In this episode, we catch up with Bellator Muay Thai fighter Justin Wren. We talk about his Bellator debut, his training with Rafael Lovato Jr., his upcoming fight with Fedor vs Mitrione, and much more! We also talk about the upcoming fight between Chael Sonlei and Wanderlei Silva at UFC 246, and what it's like to be a part of a stable organization like Bellator, UFC, and The Ultimate Fighting Championship. This episode is sponsored by coconut water. The coconut water is a coconut-based beverage made from coconut oil, coconut rum, and other coconut-flavored beverages. It's a South American blend that's popular in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community. If you don't like coconut water, you can get coconut water by going to coconutwater.co/CoconutWater and drinking coconut water for free. We are a proud member of the coconut water family. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to our other social media accounts! We're part of the Native Creative Mindset Podcasts Podcast Network! Subscribe, comment, and tell a friend about what you think of the show! Cheers, Cheers! -Jon Soriano and Jon Rocha. Jon and Jon talk about jiu-jitsu and other things related to jiu jitsu and mixed martial arts. Subscribe to our new podcast "The Fighting Mindset" and other cool things. Enjoy & spread the word "jiu j jitsu! Jon R.R. is a little bit more than Jon talks about his love of the art of the sport of the martial arts! . Jon & Jon discuss jiujitsu, bjj. . . . Jon gives us some tips and tricks on how to get better at the game of the bjj and what s going on in jiu martial arts and what to expect in the MMA game. and how to prepare for the next fight, and why it's a good time to get a good night out there. , and what not to do it. Can't get better than that? Jui j j jiu Jui Jitsu is a good day, right? , right ji j jeej jee jeeeejeeeeee, right jeeeeeeee and so on and so much more. )
00:01:11.000That smash pass, that pressure pass, he just melts into you and there's no escape.
00:01:15.000It's like he's melting and he's like glue.
00:01:17.000Yeah, Salo, Shanji, that whole family of that style of jiu-jitsu is so powerful, man.
00:01:23.000Yeah, I've gotten to meet both of them now, training with Salo, and then Shanji was there in our corner, so it was pretty awesome for a Bellator fight.
00:01:31.000I was kind of bummed out at Rafael Lovato's last fight because he stopped him with strikes.
00:01:49.000Honestly, he's one of those guys that is so well-rounded, and you think he's just one-dimensional because of everything he's done in jiu-jitsu, but he grew up kickboxing.
00:01:58.000Yeah, his dad's been a lifelong martial artist, a senior.
00:02:01.000He's an incredible guy, and he's been taking Rafael all around the world since he was a little boy, having him train mixed martial arts, not just jiu-jitsu his whole life.
00:02:10.000And he's fighting Bellator as well, right?
00:02:12.000Yeah, that was his first fight, so we fought back-to-back.
00:02:14.000He fought right before me, I fought right after him.
00:02:43.000What did you think about the Fedor-Mitrione thing, where they had to pull out, like, Mitrione had to pull out because of his kidney stone, and then they're going to schedule it again, apparently.
00:02:51.000Yeah, that's Madison Square Gardens, so June 24th.
00:03:26.000But it's that picture of him in Pride or something, or maybe training where he's jumping in the air and he's just coming down with a big hammer fist and going to land on you with his feet.
00:03:57.000He was like blacking out or something, right?
00:03:59.000Yeah, I think he passed out a couple times and he was having that heart problem as well.
00:04:03.000But Mitrione was back there all gloved up, already taped up, had his gloves on, was hitting mitts.
00:04:09.000And then there were some of the behind-the-scenes cameras that caught a moment where I believe it was Dana coming back there telling them the fight was canceled and Mitrion just was, you know, cussing up a storm.
00:04:20.000But then all of a sudden you saw it shift to where all of a sudden he was worried about Stefan and he walked down there, went backstage or to his locker room, and man, he just hugged him and Stefan was sobbing.
00:04:30.000And Matt Mitrion was just like, You know, hey, it's alright, bro.
00:04:33.000I know if you could fight, you would have.
00:05:09.000But that 15 or 20 of them, something like that, it had to be brutal instead of just one or two.
00:05:13.000They are a side effect of weight cutting for a lot of people, right?
00:05:16.000I know Aldo had one, and I think some other fighters have had them too, and they think it has to do, there's some sort of connection with massive dehydration, which I'm sure Matt doesn't have to worry about.
00:05:27.000Fighting heavyweight, he doesn't have to cut the weight like that, so I wonder what caused his.
00:05:56.000I don't know who they are, but I'm just talking shit.
00:05:58.000They think that the conventional wisdom is when you get into 260s and above 250, that there's a point of diminishing returns where you're carrying around so much mass, you can't really perform as well.
00:06:12.000But a 240-pound guy is so big and so strong that you can handle a 265-pound guy, but you have more endurance, and it's just a better weight.
00:08:45.000So did you have it before or did you get it because of the ulcer?
00:08:49.000I think that probably triggered something, the opiate addiction and everything else.
00:08:53.000Then when I went to Congo, it really got bad and I didn't know what it was.
00:08:57.000And then whenever I got back, I mean, having the malaria three times, dengue fever, blackwater fever, all sorts of intestinal parasites and bacterias.
00:09:06.000When I got back here, I was just wrecked.
00:09:08.000And so my doctor did some tests on me.
00:09:19.000And then it became celiac, top of the chart celiac.
00:09:22.000Do you think anything has a connection to, for people who have never heard you before, you live in the Congo for long stretches of time, working with the pygmies and digging wells, and you've caught malaria there on two separate occasions, but you've got it three times because it reoccurred on you, right?
00:09:46.000I mean, before that, the drug addictions, that took a toll on my body.
00:09:50.000Then going to the Congo, having the malaria, having other things, it's wrecked my body.
00:09:55.000And so now, over the last three years, and that's why I am so thankful for a guy like Raphael modeling how to live this lifestyle, this just...
00:10:02.000Day in and day out, Lucia's there to guide us because I needed that.
00:10:06.000I really needed to rebuild my health from the ground up and to stay consistent with that.
00:10:11.000It's like when the fight's over, maybe indulge for like one meal, but then get right back on the grind.
00:10:53.000I'm definitely getting a lot more coconut oils and the grass-fed butters and all that to have a high fat content with every single meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
00:11:32.000And so, yeah, I just go in there, and they're able to help me out, and Luke works with them.
00:11:36.000Lucius helps me know what I need to tell them to eat, and so it's just...
00:11:40.000For me, man, I mean, being a heavyweight, a lot of times we haven't had to take a diet too strict.
00:11:47.000And other times I would during fight camp, but I would just do what I thought was right and what was fueling my body, what was feeling good.
00:12:53.000I need to have a better input into it, but man, they've just really said, this is what he needs during fight camp, and then I was focused on training.
00:13:01.000It was really good, though, because I'm getting a bunch of coconut oil and avocados and everything else all throughout the day to make sure I'm having the high-fat content.
00:13:11.000And how many times do you eat in a day?
00:14:38.000But there's something so demoralizing, but then at the same time encouraging, because Rafael's doing that and making you feel claustrophobic, like a 400-pound gorilla's on top of you, or 600-pound, whatever.
00:14:54.000But he's also coaching you, telling you how you can do that to somebody else.
00:14:57.000And so at the end of it, he's showing you how to do exactly what he's doing.
00:15:01.000He's a fantastic coach, and you don't always see that from the best athletes.
00:15:05.000Sometimes they're incredibly talented and great at their craft, but explaining it, you're like, okay, now explain it to me again, or show me how to do it.
00:15:13.000Like, here, I'm showing you, like, just watch, you know?
00:15:15.000But he can tell you every little detail, every little inch.
00:15:18.000Well, that probably has a lot to do with the Salo Hibero lineage, too, you know?
00:15:23.000That's a very, very technical school, and they're really involved.
00:15:27.000Salo's really involved in the history of all the different techniques and, you know, where they came from.
00:15:33.000Now, why did he move to Oklahoma City?
00:15:50.000I'm moving there for Water 4 and Fight for the Forgotten.
00:15:53.000And I saw that documentary, incredibly inspirational, shows the whole lineage of him training with Salu and Shanji and how he went to Brazil to train with them, live with them.
00:16:01.000They came up to like Toledo, Ohio at first.
00:16:03.000He went there and they were living in basically like this little apartment that was freezing inside in the Toledo winters.
00:16:10.000And they're having to put their geese over the heater to try to warm them up after every training session to get back in there and do it again.
00:16:16.000And that's some of their best training matches were in the living room on the mat that they would throw out there right in front of the couch.
00:16:22.000And so it's just cool to see how these guys were, where they came from and what they've done now.
00:16:27.000It's like truly, for me, inspiring because that's what I want to do now.
00:16:30.000No, I mean, that's the best way to do it, right?
00:16:32.000To just be with the elite of the elite in that one particular discipline, at least, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
00:16:38.000And you can get so much out of that, especially coming from your background as a wrestler.
00:16:42.000I was super impressed with your arm triangle too, man.
00:18:35.000Now, how are you balancing out your full-time training now that you're moving up in the rankings in Bellator and, you know, you're being more and more successful, but you're also doing this for a cause.
00:18:47.000And for people who don't know, you are doing this for your pygmy family, these people that you've sort of become a part of their world, and you've lived there for many, many months at a time, and you go back and forth to help build water wells with Water4.
00:19:03.000Your organization fight for the forgotten and How are you balancing that out with being a professional fighter and trying to compete and perform at your very best?
00:19:13.000Yeah, that's been a learning process without a doubt but now it's trying to find ways to set the right boundaries and in a way to protect my training schedule and At first I was just saying yes to basically everything and that made it really tough for my first two fights back where I felt rushed I didn't feel like the muscle memory was clicking in between every training session or I'd be late to training sessions doing an interview or trying to talk to somebody or trying to tell people the story or I would have to leave early to go do it now it's like it's been really great to
00:19:44.000move to Oklahoma City I have water for there to protect my training schedule and training comes first because if I can keep Going up in the ranks, if I can get a world championship under my belt or a few, you know, I'll have a bigger platform to stand on to tell, you know, have a bigger microphone, bigger platform to be able to continue to tell this story.
00:20:01.000And so, yeah, we have a team of about 10, 12 people at Water 4. They've all rallied around it.
00:20:06.000They're trying to take stuff off my plate and be able to...
00:20:10.000Help fill in my schedule, but making sure I'm getting enough time to get in the training, get in the rest.
00:20:15.000And, man, just eight, nine weeks of that before this last fight, it truly paid off.
00:20:21.000It felt like there was a whole team around making sure that going into this fight, everything was exactly the way it should be.
00:20:29.000I mean, I have a little highlight clip of the fight, but, I mean, the crowd was just...
00:20:35.000It was Overwhelming in an incredibly good way where it like felt I could feel the energy I could hear everybody there I'd grown up in Dallas Fort Worth water for and fight for the forgotten is based in Lovato's is out of Oklahoma City And everyone met up in the middle on the border at this big casino called Windstar and it was just awesome going in there and having everyone rally around I don't feel like me.
00:20:58.000I mean me too But rally around fight for the forgotten what I'm fighting for.
00:21:02.000Let's see that video Jamie Yeah, and then the post-fight interview, I mean, that's what I'm living for now.
00:21:08.000That's what I'm fighting for, so I can talk.
00:21:10.000And how supportive has Bellator been about all this?
00:21:37.000Yeah, well, I had the cross, and I did add the Vikings below it, but here I had gotten a lateral drop before, and then I was able to hit a belly to back.
00:23:08.000People have jumped behind this because I love to fight.
00:23:12.000I love to be here and compete, but it's even better to fight for people And so to know that fighting in here, getting a choke out, I'm going to go to the Congo and knock out the world's water crisis for my big family.
00:23:24.000Moving forward, you said you have a lot of room to grow, but with performances like that, people are thinking about you in a wide-open heavyweight division.
00:24:45.000That's a crazy platform, man, to be able to do that on TV like that in front of, I mean, who knows how many millions of people watch these Bellator fans.
00:25:50.000Yeah, they stripped Vitaly Minnikov of it because he's fighting over his contract, allowed him to fight in Fight Nights or EFN over in Russia.
00:25:57.000I went over there, cornered Josh against Vitaly.
00:26:01.000So he just hasn't come back and he just is, I think he's making money in Russia and fighting there and they're kind of been in a standoff and he can come back and fight but he's been stripped of his belt and now I think they're, you know, Scott's a smart guy so is Rich.
00:26:16.000They're putting something together for the heavyweights and yeah, the Fedor-Matt Mitrione fight, that's going to be exciting to watch.
00:26:32.000So I think probably in the next six months or, I mean, within that next three months.
00:26:36.000Now, looking at yourself and your own development and growth, how far away do you feel like you are from that, from fighting for that?
00:26:42.000Man, I... Want it now I want to take that now, but I think that realistically being smart strategic get another couple wins under my belt some good wins Where I get to go in there and really show to myself to Bellator one I need to earn it and two I need to get a couple more real impressive wins under my belt and yeah,
00:27:04.000I think I think I know who I am as a fighter, and I can hang with those guys.
00:27:09.000It's just I need to build back because it was a long time off.
00:28:15.000And so all the packaging, this is old packaging.
00:28:17.000And let everybody know that Water4 is the company that's building these wells in the Congo for the Pygmies, and this is the organization that you work closely with.
00:29:54.000You can stand on this thing, so you can probably chuck it around.
00:29:56.000I've done that with, I won't name any names of the competitors, but whenever I start to stand on the other ones, the bulbs crush and the things break.
00:30:04.000Yeah, so this right here, though, it's got carabiners.
00:30:07.000Our guys were using this until 1.30 in the morning, maybe a week ago.
00:30:10.000They put it up on the tripods, and then they're able to just go to work.
00:30:30.000It's LED light and it's got 360 degree omnidirectional lighting, which basically just means it goes all around and there's no blind spots with the light for the most part.
00:30:42.000Yeah, and then so from there, we're going to do flashlights, headlamps, Bluetooth speakers, Bluetooth speakers that have battery packs in them, then just battery packs.
00:30:51.000Then we're doing walkie-talkies, walkie-talkies that have battery packs in them.
00:30:56.000Yeah, and so we're doing it to where the everyday adventurer can be part of it.
00:31:02.000But we're doing it so that way this stuff's going to last for a team in the Congo.
00:31:06.000And then when people are buying it here, they know that 50% of their purchase or the profits from the purchase are going straight to the cause.
00:32:09.000And then down a little bit shows the statistics.
00:32:12.000And it just shows, I mean, the average water walk, for instance, is 3.75 miles round trip for a woman to just go collect, oftentimes dirty, most of the times dirty water.
00:32:33.000And then a lot of times the women do two at a time and the children do one.
00:32:38.000And so these little girls can't go to school because they, in that water walk, they're not doing that one time a day.
00:32:43.000They're doing it two and three times a day because their household needs more than just five gallons of water.
00:32:48.000And so a lot of times the girls can't be sent to school or the kids can't or they have to pick one of the kids that can go to school so the other ones can go collect water all day.
00:32:57.000I think it's over a billion days each year, work days that are lost just because of the women that have to go do the waterwalks.
00:33:06.000And if people have never seen any of the episodes that Justin was on before, please watch the last ones.
00:33:13.000If you get a chance, you'll catch up more to what you've gone through, what some of these people have gone through, the kind of parasites these people get from this water, and how important this is for you, and how much growth and progress has been over the past few years of your efforts down there.
00:33:31.000Emily was telling me, my wife, coming here, that, wow, this was over four years ago when you were on Joe's show the first time, and we hadn't drilled one single well.
00:33:57.000But it was just a rude awakening to the water crisis.
00:34:01.000That there's 800 kids every day die just because of diarrhea.
00:34:06.000Just like literally die from diarrhea.
00:34:08.000And then 2,350 die of the malnutrition that diarrhea causes.
00:34:15.000So if you're in an area that doesn't have access to clean water, there's probably not an abundance of food around you.
00:34:20.000But even the food that you do get, you're eating it and it goes right through you because you have diarrhea.
00:34:25.000You don't absorb any of the nutrients.
00:34:28.000And so that's over 3,000 just because of that.
00:34:30.000And then that's not counting a lot of the sicknesses and everything else, typhoid, E. coli.
00:34:34.000And so that's 1.5 million deaths a year of children under the age of five.
00:34:39.0001.5 million, all of them are preventable.
00:34:42.000And so, like, I truly believe, man, like, we have, we've found something really special at Water4 and there's other organizations that That I'm sure are doing it in different spaces, but I feel like us, we are doing it in a way that we put the tools in the hands of the people that need it the most.
00:35:01.000I mean, our team's 18 people, and the first year that I was there, so in the last five years, I've lived there for about two years, back and forth, one year at one time.
00:35:12.000But then I was able to help drill and train them for the first 13 wheels.
00:35:17.000The year I was stepping back, I was nervous.
00:35:47.000And that served, so those are 375 people in the continent of Africa that live in 16 African nations, and they were able to give 172,000 people clean water for the first time in their lives.
00:35:58.000And so, man, we can knock this water crisis out in our lifetime, if that's what we do, if we give them the solution.
00:36:19.000I mean, I had offers from most places when I came back, but when I sat down with Scott, And I was writing the book with Loretta and went out to eat with him in Santa Monica and he was just like hey like we want to give you a chance to really tell your story like you need to fight you got to prove it like you have to have that that hard work and skill and talent behind you you have to be able to perform but if you can do that we're gonna rally around you they want to rally around their fighters
00:36:49.000that that that put in the time the effort that they can produce results but It was really encouraging to hear that and then I was bummed out the first two fights I mean I won but I didn't win decisively like I wanted to so to get this last fight underneath me where I really performed well and and was pretty dominant like I think they know that I can fight and and I know I can fight and so now we can do this in a way that Man,
00:37:18.000when I win, literally wells are being drilled every single time.
00:37:34.000So a tough thing is, so I kind of shared a little bit of our model and how we give the tools to the people in the community.
00:37:42.000So my travel schedule, it's been a hard pill to swallow, but I think it's the most strategic thing where I'm only going to go once a year now.
00:37:49.000I'm going to go once a year because I need to be here training.
00:37:53.000At first I thought I was the one that made this thing go, but really it's our guys in the field.
00:38:01.000They're the engine, and I was maybe the spark plug that kind of started up something.
00:38:06.000And now I get to go back and be the encourager or to fuel them back up.
00:38:18.000And then right after that, we're starting up a soap production facility in Congo with our guys is going to start another eight to 10 jobs because we go in and we teach the wash program.
00:38:27.000So we need them to start making soap for themselves because right now the only thing I've ever seen available is car washing soap that's packed full of chemicals from China or India.
00:38:39.000Did they wash themselves with car washing soap?
00:38:41.000I did while I was there for the year, and my skin would be raw afterwards because there was nothing else available.
00:38:46.000I mean, I took soap with me, but when I was there for a full year, I mean, it only lasted for the first month, maybe.
00:40:09.000But we're going to start up that soap production facility that's going to start eight to ten new jobs.
00:40:13.000We'll go in the schools, because last year our team spent 301 days teaching the wash program.
00:40:18.000So teaching water and sanitation and hygiene, helping them dig latrines, helping them know the importance of clean hands.
00:40:26.000So we set up outside the latrines a hand washing station, which is called a tippy tap.
00:40:31.000So they have a clean jug of water, they have a bar of soap, they step on a stick and a rope, and it tilts this jug over, and they're able to wash their hands right there.
00:40:41.000But then they only had that car washing soap, so now we're going to meet another need, start up the soap production.
00:40:46.000They have the eucalyptus trees there, the palm oil, the avocados, I mean, just whatever we need, the lemongrass, whatever we need to make the soap with, which that's not my specialty, but I know all the raw materials are there.
00:41:42.000It's got the right heart good intentions, but it can be very dangerous if it's distributed in the wrong way So their buy one give one actually creates jobs in the developing nation then they make it and then they sell it and they're able to give it that way to their community instead of Some of the charities,
00:41:59.000you buy something here and you go give it over there.
00:42:03.000And then when they go, they go with huge amounts.
00:42:05.000And say if they're dropping off shoes or clothes or whatever, the local people that have a shoe store go out of business whenever you bring in containers and containers of shoes.
00:42:16.000Or the guy that's repairing the shoes, the cobbler, you know, the one that's making shoes there.
00:42:22.000So you can't just go into a community and give it out.
00:42:24.000I actually watched a documentary recently called Poverty Inc.
00:42:49.000By giving them something for nothing and then they Yeah, that's first on the surface.
00:42:57.000They can develop a dependence mentality of just putting a hand out because they got to get what they can get whenever people just show up, blow up and blow out of there.
00:43:08.000goes in there and shows how in Haiti, their local farmers have been put out of business by government subsidies.
00:43:16.000I've been to Haiti, and I've seen the American-grown rice that's all just given out for free.
00:43:21.000Or at the markets, the people that get it for free then go to the market and they beat all the local farmers because they got it for free or they paid such a small price.
00:43:30.000They didn't really do all the work, so they're able to beat all their competitors, the local market.
00:43:34.000So they get it for free and then they sell it?
00:43:37.000They can do that, or they just get it and they don't need it.
00:43:39.000And so it cuts off the local farmers who are trying to sell their own stuff, and since they're getting it for free, they can sell at a much lower price.
00:43:47.000And it shows, it dives deep into how...
00:43:51.000How it hurts so much in a way that, like, man, I think Haiti's, they used to eat rice two to three times a week.
00:44:02.000Now they're eating it three times a day with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
00:44:05.000And they're doing it, and it's all the rice that they have available to them are from the U.S. or from China or from India.
00:44:12.000And it's because these big farmers with a lot of power in the government, they're able to make deals with the United Nations and other places to be able to go in and give out their rice there.
00:44:22.000And they get paid for it from the government here, right?
00:44:24.000U.S. government pays these farmers these prices and then they go into a community and just give it out.
00:44:30.000How do I say this in a way that it's not bad intentions?
00:45:16.000The answer to poverty isn't charity, it's opportunity.
00:45:22.000Opportunity is always better than charity if that if that makes sense a handout or hand up like the give a man a fish Right feed him for a day or teach him how to fish feed him for a lifetime And so if there's a disaster if there's a person with a disability If there's a war or famine then charity is the solution,
00:45:39.000but there's got to be an escape plan There's got to be a route out.
00:45:42.000Otherwise whenever I went to Haiti it was a year and a half two years after the earthquake and And the tent city they had, had doubled or tripled in size.
00:45:50.000Because I met a guy there that was saying, I moved out of my apartment, which wasn't damaged by the earthquake, and I get to go live at tent city rent-free.
00:46:00.000I still have my job, and I get three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
00:46:07.000And these places are always going to be giving to that tent city, and it's actually grown in size.
00:46:14.000He was like, I'm saving up to buy a house.
00:46:17.000And so it's like if people think oh, there's just this disaster It's like man if someone brought in like some vocational training, you know, let's teach these people how to do this kind of work like I don't think honestly most sane people Out there that are living in poverty want to be poor for the rest of their life They're sitting there waiting for an opportunity.
00:46:37.000The dad wants to put food on the table for the family So does the mom she wants to take care of her kids and so whenever we can come into a community And spend time with them, if that makes sense.
00:46:47.000Like sit down, listen to them, learn from them.
00:46:49.000And then we can say, how can we work together?
00:46:55.000Instead of treating it like there's a cookie cutter solution or blueprint, that since it worked in this community, it's going to work in that community.
00:47:58.000And so, what I know from that organization is, and I'm not going to say the organization, but I heard from the other organizations there that they had been warned, like, you're new at this, don't go in there and do this.
00:48:09.000Don't crack open this container and do it that way.
00:48:12.000But they had spent like $20,000 getting the canned goods there, buying a container, shipping it over there, going through Kenya, then Then probably Tanzania, then Kenya, then Uganda.
00:48:27.000They're having to pay all the fees everywhere they go to just go give it away.
00:48:31.000That $20,000 could have empowered so many farmers locally or people that don't know how to farm to be able to start farming for themselves that then is going to have such a better return on investment because you're investing into the people, into a trade, into a skill, into something that they need, and it's going to last.
00:48:47.000It's going to continue to produce results.
00:48:50.000And I think what you're saying is so important that these people have great intentions, but that just human nature and giving the circumstances in which these people live in where they had no hope and then all of a sudden they have this one thing.
00:49:08.000I mean, the issue that I think a lot of people are going to have with even discussing that is the callous discussions of the welfare mentality, you know, the way people look at some communities and people who, you know, the term welfare brats or welfare,
00:49:23.000you know, welfare people that are just kind of like connected to that mentality.
00:49:29.000And I think that mirrors the idea of welfare and, you know, where people don't have jobs and don't have opportunities and just getting money and getting addicted to that money.
00:49:38.000That problem exists in America as well.
00:49:40.000Obviously, it's a much bigger deal in the Congo because you're talking about, like, basic life necessities, like fresh water.
00:50:15.000Let's give these people another opportunity.
00:50:17.000If they could start businesses down there, man, and like really empower themselves and be able to build homes and just like in your lifetime, you could see some crazy change.
00:50:27.000Yeah, I know that's coming in Congo, but I think, like, let's not set a ceiling or roof on it, and I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but I'm just saying that I truly believe that the water crisis, one billion people not having clean water, In our lifetime,
00:50:44.000we have the tools, the technology, and people are learning.
00:50:46.000I mean, from podcasting, like people are getting better than doctorate's degrees, you know, like in information and life experience and learning and learning to do things the right way and truly have people's best interests at heart.
00:51:00.000I think there's going to be a real shift to where, I mean, if I have the water to take a piss in or to water my lawn with or to give my dog clean water, We're going to be able to give every person in the world clean water.
00:51:12.000But it's through empowerment and it's through opportunity.
00:54:10.000If someone like you wasn't bringing attention to this, do you understand what a huge role you're playing here?
00:54:17.000I mean, it's surreal, but at the same time, I think that's why I've completely, wholeheartedly dedicated my life to this, because that was the...
00:55:00.000I knew that from fighting, from being on The Ultimate Fighter, whether that ever grew or didn't grow, I had some people.
00:55:09.000And just having the platform of being here, being from the West, being from somewhere where people can have an abundance of resources to make a difference.
00:55:19.000And even if it's small, like our small here is so big there.
00:55:24.000And so I said yes to that, and little Siku was the third little one that I knew that had passed in Atalahulu, and before that was Andy Bo, after that was little Babo, a little girl named Mo also,
00:55:45.000And these are all kids I knew that I had become friends with over two years living there.
00:55:53.000And so, having either held them or buried them or having played, growing up, knowing their families, they're seeing some of those kids grow up and then their lives get cut short.
00:56:05.000It's been like, man, like, when I fight, it's in honor of them.
00:56:09.000When I talk about this problem, like, I know the...
00:56:12.000It's not just I read about it or I just maybe saw it and it hurt for a little while.
00:57:49.000Chief Leo May made both of those for you.
00:57:53.000I think on that little file it says knife and I actually had a picture I didn't get to show you yet but this is how he makes the knives but he just finds the nails out in the forest and some ladders or different things and he pulls them out the people deforesting the rainforest he gets their nails and makes them something Something useful.
00:59:03.000It's land that they have for the first time.
00:59:07.000And, oh man, so that video was powerful because it showed the problem, but there's actually one that's with Chief Leo May.
00:59:16.000It's the second video on that list, and if I can show that to you, I got something for you.
00:59:20.000From there, from Leo May's village, it's called Bobofi, and there's a video that's going to show the transformation or the solution to the problem, because that first video just showed the problem is hard, but then there's hope, too, that we can do something about it.
00:59:43.000Real transformation changes the present and the future.
01:04:19.000Stateside Water 4, without a doubt, all of our supporters, we couldn't do it without them.
01:04:24.000But mostly, we couldn't do it without the people on the ground there in the Congo, 18 Congolese people with a heart to change, be the change in their own country, to change the country from the inside out, countrymen to countrymen.
01:04:38.000I mean, they're starting to secure water contracts to drill wells and do water projects in their own country, so that way they don't have to be dependent on us.
01:04:47.000I mean, our team in Uganda is over 70% self-sufficient, self-funded inside the country.
01:04:53.000Our guys in Congo are close to 50%, and we're on track to get these teams to where they're 100% self-sufficient, to where we just come in with the training and the techniques and the tools.
01:05:04.000But, like, they don't need us to fund it anymore.
01:05:07.000So that way we can go off to other places and do it again, replicate it.
01:05:16.000So basically things that work in their context.
01:05:20.000So that way we give them, like, the manual drilling.
01:05:24.000One instance, I don't know why this Swahili proverb just popped in my mind, but they say, you Americans or you Westerners, you guys all have watches.
01:06:13.000And honestly, the long-term solution is the reason why we don't take volunteers anymore.
01:06:20.000And I've only taken two people with me to the Congo.
01:06:23.000But they were geohydrologists or engineers that needed to come.
01:06:28.000But the reason is because when you take volunteers over, most of them are going to be amateurs or they're going to be white belts, if I put it to an MMA or BJJ analogy.
01:06:40.000And our guys in the field there, they're becoming black belts, or they are now.
01:06:44.000After years of training, years of development on this since 2011, I mean, our guys in Congo have drilled those 62 wells, but they went to Sierra Leone.
01:06:54.000They taught a team in Cameroon from the ground up.
01:06:57.000They went to Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.
01:07:02.000And these teams are all working together, and they're going off after they learn how to do it.
01:07:06.000They're going to other communities in their own country, or they're going to another country.
01:07:11.000We have this dynamic going on between, we call it the Virunga Initiative.
01:07:15.000There's the Virunga Mountains that are on the border of Uganda, Rwanda, and Congo.
01:07:21.000Now, there's so many rebel groups that are there, and those countries have been at war against each other.
01:07:31.000Like, the people from those nations pretty much hate each other.
01:07:34.000Like, they all blame one another for, you guys are doing this in our country, and you're sending rebels into our country, or your government soldiers are actually pretending to be rebels, but they're working for the government, and they're stealing our gold and our diamonds.
01:08:10.000To see how they're working together and how our guys in Congo are holding Ugandan and Rwandan flags over their back taking pictures and the other guys are wearing Congo flags over their back and Our team that came from Uganda to live with me for three months and our team to help us really get off the ground and start learning They had drilled over 100 wells for their fellow Ugandans They left for three months to come live with us in Congo Their first day there,
01:08:56.000And people were chasing them down, wanting to put tires around them and set them on fire and burn them and kill them because they were Ugandan.
01:09:55.000This is a side topic, but we had this...
01:10:00.000This water filtration system that was from solar panels and they had these two big chambers on it and in the middle is this timer that you literally Twist and it goes for an hour and has a green and red light on it and it ticks tick tick tick tick tick Well, we had it locked up whenever it came from the states and our Ugandan team picked it up and they go hey the Something called TSA broke off the lock and left you a note And so they were checking it because it looked like these two chambers and a timer and it looked like it could have been a bomb in this big pelican case and So whenever the Congolese guys looted
01:10:30.000the car, set it on fire, they ran away with it and hid behind a hut.
01:10:35.000Well, whenever they opened that Pelican case, all of a sudden they thought it was a bomb and they ran away and left all of our stuff there.
01:10:41.000So whenever they found out that these guys from Uganda already risked their lives to come here and teach Congolese how to drill wells for themselves.
01:11:19.000It was crazy wild, and we thought our guys were going to die because we were like six hours away from them, and we were hearing like a riot basically happening.
01:11:26.000But it was so cool, man, that we got all our supplies back, and then afterwards, I mean, we...
01:11:34.000We helped with the burial process and the funeral and everything else, even though it was the taxi driver, not us.
01:11:41.000We felt so bad that that had happened.
01:11:43.000But then to know like, hey, now it was just a story that we were able to, not the loss of life, but those people now know that we're here to help them.
01:11:51.000And we were able to go back in there and do that for them afterwards.
01:12:17.000Well, that's what I love about, man, these short films, that's all part of the documentary.
01:12:22.000In fact, maybe, I mean, I should probably say that, like, after I was on the second or third time here, we did a Kickstarter for the documentary, and we got it fully funded.
01:12:31.000The documentary is not out yet because we're going back one more time to film.
01:12:36.000That will probably be July or August right after my fight.
01:12:38.000We'll bust over there and we're trying to submit it to Sundance Film Festival this year.
01:12:44.000Hopefully we get in the festival and we'll be there in January.
01:12:50.000And then it will be out and a lot of the GRE supporters that gave to the Kickstarter will be able to do it.
01:12:54.000But we really wanted to do the story, not the story, we wanted to do the Pygmies and their family and everyone suffering from the world's water crisis.
01:13:05.000We wanted to do them justice, to give them a voice.
01:13:07.000The book was me giving them a voice, but the documentary, they're going to have their own voice.
01:13:13.000It's been filmed over three and a half years now.
01:13:15.000I think when it comes out, it'll be four full years.
01:13:18.000That Derek's been able to go back and forth and go get more of the story and show not just like them getting water for the first time, but then also how we're giving jobs, how they're getting trained, how they're starting up workshops, how we're breaking ground on the soap production facility.
01:13:33.000We started the foundation of the place and so how it's the full spectrum of it to To hopefully show how empowerment, how much farther that goes.
01:13:49.000You have to sit and listen and learn and be humble enough to say, like, it's a learning process.
01:13:55.000Like when you do something, whenever you get out of that lane of truly listening and saying, I think that's the quote that our team tries to live by.
01:14:08.000It's a Swahili proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone.
01:14:11.000But if you want to go far, go together.
01:14:15.000And so it's like, how can every community we go in, how can we take this as far as we can?
01:15:27.000So basically, we drill a well, and then we have a water tower, which turns into a water kiosk, where people from the community come up to it.
01:15:34.000They might pay five shillings for a jerry can.
01:15:38.000So a jerry can's five gallons, they pay five cents.
01:15:40.000But eventually, all the people in the community, the one in Rwanda we're doing, is going to serve 4,000 people.
01:15:46.000It's out of school, so the kids will have clean water all throughout the day.
01:15:49.000But then people come there, and the one in Kenya is funding a school, but the one in Rwanda is going to fund more water wells.
01:15:56.000So as these people buy water, Clean water, the only clean water around there.
01:16:00.000That community, the only thing they have to drink, there's a lake that has the cows and everything else drinking out of it.
01:16:20.000And so we're putting up this water kiosk where, yeah, we're going to charge them five cents when they get five gallons of clean water, but those are going to turn into multiple water wells throughout the year.
01:16:29.000And so we're trying to do all these sustainable solutions to where after we do that in Rwanda, we're taking that to the Congo.
01:16:34.000That'll be close to the soap production facility and the community development center we're going to have, which will have land, water, food solutions.
01:18:22.000They pound it down, and I haven't seen the whole process, but I've seen the bark and where they pull it off, and they kind of beat it down and beat it down until it's this, like, cloth.
01:18:32.000I know that this right here, when I've been doing research, they have those Pygmy, Mbuti Pygmy paintings, That are made out of bark cloth at our National Museum of History in New York.
01:18:43.000They have a few of these there, and so it's kind of cool to see.
01:19:24.000Yeah, I mean, that's a little bowl, little leaves.
01:19:26.000This paint that you actually have there, they had some leftover black paint, but sometimes on that other photo, they just use like cassava or berries and they beat it up, pound it down and make this paint out of it, but it kind of fades over time.
01:19:41.000So this one's one where, yeah, that's it right there, where they just...
01:19:46.000Pound up the stuff and it's part of their culture.
01:20:15.000They sing, they dance, but they also suffer together.
01:20:17.000If one person in the community is lost, even for instance, it might sound weird in our culture, but let's say a mother passes away who's breastfeeding, right?
01:20:27.000And she passes away, but the baby survives.
01:20:30.000Some other woman in the village will take the baby up and start taking care of that little one.
01:20:35.000There is an adoption in the pygmy culture.
01:20:39.000No one needs to be adopted because the community rallies around them.
01:20:43.000When someone's lost, they all mourn the death together, but then they rally around that family and see how they can all help and put in.
01:21:23.000And there's a lot of people that think that some of the problems that we deal with today in society are because of this disassociation that we have with our neighbors and we don't have a real sense of community.
01:21:31.000I mean, I know like two or three of my neighbors and I see them once a year.
01:21:34.000You know, I say, hi, wave, how's everything, man?
01:21:52.000That must have been a big part of the attraction to you to them like when they took you in and you were living with them and Yeah, absolutely.
01:22:01.000I mean, I think the average Mabuti Pygmy village is only 85 to 150 on our 10 villages that we help and have the 3,000 acres of land It's over 300 for each village Do you know about Dunbar's number?
01:22:16.000Dunbar's number is a number that, I mean it varies, but the number is somewhere around 150 for most people.
01:22:23.000There's a number of people that you can keep close relationships with.
01:23:01.000Because when you're in your home, you're completely alone.
01:23:04.000And so it's different when you're in a village and with the pygmies, you saw some of those huts, how small they are.
01:23:13.000Seriously, in several of them, whenever I'm sleeping, I have to sleep in the center and I have to have my feet out the door because it's so small.
01:23:21.000But you only go in there when you're going to sleep.
01:23:27.000Or if you're not feeling good and you need some rest or the sun's right over your head and you're hot, But besides that, your cooking, your kitchen's outside.
01:23:37.000That's where you do life, is outside of your home, around the campfire.
01:23:42.000We call it Campfire University because that's where we've been taken to school from the Pygmies.
01:23:47.000That's where they teach us the most about life, is around the campfire, learning their culture, learning about their kids, learning about the hunts, learning about how they make this, make that.
01:23:59.000And it's where you get to do life together.
01:24:04.000Honestly, I told them they want to know a little bit about my life, and I told them that I went through drug addiction for six years.
01:24:11.000And, you know, they don't really struggle with that at all.
01:24:14.000And then I told them I got really depressed, and I told them I got really sad.
01:24:19.000I told him that I got so sad that I decided one time to take as many pills as I could and drink half a bottle of Everclear or more and snorted a bunch of coke and just wanted to end it all.
01:24:33.000So, I mean, I told him that I was suicidal and I won't ever forget how they...
01:24:41.000How they looked at me almost dumbfounded in a way of like, and then one of the questions the chief asked me said, well, wouldn't hurting yourself only hurt you?
01:24:54.000And so the whole concept of, I guess what I'm getting to is they had never heard of anyone killing themselves.
01:25:02.000Like maybe they had heard stories or something like that, but they have never known anybody that actually killed themselves or heard of it.
01:25:08.000It's not something that their community, their culture, the pygmies kind of untouched out in the forest or even not up in the cities.
01:25:16.000Like that's just something that they don't struggle with there.
01:25:18.000They're struggling so much day in and day out with struggles that are so deep and they see their family and they do life together.
01:25:26.000I think they just have so much more of what we were just talking about, so much more of a support system.
01:26:45.000And we met on the same path together and he saw it in our face.
01:26:48.000He knew Baba was sick, but now he knew that he was gone.
01:26:52.000And I remember Jay Lawal just falling on his back into this, off the side of the footpath, into this pile of brush, like probably two, three foot tall, where he sunk into it.
01:27:05.000And he was just squirming on his back.
01:27:54.000It was the whole village cried together.
01:27:58.000And so, I don't know, but for me, that makes it seem like I don't know if this, I don't want to make too many connections between our culture because they're completely different or a lot different, but I think here a huge cause of divorce is the loss of a child.
01:28:16.000But there, it almost unites the parents so much so whenever they lose a little one.
01:28:25.000And I don't mean to make this comparison, but it's like, I think it's because when they mourn, they truly go to the depths of the darkest place.
01:28:34.000And they're able to truly almost get it out, if that makes sense.
01:28:38.000Where when you're at the funeral, you let yourself go.
01:28:44.000And it's okay, however ugly or however you handle it, whatever emotions come, you just ride that wave, if that makes sense.
01:28:52.000Do you think that because their life is so difficult that life itself becomes more precious and the loss becomes more powerful, more intense, more raw?
01:29:10.000I think whenever you struggle so much, you become so much more appreciative and grateful of life, of every breath you take.
01:29:20.000Well, that's gotta be connected to their lack of understanding of suicide because our, you know, our idea of what a difficult life is, it's difficult, but there's food and shelter and there's, you know, and really the easiest place to live in the world.
01:30:15.000We can escape it with our with our toys with our technology You know we can we can just bury our face in our phone or a computer or sit and watch a movie and like whenever those uncomfortable feelings come up we can try to Ignore them or suppress them if that makes sense.
01:30:31.000Yeah, and there they're so it's almost man.
01:30:35.000This is gonna be a weird strange curveball or left turn But it's almost like I've started floating recently.
01:30:42.000And whenever I go in there into the tank, it's like you have to...
01:30:46.000You're left alone to your thoughts, right?
01:31:07.000And I feel like our culture here, well, okay, if we compare, and I love our culture.
01:31:13.000I'm not saying there's so much wrong with it, but I feel like there in relationships, you go an inch or two wide and you go a mile deep in the Congo.
01:31:36.000There's only few people we trust with that, you know.
01:31:39.000But it's almost like there, everyone's so open to...
01:31:44.000To go in deep with one another and because of that you get to know each other better You get to truly hurt when they hurt you get to laugh when they laugh you get to cry when they cry And I mean, I don't I don't have to keep going on about it, but no, please listen, don't apologize.
01:32:00.000There's a real There's a real argument for the the way that we live right now is not a way that we were designed for Meaning that not that it can't be sustainable or manageable and you can't figure out a way to live a harmonious life in the modern context, but that a lot of people think that we're just,
01:32:18.000we would naturally fit right in in a tribal environment, that it would feel natural.
01:32:22.000And a lot of people experience that when they go camping for long stretches of time and they're out in the woods together, you know, for whatever reason.
01:33:34.000It's horrible that they have to deal with these situations like the lack of water and toilets and the diseases and all the other struggle.
01:33:44.000But man, there's a part of what they're doing and the way they're living that just seems like they're more in tune in a natural way.
01:33:51.000You would think that they would be more depressed and But you heard Leo Mays laugh in that when they asked him about the bananas and he just got tickled.
01:34:02.000He couldn't hold himself from just laughing and saying, I can't count that much.
01:34:06.000You take someone from Beverly Hills and say, hey, this is what we got for you.
01:35:21.000He's a 5 or 6 year old child that worked from sunup to sundown.
01:35:25.000And that's what he got paid was up to 15 peanuts.
01:35:31.000And so a little handful in his little hand and he came and he sat by me and I just kind of put my arm around him and said, how you doing?
01:35:38.000And he just instantly like put his hand out for me to have.
01:35:43.000And like he went like this and he got like half for him and got half for me and just put half of his peanuts in my hand.
01:35:49.000I'm like, you just worked all day long for that.
01:35:51.000You know, like, from sun up to sun down, but they're just so incredibly generous.
01:35:55.000You know, hey, what's mine is yours, and what's yours is...
01:35:58.000I mean, like, it's fun to kind of sit around the fire sometimes and eat, because, I mean, it's rude in our culture and everything else, but I just enjoyed it whenever people would start eating off my plate, and I'd eat off their plate, and it just kind of becomes part of it.
01:36:45.000Yeah, so his father had passed away and he would have become the chief.
01:36:48.000How do they decide who's the chief and who's not?
01:36:50.000Is it not an election process or anything?
01:36:53.000Basically, there is just among the village whenever I think I forget I need to ask Chief Alondo how he got kind of voted in or whatever but he was just the one that showed the leadership qualities the one that everyone followed the one that was most respected the one that was kind of the most knowledgeable or caring that's a huge thing for them who's gonna think about our interest the most and then be strong enough to like be tough whenever he needs to be tough and And so Chief Alano,
01:37:21.000he's got incredible leadership skills, like just a great guy.
01:37:24.000He was one of the first ones that bought into the vision for us to come in with the land, water, and food.
01:37:29.000A lot of people didn't trust us, thinking, oh, they're saying this.
01:37:32.000And they have those tools that look like they're going to drill wells, but really they might be surveying for gold or diamonds or coltan.
01:37:46.000And so from that, he's been able to go out and Tell other communities what's happened in their village.
01:37:52.000And so one of the things that he's able to go do is say how water has changed everything to where they were able to get land to secure that so we could come in and drill the wells for them.
01:38:00.000Then after that they're able to start farming and then you saw them go in and selling it at the markets to where they can buy clothes for their kids.
01:38:07.000Little Jippy, last time I was there, getting ready to leave.
01:38:11.000He's always around, and I had just been able to go for the weekend, and I was only being able to stay there for three days this trip in that village, because we were going to some other places.
01:38:27.000And I go, oh, you'll see him as you go.
01:38:29.000And so we got in the truck, and we start driving out, and all of a sudden, little Jippy comes out of the schoolhouse, and he's running to us.
01:38:36.000And I got to get out and give him a hug, tell him bye.
01:38:39.000But what's so huge is he was the first Mabuti Pygmy ever in school in that region, that area.
01:39:35.000And so to know that once there's some educated Mabuti Pygmies, that takes away the last excuse that I see for the government to not honor them as true citizens of the country.
01:39:47.000They have no representation on the government level.
01:39:55.000But for years, it was because, or for always, it was because they thought they were half man, half animal.
01:40:00.000Well, now, it's because they say no one's educated.
01:40:04.000No one's ever graduated from primary school or secondary school.
01:40:08.000No one's ever graduated with a high school degree.
01:40:10.000And so until that happens, no, Mabuti Pegme can, or they don't have representation anymore.
01:40:15.000So we're hoping that as they get schooling, they'll be able to go to the courts and represent themselves and have more rights in their community and culture.
01:40:21.000I don't know if I've ever told you that, but a real dark part of the pygmy history or Congolese history and what people have done to them, what we have done to them.
01:40:34.0001902 to 1906, we had a Mabuti pygmy from the Ituri rainforest right where I've lived and stayed, and we put them in the zoo.
01:40:59.000And so, you know, that was over 100 years ago, but it's almost like in those regions where they don't have running water and electricity, And a lot of the education that we do here, some places are kind of stuck in this pocket that's kind of about 100 years back.
01:41:15.000And so some of that mentality still exists.
01:41:18.000So this could be the beginning steps in just completely changing their culture.
01:42:46.000Well, it's been changing or it's been corrupted so much because of the outside influences coming in with the chainsaws that are the mechanized ones.
01:42:58.000Where they can just start cutting the trees down at such a crazy rate.
01:43:03.000Yeah, I've seen those monster machines.
01:43:15.000Yeah, so they have that because a lot of it's not as advanced as that, but they have guys just constantly, day in and day out, that it's almost like ants following each other through the forest, but they have bicycles and they throw these long 20-foot planks of mahogany.
01:43:34.000I think it's ebony, that other really heavy hardwood.
01:43:39.000And they're just taking those out of the forest all day long, just in lines.
01:43:43.000There's a line of people going with empty bicycles, and there's a line coming back out with it full of wood.
01:43:48.000And they just are legally deforesting, putting it in the back of these 18-wheelers that normally have two trailers on the back of them, or two containers on the back, and they fill them to the top.
01:45:02.000I mean, they say it's illegal, but everyone turns a blind eye because they're getting paid off the bribes.
01:45:07.000There's a lot of money involved in hardwood, especially those rare African hardwoods.
01:45:13.000And that's where the rubber boom basically started was Congo by the Belgians, King Leopold II. There's a crazy book written about him, King Leopold's ghost.
01:45:45.000Water and buildings and they're advancing so much.
01:45:48.000And he would go on these public campaigns basically talking about all the good they're doing in the Congo.
01:45:53.000But basically you can see these terrible, brutal pictures of basically a father, I think, reaching out to his child's hand that's on the ground because they took a machete and cut his kid's hand off.
01:46:05.000And he's reaching out to grab it and he doesn't have hands because they had already cut his hands off too.
01:47:53.000I mean, honestly, I'm just grateful to have your friendship and have this opportunity to share because it's helped out so much us be able to do this.
01:48:23.000The float tank center that I go to in Oklahoma, it's called Float OKC. On my first, no, second time in there, they were like, oh, you didn't check the box of how you heard of this?
01:48:33.000And it was like friend, family, this or that, and then Joe Rogan.
01:48:38.000Because they started up because of you, and they were talking about, hey, there's probably 20 or 30 in the country before Joe started talking about it on the podcast, and now it's just grown so much.
01:49:49.000And then, but Wednesday before my fight on Friday, March 3rd, I went in and I had this intention where Neil from Florida KC was like, hey, why don't you instead of just rushing in here from training or rushing in here from the office at Water 4,
01:50:05.000like come in 30 minutes early, kind of sit down and Chill, close your eyes, set an intention, and then do it.
01:50:13.000And I came in and I had watched a documentary called Float Nation.
01:50:17.000And it was cool because it was like an hour, hour and a half, and it showed a lot of different things, but it showed some scientific stuff of...
01:50:25.000Of sports psychologists and basically visualization.
01:50:28.000And then I've done some more research.
01:50:29.000And there's this place in Tulsa that has some brain doctors.
01:50:33.000I mean doctors that are researching neuroscience and different stuff.
01:50:36.000But they're finally doing a clinical study with people with anxiety and depression.
01:51:15.000Then I got, and I was drilling the moves I wanted to do in the fight.
01:51:18.000Then I went into the tank, and right before that, so I was drilling early that morning, everything that I wanted to do in the fight, kind of visualizing before I went into the tank.
01:51:30.000Then when I came out, or before I got in the tank, after training, I started to watch fight film on him, see how he's moving.
01:51:37.000And then I went into the tank and I was able to just think about what he's going to do, think about what I'm going to do, how I'm going to implement it.
01:52:03.000I don't know if that makes sense like I'm wanting to learn how to go deep with it Just let go and use it as a tool of personal development Yeah, the more often you can get into it the more you get relaxed and the more you can sort of slip into that comfortable state of Not feeling the water or feeling the air and just being in your mind see nothing feel nothing released from your body and And then I'll either go in there with ideas,
01:53:28.000Think about my interaction with people.
01:53:31.000You know, do I have as much energy and appreciation as I should?
01:53:36.000Do I have as much gratitude as I should?
01:53:39.000You know, I want to I just want to optimize my thought process, you know, and I'm definitely not claiming that I do or that I always have it right.
01:53:49.000It's an ongoing process and that's one of the realities of being a person.
01:53:52.000The idea of the perfect person, it just doesn't exist and I think it's a bad model to strive for and instead you should strive for doing your best whenever you can, as much as you can.
01:54:04.000And I think that reviewing your thoughts and reviewing your whole mental process is a very important part of optimization about being your best and just I think it's one of the rare moments where you're actually alone with your thoughts,
01:54:22.000where there's no influence of the body, the distractions of the body, just even the weight of sitting down, feeling your butt on the chair, your elbows on this desk.
01:54:34.000All those things are factors and they're being calculated by your mind.
01:54:39.000The analogy that I always use is if you and I were having this conversation, but right next to us was a jackhammer, it would be super distracting.
01:54:59.000That is going into the mind that your mind has to calculate.
01:55:02.000In the absence of any input, whether it's physical touch, you feel like you're flying through space, you feel zero gravity, you don't feel the water because it's the same temperature as your skin, you're floating in it, it's total silence, total darkness, in the absence of that...
01:55:15.000I think your brain becomes super powered.
01:56:01.000No, I don't think I... I mean, you had talked about it, and I knew about it, but it wasn't until I got in the tank and came out of the tank for the first time that then I got it.
01:56:17.000And the physical aspects of it, the way the magnesium makes your body feel and the looseness of the being in zero gravity environment, what feels like zero gravity, everything gets loose.
01:56:28.000It just relaxes, the back relaxes, the arms, the knees, the neck, everything just gets loose in there and you come out just feeling good.
01:57:17.000And I think a big part of what that something special is, is the alleviation of tension.
01:57:22.000And I think tension, much like inflammation causes a lot of diseases and a lot of disorders that people have pertaining to diet and that inflammation causes like what you were talking about with your celiacs.
01:57:37.000I think tension is, in many ways, the physical tension is also another real boundary to comfort.
01:57:47.000And that physical tension is alleviated greatly when you're in that tank.
01:57:51.000And I think when you're more comfortable, you're more relaxed.
01:57:54.000When you're more relaxed, you're more open.
01:57:55.000When you're more open, you're more loving.
01:57:57.000I think all those things sort of cascade.
01:57:59.000You know, they feed on each other and they help.
01:58:02.000And when a tense person that's, like, stressful, like, fuck, fuck, fuck, you know, goddammit!
01:58:06.000You know, it's really hard to, like, be calm and kind.
01:58:10.000You know, it's like you're so wound up.
01:58:12.000I think that thing removes a lot of the physical aspects of being wound up.
01:58:17.000And then on top of that, the deep meditative effects of being in that tank, especially if you go into it like you did with a vision or a direction and a thought to work on.
01:58:30.000I think it does wonders for your thought process.
01:58:33.000I mean, I'm still learning about it because the first couple times I was just trying to just wipe my mind clean and coming out completely stress-free, feeling completely stressed, at least, was awesome.
01:58:46.000And then going in there with an intention and with a goal, with a fight just a couple days away.
01:58:51.000I don't know that this is what happened, but in training, I had been feeling great, but then it felt like something just turned on or started firing where it connected the mental visualization to the physical of actually going in there and doing it the exact way that I saw it.
01:59:07.000Was something that just kind of blew my mind.
01:59:12.000Because you'd want to see the match or the fight a hundred times in your head before you ever go out there and do it.
01:59:17.000I mean, not put things in it to where if it goes bad or if it doesn't go exactly your way in the fight that then you freak out during the fight.
01:59:24.000But you want to have a goal and an intention and know what you're going to do in there.
01:59:27.000I think that's probably what Conor did when he was fighting Aldo.
01:59:30.000He knew he was going to go in there and end it quick.
01:59:59.000The visualization of a goal is very important to solidifying this idea of what that goal is in your mind.
02:00:09.000There's been studies done on visualization as far as athletics and skill learning, and some people believe it is as important as physical practice.
02:00:25.000I mean, Kenny Munday, who's been involved in the MMA community quite a lot, he was my high school wrestling coach, and he told me to go home, write a goal, put it somewhere you can see it.
02:00:34.000So I wrote down, he told me to write down state champ, but I wrote down national champ, and I put it above my bed.
02:00:40.000And then over, you know, working with him, training, getting some wrestling moves, I put a step around body lock on the left, and I put a I think?
02:01:14.000And I need to be more conscious of it and dive even deeper into it because I'm like you.
02:01:19.000I agree that, or at least I can see the point and how it's valid that the mental focus and energy and visualizing is pretty much just as important as actually physically doing it.
02:01:39.000Is there anything else you want to tell people about or wrap this up?
02:01:42.000Man, we can get to wrapping it up, but real quick, we have two goals going on right now.
02:01:48.000At Water4.org, we're doing a World Water Day campaign.
02:01:52.000We threw up a goal to raise, it's an audacious goal to do that water tank, water tower, water kiosk system.
02:01:59.000It's going to serve 4,000 people and then create more water wells.
02:02:02.000It's a $50,000 goal, but we've already raised 35. Someone yesterday gave 25 grand to it.
02:02:09.000And so we've got about a week left, and we're hoping to get another 15, because if that happens, we're able to really make that sustainable, that team there in Rwanda.
02:02:42.000So if you just go to at the big pygmy on Instagram or Twitter, you can just click right there and get right to the campaign.
02:02:48.000And yeah, and for people that can give one time, that's where you can give one time.
02:02:54.000And if you want, we're trying to make us sustainable here.
02:02:57.000And so if we had people that bought in and did $25 a month, over the course of a year, you'd give 15 people clean water for the rest of their lives.
02:03:06.000And the reason that is is because we train up the locals to go out and be able to repair the wells and always be able to serve the community.
02:03:11.000And so $25 a month goes a real long way.
02:03:15.000And yeah, so brother, I appreciate you so much.