, maximum efficiency.

53:09It's the difference between throwing a punch like this. You can knock somebody out if you throw a punch like this, like a crazy arm punch, and you could hurt them and knock them out. 100 % of the time and you could do that once and say that's the way to throw a punch or You could learn how to throw a punch Tommy Hearn style Were you fucking turning your body into it? And you got all that torque and bang it catches you on the end in a straight line Yeah, and Tommy would just starch people with that or Deontay Wilder right straight straight down the pipe That's the difference between a turning sidekick and when people spin in a circle So when you spin in a circle, of course, it's gonna have power you have giant legs Your legs carry your body around all day long.

53:47You've got the – you're pushing off the other leg. You're spinning with all your torso. Yeah, it's going to have power. But it's not going to have as much power as the way I do it. The way I throw it, when it lands, it's everything is going in a straight line and I'm pushing off my back leg and I'm getting all my abs into it and my hips into it. And it's just straight, just thud. And I know that if I hit you with that, you're going nowhere. You're going down. You're going to the hospital. Like you're not gonna make it man. Yeah, I saw you hit the bag and I was like holy shit That's a fucking kick in a half right there.

54:20There's only one video of me online fighting. It's from when I was 19 I was at the US Cup in Connecticut and I hit this dude with a spinning back kick and sent him through the air Send him flying through the air and I knew the moment I hit him. I'm like this fight's over I turned around just walked off casually Because I would like to do that like fuck with people's heads, but I knew that one move has too much power for your body to absorb there's no way you can take it it's just too much it's like getting hit by a car that's nasty man it's a nasty kick like when john landed on stipe yeah just just caved his body in like stipe is one of the toughest human beings that's ever walked the face of the earth but he takes that to the body like that's you're not going nowhere you're not going nowhere and john's so smart like john practiced that specific technique because he was going up to heavyweight.

55:11He was like, I need something because I can't knock guys out with one punch at heavyweight. I can maybe kick them, but what's the most powerful kick? And he realized it's the spinning back kick. So he just drilled it. So three days a week, that's all he would do is just drill the spinning back kick. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. You've probably heard about BetterHelp before, but maybe you haven't heard from those who have actually used BetterHelp. That feedback can tell you everything you need to know. Go to BetterHelp.com slash reviews and check out the feedback from hundreds of people saying how much they love this service.

55:47It's easy to see why. To get started, all you have to do is answer a few questions. You'll get matched up with a therapist based on your needs. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time. See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit BetterHelp.com slash J-R-E. That's BetterHelp.com slash J-R-E. Yeah. And one thing about John, man, he's such a, like, his IQ has always been through the roof. His fighting IQ is crazy. He understands fighting, and I think that's what sets him apart from everybody else. He understands himself. Like, if you look at him, he could go, I'm not probably going to knock anybody out of heavyweight with the way I punch, so.

56:33Right. Developed something else and it worked. And that's just reality. That's just the reality of his frame. I mean, you know as well as anybody. It's weird how some people can just punch. Like from the moment they get into the gym, the first time they're hitting the pads, like what the fuck? It's a natural gift. Punching power is a weird natural gift. And either you have it or you don't. And if you don't have it, you can only develop it so much. I'm still trying to figure out if I have it. It's physics, man. A lot of it is like the size of your hands. And my arms aren't, they're long. Yeah. So someone like a Tuporia has like, he's not as long with his reach.

57:12Big ass fists. But I always like imitate the Tuporia and the Conor McGregor. A little Tuporia. He's boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. This is fucking funny shit. Well, Conor's another example. Like big fists, man. Yeah. Look at that dude's fists. They're giant. That's a big thing. Yeah, I got a little, these hands. You got to do what you got to do. These hands are meant for grabbing things. Yeah, well, they're really good at that. But that's the beautiful thing about MMA as opposed to boxing. Like there's a whole bunch of different ways to finish a fight. Yeah. What did you think about the fight with Yusuf before the fight happened?

57:48Like in terms of like, I used to text you like asking like your opinion, like what do you think, you know. So I'm curious to know what your thoughts were before the fight, Obviously, hindsight. Because I know what I thought going into the fight. What did you think going into the fight? I thought it was going to probably be one of the hardest fights. For sure. We've trained together multiple times. Back in 2017, we trained together a couple times within the last two years. And I always knew he moved well on the feet. Lateral footwork. Great calf kicks. And I said to myself, if I get chopped down with a couple of these calf kicks early in the fight, it's going to be a rough night.

58:26especially if I can't move and do what I do, which is I'm also good at lateral footwork. And he has those nasty knees up the middle that are very quick to end the fight or put you on skates and can get you out of there, right? And he did submit me that one time, so I think that really gave him a lot of confidence coming into it. So those were my thoughts. I was like, for me to win this, I got to stay on the outside and put pressure on him when I can put pressure on him, take away his calf kicks when I can by putting him on the back foot, making it a little bit more difficult to land that calf kick with authority, right?

58:56So that was my two cents on that. I knew if I could take him down first, it should go my way. Well, it worked. Yeah. It was a little easier than I thought it would have been. I think you're a different beast. Yeah, the key team was tight. I was like, oh, I didn't plan for this. I didn't plan for this one. That was tight. Yeah, but you got out of it. And I think you're a different beast at 45. I think you just have more resilience at 45. You're more durable at 45. More energy, too. Yeah, that's where it comes from, right? Again, I wish we could eliminate weight cutting completely from fighting.

59:39And I've had conversations with the UFC about doing it, but there's no real roadmap that makes sense. I think once guys get it ingrained in their head that they're going to cut weight, they're just always going to cut weight. Even if there is weight classes, they're just going to fight dehydrated. hydrated they're gonna figure out a way to be bigger i mean we did it for wrestling and we competed two hours later sometimes an hour but you're not getting punched and kicked in the head that's the difference that's why that's why i feel if they did same day weigh-ins kind of like what you do for an amateur you can get as big as you can get which is going to be very little maybe five pounds so i go same day weigh-ins you give them four hours so this way they can eat and have nice meal, digest, and then it can still warm up and have enough time to prepare for the fight.

1:00:24I think for the fighter's own safety, you almost have to protect them from that. And that's why they have the weigh-in the day before, for their own safety. Because there's guys that are just going to be stupid. And the fights are going to suffer. They're not going to be as good because you're going to be more depleted. I just think there's going to be people that understand you can't cut 20 pounds the day of the fight and go and compete. I think that's going to be the end like the end all be all like you're going to come to the realization like hey they'll just lose and then it'll weed out the people that are doing that and then they'll go okay so that didn't work right I have to go up in a weight class and this makes more sense for me wouldn't it be better if we look we have random drug tests right they just show how many times you've been randomly drug tested with USADA probably a lot I know they have it on the website you can check how many times people who have been tested and whatnot.

1:01:17So it was just random. Now imagine if they did random weigh-ins. That would be cool. Yeah, but then the problem would be what happens the day of the fight? You know, like what if the guy doesn't make weight? You're back at square one. Yeah, what if you have a giant pay-per-view or a giant numbered card? Is that dead? I was about to say. You have a giant numbered card and the guy doesn't cut weight or doesn't make weight. What do you do? Do you still have the fight? I mean, we have the fight now. Yeah. But I mean what changes it would be different if you only had to cut a few pounds though like if it's So if you did it that way random weigh-ins and then weigh in day of the fight Even if a guy was heavy, like you weighed in 137 or whatever, you're like, well, you got to lose two pounds.

1:02:03Anybody can lose two pounds the day of, and it's not that big a deal. Yeah. If you're not cutting weight already. Yeah. If you're not cutting weight already and you're fully hydrated and you weigh in the scale of 137, 135 is easy. Or just penalize them the same way we penalize them now. Yeah, but guys are just going to take the penalty and fight bigger and fight healthier. Like for me, if we did same-day weigh-ins, I would have to fight at 155 pounds. There's no way. Possibly even 170 because that's the weight class. 165 would be the sweet spot where it's like, this is nice. I don't have to cut.

1:02:37I'm probably going to fight guys more than likely my size. And I'm going to feel good. I'm going to have the energy to compete. And I'm not dehydrating myself severely. Or 155 where I could diet a little bit. I could still get down. I hold myself for a meal, step on the scale. I can have my meal. Now I feel good. I go compete. But I'm not dieting all the way down to 135 pounds, 145 pounds. So that's a 10-pound gap. You see what I'm saying? So that's why I think the same day it makes sense because you're not as depleted where it wouldn't be as severe in comparison to what we're doing now. I think that would be smart.

1:03:12But I think the only way that's really going to happen is if you have more weight classes, like at least every 10 pounds. I mean, look at boxing. boxing has so many more weight classes than the UFC like how many weight classes are there in boxing too many there's a lot there's like every three pounds sometimes well the lighter weights right when you get down to like atom weight and straw weight and fly weight like their fly weights are fucking tiny you know like their bantam weight is what it's not 135 it's lower yeah it's like 126 or something. What's bantamweight? 118. 118. That's crazy. Minimum weight.

1:03:49That's crazy. Imagine telling a lady that in the bar. What do you do? I fight. What weight do you fight at? Minimum weight. I've never even heard of that. Minimum weight is crazy. Yeah. I mean, but this is also why Manny Pacquiao was able to go up and win world championships in eight different weight classes, which is fucking bananas. Which is cool, though. It's crazy. but so go back to that again please so look at the difference in the gaps when you get to the top you got 122 to 126 only four pounds 130 another six pounds 35 another five pounds it's kind of random five more pounds to 40 seven pounds to welterweight 47 that's another stupid thing that we do where we have uh you have welterweight in boxing which has existed since the beginning of time and it's always been 147 sugar ray leonard tommy hearns all those people roberto duran 147 our welterweight 170 like it doesn't even make any sense yeah come up with another name yeah what's a welterweight you just it's something somebody made up doesn't make sense i just think We're like the Americans versus the Europeans.

1:05:01We just want to go against the grain. Like we have inches instead of centimeters, like what we use in metrics and pounds versus kilos. We just said, fuck everything you're doing. We're going to do everything different. We're just going to challenge everything that you're doing. There's a little of that too, but I think they just wanted recognizable names when they came up with weight classes. Because remember, there was only two at one point in time. Was it lightweight and? I don't remember. But when Frank Shamrock was fighting in his day, it was like 200. Yeah. He fought at 200. And then there was heavyweight.

1:05:40Yeah, I don't even know. I don't know what those weight classes. I used to watch, but I didn't know shit. I just watched. I think it should just be the number you weigh. It should be fighting the world champion at 170 pounds. That's what it should be. Like wrestling doesn't have names for the weight classes. No. You just have weights. We don't. You just have weights. That's what it should be like this is stupid fuck is a welterweight. What the fuck is a strawweight? What's an atomweight? You know shut up What's a flyweight fuck? You know you don't wait with a flyways. This is stupid flyweight's a dumb name The 125 pound champion of the world minimum weight is a ridiculous name ridiculous.

1:06:21Nobody wants to be minimum weight I'd rather fight fat Minimum weight. I never even knew that was a thing until just now. Yeah, it's probably tiny little dudes. There's a few dudes that fight in atom weight in 1FC in their kickboxing division that are wild, man. It's incredible to watch. They're so fast. It's like they're defying space and time, you know, and they're super skillful. Yeah, there's the one guy I saw, the Japanese fighter. no not Japanese fighter the guy doing Muay Thai the um well there is a Japanese fighter the guy in Ryzen who fought uh Patchy Mix oh yeah dude that dude's what the fuck was that that dude was a beast I was like this guy's been hiding over here the whole time and the world doesn't know who this man is this guy is a savage yeah he lit Patchy on fire that was incredible Patty's not a striker but he's competent enough yeah but that was like he exposed like everything everything floor that he has as a stand-up guy, he took full advantage of it.

1:07:24I was like, dude, this guy is fighting like he's in the Matrix right now. There's a bunch of those guys that exist out there in the world now. You know, it's a different world that we live in. The daggy standing guy, I think. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of them. There's the guy who fights in the PFL, Megomedov, who's fucking nasty, man. And he fights exactly like the guy who I think might be the best striker in the world, who's just a Muay Thai guy. Azadula Iman Gazaleev. I think that's the guy yeah i can't say that bro i can't say that it's a tough one to say um that guy's nasty but this this guy magomedov did you see the pfl i didn't get to watch it uh last weekend he fought uh in the pfl and he fights just like imam gazoleev and they're both from dagestan so guarantee you these guys are training together that was the one last weekend right uh-huh yeah Yeah, we have one guy on that card.

1:08:15His name is Lavon. He's nasty from Ossetia, the caucus regions. But he's a nasty striker. There's so many of those guys right now that are coming up that no one knows, and they're world-class. They're elite, world-class fighters, and no one knows who they are. It's kind of crazy. Yeah. It's like the amount of, like, world championship caliber, potential world championship caliber fighters out there, never been higher. Imagine talking shit to that guy All because you didn't know who he was He was just like It's a problem out there in the world right now There's so many guys who could fight Just be nice Don't talk shit Don't talk shit and everything will be okay How hard is it?

1:09:02Tell me what you think about this weekend Islam vs. Ian Gary So What's fascinating about this matchup is how well Ian Gary can control the range. I think he's going to be much bigger than Islam in the sense of height, reach advantage. In terms of size, I never thought Ian was the biggest welterweight. I still don't think he is. Well, he can't be. He's so tall. He can't be thick. No, but in a sense, even when you're talking just from a weight standpoint, from what he was walking around at, I forgot what he told me he walked around at, but he wasn't cutting a whole lot of weight. I want to say off the top of my head, maybe 10 pounds.

1:09:40which is why he's so healthy yeah he has such energy so i go you're cutting just this and you're going out there and doing this to these guys who are you know essentially bigger heavier guys um but he's got the speed advantage uh the thing about islam he's such a complete fighter he could do everything but this will be the first time he's got a test with a guy who's a long man and can he get inside take him down i don't think he's going to stand up and strike with him He can, but I just don't think that's the path to victory against a guy like Ian. I don't think he has any plans of standing up and striking with him other than as a means to an end.

1:10:16Yeah. And his grappling is so high level. Islam's grappling right now is at the top of the food chain. I always want to grapple with those guys just to see where I'm at. You should go over there. I remember when Al fought Khabib, and Al might have been like the only guy who was able to like escape certain positions multiple times where most guys they kind of just concede defeat and they just fold. And we were talking afterwards. He goes like, I think you would actually do really well grappling with him. And I'm like, Brian, you're trying to get me killed right now. You're trying to get me killed by the bear.

1:10:57But when he said that, it kind of stuck with me. I'm like, man, just from my own experience, not like an ego thing or anything like that, just be cool to see. And I would like for them to put it on me just so I can see where I'm at, see how my strength measures up with theirs positionally, IQ, knowing when to transition to certain spots. Of course, the weight's going to play a big advantage, but it's still cool because I grapple with bigger guys. I've grappled with Weidman. And I always tell Chris, I wish we were the same size because you would have been my main training partner, bro. And that would have been cool, kind of coming up that way.

1:11:30But, you know, obviously Marab was my guy. Al was my guy. Dennis. Well, having Marab as a training partner must have been an awesome advantage. Oh, it's the greatest. There's no replicating that. And I see guys outside of, like they'll watch and they'll think like, you know, he's kind of like all over the place. He's not really. And then they'll go in there with him and go, ah, yeah. It feels a little different now that you've been in there with the guy. It's a whole different beast to watch from the outside. You're like, what is he actually good at? But it's just like the chaos that he brings, always constantly challenging your nervous system, reacting to his feints, his movement.

1:12:12He's just always giving you something to think about. And I remember GSP talked about that, just saying, like, you want to use your feints to challenge the nervous system, get guys to react, because eventually you start to slow. Like, in the beginning, we're quick twitchy, right? We can react to everything. We're super sharp. As time starts to go on, those reaction times starts to go a little bit slower. You don't react as fast or as quickly. And things that were landing, weren't landing, are now landing. Faraz talks about that a lot. Yeah. I think that's where George got it. Yes. Faraz is a very smart dude.

1:12:46Very smart dude when it comes to strategy and understanding what's going on with fighters and why they're reacting to certain things and what to do and how to counter. It's not guesswork. It's like a really intelligent, structured system of what to do. Yeah, you have to be like that. I think some guys, they train and then they go and fight without any goal in mind. And I try to preach this because I used to coach at Longo's a lot before running a lot of my own practices, training camps and stuff like that. So I took over the role of, you know what, we're going to add these two MMA classes in. And when we come in, we're going to work on specific things for my fight.

1:13:30And anybody who has a fight, and if I'm not fighting, we're going to focus on you guys. And even if I have a fight, we'll also work in positions that you guys need to work on. And I always try to explain to guys, like, when you're coming in, you should have a mission. Don't just waste an hour, hour and a half of training just to say I trained. That's cool if you don't have a fight, but you should always be looking for something to get better at, something that you can improve at. When you're sparring, hey, you're not just going in there to spar. There should be an intent. Your sparring partner should be looking to give you a look for the fight, and you shouldn't be looking to be a complete asshole and kill your sparring partner because then nobody wants to spar with you, right?

1:14:05They're doing you a favor, and you need the favor from them to get where you want to be to make sure all the things that you're drilling on the pads, drilling with your partners one-on-one, and then when you go into sparring and you're putting it together, pull it from 100%, pull it down to like 70%. This way you can work in real time. I call it guided discovery. I learned this at SUNY Cortland when I was studying to be a PE major. Guided discovery. Yeah. So you're working on certain things. And say we're doing wrestling. And you're learning the position. I show you a high crotch. You grab the tricep or you post it.

1:14:38You shoot the high crotch, which means your head is on the outside. And I attack the leg. Two hands are now locked on that outside leg. My head is on the outside. And I'm in a strong position. My posture is straight. And now you're learning defense. Okay, so from a defensive position, a guy shoots this shot super clean, super perfect. What are my choices that I can make? What are the options? I could turn the head to the inside, stuff the head. I could push the head further to the outside and stuff the head to the outside where his head already is and look to cut the corner. Or I could use my stuff the head and use my whizzer or tight waist, plugging the hip, stuffing the head, and rotating my hips.

1:15:14And if he puts me down to the mat, what is my response from that? So then you're chaining everything together and you kind of got a system of my responses. So I'm not just doing stuff based on instinct. Instinct is good, but you should also have instinctual habits, if that makes sense. Like stuff that you know will work. And then you fine tune it to know this is my line of defense. If he goes here and I feel him going this way, I go this way. And if he's starting to turn the other way, then I know I need to do this and turn his head the other way. put my pressure or my weight in another position so that I can now create this space so I can escape and get my leg out.

1:15:50And a lot of guys, they're not trained like that. They're going, they're sparring, they're just throwing a bunch of punches. Maybe they're throwing set combos at their head on the pads, but how are you setting that up? Are you feinting, moving him towards the cage, looking for the gap where the octagon kind of changes, where it's no longer like a flat surface and it's cutting at an angle where you take away a little real estate and then you're trapping them where there's not a lot of room for them to get back from. But now you can set up your strikes and know where you're trying to go. But if I'm cutting him off and he constantly does this and he maybe juke steps me and goes back the other direction and I'm starting my combination, now he's gone.

1:16:25So it's like how do you set up all these things that you know exactly where you want to go? Because he's going to have an option in the fight in real time. But in training is where you should be working out the kinks and understanding this. and I truly feel this is one of the things I'd done so well early on in my career and why I was teaching a class because I felt like the guys needed it I was taking these guys down at will there was no resistance I'm like I'm good but how good am I actually because these guys just they just don't know they don't have the information okay let's level them up now these guys are leveled up it makes it harder for me now I have to improve what I'm doing and I have to bring a different approach.

1:17:06Okay, he knows how to do this now. So when I do this, I can't just get an easy takedown where I'm just going to sit him to his butt. He's now challenging me with the whizzer, stuffing my head, breaking my posture. Now I'm elongated. I'm on the ground. Maybe I'm on both knees. How do I readjust, post my hand, get height again, attacking the legs, taking them back the other way, or coming through the middle, through the crotch, and finishing a takedown like what we call, some people call it an Iranian or we call it an all-American finish, but there's just so many little nuances, and I feel in MMA people are still training just to train, and I think that's the difference between understanding your timing.

1:17:41You know the same moves, but if I know how to react faster than you, I'm going to win that position or the situation every single time, unless you throw caution to the wind and it's just some random wild card that I just get caught by, which if I'm aware, the chances of that should be very, very low. Well, that's the benefit of teaching the people that you're training with everything you know. That way you must come up with a new solution. Not everything. And you're forcing it. Not everything? Not everything? What do you hold back? What do you hold back? Not everything. Get close. I can't let you get close.

1:18:14But that's also world champion mindset versus someone who's just a fighter who fights and does well and is a good fighter. But there's so many times where I watch guys fight and I watch exchanges and they're wading towards each other and throwing bombs at each other. And one guy wins and one guy loses. But I'm like, this is not the ultimate way to do this. You can do it. You can be a battering ram and a blunt force object and you can get it done. We've seen so many fights that have just been insane first round wars. And then we see guys that just are slick and they're moving around and switching stances and doing wild shit that you don't expect and overwhelming the other guy's nervous system and not getting hit.

1:18:57And doing things where you're like, oh, my God, that's so sweet. That's so smooth. And those are the guys that are going to excel. And those are the guys that are going to really take it to the next level. And I think when you're talking about all these guys, like the caucus guys, these Dagestani guys, so many guys that are coming up right now that are so fucking high level, like you can't have any flaws in your game anymore. You can't just be a guy who wades at someone and tries to throw bombs and hopes they land. Maybe that works on a regional scene. Maybe that works with training partners that are a lower level than you.

1:19:30But you're going to get pieced up if you fight someone who's really good. But there's levels and levels and levels and the levels are changing all the time. The levels are moving up all the time. If you just go back to the Ultimate Fighter Season 1, that's 2005. That's not that long ago in regular sports. 2005 boxers look pretty similar to 2026 boxers. Yeah. You know, pretty fucking similar at the World Championship level. And MMA, man, there's no comparison. It's nuts. Night and day. Night and day. and these guys are getting better all the time. I see guys coming off the Contender Series. I'm like, okay, this guy looks like a world champion, like right now.

1:20:09It's crazy. That Ethan Ewing kid, that guy comes out of nowhere. Matrix. And he's fighting so smooth and so slick and so intelligent and the footwork and the feints and the movement and knowing what to do at any given time. And you're like, these guys are just so good now. They're so good. I was bummed out when he got hurt for that fight with Farad. Yeah, that was a bummer. Farad did have a tough fight though, but I was curious to see how that one was going to go because Ian, to me, is the dark horse in that division right now. Yeah, Ethan is. Easily. Yeah, the Wellmaker fight was a big wake-up call to people.

1:20:47And then he fought that Brazilian cat and just lit him on fire. Two undefeated guys back-to-back. Whew! And it's the way he did it too, man. It was so slick. And you realize like there are levels and these guys coming up right now They are already at a level that's above and beyond world championship level of 15 years ago. Yeah, it's crazy It's two fights in the UFC and you know 20 years ago you would have said he was the goat But it what's fascinating is like from a striking standpoint You could see that and look at a guy and go this guy is the real deal But then you kind of wonder like well what happens later in the rounds if a guy does take him down and how can he adjust to those takedowns in terms of a cardio standpoint, lactic acid buildup, can he turn it around and still be as efficient, as effective?

1:21:33Right. So there's so many variables when it comes to things like that. And when people are game planning and approaching fights, those are the things I like to think about. First round, everyone is dangerous. Everyone is so skilled. But it's like, okay, if I can get out of the first round, what does the fight start to look like? How do I paint the picture? If it goes in this direction, he's able to get off a couple of these things, and I'm beating up a little bit. What are my fallback defenses to try to turn the tide a little bit and get it back to going where the ball's now back in my court? Well, that was why I was so interested in seeing what happens in the Conor McGregor-Max Holloway fight, which was crazy.

1:22:16The result was ridiculous. But take that away. I was interested because I was like if Connor can't take him out quickly Max Holloway does not get tired he does not get tired and he's so accustomed to that five round pace he understands when to hit the gas when to back off he knows when to move when to and he's always moving and side it's like you want to talk about getting overwhelmed like Max Holloway overwhelms people with pressure, pace, and feints and skill. Yeah. And he's not going anywhere. You guarantee he's going to be fighting in the fourth round just like he was fighting in the first round.

1:22:55He's not going to fade. It was one of the worst matchups for Conor if he couldn't take him out of the first round. I was hoping we got to see more. I think the world was hoping to see. Well, you were hoping we got to see anything. We didn't see anything. But it's crazy because he threw that same kick in the back room, But this time he runs at him and he throws it and lands and it's like, oh, come on. Well, he threw that kick when you're hitting a pad is very different than when you're kicking the air. You never throw that kick in the air. You throw that kick jumping in the air, the amount of torque that is on your supporting leg is bananas.

1:23:32You're just hoping and praying that your knee stays together. Look, if you throw a jumping side kick, that's a different thing. You're landing on the ground. You're landing in a linear way, right? When you're rotating and kicking and flying through the air at the same time and your opponent adjusts, so you're trying to change the arc in midair, try to catch him as he's circling off, it's the worst kick to jump and throw. So I got to stop doing that. With jumping roundhouse kicks? Jumping roundhouse kicks are great if you're close enough to land them. Yeah. If you're close enough to land them. Who was that guy that landed it on Bonfim?

1:24:10No, not on Bonfim. On James Vick in Karate Combat. Did you see that? He throws that jumping switch kick. Brazilian guy? Yes. I forget his name. Gabriel? The Turn. What is his name? Alves. Rafael Alves. That was close. It was one of the worst KOs I've ever seen in my life. But why is James Vick still fighting? He likes fighting, I guess. Oh, he's only 37. I'm 37. My bad, bro. He's had a lot of KOs. My bad, cuz. Unfortunately and this dude he hit him with this this jumping just right before that But he looks like a tank compared to him. Well, it's just the height his speed is crazy James Zick is tall and very skillful, too But it's just this kick would have knocked him out at any point in his career any point in his career and any human being like This is too much There's the amount of force that he lands when he lands this kick when he throws that he throws the jumping roundhouse kick touches him with the right leg and then comes up top with the left and just clean across the chin.

1:25:14They're doing some good stuff at Karate Combat. Yeah man. It's fun. Well, Robelis was fighting there right before that, Jamie. I think he had a combined... A little further ahead. Go to like right before where the Brazilian flag is. Robelis' combined fights in Karate Combat was like what? Less than two minutes? I know. There it is. There it is. So let's watch that again. Back it up again. So watch how he throws it. Boom. I mean, it is clean, shin to the jaw. I mean, there's no... Why is he pointing at him? I don't know. He's upset. Is he talking shit? And now he's bowing and praying? Well, I mean, he realized after it was over how serious it was.

1:25:51So watch this. Touches him with the right, and then the left comes. I mean, it's literally perfect. That probably would have KO'd him at any point in time in his career. And when James has been in the amount of wars that he's been in, And then your head hits the canvas is the worst part. He could have died. That was one of those ones where he could have died. Because I think he was in the intensive care for quite a while after this fight. Really? Yeah, he was hospitalized for quite a while after this fight. And I think it was pretty serious. That sucks. It was a bad head kick. That was a bad one.

1:26:23It's a rough sport. It's a rough sport. You don't play fighting. You don't play. There's times where guys get KO'd and they're never the same again. You know, like Terry Edom, when Edson Barboza hit him with that wheel kick. Yeah. Terry Edom was a real contender before that fight. And we never really saw him after that. He never really achieved those levels again. I don't even, did he even fight after that? Maybe once? Maybe. Maybe. I don't know. I'm not sure. But that fight essentially ended his career because it was so, I mean, and again, that's one of those kicks. The wheel kick has so much torque.

1:26:54Bro, I remember my fight with Marlon and I thought I was gonna be one of those guys. I was so like, I don't say paranoid, but nervous, concerned. Any adjective that you could use to describe it, I was just like, man. After the fight? After the fight. Of getting hit like that again. Yeah. Not even getting hit like that again. If I could even take a shot. And mind you, I had my phys ed degree. I could have win, just been a gym teacher. I would have been some resolve, pension. I would have had health insurance the whole nine. And I decided to chase a crazy dream. Thankfully, it worked out, and I'm blessed for this life and all that good stuff.

1:27:36But after that fight, man, to tell you, like, the concern I had, if I would be able to make another two paychecks, I was like, I'm going to do one more. Whatever happens, happens. If I get knocked out, I'm just done. I gave it a good shot. I've rolled the dice. Thanks for coming. See you later. Thanks for the memories, but thankfully it worked out and I was able to keep on pushing I remember after that fight I didn't spar for like three months and the next fight I had was great A lot of people think you should take even more time off than that I needed the money and that's the shitty part about this this gig You need the money.

1:28:12You need the money. I'm living in New York at the time. So Long Island is Fucking expensive and I'm subbing as a teacher. I'm coaching wrestling And when the training camp came up, I was fighting Brett Johns undefeated, 3-0 in the UFC, just came off a 30-second cast slicer submission over Joe Soto. Mind you, Joe Soto submitted me probably, I think, five times in five minutes. So I'm looking at this guy like this guy is a wizard. You know what I mean? So this is my perception of him going into this fight. And I told the guys, hey, I'm going to spar these last three, four weeks. I'm going to just circle, and I'm going to wrestle.

1:28:47I was like, you guys try to hit me, but just know I don't want to get hit in the head. But try to hit me. I still want to have, like, my awareness. But that whole last three, four weeks, everything was just grappling before that, striking, hitting pads, cardio. I was like, I'm going to just use my footwork and whatever I could do. And thankfully it worked out. How much time between the Marlon fight and that fight was there? April, December 9th, 2017. So it was four months? Just about, yeah. Wow. Which was scary. It was scary. And they offered me to fight. I was like, I don't know if I'm supposed to be doing this right now, but I kind of need the money.

1:29:24Well, you needed the money, but if I could give an advice to, like, Volkanovsky, I would have said, first of all, I would have said never take a fight with Islam Makhachev on 11 days notice. That's just crazy. Never. Especially when you're not training at all. You're just kind of chilling. And you take a fight with one of the best pound-for-pound fighters, if not the best, on the planet. and you get head kicked. And then to fight Ilya just a few months after that is kind of crazy. Yeah. And he was looking good in that first round until Ilya does what he does, traps you against that black line against the cage, and he puts those combinations on you and puts the lights out.

1:30:03And, yeah, I agree. He should have taken more time. 100%. He would have been okay with taking more time. You've got to take more time. You have to. You just have to realize that as tough as you are, your body is a machine. and if the machine's broken, it's got to be repaired and it's going to take time to repair. It's not as simple as like you go to the shop, you get a new carburetor, you're good to go. You got to give your body time to heal and with the head, it's hard because you don't know. Yeah, it's the wild card. Yeah, it's the wild card. And everyone is different. And I kind of wonder if that's something to do with like the way people grow up, if maybe they dropped on their head a couple times when they were kids.

1:30:42Sure, football, play football, in high school get KO'd a few times doing that you know you get KO'd a few times doing stupid shit with your friends and then you get older and now you're trying to compete and you realize I can't take a shot yeah as much as I thought I could have and like you see a guy like Diego Lopez and you're like dude you gotta his his chin is granite bro it's like what can you hit him with that can actually put him down it's crazy well if he continues getting hit there'll be a time right remember chuck liddell chuck liddell in the early days was bulletproof he was bulletproof he would just wait at guys bite down his mouthpiece eat shots to the head and take guys out and he didn't give a fuck he did full confidence in his chin and would force guys into these chaotic wars and then it goes away and then one day you get hit and it just goes well left hand broken hand from Rich Franklin that hit Chuck.

1:31:39Well, yeah. He broke Rich's arm. Yeah. And then, yeah. And with that broken hand, he hit him. Is that what he knocked him out with? The broken arm? From what I remember, that's what he hit him with. That left hand and put him out. And I was like, that was... He was done at that point. Yeah. His chin was done. I mean, after Rampage KO'd him, that was kind of... That was the big one. That was a nasty one. That was a nasty one. Yeah. I always wanted to be like the mini Rampage, but I was like, but I'm not knocking anybody out. So it's hard to do that. Rampage could crack. With the chain and the wolf.

1:32:10Yeah. Oh! I always wanted to do that. And Rampage did it all natural, whereas everybody else was doing juice, especially in Pride. You know, he was fighting all juice monsters. Everyone was a juice monster in Pride. Yeah. You know? It was a different time back then. He still has the craziest slam KO of all time. Of all time. Arona, right? Yep. When Arona didn't let go of the triangle. Yeah. And he takes him over the top of his head like a pillow and slams him down. Oh, my God. That was another one. Arona was never the same again after that fight. What about Cyborg and that knee from MVP? That was the craziest.

1:32:46Freaking dented his cranium. Crushed his skull. Literally crushed his skull. Broke his skull open. So this is going to sound like a joke, but I go, like, what do you do? Plunge it to pull it back? You got to reconstruct it. You ever see what they did to it? No. He put all these plates in his head. Yeah, he had all sorts of screws and plates and everything to piece his head back together again because his skull structure has been compromised. What does it do to your brain? Your brain is now squished. Not good. I mean, he said after the fight, I'll be back. But everybody's like, no, you won't. That's what it looked like.

1:33:20I mean, that is literally crazy. Yeah, bro. I saw a Muay Thai fight recently online where a guy did that to a dude with an elbow. and he caved his head in and you see like this giant hole in his forehead where his head's dented in and the referee's like stop the fight he's like why are you stopping the fight he's like bro you need to see what you look like you're not seeing what i'm seeing yeah your head's dented your head's broken like you have a broken head yeah it's amazing how few times that's happened if you think about it yeah this is it this is it look at that oh that might be worse than the other one it's right up there if you back it up you can see the elbow the dude lands right there boom that was it and then he looks at him he's like um hey and then the referee gets a look at it and the referee gets a look at it as soon as the referee sees it he almost doesn't even want to hit him again he's like fuck yeah i mean it's crazy the referee stops he's like hold on a second let me get a look at you it's like you should stop devil my friend brings in the doctor it's What's going on here?

1:34:25Tomahawkdom. That was what was so impressive about Zanyakov. Chanko and his... John Pork? Yeah. Why do they call him that? I have no idea. Chanko, they call him Chanko because that's his town. That's the town we grew up in. Okay. But, man, that dude's elbows were so slick. He's slick. He is fun to watch. He's slick. His elbows in the clinch and in tight. You know, because he's a Muay Thai world champion. And, you know, that was his original discipline, which is interesting. When you see these guys who start off as strikers and then they get to Dagestan training room with Khabib and Islam and all those guys.

1:35:06And they learn the wrestling. But they start off with just this elite level of striking. Yeah. And that other guy wasn't bad. No. He gave back some resilience. Oh, yeah, man. He dropped him. Remember? Yeah. Oh, no, that was his first fight. Yeah, no, he didn't drop him. That was his first fight in the Contender Series. He got dropped. He's a dangerous guy, man. Super dangerous. Chanko's fucking, he's for real, man. And so high level with his striking. His striking is just so elite. Especially those elbows in tight, man. Elbows are nasty. I'm like Chelsun and I can't let you get close. I can't let you get close.

1:35:46Because, nah, you're not about to do that to me, bro. I ain't trying to look like that. Yeah. I want to continue my acting career, and I got a whole lot of things I want to do, but it's going to be a little tough if you get a couple of those. Yeah. Elbows. It's kind of funny that your gloves protect your hands and your knuckles, but not your elbows. Or knees. Or your knees or your shins. It's kind of nuts that we have the padded thing is the thing that's the least likely to hurt you, if you really think about it. It's a crazy sport. It is the craziest. I love it and hate it sometimes. How much longer do you think you're going to do it?

1:36:24You're 37 now. Yeah, I just turned 37. You must be thinking, how much more am I going to do this for? Yeah, you know, I'm just taking it one fight at a time. I would like to end my career with the UFC. You know, hopefully I get an option. You think it's an option that you might not? I don't know. You know, you never know what's going to happen. Somebody comes up with a big number? No, not even that. Like, you just never know. Like, I know I sometimes piss off the brass from time to time. Do you? I guess. I've been told this. How? That sometimes I don't say the right things. What have you said is the wrong thing?

1:36:57I'm a very honest person. So sometimes I just tell how I really feel about certain things. And people, these media outlets, they know what they're doing. They're asking me these questions because they know I'm going to tell them the clickbait clips that they want. Who are you talking about specifically? Which one? The media outlets that fuck with you. All of them. They all try to get you to say it. All of them. They ask these questions. They'll go from fighter pay. and I've been in the headlines for Fight of Pay many times, many, many times. It's a legitimate argument. It is. But for some reason, when I talk about it, I am— and maybe because I'm not the crazy guy like a Sean Strickland, because Strickland has talked about it and he's always been—he's known as the crazy guy.

1:37:38But when he talks about it, he makes it a very logical, understanding bit where I go, how come he's not getting—maybe he is. Maybe I just don't know because I don't ask. I'm like for some reason when I say is I feel like I'm a little bit more Scrutinized so what did the does the UFC get upset at you do they say that they're upset at you You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to This is a real issue is gonna get you in trouble though. No, I was you we have a great relationship You're you look when Eve love and Alexander and when when they fight yeah It's very soon. Volkanovsky is defending his title against, finally, Yves Louv.

1:38:16Like, who? That fucking guy has been waiting forever. Yeah. Forever. So I don't really know who's the clear-cut guy for me to face unless it's Lerone Murphy. I was told he was hurt. I think he's booked. I heard Lerone's got a fight. I heard he was hurt. Oh, really? Yeah. Maybe he had a fight schedule and it doesn't anymore. Yeah. But I thought he has a fight coming up. Yeah. I was told he was hurt, so he's going to be out for a couple months. I don't know how long. I don't know how serious of an injury. But everybody else is booked. Who did he just lose to, Lerone? Mozart. That's right. Which was crazy.

1:38:51I thought that fight should have been scored a draw. Did you? With the point deduction. Should have been scored a draw. What was the point deduction for? I think it was a low blow. But they gave him four rounds. They gave Mozart four rounds. I'd have to watch it again. I didn't think it was a bad decision when I saw it. It was a competitive fight. Mozart didn't decide to wrestle him until the end of round three. And he just goes to show he could have taken him down anytime he wanted. I'm just like, fuck it. Well, I think Mozart, he wanted to show his striking. Because he does have striking. But because of that, he made it more controversial to the overall fan base because he decided to use his wrestling a lot later on in the fight.

1:39:33Yeah, but I think he needed to show that he's not boring in order to get a shot at the title, and now he's got a shot at the title. But the stand-up fight between rounds one and two was still like, there's nothing happening. I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was pretty good. It was a chess match. It was a chess match, but I think it was opening up Lerone to shots that I don't think he expected were coming at him because I think he probably anticipated shot takedowns, takedown attempts. And instead, Mo Far was getting off on him. Yeah. He can strike. He can. But it's like you. It's like, why do it when you're better at grappling?

1:40:08If you can get a hold of him, why do it? Why roll the dice? And, you know, when people say, like, a lot of people were upset when Merab beat Sugar Sean. Yeah. And they were saying, like, that was boring. That was just like, listen, this is the sport we're watching. If a guy like Merab can take you down and give you noogies for five rounds and you can't do shit and you lose your title, that's how it goes. you can't say that's boring and he should fight differently because Sean's got to come up with a solution. He's got to figure out how to deal with that. Styles makes fights. It's about the story.

1:40:43Yep. How'd you do against this guy? Islam Akachev versus Ian Garry. Same thing. How does he do with this guy? Conor McGregor versus Khabib Nurmagomedov. Same thing about the storyline. Conor was protecting his whole UFC run. Now he's fighting a good high-level grappler, probably arguably arguably the best grappler from the top position clinch position ever um ever and it's the storyline can conor mcgregor overcome this can he land the perfect shot it's what gets you to buy into it but if you're gonna be pissed that the machine is gonna come in and your guy can't land the perfect punch whose fault is that it's like but this is why you're watching you're tuning in you're not tuning in to watch a uh slaughtering of the lambs you want to watch a competitive fight if you just want to watch one-sided fights i don't know like what do you want yeah i mean it was one-sided in the in that he was able to take him down at will but the also the problem was sean fought that fight with a fucked up hip and really probably shouldn't have been fighting like he had a tear in his hip yeah but we all have stuff of course i went to the fight with sean injured coming into the fight he gets injured during the training camp and then he uses that I had a busted rib.

1:41:54I go, bro, we all have stuff, but you were in a better position to win this fight than I was coming into the fight. The same thing. When did he hurt his hip? I don't know. But then they fought again, and it was worse. It was worse. So, well, Merab was, like, super confident coming in the second fight that he was going to be able to take him down. And then also, he had that championship-level confidence. Oh, of course. You get that level up. Get that level up. Yeah. So it's like, it's not knocking Sean. It's not knocking the fans. But it's like, yo, this is the game that we're playing. No one's coming into this.

1:42:23I was talking to the guys at Wasteel. They're like, it's fascinating how many of you guys are so beaten up. I'm going down a list of my injuries and everything I got going on. I was like, I got an MRI for this. I got an MRI for this. This hurting. That's been bothering me for two years. This has been still ongoing. And I still go fight. And you would never think it. But that's just what it is. Like, we got to do what we got to do. We're never going to be 100 % going into it. 100%. Like all sports. Guys have fought in world championships with blown out knees and won. You know? I mean, when Alex Pereira beat Yuri Prohaska, he had a fucked up knee in the first fight.

1:42:55Yeah. And that's why when you see him get on top of him when he's finishing him, he rolls over. Like rolls. Instead of stepping up and standing over, he rolled off of him because his knee was blown out. Carlos Obergin. Yeah, that was crazy. But that was on Yuri. That was such a blunder. Such a blunder. Well, that's Yuri's craziness where it's not good. But, you know, some of Yuri's craziness is great. Like when he fought Jamal. I felt for him so bad. I did too. I was just like, it's not like saying I wanted him to win, but I felt for him like, damn, bro, you made the biggest mistake that you could have possibly made in a situation like that.

1:43:34It's literally the only thing he can hit you with. Fuck it up. And he lands it. It's the only thing he can hit you with. He doesn't have a right leg. His right leg is completely gone. But he can still throw that left hook. you know that's his best punch lightning i always tell people the way he leads that that he uh just leaves out that lead hand and he's measuring stiff jab and he's stepping back and he takes that sidestep pivot that l step and then boom it's just he's clean with that that division is on fire right now how about navajo sterling i'm about to say what what happens with those two guys i know in the same camp no i know he just beat blohovich what happens and he stopped him That was crazy.

1:44:16I know. Watching that was extraordinary. I was like, this kid is something. He's something, man. That right hand was, whew, the distance he covered to land that right hand, too. And Jan's got a chin made out of iron. To take Jan out like that and drop him like that, very, very, very impressive. He's 43 now. Yeah. So it's also, I'm not taking anything away from him, but it's like. I think that's how old Glover was when he beat him. Really? Glover was like 42 when he won the title. Fuck. He was in his 40s. It's doable. It's doable. It ain't easy, but it's doable. Yeah, it's not normal. I mean, Glover was the boogeyman for six years before he could ever get to the UFC.

1:44:56Everybody had talked about Glover. Like, he was scary, but he was trapped in Brazil. He couldn't get visa issues. He couldn't get a visa to come to America and fight. And during those six years, he might have been the best light heavyweight on the planet. Yeah, I remember you told him. Because when he got signed, he got signed pretty, what is it, like late 20s, maybe 30s? Mm-hmm. I think he was in his 30s. Yeah, and I didn't know about him until he came over and made that debut. And it was against Fabio Maldonado, I think, maybe. Mm-hmm. But, yeah, sometimes it just goes like that. Even like Pereira, he came over so late, started so late, I should say.

1:45:31And for him to do what he has done in such a short amount of time is, like, unreal. Unreal. Yeah, pretty extraordinary. How impressed were you with Cyril gone though? Very How many heavyweights can move like that dude? Zero And that's the whole thing with the Aspinall fight that I was saying I was like dude this guy played basketball It's a different type of athleticism Quick twitch muscles Knows how to pivot Fake hit his jukes Yeah it's like plyometrics Giant man plyometrics Yeah And he's great at just holding the range Outside of the eye pokes But great at holding the range Also, the dude never gets hit.

1:46:10When was the last time we saw, I mean, think about it. Ghan is fighting in the heavyweight division. He's fighting guys like Tai Tuivasa. He's fighting, you know, these elite guys, these big heavyweights. And you never see him get cracked. Even against Ngannou. I was about to say, even against Ngannou, he did a great job. Didn't get cracked. I mean, that's kind of crazy that he's so good at avoiding getting hit. He's probably, like, the least hit clean heavyweight in the division. I think that fight with John Jones made people think less of him than what he actually is. It's just that's how good John is.

1:46:44I'm like, you can't do that. That's how good John Jones is. You can't do that. It's not the same. Especially if John gets a hold of your neck. He's going to finish it. And the way he did it, you know, taking him down like that in the first round and guillotining him, I mean, phenomenal. But it's just you have to deal with that speed and that movement standing up before you could ever get that to happen. And John figured it out. But I think Cyril has tightened up his takedown defense considerably since that fight. Yeah. Because I think he realized, like, this is the big hole in his game. I know he brought in a lot of real big wrestlers.

1:47:15But when it comes to kickboxing, when it comes to Muay Thai, he's so hard to fuck with. And that style is different than everybody else's style. He's nasty. Light on his feet. He does a weird thing, too, from his side. Yeah. That front kick. I'll see. I'll be watching. That twisting front kick from the front leg. It's the way he stands. He stands almost like this bladed, but it's not really bladed, but it is. And it allows him to have that dexterity and flexibility where he can just look like he's throwing a front kick, but he's arcing it. It's a twisting kick. There's a kick in Taekwondo called a twisting kick, and that's what it's like.

1:47:52It's from this position. You throw it out like that with the ball of the foot. So you're standing completely sideways, and your front leg comes up, and it twists and goes like that. And that's what he's doing to the body. He's throwing a twisting front kick to the body. It's nasty. See if you can find it in here. Well, that's his round kick. But it's off of his front leg. He throws it off the front leg, and he throws it completely sideways. And when you get to moving, he's gone. Yeah. And also you might try to, like, overemphasize those movements, and he counters catching you coming in because he's faster than you.

1:48:29And that's what he did to Alex. Yeah. He caught him with a jab. I mean, that's what he really rocked him with. It was the right jab. Alex was big. Huge. His freaking ass. I was like, yo, this is, like, distracting, bro. You got a fucking badunkadunk that's fucking blocking my vision of the screen right now, Alex. Like, move. Turn the other way. It was the worst matchup for Alex to step into heavyweight. A guy who is bigger than him naturally, moves faster than him, is lighter on his feet, and is also an elite striker, a world championship caliber striker. at a heavyweight level. Because, like, you know, Alex has been 185.

1:49:06He's a thinner guy. And he definitely put on mass to get up to 250, but that's not necessarily where he was naturally. Whereas Cyril Ghosn has a natural frame to be at 248. And he's more stationary. The stationary guys never do so well against the guys who can move very well. It's just hard for you to chase him down, track him down to learn the perfect punch. had a hard time landing his calf kicks, which slows fights down for him and allows him to land that big Chama left hook. Even if they were to have a rematch, I don't know what he would have to work on to make that adjustment. That's just a hard fight for him.

1:49:44It's always going to be a hard fight for him because Cyril Gaon's so agile. He's so hard to hit. He's never in front of you. Unless he caught him, like maybe through those high kicks right in the beginning, he could have caught him or something like that and rocked him, and that would have been a different story. But he didn't. You know, and Cyril's like, he's great at blocking shit, too. And if you get to him, his reflexes are excellent. Yeah. And it's just that movement and speed is extraordinary. It would have been very interesting to see what happens if the Aspinall fight didn't end the way it ended.

1:50:12That was a heartbreaker. It was a heartbreaker. I got a lot of flack for that because people were saying I should have taken his side because I got fouled, too. And I'm like, I'm not not taking his side. What I'm saying is the only person that knows how bad he truly was hurt is going to be Aspinall. Yes. So if he's saying it, I take it at face value. It is what it is. I can't go and say, I'm in your eyeballs. I've seen guys get poked all the time and they continue. Yeah, we see it all the time. But not all eye pokes are created equal. No. And he got all them three Stooges' fingers up in there.

1:50:45To the knuckle. Yeah, it was bad. Terrible. Terrible. I can only take what he's saying. I was like, but again, it's really up to him. Can he have said, if he was winning the fight, my pushback was devil's advocate. If he was winning the fight and having his way, would he have said, you know what, I'm going to suck it up and try to fight through this even though I still can't see? You never know. I don't think he should. I don't think he should. And I agree. Especially for a foul. I think he made 100 % the right call. Because look, he didn't lose that fight. It was a foul, although controversial.

1:51:18controversial he doesn't get knocked out he doesn't get head kicked he doesn't get flying need in the face if you can't see out of one of your eyes hard there's all sorts of shit that's coming from this direction that you're just not going to see coming and in wild exchanges where your peripheral would catch it and you would duck under you're not going to be able to see it yeah and you're going to get rocked and it's also you're thinking now oh my god i can't see out of one of my eyes fuck that yeah he did the right thing he did the right thing and i think you know he should have got more support you should have got more support from everybody for for that from everybody from everybody yeah i mean i tried to give him as much support as i could i think he got fouled and they did the right thing and i think you got to take one point away every fucking time someone touches an eye one point every time and they won't do it anymore it looks like he's doing better now well i'm hoping he gets to compete again this year two fucking eye surgeries man so that remember remember when you got knocked out by mal and mirais how in the back of your head you're like oh shit, I can't get hit.

1:52:17How about him? Two eyeball surgeries. And now every time a finger comes towards his eye, he's thinking about his eyes losing his eye. Look at Michael Bisping. He doesn't have an eye. He has one eye that's missing, right? So you got to think that. Am I going to look at my kids through one blurry eye for the rest of my life? That's fucked. That's fucked. You know, it's so for the being the position that he's in right now is kind of terrible um i want to talk about the islam fights uh for this weekend for 330 can we take a piss break yeah take a piss break we'll be right back and we're back jamie pull up that card the um the one this weekend so we take a look at it yeah um what do you think about the ian gary islam fight if you had to predict if i had to predict like on the ufc desk and they put you on the spot Okay.

1:53:13Islam Magachev did a really good job neutralizing JDM's boxing. Didn't really give him an opportunity to do anything. He chopped his legs away with the calf kicks, controlled him in a clinch. The takedowns were relatively easy. He didn't even really have to set it up with, like, hands. He kind of just shot and just took him down at will. Ian Gary now, on the other hand, he's done a good job of showing takedown resilience. We saw that with Bilal Muhammad. is Balaan Muhammad Makachev? No. He's not. But it definitely showed something. He did a good job with Shafkat as well, who was a bigger guy. Was able to defend a bunch of times.

1:53:52I forgot if it was Shafkat who had his back, but he was able to defend. Shafkat's the guy who beat him. So Shafkat is the one loss that he has. And it was the grappling that Shafkat got him with. But he also blew out Shafkat's knee. That's why Shafkat has had all these surgeries. That oblique kick. That kick is so nasty. That's the one thing that I wonder. Should we not have that? You don't really like that one. You can defend it by not getting hit by it. But the problem is if you get hit by it, like Khalil Roundtree and Modestus Bukakis, when he turned his knee sideways. He stomped that thing.

1:54:28He stomped it. And that's a career changer. It could be a career ender. Bukakis came back. But this is two years now, right? Yeah. For Shafkot, he's been out? Yep. He's had multiple surgeries. He had it done and then it blew out again and had to get it done again. Yeah, I just don't know. The range, the reach advantage. I think Ian does a great job of using his lateral footwork. He's fast. He's not the fastest guy. No. But what he is, he's imposing. He knows how to cut you off. That southpaw stance I think causes some problems for a lot of people. He's only lost, what, one time to the Adriano Martins with the head kick knockout?

1:55:08A punch. Was it a punch? Yeah, he got punched. Oh, I thought it was a head kick. But either way, I think Ian's going to have to look to something like that, see if there's maybe some of those old tendencies that that punch was able to land. That was also such a younger version of Islam. I just don't see him making those mistakes again. Yeah, that was a long time ago. How does Ian win? He's going to have to point fight and sit on the outside and hope not to get tired going backwards the whole time. Right. And he got tired doing that against Carlos Prathis. So this is a tough one for Gary. Can he get the upset?

1:55:38Of course, he's fighting. We just saw this with Gaethje and Teporia. But I would say Islam has the one shortcut way to win. Push him against the cage, take him down. And even if he pushes him against the cage, I'm curious to see if Gary can do damage in the clinch. Whenever I'm in the clinch with somebody, I always tell the guys, look for your knuckles and hit the eyeball. Hit the nose, hit the soft spots that's going to make this guy uncomfortable in the clinch, not looking for his foot sweeps. where he's comfortable just resting on you, looking to set up his takedown, his next transition. And I learned this from Brian Carraway, my first pro loss in the UFC.

1:56:16After being 5-0, we clinch. I take him down. But in the clinch, while I'm going for the single leg, I have his leg up in the air. He's leaning over my back, and he's taking his knuckles, and he's just hitting me in the eye. Swallowed my whole eye. I was like, what the fuck is he hitting me with? And I go back, and I watch the tape, and I get to see, and I learn that. So I always share these little tricks and stuff with guys when I'm teaching them. So if Gary can land some good damage in those positions, kind of deter Islam a little bit or make him a little bit more sloppy on his finishes, it could cause some chaotic scrambles where he could potentially get to a good position and maybe we see Islam on his back again, kind of like what happened with Volk.

1:56:53And when he was there with Volk, it did not look good. And of course, it's round five, so it's got to be fair. It was also a fight where the time was all fucked up and he didn't have as much time to rehydrate. Oh, yeah, they did say something like that, too. Yeah, it was not—he was compromised in that fight because of that, because he didn't have as much time to rehydrate because they're fighting in Australia, and they were trying to fight on U.S. time. This one is the one that I'm really excited about, too, because Jillian is so fucking good on the ground. Mm-hmm. Top position, even off of her back.

1:57:27Mackenzie Dern is great off of her back. The top position, too, she's more decorated in terms of the jiu-jitsu space. On the feet, she's more reckless. She's throwing caution to the wind because she doesn't care. She's not afraid to get her pretty face messed up. She's going to go in there and go after you. She's just attacking. Jillian, on the other hand, not as physical on the feet, not a big puncher, not a big kicker. She sets everything up looking for the takedown or the clinch to take you down and get to the back. But when she gets there and she gets you down, her ground to pound, it's nasty.

1:58:02The question is, is she going to be able to do it to a world champion like Mackenzie Dern? To a good position. Like some of those other girls, she gets the back mount or full mount, and she's able to land these solid elbows, beat them up in that position. Mackenzie's a jiu-jitsu world champion. Exactly. It's a different world. That's the hard part. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be interesting. Go to the rest of the card. Go back to it. because I'm interested to see how Abdul Malik recovers from his last fight against Bulgari. Bulgari's a monster, dude. That's a guy in the 185-pound division that's a real fucking problem.

1:58:40Yeah. He's a world-class striker. He has a victory over Pereira in glory. Yeah, that's the guy. Yeah, one victory. He got starched in the rematch. But the thing with Malik is he was trying to go for the takedowns, but the setups were like, in my opinion, from a wrestling standpoint. So I may be a little bit unfair with this criticism, but I just didn't think they were that good. He was also dealing with striking that was like way above and beyond him. Yeah. And that was part of the problem is that in the transitions, like trying to get close to him, you're dealing with a guy who's gigantic. He's one of the tallest guys in the division.

1:59:15He's so fucking big for 185, so long and so tall. and on top of it, world-class striker. And he's coming into his own as an MMA guy. And part of the reason is because he's down there in Connecticut with Glover and with Alex, and he's doing camps with those guys. So his grappling's now on point, much more confident on the feet, much more stable. But before that, I thought Mansour was a real potential world champion. Yes. But it's just so crazy. You can see somebody in one fight and I see him in the next one, and you're just like, all right. It was a bad loss, too. It was a bad one. It wasn't good.

1:59:52It was a lot of, like, see if you can find that fight. Leg kicks, the jabs. He got beat up. So the thing was, the amount of damage that he took, because he's so tough, the amount of damage he took before they stopped the fight was pretty extraordinary. There was a lot of damage. I was hoping he could get the fight down at least once. Right. But, yeah, he couldn't. It was a tough... There's a lot of guys at 185 that are a fucking problem, man. A lot of guys at 85 that are a real problem. But we need that in those divisions because those divisions have been so thin for so long. There's a couple of guys, right?

2:00:27But now you're starting to see more. Even the lower weight classes, a guy who's unranked like an Ethan Ewing. Right, right. And you're like, I'm excited about this division because I want to see how far he can go. You got a guy like Mansour, and I can't say the other guy's name. Abdul? No, that's Mansour. Bulgari? Bulgari. You got these two guys coming up. You got Ataba Gauthier? How about that motherfucker? Yeah. He puts guys into orbit. He fought our guy Ozzy Diaz, the last one. Yeah. That was a tough one. It was a tough one. Yeah, this is the fight. I mean, Menser is so tough that he was able to keep this fight going where a lot of guys would have got taken out early.

2:01:04But look at that. Yeah, the elbows and the clinch, everything. He's just getting destroyed. You see how he's even trapping the wrist and then stepping in with the punches or stepping in with the elbows? Clean right hand, elbow. It's just Menser is so tough. Oh, man. He's so tough. he's just absorbing so much punishment and finally they stop it but before he waited all for him get out of here before the stoppage I think that was the end of a round I don't even know that was the end of the round yeah that wasn't the actual stoppage So if you keep going in the fight, it gets even worse. I mean, the thing about stand-up is when you're dealing with a guy who's a world championship kickboxer, and you can't take him down, and he's got really good takedown defense, and he's got a reach advantage.

2:01:50It's like everything possible that's terrible about what could happen is going on. Oh, that split right hand. Oh, my goodness. Oh my god I'm surprised he didn't just face plant after that Well he's so tough man But that's the durability The durability but the toughness is The problem is you get so many holes Punched in your card in one fight In one fight Whereas if he got hit with one shot One big shot is bad He'd get taken out but it's not as bad As a prolonged beating over three rounds I always say I call them dings There it is right there. There's only so many dings you can have in your career before he's a fight.

2:02:30Yeah, this is the final body. His body just couldn't. As tough as he is, and he's so tough. But the problem is that's the kind of fight where in boxing you wouldn't have, if you were a manager and he was your guy, you would not have had him fight him at this stage of his career. No, not at all. You'd be like, this is not a fight for you right now. We've got to really get our striking better. We've got to—there's growth to be had before you fight that guy. But you've got to know that. And I think sometimes fighters, we could be so egotistical that I could beat anybody. But sometimes it's nice to be like, you know what, I could beat him, but just not right now.

2:03:13Let me beat somebody else. We'll get there when we get there. But the UFC does not give you that opportunity. The UFC is like, here's the wolves. You can say no, though. You can, but you might get shelved for a long fucking time if you say no. And a lot of guys know that. And they also know some guys have taken advantage of those opportunities, those short notice opportunities. Jon Jones. Yeah. Jon Jones got, I mean, what was the fight with Shogun? It was very short notice. After he'd just beaten, oh, man. Who did he beat? He beat everybody, but who did he beat? Rashad Evans had just gotten hurt, and then he stepped in and took that one.

2:03:50Right. For the title. Exactly. And that's when him and Rashad were training partners. And that shows the wildness of John. He's fighting Shogun, who's a legend, who's the light heavyweight champion. Opens with a flying knee. Yeah. At 22. And beats him down. Beats him down and wins the title. He has to be studied. Listen, man, he should be coaching for sure. Definitely should be coaching. I mean, he is now with Gable. Yeah. Gable Steveson, he's a real fucking problem. But the other thing is this. You can show all the technique in the world, and I always say it comes back down to what do you do when you're in there under those bright lights, and that's the most important thing.

2:04:34And if you can't dial it in, it's a scary place to be because I can't make you confident. You can be as confident as you want when you're talking to me, but only you truly know what's really going on between those ears. That's where it gets tricky. It does. It gets very tricky. It gets very tricky and it's complicated. And, I mean, there's only so much a mental coach can teach you on how to handle those situations. They can give you some tools, but either—I mean, I think it's something that's born out of your life. You like mental coaches? Excuse me? You like mental coaches? I think there's nothing wrong with tightening up every single aspect of your game.

2:05:17However, I don't think they could fix a leaky boat. Yeah. What do you think? You said it like you don't like mental coaches. I think it's a chink in the armor. I think it's a chink in the armor. If I know you have a mental coach, I'm coming for that ass. Okay, but what if you found out that Alshandre Pantoja had a mental coach? As savage as that dude is. Good for him. I might be like, okay. But he's not fighting me. Right, but you know what I'm saying? That's what I'm saying. But you know what I'm saying? Imagine if you found out Piotr Jan had a mental coach. That's cool. But you know what I'm saying?

2:05:54If a guy is elite already and already a dog, and you give him just some different things to concentrate on, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. What I think is if you need it, it shows me that there's an issue. And sometimes that issue can never be fixed. There's some guys that when the going gets tough, they find a way out. That's where I'm getting at. I agree with you. If you need it, there's nothing wrong with it. But I also know that there's a place in there that if I could get the right key to unlock that door, it's going to be bad. Yeah. It's going to be bad. You're joking, people.

2:06:35Yeah. I think you're right. I think you're right. And I don't know. I mean, Sean Brady had a mental coach. And, you know, there's moments where Sean Brady is a motherfucker. Yeah. Right? Like the Joaquin Buckley fight. Like, holy shit, dude. That Leon Edwards. Oh, my God. Extraordinary. But then Morales. But the problem is Morales is a fucking light heavyweight. He's huge. Gigantic. You want to talk about the one guy that is like the poster boy for cutting weight. It's Morales. He's so big for 170. It doesn't even make sense. Yeah. You see him in the octagon. You're like, that's a light heavyweight.

2:07:13Or at the very least, a very big middleweight. Yeah, for sure. He's a big dude. And he's welterweight. And seeing him and Brady in there, I was like, this is not the same weight class. It seemed like it wasn't. He got a big back, but I'm looking at him like. But then look what Brady did to a former world champion in Leon Edwards, who's a good grappler. I mean, Leon took down Kamaru Usman. Leon can grapple. He's a good grappler. But there's levels. And Sean Brady's on another level when it comes to that. And what he did to Buckley was just bananas. It looked like he was in a training room. You know?

2:07:44Right when he was on top of them it was like he was like working a heavy bag drill. It was crazy. Yeah, I got no Fear whatsoever of getting shook off It's like there is not a chance in hell you're getting me off of you So I'm just gonna work my cardio and beat your ass which is fascinating cuz he's so strong and explosive You would think he'd be able to get up 223 pro He's all weighing in for the as the backup for this fight So he's cutting weight

2:08:14223 is heavyweight he's a heavyweight he's down to 193 now yeah but that's probably after training yeah you know that's not the morning wheel he's really over 200 i guarantee you no i seen him in person he's a big motherfucker he's enormous how are you making 170 and his power is fucking extraordinary he has to cut 20 or more pounds this week Like, yeah, but listen, he can do it. He's young. He's done it before. He started out. He was a wrestler. That's his original discipline. Really? Yeah, he knows how to cut weight. I didn't know that. Wrestling and judo, I believe. See, find his Wikipedia.

2:08:52He can grapple, man. That's the thing. You don't see it from him, which is crazy. I see his videos. Yeah. Not the one where he's dressed up as a girl. I think that's a tradition down there. Yeah, I know, I know. They get silly. I know. This guy's blowing cases. It's a little sus. Like, what? I think it's a traditional thing they do down there. I don't understand it, but I don't have to. I've never seen Chido do it. He's been doing judo since he was five years old. Yeah. See, there you go. I want to see him in Islam. His mother was what? Third Dan Judo black belt. Yeah. When she was 42. Wow. He switched to wrestling when he was 10.

2:09:28Yeah. Watch out for my little mama. So he's got a background in grappling. That's where he started out. But the thing is, the dude's got lightning in his hands. I want to see him in Islam. I want to see him in Carlos Protas. That's what I want to see. Fuck. Yes. I just, I want to see it. Protas is the truth. I just don't want. That dude scares the fuck out of me. I don't want nobody to knock each other off yet. I understand what you're saying. That's where it gets hard. It's like killing the storyline. That's 100 % a great world championship fight. You know? And we'll see what happens. Listen, if Islam may retire.

2:10:04I can feel it. I can feel it. He may retire. He's done a lot. He's competed in two different weight classes and won world championships in two different weight classes. If he beats Ian, if he submits Ian and says, I've had enough, I'm going to do what Khabib did and I'm going to coach now, I could see that. And then I could see Morales and Protest for the fucking undisputed title. Yeah. That's the way to go. Protest scares the fuck out of me, dude. To me, he's the scariest because he does weird shit in there where he sets you up with stuff. He does that setup where he fakes a punch and dives in with that left knee to the body.

2:10:43Yeah, nasty. And his punching power is fucking crazy, man. Oh, why his hands are down here. Hands down there and having fun. Having fun, relaxing. Like when JDM took him down, he's like, why are we wrestling, my friend? People don't want to see wrestling? Come on. Let me up. But JDM's the boxer, so I thought it was going to be more competitive. JDM's pretty complete. You know, JDM supposedly in the Islam fight had a really bad back. It was pretty fucked up and really struggled with wrestling, getting ready for that fight. That's the word. And, you know, even if he didn't, there's levels. And Islam's level is the highest level.

2:11:25He's the highest level. when it comes to grappling, there's no one higher in that division than Islam. His squeeze is extraordinary. That's why I want to train with those guys. Just give me a week. One, two weeks and forget. Send them to Dagestan. Two, three years, forget. I'll be good with that. Would you want to go down there and train with those guys? I would go down for a bit. Why don't you go down? I got this. I got the cigars. I got my training partners. I understand, but time is of the essence. There's not much time left. If you want to find out, it has to be now. I know. You can't go down there when you're 40.

2:11:58Or maybe I'm like Mighty Mouse. When I'm retired, I go train everywhere. Or George. George St. Pierre does that. He's down here all the time training with Gordon Ryan. Yeah, that'd be fun, you know. George is like a real martial artist. You know what I mean? Like never got out of shape. He's the man. He's the man. And he's so cool. You know, he plays chess at a really high level. I play chess. You play chess too? I play chess. Are you good? I'm out of 1 ,350 to 1 ,420 ELO. Is that good? It's supposed to be good. Decent for like, I'm not like a grandmaster, which is like 2 ,500 or some shit. How often do you play?

2:12:34Every day. Really? Every day. But I play five-minute games because it's similar to like a fight. Like you got to know and make your strategies, make your attacks. Some guys, they play 10-minute games. I'm like, bro, I'm too busy to play 10-minute games. Where did you learn? I started playing after COVID, during COVID, when Queen's Gambit came out. Ah! And I used to think chess was like, oh, that's a gay thing. So stupid. Play checkers like a man. What? Play checkers like a man is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Yeah, then I realized real quick, I was like, oh, this is some high-level shit. This is not for stupid people.

2:13:08This is for intellects. You have to understand what you're actually doing, strategizing, setting people up, kind of like a fight. It's a fascinating game. George was playing James McCann James McCann is a hilarious comedian from Australia and James is very smart and a really good chess player and George and him were going to war in the green room of the mothership and we were all like oh shit yeah they had a board guys play at the mothership all the time Brian Simpson and Tony Hinchcliffe play all the time okay they get serious about chess yeah man I don't play but I'm scared I'm scared to play Yeah.

2:13:46Yeah. It's addicting. That's the problem. Because then you want to know the openings. You want to know the strategies. You want to know, okay, if I do this sacrifice, there's so many little things. Now, did you learn by reading books? Did you learn by watching videos? How'd you learn? I downloaded the app during COVID, and that was it. I was hooked. And so how did you learn how to move? The game. So the game, you could start like beginner level. It tells you what pieces like does what like the pawn can only go forward. It can only capture sideways the night can only do like this L-shaped thing forward backwards So you just learn from the app.

2:14:23Yeah. Oh wow And I started watching videos and then I was watching hour-long videos and tutorials. I was like All right, the hooks are in bro We had Magnus Carlson on the podcast and Tony sat in with it because you know Tony plays and it was like watching a guy and talking Watching his mind move and just talking to him about how he does it and how he strategizes. He's the greatest of all time. So having him explain the game to you, you just go, whoa. There's just so many moves. It's so complex. There's so much going on. There's so many steps in advance you're playing. It's cool. Yeah. It's cool.

2:15:03And it's something you can play forever, too, regardless of your physical ability. You know, you don't have to ever worry about getting out of shape to play chess. Yeah.

2:15:15I have some of my friends that did some time, and that's where they learned. That's where they learned how to play. And we would play from time to time. But then I come to find out, like, they were really good at the time because I wasn't really good. I thought I was good, but I really wasn't. And then really quickly I realized, oh, these guys really, they're like low level. So it's a very intellectual game. That's why I really, really enjoy it. When I was playing pool in New York, there was this kid who was a young player. When he was really young, he was playing in tournaments all over the place.

2:15:50He was really good. And there was a dude who got out of prison and learned how to play in his head in prison because they didn't have a board. And so this kid and this old dude were sitting there playing chess in their head. And they would call out the moves. And they had the whole board mapped. I was fascinated. I was like, this is crazy. That's really hard to do. Yeah, and you also have to agree where the pieces are. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? I'm not that good. You got to rely on, and, you know, this one guy had played so many times in prison in his head that he could keep track of the entire board, and this kid was a wizard at it.

2:16:24And watching these two guys call out moves and just sitting there staring at each other trying to figure out who's winning. I'm like, you guys are playing an invisible board. This is crazy. Yeah, that's next level. That was my first introduction to chess. I was like, this is nuts, man. You want to try the silver? Sure, I'll try it. I still have some of this left, though. It's water now. Yeah. I know it is. Agua.

2:16:51It's still chilled, too, so. I like this one chilled. You ever do like a green tea shot? Pour a little of that out there. What's a green tea shot? It's like with bourbon or whiskey. It's like a little something. tea yeah they call it green tea you see a lot of the girls they drink at the bars and stuff so we did this with like a we call it silver tea it's a silver rum what is rum made with sugarcane sugarcane or molasses i think the other one's agricole but no matter where people are in the world they find a way to get fucked up yeah from the pirates of the caribbean is that what's from no no but that's That's what the pirates would drink.

2:17:33Why are pirates, why were they so into rum? Honestly, I couldn't tell you. You know what I mean? Like, argh, I don't know. That's like rum is like associated. They probably learned from the Caribbean, right? That's where it originated, right? Yeah, you get it from sugarcane plants and the whole distillation process. This is like pot still and column still for both of these. It's just a Jamaican blend. Like some of them are mostly... Pirates did drink rum, but the stereotype is exaggerated, so it's perplexed. During much of the 1600s, Caribbean pirates often drank wine and brandy more commonly.

2:18:11Rum became far more available and popular in the early 1700s as Caribbean sugar production expanded. Oh, that makes sense. Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum. You know what I never understood is like... we know the big players in the rum market like Bacardi, Captain Morgan, Malibu. But when we go on vacation, we go to the Caribbeans, we drink all the different rums from the islands. And I always tell people, like, you have such a great time drinking rum. Like, why don't we bring that here to our culture and make it more of an inclusive thing versus just only when I go on vacation. That's the only time it's really associated.

2:18:50And I go, I want to change that narrative and let people. and rum is for year round. You can have sipping rum. You can have it for Vegas pool parties. You can have it with a cigar. Like there's so many different ways you can enjoy it. It's not just for vacation time. For me, I want this to be something that makes you feel like you're back on the island. And we wanted to make sure this was 100 % Jamaican rum. Didn't want to piss off my people in Jamaica because that's the one thing when we were doing this. So I went through the whole process, like the branding, the labeling, my money invested in it.

2:19:23So it's like actually my company. But with that said, one of the things I spoke to some of the guys at the distilleries, the one we went to mainly was Worthy Park. And they were saying the main thing you don't want to do is call something Jamaican rum if it's not 100 % Jamaican. And I was like, I had a feeling, but I wanted to make sure. So we didn't toe that line and piss anybody off. So this has been a fun project. and we've been having a good time just getting some bigger distributors and stuff. We should get one in California soon. My guy Kevin Falkler from King Seafood, he has a bunch of restaurants down in Cali and Vegas.

2:20:01He brought us in, but he's a Long Island guy. He heard me talking about it on the Ariel show and reached out, and I thought it was like a prank email. I was like, let me just see where it goes, and it turns into something. I was like, oh, this is actually a legit guy, actually had a legit business and everything, and it's been cool. So this has been fun. It's my passion project. What's a smart thing to do to prepare for your retirement, too, to have a real legitimate business going, like, as you're still fighting? Yeah. It's not just my name on a label, like, trying to do a quick money grab or anything like that.

2:20:29That's awesome. So where are you right now in terms of, like, your next fight? Are you in a holding pattern? Yeah. Everyone's got to fight. Lerone's the only guy who would make the most sense, in my opinion. But like I said, I heard he was hurt. I think Diego Lopez is supposed to have somebody. I think he's fighting lightweight now. That's what I heard. I heard Diego was moving up, which makes sense because he's big. He's a big dude. He's big. And after he beat Steve Garcia, which was a crazy fight. I got my thoughts on that. What's that? I got my thoughts on that. What are your thoughts on that?

2:21:03Think about it while you're lighting that cigar.

2:21:08Pause. So, coming for that ass. I'm coming on that ass. No, I'm coming for that. I still get those messages till this day bro it's the funniest thing I was like yeah you just got done with the fight what are you gonna do? my adrenaline was through the roof I'm on cloud nine I just submitted the boogeyman of the division even back then my managers I heard talk that they thought he was gonna be the first champ for their management company and I took that as as Michael Jordan would say I took that shit personal you know so And I'm so glad I proved the point. And, yeah, I was just on a whole other level.

2:21:50But, yeah, Lerone is out. Garcia just lost. Arnold Allen just had a great fight with Costa. He lost to Gene Silva before that. Most are on Vogue. We know that. I fought most already. And Gene Silva's got a fight too now, right? He's supposed to be fighting Yair. That's right. At least those are the rumors I saw circulating on Antioch. Yeah, that's right. That's an interesting fight. That'd be a fun one. Yair is always a wild card. Yeah. That dude can kick. Bro, I was going to say, his kicks, if there's a guy I don't want to fight, is that motherfucker because I know what the kicks do, and I'm like, I don't want to be on the receiving end of that.

2:22:26Yeah, his kicks are crazy. Fucking baseball bats getting swung at your head. And he's got so much dexterity. Like, he can whip those kicks around from anywhere. He's so light on his feet, man. Those kicks are extraordinary. Yair, he's one of the best kickers in the sport by far. 100%. 100%. People think I have like a kicking background. I'm like, no, I just watched a lot of VHS tapes when I was a kid and played white tiger, white lion, and all that stuff with my brothers growing up. Is that how you learned how to kick? Basically, we just see what we did on the TV and just start imitating it, and we have these battles.

2:23:00I'm a family of 20, so I got a huge family. Wow, that's crazy. That's huge. Yeah, well, the boys, we went to war with each other. And you just learned from watching movies? We learned from watching movies. We didn't do anything traditional, like no martial arts traditional background. So when did you first get, like, someone teach you technically how to kick? I forget the guy's name, but when I was at Team Bomb Squad in New York when I was in college, and I was just starting off as an amateur and early pro, we had this Muay Thai guy come up. Stone something, I want to say, but he was working with Jon Jones.

2:23:39He was the first guy, like, showing Jon the elbows, the knees and stuff. and that's where I first, first started learning how to do, like, traditional Muay Thai kicks. Then I worked with this other guy named Primo Belarose. He was really good for me to work with. Irish guy, had a ton of Muay Thai fights. And then when I came to Long Island, I didn't really have, like, I still don't even have, like, a set Muay Thai instructor or anything like that. I just kind of know what I know from back then, and I kind of just blended in where it makes sense. I know you train in Vegas sometimes, too. I've seen you at syndicate.

2:24:11You live there now. 100 %? Yeah. Wow. What made you decide to do that? My home's always going to be in New York, but I live in Vegas now. It's the fight capital of the world. Business for me over there, it's doing really, really well. Is it because you get more training partners, more coaching? Training partners, more coaching. Are you still at Syndicate? No, I was—Morab was at Syndicate. Right. I would go to Syndicate to help him. That's where I saw you training. Yeah, I would go down there to help him out for his fights. I started at XC. That's where I trained with first, with Nixick. The training times were a little bit odd for me.

2:24:44It was like 330 pro classes and stuff like that. But I think the sport's still kind of backwards. People doing all these classes, I think in the beginning is good, but I think eventually you have to get to that one-on-one Ilya Taporia, an O'Malley, a Henry Sciuto, a Mighty Mouse, the way these guys are doing it. Tailored, structured training camps for you. Like a boxing camp. Right. Right. And even when I was back home in New York, that's basically how we essentially ran it. You know, I was running all the stuff that we were doing and, you know, rain, those guys would come down and for sparring.

2:25:18And I go to Sarah's for BJJ, working a lot with Jason, Jason Rowe, who's got his own school now, too. I don't know if you know him, but he's he's like the boogeyman everyone talks about in the training room. But for some reason in competition, he's just never really showed what he can truly do. but he's so talented, could walk you through everything and explain everything at a high level. But, yeah, that's kind of how I ran everything. But it's centered focus, and I felt like that's the best. Our gym was on a run where everyone was killing the game. So is it also because Merab's in Vegas that you wanted to go to Vegas?

2:25:52I moved before him. Really? And then he moved in, and he found a house right next to me. Oh, that's perfect. That's amazing. So we're literally, like, across the street from each other. Oh, that's amazing. That's pretty cool. That's actually great. And where are you training? What gym are you training at there? The Q? I don't know that place. It's brand new. Before it was kind of like nomads land. We were training most of the classes at the PI, but you can't charge anybody, right? You're using someone else's facility, so you can't be running a class and on top of that charging people. Right. So that whole thing.

2:26:25So my coach, Mateus, he was eventually able to find a place. And now just about all the undergrads are now graduates. Most of them are just about all signed to the UFC now. So we have Diony Barbosa. We have John Paul Lombosone. I can never say his name. John Paul, I just call him JP. John Powell, I think he's supposed to be getting signed. Shane Collins just got signed. He had that debut against Atari, the Georgian, which was also a friend of mine who just kind of sucked watching that fight because I was like, ah, I don't want to see nobody get hurt. I don't want to see nobody lose. Ozzy Diaz.

2:27:00And I think Marab is now going to be shifting over to doing most of his camp. He's still going to be working with Syndicate, but he's going to be doing most of his camp with us. And there's a few of the guys. I'm sorry if I'm missing some other people. Don't be mad at me. I'm sorry. I'm just a man. No worries. And so you have Mateus. Not Mateus from London. No. What's Mateus' last name? Nakashi. Nakashi he's from Novo Inyo he grew up with Aldo and those guys Henne Burrell Johnny Eduardo he's like bro you fight all my Brazilian friends you beat all my coaches because I beat Johnny Eduardo I fought Henne Burrell I beat him and uh he's like bro I remember I was there and you beat my coach it's like fuck it I'm sorry I'm sorry but it's a good gym you know what it is it's a lot of the drills that we do even in the classes it's practical we're not doing eight, ten punch combinations.

2:27:55We're doing real life practical stuff, scenarios that happens in the fight. So I don't mind doing the classes with this, but I also like to do my one-on-ones afterwards, especially when it's fight specific that we need to work on. I think they do a good job. Now you were saying you had thoughts on the Steve Garcia Lopez fight. Again, another pause.

2:28:17Light went up for my boys. Yeah. 145. Yeah, Steve Ford. I always say Steve is the dark horse of the division. He looks so good in the early going. Bro. If you watch some of his other fights, the one fight, the few fights he lost where he was knocked out was him just being more reckless than he probably should have been. Big frame for the weight class. His reach is fucking stupid. Crazy long. Crazy kicks. When he gets you on the ground, his ground to pound is ferocious. Like almost reckless to a point, right? And then he's fighting a super smart fight with Diego Lopez. Diego Lopez now comes out for round two.

2:28:57He flips the switch and says, fuck this technical shit, and just pulls him into a barn fight. And, man, he clipped him. And he's been knocked out before, right? So if there's any way a guy who has a granite chin who could rely on it is a guy like Diego Lopez. And I even said, I saw Diego Lopez at the PI, and I told him, I was like, congrats on the fight. We had a little beef, but it was more so about who should have gotten a title shot. I thought he was gifted a title shot. Okay, cool. The second one, you mean? Or the first one? The first one. I thought it should have been Mozart. The second one was ridiculous.

2:29:29The second one was ridiculous, too. Didn't make any sense. But congrats to him. Do you think they gave him the second one as a gift because he fought short notice? Possibly. Yeah. It kind of seems like it. This one don't like me. But my whole thing is that's why we kind of bumped heads. We did train together one time. We were friendly, cordial, and the whole nine, and that kind of set a little riff in the relationship a little bit. We both fought at UFC 300. We took a picture in the back. But that's what I said. I always speak my mind on things, and sometimes it gets me in trouble. It turned into a whole thing with his manager and myself and Twitter beef and all this whole thing.

2:30:08I thought the fight should have went to Mozart, just being fair, based on merit, should have gotten it. Tied up the division, jammed up fights that probably should have been different directions, right? But I told him, congratulations, you fought a smart fight, you pulled him into your style of fight, and that's how he got the job done. If he fought him, on a technical standpoint like that, I think Diego would have probably ran away with it. Not Diego, Garcia. Well, he just, unfortunately, went in when Lopez started chasing after him, he engaged in that kind of fight. And that's what he does. I'm like, if I'm fighting Diego, I'm not doing that shit.

2:30:43I'm sure I could take a punch, but that guy's got mitts. That's one, and he knows he can rely on his chin, and he's probably looking at me like, I don't think this guy can knock me out, so I'm going to risk it. He's got a square jaw, dude. You have to understand what you're getting into, and that's what I was saying before about some of these guys, you have to understand thyself. When you look at Diego, yeah, that's good. Diego looks like he's designed to take a shot, like one of the Mark Hunt-type chins, designed to take a shot. So that's why I go, like, if I were to fight him, like, I know how I would approach the fight.

2:31:19Obviously, the path to least resistance for me is always going to be the ground, but he's good on the ground, too. Very good. He almost got Evluev, remember? Yeah, the knee bar, the triangle, arm bar. Yeah, you could make an argument that he could have won that fight because he was closer to finishing multiple times, and those should count. Those submission attempts, close submission attempts, should count in a big way. And just because a guy got out of it doesn't mean he was almost dead. But that means a lot. That means just as much as rocking a guy. It should. It should. But judges are judges.

2:31:50That's a bad aspect of judges because it's very difficult to get to a position like that where you're almost submitting a guy multiple times. Yeah. Those were very close. And if you were looking at that in terms of a jiu-jitsu perspective, yeah, he's got the advantage. 100%. 100%. So that's why that would be a tough fight for me. But I want to fight the biggest names. Well, Diego's moved up. So Diego's 55 now. Yeah. From what I understand. Which makes sense because he's fucking big. It was probably a real struggle for that dude to get down to 45. Yeah. A real problem. Yeah. But 55 is such a fucking lion's den too.

2:32:26Shark tank too. What did you think of the Taporia-Gaethi fight? I thought it was amazing, man. Like for Gaethi to come out, it kind of reminded me of the Tony Ferguson fight, right? The boogeyman. He did what he needed to do. Had a perfect game plan. And what Gaethi said was the most spot on thing. I was talking to one of my friends. They said they like Gaethje on the podcast, but they were like, I thought he came off a little cocky or arrogant. I was like, as he fucking should. He's the champion of the world. Was trying to shit on him and gave him no chance to win the fight. If anyone relates to that is me.

2:33:00I understand exactly where he's coming from. Fuck, let him fucking talk his shit. Because if the other guy won, best believe he would have been his white rose, like he said he was going to do. He had beef with his dad. Like, there's a lot of built-up animosity, whether it was fake, whatever, it was there. So let him have his time in the sun. But with the fight, I thought the thing he said that made the most sense to me, that resonated, was he changed people's perception of the fighter. Where before, people were kind of going in there hesitant, scared, and they kind of knew what they were walking into and it was going to be a bad night.

2:33:37And going in there and doing that to Ferguson changed Ferguson's career. going in there doing this to Teporia. Can Teporia bounce back and be the same guy and have that same aura, same persona that people are going to step in the octagon with him and be a little hesitant to want to go in there with him because of what he's done in the past, but then also knowing that, yo, just like us, man, he puts his fucking pants on the same way we do, one leg at a time, unless he could jump and put both on at the same time. I think there's a physics element to it too. The reality of Gaethje and Teporia is that Teporia is much smaller.

2:34:13Yeah. He's a much smaller person. Look, he's got death in his hands. Death. And a lot of people would have folded in that second round. But Gaethje is so fucking durable. He's so durable. And you can't make him quit. He's not going to quit. You might beat him. He's been beat before. But it's not because he doesn't believe in himself. And it's not because he can't endure. It's because he gets caught. Yeah. You know, and you think about the way Ilya put it on him in that second round. He emptied the gas tank, emptied the gas tank, and Gaethje was still there. And that's the problem, is you cannot empty the gas tank on that guy.

2:34:49I think he tried—he got ahead of himself, too. I felt like he was trying to put an exclamation point bowtie ribbon on the finish where he could have submitted him or maybe just go for the TKO, but instead he went for the Khabib-like mounted triangle that Khabib hit on Gaethje, and he was in the same position, was going for the same sequence, and I go, brother, this is either going to be really dope or it's going to be the reason you lose. And he lost the position. Gaethje gets back up, and man, just everything he did in the approach. If they had a rematch, maybe the fight goes different. Maybe Teporia, if he does, he takes him down and does what he's also really good at and cements him.

2:35:32or maybe he's more patient with his attack. He doesn't empty the gas tank in the second round when he has them hurt. Justin's attitude is so crazy, too. When he got back to the corner, he's like, good body shot. He's the best. Congratulating him on hitting him with a good liver shot. Yeah, yeah. Man, the way he hit him, I was like, the fact that he didn't just go down and curl up in a ball and just say, all right, I'm just going to take my paycheck and go home. Nope. Well, it was his last chance at 37 to be a world champion, and he did it. And he did it in the White House, which is crazy. So you're saying there's a chance?

2:36:09Saying there's a chance. 37? You're saying there's a chance? Of course there's a chance. You've already pulled it off before. You 100 % could be a world champion at 45. You know it. Bro, that would be the Cinderella ending for my career, bro. Yeah. I can't even put into words what that would feel like. I get goosebumps even thinking and talking about it because it's Well you're better and smarter than you've ever been before. All your experience, the Zalaw fight's a great example of that. You're at a world championship level at 45 for sure. 100%. It's a matter of whether or not you get that shot.

2:36:46I think they should hopefully let's say I don't get booked because there's not a lot of options but let's say they have their fight hopefully it's in Abu Dhabi sooner rather than later I think that's when it's supposed to be right yeah that's what I've heard and hopefully I'm the next guy because then it's okay to wait if not then you know I'd rather stay active stay busy make money and the whole nine because that's ultimately what it comes down to so they haven't talked to you about any potential fights or offered you anything they floated names Pico's now booked with Zalao oh yes interesting there's Vallejos but with Vallejos that's going so far back again for me.

2:37:27It's not a fight that makes a ton of sense, but whatever these guys want to do, I've never said no. Maybe that's a problem. But ideally, you'd like to fight for the title next. Ideally, I would like to fight for the title next. I think that makes sense, especially you as a former world champion at bantamweight. It makes sense. Especially if Oak wins. Yeah. That's the fight. This is a big fight you can make. Two OGs of their weight classes. Everything I've done at the bantamweight division set the records. why not? Well, I mean, after Lerone knocked out Pico, he was saying, I'll see you next. And we thought that was going to be the case.

2:38:03And it changed. Yeah. So hopefully, I don't know. Hopefully it changes, but it changes. Lerone loses to Yves Louv. And then the whole thing is just upside down now. Because Lerone, after he knocked out Pico, looked like the man. I mean, he wasn't looking like the man before that. Well, Pico's a bad motherfucker, dude. He didn't get like no fucks. I was like, dude, you got to slow down. He's so reckless. I mean, it makes him so exciting. But listen, he adjusted in the pit bull fight in a perfect way. I mean, he looked like world class in the pit bull fight. That left hook he has is beautiful. It's nasty.

2:38:39Oh, it's beautiful. It's perfect. Like they should study it. They should teach that left hook, the Aaron Pico left hook, him and Ilya. Ilya's left hook is fucking phenomenal. That left hook to the body. Ilya just does such a good job. Once he gets going and he hits a slip and he's just like bink, bink, bink. It's almost like Conor-esque, the way he just lines up his shots. Vintage Conor. Vintage Conor, like Eddie Alvarez Conor. Oh, my God. That was when he was The Matrix. Who is it? They did a side-by-side, Joros Medich with D-Rod. Yes, I saw that. And it was a problem. I was like, there's no way this is like the same exact combination.

2:39:14Close, except for the knee. Yeah. Yeah. Joros Medich looked good, man. He's another motherfucker. He's another motherfucker. And another guy who was cutting too much weight. At 55. Yeah. Yeah. At 70, that's perfect for him because he's big, man. He's so tall. I think all first rounds, too. Uh-huh. Just starching guys. Serbia's a wild place, too, man. They're wild people. Brother. Brother. It was hostile. They were nice to me, but my Albanian friends. Oh, I'm sure. Because there's still a lot of history that wasn't too long ago. And I always tell my friends, like, yo, we are blessed to be in this country because the shit we bitch about and complain about, these are luxuries, liberties, and freedoms that a lot of these countries do not have.

2:39:57Right. And all it takes is a short trip overseas, and you'll see, hey, I can't wait to go back home, and I'll kiss the ground. It ain't perfect, but we got a lot, you know? Have you ever seen those Serbian basketball games? I heard about it. I didn't get to see them, though. I heard they were talking about it. I think we were supposed to go to one or something like that. It's like war. like the chants in the audience is crazy. The flares and everything too? Well it's the chants it's when they're chanting you're like Jesus it's like daunting it's very different than anything you ever see in America it's like first of all their national give me some volume on this yeah the flares bro Serbian basketball game yeah they're lighting that place on fire I mean it might as well be a riot

2:40:47Now is this actually basketball? Yeah. How we know it? Bro, basketball. Not Dagestani style? They're fucking good. No, no, no. They're not tackling each other. The Dagestani stuff is crazy. Listen to the crowd.

2:41:00Fuck.

2:41:05Bro, they get into it. Look at that stadium. I know.

2:41:13Amazing. It's like war. I mean, the energy. Three. The fucking crowd. The energy is like the energy in an American NBA game times ten. Shout out to the Knicks. It's crazy. It's crazy how much. Like, look at all the movement in the crowd. I mean, these people are active. I mean, it's kind of nuts. Yeah, we don't. That's the one unfortunate thing. I feel like our sports isn't as like our fan base. besides New Yorkers who will beat you up for being a rival team in the playoff finals wearing the wrong jersey you better take that shit off we don't really get like like we don't that kind of pride yeah that's like well those people have been to war pretty recently it's different yeah so different yeah but it makes you appreciate that's why I go back to like it makes me appreciate like what we have here and the fact that we can achieve basically whatever it is that we want to It's not easy, but we can.

2:42:14Yes. We can try. We have the option to try. Anything. Yeah. I mean, this is literally the land of opportunity. But when you see people that come from Serbia, we see people that come from Dagestan, we see people that come from these war-torn Chechnya, they're different because their childhood was different. Different mentality. Yeah. It's a different mentality. It's a warrior mentality. It's very different. Yeah. like I've seen I've learned a little bit from Arab and going to Georgia and learning the history about them and Russia and the whole the whole war and everything and the political side of things and then going to Albania going to Kosov and then going to Serbia and and seeing how like the Serbians are coming up to my Albanian friends introducing themselves basically or asking my friends where they're from and then just straight up just saying Kosov is Serbia as an introduction I would go, are we just trying to start a fight right now?

2:43:10Like, I don't even understand. Can we just be like, can we just be cool? We're in your country. We'll just accept one another for what it is. We're here for the fights. We're not here to fight. Just have, oh, before I forget this. So we were at a, after one of the nights, I think we went to one of the clubs on the water and we go out to this food spot to go get food. It's called Good Food or whatever. And we're there. We're with some of the staff, the UFC staff. We're hanging out. These guys are always great. We're having a good time, a couple fighters. And I guess one of the guys came over and was talking to one of our friends.

2:43:47And he goes to him. Our friend looks straight up Dardinian. He looks like a straight up Illyrian bloodline. He looks straight up Albanian. And he asks him where he's from. He tells him, oh, I'm Albanian. I think he says he's from Kosov. And they start talking. but then sure enough the guy I guess starts reaching into his pocket and he says whatever he says they don't speak Serbian it's different language and we have a Serbian friend with us and he translates for he translates for them and he tells them he says if you guys don't clear out in 10 minutes I'm gonna blow this place up brother what I'm taking a piss break around the corner outside somewhere because I'm like, been drinking all night.

2:44:31I got to find somewhere to go. I come back and they're explaining this to me. So we start telling the girls. He says when the guy starts going down the steps, he's like trying to talk to the guy. He keeps taking a step back. He says he starts sweating profusely. He's got his hand in his back pocket and he moves it to the front. And he's just like waving, whatever, saying whatever he's saying in Serbia and telling everybody they better leave. And he said he thought it was a gun. and then he asked our serbian friend he said no it was a grenade i was like what he's just casually walking around with a fucking grenade are you kidding me and just because they were albania brother this is this is life for these guys it's and i know people are gonna be they're gonna criticize oh we're not all like of course not everyone is like that but there's still some crazy people out there that still have this pent-up resentment and anger for everything because of the separation of the lands and all this.

2:45:27But this, it's almost like the Israel-Palestine thing. It's all the lands get divided from years ago, and then you did this to me, but then you did this to me, but then you did this to me first, but then you did this to me back then. And I'm like, where are we going to go back to? To BC? Like, what the fuck are we talking about? Can we draw a line in the sand and go, okay, this is where we all agree that this is what it should be. And just make everybody happy or somewhat happy so that we can go on with our lives in peace. You know what I mean? It shouldn't have to be like that. The problem is the war is so recent for them.

2:45:59Yeah. I was so broken up about it. I'm just like, dude, I did not know it was like this, man. This is like, because you're from this country and this guy had a pleasant conversation with you. he's gonna he's gonna he's gonna fucking grenade pull out a fucking grenade he's going walk i'm like no it's crazy but yeah don't take any fights over there for the albanian god bless america well dennis is albanian that's crazy and the chance he was getting basically what they told me to translate to was kill albanians and i'm laughing because i don't understand everything anything i'm just laughing because i'm like yo this is sick you're in the main event this was me fighting O'Malley in the main event.

2:46:41The crowd was packed. They could not wait for Dennis to make that walk. Boo in. You hear a chance. Kosovas, Serbia. Kosovas, Serbia. Kosovas, Serbia. And, yeah, unfortunately. But I told Dennis, I was like, you handled it well. Like, you know, even in hostile territory, you came in like a champ. You didn't piss anybody off. You were just doing what you normally do. You do your ego every fight. You're not looking to provoke anybody. And it was nice to see, even after the fight, whatever the fucked up stoppage he was he got a better reception on the way out there was still some like angry fans like well luckily he didn't win i was like bro you had won this fight here i don't know man we had to run they might have blew up the hotel oh my god right i mean imagine you fight euros medic over there and you you beat him right i don't even know if i i'm supposed to say this but his dad was told when he got to the i guess the hotel that he wasn't welcome here he had to go all the way back to albania really he drove all the way down had to drive all the way back wow that's because his last name holy shit yeah they told me you're not welcome here like this is god bless america yeah yeah i mean here's the thing like in america like when russians fight in the ufc everybody cheers oh i got no one got the biggest reception but i mean even now yeah Even now, in the middle of the Ukraine war and all that shit, when Russians fight over here, nobody cares.

2:48:10If you can fight, they'll cheer you. There's a few people that yell out USA, USA, and that's all good because it's not that bad. They're cheering for the American, but they're not saying death to the Russian. You know what I mean? Yeah, we don't have a phrase. We don't have a statement. Right, but would you fight in Russia right now? Imagine if you were fighting a Russian in Russia right now How scared I got offered a raft match in Russia What's a raft match? RAF Oh I thought you meant like raft Like you fight on a raft No, no, that would be crazy Did you see Merab was sparring with Zuckerberg on a raft?

2:48:47Basically a raft He did the sporty kick off the raft And then he picked him up and slammed him into the water So you got offered one of those matches Yeah In Russia My second one The first one was with Benson Henderson that was a fun match more so for me but yeah but I was just like it was a really good prospect 12-0 guy I think he fights a PFL tough guy but I'm like dude I'm leaving Albania I just left Baku I have no desire to go all the way back overseas again I want to prepare for a fight I want to sell some rum I want to fucking sell some cigars help my training partners like and I got a wife I got to make sure that I'm your home.

2:49:29Kind of home. Like, give him some attention and some love, you know, some TLC. Well, it's also, there's a reality of wrestling matches that you have the potential of blowing a knee out. That too. That's real. So, you know, who was the Russian guy who blew his knee out? Oh, the Georgian guy. Is that what it was? Yeah, the big heavyweight guy. Yeah. Yeah, the Georgian guy. He was like a silver medalist in the Olympics. I mean, you can blow a knee out in these matches and then you're fucked. And all the injuries in MMA are basically, what were you doing? Wrestling. Wrestling, yeah. The culprit. Well, listen, Al Jermaine, it's always good to have you on here, brother.

2:50:04And good luck with the rum company. It's called Harbor. What is it called? Funk Harbor Rum. And we actually got a community app now, too. It's called joinfunkharbor.com. And what is the website if people want to go and see the rum? Well, if they want to join the community, it's joinfunkharbor.com. If you want to purchase, funkharborrum.com or funkharborspirits.com. Pretty easy. and we're looking for distributors, more distributors to keep growing this thing as best as we can and the best thing about it is we're actually giving people an opportunity to help grow this thing from the ground up. We're two years in as of August 1st and we doubled our sales from last year so we're in a really really good spot so I'm excited about that and anyone that's been following me from the beginning of my career they get an opportunity to now take the ride with us and we got perks and stuff like that all listed on the Republic campaign for the crowdfunding.

2:50:53I'm so happy that you have something like this. It's really cool. It's good. It's smart, too. Yeah. It's really good to invest in something like that. Yeah. So far, so good. And good luck in whatever happens in the future, because I really do hope you get another title shot. Oh, my God. That would be... That's the right way. The right way is... Yeah. Because, again, you're 37. This is the time. Clock's ticking. Yeah. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Always good to see you, my friend. Always. All right. Bye, everybody.

2:51:34We'll see you next time.