In this episode, I sit down with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Henry "The Dragon" Sehdeh to talk about his recent victory over Demetrius Johnson. We talk about what it was like being the first person to ever beat "The Notorious" Johnson in the UFC, what it took to beat him, and why he believes he's the greatest of all time. I also talk about how he got to where he is today and what it takes to be the best in the business. I hope you enjoy this episode and tweet me if you liked it! Timestamps: 3:00 - What does it take to become a UFC Champion? 4:30 - What it took for him to become the first man to win a UFC Championship 6:15 - What was it like being knocked out in the first round 7:00 How he got back into the UFC 8:20 - How he dealt with his first loss 9:40 - What he learned from his mistakes What he did to get back in the octagon 11:00- How he changed his mindset 12:00 How he became the greatest in MMA 13:00 What s next? 14:00 Thoughts on the future of the UFC? 15:10 - What's next for him 16:00 Why he thinks he's better than Jon Jones 17:00 Is he the greatest UFC Fighter of all Time 18:00 Canelo Alvarez 19: What does he think about his legacy 21: What s the best UFC fighter of all-time 22: How he's going to win the next guy in the fight game 26:00 Who s the greatest? 27:00 Do you think he can beat the next man to beat the other guy to beat Jon Jones? ) 27:50 - What s his best chance of winning the next fight 28:10 29:00 Does he have a chance of being the greatest at UFC Champ 32: Is he better than the other than Conor vs. Jon Jones ? 35: What do you think of the greatest guy you've ever beat him? 31: What are you looking forward to next guy? 36:30 33:00 Are you going to be a better man than he can he beat him next fight next time?
00:00:23.000Well, I've been with him since 2004 and recently became his coach right before the first Demetrius Johnson fight, and I'm his head coach for MMA. And you're in disguise in case some other athletes try to swipe you.
00:01:01.000And I told people since the beginning, it wasn't so much...
00:01:04.000You know, the UFC belt, but it was because I made it about Demetrius, and it was about Demetrius.
00:01:09.000Well, I mean, he is widely considered to be the best pound-for-pound fighter ever, and you're the first guy not only to beat him, but the first guy who, not just to beat him, but beat him in like 11 years, but the first guy to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling and a UFC championship.
00:01:26.000I mean, those are two gigantic accomplishments.
00:01:46.000I mean, you're absolutely in the running now.
00:01:49.000I mean, if he's not the greatest of all time, I think he is, but the argument is that he didn't face people as good as Jon Jones faced, and then Fedor and Anderson Silva are the other people that are in consideration for the greatest of all time.
00:02:04.000I mean, it's just a subjective argument.
00:02:07.000I mean, who knows who's right, but obviously you beat, without a doubt, one of the best ever.
00:04:58.000They assume you see you fighting for the title, not once, but twice, that you've probably been doing MMA for a long-ass time.
00:05:03.000But when you fought him for the first time, that's a very short amount of time to be fighting in MMA. Especially against a caliber athlete like Demetrius.
00:06:15.000In the year of 2007, man, I went through the worst year ever.
00:06:20.000I was ready to become a world champion, and I went out to the world championships in 2007, and I didn't even score a point in the first round.
00:06:28.000I got put out by Iran, and for some reason that whole year, man, I was just going through freaking struggles left and right.
00:09:04.000They made your your ankle go like what was it?
00:09:06.000Yeah, it was there's a nerve that you have behind like the bone.
00:09:10.000It's a per I think it's the perineal nerve P-E-R Yeah, and I got hit there so I put my foot to sleep Just like when Michael Chandler happened to him and Bellator same thing exactly stepping on it and it's just not working and And the reason why everybody kind of got scared,
00:09:30.000I mean, because I was hurt, but I remember before the fight, I remember I saw my quarterman, like, kind of, before I fought Demetrius, I remember I saw him all nervous.
00:09:41.000And I remember grabbing my quarterman and putting him right in front of me.
00:09:44.000I remember telling him, I was like, hey guys, I've been here before.
00:11:37.000And what happens when I got stopped with Demetrius Johnson, I almost felt like, and I've never gone through this, not even in wrestling in my life, like my spirit was shot.
00:11:47.000And I had to kind of pick up my pieces to kind of start healing myself, like mentally.
00:11:52.000And I feel like, and if you look at it, Joe, somebody like Roy Jones Jr., he got knocked out one time, and it became a domino effect.
00:12:15.000But the thing is, there's a lot of factors involved in that loss because I think Roy was also coming off of the John Ruiz fight where he gained a lot of weight to get up to heavyweight and then he had to lose that weight to get down to light heavyweight again.
00:12:28.000So he was lean at heavyweight and then all of a sudden he's dropping down to 175 pounds again.
00:13:12.000If you want to really get up to 200 pounds, like an actual 200 pound body, not just like fill yourself up with water and fat No, to actually be 200 pounds the way he was, your body's got to say, hey man, we need to fucking grow.
00:13:27.000We got resources that need to be allocated towards muscle.
00:13:31.000We got to gain all this weight because we're lifting weights all the time.
00:13:47.000Boxers don't always cut weight the right way either.
00:13:50.000Neither do MMA fighters, particularly back in the day, which is really interesting about the approach that you guys took to this camp that you wanted to talk about, which is a very, very scientific approach towards your recovery, towards your training methods, towards everything.
00:14:03.000I mean, you really had it dialed in as opposed to just trying to wing it, which for many, many years was how almost every fighter did it.
00:14:47.000I remember as soon as that happened, I did remember the Michael Chandler fight, and I remember he went on a show and said exactly what happened.
00:14:55.000So I told our other coroner, Santino DeFranco, when we get in, put ice on his knee, not his ankle, because it was the knee where it happened, because I watched that show.
00:15:05.000And I remember watching it for that reason, to wonder why...
00:16:54.000And watching people's celebrations and trying to embrace the feeling of what they're feeling, you know, because it becomes like an addiction, like a drug, like going through these feelings of like, dude, I accomplished what I set out to do.
00:18:22.000Well, there's 20 million motherfuckers in California.
00:18:24.000Plenty of people to go around in terms of audience.
00:18:29.000There's been talks, but I don't think Ali, my manager, has really, truly actually sat down and talked with the UFC. I think everybody wants to do it, though.
00:18:39.000Well, it's one of two things that's going to happen there, right?
00:18:42.000It's either, I mean, now the DJ has gone to one.
00:18:46.000Demetrius Johnson just left the UFC and went over to One FC. One FC, for people who have no idea what we're talking about, is a gigantic organization in Asia.
00:18:55.000They are literally the equivalent to the UFC in Asia.
00:18:58.000And although many people in America are not aware of them, they don't know who they are, they're a huge...
00:19:59.000You know, what we saw with the Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov fight, all the trash talking and all the stuff that you're seeing that is becoming more and more prevalent in the UFC, you don't see that at all at 1FC. And that's something that Mighty Mouse is very happy about.
00:20:15.000Yeah, I think first, I think congratulations too to Ben Askren.
00:20:27.000Yeah, Ben Askren's one of those guys that he's very, he's a very confident, he's a very dangerous human being because he knows that, he's going to be very confident about it.
00:20:38.000And I've always told people, I said, hey dude, maybe the best in the world is on the UFC, man.
00:20:44.000There's some dude by the name of Ben Askren that will take you down.
00:20:46.000We've been saying his praises for years.
00:21:07.000No, Ben Askren, I mean, there's a reason why he's undefeated, and he hasn't been hit in several fights.
00:21:13.000He was detailing when the last time he got hit.
00:21:15.000You know, I had him on the podcast because I wanted to let people know about him.
00:21:20.000I mean, I've been a big fan of Ben Askren's from back when he was the Bellator champion, and if you watch his fights in Bellator against Koroskov and Lima...
00:22:18.000So he just relies on, this is what I know, I do it better than anybody, and I'm going to control this, and you're going to know how I'm going to do it.
00:22:25.000So that's what makes Ben Askren dangerous.
00:23:34.000If Ben was to win a belt, the 2008 Olympic team would have five belts.
00:23:39.000Henry gets two, DC has two, and Ben Askren would have one.
00:23:44.000That's five UFC belts if he came into the UFC and won a belt, his teammates.
00:23:49.000Well, they are going to open up eventually that 165-pound division, which is what Ben is shooting for.
00:23:54.000Ben would like that division, and he said that if he had 165 and Tyron kept the welterweight title, that would be great for him.
00:24:03.000I just don't see the UFC doing a 5-pound weight difference when all the other weight differences are so huge.
00:24:09.000I feel like the smart move would be 10 pounds every spot.
00:24:13.00035, 45, 55, 65, 75. Move 70 to 75. When the UFC had a light heavyweight division initially, the division was a 200-pound division.
00:24:23.000When Tito Ortiz first won it, I believe, it was a 200-pound division.
00:24:27.000And then they raised it up to 205. And they needed a 195 too, I really believe, and probably a 225. I think that would round it all out, which probably will all happen eventually.
00:24:42.000Yeah, that's interesting to see how that unfolds.
00:29:32.000I mean, just the way he manhandled them.
00:29:35.000Like, his wrestling is just, you see guys that are used to defending takedowns, and then they find themselves on their back, and you say, holy shit, man.
00:29:44.000I think he did get upkicked here, and his nose got broken.
00:33:14.000I think my whole philosophy at first when I got into MMA was kind of like in wrestling we would never get the same recovery.
00:33:23.000I know it's stupid as stupid as heck but we would never get the recovery that a fighter gets.
00:33:28.000So to me, it was like, dude, I can stretch this as long as I can, and I can suffer the day of wins, but I'm going to recover within 24, 28 hours sometimes.
00:33:40.000So to me, I was looking at it just in an odd way, and it finally started catching up to me.
00:33:47.000So you just had confidence in your body's ability to bounce back, even though you're putting it through an extraordinary amount of stress and losing massive amounts of weight really quickly.
00:33:56.000You just felt like your body could handle it.
00:34:18.000I was a lot more disciplined then, but I was probably doing about 12 pounds, but I had no fat.
00:34:24.000At that time, I was eating just as healthy and as clean as possible because I would make weight every three weeks I had a tournament.
00:34:33.000You know, I had George Lockhart on, and he was explaining to me that a lot of people think that when you cut weight that, you know, like you're cutting out fat.
00:34:41.000He's like, you're not cutting out fat, you're cutting out water.
00:34:43.000And it actually helps to have more muscle.
00:36:31.000I think he started using a lot of those neural stems, hyperbaric chambers, things of that matter, and just more scientific-based, just his whole training all around.
00:36:43.000And did you incorporate any of those methods?
00:37:13.000A science that's very, I guess, complex you could say.
00:37:16.000You gotta have like the right people, man, like dictating your schedule.
00:37:20.000So when you set up a training camp like this, how far in advance do you sit down and work out all the details?
00:37:27.000It's almost like the morning that we wake up is what we know we're gonna do.
00:37:32.000Right, but how, like say if you know you have a fight in July, when would you start preparing for that and when do you sit down and map everything out?
00:37:39.000Well, we try to map things out maybe about three months in advance, kind of like a preparation to leading to the camp.
00:37:45.000And that's kind of like the phase that we're on now.
00:37:47.000Like now we're on, you know, if it is that I fight in January, it's almost like our schedule, it's like there's a pre-test to the big test.
00:38:06.000I think the first month leading up to the next eight weeks would be a lot of it would be technical and tactical, just working on those particular areas that we believe we're going to be in.
00:38:18.000So you're not doing anything crazy strength and conditioning-wise?
00:38:21.000You're not trying to break your body down?
00:40:28.000Accelerated recovery, so it was like NeuroStem, and they have about a thousand programs on it, and it just forced him to recover a lot faster.
00:40:37.000The best example was UFC fighter Pantoja.
00:40:40.000He was on the Ultimate Fighter 24 with us, our number one seed that we picked, Alexander Pantoja.
00:40:46.000I saw him blow three ligaments out of his elbow, and he started crying because he had a fight in eight weeks in Iron, no, Scotland.
00:41:24.000When a guy gets injured like that and you're still going through camp, how do you work around that injury?
00:41:29.000You just say, okay, there's nothing squeezing, nothing where you're putting any strain in those tendons, nothing where you're doing anything with that hand that's going to re-injure it?
00:41:37.000I think you just have to hope for somebody to wrap it very well.
00:43:48.000So what we really focus on, which a lot of companies aren't talking about, is the role of the gut and the mind in conjunction with your physical training.
00:43:54.000So essentially what we do is we start off with a really comprehensive baseline assessment.
00:43:58.000We want to run them through everything.
00:44:13.000You got to get that DC brain potential.
00:44:15.000We all want to be a little bit like DC. But basically it's an objective measurement of your central nervous system.
00:44:20.000So you can actually, your central nervous system is basically the data aggregator, if you will.
00:44:24.000So it has to take information from your metabolic systems, your autonomics, Kind of coordinate things like neuromuscular and metabolic efficiency.
00:44:32.000That's kind of the data center, if you will.
00:44:34.000So this is a measurement of potential, basically how much energy you have in the central nervous system to go coordinate neuromuscular and metabolic efficiencies, which is really what we focus on.
00:45:02.000We really believe in just collecting as much data as possible and trending data.
00:45:05.000That way, when you see a change, essentially you get predictability in terms of, you know, today's a no-go day because central nervous system is diminished.
00:45:13.000We're just going to be going through the motions.
00:45:14.000We're not going to make physiological adaptations and your inflammation is really high.
00:45:18.000No-go because we're not going to go risk injury when we can't make adaptations.
00:45:22.000So this is a measurement we would do every single morning where we can look at autonomic nervous system, which is basically things like recovery, sympathetic, parasympathetic balance, DC brain potentials, and metabolic systems.
00:45:32.000And what is measuring all these things?
00:45:45.000It's basically a chest strap that does heart rate variability, so time and frequency domain analysis.
00:45:50.000And it does DC brain potential, so a little sticker right here on your forehead.
00:45:55.000Basically four minutes, you just kind of relax and we collect pretty amazing data and it breaks it down into four different categories, what's called windows of trainability.
00:46:02.000So it says today we should focus on strength and power or skill acquisition based on metabolic readiness, autonomic readiness and DC brain potentials.
00:46:10.000So what is our body primed to go do today?
00:46:13.000Because if you're not primed, your nervous system doesn't have the energy, you're just going to be going through the motions.
00:46:18.000So you're sort of there to dictate when it's going to be a hard day, when it's going to be an easy day?
00:46:56.000It almost takes a while to kind of adapt, but as I started recognizing my body change and how I felt in sparring and how I just felt recovered, I was like, God, this is crazy.
00:47:20.000So would you do a baseline on this before you get started and then you as before camp get started and then when camp starts ramping up, then you start measuring all the various details?
00:47:32.000So we do a comprehensive baseline assessment, including the Omega Wave, as well as six or eight hours of other testing, everything that you could think of under the sun.
00:47:40.000And we put together basically columns of this is what you're suboptimal at, this is what you're average at, this is what you're really damn good at.
00:47:46.000So basically what we want to do is exploit your functional strengths, it's what you're good at, but then we also want to focus on your functional deficiencies.
00:47:53.000In a sport like MMA, we also sometimes have the advantage of looking at your opponent and making certain assumptions in terms of their weaknesses, their strengths.
00:48:00.000Going against somebody like DJ, you don't really have that advantage.
00:48:03.000So what we really needed to focus on is what Henry's really good at, his ground game.
00:48:07.000You look, you know, we're doing nervous system assessments while he's on the ground.
00:48:10.000His sparring partners, their stress systems are going like crazy.
00:48:14.000He's calming down because this guy likes to be on the floor rolling around.
00:48:17.000So we pinpoint these little strategic strengths and deficiencies, and then we target all of his nutrition, supplementation, A big thing that we focus on is nutrient timing, something that's not really talked about as well.
00:48:28.000When you're talking about gut health and recovery, managing the hormones associated with exercise, you've got to be getting in the right nutrients in your energy, anabolic, and growth phases.
00:48:39.000So for nutrient timing, you're talking about when you're actually eating and what you're eating, so you're planning that out as well?
00:49:50.000So, being a nervous system based company, obviously we're doing things like Omega-3, DHAs, BCAAs, you know, to maintain, put on a little bit of muscle.
00:50:00.000We do a lot of, big one I believe is the Generation UCAN, the Superstarch.
00:50:04.000Very good without a big glycemic, you know, big insulin response, but very good at replenishing your glycogen stores following to minimize cortisol and inflammatory responses and things like that.
00:50:13.000So, every day it's a little bit different, but yeah, we ended up going with our own line and One of the biggest things that we never really talk about in the fight as well is the role that gut health plays.
00:50:22.000So that's something Henry does year-round, regardless of when we're fighting, is take our line, which is called Freedom Cleanse Restore.
00:50:28.000This is world-renowned, utilized by university researchers all around the world right now.
00:50:34.000And basically, it's all just about restoring good gut bacteria, prebiotics, probiotics, and lymphatic cleansing.
00:50:40.000And this is going to be something that really played a big role in his weight cut as well.
00:50:43.000It's kind of a missing link that athletes aren't talking about.
00:50:46.000But good gut health is going to help with serotonin production, so recovery, relaxation, mood, you know, production of brain-derived neurotropic factors so our nervous system can make these adaptations and learn new skills and things along these lines.
00:50:59.000So this is something, you know, in my opinion, a big reason why He had the issue with DJ the first time around.
00:51:05.000Henry will tell the story, he had gut inflammation so bad that people would say, good luck before the fight, tap his gut, and that hurt him.
00:51:13.000That's not normal, and that all goes back to the issues associated with weight cutting, as we were talking about a little bit.
00:51:19.000But getting that gut health right, no inflammation, and that goes a long way.
00:51:22.000How long have you guys been in business for?
00:51:25.000We've only been in business for about eight months.
00:51:56.000So people want to feel good about what they're doing, but maybe a doctor can't afford this big-ass metabolic cart, or they don't know how to use it.
00:52:03.000So what I did is I purchased this equipment, hired technicians, and we would bring it mobile.
00:52:08.000You know, technology's getting smaller, more mobile.
00:52:10.000So this was my idea of how I would go make my little dent in the healthcare system.
00:52:14.000You know, there were issues with scalability in terms of finding good technicians, but the goal is just to go out there and provide data-driven solutions, right?
00:52:21.000We live in a world of subjectivity, guesswork.
00:52:24.000A very punishment-oriented fitness system where it sucks to start working out.
00:52:29.000You typically gain weight if you're doing the right stuff because you're getting hydrated.
00:52:47.000Right now we're in the research and development phase, so we're really only working with guys like Henry, Victoria, Anthony, a very badass wrestler we're working with right now as well.
00:52:55.000Just some amazing people, largely for research and development.
00:52:59.000We trade them the training for the data.
00:53:13.000He came in probably about eight months ago, a little bit before the first camp, and we met, talked, and No, Henry was straight up.
00:53:19.000He's like, man, you know your stuff, but you don't know MMA. So I took that, you know, personally, we, you know, spent a lot of time together.
00:54:14.000I do feel honored and blessed to be able to work with somebody like Henry.
00:54:19.000He's the hardest working guy out there.
00:54:21.000Of course, the hard work goes a long ways, but man, this guy's a genetic freak as well.
00:54:25.000I've had the ability to test Olympic athletes, many other sports as well.
00:54:30.000This guy makes adaptations faster than anybody.
00:54:32.000He came off a 12 weeks, 16 weeks maybe of not training, VO2s already in the high 60s, functional threshold powers that would go compete with the world-class Ironmen that I'm training in things as well.
00:54:47.000If you looked at the body composition changes that we did in 7 weeks, it wasn't even a full 8-week camp, he put on 4.2 pounds of skeletal muscle mass, like good mass, which as a physiologist I would call bullshit on if I didn't see it with my own two eyes.
00:56:31.000And we do a lot of velocity-based training as well.
00:56:34.000Actually, really interesting, a study that was published recently, they had a lot of guys working on it for a full year.
00:56:39.000Some only did velocity, never actually picked up a weight.
00:56:41.000The other ones did traditional strength training.
00:56:44.000The people who did velocity-based training, no actual weight training, got stronger with less muscular hypertrophy.
00:56:50.000I mean, they didn't get as big, but they were stronger at the end of the day.
00:56:53.000So when you look at something like wrestling and MMA, where you got to make a low weight, but you want to be as strong as possible, you know, velocity-based training is kind of the way of the future.
00:57:01.000So this is kind of our general gym concept that we're building right now is the gym of the future may not need weights.
00:57:07.000We're going to be next door to these CrossFit gyms where they're throwing all these weights over their head, getting injured.
00:57:12.000We're next door, empty gym, and people are getting stronger.
00:57:15.000That's kind of the gym of the future the way we see it.
00:57:18.000How would you define velocity-based training?
00:57:20.000So basically what you want to do is, it's kind of like the new one rep max.
00:57:23.000We all know one rep maxes aren't the safest thing to perform, right?
00:58:12.000I mean, very rarely we'll throw Indian clubs and things like that in there as well.
00:58:16.000So it all depends on the sport and what we're focusing on that day, metabolic readiness, things along those lines.
00:58:22.000But it's all just about training in the right vectors and being able to not only put out force, but absorb force as well, which nobody really talks about.
00:58:29.000And if you look at largely other professional sports, All these injuries are happening in the deceleration phase.
00:58:34.000So when people are trying to slow down, this is absorbing force.
00:58:37.000This is kind of similar to some of the pieces that just aren't trained in MMA as well.
00:58:42.000You've got to be able to absorb force just like you put it out.
00:58:44.000Now, this wrist thing that you're wearing, it measures velocity.
00:59:57.000It's really difficult to time sync multiple devices to be on the same timeline.
01:00:01.000So that's something we're working with this company, an amazing company actually out of here out of LA to develop this thing right now.
01:00:07.000So I would say that would be the goal.
01:00:09.000It's not something that's going to be applicable to the average guy though as well.
01:00:12.000We're trying to bring this type of training to everybody.
01:00:15.000Would it be possible instead of time syncing it, you have a left and a right computer, like two different computers that are reading data, one off the left, one off the right, so you don't have to coordinate them?
01:01:20.000So what we're doing right now, which will be a little bit of a lengthy process, is defining a library of perfect form for everything that you could think of.
01:01:27.000And then this is going to unlock telehealth and teletraining.
01:01:31.000When you have something like that, we can do remote programming and be monitoring people's neuromuscular function, their biomechanics completely remotely.
01:01:39.000So that's really what we're going towards.
01:01:42.000There's always been several aspects to getting a fighter ready for camp.
01:01:46.000There's always been their skill set, what they're good at, specific training for that one individual opponent that they're going to face, and then all the strength and conditioning.
01:01:56.000And, you know, it's usually thought of as, you know, weights and sprints and plyos and all these different things.
01:02:03.000But I feel like this is probably the next step.
01:02:06.000The next step, measuring all of your, all these variables that you're talking about and seeing how your body is at any given time so that you're not just guessing whether you're peaking.
01:02:19.000I mean, there's just no room for guesswork and subjectivity at this level.
01:02:23.000And technology, there's no need for it anymore.
01:02:25.000So we're just trying to let people know shit like this is available, right?
01:02:29.000So we're developing it, and then the end goal is just to make it extremely user-friendly, right?
01:02:33.000So you're doing your velocity-based training, and it says stop.
01:02:36.000And then you rest, and we're using your heart rate variability to tell you when to go again.
01:02:40.000So it's easy to stop and go for your periodization and things like that.
01:02:45.000The technology's here, now making it actionable recommendations for the individual that can understand is kind of what we're moving towards.
01:03:01.000I mean, I feel, you know, there's times where you feel like you didn't deserve the opportunity because I'm new to the field.
01:03:06.000You know, we obviously work our asses off and everything, but for Henry to put the faith into us, you know, this was a world champion camp.
01:03:34.000Now, are you guys going to be open tomorrow?
01:03:36.000To the general public, say the average girl or guy who does, say, jujitsu tournaments and wants to get in the best shape of their life, are you going to have products for them and a service where they can sign up for something like that?
01:04:02.000We basically tell you what you're good at, what you're bad at.
01:04:05.000Then if you want to, you know, develop a program, that's a little bit of an upcharge.
01:04:08.000The real goal there is to be able to do completely remote training, completely in-house training, and then any level of hybrid training as well.
01:04:16.000So right now, what the world needs is the diagnostic testing, the data.
01:04:21.000What we're building now is the processes of being able to use data, put it into recommendations, and then scale that.
01:04:27.000It's hard to teach somebody everything that I do, so we're building the softwares to essentially replicate ourselves.
01:04:33.000My buddy in the other room, Andre Hicks, one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the world, these guys will attest to it.
01:04:39.000You can't teach people what he knows, so we have to code this into a software, a lot of if-then type stuff.
01:04:45.000And then this is able to be scalable to everybody.
01:04:47.000We want to provide this training to people, you know, the average Joe trying to lose weight, you know, the weekend warrior, the jujitsu, everything, man.
01:04:57.000We want to be able to provide this to everybody.
01:04:58.000Everybody deserves this type of training.
01:05:00.000That's minimal risk of injury, high yield return, efficient.
01:05:17.000They know where they want to be, but it can't tell you where you're at unless you know exactly where you're starting from.
01:05:21.000You have to do this baseline assessment.
01:05:22.000You know, sometimes it sucks to really understand how fat, you know, your body fat percentage and your metabolics and your risk of, you know, your insulin resistance and things like that.
01:05:31.000But you have to figure out where you're starting from, where you want to be, and that's how we develop a roadmap.
01:05:35.000So getting people, you know, and we believe this is the way of kind of making our way into the healthcare system as well.
01:06:05.000Would someone have to come to you for the first initial assessments and then possibly be able to do the consulting either online or through the application?
01:06:15.000I mean, there's totally different degrees.
01:06:33.000We can't send you a metabolic cart and shit, obviously.
01:06:35.000So the goal is to get people to just come into the facility and then do remote programming from there.
01:06:40.000And this is, you know, our concept is to put these diagnostic centers and possibly the attached training centers as well and just start providing these everywhere.
01:06:48.000Because frankly, if we just went, you know, the diagnostic gym of the future route, it could be five, six hundred square feet, low, you know, low overhead facilities that are just really efficient, you know, just putting people out, collecting data left and right.
01:07:09.000That's pretty much how it's kind of been.
01:07:11.000We took in the Ivan Drago approach probably more than the Rocky approach, which I think Russians kind of tend to use science a little bit more in their training.
01:07:22.000So to me, at first, it was almost like, man, I'm going all in on this, especially this camp against Demetrius.
01:07:30.000I'm going to have faith in the science, like 100%.
01:07:33.000I'm going to do everything according to, even if I don't want to.
01:07:39.000And I think it just, as I started seeing my body change, I started seeing like the coaches kind of adapt with like, okay, man, science is in the center of this whole camp.
01:07:46.000And I saw the change, Joe, and I've never felt so recovered the night that I fought Demetrius Johnson.
01:07:51.000I've never felt so good, and I'm 31 years old, and I've been cutting weight since I've been a kid.
01:07:58.000So you felt a big difference through the entire camp doing this kind of method?
01:08:40.000The day that I wake up, the day that I train, nobody knows what's going on until the data's gone in the hands of Kevin and Neuroforce 1. And then, okay, they determine this is how many rounds, this is how we're going to kind of peak you for your fight.
01:08:53.000If you could imagine standing on the sideline when he's sparring in rounds and stuff and we're like, slow down, pace your...
01:09:01.000You can't try and control your heart rate while training.
01:09:03.000No, this is training for fighting, right?
01:09:05.000So we're constantly telling him to train less, slow himself down.
01:09:10.000There was a little bit of clashing there at the beginning and then they started to see the body composition come around and started to feel his power and everyone kind of bought into the process but it takes a while.
01:09:20.000We're redefining it and we understand that there's Give me some pushback.
01:09:24.000This is such a universal concept when it comes to strength and conditioning coaches.
01:09:28.000It's being discussed over and over again nowadays.
01:09:33.000They're doing too much and your body just doesn't have a chance to recover.
01:09:37.000And even though you're getting in better shape, ultimately, you're not getting in as good a shape as you could have gotten if you did less, which is so counterintuitive for most people.
01:10:27.000Well, that's the crazy contrast, right, is between this championship mentality that just wants to do more than anybody, push harder, train while everybody else is asleep, put your body through more than anybody else is willing to do because that's what makes a champion.
01:10:42.000And then someone like you comes along and goes, no, that's what fucks you up.
01:10:46.000You need to slow down, you need to do less, less rounds, move slower.
01:10:51.000I mean, that was one of the biggest things I told him.
01:10:53.000If you're not sleeping eight to ten hours a night when you're putting your body through something like that, you're doing your body an injustice and you're not going to make adaptations.
01:10:59.000When we're out there training, we're breaking our body down.
01:11:03.000We need to, you know, activate our glymphatic system, our brain's waste removal system as well, so we can go learn some new things the next day as well.
01:11:09.000So if you're not sleeping, you're suboptimal, just like you're not properly hydrated and things as well.
01:11:14.000This all comes down to the cellular level, you know, nervous system based approach.
01:11:18.000Now, are you taking melatonin or anything to ensure that you go to sleep at a specific time?
01:11:31.000Even at times, according to when I would go to sleep, because at times, you know how you train late and sometimes you come back and it just takes you a while to go to sleep.
01:11:41.000So even then, it would be like, alright, when Henry's ready to wake up, obviously if I don't hear my alarm and I snooze it, I'm more likely they're going to allow me to sleep an extra two hours.
01:12:28.000One technology while we're on the sleep thing, one that we're utilizing for Henry, just a little light microcurrent here to your temporal lobes and it's proven to increase serotonin and melatonin and decrease cortisol.
01:12:40.000So we're like manipulating biochemicals and it's a very natural way of making you feel drowsy.
01:13:01.000Actually, they did a presentation on me in Russia with Roman, with the scientists that they have at the USCPI. Like, they tracked everything according to the Omega wave, the device that we were using.
01:13:12.000And he was able to kind of show, he was like, hey, look, my system, you know, this system does work.
01:13:19.000You know, it's just like people were kind of just tripping out.
01:13:21.000So I went out there, did the whole presentation in Moscow.
01:13:38.000The Russians have really been pioneering this type of training for quite a while.
01:13:45.000Specifically, the type of training that Pavel Tatsulin Where you're using way less energy, you're working out way less, but you're getting better results from it.
01:13:56.000There's a lot of thought processes that have been leaning in this direction from a lot of really high-level top coaches for quite a while now.
01:14:17.000The harder you go, the more you push through injury, the better you will become.
01:14:21.000Yeah, I also think that there's something to be said for that, though, in terms of mental strength.
01:14:27.000Because one of the things that wrestlers have, that it's not just that they have a great skill in being able to manipulate bodies, but they also have mental toughness that's at a level that I don't think you get from any other sport.
01:14:39.000I mean, I think there's a lot of pro athletes, even tennis players, that are just mentally tough.
01:14:44.000People just know how to win, they know how to push themselves, but I feel like wrestlers are on another level because they're always tired, they're always over-trained, they're always dehydrated, and they're always working out with a bunch of fucking savages that are all the same way, and everybody takes pleasure in being miserable.
01:15:32.000Like, and it's, it's, it's, I was just at the World Championships, Joe, and I can tell you, Man, the best athletes in the world.
01:15:41.000I was just in Budapest, Hungary, and I saw Kyle Snyder and all these guys compete.
01:15:45.000And I'm just like, man, these are the best athletes in the world.
01:15:49.000This is the hardest shit a human being could ever do.
01:15:51.000If you're to see the finesse and the strength and the power and what's involved in becoming a world champion and watching these guys go through this freaking tough, just the toughest tournament in the world.
01:16:04.000I think what we do in MMA is fun compared to wrestling.
01:16:29.000But it's just interesting to me that I think you kind of need both in some weird way.
01:16:36.000Your mind needs to develop this layer of toughness that wrestlers have.
01:16:42.000And then I think once you've developed that, then maybe I think your approach, Kevin, is applicable.
01:16:50.000But I think that until an athlete has that indomitable spirit, until they have that sort of iron will that a wrestler possesses, to make a champion I think you need many, many things.
01:17:03.000But I don't think you can ever discount that ability to work through discomfort the way wrestlers have.
01:17:08.000I just don't think it's wise as a professional athlete at a championship level to compete compromised.
01:17:42.000Like, in order for you to see and believe in science, you have to go through hell to understand, like, hey, man, the hard way probably isn't the best way.
01:17:49.000But when you were talking about the feeling that you had in not wanting to ever feel the pain of losing again, that feeling that you had when your ankle was going out, and that, like, fuck this.
01:18:06.000Like, you almost have to experience lows in order to have that.
01:18:11.000And I feel like one of the things about wrestling, That makes it a sport that creates so many fucking savages is because you go through so much shit, so much hardship, so much difficulty that,
01:18:28.000you know, if you had Science-based wrestling programs, the way you're doing a science-based camp, and you went in and said, everybody, you gotta slow down.
01:18:57.000Yeah, but like I said, I think you hit the nail on the head.
01:19:00.000I think it's, to me, the way I would see it is like you have to kind of go through hell in order to understand it because you have to go through that callus, through that burn.
01:19:07.000But I feel like, especially in MMA, a lot of athletes or even athletes just in general, everybody busts their butts almost.
01:19:14.000If you're an elite athlete, you'll always train maybe not the smartest way.
01:19:22.000I guess you could add more to your training or take away less.
01:19:30.000Yeah, the fine line is what's fascinating to me.
01:19:34.000One of the things that I love about MMA is that it's so broad, there are so many skills, that the approach to success is different with every individual, and you have to find what that approach is.
01:19:46.000The approach to you, for you to achieve success, is going to be different than the approach for a different athlete.
01:19:53.000It doesn't have the same skills that you have.
01:19:55.000But like Anderson Silva, perfect example.
01:23:26.000We believe Andre more leads the yoga, what we're doing over there, so he'd be better to ask specifically.
01:23:31.000But we believe it largely for nervous system and for breathing.
01:23:34.000One thing we really talk about is the diaphragmatic breathing, and yoga is really a calm environment to be able to focus on your breathing.
01:23:40.000What does that mean, diaphragmatic breathing?
01:24:07.000So when you're actually exercising, it's better for delaying anaerobic threshold, buffering lactate, things like that, as well as keeping the nervous system calm as well.
01:24:16.000Do you think there's any benefit to breathing through your nose and out through your mouth?
01:24:22.000I'd say it's on an individualized basis.
01:24:24.000I think the best thing is to not think about your breathing.
01:24:26.000When you start thinking about it, it can kind of get fucked up.
01:24:28.000So if we encourage diaphragmatic breathing without this, this technology we utilize is actually, even though when you're utilizing the technology, you're just breathing in and out through your mouth, it actually encourages in through the nose, out through the mouth when you're training.
01:24:40.000So I mean, I'm not an expert specifically on that, but I think there's definitely some performance advantage to it.
01:25:10.000Henry's now become the standard because, like he said, that Roman from the Performance Institute did that PowerPoint presentation for UFC Moscow.
01:25:19.000He told us he's the first athlete that ever did eight weeks, that they have eight weeks collection of data.
01:25:25.000So Henry's now become the standard of the system that Roman had Neuroforce 1 and all the data put together.
01:25:33.000It's the first time ever that an athlete actually...
01:26:01.000Well, I still have about seven fights left, you know, but we're going to renegotiate because I think more likely that T.J. fight might happen.
01:26:12.000That T.J. fight might happen if, you know, if it's going to be a done way with the flyweight division.
01:26:17.000You know, I think the cat's out the bag and, you know, Dana had mentioned that to me and said, hey, you know, we want to take you up on that offer if you are challenging to go up against T.J., but this is where the company's been...
01:26:30.000I've been thinking about it for a while.
01:27:24.000But now that Demetrius has left the division and gone off to 1FC to get...
01:27:32.000Where do you think the division is right now?
01:27:36.000Is that one reason, like, if you won at 35 and won the title at 35, would you consider dropping the 25-pound title and competing at 35, or would you rather stay at 25?
01:29:55.000I've done everything that I've ever kind of set my mind to.
01:30:00.000Those are the two biggest things, the two manliest things anybody could ever do.
01:30:04.000And I don't see myself fighting for more than maybe three to four years.
01:30:10.000The only other thing, you really are in this rare space where you have the possibility of being considered one of the greatest combat sport athletes of all time.
01:31:13.000That companies have the mindset of bringing in champions and people that are extraordinary at whatever they do and speaking to these people that work for them and explaining.
01:31:29.000Source of fuel for people in all walks of life.
01:31:33.000You know, to have a guy like you come in and talk to a company could have a really big impact on their creativity, on how they pursue goals, on all kinds of different things.
01:31:44.000Yeah, so anyways, that's kind of where I can see my life kind of heading to.
01:31:49.000I think I'll always be a fan of the sport, but I don't think I'll be involved in either wrestling or fighting as much as I think I would.
01:32:05.000You know, being a coach, you're in a relationship with your athletes.
01:32:08.000Sometimes you go through these breakups, and sometimes the athletes don't give you what they want to give you, and then it's just a headache at times.
01:33:02.000Some people are just artists, but the anxiety of competition and all the factors that come involved, the discipline, the consistency, all the things that make someone a great fighter sometimes.
01:33:15.000There's so many different things that make someone a great fighter that wind up fucking them up when they actually go to compete.
01:33:22.000The recklessness, impulsiveness that actually makes them good.
01:33:27.000Also can wind up tanking them if they don't sort of forge it with some sort of severe discipline.
01:33:34.000Yeah, there has to be a training of the mind, too.
01:33:38.000And I think that's where people are skipping.
01:33:41.000And, you know, I think that's where you have to understand, like, the philosophy up here.
01:35:00.000And I saw him, I'm like, damn, look how loose T.J. is.
01:35:03.000Like, this is a world title fight, and he's switching stances and giving them looks, and he looks fantastic.
01:35:08.000He just looked loose, and then BOOM! He hits him with that big overhand right, and the next thing you know, Henneporell's getting fucked up.
01:35:15.000I mean, and that was what TJ thrives on that kind of pressure.
01:35:19.000He lives for that kind of pressure, just like you do.
01:35:22.000Which is why I want to see that fight.
01:36:52.000One of the things that I did that was kind of unconventional for this camp, I had them video edit.
01:36:59.000Obviously, we scouted Demetrius Johnson, but then I went back and got every one-minute clip of Matt Hume's Interval between rounds so 25 fights I have the one minute what he tells him how he adapts and changes and one of the things I noticed is that he always went to wrestling and when he always went to wrestling he sounded like it was automatic alright so this round we're gonna take him down and we're gonna work it was always automatic and when it went into the fifth round it wasn't automatic you can hear him
01:37:29.000say You can try to take him down if you want.
01:37:33.000It was kind of like that the way he said it.
01:37:35.000And when I went back and watched, I was like, we got him.
01:37:38.000And going into that fifth round, one of the things that we talked about subliminally and mentally training was...
01:37:46.000When we went, Henry was just put in the Hall of Fame, you know, which has never been done at such a young age.
01:37:54.000And when I was at the Wrestling Hall of Fame, Nate Carr, who's also one of the greatest wrestlers ever, he told me, he said, you know what, Eric?
01:38:02.000When I wrestled Kenny Monday and I lost him in the Big Tens, I knew that when I went out two weeks later to fight him in the NCAA Finals that it might come up that, man, this guy just beat me.
01:41:59.000And don't forget, not only was he fighting for the title, this guy was fighting for his life only eight months before in the Santa Rosa fires.
01:42:39.000Yeah, so this was about a year ago now.
01:42:41.000So this was, yeah, about a year ago now.
01:42:43.000And I got invited to this event with, you know, raising money for kids and cancer.
01:42:48.000And everybody in there, every big celebrity gets invited, like Jerry Rice, like Barry Bonds, like the big A-list celebrities, and everybody was there.
01:42:57.000And we had a fundraiser that night in, you know, Wine Country in Santa Rosa, California.
01:43:01.000You know, and everybody had their drinks and whatnot.
01:43:30.000Roughly by the time I got to my hotel, I showered, I saw the flickering of lights and I didn't think anything of it.
01:43:35.000And I pass out, 2.30 hits, 2.30 in the morning hits, and I'm just, you know, I wake up because I hear the alarm, you know, kind of pop off at the hotel.
01:43:46.000So now I'm hearing these alarms starting to go off, and I've, you know, I checked out.
01:47:49.000Those fires come so quick, people don't realize before it's too late, and then there's no escape route.
01:47:54.000And I think the reason why, because I think people had time to get out, and I think the reason why 50 people died is because they didn't take the alarm like me serious.
01:48:02.000And next you know it was too late because that smoke will blind you.
01:48:05.000So you think you're going into the right direction, and next you know you're walking into the biggest fire in history.