E523 Georges St-Pierre

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27:46For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell phone. That's forthepeople.com slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound 529 from your cell. This is a paid advertisement. man. Yeah. Whenever you took a break after Hendrick, you talked about like you were going through a tough time or something. What was that about? It was, was it stuff you couldn't talk about before? Yeah. It was, I had a lot of issues, a lot of family issue and problem. And, and the thing is when you're, I was a very active fighter and, and when you say active, what do you mean?

28:31Fighting often? Yeah. Fighting often. And, and also you have to consider that you do a lot of promotion tours and stuff. It takes, a lot out of you. And also the stress on, on always, you always have someone that, that is threatening you. Because when you're the contender, you don't have as much stress because you have one target. You want to be champion. You want to go there. That's the benchmark, you know? That's the best, isn't it? Yes. It's hard to be, to become champion, but it's even harder to stay champion. It is not a lot of guys that stay champion for a long time. It's very hard because when you're champion, you're the target.

29:08When you're the contender, you have, you know, one guy is starting. Nobody really targets you, but if you get to the title shot, you have only one guy that targets you. When you're the champion, everyone targets you. So you're the target. And you don't have much time to prepare for your opponent. And your opponent has been looking at you for years because he's climbing the rank and he's studying you. He's trying to find a sheik in your armor. And every time they interview any of those guys, they all call your name because you're the guy of course so that's why it is much different it's much more difficult to stay champion than than becoming champion and and when you're a champion it's hard because your life changed you have more responsibility and more uh there's a lot of more requests and stuff and then man it's and that's what happened to me at the time I was, you know, I was doing it for so long and I had so much pressure for so long.

30:10And I remember at the time I was, I didn't want, I was shy to talk about it because I was like, if I talk about it before the fight and I was fighting against, they had, they used to have big problem with performance enhancing drug in, in mixed martial art. It was, it was a big, big problem. Oh, they got big problems with those at a damn 7-Eleven dude. Those people are shooting up everywhere. I never wanted to accuse one individual, but I wanted to change the system. And the UFC at the time didn't really add my back, didn't really help me on that. And I was fighting against that behind closed door.

30:49And it was - Because you were saying some of these guys could be using, we have to test stronger. Oh, a hundred percent. That's why I did the test when I fought Hendrix. When I fought also BJ Penn, we did the test because I wanted to implement this. It's crazy because you play basketball, you play soccer, play football, but you don't play fighting. You can lose your brain cells out there. It's different. And it makes, some people are like, yeah, but it doesn't make that smile. Bullshit. It makes you such a huge, it's a tons of difference, man. I've trained with guys that are openly, like they're saying to me, like when they are on cycle, it's not even the same person.

31:24Yeah, guys, it changes you, not only stamina, strength, recovery, but also your, your, Your brain. Your reaction time. You're more creative. There is things that you would do when you're on it that you would not maybe do when you're not. Oh, you'll start fucking the air when you're on test 700 or whatever, dude. I saw a guy one time just, he just, he had so, you know, he just, he turned into an animal. Yeah, 100%. 100%. So in fighting. So that's a risk then because you're at the top. Obviously, everybody's focused on you. and if you don't know if some of the, if you're staying clean and you don't know if some of the testing is up to your, what you believe is a fair code, then fuck, that would be really scary.

32:07Well, the martial art, I think that one of the thing in martial art is the respect and being just, being fair. And I mean, these are the traditional value of martial art. And I always try to carry that with me. and I felt like I was in some way, not betrayed, but I felt a little bit let go and I was just fed up. I just needed to take a time off. That's why I left for more than four years. And I'm glad I did it because maybe I should have done it maybe one fight before. You can burn out, man. It's so much, people I don't think realize that I can't even imagine the responsibilities. And then, yeah, especially while the sport is still building so much at that time, like that was a huge building period for UFC.

32:58And so like to have some just to have like interview requests, I want you to be here and you want to do all the things you can do, you know, because you feel like you're physically capable. But yeah, part of you starts to get burned down. It's like a I don't know. It's almost like when you light a candle and there's nothing left in it. Yeah, that's how I feel sometimes. I remember you just finish a fight and immediately after there's another guy calling you out. And I'm sort of an obsessive compulsive guy. So as soon as another guy calling me out, I'm starting to make scenario in my mind. I'm like, okay, I'm like, it drives you nuts.

33:35It drives you. And when you're the contender, you're on your way up. You don't have that problem. Yeah. You know, yeah, of course, when maybe you get to the top five, you know, but before that, nobody noticed you. Nobody care about you. You care about them, but they don't care about you. It's so funny. So when you're on top, now you're the target. Everybody talks shit about you. They disrespect you. And if you want it or not, it touches you. Yeah. You know, because you say, oh, you don't bother watching this thing. But, you know, it touches you. And you see, sometimes things get bad. You see the people, they insult each other.

34:08And people always ask me sometimes, oh, do you think they went too far? I mean, this is the fight game, man. die out there or you can have certain damage that will make you die in the near future. Oh yeah, be wheelchairs or whatever, anything. The art of war, man, they're gonna try everything to try to make you lose your mind and we saw many fights that guys lose their mind and that's one of the reasons why, like, everybody knows Conor McGregor. Yeah. His first title fight against Jose Aldo, he knocked him out in like something like seven seconds. he pissed off Jose Aldo so much. Jose Aldo lost his mind.

34:48He went out of his game plan and tried to rush to him, to give it to him. Conor McGregory is an incredible counter puncher. He just slipped. Boom. That was it. That was a, I mean, it was very smart from his part to, he taunt Jose Aldo. It was, it was emotional. It was, I believe it was prepared. I believe he put Jose Aldo exactly where he wanted to be. He set it up by all the interview, all the things he said, all the things he done. Right. He started the fight months before in a way. Yeah. So when you're in that fight game, another thing that people don't talk about, you never want to show your private life.

35:31Right. Because people will use that against you. Talk about people. Me, I can put a shield. If you can't insult me, you can say whatever you want. I'm very good at putting a shield and it's not going to bother me. But talk about someone I love, someone I care about, now it's going to get me, you know? And we saw that another time with Conor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, the famous fight. Oh, yeah, that was crazy. Yes. So that's the reason why it went crazy after because they crossed the line. But it's the fight game. That's the fight game. I don't think it's right, but a lot of guys will do that to make you derail.

36:09Do you respect guys just as much to do that? I mean, it's just, it's another facet to war in a way, right? It's the art of war, man. It's combat sport, man. It's kill or be killed, man. They're going to do it. You think it's evolved more as since like in the past, like 15 years, have you noticed it evolved more over time? Like that it's more of a strategy now, or do you think more people see it coming now? Like, what do you think the evolution of that's been of trash talking? It's a good question. I think what changes is the fact that now we have social media and we're in touch with the world.

36:41I can be at home in Montreal and insulting you when you're in Tennessee in two seconds and you will notice it in real time. Boom. Before that, that was not really the case. We didn't have that power, you know? Now you can say something, the whole world sees it and, oh, did you hear what he said? So that's, I think, what makes the difference. It's different now. Yes. Do you feel like the testing has gotten better over time in the sport? Well, now I think it got a little bit worse because… One company quit, right? One company got laid off. USADA. Right. And I interrupted you. I interrupted you. Sorry, George.

37:22No, no, no, no. Please, it's true. What happened is they didn't have any testing first. Then they hired, I think, USADA. So it got much better. But they test beef and stuff, don't they? Is it the same group? They, they, actually, USADA, I don't think is it. Oh, my God. Bro, if the same person testing my pork chops is testing Mike Perry, then I think we got to fucking figure something out. I mean, I think both of them are clean, but I'm just saying. But, well, you saw when I, when, when USADA just, just arrived on the scene, a lot of the champion have failed you know and they made they lost a lot of money but I give them props because they they took the lead they had to do it they had to make sure the score was clean and that's one of the reasons I came back and I fought Bisping because if they would not have made drug tests I would never have come back wow I was like no way I'm like this I don't like that but now I think because it was too it just wasn't fair it just wasn't it's not fair it was insane it was like too much I'm never gonna say hey this guy this guy but When you're in the industry, you know who's who, you know who do what.

38:31It's a small world. We all know. Oh, it's like when you're in ninth grade and some kid shows up like that with pimples everywhere. You know what's going on. You know what Ricky's been doing. You know what I'm saying? You just know. Yeah. But sometimes it's not even, you cannot even notice it physically. Because certain drugs, like for example, like EPO will give you a crazy stamina, but might not really changes you physically. There's stuff that people talk, you know who's who. And I mean, it was just at the time it was insane. And I'm glad that UFC did this. I didn't want to bring UFC down. That was not my intent when I did this.

39:08I wanted to elevate the sport and I'm glad they did it. I think it elevated the sport. And now, yeah, they're not with USADA anymore, but I think they hire another organization to do the tests. But I do believe that if you want to avoid corruption, It needs to be a separated entity that do the test than the organization itself. And is that what they have now, right now? I am not sure. But if the organization has power in order, like in the testing, it's corrupted. It cannot be corrupted. It needs to be a different entity where the organization does not have any power. Right. Right, because they can't be able to control and say, hey, let's make this okay and this not okay.

39:52Imagine you have a big fight coming up and the two guys that had lined the cards, like one of them test positive. We just screwed up the card, you know, and they lose a lot of money. So they have an interest in this. Yeah, this says Drug Free Sport International will be in charge of the collection process under the new program that begins in January when UFC's deal with USADA ends. This was last year. Former FBI Special Agent George Pirro, best known for interrogating former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, will be in charge of the new program. huh that's interesting you identify people and entities in the space that can make something that is already working well and you make them better UFC vice president Jeff Nowitzki said you learn that USADA is not the only player in the space and then a combination of other entities and individuals can actually make your program stronger and better and that's exactly what's happening right now with our program it's unfortunate I believe they want clean guys fighting in there, no doubt.

40:47I believe they want money. I think that's what they believe. I think that their number one interest is the money, which is normal. They run a business. They're a business. And after, yeah, the security of the factor. But it's not to bash them. And I think it's every company want to make money. That's the goal. Right. Like that's the number one priority. And after, if we can make it fair and clean, okay, but money, I think is always a number one. I think. And I - Well, that's a good point. That's business. And you know what? And business, sometimes business inherently has some evil edges to it.

41:19Or not evil, but it's like business gets kind of dirty sometimes. I'm not saying this, but I remember I went and saw Poirier's last fight, and I remember waiting outside. People came and took him in there to test him. But are those tests, are they able to keep those tests legitimate? Well, the problem, I believe, is, well, just to give you an example, when I was training to fight Michael Bisping, you had to feel the whereabout to let them know, okay, I have training at this time, this time to this time at this place. Okay. Oh, next week I'm in Florida. But let's say you really want to cheat, for example.

42:04Okay. You just tell them you're going to, I don't know, freaking Antarctica or somewhere where they're not going to spend money to send an investigator to test you. Oh yeah. But you go there, you get your stuff and then you know how long it stays in your system. And then after you got the, you surf on, on the, uh, on, on it for, for weeks, you know what I mean? So, so. Oh, I see. So you could use it to enhance you and then be clean when it's time for showtime. Or another thing that guys do, they have a sponsors. Okay. So they prepare their, their, their excuse. So let's say I'm sponsored by a certain, uh, food supplement company.

42:40Okay. And, um, I'm, I'm taking, for example, a certain substance that is illegal. I know that the food supplement, that the protein company that sponsor me is tainted by that certain substance. So I'm sponsored by them. So when I get cut, it's, oh, it's not my fault. It's the company that sponsors me. So that's another way. So you prepare your, you know, that's one of the way I would think they would do. Yeah, no, I think that makes sense. Did you feel like most of the fights you fought, your opponent was clean? I don't have the evidence. And it's wrong to accuse someone if you don't have the evidence.

43:23But I know for a fact that there was a lot of guys, a lot of guys that were using performance enhancing drug. And it was a big problem. And the same thing in the Olympics, where you have money, you will always have corruption. It's impossible to catch everyone. because the technology to cheat will always be one step ahead of the technology to catch the game. I know, it's crazy. That's like a cat and a mouse. Yeah. Well, you were fortunate, man. You got in and you kind of got out at the time where you wanted. I mean, you'd achieved everything you wanted. I mean, you're one of the rare people that it's like, it's almost like if you look at your career and stuff, you're like, dang, man, he made all the right moves, you know?

44:04You were strategic about it. I was strategic, but I have the chance to have real friends. A lot of the people I hang out with, that I'm from with, they were friends with me in the beginning. And for me, it's very important because they don't tell me what I want to hear. They tell me the truth. What you need. And even when I wanted to come back and fight Michael Bisping, a lot of my good friends, they were like, George, you're 36 years old, man. Your best years are maybe behind you. What are you trying to prove? And my argument was like, man, I don't want to live with regret. I just want to do one more or, you know, depend on how it's going to go, you know.

44:44And if I fail, I fail and I leave. And if I keep going, I keep going. But at least give me one shot. And if I succeed, we'll see after. You know what I mean? And I didn't want to leave with regret, you know, because let's say I would not have done it. I would have grown up. Now I'm 43, it's too late, you know. I passed my prime. I would live with regret, say, oh, I should have done it. and now I would regret it. So I always believe that you never want to live with regrets. That's the worst thing. Has there been moments since then where like you're just on the couch or something, you've had a couple beers and you're like, I'm fucking getting back in there tomorrow.

45:21And it's just like you're just kind of fired up. When I retired, I retired because I had, when I won the title, but people don't know this, but I was very ill. like I had a ulcer colitis because I was trying to gain weight. Colitis. Yes. I was trying to gain weight because I was fighting in a heavier - Swelling of the large intestine. Yes. Okay. I was trying to put on weight. It's Crohn disease. You have Crohn disease? No, no. It's ulcer colitis. It's not Crohn. Crohn is different. But very often, ulcer colitis transform into Crohn and Crohn transform into cancer. A lot of time, you know, you see that progression.

46:01So when that, Like when I, when I had those crazy cramp, it was during my training camp with Bisping and I didn't know what it was because it was blood when I was going to bathroom. And I told myself, I said, whatever it is, I'm going to do the fight and I'm going to have, because no, no, but to, to know what it is, you need to do what they call a colonoscopy. So they go with a camera. They're going to go in there. Yeah. You need to take, yeah, you need to take laxative and all that. Like it, it empty you. And I was trying to put on the weight. So you know what I mean? I couldn't do it. It was a few weeks before.

46:33And I said, you know what, whatever it is, I'll do the fight and I'll deal with it after. And after the fight, I went to do the test and I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. And I was on heavy medication like for anti-inflammatory. And I relinquished the title. I could have kept the title for one year and like parade with the sponsorship. But I didn't want to do that because of the, for the respect, you know. So I relinquished it because I didn't know what was going to happen. I said, man, I don't know what's going to happen. So I tried to get better. And after a few weeks, it didn't really work.

47:09And I discovered fasting. And what happened is pretty incredible. I met a doctor, Dr. Jason Fung in Toronto. Jason Fung, F-U-N-G? Yes. Japanese, huh? Yeah, nephrologist. I think he's Chinese or Canadian Chinese. And he's, yeah. Okay. That's him, exactly. He gave me a fasting program. He treat a patient that has certain type of diabetes. And he gave me a certain program of fasting. And what happened after the next few weeks, all my symptoms disappeared. Wow. And I diminished the dose of my medication until I no longer need it. And what type of fasting? What exactly were you doing? I did two types.

47:55I did what we call time-restricted eating, where you eat all your calories in a certain window. Okay, like intermittent fasting kind of thing? Yeah, like you eat your calorie in eight hours and you fast on, like you only drink water in the 16 hour. And I do also prolonged fasting. So what I do when I do prolonged fasting, I do four days, only water. And when I train, I take salt in my hand. I put a little bit and I lick. Like a pervert. It's okay. Or pervert. A pervert. But you take salt because you don't want to deplete your mineral when you... And this over time, because ulcerative colitis, you're supposed to be stuck with that for life.

48:34It's a condition you have for life. When you got it, you finish. You got it. And all my symptoms are gone. Now I can drink, I can eat whatever I want. And I mean, I realized that, you know, we talk about conspiracy and stuff. The reason why you don't hear about fasting is because nobody makes money with it. It's not no pills. Yeah. but it's really worth investigating. Of course, ask your doctor, but man, it changes my life and I just wish I would have known this before. Really? It really did. So you've used it in other facets too, you know, when you need it. It works for everything. Like sometime you have an injury, like say tendonitis and tendonitis, often it's related to inflammation, you know?

49:14All inflammation disease, when you fast, it take away the inflammation. And if all the stuff that I had regarding inflammation, like a toe, one of my toes, I had a problem with one of my toes. It was hurting me for years. When I started doing my fasting, it kind of disappeared. Yeah. Yeah. We don't think about that. We always think more, more, more, like a more medicine, more, anything more, more of this diet. I thought the same thing before I was like, Oh, protein shake this, because I was trying to gain weight when I fought this thing. And I realized, man, I was doing everything wrong. And we always think about the punch in.

49:49We don't think about the punch out. Like you were saying, We don't think about the inverse of it. It's insane. And I remember I had a chance to go to Kenya. Or to Tanzania. No, Kenya. Maasai Mara. I met the tribe of Hunter Getter. Oh, yeah. Those brothers can jump, huh? Yeah. But these guys, man, sometimes they spend three, four days without eating. And it's normal. They're used to it. And if you see their old people compared to our old people, they're much more healthier. They look much better. And the reason why people will tell me now, oh yeah, but they have a shorter life expectancy than us.

50:31Yes, it's because a lot of the child die before the age of adulthood. Oh, I see. So the numbers are kind of - They die when they're young. Yeah, child, how do you say in English? Starvation or neglect? No, no, no. they got like disease or then the hospital is too far away. You have to, you have to drive like five hours, you know? Well, that right there. If something's wrong. Once they pass a certain point, if you look at their old people and our old people, they much, they look much better. Oh, our old people look like shit. A lot of them to be honest, no chance. But a lot of them, you know, I've had a couple of grandparents and they were mid, I thought.

51:05But what makes us live that long? It's not because of our healthy lifestyles, it's because of our technology or most of us. Right. That's true. That's what's saving us most of the time. It's not us doing anything. Yeah. When I was a kid, for example, I had like, it's called in French, convulsion febrile. It's a, when you're a baby, you have a rise of temperature. So what your body does, it shut itself down and it go into a coma like this. And it happened to me when I was young. My mom told me, if I would not have technology, I was brought back, brought to the hospital and they put me on an artificial coma and everything on plugs.

51:43And, And if I would not have that technology, I would have not been here with you today. So I'm alive today because of our technology. But how you treat the life you have is up to you as well. If we don't have technology, maybe 50 % of us would not be there. Oh, we'd be fucking crook, dude. I'd be out probably. A lot of my family would be gone. Oh yeah, like infant mortality rates that you were talking about. Infant mortality, because they have, Hunter Gator tribe in Africa, they have a much higher infant mortality rate than, than us. And that's what lowered their, their life expectancy, you know?

52:19Um, when you look at some of the fights, did you watch the Balal fight the other night? Do you watch the fights? I did. Yeah, man. Do you think it was fair to make them fight at that hour in the morning over there? Or is that just fighting? Well, it's fair. It's, it's, it's, it's fair or unfair for both of them equally. Good point. If it's equal, it's equal, you know, like, like I don't care, you know, If you have to make them cross the desert before or swim or doing a triathlon, if they both do it, they have to do it. It's fair. It's not the best condition in terms of performance, but if both guys do it, it's a fair.

52:51It was 6 a.m. there when they started that main event. But, man, I was surprised. He performed very well. I'm a friend with Leon Edwards. Oh, he's so... Leon is... He's such a nice guy. I, when I went to England, uh, a few, like a, like a year and a half ago, I remember I went, I went out with him and, uh, Usain Bolt, we had a great time. Wow. He's such a, he's such a nice guy. I really like him. He's, he's, he's great athlete, but he's got a great, great personality too. And man, I'm sure he's going to come back. And it'd be interesting to see. I think it's, it really sets up for a nice surprise.

53:27Like you didn't, I don't think a lot of people expected it. What were the odds on it, Nick? Leon was minus 300. Yeah, so I think a lot of people didn't expect it. So I think it adds just, yeah, it adds to the sport, you know. It makes it exciting. I was very surprised by Belal, like his transition, because he doesn't fight like that all the time. Sometimes he's mostly a striker, you know what I mean? It was a great mix. Man, he was on point. For that fight, he was really on point. It was like, wow. Yeah, I thought it was super impressive. It was really cool to watch. it made me just kind of realize even, yeah, I didn't expect that much diversity from him.

54:06Is this what he said? Bilal wants to be greater than GSP for his legacy. I definitely, he definitely can. If he, you know, if you keep working hard and, you know, all records are made to be broken, you know? And, do you look back at the times when you'd like the era or it's not really an era. I mean, it wasn't long that long ago, but when you look at the time when you were fighting, right, Would you rather be fighting in this era? Do you love the era you were fighting in? Do you ever think about it in spaces like that? I think I was extremely lucky to fight in my era. It could have been better.

54:44If I would have fought today, I would have made maybe more money because of the social media and all that. But it could have been way worse. If I look at like in the time of Hoyce Gracie, Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, these guys were the real guys man they were fighting two three time a night and no rules no weight class man that was insane ken shamrock um for me i i i i respect these guys a lot because they they paved their way for all of us and they they didn't make money man it's sad they didn't make money man is there were tough as hell oh is there a um like a union or something that pays for stuff for the pioneers of it?

55:29No, there's not. Wow. I think it's a question of time. I mean... Yeah, because when you say that... A question of time. Some guys, they're trying to do it. It got close, but then they're always fighting for power. They want to be in control. Certain groups want to be in control and others want to take more power. I mean, we all want the same thing. You know, at the end of the day. And I think it's like every sport and hockey, baseball, it's a matter of time. things were the same if you look at other sports they were the same guys were underpaid their condition were not good they didn't have any assurance nothing like that and you know over time it got better i think it's only a matter of time the only difference is in uh in mixed martial art ufc has the monop the monopoly it's it's a monopoly there it's right there's one show really well they have pbr well yeah but it's the most the most uh pfl yeah pfl is there growing which is very good pfl is good because it's a competition to ufc but ufc is the most prestigious organization and pfl start to gain a lot of momentum but which is good for fighters because it gives them the ability to negotiate but when you have only one organization that has the all the monopoly all the control it's hard for fighters you know understood is pornography causing a problem in your life?

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59:32You know, the positive side effects of cold plunging are countless. You can follow Blue Cube's Instagram for a chance to win your own cold plunge this spring and summer. That's right. They're giving one away. They will announce the giveaway soon. So follow them at Blue Cube Baths and we wish them the best of luck and thank them for supporting the podcast so early on. Was there ever another fight? That's so great that you and Bisping got to fight. Bisping's a fun dude, huh? Yeah, he's crazy. He's crazy, dude. He's such a good villain. Yes, he is. Because he knows what he's doing. It's like he's really kind of he seems to be a guy that's enjoyed it along the way.

1:00:18Yeah, he's got a mouth that can decimate all his opponents. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. I was like, man, I'm not going to get into a trash talk battle with this guy. He's an Englishman. We speak English perfectly. I'm like, my English suck. I'm like, what am I going to do with this? I'm just also not good at, you know, like insulting. But also knowing that that's not your strength, I think was one of your strengths, you know, knowing where to like. I don't know, you always really had kind of a precision it seemed like for the choices you made. um did you you looked at it as a business i've heard you talk about it before you know you looked at it really as a business yeah especially if it wasn't something that you even enjoyed on the fight nights um were you able to pull any like real joy out of it over time like or was it all when when you finally got done was it just like oh thank god like it was a release when i got done But I had a great moment, a great memory of it.

1:01:17Like, it was a lot of fun. When you win, when you win a fight, man, you look back at it and you're thinking like, man, everything is worth it. You know, it was all worth it. But when you lose, man, oh, God, it's a crazy downfall. That's what makes it so hard. It's the risk. Bigger the risk, bigger the reward, right? Were you a perfectionist, do you think, Dan, kind of? Yeah, I was crazy. I was obsessed. Everything I did was always oriented to try to make me the best fighter. Everything, everything I did. The best fighter or the best person or the best? Best fighter. Best fighter. Okay. Person, I just, you know, like, I was not trying to make, being a character.

1:02:07I was like some guy, they tried to be sort of, some sort of a character, you know? like some, some good guy tried to be bad guy. You see that very often or some, you know, some bad guys sort of try to be nice and from the camera, but when the camera doesn't roll, they, they, they become some douchebag. You see that a lot. And when you meet celebrities, but, but I always try to be true to myself and focus on, on performance, you know, because at the end of the day, I never hate, I never had any personal beef with any of my opponent. He's not a human being. And when I, when I look across the octagon before a fight, I sort of feel like I look to myself in the mirror because that guy maybe did a similar sacrifice that I did.

1:02:51So if I disrespect him, it's sort of in the same, in a way, it's like I'm disrespecting myself. So for me, it was just, I was just extremely lucky. Even the guy was talking a lot of trash and stuff. I was lucky to have sort of that moment to shine. and, you know, that people were aware and I make money with it. And, you know, for me, after when it's finished, it's finished, it's not personal. And there's none of the guy that I fought that if they would be in trouble today, I would not hesitate one second to help them. Like if they are at my reach, I would not hesitate one second to help any of them.

1:03:30And this, I mean it, yeah. That's fascinating to look at your opponent and think, what if they made the same sacrifices as I did? then what else can I even do? Dude, that's such an intense way to look at the other person across from you. Well, but it's not only like they make the same sacrifice, but maybe they didn't have the same opportunities that opens to them. Maybe they were not as lucky as I was. I think the stars need to be aligned. I think life sometimes opens certain opportunities to you that if you wait too much, the door will close. and it's gone forever. And yeah, I think it's something that's true.

1:04:09I mean, you look at the Diaz brothers. I mean, if you look, you know, Nick took a time off of fighting for years. Well, they made him quit though. Didn't they make him? Yeah, he got suspended for - Mago went up. And he refused to pay the fine and couldn't fight for five years. Exactly. Yeah, that's one of the, that's what a waste. He was in his prime. I think he could have maybe be champion. Like when I retired, I was telling people, I was like, man, if he doesn't, you should push on the gas right now and go, man. That's his time. You should do it. Was there a time where, has there been like a fighter or something since then you look and you're like, man, it would have been fun to fight them?

1:04:45Or do you have like moments like that? There's a lot of guys that I wish we would have fight, you know, and that would be big fight. It would have made a story, but, you know, like it takes three entities to make a fight. It takes one fighter, the other fighter, it takes the promoter as well. And very often the promoter didn't reach our demands, you know what I mean? And everything needs to be aligned for the three entities. Yeah, I know people always talk about you and Khabib fighting, you know. Did that interest you kind of? So it was the fight that I would have come back for at the time. Not now, now time has passed.

1:05:28But after I retired, there was one fight I would have, you know, I would have had to go. it would have been Khabib. And - What was the most, what challenge, what excited you about that the most? I mean, obviously he was undefeated. So there's that. Well, he's undefeated, he's got a perfect career. He's the competitor inside of me would have done, would have taken the fight, you know? Yeah. You know, and that's one of the fight I would have done it, you know, like, but it needed to be at the right time. And when it was time to do it, UFC didn't want to do it. Yeah. So they wait a few years after when we were both retired and the train was, was passed.

1:06:11Yeah. The moment was gone. And when they asked, when Dana called me, I said, I thought it was weird. I was like, are you like, is Khabib want to fight? Want to fight? He said, because he said no in all interviews. He said, no, no, he's, he's, he's down. He's down. I'm like, okay, let me think about it. I'll get back to you. and I thought it was weird. So I called his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, and Ali said, hey, man, the timing is not good. It's bullshit. It's not true. And after I've said, I've told the media what happened, and then I went, I don't do three people calls when I... And I thought it was hilarious because he's right.

1:06:51You know, he's not going to call a guy and say, hey, no, the other guy doesn't want... No, that's not business. He's exactly, he's a promoter. He's going to say, this guy said this, this, this about you. do you want to fight him? And you want to take, you want to use the emotions to make you tune in. It's like playing your mom against your dad. It's like, hey, dad, mom said I can do this. And then you go to, hey, mom, dad said I can do this. Neither one of them said they could, but now you're outside playing. Exactly. It's all a game. It's all a freaking game. And it's a lot of pressure, I think, on Dana probably.

1:07:21I bet it's a lot of pressure because not only is he the promoter, but he's also, you have to answer all the questions. And he's in a business. He's in control of a business. Yeah. It's not up to him. If someone's signing a contract that sucks, he's not going to say, hey, you're worth more money. You should have, you know what I mean? Man, he's a businessman. He's going to take it and take advantage of you. So it's not because, what I'm saying is it's not, Eden is a good guy. I've met him. And when you - Yeah, you met him, of course. Met him many times, but I met him while I was competing. So when I was competing and then he called me, I always, before I hang up the phone, I was like, shit, take a inhale, try to think of what is the possible thing that he's going to ask me because you need to be quick when he calls you.

1:08:10You don't want to say something. Or you just say, you don't, you don't answer or you're like, you're always like, because this is a game. It's a chess game, man, with a fight game. Everything you say, everything you do is going to have an outcome. So you're like, okay, what he's going to say? This is it. Then you prepare. If you're ready, you take the call. if you're not ready, you let, okay, I'm going to prepare myself. So that's how it is. Let me call Mike Brown. Let me get somebody to massage me during the, during the off rounds. But, but the thing, the thing with Dana is my relation has changed over the year because now it's more friendly.

1:08:42He calls me. I'm not even going to hesitate to say, Hey, Dana, what's up? Like whatever. I'm ready for anything. But when I was fighting, it's normal to have that reaction. Be like, because he's the boss and you know, whatever you is going to ask you, whatever you say, right. It's going to be the whole world going to know. So you cannot retract what you said. So when he calls you, when I was fine, I was like, shit. Sometimes I saw a certain instance. I was like, man, I'm not taking the call right now, or I'm going to call him back. Think about what it could possibly. Have a little strategy. Yeah.

1:09:12Yes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's almost like when your boss says, what are you up to this weekend? Right? Now, if your boss, but your boss, they want you to work at 430 on Saturday. Right. And you do not want to. But if you tell them that you're, oh, nothing much, then you're halfway to working, right? Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting when you're the owner, it's also hard to be, I bet at times it's probably, maybe it not, I'm not putting words in his mouth or anything, but I bet it's tough for him to also be a person, you know, and maybe it's easier after the fact because running a business is totally different than being a human being sometimes.

1:09:49He takes a lot of heat sometimes and he does a lot of stuff that he needs to do for the best of the UFC interests. And it's normal that he's running a business. And it's worked out because look at the UFC has created opportunities for so many guys. I had a lot of clash with Dana when I was - You did? I didn't even know that. No, no. We did add a lot of clashes when I was fighting because I attained a certain level of power that he couldn't control me as much. all the other some of the guys you could say you do this oh yeah yes sir like me it's like no it's not gonna work because i was i was making him a lot of profit a lot of uh a lot of money so when you you know there's a lot of things that they asked me and i and i said hell no i'm not doing because it's not for the best of my interest right so when the same thing when you get negotiate for a fight my thing was like if i'm negotiate for a big fight why am i gonna do all the interviews all the promotion if I don't touch a piece of the pie.

1:10:54Right. Know what I mean? So give me a piece of the pie so it will encourage me to do more promotion. Yeah. Because if you don't touch any piece of the pie, if you don't have nothing, why am I going to do this? I'm just going to waste my time while I'm supposed to train and rest. I'm going to do interviews. And your time has become more valuable because you're the champion, you know? Yeah, I think it's interesting when you get to a certain level how the negotiations kind of change. It has to. It's pretty fascinating. You have to be, to look at it in that way. And were you able to get like pay-per-view points and stuff back then in your fights?

1:11:30Yeah, I'm very lucky. Oh, congratulations, man. Yeah, thank you. But the thing is, there's a lot of guys in the business that, in this industry that are not well managed. You know, they don't ask for what they're worth and they're kind of afraid or, you know, they don't take right decision. And it's not, it's Dana's job to say, hey, I think you should ask for a raise or it's normal. He's not going to do that. He's the boss. He's on the other side of the, so that the fight game, you're fighting for a contract. This should be your manager's fight. You have someone that look for the best of your interests and that's one fight.

1:12:09And the other fight is in the octagon. Yeah. Well, it's fascinating. You know, I think that a lot of that happens with art. When art or talent turns into business, there's this other element that comes on, you know? and sometimes you have to trust your instincts and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong but that's how you hone your instincts to be sharper too is by using them you know and um and yeah i bet it's tricky probably for dana because i bet there's a lot of guys that he super cares about and and but he also has to run a business you know so i can't imagine that's got to be um it's got to be tricky you know and i think also you hear the nicest stuff like you'll hear like all the stuff he does from his employees or places that he tries to help out during covid he didn't he didn't lay off nobody it's amazing oh he's hell i called him the other day asking him for some help with something you know i know that um so you know he's a great guy i think he's also a great business 100 and so that's why he works tricky he's a great guy and and fighters like i mean guys that are listening to us now they get when they're they're in middle of a competition you know like like when they're they're competing they might be they might not have that relationship with dana because they dana is on the other side so it's always like a fight relationship but once they're going to retire, they're going to see a total different person, you know, like same thing with the first step brother, like these guys, they're all great guys, you know, and, and, and every time I meet them, you know, it's a, Hey, what's up?

1:13:32Big hug. Dana, the first step brother, all these guys. Yeah. We're all friends here. Everything we did, the clashes that we had, it was because we were fighting for the best of our interests and it's normal. It's just business. And I think if you want to be successful in, especially as an athlete in mixed martial art, you need to build a team. You can't do all that by yourself because you don't have all the credential to do all the jobs. You need to have lawyers. You need to find a team of people that you can trust and people that have competence because sometimes people, they hire people who trust, but they turn out to be incompetent.

1:14:12It's bad because it's gonna make you buy, it's going to make you do like, how do you say, like air bike, you know, you're not going to, you're going to be, you're not going to go forward. You're going to spin, spin, spin. Yeah. And if you have someone who's competent, but someone that you cannot trust, maybe he's going to, he's going to, he's going to screw you down the road. It's tough, man. Running, starting to run a business, work with people. It's hard. But then you also like, I mean, I, one thing is like people criticize Dana and the UFC, but no other promotion has been able to sustain itself and establish itself and make it go that, you know, and flourish.

1:14:50Um, so I think it's, um, it's fascinating. And I think it is probably, I think he'll be studied one day in the sense by business people. I mean, I can't even imagine because you have so many guys that are really putting their lives on the line and then you have, you know, I just can't imagine it. It's gotta be a lot, you know, um, what, what keeps you busy these days dude do you still get those dinosaur updates remember you were always uh yeah i love uh paleontology yeah what is it about it you think that you love i was thinking about this the other day i um when i was young i was always fascinated by uh by dinosaurs and actually when i took my my time off after my fight with my uh johnny and dricks i spent four years like i was always training, but I spent time, I went on different sites.

1:15:39No way. Yeah. I, you know, I, I, I'm very lucky because a lot of the, it turns out that a lot of the big paleontologists that I've met, they're a fan of mixed martial art. Really? Yeah. So I was able to have special access on different, probably mostly of John Bones Jones though, you would think, you know, I'm just guessing. That's like, no, it was incredible. I traveled across the world. I went on different sites, but I realized also something. As much as I love paleontology, I realized that I would never be able to do this because I thought that if I would not be a fighter, I would have maybe be a paleontologist.

1:16:14And no, that's not true. I would not never be able to be on a dig site for hours. Like, no, it ain't me. No, I can't. I love to acquire the knowledge, but I would not have the patience to go out there. I saw some incredible sites. I went in, man, I went in a place, in an area in Argentina, in Patagonia. It was in the morning. The sun rises and I could see, I'm not kidding you, like thousands of dinosaurs eggshells. There were eggshells of titanosaurs, the long neck dinosaurs. Oh, yeah. Man, it was insane. You had to watch to not step on it, like fossilized eggshells. Some of them were broken. So that means the animal was about to get out.

1:17:00It was insane. Like I saw some of the craziest sites. And that was a dig that they were doing? Yeah, yeah. Like an actual site. They were digging. They were excavating like eggshell. I saw, like I went on a place and I think it was in Dakota. It was with a professor. I think it was Professor Pearson. It was a, they don't know what it was, but they found a sort of a graveyard of triceratops. In South Dakota? I think it was South Dakota or Wyoming. Yeah, triceratops. It was from the late Cretaceous. And you could see that some of the leg bone of triceratops, they were sliced because of Tyrannosaurus Rex.

1:17:40Yeah. So they found Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth there. It was just insane. So you're a promoter, really. When it goes back to the paleontological ages, dude, you were a damn promoter, bro. You'd have put some of those things in the ring, bro. I think. Maybe one day we'll be able to, I think they want to resurrect the mammoth now, I think, to put it back in Siberia. Bring that bitch back, dude. Yeah, didn't they say they can recreate a willy mammoth? Did I read that somewhere? I think they're going to use Asian elephant. And just do a wig or whatever? Put a mammoth inside and yeah, try to recreate it.

1:18:13Yeah, put it in Siberia. What weight class is that going to be? Well, there's different species of mammoth. There's willy mammoth, Colombian mammoth. So it depends on which species they want to, I think it's the woolly mammoth they want to bring back. Let me see. A biotech company that hopes to resurrect extinct species said Wednesday that it has reached an important milestone. The creations of a long sought kind of stem cell for the closest living relative of the woolly mammoth. And now the company says scientists have for the first time created induced pluripotent stem cells for the mammoth's closest living relative, Asian elephants.

1:18:51Oh, damn. It says scientists can now try to use cloning techniques and gene editing to manipulate the cells in hopes of someday creating elephants with key traits of mammoths. Wow. So kind of like a bit of a remix kind of. Yeah. Such as their heavy coats and their layers of fat that enable them to survive in cold climates. Dude, that's what the zoo needs. Because honestly, dude, the zoo, some of the animals are fucking not. Even in America, some of the animals are smoking. They don't even care, you know. It's sad when you don't see them in their natural environment. In a way, they do it, of course, because it's not accessible to everyone.

1:19:30For example, if you want to see a lion, you go to Africa. It costs a lot of money. But to see, you know, I've been in zoos before, and I like to see animals in their natural environment. You think you're going to take any animals? Are there any animals you think you could take? Man, we're so weak, man, in nature. It's crazy. Apparently they say that even a chimp would kill you. Yeah, that's what they say. I can just pull your fucking balls off. Yeah, pull your ball, break your fingers and rip your face. You know that. When they go on crime scenes where chimps turns against the human, that's what happened.

1:20:06It's crazy, man. I would hate that. Because you cannot reproduce, you cannot climb away and they take away your identity. I went in Rwanda. I had the chance to do a gorilla tricking. And you see them like I'm seeing you. So this close. Yeah, that close. So when you go there, it's like Rwanda. Yeah, in Rwanda, in Africa, it's in East Africa. And you take a car. It's about two hours away from Kigali, which is, I think, the capital. You go there and they give you a course. They tell you, don't eat. If the gorilla look at you, don't look him in the eyes. If he comes towards you, don't run away. Just get out of the way and put your knee on the floor in a submissive pause.

1:20:49don't talk loud don't ever touch the the female and the you the the the kid and when i went there it was amazing i oh yeah is this it yeah yeah that's what it is yeah yeah oh my god yeah yeah that's okay so this guy let me tell you about this why'd you dress for a funeral too listen to guys guys this is very interesting so you see what happened okay so at during one instant during my my adventure there. I was with, I was with, I was with, with different people that were older than me. And I don't know what happened. At one point the gorilla, because what happened is you hang out with the kids and the female and you know, the young.

1:21:34And once, once every 20 or 15 minutes, the big silverback comes and you make a noise. And the, the, the guy that is with you every day, he sees the same family. So he's used to see the same guide. But the tourists change. So the guide always answer back to tell, hey, we're here. So he comes and sometimes he look around to see if everything is okay. And then he goes back in the forest every 10 minutes approximately. But once he came and he look at me. Did you have your belt with you? No, no, man, he look at me. And when he look at me, I look at him just very fast and he start walking towards me like he was pissed.

1:22:16Man, I got out of the way and I put my knees down. And I'm not a religious guy at all, but I became religious at that time. I was like, please, please, please, please. And then I opened my eyes. He's not in front of me. I look behind. I see his back. He put his backs against me. He explained to me the reason why the gorilla, he turned his back to me is because he wanted to show me how much I'm not of a threat for him. Wow. To show you, like, he turned his back and he looked underneath his arm. So when I looked back, I was like, man, I saw his back. He was just a test. I was like, man, he would have, even with all my years of training, he would have ripped me apart, man.

1:22:54Did you feel like you stood any chance? Even if you think he could have got it to two rounds or no? I read a document. Apparently it's a report in, I think it's in Uganda. I read there's a military guy that a gorilla grab and he ripped his head off like this. Like it straight up from an horror movie. You grab him and it's that strong. So there's nothing you can do, man. But what would you have done, you think? I think I would have tried to play that. There's nothing you can do. If he wants to kill you. Don't play alive. The guy has two guys with him, with AK-47. So they help. No, no. But you know, he told me it's not because of the gorilla.

1:23:34It's in case we see an elephant or a Cape Buffalo. Apparently there is, it's so dense. I don't understand. Apparently sometimes you could run through a Cape Buffalo and they're extremely territorial. Was that scarier than beating the cage? Well, it happens so fast. It's very different because it happens so fast that you don't have time to prepare. So you just go with the flow. So I didn't even have time to be scared that much. I was just, I was trying, I was like, man, please, please, please. Then I look, shit, he's in the back and I see his back and I could see the muscle through the fur. I was like, man, it's so massive.

1:24:12It's insane. If Keith Peterson's just standing there, that'd be crazy. Man, it was one of the most incredible adventures of my life. I recommend it to everyone. And the money that you pay for that adventure is given to the gorilla. And now the gorilla in Rwanda, in that part of the world are flourishing again. Oh, it's beautiful. So it's a beautiful thing, yeah. It is awesome to take care of our planet and to give back to it, you know? Because it's funny, because somebody probably saw a gorilla one day and even thought about getting in shape for the first time. You know what I'm saying? You just don't know what we learn from animals, you know?

1:24:43Um, what, what keeps you busy these days, man? Well, I'm in, I'm involved with, uh, I have a, uh, uh, uh, home fitness equipment brand called Base Block Pro. Uh, it's, uh, all kinds of apparel that you can use and train at home. Uh, it's in Canada or U.S. as well? Kinesthetics, all the world, all around the world. I need to get something for home. It's light. You can, you can put some, some of them are outdoor friendly, so you can put it in your backyard. Some I recommend it's more for backyard to put outside and some are more for inside, for home. And yeah, it's great. I don't lift, I never lift weight really much.

1:25:21And I'm a big fan of kinesthetics. You know, I used to, when I was younger to lift weight, but I realized that it's more efficient to train kinesthetics. And kinesthetics is what? Yeah, gymnastics. Your own body weight? Yes, exactly. So you have less risk of injuries and I think it's more efficient. Base blocks. Yes. Oh, sweet, man. I got to get something else for my home. I'm just getting a treadmill. So I got to have something else for when I can't go down to the gym. I'll send you some. I'll tell my guy. I'll hook you. That'd be awesome to have one, man. Tell me which one you like. I recommend you the Big Bar Pro.

1:25:57This one, if you have a backyard, put it in your backyard. It's outdoor friendly. And if you want, like for your legs, this one is very good. It's for hamstring. Oh, I don't care about the legs. on me. I'm up top only. I'll send you some stuff. I'll tell the guy to send you some, so you'll be more than happy. Are there some fighters right now that you love to watch? You kind of cheer on? Do you find yourself being a fan of MMA still? I mean, I mean, I know it's obviously been such a huge part of your life. I don't know if it's something you just kind of close or if it's something that's always in you kind of.

1:26:26One thing that has changed and now there's so many fights, there's almost every weekend. So I can't watch it all. I can't watch all the shows, but I love to watch some of the guys that I can learn from. I like to watch Tom Aspinall. Oh yeah, he's fun. The fight of last weekend, Balal Mohamed, Leon Edwards, I watch it. I like Kamaru Usman, Adesanya, Wachanovski, Makachev. I like to watch the best so I can learn from them. Is it weird to look at them and be like, that was me? Because I think even as a comedian, I'll watch comedy sometimes and I'll be like, it doesn't seem like, I know it's a different person, but it doesn't even seem like that's my job.

1:27:08Has that ever happened to you? Do you ever have like this Clark Kent feeling when you're walking down the street that you're also Superman? I mean. No, I think what made me good is because I possess certain set of skills that made me unique. But some of the guys that are competing now, they have their own set of skills. And I think I can learn from them, you know, by watching them, I'm learning from them. And, you know, of course it may, maybe they can learn from me or, so it's impossible to be completely a hundred percent well-rounded. You always have certain things that you do better than, than, than others.

1:27:45And that's why I like the sport so much. Some guys are better at, for example, at, at grapplings. One guy is, his strength might be his ground and pound. One guy might be his submission skills. One guy might be his, you know, like Pereira, He's got an incredible left hook. We all know he's got a left hook, but nobody, they all know the left hook is coming, but they don't know how to stop it. It's crazy. And left hook is one of the most fundamental punch that you learn in day one. And it works. It's one of the most basic weapon, but he does it so well. He hides it. He hides it so well. And the way he does it, even though it's so basic, nobody can stop it.

1:28:28It's crazy. That's fascinating almost, isn't it? How something simple can be and so obvious in a way can be so surprising. Use different diversion, different distraction to get it on. It's crazy. And that's what I like about the sport. It's like a chess game, you know? Oh, it's fascinating too. I think as, you know, I've been a fan now, like a big fan for probably maybe almost six or seven years now. And you get to know the fighters more a little bit too on a personal, you know, like because there's so much social media, you get to know more about them and kind of cheer from in different ways and stuff.

1:29:07But there's all types of guys who were outspoken. There's guys who were kind of reserved. There's guys who were playing cat and mouse and there's guys who were just about getting in the ring. Have you, do you, have you gotten into anything else competitive uh is there something else that you do i used to when i was young i used to play chess you really yeah i growing up i was more of a more of a nerd you know at school and uh i was i was victim of bullying at school so that's why i first i start uh martial art i start karate at a young age as a self-defense yeah yeah then later on it developed into a passion passion to transform into a way i make a living pull up on those guys right But I used to, I remember in order to miss school, I was enrolling into chess tournaments because I was representing my school.

1:29:59And then once you win the school, you go to, how do you say? Like the regional. And then once I go to regional, you go to Montreal where it's the provincial. And I never made it past that. I won the school. I won the regional, but when I went to Montreal, I never even won a match in the provincial. Because these guys, that's what they do. You know, that's their, you know. Me, I was just doing that for fun. And I was a kid back then, so it was fun. Yeah, well, you found other ways to win, man. Oh, yeah, the Olympics are going on. Oh, that's, yeah, the Olympics, man. It's crazy. These big, like, people, like, now, they talk about what happened, the controversy.

1:30:43see the - With the woman fighter, you mean? Yeah, no, they talk about the ceremony, the opening ceremony. Oh yeah, they thought it was anti-Catholic. Yes, I was in Miami when that happened and I saw on the news, I was like, man, I'm gonna try to watch it, but now they took it out of YouTube, so I don't think you can see it anymore. That's crazy. So I tried to find a way, but I just saw some part of it and I speak French. I was like, God damn, I was like - Oh, yeah. I mean, it's weird. I try to not be politic, but there are certain things that, man, keep it at home, you know, like you don't have to show the world.

1:31:23You know, I don't care who you sleep with, what you do. I mean, I like you as a person, you know what I mean? Yeah, this seems a little crazy for the Olympics, I think. Yeah, yeah. It changes. That's one thing that changed over the year. Like we didn't have that before, you know. This is kind of, it seems crazy. Like maybe the world is so crazy that I don't even know the world anymore. That's what I start to wonder too sometimes. But yeah, this stuff seems like, what do we do? What sport is this? That's what I don't know. It's just what sport is it? But I mean, I probably, you know, I don't know.

1:31:54It's a different time. I mean, I don't know what to make of it. I mean, it's dark forces at play. It feels like sometimes. I am not. You like going down the conspiracy rabbit holes. Oh, it's fun. And also the crazy part about the conspiracies is remember during like pandemic, like they said, all these things. and half of them were true. And it was like, well, fucking... I was very angry about what was going on in Canada. I didn't like the way it was run during the pandemic. I was very pissed off. I didn't like it. I think it was an attack on our freedom. We had curfew and this, and this I'm not afraid.

1:32:35Some people are like, oh, you shouldn't become a political. This is not right. This is about, I think it's about freedom. I was not happy about the decision that were made. I think it was an attack on the freedom. And I think everybody should have had the decision of choosing the right to make the decision. Do I want to be vaccinated or not? But if you're not vaccinated, you're not allowed to do this, do this. Like, man, you have no life. This was wrong. I don't agree with that decision. Yeah, it started to feel like privatized communism to me in a way. It's like, you know, it's like the bait of the government, but really it's like private entities doing it.

1:33:15And I wish I'd spoken up more. I think there were times for me, you know, I just felt like kind of scared or I didn't feel brave or I didn't know some things. They would have canceled you. But that's crazy. They could have canceled you. That's the thing. That's the thing about it. I mean, it depends. In Nashville, I don't know. Nashville, Tennessee, right? Yeah, yeah. They can't really cancel you that much there. Yeah, but in Canada, that was, it's different. Like people don't understand, but it was different. We had a curfew. It was crazy. Like, man, I couldn't get out of the country. I had business to do.

1:33:47You know, my business is international. I had to travel, so I had no choice. I did it. But I think I was not agree with the decision. Yeah. And it's my right to say so. Right. And if I would have said it at the time, maybe they would have like put down my Instagram, put down all my stuff. I know that's what it is. It really feels like big tech is kind of the government now. You know? But, man, it's just an honor to sit down with such a champion these days and just get to have a chance to spend time with you, George. And, you know, they have the thing in the Olympics right now, they have a boxer who has like...

1:34:25Oh, yeah. It's a female boxer, right? But she was born a female and is a female. let me say her name iman khalif yeah algeria is from algeria and um and she's crushing it and she hasn't won all of her fights and um but there's people it's been a huge uproar online because i guess she had higher testosterone levels and she wasn't allowed to compete in the world boxing championships um do you think at some point because this just appears to be something that it kind of happens more where there's some gray area in between gender, right? Yeah. Do you think they should just have a new division? Well, this, I don't know enough information about that particular situation to give an opinion on it because I might be wrong.

1:35:15Yeah, you don't want to think. But one thing I can tell you, when a man is born, when you're born as a man and then you change your sex And then after you go compete as a woman, this I think is disgusting. This, I'm not afraid to say it and stand up for that because I love women and I think they need to be protected, especially in combat sport. This, I'm not agree with this. I agree. I want everybody to have equal, to be, to have the equal right. But when you have someone who's born as a man who changes sex as a woman and then compete, I think he should have his own category. Right. That would be fair because otherwise it's unfair i agree we're different like i mean why okay i'm uh too i'm gonna i'm gonna change my sex and go compete in the ufc and make a comeback in the woman division what you think gonna happen you know you know what i mean it's it's not fair you know maybe some of them will kick my ass but i think i will do pretty well you know yeah andrade might give you a run there's a couple ladies out there that would give you a run yeah but i agree they and they should solve it i think it's not fair also if people are dealing with this their own sexual identity and they don't know create a new division so that they can be there and be the pioneers of a new division.

1:36:31You know, it's like, then that way, it's like, they're getting to be a part of something new. They're getting to fight against like-minded people. I don't know, but I agree. I agree. They should have their own division. I think if you're born in a different gender, because man, it's really not fair. People have no idea the difference, but man, it's, it's huge difference. I mean, it's a huge difference. Oh God. It's, we've seen in tennis, you know, like I think it is, I think it's Serena Williams. She played tennis against - Oh yeah, she got defeated. And it was done in boxing too, with a few times with the, she's a Dutch champion in kickboxing.

1:37:10She fought a man in boxing and, you know, and this, these, like in tennis is different because it's a game, basketball, it's a game, but when it's combat sport, I think we should - It's unbelievable. They should protect, protect. Protect their females. The women, yeah. And the men should speak up for that, you know? The men should speak up for that, you know? The problem is sometimes when you speak up to that, you get pointed by the finger and, ah, this is unfair, but. That's the media that's fucking, they're sick. Yeah. But here is, there's a fight in BJJ actually in, is it the, uh. Craig Jones Invitational, he's doing his tournament the same weekend as ADCC and the main event is going to be him versus Gabby Garcia.

1:37:52Oh, so now this though, they're both agreeing that they want to do it. I'm sorry for my ignorance. Is Gabby Garcia is a... She's a female, female. Like she's not like... Yeah. Okay, okay, okay. But lots of help. Yeah, yeah, of course. A lot of enhancement. Okay, wow. But is it like a novelty fight sort of or more like a... He's competing against the ADCC, so he's doing this to get all the eyeballs on it. He's doing it the same weekend. It's interesting. Yeah, because Craig Jones is one of the best grapplers of the planet. Yeah, for sure. So he's probably going to... I mean, I don't know. I don't know enough about Gabby.

1:38:37Yeah, I heard about that event, that it was like a million-dollar event. and in the same time as the Abu Dhabi event, but I don't know all the detail on it. Wow. Oh my God. Okay, that's her. That is her. My gosh, boy. I am. She's bigger than him, right? I got to get to the gym. Oh, but Craig Jones is one of the best. Yeah. It should be interesting. What about just in jujitsu? Can women compete as well in there if there's not striking? well, they can compete woman against woman, but... Against man, it's still... Well, look... The strength. The strength is different. And there's a lot of factor too.

1:39:26I mean, I'm not a specialist in that, but the bone density, there's a lot of factors. I mean, there's things... First, I think women are better than men. They can give birth and there's... We couldn't endure that. Like women are better than men, you know? Yeah, dude. This is what I believe. But there's one thing that we have better than what we have. Normally we're more physically stronger. Yeah. And we have certain advantage. And that's why there's different category. There's men and women. And that's why, you know, to make it fair. But in Jiu-Jitsu, the same thing. Of course, if you take a woman, for example, who has a lot of experience, make her fight a man who does not have any experience.

1:40:12The woman can kick his ass. 100%. But if you go to the elite level, it will be pretty unlikely. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be interesting though. Yeah. Now that kind of stuff I think is a little bit more, you know, it's like we're both agreeing to do this thing, you know. Rush, man, thanks so much, dude. Thank you, man. So cool. Thank you for having me, man. Yeah, it's really awesome Just really cool to be in the presence of somebody that's achieved such greatness in their life that got in and got out. Do you have any other big goals in your life right now, do you feel like? Do you feel pretty content? There's a person that's a perfectionist, kind of.

1:40:53I'm kind of a perfectionist, too, I think. Do you ever get content, do you feel like? I'm never satisfied. Now I'm more of an entrepreneur now, and that's my goal. I'm very lucky I was able to transfer that, that hunger that I had in mixed martial art. I wanted to be the best, be the champion. Now I transfer it into, you know, into a business, you know, or into my person. I wanted to be a better person and, you know, I'm happy, you know, like if things go well for me, I have enough to live for the rest of my life. If I don't go crazy and I'm, you know what I mean? I'm trying to be happy. I think the ultimate goal, right?

1:41:32For everyone is to be happy. Oh, for sure. There's different ways that you can use to attain that feeling, but it's to be happy. You know, and right now I'm very happy. I'm healthy. I'm happy. Are your parents pretty proud of you? Yeah, they're very happy. My parents, in the beginning, they didn't want me to fight. And I understand them. It's not something that you want. It's not a life that you wish for someone you love. Most kids, you tell them not to fight. Man, I'm going to tell you something that happened to me all the time. There is a parent that comes to me with their kids and they're like, Hey, George, this is the future world champion.

1:42:13And then I go, Oh, hi, how old are you? He's 12 years old. Oh yeah, you train martial arts? Yeah, it's good. But remember something, stay at school, man. And you need to be educated. That's your number one priority. and the problem that a lot of athletes, and not only in MMA, in everything. In Canada, we have a lot of that example in hockey, but it could be basketball, football. A lot of athletes, they put their eggs all in the same basket. Oh yeah. So they all want, they all dream to be a professional athlete, but something happened. They get hit by a car, boom, or they get an injury, like they break their ACL or their knees or something happened.

1:42:55Now their career is gone. They're never going to come back the same. And what happened if that incident happened when you're like in your late 20s? There is nothing that you can fall back into if you don't have school. There's nothing. So it's an assurance. I quit school when I was fighting Matthews, before my fight with Matthews. So my parents forced me to stay at school, to stay educated. And it was one of the best thing they did. Because you quit college then? Oh, I wanted to quit everything. but I was studying in kinesiology. Okay. But I didn't like what I was doing at the time. I didn't know.

1:43:33I was changing all the time. One time I tried to be a fireman. I had many jobs. One time I was working in nightclubs as a security. To pay my university fee, I was a garbageman for seven months. Really? Yeah. I collect the garbage, man. That's what I did. And I did it. And, and, but I was always forced, my parents always forced me to stay educated. And when I, when I tell the kids, I say, man, train, you know, but I wish you the best, but the odds of success are very low, you know, and even you're so talented and you work really hard, that does not mean you're going to make it because that chance or success are so low, make sure you stay educated.

1:44:16And if something goes wrong and you cannot achieve it, at least you have something to fall back into. And maybe you're going to change your mind. You know what I mean? You're not the same person at 15 that you will be at 20 and at 25. Things changes. Yeah. I didn't know what I wanted to, what I wanted to become when I was young. And I'm sure the same for you. Like, oh yeah. Like I wanted to be a police, a cops at one point. Then I wanted to be a fireman. Then I'm like, oh, I wanted to do a therapist. Then a paleontologist. Then I'm like, oh, I'm going to be a fighter. You know what I mean? But the fighter was always in my mind since the beginning.

1:44:53but I needed to have a backup plan. I didn't know what to do. I realized when I had my first title shot that it was an opportunity of a lifetime. And that's when I had a talk with my parents. I told my parents, I said, listen, I'm gonna quit the next session because I'm gonna train full-time because I have a title shot. If that doesn't work, I can always go back next season to school, but the title shot might never come present. the chance for the title might not ever present itself again. So I'm going to take a chance and I'm going to go full out. And I went full out. I lost my first title shot, but I rebound immediately.

1:45:33And then I ended up winning the title. And that's how everything started for me in the UFC. Did they come to your fights to your folks? I'm sorry? Did they come to your fights? They came to my fight, my parent, when it was local. But my mom came to my fight when I fought for the title in Sacramento when I won the title, but my dad doesn't like to fly. He's afraid of airplane. It's crazy. He's afraid of airplanes. You're afraid of nothing, which is kind of ironic. Well, I don't know. I'm afraid of a lot of things, but I'm willing to do it. That's the difference. Willing to commit. Thank you so much, Georges St-Pierre.

1:46:10I appreciate your time. And yeah, just helping us learn more about fighting and more about the mentality of being a champion and the ups and downs of it, you know, that not everything's perfect, but that we keep moving forward and challenging ourselves. I appreciate it so much, man. Thank you, man. Thank you for the parts of the team. I appreciate it. Cheers, brother.

1:46:49Thank you.