In this episode, I sit down with my good friend and long time martial arts training partner, Matt Hume. We talk about how he became one of the best fighters in the world, how he got started in MMA, and what it takes to be the best in the business. He's a great example of how hard work and dedication pays off in the long-term. I hope you enjoy listening to this episode and that it inspires you to keep coming back for more and more! If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts. I'll be picking one person at random who leave a review to win a FREE place on the next Shreddin8 program! Thank you so much for all the support, stay tuned for the reviews and shout outs! I'll see you next week for the next episode! Peace, Blessings, Cheers, EJ and Cheers! -Jon Sorrentino & Rory Mcgregor. Jon & Rory - The MMA Jerks. Jon talks about his journey to becoming the best MMA Fighter in the World. Rory talks about what it's like to train with Matt Hume and Brad Curtin, and how important it is to have a good relationship with a good coach. Matt talks about the importance of being a good teacher and a good mentor. Brad talks about how to get the most out of your training and how to stay humble and humble. John talks about why you should do what you can do the most of your day to do the best you can in life. and how you should be the most important thing you can achieve the most you can be your best possible day to be your dreams and most important day of your life and most importantly, you need to do what matters the most, not what you achieve in your best day So much so that you can have the most that you achieve your dreams, you deserve the most in life, you get the best of your most day, not the most opportunities possible. . Jon gives you the most amazing day, so you can live your best chance to achieve your greatest day possible! Jon does not have to ask for the most beautiful day, you can experience the most awesome day possible, and you are not only what you deserve, you are most important, you do your best, you build the most rewarding life possible, you don t get it.
00:00:13.000I think if young guys are coming up, And they want to learn how to fight where they take as little damage as possible and inflict as much as possible.
00:00:49.000I mean, I will honestly say it's credited to Matt Hume and Brad Curtin.
00:00:54.000Ever since I started training mixed martial arts, you know, I didn't jump into mixed martial arts because of the UFC. I mean, I did see the Ultimate Fighter and all that stuff, but I saw the workouts, how in shape they were.
00:01:05.000And then when I started fighting, Matt was like, okay, you can do a mixed martial arts fight.
00:04:31.000He started overseeing everything I did when I was swimming, conditioning, everything.
00:04:35.000Beginning of my MMA career, when I was fighting Miguel Torres, Kid Yamamoto, Demacia Page, Nick Pace, I was doing my own thing, like doing my conditioning on my own.
00:04:44.000Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, Friday, I was doing my own thing.
00:04:49.000And then Wednesday, Matt would come down the south, beat me up.
00:04:52.000And then Saturday, I would drive up to Kirkland.
00:04:55.000And train with him, and we would spar.
00:04:57.000So, after that fight, the first team in the call fight, he was like, you need to take this shit seriously.
00:05:00.000And that's when I was like, alright, I'll do 100% with you then.
00:06:33.000I remember watching him way back in the day when he fought Pat Miletic, and he broke Pat Miletic's nose, and they stopped the fight, which I was like, I remember even at the time, I was like, what the fuck?
00:06:44.000You're going to stop a fight over a broken nose?
00:08:36.000It's so smart to just let the engine heal, let the machine heal.
00:08:41.000There's so many guys that think you have to be a hard ass.
00:08:44.000You have to wrap up your arm like a mummy and get in there.
00:08:47.000I mean, you could always do something.
00:08:48.000You know, you could always, like, I know a lot of guys who have, they've torn muscles, so they do all the workouts in the pool or something along those lines.
00:08:55.000Well, Rafael Dos Anjos, before he beat Anthony Pettis for the title, he had an MCL tear.
00:09:01.000So all he did was sprints on the Aerodyne.
00:09:04.000I mean, he was just doing hour-long sprints, you know, like just, like, interval sprints on the Aerodyne, and that's all he did for, like, the last couple weeks of his camp.
00:12:03.000And then as I saw him fight a little better competition with Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier, and I saw how he crossed distance and how he could take a shot.
00:13:34.000A lot of people think it's dangerous because they think it's the most efficient way to rehydrate.
00:13:38.000And if you're going to have weight weigh-ins, and especially if you're going to have a big disparity of weight classes, like you're in a weight class like 125 where there's a 10-pound jump between 125 and 135, but a lot of them, like 85 to 205, that's 20 pounds.
00:14:36.000I never get tired when I fight because I make sure I do my homework, learn how to diet right, and then make sure I get enough water in me so I can have the water to cut out of my system.
00:14:46.000But for guys who, you know, I know John Dotson, I've heard he gets like 157, 160. Does he really?
00:14:53.000I know Joseph, he used to get big between his fights, but I heard he's kind of, you know, last time I talked to him, he's kind of stayed a little bit lower.
00:14:58.000Because in reality, it's like, what's the point of getting big and put muscle on?
00:15:02.000Eventually, you're going to have to cut it off anyways.
00:15:04.000I mean, the first thing that goes when you're losing weight is typically muscle, then the fat, and then so forth.
00:15:16.000He has a huge cut to 145. He's going to possibly fight at 155. So I think it's good.
00:15:21.000I mean, obviously, I think I know a lot of guys love the way you can IV. But now they're like, I think the biggest thing is they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we used to be able to do this for 20 years plus, and now you're just going to come here and say we can't do it?
00:16:02.000Then test them after the fight, and you're covered.
00:16:03.000Yeah, and I think they're trying to do, in my personal opinion, I remember when we were doing the USADA meeting, and it cracked me up because he was like, well, that's a totally different story, but he said that one fighter came in,
00:16:21.000didn't give a name, came in, Did his test before the fight.
00:16:57.000He was saying, this guy was hiding something.
00:16:59.000We didn't further depth, and he was masking drugs with the IV. And so I think we've already had that happen in our sport, and that guy got caught.
00:18:46.000It's like a lot of these guys that are juiced up, they can take a better shot.
00:18:49.000I tell you what, when I fought Ali Bogotinov, my follow-on goes, dude, after we got down to the fight, he goes, I came home and he saw my knees.
00:20:30.000Like, Ronda Rousey, after the first round, obviously there were stylistic issues, and there was obviously technical issues, where she wasn't as good as we thought she was standing up.
00:20:41.000You know, when you see her hit the pads, and you see You see her fight someone like Betch Cohea, she looked good.
00:20:45.000But then you see her fight a skilled striker like Holly and some issues got exposed, some technical issues.
00:21:16.000I would, you know, give praises to Greg Jackson and John Wigglejohn, those guys over there in Albuquerque, for getting Holly Holm ready for that.
00:21:25.000Because in my mind, going into that fight, I was like, if I was Holly Holm, I would take a second, relax, see what Ronda's bringing, you know, use my jab, use my high kick, use my spinning kicks, just to get Ronda off her game.
00:22:28.000He's only two losses between me and Domina Cruz, John Dotson.
00:22:31.000He hasn't lost at 135, and he's only lost to 125. It's to me.
00:22:35.000So his skill set is high up there, too, where Kat Zagano, I thought she had the best chance to beat Ronda Rousey, but I spent time with her in the back when we were getting ready to fight UFC 178, and she was so emotional.
00:22:51.000I was sitting in the back there just eating a banana, and she was like, doing her thing.
00:23:44.000And then Betch Cohea just shot her into the stratosphere because it was in Brazil.
00:23:49.000I'll tell you, man, that was a surreal moment.
00:23:51.000It was surreal being there in Brazil because every time I've been to Brazil before, they never cheer for Americans.
00:23:58.000I mean, they cheer when you're over, you give props to Brazil, but when you're on the weigh-in scale and you're fighting a Brazilian, they're very proud.
00:24:05.000And they were fucking cheering Ronda and booing Betch Cohea.
00:24:36.000But for her, what a trip it must be to go from that, which is just like the most epic victory in Brazil, in the home country, million pay-per-view buys, she's a superstar in every talk show, and everybody wants to talk to her, to head kicked,
00:25:30.000And so I just felt that Ronda Rousey ran into somebody who's just as athletic or more athletic than she is, who doesn't, I'm not saying Ronda Rousey blows up between her fight camp, but I would say, you know, if we went to Holly Holm right now, she would probably still have abs,
00:26:23.000I was like, I just need to see her kick.
00:26:24.000I was like, you know, if she had a good jab-jab inside nine to disrupt Holly Holm's base, to change the distance, you know, because the only way Ron Rossi can hit you is from punches.
00:26:36.000My legs are longer than my feet, so I can use my kicks to change the distance, to disguise my distance to Holly Holm, but she doesn't have that in her repertoire.
00:26:46.000I don't know if Edmund is versatile in kicks or the clinch game because each time around it clinches, it's always, I'm looking to throw you.
00:26:54.000I'm not looking to clinch, Muay Thai, throw elbows, shoot down for a double leg takedown, switch to single leg, drag you off one foot, throw the left hook.
00:29:19.000But the pace she puts on people, the pace that Loretta Valerie put on Joanna...
00:29:25.000When Joanna wasn't hurting Valerie, and I was like, okay, so she's not hurting her, but I can start to see Joanna start to slow down just a little bit.
00:29:33.000If Valerie had a little more wrestling, a little more diverse, just fighting, I'm just going to fight you.
00:29:39.000I think, and that's what Paige brings when she fights.
00:29:42.000She puts on a high pace to where she's in your face.
00:29:47.000Yes, she has some weird scrambles where, you know, it's like, oh, what the hell happened?
00:29:51.000But she ends up on top, and then she starts punching ground to pound.
00:30:18.000I got in there, started clenching at him, grabbing his head, and then when he tried to put me off balance, I put him off balance for my wrestling.
00:30:23.000That's what you have to do with someone who's a Muay Thai world champion.
00:30:26.000And I believe Paige Van Zandt could do that if she has the right skills, if she has the right coaching, and the right attitude, and is ready to get fucking hit a lot.
00:33:00.000And we were talking about it, and he did the podcast, and he was saying, if you watch the fight, what happened was that Dos Anjos was always there just slightly quicker.
00:33:09.000Like, their skill sets were incredibly similar.
00:33:11.000Like, incredibly similar as far as how good they both are.
00:33:15.000But Dos Anjos was just landing just a little bit quicker.
00:34:46.000Even from 2005, if you go back to the time when the UFC had the Ultimate Fighter, if you go 10 years for the first season of the Ultimate Fighter, you go 10 years ago and then watch now, the difference between world champions then and world champions now, it's, boy, there's a giant leap.
00:35:01.000I would say there's more athletic people in a sport, more athletes learning how to fight.
00:35:07.000Back in the day, you just had guys like, I just want to fight.
00:35:35.000I mean, if you look back to the first time that Daniel Corbin and Jon Jones fight, he goes, Fuck, I didn't realize how heavy he was when I had to carry him around.
00:35:41.000And I think the second time they fight, he's going to have to carry that weight around because Jon Jones is longer.
00:35:47.000I would say Jon Jones is maybe faster.
00:35:51.000I mean, they're both still fast, but I think Jon Jones is going to have the upper hand in his striker realm.
00:35:55.000So, Daniel Corman is going to have to carry all that extra weight around.
00:35:59.000That's a beautiful thing, is that Jon Jones, yes, he's put on weight.
00:36:52.000Even when he fought Lyoto Machida, I feel like he goes out there, he takes it all in, see what his opponent wants to do, does a knee tap and all that stuff where he kicks people in the kneecap.
00:37:00.000But I feel that there's a point where he turns around and goes, okay, I'm going to fucking finish you now.
00:37:04.000When he dislocated his toe, I felt like you saw a different...
00:37:28.000I feel like next time you see Jon Jones fight DC, I think you're going to see that.
00:37:33.000Well, the Chael Sonnen fight, he wanted to prove a point.
00:37:35.000Like, you talk so much shit, and you know you're not in my league, so I'm just gonna go out and fuck you up.
00:37:40.000And he went out and fucked him up with his own game.
00:37:42.000I mean, he took Chael down, just beat his ass from there.
00:37:46.000What's really crazy about that fight is that John didn't know that he had dislocated his toe until I was talking to him in the post-fight interview.
00:37:53.000He looked down and saw his toe and went, oh my god.
00:38:52.000When he almost beat Anderson Silva, that was a perfect example of a guy that was fighting injured.
00:38:58.000You know, when Anderson had a fucked up rib going into that fight, couldn't stuff the takedown, couldn't stop it, and still managed to pull off that triangle in the fifth round.
00:39:08.000But if you watch that triangle, like I watched that triangle a bunch of times, it wasn't in.
00:39:12.000Yeah, I think, and once he started scooting, it almost turned to an arm triangle, an armbar triangle.
00:39:16.000The foot was never locked in behind the knee.
00:39:19.000It was never like, you know, it was never like fucking clamped in.
00:39:54.000And I think somebody else was there with Matt, and then the guy called...
00:39:58.000He called the guy who was with Matt, and he goes, hey man, hey, I'm thinking about gambling in a fight, what do you think?
00:40:04.000And this wasn't Matt, this was a guy who was there with Matt.
00:40:07.000And he goes, well, the way the fucking things look, Paula Feo is at the bar right now drinking fucking wine, so if you're going to gamble, you gamble and chill.
00:40:46.000It's very rare you see guys who come from pure Brazilian Jiu Jitsu like Jacare, Bibiano Fernandez, who come from a gi perspective of grappling and be able to transfer well over to mixed martial arts because I've grappled with a lot of black belts and no gi in mixed martial arts and I'm like...
00:41:06.000I don't know how I feel about it, but when I go with a Bibiano, I'm like, holy shit, this is a totally different level.
00:43:17.000And then when he was in my guard, he wouldn't, he wouldn't try to, he had a, he tried to go through the middle with his knee.
00:43:22.000And I was like, okay, you're pure Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
00:43:24.000And I was like, so if this was the MMA fight, you know, I'm right there.
00:43:27.000I was like, I could just stand up and knee you in the stomach and start punching the face.
00:43:30.000And so I can tell when I start going with somebody, like if I was to grapple with You know, you'd be like, hey man, what'd you grab with this guy?
00:43:36.000And then I'll feel him out and I'm like, you're just pure jiu-jitsu.
00:43:39.000And I'm like, because you're not mixing everything up with mixed martial arts into it.
00:43:46.000So even like when you're down on the ground with someone just rolling, you could tell that they're pure jiu-jitsu by the way they set things up?
00:43:57.000If they're pure jiu-jitsu and they've done mixed martial arts, so for instance, for me, you can tell when I'm on my back, I'm not a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter.
00:44:06.000I know how to do my arbor, I know how to do my commerce, I know how to do my front chokes and elevate and tip you off and all that stuff, but...
00:44:13.000Typically, when I'm on my back, I'm doing either two things.
00:44:16.000I'm trying to set your weight somewhere else so I can get back on my feet so I can start striking with you, or I'm looking to LA you to reverse you and then get my top game and start playing my game to looking to punch you.
00:44:28.000Typically, when I go with Bibiano, he has both those styles where he'll cook the beans.
00:44:32.000When he's on his back, he's throwing up the triangle, the armbar, doing certain steps where I'm like, okay, this guy, I don't want to be here.
00:45:06.000Or Matt always talks, when Matt's, one of his trainers, Haru, he would always reference everything in fishing.
00:45:14.000And so he goes, you know, when you go out fishing, you know, you throw the line out there and you just don't reel it up like that.
00:45:21.000You know, you throw the line and you kind of, you know, make the fish take the bait.
00:45:25.000Then once they take the bait and they bite, you hook them.
00:45:27.000And so when Matt's talking about striking, you know, you go out there and you start, you know, Making him, you know, if you have a counter striker, you want to give him that illusion like, hey, I'm right here.
00:46:32.000I never forget when Chad was like, he was still talking shit when I was, you know, he goes, uh, uh, uh, and I think, I think it can happen.
00:46:38.000I mean, For me, if somebody was going to talk, I remember when I was getting ready to fight Dawson the second time, he goes, I'm going to talk shit to him in the fight.
00:46:54.000When you were dominating that fight from the jump, I think he never really had a chance to get comfortable enough to start talking shit.
00:47:03.000The thing about talking shit is you have to think about it while you're doing it, and then the opponent has to think about it while you're doing it.
00:47:10.000You have to think about it while you're doing it, and your opponent has to think about it.
00:47:13.000There's a whole other element going on in the fight.
00:47:57.000But even like, in all my opponents, every single time I fought them, to the John Dodson, even though he talks shit about me, to John Rangan when he talks shit about me, every single time I fight my guys, I go up to them and say, dude, hey, this isn't the end of your career.
00:48:08.000At the end of the day, it's about being able to take care of your family and Pay your bills and have a career.
00:48:37.000Like, Luke Rockhold and Chris Weidman, these two are talking more shit before this fight than any other fight I could ever remember Weidman being in.
00:51:18.000Like when he fought Medina, and he was on the ropes getting beat up, if that was mixed martial arts, he wouldn't want that fight hands down.
00:53:00.000It was because it was like if I tell if I have a if there's a young guy that's thinking about a young girl that's thinking about getting into MMA, I will watch this fight.
00:53:08.000You're watching a guy fight one of the most athletic, one of the most dangerous guys in the fucking in the sport.
00:53:15.000A guy who, legitimate one-punch knockout power.
00:53:37.000And you shut it all down not by running away, not by avoiding him, by engaging over and over again, but controlling the distance, controlling the position.
00:53:47.000Like, you were constantly out of position for him.
00:54:09.000I really believe one of the best performances ever because I think Dodson is so fucking dangerous.
00:54:15.000He's so dangerous and I think and I can feel I can tell the three points were like when we're training and I'll just get hit so many times so much and I'm like this is fucking stupid like I'm gonna get not I'm gonna get knocked out if I fight like this But then I believe in that's training and I believe what he says and it worked out good and I could tell there was some relief off of Matt's shoulder after that fight because we know how it can end like that.
00:54:41.000And we know Dotson has the power for one shot.
00:55:18.000And I think with Dotson going up to 135, I think it's a good thing for the young and upcoming contenders because I don't know They probably could get through him, but from what I've seen and how I fought Dotson and how he brings it, I can tell that he would be just like Joseph.
00:57:24.000I think it was also because Lineker was known as a knockout artist at 25. He's like, you come up to my weight class, I'm going to fuck you up.
01:03:09.000And I'm like, with them little ass gloves, I'm not comfortable doing it yet because you get knocked out and then next thing you know, your paycheck's less and it's like, oh great, now I gotta survive all this.
01:03:19.000So I'm hoping one day I can get to that point to where You guys can see where it's like, now that's the fucking Matrix.
01:03:26.000Does it frustrate you when you look at what you're capable of doing and you look at...
01:03:31.000I'm not the only one that thinks you're the best pound for pound fighter in the world, but then you see other people that are fighting that don't have maybe the skill set that you have that just get all this hype and all this attention and the more pay-per-view buys and you look at that and go,
01:04:04.000I was like, you know, if I end up breaking Anderson Silva's record...
01:04:07.000Half the fucking world won't even know who I am.
01:04:09.000And I always call myself the red-headed stepchild from the UFC, where it's like, they'll be like, if people in the day they're like, they come to see Dan White, like, Dan White, we're interested, you know, you know, pushing your company, you know, you know, can you tell me some of your great athletes?
01:04:19.000And he'll be like, oh, you know, we have, uh, you know, Anderson, Conor McGregor, and all these guys.
01:04:23.000And he'll be like, who is, uh, Demetrius Johnson is his name.
01:04:38.000So, I mean, I always make fun of myself like, you know, I'm ready to step travel UFC because I don't get the exact same hype as other people, which is totally fine.
01:04:46.000I'm not out here looking for hype and all that stuff.
01:04:48.000I'm not here to try to prove that the skill set I bring into the octagon is if you're going to go in a bar and you're going to get in a fight, You want to bring my shit in there.
01:04:56.000Because you're going to get in a fight, and you're going to be able to beat this guy up, and he's not going to be able to touch you.
01:05:01.000And you're going to walk out and I'm like, Officer, I was not involved in that fight.
01:05:13.000And it does not translate well over to the fans and all that stuff.
01:05:18.000But you finished fights, like you knocked out Benavidez in the first round, you finished Horiguchi with one second to go in the last round of a fight you were dominating, you finished Moraga in the same situation, a fight where you were dominating, you still went for the finish and finished him.
01:07:16.000That way when I go out in the fight and you know I'm on this super high and you know if I lose my title and I come back to Seattle and they're like, you got your ass up.
01:10:23.000I was like, bro, you take that boy into a fucking actual, like, legitimate fight, a guy who throws down the chamber who can mix it up, you're both gonna get fucking synced real fast.
01:11:42.000Punches and elbows and clinches, and you don't know what he's gonna do while you're trying to do what you're gonna do.
01:11:47.000You're trying to push the pace, and you gotta cut angles, and you gotta get the fuck away from them, and you have to have all this knowledge in your head of what to do.
01:11:55.000Oh, he's doing this, that means that's coming next, I'm not gonna be there.
01:12:01.000It's like you have to have a fucking just gigantic database of knowledge.
01:12:06.000It's not easy, I'll tell you that right now.
01:12:09.000So when you see these guys fight on Tough, and they're like, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna bang, like, oh god, you're like, this is white belt shit.
01:12:52.000You might make more money than me at the end of the day just because you went out there and you sold shitload tickets and you got fighting every single night and all that stuff.
01:13:00.000I want people to, you know, when I die and they look, they dig up, you know, Old DVD tapes and they see, they stumble across me and they see me moving.
01:13:09.000I was like, oh, I want them to be able to sit there.
01:13:11.000I'm like, holy shit, this guy's moving fast.
01:13:13.000He's on the other side of the opponent.
01:13:15.000He's on the other side of the shoulder and he's landing combinations.
01:13:56.000And Matt Hume, self-consciously, he tells all the time, he goes, I had to cut him.
01:14:00.000I knew he was not going to stop because I hit him so hard that I knew self-consciously I needed to cut this man to have this man stop coming at me.
01:14:08.000And sure enough, he did the knee, cut him right there, and they're like, oh, back in the day, they cut when there was blood because they didn't have control of all the...
01:14:56.000I mean, if you can't appreciate a virtuoso at the most dangerous sport, you can't appreciate that because, you know, you just want guys to stand and bang.
01:16:18.000I'm not going to lie, each time it goes five fives, and they're like, oh, and I hear the clapping, and I hear people, and they start running, I'm like, No.
01:17:54.000Yeah, and so now when I do my boxing sparring, it's harder for me to do it because I can do it and I can get the upper edge, but it's like, I'm getting fucking tired because we're boxing and I'm just throwing punches.
01:18:20.000It is definitely a lot of rounds, but it's interesting that they only fight three minutes, and it's not nearly as tiring, you know, as MMA. Yeah.
01:18:26.000Yeah, you see guys come out of the corner, you know, Floyd would sit down and he goes...
01:19:03.000He had a wild, crazy, exciting career, but ultimately, you can't use your body like a battering ram.
01:19:10.000Like, if you have a car, and it's an awesome race car, but you want to enter a demolition derby with it, that fucking car's not going to last.
01:20:35.000And he goes, well, you think people are being on national television and on Ultimate Fighter and they're fighting to get a contract and they have holes in their game.
01:20:45.000And they're not fixing those holes before going into the house.
01:20:49.000That was one of the things I would have a hard time coaching with a fighter because I'll dissect a person and I'm like, okay, let me see you fight.
01:20:59.000And I'm like, okay, you have a hole here, a hole here.
01:21:01.000So are you looking just to fight to make two paychecks, three paychecks?
01:21:05.000If so, then I guess you're in the right area.
01:21:09.000But if you're looking to be a world champion, if you're looking to be able to provide for your family, I mean, I always tell you all the time, when I was in the UFC, when I fought for the world championship at 135, I also worked on a fucking full-time job.
01:21:19.000And they're like, you're fighting for a world championship, you shouldn't be working.
01:21:22.000I was like, uh, yeah, because I've lost a fight, so now I made, what, $14,000.
01:21:30.000Is that what you made to fight for the world title at 135?
01:22:41.000And now I have my phone on me and Matt will call me and go, hey, the UFC wants to know if you want to fight.
01:22:44.000I'm like, I'll run into the bathroom and like, hey, what's up, man?
01:22:47.000He goes, hey, you know, the UFC wants you to fight Kimamoto on February 5th, my debut in the UFC, 2011. I said, hey, let me see if I can day off from work.
01:22:55.000I'll go into my office and I'll say, hey, Pete.
01:26:01.000I believe in that if I put 10 years in this job, that I should be well compensated.
01:26:07.000And you can spend four or five years in a college education, get your college degree, and you go out and try to find a job, and they're like, no, you're not...
01:26:25.000So it's like, if me and you both went to a Starbucks, and if me and you applied for a job, and you're like, I'm Joe Rogan, I had 15 years as a barista, I know how to make coffee from your cappuccino to the triple shop or whatever, and I'm like, I have no coffee experience whatsoever.
01:26:41.000They're like, I'm going to take you, Demetri Johnson.
01:28:35.000This was in 2005. I think today you probably wouldn't be able to do that in college because the social justice warriors would come down on you for wanting to subjugate women in your horrible establishment.
01:29:29.000Obviously, then the Reebok deal came in, so we obviously...
01:29:33.000Xbox they didn't want to be part of you know there's they wanted that prime spot right on pay-per-view or even Fox they actually preferred Fox over pay-per-view because millions millions people millions people so when I came in they're like you know my buddy was like I think this comes across where my friend I was like dude I totally understand so that's that's when they left but I'm still cool the guy I actually just talked to him he's actually be down here tonight possibly so did you see the latest Reebok fuck up They made Anderson Aldo t-shirts and they wrote Anthony Pettis
01:30:12.000The mistakes are so frequent and so bad.
01:30:15.000The misspellings of the names over and over and over again.
01:30:18.000It's like, do you have a single person that's paying attention to that shit?
01:30:22.000There's a lot of people, but I understand they could have one person like, your job is to make sure before the product goes out, you check the fucking name.
01:30:28.000Who the fuck is the guy that said yes to any of those shirts?
01:30:52.000But then when it came to the Xbox deal, that kind of fell out, and then the Reebok deal came.
01:30:57.000And so, now that I'm in, I feel like I'm in this point in my career to where people are like, man, you should make your shirt, you should do this.
01:33:56.000Because if you were the only one, if you really weighed 175 and you were cutting down to 155, and everybody else was just a natural 155-er, well, you'd have a crazy advantage because you get to balloon up to 175. But fucking everybody's doing it.
01:35:47.000And I think that if this was done and done correctly where you really monitored people, made sure there was no cheating and say, look, you know, Tyron Woodley, this is the weight you should be fighting at.
01:35:58.000Matt Brown, this is the weight you should be fighting at.
01:36:35.000I think if they did the hydration test, but I think a lot of people, if there was no money on the line, if you were still going to get paid, I think they would be more excited for that.
01:36:45.000Yeah, I think that it's really counterintuitive to performance.
01:36:48.000I think when you're asking guys to fight at their best, the idea of dehydrating the shit out of yourself the day before the fight.
01:36:55.000Like, Conor, before he fought Chad Mendes, looked like an AIDS patient.
01:39:19.000I'm like, okay, you can lose three pounds and then you can lose...
01:39:23.000Then you have to wrestle up a different weight class at the new year because you always get a pound allowance at the new year because they take into consideration of the holidays.
01:41:34.000I don't think that my love for MMA will ever die off, but it's very possible that I won't want to do it as a career sometime in the future.
01:42:03.000It's incredible to go there and watch the all-time best combat sports athletes in the world in mixed martial arts compete and to be right there for most of the best fights ever and to call them.
01:44:36.000I like both of those guys, but I'm a big fan of loyalty, and I do not like when someone just gets up and leaves a camp that has been so good to them, like Alpha Male has been.
01:44:51.000I also I also feel like with a guy like TJ He had this deep connection to Dwayne Ludwig Yeah, and Dwayne Ludwig has done some incredible shit for his career without a doubt no doubt about it And I think Dwayne I've worked with Dwayne before and I've watched Dwayne train fight.
01:45:09.000I watched Dwayne I've trained TJ. I've watched him work with Brendan Shaw.
01:45:14.000He's held paths for me and gone over his philosophy.
01:45:18.000Because I was like, well, tell me what you teach guys.
01:46:03.000Just to keep up with his words, but he's obsessed.
01:46:07.000He's obsessed with making guys better and I think TJ recognizes that and I think that personality wise Dwayne and Faber just did not it just clashed it didn't work out Depends I mean, I don't I like Uriah a lot.
01:46:23.000I think Uriah is awesome I love him as a person and I like Dwayne a lot.
01:46:27.000So I don't know who the fuck is right and who the fuck is wrong.
01:46:32.000So I don't know what really went down, but I know it didn't work out, but I know that for Danny Castillo, and I know for TJ, having Dwayne coach them has been a huge benefit.
01:46:44.000I don't like that TJ took off, but I don't know the specifics, and I also don't know what MusclePharm is offering him.
01:46:50.000MusclePharm I don't understand muscle form.
01:47:02.000So I don't, I'm not sure what's going on there.
01:47:05.000It might be some rich dude, like that dynamic fastener guy that was like sponsoring everybody.
01:47:10.000Might be some dude who owns Muscle Farm that just loves MMA. I mean, maybe their products are awesome and they really believe in them and they're building up the company and this is part of their strategy.
01:47:45.000Maybe there's some revenue that we're not aware of, but as it's been explained to me, let's just put it this way in a positive spin.
01:47:53.000They've made a significant investment in that gym, a significant investment in MMA. And a significant investment in their company that I don't know necessarily whether or not it's been profitable yet.
01:48:04.000I'm obviously talking out of my ass because I'm not a financial guy.
01:48:07.000But I like what they're doing in terms of building this giant team, in terms of putting together this world-class facility.
01:48:15.000I mean, their facility is super impressive.
01:48:17.000I mean, I've seen the gym that they put together.
01:48:25.000If I do ever leave commentating for the UFC, one of the things fucking for sure I want to do is open up a big gym with guys like Eddie Bravo and get in some great striking coaches and just do it for the enjoyment of the sport.
01:48:40.000You're all there in the UFC. You're like, Alright, come on champ!
01:49:14.000Well you know the best part about that was filmed by John Wayne Parr who is a multiple-time world Muay Thai champion.
01:49:20.000He's a 10-time world Muay Thai champion.
01:49:22.000He's a good buddy of mine who's with his young daughter who's also a fighter.
01:49:25.000His young daughter's a fighter and she's a huge Ronda fan and I not only did I get them tickets, I pulled them from their seats and had them sit behind me in the production seats.
01:51:49.000I told Uriah Faber in his face, I was like, dude, you might never be the champion, but you'll probably be the most lucrative, successful 135-pounder to walk this earth.
01:51:58.000Well, he's a very smart guy business-wise, too.
01:52:09.000And I think with TJ, he saw that if he went with Dwayne Ludwig, Which he should, because Domino Cruz ain't no fucking joke, that he is going to be able to keep on being 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Maybe, but here's the counter to that was like how much of how good he got was sparring with Joseph Benavidez,
01:52:28.000sparring with Chad Mendes, sparring with Lance Parma, sparring with Cody Garbrandt, you know, being in the gym with those fucking monsters that are his weight class every day.
01:53:30.000It was the first UFC where they were supposed to be in New York, they're supposed to be in Buffalo, and they moved it down to Dothan.
01:53:37.000So I did that, and I did it for about two years, then I decided to quit.
01:53:41.000And when I decided to quit, I was very content not doing it, and I was excited when Zufa purchased it.
01:53:49.000And so then they had their big pay-per-view event, before I started working for them, where Tito Ortiz fought Vladimir Matyushenko right after September 11th.
01:55:55.000One of the things we would always say is, what the UFC really needs is some crazy millionaires who have all this money in the world, who are willing to spend a ton of money to promote the sport.
01:56:05.000And if they did that, man, the sport is so exciting.
01:58:12.000And that's the situation right now we have with MMA. Even though I work for the UFC and I love the UFC, I don't think that is a good model.
01:58:20.000I don't think it's a good model for the athletes.
01:58:22.000I think the best model for the athletes is the model that boxing has.
01:58:27.000When you look at how much money the top boxers make, the difference between how much the promotion makes and how much the athletes make, it's sided more towards the athletes in boxing than it is in MMA. I think with a company like Bellator,
01:58:47.000I think the good thing about something like Viacom is that Viacom is this multi-billion dollar huge multimedia company.
01:58:55.000The bad thing about it is they're a business and they're not in the business of MMA. The UFC, Dana White and the Fertitta's are huge Mixed martial arts fans.
01:59:50.000I don't think they did a good job of getting people excited about it.
01:59:54.000I don't think the promotion, like the actual...
02:00:00.000The way it was produced, the production of it was that good.
02:00:03.000It's like, what you have is an amazing product.
02:00:06.000You got Nikki Holtzkin, you got, you know, Joseph Valtellini, you got Raymond Daniels, you got all these wild-ass kickboxers, you got Rico Verhoeven, you got amazing, amazing talent.
02:00:16.000You just gotta figure out how to promote them.
02:01:27.000I always think it's good to have good competition because it makes people decide after their contract is up with the UFC or Bellator or other places, then they can decide on, hey, like, what, Gilbert Melendez, he tested the market for Bellator, and from the word on the street is that he got a good deal with the UFC,
02:01:47.000I think it is good competition, and I also think that it would be great for everybody, including the UFC. I think that if the Bellator promotion really kicked it into gear and started putting on really high-quality shows with guys who you look at them, like, say if Jon Jones was over in Bellator, if Jon Jones left and went to Bellator,
02:04:44.000When you come to the UFC, this is the fucking hippie thing.
02:04:48.000My amateur career was so long that Matt wanted to make sure when I got into, when he called me, when Sean Shelby called him, he goes, hey, we got a fight for Demetri Johnson.
02:04:57.000We want to sign him after I knocked out Jesse Brock in Alaska.
02:05:01.000And Matt was like, okay, who do you want him to fight?
02:05:33.000Who do you think would be a good fight?
02:05:35.000Well, I don't know, but I mean, here's a counterpoint to that.
02:05:38.000The counterpoint to it is, you look at a guy like Mayweather, who was an Olympic star, went from that to entered MMA and was slowly built up.
02:05:46.000Now, here he is, 49-0, supposedly retired, but we both know that's bullshit.
02:05:51.000He'll be back in April when they build that huge stadium in Vegas.
02:05:57.000He's gonna be back in April, and he's gonna fight Manny Pacquiao after Manny Pacquiao recovers from shoulder surgery, and it'll be the biggest fucking fight ever, next to the last fight, which was the biggest fight ever.
02:06:08.000He's not gonna pass up on money, and he's still young, and he's still awesome.
02:06:12.000Why would you tie your record with another person where you can have the record?
02:10:00.000I mean, I remember Edmund telling me that he had a background in Taekwondo and he can't kick Ronda and no one's going to be able to kick Ronda.
02:12:46.000The only reason I'm going to go on Twitter is if I'm looking for something or if I'm going to post something about me coming on here or stream or anything like that because a lot of people just talk shit.
02:13:06.000Like, if you're going online, like, I'll look at someone, sometimes someone will talk shit to me, and I'll go to their Twitter account, and I'll realize that's all they do.
02:13:14.000That's all they do is talk shit to me.
02:13:16.000I look at their Twitter account, I'm like, you need to get someone's help.
02:13:20.000Someone needs to talk to you, like, your fucking whole Twitter feed is me.
02:13:24.000You're telling me I'm a loser, but I didn't even know you existed until two seconds ago, and apparently you've been tweeting me for a year.
02:13:30.000Like, that's pretty fucking crazy, and it's not healthy, man.
02:15:13.000You're wasting all that time hating on people and shitting on people.
02:15:18.000I saw this guy the other day who was shitting on this fighter, and I went to his Twitter page, and his Twitter page was completely dedicated, like the name of the Twitter page was dedicated to shitting on this fighter, and all the tweets, and someone called him a troll,
02:18:36.000I think traumatic brain injury is something that has gotten me more and more concerned over the last few years.
02:18:43.000Because of talking to doctors, I've had this one doctor, Dr. Mark Gordon, who works with a lot of soldiers, football players.
02:18:51.000He's worked with some combat sports athletes as well, where he relays the issues with traumatic brain injury, the damage to the pituitary gland, the damage to your body's ability to produce hormones, depression, and all the issues that come along with concussions,
02:19:07.000and how those are exacerbated by ignoring them or by trying to work through them or by getting...
02:19:14.000Injured again, close to the concussion, which makes it way, way worse.
02:19:19.000When I look at guys that have had to exit the sport, like T.J. Grant, who's about to fight for the title, and had to get out of the sport.
02:19:31.000And I just think that traumatic brain injury, although I love this sport, is one of the most overlooked and more dangerous aspects.
02:19:39.000Now, you don't hear guys like Dana talk about it and you rarely hear people talk about it outside of someone like me because they're promoters and because that's their bread and butter.
02:19:52.000I can't do that, because for me, my bread and butter is me being honest.
02:20:00.000My business is I gotta say what I really think.
02:20:03.000And what I really think is she needs a comprehensive overhaul of her game, of her MMA game.
02:20:11.000I think she needs to look at, like, how she's preparing, and she needs to take into consideration all the problems that were exposed in that fight.
02:20:20.000And she needs to re- reassess and re-address.
02:20:23.000And I also think she has too many fucking distractions.
02:20:57.000I'm not saying that Betch can't eventually put that in her game, but as right now, when I look at her, when she fought Shanna Baszler, I'm looking at a robotic fighter.
02:21:10.000I think she needs to really look at the whole...
02:21:14.000I mean, like we said, MMA is problem solving, right?
02:21:19.000There was obviously a bunch of new problems that were exposed in that fight.
02:21:23.000And one of the big ones is the difference between hitting mitts Sparring with people that aren't really strikers and fighting a 19-time world boxing champion.
02:21:33.000Who's also an outstanding kickboxer, who's also an outstanding athlete, who's also incredibly mentally tough, who also has a fantastic, real, professional MMA camp filled with champions, potential champions, world-class contenders.
02:21:48.000Mike Winklejohn is one of the best fucking striking coaches in the world.
02:21:52.000Greg Jackson, who's a master strategist, and they've gone over this with a fine-tooth comb.
02:23:02.000Look, man, I go back to the days when Mike Tyson had that fucking down jacket on and he was running at 5 o'clock in the morning and he was 19 years old and they asked him, why do you run at 5 o'clock in the morning?
02:23:15.000And he was like, I run at 5 o'clock in the morning because I believe that my opponent is in bed and I believe it gives me an edge.
02:26:47.000You open the door and you let them in.
02:26:48.000And I don't necessarily think anybody other than her mother, who's just a badass herself, I don't think there's a lot of people that are going to tell her that, you know?
02:27:39.000She's in a different stratosphere because there's never been a woman that's been dominant like that, that's been a world-class fighter that's appeared in all these Metro PCS commercials.
02:29:42.000I mean, she was just so spectacular with her arm bars.
02:29:46.000But she found someone that had the kind of potential and that had the kind of talent that she did in a singular discipline, but it was a singular discipline that she didn't have.
02:29:55.000That discipline was kickboxing, you know, and boxing, striking, which is not her strong suit.
02:30:51.000It's like, how much of that do you really need?
02:30:53.000How much of that is really beneficial?
02:30:55.000Like, what is the difference between, like, what Ronda brings to the table, and if all that stuff was so beneficial, well, how come, you know, how come other fighters who do the same amount of work don't get the same amount of reaction to it?
02:31:08.000Well, it's because the results inside the octagon are what's most important.
02:34:53.000Yeah, but now you have people like, they get out of high school, I'm going to be a professional fighter.
02:34:57.000Motherfucker, you know what that takes.
02:34:59.000You know how much money you're going to make.
02:35:00.000You know, homeboy, McDonald's is making more money than you, and you consider yourself a professional fighter.
02:35:05.000And that's where, like, I didn't have that.
02:35:07.000So that's why I think, like, my outside on, like, my insight on, like, I'm either going to win or lose.
02:35:13.000I think that helps me to where now they built this model to where it's like...
02:35:17.000You can be a UFC professional fighter and you can do all these great things which is absolutely amazing.
02:35:24.000I'm not bagging on that model at all because it's given me the opportunity to sit here in front of you and have this conversation and for me and my wife to be able to travel the world and see things but I think that people really need to look at it And dissect it before they jump all into it.
02:35:41.000Yeah, and I think one of the more devastating things about this Reebok situation is that fighters can't make money outside of their paycheck.
02:36:45.000Yeah, so there'll be point times where, you know, if there's not something coming up where they can advertise or anything, but there's point times where I take in a fight and I got no sponsorship money whatsoever.
02:36:56.000And I went out there and I destroyed my opponent.
02:36:58.000And people were like, how could you do that?
02:37:01.000But at the end of the day, I take a step back and look at it like, this is fighting.
02:37:04.000I've done this to show myself to be the best fighter in the world.
02:37:09.000And I would do it because I'm fishing.
02:37:11.000I'm hoping that one day they're like, dude, we want to set you up and get you taken care of and all that stuff.
02:37:16.000And it just shows you that I'm the type of fighter to go out there and snoop around and try to like, hey, hey, hey, hey, you want to response me?
02:37:23.000Well, that's where some managers, Absolutely.
02:37:26.000They come into play, but I think the integrity that I had as a human being and as an athlete that was like, you know what, I've been rocking Xbox the whole entire time, and why am I going to run off and go throw this person on my shorts because they're going to throw me $60,000.
02:38:10.000Yeah, but Matt is a trainer, as well as a manager, as well as, you know, I mean, he's like, he's kind of like an all-encompassing, you just have a very fortunate situation.
02:39:11.000According to his wife, who I have no reason to doubt, he's losing millions of dollars.
02:39:16.000That's why I think they should come out straight up and be like, dude, you know what?
02:39:19.000When Reebok deal first came out, like I said, the one thing I love about the Reebok deal is that I don't have to run around and try to finagle with anybody.
02:40:42.000I feel that when they went into that, they were hoping for the best for both sides, for the fighters and the UFC and the sport itself.
02:40:51.000No, I don't think they would ever do something they thought would hurt the UFC or hurt the fighters.
02:40:55.000I just think that it probably should have been investigated a little bit more thoroughly, and it probably should have been handled a little bit more competently.
02:41:05.000Then you wouldn't have Anderson Aldo t-shirts.
02:41:08.000You wouldn't have Anthony Pettis being called the fucking mauler on their website.
02:41:12.000Hey, hey, somebody just found out that I had shirts on there.
02:41:15.000So some dude was like, dude, I can't find your shirts on there.
02:42:03.000I always refer to myself as a red-headed stepchild that I don't get the same type of publicity as other fighters do, which I'm totally fine with it.
02:42:12.000What's interesting is that a guy like Conor is only 20 pounds heavier than you.
02:42:57.000There's something about, like, the lightest weight that, for whatever reason, people don't appreciate someone who, even when you knock guys out at that weight class, I don't know what the fuck it is, man.
02:44:27.000Matt's like, give him a break real quick, DJ. But it's like, if a person is like, oh, you're too small, too small.
02:44:33.000And I was like, dude, we can spar here and we can see how it's gonna go.
02:44:36.000Like, I'm not gonna be a dick or an a-hole, but I'm gonna use my skill set that Matt has provided me with to dismantle you and show you, you need to respect me as a smaller person, I guess I mean.
02:44:53.000When Matt structures your training camp, he does the whole thing.
02:44:58.000He does strength and conditioning, he does your kickboxing, wrestling, decides what you do on any given day.
02:45:03.000Yep, those days I come in and I'm like, I'll be mentally prepared because, you know, I always love it how you say, I want to see his fucking strength and conditioning program.
02:45:12.000And if you saw it, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing, my friend?
02:47:26.000Like when I start making those 2 million or 3 million or 4 million, if I ever make that from fighting, then I won't worry about doing fucking movies.
02:49:33.000It's so smart, the idea of taking those rest periods too.
02:49:37.000Because a lot of people don't want to do that.
02:49:38.000They don't want to take those days off.
02:49:40.000I never wanted to do, I never wanted to do it before.
02:49:43.000But then when I fought, one time when I was well rested, like when I fought Dotson the second time, like after the fight was done, I was like...
02:50:47.000They say it's possibly Henry Cejudo, but I never get married to that opponent because at the end of the day, it could be Henry Cejudo, six weeks into camp, he can get injured, and then they give me somebody else.
02:56:51.000Okay, guys, I love what you're trying to do here, trying to sell the fight, but why the fuck are you guys showing dots and drop me three times?
02:56:58.000He goes, dude, we need to make it show the public that you have a chance to lose.
02:57:03.000And I was like, yeah, I'm about that model, guys.
02:57:05.000I'm going to, yeah, I'm not a big fan of you guys' trailer.
02:57:08.000And I told him straight up, and they were like, well, I don't know what to tell you.
02:57:12.000So after that fight, I was very happy, very confident where my skill set is in my head and physically.
02:57:20.000Well, the results speak for themselves, man.
02:57:22.000I mean, that displeasure in even your great performances, like this constant striving for perfection, that's what's made you the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, man.
02:57:47.000Like Chelsea said, I don't have a fucking list of what's banned from USADA. Well, we had Jeff Nowitzki in, and we went over the list of all the stuff that they sell at GNC that turns out to be steroids.
02:58:17.000Because they can just sell them, and then they get pulled off the shelves, and then they just come back with a new company name and sell some more shit.
02:58:24.000Yep, and that's why I don't take no protein.
02:58:28.000So you get all your supplements from food?
02:58:45.000So I'm up to the gym like two days a week trying to learn and drill and do all the stuff because I've already put the time in of learning so much, training with Matt.
02:58:54.000Excuse me, in my amateur days, in my jiu-jitsu days, to where now I'm like, when it comes to fight time, I actually learn more when I'm getting ready for my fights because I'm in a gym eight weeks straight just training, training.
02:59:03.000You can go so much over your next opponent to where it's like, fuck, let's work on something new.