Javier Vazquez is the new UFC Heavyweight champion and the first Mexican-born man to ever win the title. We talk about his path to the title, what it takes to become a champion, and what he's looking forward to in the future. We also talk about training with Eddie Hearns and what it was like to fight for the title in the biggest fight of his career, and how he handled the pressure of being the first person to ever become a world champion in the Heavyweight division. We finish off the episode with a quick Q&A with the fans, and talk about the future of the UFC and what the future holds for the Mexican-American Heavyweight Championship. I hope you enjoy this episode, and tweet me if you liked it! with any questions or comments! Timestamps: - 0:00:00 - What is your favorite part about the UFC? - What do you look forward to the future UFC fight night? 5:30 - What does it take to be the next UFC heavyweight champion 6:00- What are your goals for the UFC heavyweight title fight 7:00 8:20 - What s your biggest takeaway from the UFC vs. Canelo Alvarez vs. Cain Velasquez fight? 9:40 - How did you feel about the Dana White vs. Alexander Dimitrenko fight ? 11:15 - Canelo vs. Donald Cerrone Jr. vs. 12:30 13:40 15: What's next? 16:20 17: What s next for you guys? 18:15 19: What are you most important to you guys would you like to see in the UFC future? 21:30 What s the most important thing you would love to see me do in the next fight 22:00 | What s a good day? 26:10 27:30 Is it possible for me to win the UFC in the rest of my career? 29:30 Do you have a dream fight 32: What would you think of the future for me? 35:00 What s he s a better person? 31:00 Is he a better man than I m going to do next? 35:40 What s his biggest challenge? 36:00 Do you think he s going to be a better than you guys think I m a better guy?
00:01:07.000Do you like it like that, where you just experienced a big fight, so you're already kind of used to the being in the ring, being on television, the whole moment of it all, and then boom, it happens again right afterwards?
00:01:19.000Yeah, of course, you know, because I was already loose, I was already in fight mode, so especially from having the heavyweight champion title, you know, the opportunity to get that, it was amazing.
00:01:35.000What was amazing was when you got dropped, you kept your composure, you got up, and then he tried to move in for the kill, and then you started landing bombs on him and dropped him.
00:01:45.000And I remember jumping off the bed while I was watching, going, oh shit!
00:04:12.000And because a lot of people don't know that we're struggling a lot, even before this fight, you know?
00:04:18.000And going through a lot of the stuff with Top Rank, with Bob Barron, of me not getting a lot of fights, waiting because I had one more fight left with them.
00:04:55.000A lot of the insiders were very very aware of this.
00:04:58.000You know guys who really follow boxing were very aware of this and coming into that fight like I talked to a lot of people that are like big boxing fans And they're like that dude is a live dog.
00:05:09.000That's a live dog Like I mean for sure Anthony Joshua is a bad motherfucker.
00:05:13.000He's a big giant muscular dude looks like Adonis But they were like, Andy Ruiz is a live dog.
00:06:58.000And you're the most popular champ right now because you're the guy who pulled off the giant upset over the Olympic gold medalist, the man, Anthony Joshua.
00:07:08.000You knock him out and everyone is sitting there chomping at the bit.
00:07:13.000There's Wilder, who's probably the greatest knockout artist in the history of the heavyweight division.
00:07:19.000And then there's Tyson Fury and Tyson Fury and Wilder trying to figure it out.
00:07:23.000And Tyson Fury's now in a different organization.
00:07:25.000It's hard to make the matches work now.
00:08:43.000I mean, it's got to be a crazy feeling now.
00:08:48.000Like six months ago, you're the struggling boxer, you know, trying to make ends meet, you know, working your way up, very respected, but you don't have that big name yet, and then boom, you get the opportunity of all opportunities.
00:09:01.000I think that's what I need is just the opportunity and be hungry, you know, from having nothing to wanting to want something, you know, in life.
00:10:27.000I think what we're going to do, we're getting a big house over there in Mexico, somewhere in the nowhere, so we're going to have a close camp, so we're just going to be really focused for this fight.
00:10:43.000We're not underestimating him or anything.
00:10:46.000You know, we just got to work hard and do it again.
00:11:45.000Do you worry about, like, if it's not broke, don't fix it?
00:11:48.000Like, there have been guys before that have made changes in the way they prepare, and those changes, like, maybe fuck with their confidence, or they didn't feel as good, they didn't perform the same way?
00:11:57.000No, I don't think we're going to be changing too much of that stuff, you know?
00:12:01.000As long as it's rich training, we have the good sparring.
00:12:04.000Just exactly what we did for the last fight, I think that's what we're going to be doing.
00:12:09.000Now, do you have a guy that monitors your heart rate?
00:12:12.000Do they take logs of what your resting heart rate is when you get up in the morning and your heart rate variability and all that kind of shit?
00:12:38.000Now, what kind of food do they have you eating?
00:12:41.000Right now, I'm just eating light, you know, sandwiches, steaks.
00:12:48.000I just ate a sandwich before I came on.
00:12:50.000Well, the beautiful thing about being heavyweight is you don't have to worry about your weight, but it's in terms of optimal performance, like when your chef has you in camp.
00:14:01.000I first started training when I was six years old, and I trained for a whole year, and when I was seven years old, I had my first amateur fight.
00:14:09.000I was always this big chubby kid where there wasn't people at my age at that weight.
00:14:15.000So I always had to fight bigger guys and older guys.
00:14:18.000So my first fight I won, but they gave it to the other guy at 12 years old fighting a seven-year-old.
00:14:40.000Guys who get into combat sports young, that's the guys who have what I was talking about that you possessed before, that sort of fluidity, the efficiency to punches.
00:14:48.000It's like you develop throwing punches.
00:14:50.000I think it's all muscle memory type of, you know, a lot of male work and just working hard, man, working hard.
00:14:57.000And this is a sport that I love and I've been doing.
00:15:34.000And I still got more to see, you know, because when he got me with the uppercut and the hook, I was kind of being on a lazy mode, you know?
00:15:43.000I think I need to put my gear up more and move ahead more.
00:15:47.000Well, he's a big, powerful motherfucker, but he's an outside fighter.
00:15:51.000He likes to fight on the outside and drop big power punches.
00:15:54.000And that's where it became apparent that when you're in the dogfight, when you guys are in tight, you have that advantage of the fluidity and efficiency in your angles.
00:16:03.000I think it's the speed that kind of messed them up.
00:16:08.000I'm not just a one, two, three fighter puncher.
00:16:11.000I try to throw more than one or two punches.
00:18:42.000A lot of people had written Tyson Fury off.
00:18:44.000After the Klitschko fight, they were like, you know, he kind of went crazy, almost committed suicide, had all these mental health problems, and now he seems super happy and healthy.
00:18:54.000And so it's this incredible, incredible time for boxing where you have, like, in terms of star power and in terms of, like, the public interest, I can't recall a time in my life where there's been four dudes who were at the top of the heap like this.
00:20:03.000It's crazy, man, in the heavyweight division, you know, it only takes one punch to change the whole game, the whole fight, you know, and that's the beauty of it.
00:21:23.000They made it so that the old ones, they had that old truck suspension with the live rear and front axles, and it was kind of bumpy and shit.
00:22:36.000And so when you are preparing for a fight, do you ever have moments where you, you know, you find yourself feeling down or you find yourself not in a good mental place?
00:22:50.000Nah, there's a lot of times like that, you know, because I'm missing home.
00:22:53.000I'm like, man, I want to go with my kids.
00:23:36.000When I'm in camp, I'll get one two times a week, three times.
00:23:40.000So basically it's normal stuff, just normal strength conditioning, food.
00:23:45.000It's the grind of camp is something that boxers always complain about.
00:23:50.000It's like the one thing is just the day in, day out, just hard work constantly.
00:23:56.000You know what sucks for a lot of the fighters, too, is going in there and, you know, your coach wants to weigh you after training every fucking time.
00:24:59.000The only thing that people worry about when someone finds success, and obviously Tyson is the best example of it because he's documented in his documentary and he talks about it all the time, was how things got out of control once he became famous.
00:25:14.000Things just went off the rails and he just lost his fucking mind.
00:25:18.000How do you prevent that from happening to Andy Ruiz?
00:25:22.000I think just having the right people around you, you know, having the right people around you that want to do good and want you to do good, you know, bring you good opportunities, you know, stuff like that.
00:25:56.000Like, sometimes the ego is what gets you to the dance, because you believe you are the baddest motherfucker of all time.
00:26:02.000But then, once you are there, and the challenge is met, then there's no other challenges in front of you, like with Tyson, and each fight is kind of like a done deal before it happens, and you just start getting tigers and doing crazy shit, you know?
00:26:21.000I think the main thing is just remain humble, you know.
00:26:24.000I was praying for this opportunity for so long, so I'm still going to continue to keep praying and thanking God for all these big blessings that He gave me and, you know, just continue to work hard and enjoy my family to the fullest.
00:26:38.000And you got a good crew of dudes with you too, you can tell.
00:26:40.000I know, you're saying that's the biggest entourage that I had.
00:26:43.000The biggest entourage everybody's ever brought in here.
00:26:46.000I never rode with a lot of entourage, you know.
00:28:26.000I don't want to lose the title, so the main thing, I just got to stay focused and get prepared for the rematch because there's more work to be done.
00:28:36.000I want to be the Mexican Rockies, so I want to continue to keep winning and defending all my titles.
00:32:37.000Yeah, anything that has a diuretic or things along those lines.
00:32:40.000It's a shame, but if they're not using Vata testing and they get caught, then they're just dumb.
00:32:50.000That's why it's kind of scary, fighting over there at the UK. We don't know what they're going to be letting Anthony Joshua be taking or whatnot.
00:33:55.000If you know you've been cheating, and then all of a sudden they take away your secret weapon, and then you're like, I'm fine, I'm fine, but there's a little lingering doubt.
00:34:45.000Well, it's beautiful that you haven't had it, and you can take pride that everything that you've accomplished is from hard work and intelligence.
00:42:01.000Because it seems like a tough guy nickname, but then when you find out it's because you were a little kid and you would break your toys, that makes it even better.
00:42:14.000So it must be wild for your dad to see you come up from a six-year-old kid, and because of his pushing you and trying to keep you in there, that you eventually start excelling and winning amateur fight after amateur fight, and then...
00:50:20.000It was just something that, some drill to warm up and grabbing our fists by, I mean our hands, like shaking our hands to get strength in our forearms.
00:51:07.000So then you left Abel Sanchez and now you're training with?
00:51:11.000With Manny Robles and Estreita at the Legends Boxing Gym in Norwalk.
00:51:16.000So that is where you feel like is your best fit?
00:51:19.000Yeah, that's comfortable right there, you know.
00:51:21.000The gym is beautiful, the facility is really big, you have everything that you need.
00:51:26.000For the Reese Joshua 2, the training camp is going to be in the mountains somewhere, private, so we can just focus and get ready for the next fight.
00:51:37.000So you're going to do it in Mexico, right?
00:52:08.000Now, when you go to Mexico, do you know what altitude you're going to be up up there?
00:52:11.000It's going to be high in altitude, too.
00:52:13.000Because there's a point of diminishing returns.
00:52:15.000People feel like once you get above 6,000, 7,000, 8,000, the idea is that you can't work hard enough because there's just not enough air.
00:52:22.000They think that 5,000 is the perfect line.
00:52:28.000People have had different philosophies when it comes to training at altitude, and now many people feel like you should actually live at altitude, but you should train at sea level.
00:52:38.000Because they think that when you train at sea level, you could put out more output, you could do more work, and then you go and live up at altitude so your body acclimates to the low oxygen and you develop more red blood cells.
00:52:54.000Or are you just going to stay up there?
00:52:55.000Yeah, I'm just going to stay up there just for a few months, you know, and a few months and come back down, finish it up, finish the camp for like a month and go where I'm going to fight that I can't say.
00:53:07.000Well, you're in such a great position, man.
00:53:09.000And you're only 29 years old, so your athletic prime, particularly as a heavyweight, is like three or four years away from your prime, which is really crazy.
00:53:25.000And every fight that I have, I always pray for me and the guy that I'm fighting because I want both of us to go with our families because I have two friends that have died, one from Mexicali and one from Costa Rica that I know personally.
00:55:18.000Man, I felt like so many stuff from my bag just came off, you know, because so much pressure, so much stuff that was going through my mind.
00:57:25.000I think for young kids to look up to a guy like you who's a really nice guy who's also a bad motherfucker, it makes them realize, hey, you know, you don't have to be a dickhead.