Adin Live - January 12, 2025
Islam Makhachev Answers Questions From Adin Ross
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
172.2107
Summary
In this episode, Aiden and I talk about preparing for his upcoming fight against Matt Mitrione at UFC 246. We also talk about the recent fires in Los Angeles and how we are praying for everyone affected by them.
Transcript
00:00:05.080
Yeah, yeah, I know you got a clean shot, so I'm willing to take one.
00:00:10.520
Oh, here you go, sir. Here you go. That's for you.
00:00:42.060
So what, you do that every time you're preparing for a fight?
00:00:48.940
They give you everyday water, what you have to eat, what you have to drink.
00:00:58.900
Yeah, if you want to easy cutweight, you have to listen to people.
00:01:05.500
When you're getting ready to fight, when you know you're about to fight,
00:01:08.780
so how much time do you have to basically put aside to train for these fights per day?
00:01:22.220
You have to begin minimum from the eight weeks.
00:01:28.420
Some of them, I like to prepare myself, start to prepare like three months.
00:01:37.220
I did camp there for the lifting, for the running, not spying, not MMA stuff.
00:01:45.180
We did lifting and running, something like that.
00:01:50.400
Very excited, but there are some news in Los Angeles.
00:02:01.040
We will plan to go tomorrow, but we changed the plan now.
00:02:10.440
Yeah, I hate turning on the news and seeing that, man.
00:02:17.160
And, you know, prayers for anyone that's being affected by the fires.
00:02:23.820
But, so you're planning out to go into Los Angeles soon.
00:02:29.380
So, the last week of when you have a big fight, how do you prepare?
00:02:48.240
You have to recover, you know, from the hard work.
00:02:50.720
You have to recover now and just cut weight, you know.
00:02:55.340
You know, just follow some small rules from the nutritionist team and be safe, you know.
00:03:03.480
Because now you will become, like, cut weights.
00:03:08.780
That's why you have to be careful and training just light.
00:03:14.460
I don't know if you know what I do, but everything's live.
00:03:20.300
And I wanted to just get to know you personally from a personal note.
00:03:40.040
And, you know, people tell me you're a very religious person.
00:03:43.080
And I want to know, like, tell me about yourself and, you know, your relationship with God.
00:03:49.400
And I want to know everything about how you are religious.
00:03:55.200
Really my religion because I try to follow all rules in my religion.
00:04:04.920
Like, what Muslim men have to do, I just try to follow, you know.
00:04:16.400
I just want to be a good example for the kids and people who are watching me.
00:04:21.320
I never smoke, never go to some bad place, you know.
00:04:29.180
And I just want when, like, people, like, small kids look at, like, UFC champion.
00:04:39.580
I mean, I got a lot of respect for people that are full-on religious.
00:04:43.340
And you focus on being a good role model to kids and stuff.
00:04:48.800
Do you know, by the way, my friend was supposed to come today.
00:05:09.580
So when you're training for your fight, where are you from?
00:05:15.000
So when you're training in Russia, what's the training like?
00:05:20.620
You know where we did the first camp for this fight?
00:05:25.960
You know, in Russia, I have, like, Lara professional athletes, like, high level.
00:05:38.540
And I prepare myself one of the best area for a professional athletes in the Kislovodsk.
00:05:52.600
And it's this Olympic center in the 1,200 meters from the sea level.
00:06:02.800
But when you come from the mountain to a regular sea level, it's your breathing, like, very well.
00:06:23.360
And before one month, like, a little, before 40 days, we came to Vegas.
00:06:32.720
The team from the PI give us everything what we need.
00:06:37.020
And we have food here, like, mats, training center, like, everything, you know.
00:06:50.540
I mean, look, you sound like it's very traditional for you.
00:07:00.360
If you're not prepared yourself 100%, somebody kick your ass, you know.
00:07:12.160
I know about you, obviously, for the new people that are watching.
00:07:13.940
It's, like, it's just great to see how you guys train out in Russia.
00:07:17.080
Like, it's, I heard, is it true, like, you guys will wrestle bears when they're young?
00:07:24.740
Training with, also, with some animals, you know.
00:07:30.700
Because the guys who I training with, my sparring partners, they're all high-level fighters.
00:07:40.920
That's why we have one of the best teams in the world in MMA.
00:07:46.320
All want to be champion, and all of them follow the discipline and training very hard.
00:07:56.480
I want to know a few personal questions, if you don't mind.
00:07:58.640
If you never, you know, or if you're a brother, or if you kind of were never, ever going to do UFC, do you know what you might have done in this life?
00:08:08.480
Or do you have anything else that you think that you would have done besides UFC if not UFC?
00:08:16.560
My opinion, I can be, like, good in any job because it's all about focus.
00:08:24.460
How much you spend time on your goal, you know.
00:08:28.460
If I did something other, just be patient, do, like, 100%, you know.
00:08:34.800
The most important things, if you choose some job or something, you have to go 100%.
00:08:42.440
If you're going to be 50% here, 30% here, you're going to miss a lot of things.
00:08:47.800
But when you focus and working on that every day, it's, you know, one day success is going to come.
00:08:59.160
What inspires you as a person and as a fighter as well?
00:09:03.980
You know, I think I don't have something special because where I'm coming from,
00:09:11.340
they're all, they're, like, Dagestan, everybody know Dagestan.
00:09:23.840
Science, like, from school, everybody started training, do something.
00:09:35.300
You know, everybody want to be, like, Habib, like, UFC champions.
00:09:38.700
And for myself, it's also, I just have to, when I was young, I had dreamed to be some, like, professional athlete.
00:09:51.940
When I, beginning, went to the school from, like, eight years old, I started to do some combat sports, you know.
00:10:04.280
I go combat, sambo, and I choose the sport where I can do everything.
00:10:11.720
I can punch, I can wrestle, I can do grappling.
00:10:14.880
What advice do you have to give to somebody watching right now that wants to make it in your type of world, in the fighting world?
00:10:20.640
Just let's just say there's a kid watching right now that looks up to you.
00:10:25.600
Yeah, I don't, I don't want to say everybody have to training to be, like, MMA fighters.
00:10:33.280
And if you choice something, you have to do this, like, every day, better than everybody, more than everybody.
00:10:41.540
And you're going to be champion or, like, some other high-level doctor or some engineer, you know.
00:10:56.960
I mean, that's how you become someone like Islam.
00:11:05.040
I want to know, what do you think is kind of, like, the next step in your career after this fight?
00:11:13.600
I hear rumors and stuff, but I want to know directly from you.
00:11:16.760
You know, we have many options after that fight.
00:11:21.220
But I don't want to look behind my opponent because I have a tough opponent, number one real contender on my division.
00:11:28.420
And after that fight, I will sit with my manager, Ali, with Dana White, and we will talk.
00:11:35.980
And I want to be champion many, many years more.
00:11:40.060
Yeah, what do you want to be remembered, like, at the end of your career?
00:11:45.980
That person, I told you, the kids watch, and he say, Islam never do this.
00:11:54.020
Never go to a bad place, never smoke, never drink, and, you know, be healthy, and just give the kids good advice.
00:12:05.000
You know, you're very big on just sticking to the, it's like you don't get distracted, and I love that.
00:12:11.320
I respect your mindset a lot because it's so easy to get distracted when you're in a position like you are.
00:12:16.460
There's people around you that go partying and stuff, but you just want to stay locked in, and you want to be the best.
00:12:20.240
And I'm asking you for advice for myself and probably some people in here.
00:12:24.200
How do you stay so locked in, and, like, how do you not get distracted?
00:12:27.380
I told you, if I change, if I do, like, many things, you know, the bad things, it's going to be hard for me.
00:12:35.060
And, okay, for example, if I go, like, nighttime somewhere, in the morning, I will miss the training.
00:12:42.100
You know, I don't want somebody, like, crush my face.
00:12:46.460
I have to be ready because, you know, this is, like, dangerous sport, like, professional sport.
00:13:08.280
You know, they're all professional athletes, that's why I want to be in this position many, many years more.
00:13:15.860
That's why I don't want to give any small chance to my opponents, and everybody will get to my belt now.
00:13:28.680
Do you have any fighters that you've kind of always looked up to or been inspired by, like, in, you know, years ago?
00:13:36.380
I have, like, many, like, my top fighters, like, Frankie Edgar, George Sampio, Dmitrius Johnson, you know.
00:13:44.020
And I look at all his, all the fighters' fights, you know, and this is, like, one of the best fighters in this sport, like, George Sampio, Dmitrius Johnson, you know.
00:13:57.480
It's, like, I met Dmitrius Johnson a couple weeks ago.
00:14:07.880
If you could fight anyone in the history of the UFC, is there a fight that you would...
00:14:14.360
Yeah, like, of all time, like, any greats from years and years ago, or, like, any...
00:14:22.860
I, my brother, Habib, supposed to fight with Tony Ferguson, like, five times.
00:14:32.820
And my dream to fight this guy at that moment, because I always with Habib, when Habib have injured,
00:14:39.280
I ask my manager, hey, can I step to fight with Tony?
00:14:42.200
And, you know, Tony, in that moment, it's, like, very good athlete, very good fighter.
00:14:47.460
He has, like, almost, yeah, more than ten fight win streak in UFC.
00:14:51.720
And this is the one of the fight which I won't fight, like, three, four years ago, but not right now.
00:15:01.620
I wish him the best, but a couple years ago, he's one of the high-level fighters from our division.
00:15:10.620
Okay, okay, well, I mean, I don't know, but I'm sure this is probably one of your first times doing anything live.
00:15:17.240
So I want to ask the chat, I want to have the chat ask you some questions.
00:15:32.320
You get a lot, though, watching you all at once.
00:15:35.340
I don't got what you got, but everyone's saying hello.
00:15:44.000
If you guys got questions from him directly, I'm going to ask them to him right now.
00:15:54.100
I really appreciate it because I know a lot of MMA fans like around the world support me.
00:16:20.560
You know, but never joined to the camp, you know.
00:16:37.880
But this is, I always want to eat some like McDonald's and stuff like that.
00:16:45.200
Wait, so you won't ever have a donut like or ice cream or anything.
00:16:52.860
But I don't like this, eat fast food or like a lot of candies, a lot of like chocolate
00:17:09.620
If you want to be many years in the top level, you have to follow some diet.
00:17:15.260
Not like crazy hard diet, but if you see like one of the best athletes, Cristiano Ronaldo,
00:17:25.000
And he's almost 40 years old, but he's still in the top.
00:17:31.400
Do you, who do you like better, Ronaldo or Messi?
00:17:35.960
Some, I don't know, like 50, but like person, I like more Ronaldo.
00:17:40.980
But they play both very well, like the high level, one of the best in all the time.
00:17:51.940
Yeah, Ronaldo's the GOAT, one of the GOATs for sure.
00:17:55.220
Before, I like Messi when he played with Barcelona.
00:18:36.760
It was like the floor of the gym after you guys are done.
00:18:40.480
So you guys are out there hours and hours and hours training.
00:19:01.340
I grew up in Dagestan like everybody, nothing special.
00:19:10.040
My mother when I was young, working hard for give my brother and me everything what I needed.
00:19:15.840
But I focus when I was kids to sports, you know?
00:19:23.520
I travel a lot to camp, other country, you know?
00:19:26.660
But my father and mother working so hard to give me what I need, you know?
00:19:37.220
He also working when he was in university, always working to give me some money to pay for my training,
00:19:51.160
That's why like for you, if you want to go some other country, you have to pay like three,
00:19:58.860
They always support me and give me everything what I need.
00:20:03.680
And now it's time I have to give back, you know?
00:20:11.480
I have to give everything what I have, what they need to them, you know?
00:20:21.600
I like to stay with family, stay with my brothers, with my friends.
00:20:27.200
And I don't like to travel too much, but I still have to travel.
00:20:34.560
So when you're not training and stuff, what do you do?
00:20:48.980
Now, if we travel, we have special bag for the training where we have gloves.
00:20:55.880
We can do like, if we don't find some gym, we go running, we do lifting, something.
00:21:03.800
But when I have time, not in the camp, not prepare myself for the fight,
00:21:19.380
Bring my friends, my brothers, and we spend time together.
00:21:24.280
Family time, quality time, all that stuff really matters.
00:21:28.620
What other questions do you guys got for him, man?
00:21:42.820
Someone wants to know, would you move to welterweight for the double champ status
00:22:05.580
I don't want to leave this sport before I take second belt.
00:22:15.400
Do you have, like, a mental preparance or, like, ritual you do to prepare yourself for
00:22:22.420
It's, like, I know, like, mental, they say, it's, like, you got to make sure your mental
00:22:26.520
No, people ask always how you prepare your mental to the fight, you know?
00:22:31.040
When you prepare yourself very hard, you're training very hard, you're ready, you know?
00:22:39.100
You don't have some, like, big point in your mind, you know?
00:22:51.700
You always spar with one of the best athletes in this game, you know?
00:22:57.820
I have, like, crazy team, I have, I told you, like, I have killers there.
00:23:11.260
I step to the cage and I know if my opponent is going to wrestle, I will be ready.
00:23:16.140
If he's going to strike, I will be ready, you know?
00:23:28.920
Because I want to ask him something, like, a personal question as well.
00:23:37.020
Oh, is there anybody young you see in UFC right now that you have your eye on?
00:23:41.000
Is there any new fighters that you're a fan of?
00:23:57.360
He's Usman Nurmagomedov, undefeated, undisputed Belator champion.
00:24:01.800
And I really believe he's going to step to UFC very soon.
00:24:08.940
He grew up with us, you know, with me, with Khabib.
00:24:13.160
We're always training together, and this guy's very dangerous.
00:24:17.540
That's why he's a champion, one of the best organizations.
00:24:20.680
And soon, he will come to UFC, and it's going to be a new generation, you know?
00:24:30.200
When you look at the best fighters in the world right now in UFC, a lot of them come from Russia.
00:24:34.460
It's like, yeah, we have, like, a lot of people still have a lot of tough guys in Russia who is not in the UFC because, you know, they fight in some other organization.
00:24:45.320
But why is MMA very popular in Russia right now?
00:24:51.760
And we all, in Dagestan and Russia, we're all training from science, like, young, you know?
00:24:59.060
You know, I asked Bilal, when you start to do MMA, he said, like, 21 or 22, I just start.
00:25:11.000
You know, I have, in my amateur career, I don't know, almost 500 fights, you know, in my amateur career because I did, like, wrestling.
00:25:24.320
I did taekwondo, I did kombat sambo, I did judo, wrestling, a lot of things.
00:25:30.560
And that's why I have big experience in amateur also.
00:25:36.300
So I wanted to ask, what does he think has changed with Arman compared to the first fight?
00:25:43.360
Arman, of course, he's grown up, become old a little bit, and become, like, you know, he have more skills now, more, you know.
00:25:56.120
Because when we fought, like, in St. Petersburg, in Russia, it was the first fight in the USA.
00:26:06.260
For this sport, experience is number one thing.
00:26:10.080
Because you cannot buy or you cannot train the experience.
00:26:16.040
Step by step, years, years, and you bring some experience.
00:26:21.120
And he has more experience, but if we watch his fight, his style, he has the same style always.
00:26:27.860
And he can wrestle, he can do strike, but I know my skills.
00:26:36.920
I mean, like, one day, because, look, for someone that has never been physical at all my life, like, I just started getting into, like, the gym and stuff.
00:26:42.120
Like, one day, I do want to, you know, pick up and do some type of, like, boxing or mixed martial arts.
00:26:49.500
And I love seeing, obviously, you on TV and stuff, so.
00:27:02.920
It's not mean you have to fight, you know, in the street, but you have to be ready.
00:27:14.800
A lot of YouTube channel people, like bloggers, they did fights.
00:27:32.760
Big check, some opponent, and stay healthy, you know.
00:27:36.980
What aspect of the MMA is the hardest to master?
00:27:44.560
You know, today I eat in the morning two eggs with some vegetables.
00:28:19.740
How much are, if I'm allowed to, is that cool if I ask?
00:28:22.220
How much do you, because you're kind of, you're kind of like watching over, you know, everything
00:28:27.960
as he's training and he's on his, he's doing what he needs to do.
00:28:32.320
So, your job, how does your job work when it comes to helping him prepare for a fight?
00:28:44.220
We just make sure I have the right Spartan partners, right training partners.
00:28:49.720
And for this camp, it's a little bit different because I'm a little bit of a cook.
00:29:01.640
It's not like a manager-and-father relationship.
00:29:08.480
And I know him before even he points out, you see, but just, just make sure we have the
00:29:13.120
right Spartan partner, right dietation, right training partners.
00:29:20.040
They're all, they're all typing in the chat right now.
00:29:28.580
Son of the dog's like Ali, but he's a good guy.
00:29:31.640
Ali helped us, like, last month in Las Vegas, we bothered him so much, you know.
00:29:43.280
Always he helped us come to training, and, you know, he's not just manager.
00:29:54.180
Sometimes he cooked for us, you know, a lot of things he did for us.
00:30:01.440
I wanted to go over a little predictions, if you're cool with that.
00:30:04.900
I wanted to know, first off, the fight that I think is, I don't, I want to hear what you
00:30:12.840
Everyone's saying that fight's going to be kind of close, kind of scary.
00:30:19.360
I saw Jamal, every day in PIA, we're training some day together, you know.
00:30:26.640
He, like, did a lot of sparrings, he's training, you know.
00:30:30.520
Between the fight, I told him, hey, be in shape between also, because he, some of the, some of the time I saw him, he's, like, very big.
00:30:37.900
Now he's in the shape, you know, training so hard, and he's a former champion, and, you know, it's very good fight for the MMA fans.
00:31:12.720
His style to take down people and, like, hold him, punch him, but he don't have good striking.
00:31:17.740
But, he know his job, and he did this job very well.
00:31:34.160
And, like, all his career, he training with us under Habib, under Abdulmanap.
00:31:44.240
And, I really believe he has everything to be UFC champion.
00:31:49.120
Someone wanted to know, what is it like to adjust the fame in America versus, like, Russia?
00:31:55.000
So, like, when you get to America, the fame, how does it, how does it work?
00:32:04.380
Like, if crowd support my opponent or support me, it's nothing.
00:32:09.360
Because, when you step to the cage, cage is closed.
00:32:12.720
You, your opponent, and that's referee, and that's it.
00:32:16.560
And, for me, it's no matter where I fight, U.S.
00:32:22.040
Or, I went to Australia, I fight with Volkanovski, where they're all crowd on his side.
00:32:29.600
I fight in U.S. with Dustin Paria, where all support him.
00:32:36.340
But, one of the days, I want to defend my belt in Russia also.
00:32:51.720
I want to ask you this question like this first.
00:32:54.440
I don't want to, if you don't want me to say that, I won't.
00:33:05.320
You know, if people, you know, everybody, like, a lot of people ask me to fight Ilya.
00:33:18.900
And, I already fight with some of the guys who come from the small division, you know.
00:33:30.620
If I clean my division, if people want, if they know why not?
00:33:47.460
I just, all my life, I ask for, like, top, you know, for the top.
00:33:53.460
And now I ask for real contenders who deserve to fight for the title.
00:33:58.960
You know, I don't need some, like, money fight or something like that.
00:34:01.780
And I need defense, my belt, these people who deserve to fight for the title.
00:34:09.780
What did you think about Hazmat's win against Whitaker?
00:34:12.960
It's, like, you know, I expect Hazmat can beat him, but not like this, you know.
00:34:21.920
And he's, like, one of the best in his division.
00:34:33.100
What is your favorite UFC fight you've ever seen?
00:34:38.300
I like easy fight, you know, when I knock out people easy or choke people, like, easy in the first round.
00:34:45.460
But my last fight against Dustin Paré, this fight I watched, like, many times, you know.
00:34:54.700
And I like this fight, most of them, because I strike with him.
00:35:00.260
We have, like, very good five rounds, a lot of bloods, you know.
00:35:11.880
I have a few more for you, and then I want to, wait.
00:35:14.780
What is your, yeah, what is your favorite submission, like, finish move that you like to do?
00:35:25.180
And I, you know, I have, like, a lot, a lot of different ambitions where I use in UFC.
00:35:36.720
Well, I wanted to know this, because I think Oliveira is a good fighter, and I like him, and I really do like you a lot.
00:35:44.260
And I want to see, you know, there was, you and Oliveira were supposed to fight, and then it got canceled.
00:35:48.700
Would there ever be another fight for you and Oliveira to happen?
00:35:54.260
I know Oliveira have big, a lot of fans, you know, and they want to see the rematch.
00:36:11.520
I met with him 10 days ago, maybe two weeks ago.
00:36:28.120
Honestly, 10, the last 10 years, I don't listen to zero music.
00:37:05.040
They were telling me to watch that, and I didn't watch it.
00:37:09.940
Well, if you say it's good, it's got to be good.
00:37:47.260
I meet some of the Muslims, they ask me, how many times you pray a day?
00:38:07.280
How do you think that fight next week is going to work out with you and...
00:38:18.240
If some opponents give me, I will finish that fight.
00:38:23.020
And if Armand did some mistake, give me small chance, I will finish him, you know?
00:38:27.740
And I have to finish this fight because first fight, we go all distance.
00:38:32.060
And this fight, I think, is going to finish under three rounds, and I'm going to finish him.
00:38:41.160
And then, so after you're done, let's say, you know, well, that is going to happen.
00:38:58.800
And I told them when they make the countdown movies, and I told them, after my victory,
00:39:16.020
Bring all my team, all my family, brothers together and celebrate there.
00:39:28.360
Yeah, in the, like, we fight 18, 19, we have flight.
00:39:34.600
And I want to know, like, the fans of Russia, do they know you're coming back and they all
00:39:45.920
I want to know, because, look, I've been through something traumatic.
00:39:51.660
So, it's, like, an adrenaline rush you get, like, when you get stabbed.
00:39:54.200
So, I want to know, like, like, this was, like, when I was, like, 12 in my sleep, I
00:40:01.180
It was by a family member who was on some meth, like, my uncle.
00:40:05.480
But, like, obviously, I used that to, like, obviously, like, I went through something traumatic
00:40:09.060
So, I want to know, like, how do you ever went through something super traumatic and
00:40:12.020
use that kind of as, like, your fuel in a way, if that makes sense.
00:40:25.800
Do you use trauma or, like, do you use trauma as fuel, as, like, kind of, like, your fire?
00:40:33.120
Like, do you use that as kind of, like, motivation?
00:40:35.600
Like, do you use trauma, like, something you went through bad and then...
00:40:50.580
And I just always step to the cage, check who have better skills.
00:41:03.940
I always control my emotion and try to, try to be, you know, focused.
00:41:16.820
You have to always have your emotions just stabilized.
00:41:19.140
You got to focus on the main, the main picture there.
00:41:28.200
I've worked with other UFC fighters in the past.
00:41:30.320
And I just want to say, man, you're very, very humble.
00:41:45.700
Well, you could, I do want you to choke me too.
00:42:59.080
In this cage, I spend a lot of, a couple hours in this camp.
00:43:50.840
So when he goes to the street, he's going to get it.
00:44:03.780
Like take their back, like fight position like this.
00:44:14.380
And you can move this side, move this side, this side.
00:44:58.520
Get down because I can put you in a hold like this.
00:45:57.300
I did, but not like big weights because, you know,
00:46:00.860
I like to do big weights, but my coach said no, never.
00:46:04.420
Because they're like big weights, not for like professional athletes.
00:46:09.960
More than times, you have to work with your weights, you know?
00:46:21.920
You don't have to be like big, you know, or like too much muscles.
00:46:38.680
but obviously the pad on because I don't want to.
00:46:54.140
it's going to fuck my brain up or start messing with me?
00:50:09.700
Is there anything you want to say to the people?
00:50:11.120
Guys, next Saturday, I will defense my belt in Los Angeles.
00:50:27.780
I will, hopefully, man, one day we can connect.
00:50:55.440
Oh, wait, should we get a, want to get a picture?
00:51:01.740
He's got to remember to drink all his water and stuff.
00:52:11.180
Come soon because you think Russia is like village.