Brody Stevens is back from injury and ready to talk Muay Thai! We catch up with Brody to talk about his recent injury and recovery, and what he's up to now! Brody also talks about his upcoming fight with Cyrus and how he's looking forward to it! We also talk about the recent injury that kept him in the hospital for 4 days and how it affected his chances of getting back in the ring soon. We then get into the fight of the week, and Brody talks about the loss to Nick Diaz and how that affected his plans for the next fight. We also find out how many stitches Brody has in his face, and who he would like to see as his next opponent. We finish the episode with a quick Q&A from the fans, and then we're off to the next episode! Cheers, EJ & Rory! Have a listen to this weeks episode, and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to get exclusive ad-free versions of the show on iTunes and Podcoin! Subscribe to our new podcast, Rate/subscribe in Apple Podcasts and leave us a review and tell us what you thought of the podcast! If you like the podcast, we'd love to hear your thoughts on our next episode. Send us your feedback! and we'll try and get it on the next one out there! Peace, love, Rory and EJ :) xx - Tom & EJ xx - Cheers - Rory & Ej - AKA - Tom and Ej xxx - P.S. - EJosie - - Ode to EJ and E.A. Stevens - S.C. & E.E. (A.J. ( ) Thank you EJ is a big thank you for the support is much appreciated! - A.K. ( ) - E.J is very appreciative of the support you've been so much love & support is so much appreciated. - Thank you for all the love & appreciation, E. - Ej is very much EJ. - OJ is so appreciative! - AJ is very grateful! - Ody Stevens OJ & E- EJ has a lot of love & appreciate you're very much appreciative, Thank you so much, Ej & EK is very proud of you're a lot more than appreciated.
00:00:16.000I thought I broke my foot, but luckily all the x-rays came back clear.
00:00:20.000Swelling's going down a lot now, so at one stage, yeah, I didn't think I was going to be able to fight December the 5th, but it looks like I'm on now with Cyrus.
00:00:45.000I saw a cyborg come into the change room to get a photo with me, and as I stood up to get a photo with her, then I realized the pain was rushing to my foot.
00:00:50.000I was like, okay, I think my foot's broken.
00:00:53.000Luckily, there was an ambulance there.
00:00:55.000We got straight into the emergency, and then, yeah, got on to the painkillers, which took me into a different dimension.
00:01:16.000This pink elephant came into the room and started chatting to me and said, Hey, I don't think your foot's not broken, but you are in a different galaxy now, so welcome.
00:02:28.000Well, that's the main, because that's the right elbow too coming down.
00:02:30.000Well, that's the knock on Muay Thai as opposed to glory, which unfortunately they just got...
00:02:38.000They lost their deal with Spike TV or cancelled their agreement with Spike TV. I don't know what happens, but they pulled Glory off Spike, which is really very disappointing for me as a fan of kickboxing, and I was just hoping that that would translate into people getting more understanding in this country of high-level kickboxing.
00:04:43.000But you certainly, it makes you think.
00:04:46.000And, you know, when you're thinking, that's bad.
00:04:49.000In the cage or in the ring or wherever you're competing, the idea is to train so hard and train exactly how you're going to fight so that it all comes out automatically.
00:04:59.000And when your automatic instinct for Nathan, I mean, how many fights has he had?
00:05:03.000I think close to 70. Yeah, I mean, think about all those fights that he had throwing elbows.
00:05:07.000Think about all those training sessions throwing elbows.
00:05:10.000And then all of a sudden he's in positions where he's like, okay, don't throw an elbow.
00:05:21.000I mean, it's nice for these guys to be able to have another outlet.
00:05:25.000I know Tyrone Spong is doing some boxing now, just some straight boxing, which...
00:05:31.000I think probably at least he has shoes on, so he'll be just thinking that it'll help him not throw kicks and not thinking he can throw elbows and things.
00:05:40.000The guys who are the best and the guys who are the best at that particular style of Muay Thai, it'd be great to see them use all their weapons.
00:05:49.000It'd be great to see them utilize all the techniques of Muay Thai.
00:06:45.000But so does grappling in a very low level.
00:06:48.000So does a lot of things at a low level.
00:06:49.000But I don't think you should ever Sort of make rules that are dictated just to make people that are at a low-level fight in a more fan-friendly, enjoyable way.
00:06:59.000I think you should just allow the people that are watching it to see the difference between a novice and someone who's an expert and see someone who uses the clinch to their advantage and see all the different techniques that can be landed from the clinch, the use of the knees, the elbows from the break.
00:07:16.000You know, there's a lot of beautiful techniques that can be used from the clinch that you don't see because what Glory has done is sort of adopt the rules of K1, which the Japanese had kind of decided, hey, there's got to be a way to make these guys fight in a more exciting and fast-paced way.
00:07:32.000Let's make the rounds, you know, just let's make the fight shorter instead of having many rounds, like 10 rounds or 12 rounds or something like a boxing match.
00:07:41.000Let's just do like three rounds and have them go fucking crazy for three rounds, you know?
00:07:46.000Yeah, when I fought in Europe, I fought in an organization called Super League back in 2003, 2004. And that was the same deal.
00:07:54.000Again, we're not going to spend airfare money...
00:07:56.000Flying you all the way from Australia and get cut in the first round and have the fight stop 60 seconds in.
00:08:01.000Otherwise, it's a waste of money for us.
00:08:02.000So we'll keep the knees, we'll keep everything else, but we'll just eliminate the elbows just in case that does happen.
00:08:42.000You know, they kept martial arts alive, mixed martial arts alive in California.
00:08:46.000Native American reservations did because they put on King of the Cage in Native American reservations when you couldn't have MMA in California.
00:11:13.000You have your own very specific style of moving.
00:11:17.000And I would imagine that that style is like, I mean, you do a lot of things that other Muay Thai guys do, like you're very light on the front foot, but there's a way you have of throwing punches and combinations and so heavy off that front left leg is very specific to you, you know?
00:12:31.000My left leg's my counter, so I'm throwing that more than anything.
00:12:36.000I started off with a really strong right leg, and my left leg was okay, and I just worked at it, worked at it, worked at it, to make it my main weapon.
00:12:45.000It's like a jab for a boxer becomes their main weapon.
00:12:47.000Yeah, and then as soon as someone comes in to strike, I throw that left leg, and it's not only am I trying to score, but I'm using it as a break to try and stop you from throwing your combinations also.
00:12:56.000If I don't land on your ribs, I'm hitting your arm, so I'm pushing you off balance, so you can't throw the right hand.
00:13:01.000Or I want to try and break that right hand down, so that's taking the power away from your right punch.
00:13:05.000And you're putting weight into it, too, and landing with the shin, which also keeps the knee and the thigh bone from you to them.
00:14:11.000I just kept throwing, throwing, throwing, thinking, come on, just learn that good one to just give myself an eight count to get myself back into the game.
00:14:18.000But yeah, I think he wore a 30-ish and then he got out of the corner and then shrugged it off.
00:14:37.000And then it's, I'm also trying to get in your head as well to make you, trying to break you down, thinking this guy's a machine, how can I stop him?
00:14:47.000Yeah, but unfortunately, it didn't work.
00:16:14.000And then we were chatting afterwards and you came into the change room and we had our chat And then he goes, oh man, you wouldn't believe it.
00:16:23.000The very last punch you threw, you broke my nose.
00:16:38.000But he's a tough guy and he seems like a really, really nice guy too.
00:16:41.000We've fought each other three times now and then we've also fought on the same cards here in Jamaica and Australia and a few other places and nicest bloke.
00:16:51.000And then even when we got put together for this fight, we were messaging each other privately on Facebook and Just talking about different things.
00:17:59.000By the time you get in there, you don't even know who you are.
00:18:02.000He's got you convinced you're a totally different person.
00:18:05.000You just want to kill him, and then you can't even hit him.
00:18:08.000It's such a mindfuck when you wind up hating someone.
00:18:12.000So, in that sense, it's got to be a pleasure when you meet a gentleman like Cosmo Alexander, who's a great fighter as well, and you don't have to think about all that jazz.
00:18:44.000And then everyone was coming up to me saying, you've got to knock this bloke out, you've got to knock this bloke out.
00:18:47.000And then even the film crew were coming behind the scenes saying, you've got to knock this bloke out, you've got to get this guy off this show.
00:18:52.000On our show, as soon as you lost, you went home.
00:19:20.000As soon as you get emotionally invested in something like that and just you're dealing with that other thing which is even bigger and more central to your thoughts than your actual task at hand.
00:19:31.000You're dealing with this like this talk jazz blah blah blah, which is you're gonna fight.
00:19:36.000I mean you're gonna you're gonna engage in the most intense form of competition ever and you're concentrating on this bullshit like talking bullshit like what difference does it make what we say if we're gonna fight?
00:19:46.000Well, the difference is, if you can fuck with a guy's emotions, he can't fight good.
00:21:58.000Part of what Conor's doing is fucking with people.
00:22:00.000That's what Muhammad Ali did to Sonny Liston.
00:22:03.000When Muhammad Ali first fought Sonny Liston, he was screaming and yelling at him so bad at the weigh-ins that they weren't going to let him fight.
00:22:11.000That they thought there was something wrong with him.
00:22:13.000Because his heart rate was so crazy and his blood pressure was so high.
00:22:18.000They were worried that this guy's not fit to fight.
00:22:27.000And it turned out that he knew that Sonny Liston, although he's terrifying and he's this massive hard puncher and knocked everybody dead, he was scared of crazy people.
00:25:22.000That's one of the things I was thinking about when I was watching you fight.
00:25:25.000Unusual movement, you know, it's a very difficult thing for guys to deal with.
00:25:31.000Like a lot of fighters will tell you that sparring with a person who has a very traditional style is almost like comforting sometimes.
00:25:38.000But when you spar with a guy who might not even be as skillful, but is doing things all wrong, but has a lot of power, like does things like real weird.
00:25:47.000The guy who just fought Sugar Shane Mosley, that crazy guy who smokes cigarettes from Nicaragua.
00:25:56.000When he used to fight the late, great Vernon Forrest, he beat that dude because Forrest couldn't deal with his weird, crazy punches coming from everywhere.
00:26:33.000Like when you see like two very skillful boxers fight, you know, you see they're looking for openings, they're probing, but you see like a common rhythm or a rhythm that you've seen before, you know?
00:26:50.000You watch two professional ties and they're training identical So when you put them against each other, now you're watching a chess game.
00:26:57.000Well, back in the 90s anyway, then you chuck in your Raymond Deckers, or luckily for myself, you throw in the hands because they weren't really boxing back then.
00:27:06.000And all of a sudden, you've thrown out the rhythm because all of a sudden they're like, what the hell's going on here?
00:27:12.000Yeah, Ramon Deckers used to do everything hard.
00:27:19.000But see, the difference between you and him was that you fought smart enough to get to 39 years old and still can fight in world title fights.
00:27:35.000They say that by the time he had his last few fights, his ankles were so bad that his doctors told him, if you break your ankle again, we might have to amputate your foot.
00:30:41.000My life, from the time I was four years old, all I wanted to be was a martial artist and now I'm getting older and I know that my time is coming.
00:30:50.000I want to ride the wave all the way until I pass, but I know I can't, but I want to.
00:30:55.000If I had my way, I'd fight to the very day that I go to my grave.
00:30:59.000Are you more careful now that you're 39 years old?
00:31:02.000Are you more careful now about your diet, about rehabilitation, about those kind of things?
00:31:07.000I'm more aware about losing weight before a flight.
00:31:12.000Before I was trying to do a Thai way, I was trying to lose 10 kilos in 3-4 days.
00:31:15.000Now I'm doing over a 10-week period, so I'm only losing those last few kilos.
00:31:21.000Do you think that though when you're fighting a really big guy like Cosmo Alexander who most likely lost a shitload of water weight the day before the fight and then IV rehydrated which is legal in Muay Thai still not legal in MMA anymore at least in the UFC Do you think that that is a detriment to you,
00:34:09.000They're very big people, you know, and Jorina is like probably one of the most technical women in the world when it comes to Muay Thai and that you got to see that in that fight with Cyborg.
00:34:19.000I mean when she pushed kicked her in the face and knocked her down.
00:35:07.000That's a Viking that made it to 2015 with some Viking genes.
00:35:12.000You've got nothing else to do besides pick up big boulders and put them 100 meters down the road.
00:35:16.000But it's interesting what you said, though, about Jorina when she fought Cyborg, because I'll tell you what, I was super impressed with her technique and super impressed with her skill level, but I was impressed with Cyborg's grit and determination because she was getting her fucking ass kicked, and she hung in there, and she kept trying to win that fight.
00:35:33.000She kept chasing that girl down, and she was getting beat.
00:35:36.000She was getting beat, and she was losing, and she was technically outmatched, I think there's a difference in someone who's really good at hitting things hard and someone who's really good at Muay Thai.
00:35:48.000Someone who's really good at setting things up.
00:35:50.000I think that what she can do better than Cyborg is set things up technically.
00:35:56.000It's not that Cyborg can't learn that.
00:36:00.000But when you see someone who's used to, like, takedowns and submissions and dealing with little gloves and dealing with fighting people that are nowhere near her technical level, that was without a doubt the best striker Cyborg's ever faced.
00:36:13.000Because she's been fighting girls that, literally, there have been assaults.
00:36:42.000But that was a pleasure to watch that fight because those girls were very technical, you know?
00:36:47.000What Doreena brought to the table with the cyborg fight was a lot of front kicks to the face, which I don't think MMA people use as effectively because they can't use it because of the catches and the takedowns.
00:36:58.000And also the straight-up knees because Doreena is so tall.
00:37:02.000What a normal person would throw to the body, she can throw to the face, no problem whatsoever.
00:37:06.000So, all of a sudden, you have those two different elements coming at you, and that's what kept landing over and over.
00:37:12.000That kept dropping her, especially when she was holding the ropes and teeping in the corner, and Cyborg was rushing in to try and knock her out and running straight in on those front kicks.
00:37:38.000You know, and I know I'm not the only one because the big thing that everybody always says about MMA, which of course I disagree with because I have a background in Jiu Jitsu, but that when it goes to the ground that it's boring.
00:37:49.000I don't think it's boring because I understand what's happening and to me it's fascinating.
00:37:52.000I want to see like a guy like Damien Maia, when he takes guys down and strangles them, to me that's beautiful.
00:37:58.000I want to see how he's setting things up.
00:38:01.000When he fought Neil Magny in his last fight, I couldn't wait to interview him because he made some adjustments on the ground and took the guys back.
00:38:08.000And the guy was defending in the first round.
00:38:11.000I was like, what adjustment did you make?
00:39:02.000I think that it's one of those things where somehow or another there has to be a consciousness shift where people have to be able to appreciate it.
00:39:10.000You know, and I don't know what that shift is.
00:40:21.000They were fighting so hard that at one point in time, I believe the statistic was 10 million people were watching that fight, which for a cable TV fight was fucking insane.
00:40:33.000And the reason why so many people watched it is they started watching it.
00:40:37.000It was like 3 million people or something like that because it was the finals of Spike TV. And during the fight, the numbers went up like...
00:40:46.000And they believed that people were literally calling people up and going, you got these crazy white motherfuckers are beating the shit out of each other on Spike TV. Go turn this on right now.
00:40:55.000And they literally believe that it was through word of mouth during the fight.
00:41:01.000Because during that fight, because it was so crazy and so wild, and those guys just put the pedal to the metal and went nuts for the entire fight.
00:41:11.000And they were so evenly matched that after it was over, a sport was made.
00:41:15.000I mean, a sport was made by one fight.
00:41:17.000That's not an exaggeration because to this day, Although it was a great performance by Diego Sanchez, nobody talks about Diego Sanchez versus Kenny Florian.
00:41:27.000Diego Sanchez fought Kenny Florian for the 185 pound title on that same night, and Diego took Kenny down and beat the shit out of him, stopped him.
00:41:35.000It was the fight between those two guys, between Forrest Griffin and Stefan Bonner, that literally made MMA. Yes.
00:41:43.000The numbers just started going crazy like everybody started tuning in and it just picked up and then the ultimate fighter took off and then it picked up more and more and more and more and then It became a huge sport, but it literally was born out of one event.
00:41:55.000Yep That was we need something like that for Muay Thai We need something like that for kickboxing one big thing where people go holy shit And if that can happen, I think, and you also need a promoter like Dana White and, you know, owners like the Fertittas.
00:42:12.000You need some powerful organization that's got balls and money and really gets behind it.
00:44:09.000And if you're a girl who wants to make it in fighting, and you look at the pool of talent that's in the UFC right now, in the women's division, especially 115-pound division, you're going to be compelled to try to make it there.
00:44:20.000At 135, you get that murderer, Ronda Rousey, flipping bitches on their heads and shit.
00:45:00.000How much would you like to see a world championship level Muay Thai fighter like Ioannion Jacek who's fighting at a natural 135 who fights Ronda Rousey.
00:45:11.000Someone who comes out there and you see this like super high level striking game with good takedown defense and sprawls.
00:46:01.000I heard the same thing from Faraz when I was training with George.
00:46:05.000He says, people don't understand that they fight in the prelims and then, because George has done it so many times, he's so used to the pressure.
00:46:12.000But then you get the guys that are fighting George and then all of a sudden it's 5-5, you're on the posters, you're doing all the media, and then you have to walk out in front of that 25,000 people or whatever, the MGM or...
00:46:49.000You fight Shogun in your first world title fight, you're 24 years old, and you beat his ass.
00:46:54.000You stop him, and everybody goes, holy shit, look at this guy.
00:46:58.000I mean, I think John was 23, actually, now that I think about it.
00:47:01.000He was the youngest ever UFC champion.
00:47:03.000And I believe that Josh Barnett won the UFC heavyweight title when he was 24. So I think, I might be off by this, but I think John was 23. But that's a special guy.
00:47:47.000But I think someone like Ioana, who is a world champion already, she's so used to competing at an incredibly high level, and then she had to get her bearings in the UFC. She had that one really tough fight with Claudia Gidea, where it was neck and neck.
00:48:19.000And for someone who's a good Muay Thai fighter, man, that is...
00:48:22.000And also, Ronda has notoriously had problems with her knees.
00:48:26.000You know, I think you have to find someone that can fight going backwards as well.
00:48:29.000Because as soon as that bellwings run the charges across the cage, and then anyone that's silly enough to stand in front of her and think they can strike standing on the spot, they're going to get taken down straight away.
00:48:38.000So you're going to have to be mobile, otherwise she's going to grab you and flip you upside down on your head and inside out.
00:48:44.000You're also going to have to be world-class as an athlete.
00:48:48.000And I think that she is, but I don't think anybody she's ever fought is, except maybe Sarah...
00:49:29.000That person like the Jon Jones mentality, the person who just knows how to win, and is not going to get rattled by the pressure, is not going to get rattled by all the hype and all the bullshit talk, and is going to be able to go in there and perform at their maximum level.
00:50:36.000That was a wake-up call to a lot of people that she's like learning how to strike too.
00:50:41.000But, with all due respect, Betch Cohea is a brawler.
00:50:45.000Like her technique is, it's not that good.
00:50:48.000She throws like kind of arm punches and she's like physically like She's bulldog-ish.
00:50:54.000She's tough and strong, but she's not moving like Jacek.
00:51:00.000She's not moving like an elite striker.
00:51:02.000She's throwing barrages of punches, and the pressure for her must have been off the fucking charts in Brazil, fighting Ronda Rousey, talking so much shit.
00:51:13.000And then she fucked up and talked about Ronda's dad and suicide and all that.
00:51:18.000And the Brazilians kind of turned on her for that.
00:51:21.000And then at the weigh-ins, the Brazilians were cheering Ronda, which never happens.
00:55:00.000Yeah, people get a, they have a, for whatever reason, there's a misconception about what he's like, you know.
00:55:07.000I think part of it's the Armenian thing.
00:55:10.000You know, Armenians are just so, they're so masculine, you know, and they have this certain way about them that a lot of people, they misread that, you know.
00:57:35.000And unfortunately, it was a little bit of...
00:57:37.000Not quite the same enthusiasm in that one.
00:57:40.000I think in that fight, I think one of the things that happens in really high pressure fights, and I think this correlates with what we were talking earlier about pressure and about like, you know, we were talking about guys that put too much pressure on themselves from shit talking and get too much emotionally wrapped up in it.
00:57:57.000When a fight is a fight where they say the winner is going to be the number one contender and will next fight for the title, those fights suck at least 50% of the time.
00:58:07.000Because at least 50% of the time everybody locks up and nobody wants to do anything stupid because a win virtually guarantees you a shot at the title.
00:58:15.000But but the fight wasn't good because neither guy pulled the trigger and it was like it was very lackluster It's like both guys were like hesitant and and even Arlovsky Even though he won the fight when I was interviewing him.
00:58:31.000He was just crazy He won he won he he thought he was gonna have the next shot of the title But then you know then the fight was bad So that's one of the weird things about the UFC that people don't like Is that there isn't any, like, clear structure.
00:58:43.000Like, when Misha Tate won, she was virtually guaranteed a shot at the title.
00:58:47.000Beat Jessica Ai, you got a shot at the title.
00:58:49.000She beats Jessica Ai and is like, ah, listen.
00:58:56.000So she's, she's actually, she made some interview recently where she said that she should probably think about what she's going to do when she retires.
00:59:04.000And she should probably at least consider that.
00:59:06.000And I was like, whoa, she's, like, thinking about retiring?
00:59:10.000And that's an interesting thing when you look at the number one person in the division, which is clearly Rhonda, who's made...
00:59:16.000I think she made like $6 million last year or $7 million.
01:01:14.000Nobody saw it, and then because nobody saw it, nobody gave a shit about it, it faded away, and then you don't hear about her as a movie star anymore.
01:01:20.000She was that close, that close to being this runaway train movie star.
01:01:27.000There's Fast and the Furious, and there's all...
01:01:59.000It's not like you can run hills better than anybody and kick people's asses.
01:02:03.000When you're fighting, you can be undeniable.
01:02:06.000You're fighting, they lock you in that octagon, or you hop over the ropes into that ring, and when the referee says, fight, there's nothing that can save that guy.
01:02:15.000You storm after him and knock him out, and you're the fucking king.
01:02:19.000But in the world of acting, my God, there's so many hoops and ladders and so much bullshit.
01:02:25.000And it doesn't matter if you're the best.
01:02:27.000Coming from you, you know exactly what's going on.
01:02:45.000And so when I watched other people that were chasing after it, I got to see the psychological aspect of it.
01:02:50.000You see people kissing people's asses because you want everybody to like you, because you want to get cast in these movies, and you've got to make friends with the right social circles, you've got to be on the right red carpets, you've got to support the right causes, you have to have the right political affiliations.
01:03:12.000There's certain things you can get away with as an athlete you can never get away with as an actor.
01:03:17.000Because if you did, they would just write, unless you're like some fucking Johnny Depp style, huge, undeniable movie star, you can get away with a lot of shit.
01:03:25.000But that's just, you become undeniable.
01:04:39.000After I did the documentary with the Bus of Venom, we played around a little bit, and then we went to Thailand, and then I was lucky enough to work with some Thai stuntmen, and they'd work with Tony Jaar, and it was amazing.
01:04:51.000So these thumbmen that I got to work with, you throw an inch past their face and they literally throw themselves back 10 feet onto concrete, onto their back.
01:05:03.000And then they lay there dead for three seconds, open their eyes.
01:05:28.000I'd rather make my money through violence instead of pretending to be violent.
01:05:32.000And the documentary that you were talking about, if people didn't understand you through your thick Aussie accent, it's Blessed with Venom.
01:06:09.000So if you want to have a look a bit, not only about my career, but also about Thai culture.
01:06:15.000So about an Aussie going to Thailand and learning the Thai customs and culture and learning how to speak Thai and eating on the floor and sleeping on the wooden floor and training seven hours a day.
01:06:38.000Yeah, it's a fascinating documentary, too, because, like, culturally, it's such a unique thing for someone to do, to immerse themselves in the world of the Thai and of these Muay Thai fighters and live like they live and train like they live.
01:06:54.000And a guy coming from Australia and moving there and doing that, it's always, to me, amazing to watch someone just enter into a world that's so completely different than theirs.
01:07:05.000Barely had a grasp at all of the language and you know, you're training with these guys that have been essentially preparing for fights the way they have the way they did it with you for hundreds and hundreds of years before you were ever born.
01:07:20.000Yeah, and then what happened was so say I've moved into this camp and there's about ten ten fighters there and then One night I've had my fight.
01:07:30.000I've won I've gone to patio with all the Westerners hanging out for a week's holiday and And I've come back and all the other kids had run away.
01:07:37.000So then there was only me and the superstar.
01:07:39.000So now I was giving them 50% of my prize money after every fight.
01:07:43.000So now I was in the camp's best interest to try and make me as good as I could, as fast as I could, so I could win more fights, to make more prize money, so they get 50% more income.
01:07:53.000So the only way they could survive is for me to become the best that I could, so they could get more money, if that makes sense.
01:08:00.000Yeah, that's what a fortuitous roll of the dice for you.
01:08:03.000Yeah, so I was thrown under the, not under the bus, but...
01:08:07.000Looking back, looking back, it was like the biggest blessing that could happen, because if there was 50 people there, I would have been stuck in a bag by myself, but because it was only me and the superstar, and then the superstar, Sang Ten Noe, he had no...
01:08:25.000Because there's so much gambling in Thailand, so if he thought he was beating his opponent, at the end of the round, he'd give him a kiss on the cheek, and that would show all the punters, okay, I've got this, so they'd all bet on him, so they'd all bet him.
01:08:34.000So if you're being kissed by him, it means he's kicked your ass.
01:11:06.000Muhammad Ali of Muay Thai, pretty much.
01:11:08.000He was the first one to put it on the map to say, look, there is a possibility for white people to beat Thais at their own sport in Thailand at the big stadiums.
01:11:17.000And not only win, but knock them out in devastating fashion.
01:11:51.000It was hard for him to get the same accolades as Raymond because Raymond was fighting the ties at their most craziest weight, the 63s, the 61, the 63s.
01:12:02.000You say that, you mean kilos, which is like 135, 140, something like that.
01:12:09.000And then whereas Rob was a little bit bigger and he was fighting ties a little bit smaller so he was knocking them out but at the same time he should have been knocking them out because he's a big man.
01:12:17.000And then when you're fighting Westerner versus Westerner you're not going to get the same worldwide sort of...
01:12:30.000When the tires are paying attention and the country's stopping to watch a Westerner come to their country to knock out their best, then you know you've made it.
01:12:40.000And that's one of those things that for people that don't know the sport or aren't aware of it, you can go right now to YouTube and go on a journey through the world of Of one of the greatest combat sport athletes ever.
01:12:55.000And Ramon Deckers has so many fights on YouTube.
01:12:58.000You can go and watch them, and you'll understand what we're talking about.
01:13:01.000When you just watch that guy just slam those kicks in and attack with a barrage of beautiful punches.
01:14:10.000And he goes, oh, in Holland, this is normal.
01:14:12.000This is what we do because on the ring, there's no surprises.
01:14:14.000So if we train like this on the ring, and I'm just looking at him going, dude, there is no way in hell I'd like to train with like this, especially every day for a couple of hours, every single day.
01:14:57.000That's the eternal debate because like in in MMA as well Joe Duffy was supposed to be fighting Dustin Poirier this past weekend in Ireland in a huge card in Dublin sold out in like an hour just Irish love fights right and Joe Duffy's the last guy to beat Conor McGregor and he's an Irishman so everybody's excited to see him the Saturday before the fight a week before the fight he gets a concussion hey Yeah,
01:15:24.000sparring hard, sparring hard, going out for it, you know?
01:15:52.000Do you fucking go crazy like Melvin Manhoof in Mike's gym?
01:15:56.000You just fucking attack, attack, attack and just take your lumps and deal with it and then when you fight, you'll fight like that because you fight like that all the time.
01:16:05.000Or do you take a more intelligent approach?
01:16:09.000Like many fighters do, like the Thais do, where they spar and they don't spar hard at all, right?
01:18:16.000And then every time he'd fight, he was making 500 baht, 500 baht.
01:18:20.000So then his parents didn't have to work almost.
01:18:23.000He was making enough money as a junior...
01:18:26.000Fighting four times a week, five times a week, where he could support the family just as a 10-year-old.
01:18:33.000So for them over there, it's a necessity.
01:18:37.000As a 10-year-old, if you're 25 kilos too, you're not whacking with 100% power either.
01:18:42.000You're scoring, you're playing the game.
01:18:44.000It's not until you get into your 13s, 14s, and then you start using a bit more force and you start to get more damage on the shins and a bit more...
01:18:51.000You've got to be a bit more wary of the punching power.
01:18:53.000But as a junior, from say 7 to 10, you can definitely get away with fighting 3, 4, 5 times a week, no problem.
01:19:00.000Well, some people say that that's the best way to teach kids too because they learn before they can hurt each other.
01:19:05.000And you learn how to move properly and your body develops like that.
01:19:11.000You know your body develops like there's people that are That started out like they had like a martial arts background when they were young and then they started putting on weight like muscle weight, but they're still like super flexible and It's because their body sort of developed throwing kicks and their body developed doing those motions And if you can learn like there's a lot of people that believe that as as a boxer That if you don't start when you're young,
01:19:35.000you'll never achieve a Floyd Mayweather level or a Roy Jones Jr. level.
01:19:52.000They don't want juniors to compete in any form of combat sport whatsoever until the age of 18, which I think is ludicrous because if that happens...
01:20:00.000You've got the rest of the world that have already excelled to a certain level.
01:20:06.000And if we don't start competing until 18, we're already behind the eight ball.
01:20:23.000It's about living healthy and training and training the body and getting flexible and It's about getting over the fear of getting in competition as well.
01:20:30.000It's about experiencing what young people are terrified of.
01:21:19.000People that never fought will never understand what it's like to have that bond against someone to compete for a couple of minutes and then after that, no matter what happens, I've always...
01:21:44.000There's nothing that can erase that memory of me and you standing toe-to-toe and exchanging blows.
01:21:50.000This is why I love the sport so much because I have such a deep passion for it.
01:21:56.000Well, when I was watching that Cosmo Alexander fight, I was actually thinking that.
01:21:59.000I was like, these guys, they're sharing a crazy...
01:22:01.000Because I was also thinking, like, you're 39 years old, and I don't know how much longer you can compete at this elite, world-class level.
01:22:08.000You know, you're fighting in a world championship fight.
01:22:10.000And I'm watching this, and I'm like, man, this is an intense moment that these two guys are sharing.
01:22:14.000And afterwards, you guys are smiling and hugging each other.
01:22:17.000And I was like, wow, those guys really did just share a very, very intense experience and a very intense moment that very few people will ever understand.
01:22:27.000And then to erase that from childhood memories, like for young kids not to have that experience, I think that's so sad because what's better, especially coming from myself, to go to school fighting on Saturday in a tournament and go to school on Monday and tell them the boys,
01:22:45.000oh yeah, I've got a gold medal for whatever competition they've played.
01:22:48.000It would be jiu-jitsu, taekwondo, karate.
01:23:41.000And I think to deny young kids the opportunity that, especially out of ignorance, because if they don't, they don't understand that young kids don't get hurt the way adults do.
01:23:50.000When you're fighting, like, you know, you see a guy like Gokhan Saki fighting Tyrone Spong.
01:23:56.000Big, heavy, throwing guys that are throwing fucking bombs.
01:24:00.000There's a big difference between that and two six-year-olds that are fighting Muay Thai with headgear on and big gloves and shin pads in an amateur fight.
01:24:09.000What those kids are doing is they're learning how to do something that's very difficult.
01:24:20.000I shared one of your quotations on my Instagram the other day that absolutely killed it about people that have never been in a street fight.
01:24:28.000It's that same thing where you have people that are, you always say, oh, that guy, he's pissing me off if I'm just going to knock him out.
01:24:57.000And yet they're willing to take a chance and fight some guy they don't even know and they're going to somehow or another think they're going to kick this guy's ass?
01:25:50.000Especially because there's a big difference and I think that's where a lot of people get confused when it comes to martial arts and they equate it with violence.
01:25:59.000The competition of a fight or of an event like a martial arts event It's a very very different thing because you're preparing for a skill contest and the skill contest may be dangerous and there's a there's Possibly violent endings to these things but it's not violence in the sense of you're not like trying to go out and Find someone and make them your victim what you're doing is you're trying to compete you're competing and in doing so you you learn something
01:26:30.000about yourself and you develop a confidence that for someone who's never competed like that you never totally understand and Yes.
01:26:46.000If you're playing chess, you have so much time to think about it.
01:26:50.000Unless you're playing that speed chess shit where they're hitting the clock.
01:26:53.000But when you're playing chess and you're overlooking this board, I mean, not taking anything away from chess, because chess is a fascinating game, and there's so much complexity to it, and there's so many different moves, so many different possible combinations, but believe it or not, there are more possible combinations in fighting.
01:27:21.000On discipline, you have to get up in the morning, you have to overcome your body being tired and sore, and you gotta get up when you don't want to, when that warm bed is calling you.
01:27:32.000You gotta put on your fucking running shoes, and you gotta go do your road work, and you gotta do your strength and conditioning, and you gotta spar when you don't wanna spar, and your body's starting to get run down, and you gotta make sure you get the right amount of sleep, you gotta make sure you get the right amount of nutrition.
01:27:44.000There's all these variables, emotions, The physical fear, the fear of your own demise, not the nerves of a match.
01:27:52.000I'm sure chess players get nervous before they have a match, but do you think they get nervous the way a fighter gets nervous?
01:28:57.000It's not until people say, hey, do you remember this or that, or until you watch the replay on the phone or the internet or the replay, but...
01:29:05.000Yeah, you're just into a different realm completely.
01:29:08.000It's such a unique experience to turn off your brain and just rely on pure instinct.
01:29:19.000Well, it's got to be an intensity that no one else could ever understand.
01:29:22.000And that's probably a bond that you share with those people that you get into the ring with, like Cosmo Alexander, that the average person would just never...
01:29:31.000Be able to understand what you guys have gone through.
01:29:34.000Yeah, and then the idea you've been cut and the one eye is blurry from the blood and you don't want to wipe it because that's a tell from your opponent that the blood's starting to annoy you.
01:29:44.000So you've got to try and stay there with one eye all red and bloody and yucky and you can feel the stickiness in your eye and you can feel the pain, you can feel your eye throbbing and then you've got to turn off.
01:29:57.000You've got to go so much soul-searching to keep focused on being violent and trying to win no matter how.
01:30:07.000Even though you're losing, you know that you have to try and come back and still knock this guy out.
01:30:12.000And make adjustments and turn the pain off yet still trying to focus on what I'm doing is not working so I have to try and up the ante and try something else and that might get me in more danger again where I might get even more cut or more beat up or another knee to the face.
01:30:28.000Do you ever work with a hypnotist or a psychologist or a sports psychologist or anything like that?
01:32:07.000I mean, when he was fighting and just moving like no one has ever moved before, knocking guys out with combinations that were just ridiculous.
01:32:14.000Like, how could you say that guy needs to go to a mind coach?
01:32:19.000I really honestly believe that even though I would say just do whatever you're doing, if he did go to a mind coach, he'd probably take it to an even different level.
01:32:29.000Probably take it to an even higher level.
01:32:31.000I think that everything you do, everything you do, As good as you're doing it, you could do it better.
01:32:38.000I think everything can be optimized, you know, and I think everything has layers and levels to it.
01:32:44.000And to say, this is good enough, we're done here, I just think, honestly, it almost like...
01:32:51.000It disrespects the process of evolution.
01:32:54.000It disrespects the process of getting better at it, of greatness.
01:32:58.000Like, for every Roy Jones Jr., there's a guy watching Roy Jones Jr. and thinking, I gotta figure out a way to beat that motherfucker, and training harder, and maybe he has just as many physical gifts, and maybe he has just a slight edge in some sort of a weird, strange way because he's been watching Roy Jones Jr. compete.
01:33:30.000Trains Rafael Dos Anjos, who's the UFC lightweight champion, and trains Ruslan Provodnikov, a famous boxer, and a bunch of other elite athletes.
01:33:40.000Done some work with Joe Schilling now, too.
01:33:41.000He's doing some work with Joe Schilling.
01:33:43.000And he said something really interesting when Rafael Dos Anjos beat Anthony Pettis.
01:33:49.000And he said, One of the things that we did with him, all these strength and conditioning drills, it's about executing and getting there just slightly faster.
01:34:01.000And he's like, even though he dominated that fight, think about those exchanges.
01:34:04.000He dominated those exchanges by maybe a half a second.
01:34:07.000Like he landed a half a second quicker.
01:34:09.000His recovery was just a little quicker.
01:34:13.000He was able to re-engage just a little quicker.
01:34:15.000And those little tiny edges, those little tiny edges, means he lands first, and it means he's dominating.
01:34:22.000And even though his advantage, like physically, his advantage of execution was so small, it was enough.
01:34:28.000Those little advantages are enough to win a fight.
01:34:31.000And it's incredible when you think about it that way, that...
01:34:35.000This sport is just a matter of these incremental increases in ability.
01:34:46.000I guess I'm sort of in the caveman era too, where I believe I think what the mind coaches are doing are awesome, but at the same time, I don't need someone to pat my back and say, hey, you're doing a good job.
01:35:08.000I'm not saying he's right and you're wrong.
01:35:11.000I think you're right too, because you're a proven champion.
01:35:16.000And that mindset, the steely determination that you've developed, nobody needs to tell you how to do it.
01:35:21.000I firmly believe you're one of those guys who wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and say, it's go time, and you put your shorts on, wrap your hands, and you don't know what the fuck to do.
01:35:34.000Because there's a gentleman in Australia that's doing it, and then if someone's having a bad day, I know they call him and say, oh, mate, I had a bad session.
01:36:34.000They want their manager to tell them who to fight.
01:36:36.000They want everything set up for them, and they just want to concentrate on training.
01:36:39.000Yeah, well, because I finished Thailand.
01:36:42.000When I moved back to Australia from Thailand, there was no one for me there, so...
01:36:47.000I opened a gym because I needed someone to train so I had to teach classes to pay the rent so I could still have someone to train and that sort of blossomed into the gym started being successful so then I started having more guys training underneath me that wanted to fight and all of a sudden I'm working their corners and learning how to wrap hands and now I'm trying to do everything.
01:37:06.000And then also at the same time, trying to create my own career as well.
01:37:19.000I'd love to have a coach, but at the same time, what I've been doing has been working and I've been lucky enough to be successful.
01:37:25.000Where would you train if you didn't have to run your school?
01:37:29.000Is there a place in the United States or in Thailand or anywhere in the world where you would train?
01:37:34.000Thailand was perfect for four or five years and then I definitely grew out of that and when it was time to come to Australia it was perfect.
01:40:25.000When he fought Raymond Daniels, Daniels throws all those wild combinations and crazy shit, you know, and just walked him down.
01:40:31.000Figured how to keep the pressure on him, throw a lot of leg kicks, throw combinations, rip that left hook to the body, and eventually he took him out.
01:40:38.000And once he presses him into the corner too, there's no escape.
01:40:40.000And he's got that nice switched knee to the face.
01:40:43.000Well, Raymond Daniels is an interesting case.
01:40:57.000And if you watch point karate fights online, you realize like, God, this guy just blitzes in with this crazy shit and then they would stop it.
01:41:04.000And point karate, for people who don't know, is like a really high-level game of tag with karate.
01:41:10.000Because once you touch the guy, like literally touch them, they stop it and they score the point.
01:41:16.000It's very difficult to transition from that into continuous fighting.
01:41:21.000Like when you fight in kickboxing or in Muay Thai or in MMA, when you hit a guy once, he hits you back, you hit him again, and it's all about hitting and not being hit and movement.
01:41:32.000What karate, what they get really good at is this blitz where they jump on you and ta-tack!
01:41:37.000But they have to get used to you hitting back and the referee not stopping the action.
01:42:21.000Attack the legs, attack the legs, get him to block the leg, goes up high and head kicks him.
01:42:25.000But it's utilizing the Muay Thai style to defeat this style where he's got so many tools, but he doesn't quite have all of it together at a world-class level.
01:42:38.000But if you let the guy fight on the outside, man, he's got that blitz.
01:42:50.000But you've got to wonder, man, with a guy with those type of skills, If he could get his hands at the same level as a Nicky Holtzkin or a Valtellini and get those leg kicks at the level that those guys have, man.
01:45:44.000Like, you know, you're talking about arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time, and you're going to have him fight a guy who's just nowhere near his league for a New Year's Eve show.
01:45:55.000There was so much excitement when he announced that he was coming back, and then there was the talk of...
01:45:59.000Well, he's supposed to fight in the UFC! That's what he's supposed to do!
01:46:02.000Yeah, there was talk of the UFC, then there was talk of going to Bellator, and then he was going to make the big announcement, and then, okay, we're going to Japan.
01:46:09.000Well, I think at least Spike TV is going to air the fight.
01:46:12.000I think they did something in conjunction with Spike TV for this event.
01:46:17.000So I believe, I don't want to, I'm just pretty sure that it's in conjunction with Spike TV, the Fedor.
01:46:25.000But who the fuck is he going to fight?
01:47:15.000I think there's got to be some upstarts, some young, up-and-coming fighters out there all over the world that are very talented.
01:47:25.000It's a matter of having a quality talent scout who really is deep in the game, who understands fighting, who can go out there and recruit those guys at a young age and then Well, the Japanese also, there's another angle that must be considered, is that the Japanese became big,
01:47:42.000the organizations, by having pro wrestlers fight in MMA matches like Takata.
01:47:49.000When Takata fought Hicks and Gracie, Hicks and Gracie was the man in the fucking Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world, right?
01:47:56.000And he was the man in the Gracie world.
01:47:59.000When Hoist Gracie was winning the UFC, he always said, listen, my brother's ten times better than me.
01:52:58.000There were so many times that the American boxer was giving his arm, and then he just pushed the arm out of the way and just rained down punches more and more and more.
01:53:07.000He wanted to punish him instead of tapping him out.
01:54:28.000You mean Conor McGregor, I mean they were stylish and he had nice clothes on, suits.
01:54:33.000He was doing the Rolex commercials and he was driving the Ferraris and he had the hairstyle where he had the blonde tips and every single girl, every single 40,000 seat arena and all dressed pretty much.
01:54:52.000And then the little golf clubs when they come out, just the pure excitement of just being in the same room as him.
01:55:06.000Because they didn't have the star anymore.
01:55:08.000Without one fighter, he was the pinnacle.
01:55:13.000And I wanted to fight him, and then every single person wanted to fight him because if you beat him, that was going to launch you to the stratosphere of just becoming an overnight phenomenon.
01:56:50.000And really probably the only Japanese that fought at that level.
01:56:53.000I think if it wasn't for Masato, there would have been no K1 Max.
01:56:58.000He was the kid that shined that said, yep, we need to make a 70 kilo division because this kid's going to take us all away and put us on the war stage as legitimate as a country.
01:57:09.000But it's unique in combat sports that he decided to stay retired.
01:58:15.000I remember one commercial, he's in a Ferrari, he pulls up, you see that pull up, then the door opens.
01:58:21.000Like a spaceship, and then they focus in on his Rolex watch, and it's like, damn, and he's in a suit, and he's looking stylish, and he's got, yeah, he's got just the king.
01:58:40.000Did the guys in K-1, the heavyweight division K-1, did those guys make good money?
01:58:47.000Well, they'd had an eight-man tournament once a year, and when it was at its peak, they had the Tokyo Dome, 90,000 people, and it would sell out in two hours.
01:58:57.000And then you'd have to fight three times in approximately three hours, and the grand prize was $500,000 US. Do you know how much profit they must have made?
01:59:09.000If you have 90,000 people in an arena, and you're selling those, you know, just think about it, even if it's only 10 bucks, that is a fuckload of money.
01:59:19.000That is a goddamn fuckload of money, and you're only paying out 500 grand to the winner, and you have pay-per-view.
01:59:25.000And Mr. Issue might have forgot to pay taxa for a few years in a row.
02:00:38.000And then just seeing to be those eight guys that would just keep knocking each other out year after year after year for about 10 years in a row.
02:00:44.000And as a teenager, There was just the, someone would get a VHS of the latest Grand Prix, and then you'd sit there and you'd watch it, and it'd be so, yeah, you couldn't move.
02:00:55.000Yeah, all the boys would sit around with the popcorn.
02:02:09.000Back when he was, him and Ray Sefu, standing toe-to-toe, dropping their hands, taking pot shots at each other's chin, and just standing there and smiling.
02:02:18.000And then another rally, it was, yeah, that's the sort of stuff that made legends.
02:02:22.000And that was when Mirko, Mirko Krokop first started fighting K1. He was so skinny.
02:06:20.000There's something that sterilizes it a little bit about hearing Jim Lampley hear ABC Wide World of Sports or whatever the fuck it was back in the day when I was...
02:06:44.000Mickey Ward was coming up in Lowell, Massachusetts before he ever had those crazy fights, a series of fights with Arturo Gatti.
02:06:51.000I saw him fight when he was a really young professional and we saw him fight in Lowell.
02:06:56.000Me and my buddy Jimmy Lawless went to see him fight live.
02:06:59.000It was just being there in a small arena with a local hometown guy and see a local boxing match and hear the slap of leather on faces and bodies.
02:07:11.000It's such a different experience than watching it on television, which is so much more...
02:07:16.000It seems like it's not really happening.
02:07:19.000Even if it's happening, even if it's brutal, you're not there, you know?
02:07:23.000Same with our local promotion that I'm doing now with my wife, with the CMT. CMT meaning Caged Muay Thai.
02:07:32.000So you actually feel the fight while you're in the room.
02:07:37.000Not only watching it, but you're flinching as someone gets hit.
02:07:42.000Your hairs are up on your body and back of your neck.
02:08:59.000But you're massaging in 15 minutes before you walk out.
02:09:02.000Right, but then if you're grabbing and you're fighting for the plum, right, and you've got that shit on your forearms, and this guy's turning away, and it gets in his eyes, does that happen to you?
02:09:12.000By the time you get onto the ring, it's absorbed.
02:09:17.000that's why you can't use in the ufc ufc in the early days man dudes which is grease yeah and we can put vaseline all over our bodies well between the the liniment and the vaseline all over so yeah you come out and you and you're shining and you're glossy and yeah oh yeah we're catching the kicks and you can pull out of the catches oh right the only thing is if you're the last fight of the night so if you um teep someone in the stomach and then you put your foot on the canvas You get oil on the canvas.
02:09:44.000By the time you're in the last fight, the canvas is just an ice skating rink.
02:10:11.000For people who don't know, canvas, when you get it wet, actually you get more traction.
02:10:17.000It's actually kind of nice, which is why when you watch MMA fights, sometimes you see guys pour water on the ground and then they'll move their feet on the water because maybe their skin is dry and they want to get their skin nice and moist and it actually gives you like a little traction.
02:10:29.000A dry canvas sometimes can be slippery, especially a fresh canvas.
02:10:33.000But those fucking logos are the worst.
02:11:59.000But do you think that that is just because of all that sparring as well, that very technical, what we call playing, where you're just tapping each other, not hard, you know, Ramon Decker, Dutch-style fighting in the gym every day,
02:12:17.000but instead just working on technique?
02:12:19.000Well, I've heard different theories with boxers, for instance.
02:12:23.000Boxers will spar for twice a week, three times a week, leading up to a fight for 10 weeks.
02:12:28.000And then their brain damage is caused from the sparring.
02:12:32.000Not the actual fight, but the actual preparation.
02:13:37.000He already said he had all these stitches.
02:13:39.000When someone says in the fighting world he was hurt, it means his body's not functioning right.
02:13:45.000Like you got whacked and all of a sudden you see your legs go rubber or you see a guy cover up maybe to a liver shot and you realize he's hurt.
02:13:52.000I was never winded or never at a point where I thought, oh, if I get hit one more time, I'm going to get down.
02:13:58.000There was no point whatsoever during the fight.
02:13:59.000I was getting hit, but at the same time, there was never another moment where I thought, I can't not win this fight until the bell rang, and then it's like, okay, now I'm out of time.
02:14:09.000When you watched the fight in the replay, did that fourth round incident where you cracked him with that punch and you started cleaning his feet, did that drive you fucking nuts?
02:15:49.000I'm fighting Soros on the 5th of December.
02:15:51.000So once my foot's sealed, I'll get back to Australia.
02:15:54.000I'll get back on the roads, get back on the pads.
02:15:55.000And now I'm more determined to make up for this loss.
02:15:57.000I want to make sure that I'm not only going to beat Soros, but I have to go out there and destroy him to get back my credibility as one of the top guys.
02:16:06.000Are you still fighting that black dynamite dude?
02:17:14.000He's going to bring such an entertaining fight for the Australian crowd that they're going to be crazy if they don't come along and watch it because it's going to be madness.
02:18:49.000You're not fighting like when I watched you fight, I'm watching you fight Cosmo, who's a big, strong guy, and you're not fighting like a guy who's over the hill.
02:18:59.000You're fighting like a cautious, smart veteran who's facing a very dangerous, fast guy.
02:20:33.000And then also, like you were saying before, Randy Couture, he's also a gentleman that's proving that you can still fight with the guys that are in their late 20s, early 30s.
02:20:46.000Yeah, he won at a world championship level deep into his 40s.
02:20:50.000Yeah, and then, again, another gentleman that can put a conversation together that's had all these fights.
02:20:55.000And Bernard Hopkins, again, it's just...
02:27:05.000I honestly believe that, especially in MMA, since grappling is such an integral part of mixed martial arts, I don't think they should ever break things up.
02:27:12.000I think if a guy's got you down and he's just holding you down, that's tough shit.
02:27:16.000You've got to figure out how to get up.
02:27:18.000I don't think it should score very well for the guy on top, but I don't believe in stand-ups because I feel like...
02:27:54.000I'm just saying there's only five minutes, okay?
02:27:57.000And for grappling, five minutes is not that long.
02:28:01.000Say, if you were grappling with another guy who was also at your level in grappling, and you guys were tangling for five minutes...
02:28:09.000If you're both at the same level, there's going to be a lot of stalemates and it takes little incremental improvements and advances for you to get to a position where you finally get to a mount or you finally get an arm bar or you finally get a choke.
02:28:28.000Because stalemate's a part of grappling.
02:28:31.000It's your job to figure out, if you're on the bottom, how to get up or how to submit them from your back.
02:28:36.000It's the guy's job on the top to hold you down and to figure out how to get you in a better position and to dominate you and to figure out how to submit you.
02:28:47.000The same when pressed against the fence when sometimes they're stuck there for more than two minutes.
02:28:53.000When the guys get impatient, then they make mistakes.
02:28:56.000Like if a guy's pressing you up against the cage and he's kneeing your legs and he's hitting you with short elbows and you're just waiting for the referee to separate.
02:29:03.000If the referee doesn't separate, you might do something silly.
02:29:52.000But I think if you're going to have pure stand-up, just pure stand-up striking, I think what you're doing is the best way to do it.
02:29:59.000I think small gloves and I think doing it in a cage where you don't have to worry about guys falling through the ropes.
02:30:07.000I've seen that in a lot of events, especially when guys start clinching and they get up against a rope and maybe their butt goes through two ropes and they slid back or maybe they're ducking away from a punch and they wind up falling out of the ropes.
02:30:19.000I was at a local Muay Thai show in the ring, and they had two gentlemen clinging away, and the other guys, they've fallen straight through the center.
02:30:28.000And then they had the judges' table right beside the ring, and they had all the trophies lined up.
02:30:34.000And it was those trophies where the angel was on top of the trophy with the hands clasped together, and it was like razors.
02:30:46.000He missed the trophy by inches and it flopped onto the desk and if it had been a little bit to the left, he would have been pierced straight through his eye.
02:31:15.000But in the cage, from a personal experience, I've had 118, 19 fights in the ring, but to be locked in that cage, not as a spectator, but as a fighter, It's such a different atmosphere and a different arena.
02:31:31.000It definitely brings out a completely different beast.
02:31:34.000When you know your opponent's wearing those little gloves, every single sense in your body is tingling because if you make a mistake, you're going to be completely dominated or wiped out or knocked unconscious.
02:31:56.000And then because of my hands too, I think the idea of smacking someone in the forehead with bare knuckle wouldn't be healthy for my longevity.
02:32:04.000So I like the idea with having hand wraps and having the small gloves.
02:32:07.000Because with my CMT gloves, it's half padding, half gel.
02:32:12.000And it's almost a six ounce instead of a four.
02:32:19.000I had them talk with a company in Australia to help design them, make them thicker.
02:32:24.000As a promoter, I didn't want to have someone dying on my show.
02:32:27.000So I made it a thicker padding because there's no taking down, there's no holding.
02:32:33.000It's just complete trauma for five rounds.
02:32:38.000Well, the argument is, I mean, I see what your point is, but the argument is that, you know, you're saying you wouldn't want to break your hands on someone's forehead.
02:32:46.000The argument is that you could throw a shin kick with full power.
02:32:50.000So shin, which is much more powerful than a punch, shin to the head, right?
02:32:56.000Why do you allow someone to tape up their wrist and form an unnatural bond, right?
02:33:01.000And then tape up their hands and make it nice and hard so you can punch full blast.
02:33:06.000Whereas the reality is, hands should be used judiciously because there's not a lot of room for error.
02:33:13.000If you do make a mistake and you punch full blast and you hit someone in an elbow, they cover up like that and your knuckle slamming in the elbow, you might shatter your hand.
02:33:20.000You might shatter your hand on their forehead.
02:33:22.000You might shatter your hand in a lot of different ways.
02:33:24.000And you have to be way more clean with your strikes and it makes it more realistic.
02:33:29.000And they think, a lot of people think, that that would actually alleviate a lot of the brain damage.
02:33:38.000Yeah, just my hands are always sort of...
02:33:40.000I've had a little bit of difficulties in the past with them, so it's nice.
02:33:44.000It's reassuring that when I have the hand wraps on, that's keeping my wrist into a nice firm place, so when I punch wrong, that I'm not going to break my hand.
02:33:54.000And just having that cushioning over the top of the knuckles because the knuckles are so sensitive that I've broken them before.
02:34:02.000And I know my hands are wrapped properly that I can hit with full force and not have any repercussions.
02:34:07.000Does that argument make sense to you though?
02:34:41.000What I'm doing with the CMT gloves is with the fingerless because a lot of people are saying, well, why are you doing it?
02:34:46.000There's so many problems with the UFC and the pikes.
02:34:48.000Why do you want to bring that same element into what you're doing with the cage?
02:34:51.000But at the same time, if you wear boxing gloves in the cage, it just looks so dumb.
02:34:58.000It does because you spend every single weekend watching UFC and And then you're trying to get the same respect from the MMA fans for what you're doing with Muay Thai rules.
02:35:09.000And you've got these big pillows on, yet the UFC guys wearing the fingerless ones.
02:35:13.000Well, is it possible that you could do something that's not fingerless, but that's also very light, that looks like a bag glove?
02:35:32.000I know that when I close my fist and then when I clinch, I know that I have my fingers and I can catch the kicks a lot easier and manipulate the guard so I can throw elbows easier as well.
02:37:33.000I've heard rumors that there may or may not be an MMA glove similar sort of style underneath or if it's a softer cotton or it's not like pure...
02:38:10.000You walk into an arena and it's a different animal.
02:38:13.000It's funny you say that because that was always like a thing that people thought was holding MMA back because MMA was in a cage and people didn't like the idea of cage fighting, in quotes, cage fighting.
02:38:27.000Only UFC. You know, there was an article that was recently out about the World Series of Fighting, which has some really good fighters in it.
02:38:45.000They're on NBC Sports, you know, and I don't know how much NBC Sports pays them, but there was some article on The Underground about them losing money and being in dire financial straits.
02:38:54.000And for me as a fan, I hate hearing that, because I want guys to have options.
02:38:59.000Because when guys get cut from the UFC, a lot of times they'll go to World Series of Fighting, one of these other organizations like Jake Shields or John Fitch, and they'll build up, win a few fights over there, and maybe they can come back to the UFC. And I like hearing that.
02:39:44.000And then it's Australia too because we don't wrestle.
02:39:46.000So within 10 seconds they're both on the ground and they don't have the skill set to stand back up and they sort of get stuck for five minutes.
02:39:53.000But when you watch UFC, they're at such a high level that it's like two worms.
02:39:57.000The next minute they're up again, they're down.
02:40:02.000You've got the Cerrone's and it's such a...
02:40:05.000And then what I want to do with the CMT too...
02:40:08.000I've heard Dana White say in interviews, if any competition promotion had any brains, they'd steal everything that I'm doing in the UFC and try and replicate that for their own promotion because what we're doing is a winner formula.
02:40:21.000So that's what I want to try and do with my show.
02:40:23.000I'm trying to bring internationals in.
02:40:24.000I'm trying to create every single aspect, as much as I can, similar, but in the striking world.
02:40:31.000Do you think that that's what would be your primary focus when you retire?
02:40:35.000Promoting and promoting like cage Muay Thai?
02:41:00.000When you watch MMA and say you watch like UFC or high-level UFC, what is the one thing that you think that when you see striking, is there anything that bugs you?
02:41:13.000Is there things that you watch that you see people doing wrong or things you would like to see them improve upon?
02:41:41.000It doesn't have to be technical or textbook, but to have that adrenaline dump of sitting there and watching him for a whole round just going crazy.
02:42:17.000You don't have to wait till the main event to watch the fights.
02:42:20.000You can sit there from the prelims to the last fight and enjoy every single fight because you know that every single fight is going to be completely different to the last.
02:42:29.000But as a world-class striker, when you watch guys in the UFC, do you see holes in their style?
02:42:34.000Or when you watch MMA, it doesn't even have to be UFC, just any MMA. What do you think about the level, coming from a world championship Muay Thai fighter's perspective, what do you think about the level of kickboxing in MMA? If it was pure kickboxing rules,
02:44:20.000And what did you guys basically work on?
02:44:23.000Hendrick was a southpaw, so we're working on keeping everything basic and then lots of right-hand left hooks, lots of inside thigh kicks with the right leg for taking out that lead, southpaw leg, moving away from the power left hand because he's a monster.
02:44:39.000And then every time we spar, I replicate Johnny's sparring style.
02:44:44.000So I throw lots of overhand lefts and just being that craziness exploding in.
02:44:54.000John Denneher, after a week of having George on the pads, he was blown away about how much power I was starting to get out of George's punches and kicks and then freestyling on the pads that he'd never done before.
02:45:11.000But then I came too early in the camp.
02:45:16.000There were still 14 weeks between Our training session and the fight.
02:45:19.000So by the time I went back to Australia, he sort of went back to the old training regime.
02:45:26.000What was the difference between your training?
02:45:29.000I had the pleasure of working out with you and one of the things that I found was really interesting is that even when you throw a jab, you're throwing a jab almost like a right hand.
02:45:36.000You're throwing a jab like you're pulling back with your right hand and fucking thrusting with your left hand.
02:45:44.000George, when George was double jabbing before, it was a long jab, short jab, whereas I had him cocking that shoulder for both jabs, so both of them were, and they'll make them big cracking noise, bam, bam.
02:48:08.000And then we've gotten in through the VIP, and then we're walking to our table, and then we're about maybe 15 feet from our table, and someone says, Jazz P, Jazz P. And without a word of a lie, the whole dance floor stopped dancing.
02:48:24.000Everyone's looked at us, turned, and the whole club's walked towards that table.
02:49:16.000And even a red light, we're driving in the car, me and George got the radio on.
02:49:22.000We stopped by the red light, and all you hear is GSP, GSP, and for, to his credit, the champion is, he always looks, waves, smiles, and then solo just drifts forward just a fraction, just so he's out of eyesight of the fans.
02:49:39.000He'd rather, from your car park even, he'd catch a taxi from the front gate to the back gate because from walking 100 feet would be a half an hour with photos and handshakes and high fives.
02:50:26.000The sport to the point where he was an international superstar and he's from Canada.
02:50:32.000And they're so proud of that in Canada.
02:50:34.000Canada is such a proud country that a guy like George is probably like a hundred times more famous than me.
02:50:39.000We went to New York for one week to train with John Denner here at the Gracie's Academy.
02:50:45.000And even in New York, it was no different.
02:50:47.000Montreal and New York were just as insane as each other.
02:50:50.000Yeah, I would think Montreal would be probably a little bit more crazy, but yeah, at that level, I mean, George, when he was a champion especially, I wonder if he can get around now a little bit better.
02:51:03.000I heard you're going to find Anderson Silva, George.
02:51:07.000Yeah, and then even the websites, you notice all the, I read the MMA websites every single day, and then there's always, at least once a week, there's something about George is doing this, or he might come back, or this is happening, and so he's still relevant, he still hasn't disappeared yet, they still need him in that circle.
02:51:26.000I know Sage Northpett was in TriStar recently, and he had done some training with George, and I think, you know, George still has a little bit of the itch, but...
02:51:58.000He's a really unique guy, and no better ambassador in his time to carry the flag.
02:52:05.000Yes, and then even a lot of people change after once they reach that superstardom, whereas George has always stayed grounded, and then people would come up, and the majority are great, and then some people, the time I spent with him,
02:52:21.000hey, every time I get a photo of a celebrity, I get carried, so pick me up.
02:53:06.000I think I've seen you in a few confrontations on YouTube where people are a bit aggressive when it comes to asking for your stuff and you have to give them a slight, hey, just...
02:56:54.000Like if you wrote a sentence or if he wrote a sentence or some crazy dude who has no fucking grasp of reality at all, it still looks the same because it's a sentence.
02:57:04.000And you don't know, like when you read someone's opinion, you don't know what the, what's that guy like?
02:57:09.000Like, that's the thing about opinions.
02:57:11.000There's always guys, and you know them, everybody knows them, there's always guys in the gym that'll see someone, and they probably don't know what the fuck they're doing, but they'll see someone hitting the bag, or they see someone doing a technique, and they'll come over and correct them, right?
02:57:24.000You know, there's a million of those fucking morons, right?
02:57:27.000Well, when you meet that guy and you know he's an idiot, and you know that guy from the gym, you can just go, oh, Mike is the guy who gave you advice.
03:02:04.000I like the just bleed guy in the audience going, it's fun too, but I think you lose something where there's a beautiful respect to Muay Thai.
03:02:15.000And another thing about Muay Thai is the audiences are respectful.
03:02:18.000When you go to those events, you very rarely hear stupid shit being yelled at.
03:02:23.000Even though people are drinking, there's applause for both the winner and the loser.
03:02:28.000There's a tremendous amount of respect that's involved in it because it's not that popular and because it's not mainstream, those people in the audience have a deep appreciation for the art of Muay Thai.
03:02:49.000It's like they're there to see Muay Thai.
03:02:52.000Yeah, and then, yeah, the MMA culture is just so...
03:02:56.000Well, there's a lot of fucking posing and fake and assholes.
03:03:00.000I mean, my friends, I'll get my friends tickets, you know, and they'll go to the fights and they'll sit beside some guys like, Why does he fucking...
03:03:25.000I'm hoping that the human race survives this era.
03:03:28.000I'm really hoping that this internet era enlightens us to our douchey ways and we just slowly but surely rise from the ashes of what we've created.
03:04:07.000And next time you come back, we'll make sure, probably try to get you in before, too, so people can tune in and know that the fight is coming.
03:04:16.000John Wayne Parr, ladies and gentlemen.