REAL AF with Andy Frisella - April 16, 2024


687. The Power Of Daily Discipline Ft. Michael Chandler


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 44 minutes

Words per Minute

220.72546

Word Count

23,109

Sentence Count

4

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

24


Summary

In this episode of The Realists, we have special guest Michael Chandler on the show to talk about his UFC 214 victory over Conor McGregor, his upcoming fight against Donald Cowboy Cerrone, and how he's training for his upcoming bout with "The Notorious" Conor McGregor.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 what is up guys it's andy for selling this is the show for the realists say goodbye to the lies to
00:00:21.120 fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality guys today
00:00:28.100 instead of our uh normal cruise the internet episode we have a special guest i'm gonna get
00:00:34.460 right into it let's do it yeah michael chandler what's up bro dude living the dream dude i just
00:00:41.260 got the tour of the hq here absolutely ridiculous so pumped up to be here man thanks bro it's so
00:00:46.700 good to see you man you too man yeah it's awesome so a lot of you guys may or may not know but michael
00:00:52.040 and i grew up 10 minutes from each other and uh we've been trying to connect for years yep and uh
00:00:59.820 dude it's really cool to finally have you here especially after the big announcement this weekend
00:01:03.540 crazy 48 hours ago dude yeah what do you so i texted you right after i was like hey monday's about to be
00:01:08.340 lit yeah yeah what was the big announcement there's this there's this yeah there's this fight yeah
00:01:14.420 this is a little thing we don't worry we'll get into it later we'll gloss over it so dude um
00:01:21.640 how you feeling about everything dude honestly you know i've kind of made the joke um i really have
00:01:28.560 been in a very unique position the last it's been about 16 months really you know got done with my
00:01:34.020 last fight in november of 2022 uh january i get a phone call hey you want to do the ultimate fighter
00:01:39.680 against conor mcgregor fight it right after the season my answer of course is absolutely
00:01:44.120 we do the ultimate fighter and then since the fight the show wrapped up in august um we've kind
00:01:49.580 of just been gone back and forth so i feel like i call it mma purgatory i've kind of been i've waited
00:01:54.400 too long to not stay on the train of fighting conor i've had enough behind the scenes indications that
00:02:01.520 the fight's definitely happening even though media even though the fans even though everybody's like
00:02:05.440 this fight's never happening he's never coming back so honestly it's a huge weight lifted off my
00:02:09.800 shoulders that we can finally talk about it i've known for months that the fight was going to be
00:02:13.000 june 29th um but wasn't exactly public about it and uh now we can talk about it now the cat is out
00:02:20.060 the bag and we got 75 hard days between dude right now we were talking about this this morning so he
00:02:26.820 sends me a text at like 6 a.m and he's like bro i was going to tell you later but do you know how many
00:02:34.880 days it is until my fight and i'm like no and he's like 75 days and i'm like holy shit man yeah the fact
00:02:41.780 that i'm so crazy with the godfather of 75 hard is and now we are we're about to go into this
00:02:48.000 training i mean i've already kind of started but yeah the fact that it got announced and uh this is
00:02:52.460 the first monday uh after it gets announced 75 days man just a dream come true it's gonna be exciting
00:02:57.540 i told you bro i'm gonna go hard as hard as i can for i'm already on i'm like day 30 on 75 right now
00:03:03.620 but i'm just gonna finish that out and do phase one uh so i can be done on the same day you're done
00:03:08.380 yeah so i'll be done on fight day dude let's go yeah so i'll be doing it with you not the same
00:03:13.240 stuff obviously well i mean yeah i might have dj punch me in the face there you go you got a couple
00:03:17.380 Spartan sessions man you guys got you got a you got a full basketball quarter over there you got the
00:03:21.160 gyms i heard there were some mats but you had to clear them out for something yeah they're usually
00:03:24.420 right there next to the court yeah the guys train uh jiu-jitsu there every uh i don't know tuesday
00:03:28.960 and thursdays tuesday wednesday thursday seven yeah dude so crazy man yeah man so dude how did this all
00:03:37.260 the the the fight i mean was there a lot of negotiation or was it pretty much like okay
00:03:43.080 we could do this i uh i already kind of had my stuff set up because i i had the foresight to
00:03:48.900 negotiate with the ufc hey here's my contract but if i fight connor here's my contract and we came to
00:03:54.120 an agreement um so it's kind of already been set and i'm very happy with it and lo and behold
00:03:59.260 obviously that fight happened the ufc knew about my contract they were completely okay with it all
00:04:03.960 happening and the ufc is awesome man they they have been absolute dream to work with behind the
00:04:10.200 scenes even though there's been so much craziness going on you know i mean just for a quick timeline
00:04:15.680 of people who haven't really followed it all there was the big you know the drug testing thing because
00:04:19.300 connor was outside of usada the drug testing pool and that was a big hang up then he got into the usada
00:04:25.240 testing pool then they switched drug testing agencies now he's going to be in the new drug testing
00:04:29.020 agency for six months um so it's just been how do they test you for that is it consistently
00:04:34.900 completely random so i gotta i got my location on my phone so my location they know where my
00:04:38.740 location is technically they could call me right now and i have basically two hours is the time limit
00:04:42.980 if you don't show up to where they are or them to you in a two-hour time frame you get a whereabouts
00:04:47.740 failure um you do get three you know it's not like a one and done you get suspended but if you do
00:04:52.260 three whereabouts failures you get suspended for the minimum two years um so it's completely
00:04:57.440 random we are under we're still under wada so it's the same thing the ncaa nfl nhl mlb uses i believe
00:05:04.280 um and it's completely random and here we are dude now it's it's been cool to watch you come up and do
00:05:11.940 your thing especially being a fellow st louisian right missouri missourian you know every time we
00:05:18.340 talk it's always a conversation about two freaking redneck missouri dudes putting it together man dudes
00:05:25.640 that weren't supposed to be here and so here we are like what i guess we'll keep going and it's
00:05:29.620 been really cool bro to follow your career and see you come up and see you do what you've what you've
00:05:34.880 been doing and and what you're gonna do um i mean when you when you think back and you think like
00:05:43.240 you know growing up in in house springs and high ridge you know which isn't exactly you know for
00:05:49.300 people that don't know it's it's it's it's uh it's not poor it's just it's regular america regular
00:05:56.940 america middle class yeah middle class midwestern you know place and uh you know to be where you are
00:06:06.020 right now i mean it's fucking awesome dude and like when you think back to like all like did you
00:06:14.000 ever i think this is might be a silly question but i just got to ask it i mean did you ever think like
00:06:18.760 this is where you wanted to end up or or how did this all play out for you no i mean honestly i
00:06:23.700 didn't even know professional athletic for me to be a professional athlete never really thought about
00:06:28.440 it i don't really think i ever you know first of all i was four foot 11 100 pounds in high school
00:06:34.300 going into high school i wasn't going to be the star quarterback i wasn't going to be playing
00:06:37.780 basketball yeah um so i knew i had to wrestle wrestled 103 pounds um so i never really thought about
00:06:43.020 being a professional athlete man but so the fact that i've been a professional athlete now for 16
00:06:47.680 years and had the success i've had is just crazy um and then in the sport of wrestling there's really
00:06:52.500 no path after i mean you can maybe go to the olympics and that but that's not it's professional
00:06:57.440 or freestyle or something yeah it's professional athletics kind of but it's not a it's not a big glory
00:07:01.740 thing you know it's it's it's training for the olympics and i was never going to be able to do that
00:07:05.880 um but yeah wrestled northwest high school uh was never never a state champ um and truth be told
00:07:12.600 nobody really wanted me at the division one level um i had i had some scholarship offers from some
00:07:18.000 local schools linenwood central missouri state missouri baptist uh but for some reason something
00:07:23.300 in me said hey if i'm going to wrestle i'm going to try to wrestle at the highest level and i took a
00:07:27.920 chance and i walked on to mizzou and coach didn't know my name coach brian smith is still there you
00:07:33.020 know he didn't really look at me there for the first year um ended up after my first year i got a
00:07:38.020 starting starting spot but i went to i went to the university of missouri completely okay with
00:07:43.300 riding the bench for five years if i had to um going through all the workouts never never reaching
00:07:49.320 the pinnacle which would be becoming an all-american the division one level um but so i took that chance
00:07:55.060 on myself walked on and ended up becoming an all-american captain of the team four-year uh four-year
00:08:00.260 starter four-year national qualifier for mizzou um and then friends of ours tyron woodley ben askrin
00:08:06.580 wrestle with both of those guys they were kind of like my big brothers i'm the oldest of three boys
00:08:10.080 so i didn't have older guys to look up to a lot those are the kind of the first big brothers i had
00:08:16.280 and they started fighting and uh ended up graduating in may of 2009 fought my first fight
00:08:22.240 at lake of the ozarks at some holiday inn ballroom guy at lake of the ozarks i got paid 500 bucks
00:08:28.300 and after we paid after we paid for hotel if we paid for travel and gas and food i think i lost like
00:08:34.180 38 bucks yeah uh so i was negative for the you know but that's how you kind of get going and then
00:08:38.920 man then through bellator and now in the ufc and now fighting the biggest combat sports athlete of
00:08:44.060 all time connor dude that's crazy 75 days so so how many fights did it take you to go from like
00:08:49.840 fighting in the in the bars because dude we all know what that's like because that's like a big
00:08:54.160 thing around here man we all love to go watch the local tickets and they're fun you watch they're
00:08:58.820 they're fun and you're seeing people fighting at at kind of that that that level where it's like
00:09:04.000 dude i just want to get somewhere and i gotta fight my tail off they're fighting more than just
00:09:08.460 the opponent yeah yeah dude for sure i mean i love the local level fighters yeah no they're always fun
00:09:13.900 man fun and character filled and the crowd and it's just dude it's it's like it's the epitome of
00:09:19.640 you know kind of just at beer beer drinking parties with your buddies and then a fight breaks out
00:09:24.960 you're like let's go man yeah yeah so dude how how long did it take you to go from that to bellator
00:09:30.360 man i i got i gotta say i i have a very very fortunate path when it came to that i had that
00:09:35.400 first i only had one local show really one local show like the lake of the ozarks missouri it's still
00:09:40.640 on youtube um i fought a guy named kyle swadley who wrestled at lindenwood i think he was one to
00:09:45.500 know at the time it was first blood promotion and uh then they you know as you know you because
00:09:52.040 you've probably seen some of the strike force fights that come to town or bellator
00:09:54.720 they um partner with a local promoter and the local promoter finds local talent because how do
00:10:00.300 you sell tickets you get a guy like me who's got 200 something people from high ridge missouri i can
00:10:04.780 sell uh tickets to them and that's how you put butts in seats and sell out the arenas so i fought
00:10:09.720 strike force undercard strike force undercard one in kansas city one in st louis and then i had i had
00:10:16.040 a moment where they said i had a strike force offer and i had a bellator offer but to me strike force
00:10:21.880 was kind of just a a big wide open net of hey you're signing with the organization and then you're
00:10:26.860 going to get some fights and then eventually maybe fight for the title if you get good enough or you
00:10:30.100 are good enough but bellator had a clear path because back then they used to do a tournament
00:10:34.760 so i fought um two fights in two or three months and then i got the go ahead to say if you win these
00:10:41.940 first two fights you'll be in the tournament and i got in the tournament i fought fought march april may
00:10:45.980 so i fought three fights in three months and then i fought eddie alvarez who was the number three guy
00:10:49.900 in the world at the time so i somehow go from may of 2009 to november 2011 and i'm fighting for a
00:10:59.380 world title against the number three guy in the world so it was just a crazy crazy meteoric rise
00:11:04.560 really and i had finished most of my opponents i think i'd finished nine of my or sorry eight of my
00:11:10.260 nine fights and like seven of those in the first round and then i had a knockdown drag out
00:11:14.460 war with eddie ended up beating him and it uh so it was very very quick honestly which is which
00:11:20.280 was awesome it's a huge blessing but there was there was some growing pains that i had to go
00:11:24.240 through because i i hadn't sometimes it's the right path but it's a little bit too quick right
00:11:28.320 sometimes you're the right guy you're just not the right guy yet and i think i i use the the training
00:11:34.000 that i had all those years through fighting and i looked across the cage against eddie alvarez who had
00:11:37.560 like 30 fights at the time or 20 something fights and i'm like dude i'm gonna beat this guy i know
00:11:41.880 i'm gonna beat him and i go out there and i beat him and then you know later on i had a couple
00:11:45.840 losses and it's been little ups and downs here but it's constantly continued to grow and it's
00:11:49.800 so it's a very cool path and uh you know being outside the ufc for so long coming over to the ufc
00:11:55.800 and then getting a title shot my second fight and you know fight in the promotion um was part of kind
00:12:01.980 of that build up that led me to where we are today did you have to handle the crowd pressure during
00:12:06.840 that time like that fast track did you ever have any like self-doubt of like do i belong here or
00:12:12.640 was it did you kind of just were you able to block out the noise i'll tell you what it was
00:12:16.220 and because i i can i stand firm on knowing that i live a champion lifestyle more than anybody else
00:12:22.480 i have ever met in the sport of mixed martial arts and that's nothing against anybody else there's
00:12:26.060 other guys who do it right i just truly believe i do it better and i do it different and more
00:12:30.260 attention to detail but i was building up this body i was doing all the physical things
00:12:35.340 um but i wasn't really taking care of the mindset part of things i wasn't really i wasn't really
00:12:40.440 winning the battle between the ears and you do start to feel the pressure you do start to hear
00:12:45.160 hear the doubt or you do start to drink your own kool-aid of hey he's the next big thing because
00:12:49.660 right i i beat eddie alvarez and then immediately like well that's cool he beat eddie alvarez he's a
00:12:54.400 top five guy in the world but we want to see him fight anthony pettis in the ufc we want to see him
00:12:58.140 fight benson henderson who were the champions at the time and you start to feel this pressure and i started to
00:13:03.620 get this i started to get this so much pressure put on myself to be perfect right because you win
00:13:10.340 the world title you're you in your mind you know you earned it but you don't really know if you
00:13:15.260 deserved it maybe it was too quick so then i had my first loss to eddie uh coincidentally lost the
00:13:22.900 rematch and then i lost three fights in a row 688 days i went without winning a fight so and for those
00:13:29.400 that do follow the sport or don't follow the sport that's kind of like a career death sentence for a
00:13:33.500 fighter losing three fights in a row um so i did i started to feel that pressure i started to because
00:13:39.480 once you win a world title and everyone's looking at you now it's not just hey i'm gonna go in i'm
00:13:43.680 gonna have fun today right if you meet me and you're going i could beat you for four minutes and 50
00:13:48.240 seconds of a round but if i lose 10 seconds of a round to me that was a failure so i failed every
00:13:53.800 single day and when you when you feel like you're failing every single day when you're really not
00:13:57.700 it's all about perspective i felt like i was failing every single day every single day wasn't
00:14:02.140 a day to get better and have fun and enjoy this beautiful life that i get to live it was either
00:14:05.860 hey i'm perfect or i'm a loser i'm i'm gonna perfect i'm gonna dominate everybody or i'm a failure
00:14:11.540 and uh so i kind of fell into that trap and right now i was i back then i was sad i was depressed i
00:14:18.580 was upset i was mad i was all the emotions but now i look back at that and think man i had to go
00:14:22.600 through that i had to be forged in a major yeah yeah i had to man and and now it's made me a better
00:14:29.260 fighter it's it's it's propelled me to where i am i'm a better husband because of it a better father
00:14:34.060 because of a better businessman just a better man because of it yeah people don't stop to think
00:14:39.740 you know when you're pushing to be great or pushing to be the best at what you do you're going
00:14:48.280 to it's always it feels like you're losing it feels like you're struggling right because you're
00:14:53.040 pushing the boundaries and the boundary to push it you you have all these setbacks and all these
00:14:58.400 doubts like when you lose three fights in a row bro that's a mental that's a mental battle you know
00:15:04.320 what i'm saying and people sometimes think that like winning and moving forward feels good but it
00:15:10.200 doesn't ever feel good it always feels like a major struggle i i think of the times when i've elevated
00:15:15.640 in my life dude and they've been the hardest times of my life no doubt like no doubt but like you said
00:15:21.020 dude it's what teaches you everything you need to know yep you know yeah and when you and when you
00:15:26.440 have a a setback or a loss you know i i talk about these three big mistakes that i made too you know
00:15:31.860 right away and and it was partly because you know you kind of you start to hear hear all the chatter
00:15:37.480 and hear all the noise but but until something bad happens and you're like oh i knew it i knew what
00:15:41.700 they said there it is they were all right when really they weren't yeah right it but it was my
00:15:46.900 perception of it right so i i immediately i wanted to hide from everybody i got i got offered to come
00:15:52.340 out and present the or present an award at the world mma awards for fight of the year and all the
00:15:56.660 different stuff wasn't errands from my phone i wanted to hide from it right now man i wear my losses
00:16:01.180 on i wear my heart losses on my sleeve i'm almost proud of them i'm almost i'm almost just proud to be
00:16:07.120 in to be the man in the arena right and not almost i am proud to be that man in the arena because it
00:16:12.720 doesn't matter if i fall flat on my face my next 10 fights i'm going to pick myself up and you're
00:16:17.620 still going to see the blueprint for how a man continues to operate through the series of
00:16:22.420 vicissitudes and the ups and the downs of what we call life mine is just in a cage right and then
00:16:27.820 i forgot how good i was you know you have that first loss you're like well i just i'm just not good
00:16:33.880 anymore right you're like no dude i was just as fast just as strong just as powerful when i walked
00:16:38.200 into that cage is when i walked out of that cage it was just my perception in my mind you know and
00:16:42.620 then you kind of fall into that comfort jail cell of of of self-pity you start pointing the fingers
00:16:48.200 you know all these different mistakes that i needed to make that really were immature and i'm glad we all
00:16:53.200 have to go through those immature moments we all have those immature moments but they make you into
00:16:57.480 the mature man that you are today you know and even thinking about you know the old story about
00:17:02.320 the man pushing the rock right god comes to him in a vision says he's pushed the rock right by the
00:17:06.420 hill and he's pushing the rock and he's pushing the rock and he can't he can't move it he can't
00:17:09.860 budge it maybe it moves an inch and that comes back two inches right his shoulders are jacked up his
00:17:13.540 hands are bleeding and he finally he's just like god why would you why would you send me on this
00:17:17.640 journey if you knew i wasn't gonna push this rock up the hill and he's like dude i didn't tell you
00:17:21.720 to push the rock up the hill i just told you to push the rock just push the rock and so it's the
00:17:26.860 obedience and moving forward and like you said that visual of thinking about the hardest some of the
00:17:31.920 hardest times in your life is when you are winning right because you're always pushing and you're
00:17:35.420 always forgetting about what people are saying and continuing to move forward doesn't always feel
00:17:40.340 good yeah that's why people follow you and watch you and we don't follow you because of the virtual
00:17:44.680 certainty of your success but because of your failures that's what we love as human beings yeah
00:17:49.800 because we can all relate yeah right we've we failed eight times out of ten nine times out of ten
00:17:55.480 and that's the reality of pursuing anything worthy do you ever stop and think how fortunate you are
00:18:02.540 to have had those lessons at such a young age in life because a lot of people they don't they spend
00:18:10.020 their whole lives and they never learn what you're talking about and because of the circumstances of
00:18:14.340 your life you were able to learn these lessons as a young man not as an old man yes think about that
00:18:20.460 no i do because especially in a sport like mixed martial arts that obviously i i am so truly blessed
00:18:26.620 to be in the sport man it's it's made me who i am it's made me a beautiful life a beautiful fortune a
00:18:31.440 beautiful living and the the platform that i have everything goes back to mixed martial arts
00:18:36.720 um and i've seen so many guys who maybe had more talent than me or maybe had were even bigger than me at
00:18:42.480 one point and i've continued to gain ground and continue to pass them up and continue to grow bigger and
00:18:47.380 and and it's just but it was only because of the lessons that i had to go go through you know in
00:18:52.660 in doing it with as much humility as i possibly could and and it really does have so much to do
00:18:59.520 with how i was raised right my mom and dad went through things their entire life they went they were
00:19:03.920 working two and three jobs non-stop my dad was up every single morning putting his carpenter work boots
00:19:07.980 on every single day at five in the morning and watching the way that they operated watching the way
00:19:13.400 that they lived their lives watching the way that they always just tried their best and tried to be a
00:19:17.160 better person today than the word yesterday um it it kept it's kept me so grounded and i'm so
00:19:24.500 fortunate to have that and there was times where i would look back and be mad at the way that i was
00:19:29.640 raised or the way that i things that happened to my in my young man brain as i was growing and but
00:19:35.760 it's all kept me so it's kept my perspective so crystal clear and knowing that i was created for great
00:19:43.780 things but i ain't any i ain't greater than anybody else you know and it's and it's such a beautiful
00:19:49.900 thing and i really do feel for people who who have somehow fallen victim to the entitlements and the
00:19:59.060 oh holier than thou's and the bigger than thou when i deserve this and i deserve that when i'm like man
00:20:03.780 i don't deserve anything man i know i work hard enough to deserve it more than this guy but i'm going to
00:20:08.880 work harder than him in order to force my deservedness and continue to force more and more
00:20:14.960 accomplishment through the deservedness through the work that i do um there's nobody working harder
00:20:20.580 than you bro no i i try not try not i know i know you you you may not say that but it's the truth
00:20:27.460 there's nobody working harder than you yeah and i i my biggest thing is taking pride in the small
00:20:33.000 the small little hardware the things that nobody ever sees the little disciplines where it's just
00:20:37.420 me and my supplements or it's just me and my shopping cart and at the grocery store or it's
00:20:43.160 just me and that piece of litter right there or it's me and this little decision i can make to be
00:20:47.340 like okay this is how 90 of people would do it but i'm gonna go ahead and go the extra mile to do this
00:20:52.880 right now because we act as though are these little acts and these little thoughts that they happen in
00:20:57.680 a vacuum and they happen in private and maybe they do happen in private and people people uh they
00:21:02.620 don't see them but they do eventually manifest themselves into your circumstances right so i've
00:21:08.400 just that's the way i was raised and that's the way i operate and it doesn't matter it didn't matter
00:21:13.300 here's one thing too you know being trusted in the small things if you can be trusted in the small
00:21:18.640 things then and only then can you be trusted in the big things right so this training camp that i'm
00:21:22.560 about to put put on starting today and moving forward to fight the biggest combat sports superstar
00:21:28.580 on the planet will be no more disciplined no more hard no more extra than when i was fighting
00:21:36.860 kyle swadley my first fight ever or fighting david rickles a guy who maybe you guys have never heard
00:21:43.240 about or or derrick campos one of these guys i i was training and the doing the small things right
00:21:50.480 whether i was fighting the number 150 guy in the world or i'm fighting the biggest name on the
00:21:54.460 entire planet in the history of mixed martial arts so if i could be trusted with those small things
00:21:59.100 that's how you end up in this spot you know and it even feels uncomfortable to say because it's not
00:22:03.840 really me it's just it's the things you're doing it's a product i'm a product of my environment yeah and
00:22:08.280 how i was raised and what if you're at work watching it it is exactly it is you because it's a choice
00:22:13.620 that we all get to make we all get to make a choice about how disciplined we're going to be and we all get to
00:22:19.300 make a choice about how serious we're going to take our lives and we don't always start at the
00:22:24.620 same spot but we do have a choice with what we make of that and when i look at you i look at a regular
00:22:31.540 guy who comes from what i know very well just a very regular place you know st louis is st louis
00:22:38.440 i love it everybody here loves it but you know it's a it's a different place man it's very blue collar
00:22:45.400 it's very hard working it's not la it's not miami and i'm thankful for that people are often like
00:22:50.820 why do you still live there i'm like bro because it's not that yeah you know but you when i look at
00:22:57.040 you dude i see someone who represents those midwestern values who represents and not just in
00:23:03.100 your work ethic in your life as a man as a family man and um when i i had a very cool experience
00:23:12.980 i think you'll you'll enjoy um this weekend i had i was i was working out in the gym and this guy
00:23:21.680 comes walking into the gym holding a football and i'm like i can't see him all the way across the gym
00:23:27.500 who is that why has he got a football and he's walking right towards me and he gets closer i'm
00:23:32.520 like who is that who who's here and then he gets like from me to you away and i'm like holy shit dude
00:23:39.940 that's jerry rice that's jerry rice and he's got a football in his hand what's what's that football
00:23:45.180 for and he hands it to me i'm working out he hands it to me and he and it says to andy hold
00:23:51.200 the standard and like this a little message and sign jerry rice and he says hey i'm here with ben
00:23:56.620 newman thank you so much for allowing me to come out this place is amazing and i'm like and i don't
00:24:02.880 get starstruck but dude it's jerry rice you know what i'm saying you don't get starstruck but that's
00:24:07.100 jerry rice like very like when we talk about the greatest ever at what they did like you you've
00:24:14.760 met a lot of great people i've met a lot of great people people who were at the top of the game
00:24:20.100 but when you say jerry rice dude like it's undeniable he is the greatest nfl y receiver
00:24:26.160 ever in history and he's standing in front of me and so i'm like halfway through my workout and i'm
00:24:33.020 like all right well i'll skip the workout for this yeah you want to catch yeah yeah so so we
00:24:38.660 started talking and we hit it off immediately and i got to talk to him for about two hours just me and
00:24:43.480 him because they were running an event so i went in the locker room and i got to sit down and we had
00:24:47.800 a conversation and dude this guy he dude you remind me a ton of them like exactly the same kind of thing
00:24:54.680 normal guy comes from normal place has figured out the very same thing that you're talking about it's
00:25:01.840 about the discipline execution on a day by day basis it's not some big play it's not get lucky it's
00:25:09.740 not talent it's win the day and when you win the day you win tomorrow and when you win tomorrow you
00:25:15.740 win the next day and dude it was so cool hearing him tell me this because i thought you know yes you
00:25:26.660 can win the day and you can become very good but when you see someone who ran a 4 7 40 in the nfl
00:25:32.660 because let's be real that's not fast for a wide receiver there's guys that run four sevens on every
00:25:38.300 single high school team in this state yeah okay who became the greatest receiver ever
00:25:44.080 and you hear him talk about how hard he worked and what he did on a daily basis and how he became who
00:25:52.240 he was it just inspired me so much because i thought yes you could become very successful
00:25:59.480 winning the day but in reality like when i look at you and i look at him and i look at guys like that
00:26:06.640 there's actually no upper ceiling when it comes to that it's not talent it's not skill it really is
00:26:12.440 how long do you want to execute and how at what level do you want to execute and dude it was one of
00:26:19.220 the coolest conversations i've ever had and and bro you remind me a lot of them well it's it's
00:26:23.960 really cool too because i mean i i feel uh you know sometimes things have to get i don't know worse
00:26:30.060 before they get better right or you have to you have to kind of go the sensational route i mean i feel
00:26:34.920 like we've become very sensationalized as as a society right and we see we see all of these crazy
00:26:40.740 successes and and of course yeah there there's there's lightning striking in a bottle or whatever
00:26:47.680 you call it or yeah it does happen pans there's these things that happen dude but
00:26:51.200 as a whole the people that are at the top the people that get to to those lofty places it really
00:26:57.760 is just normal everyday people doing normal everyday things as fat or as as disciplined as possible and
00:27:05.820 and not being afraid to take the long road yeah the hard road brick by boring brick we do it every
00:27:13.140 every single day and then eventually you look around you're like i did something how did i get
00:27:17.240 here yeah right i mean and and you knew you were on your way right but it was enjoying the journey and
00:27:22.720 and and enjoying and taking pride in the small things right because once again he who can be
00:27:27.740 trusted with the small things then you can be trusted in the big things right when he ends up in the
00:27:31.460 hall of fame he wanted to get there but he's not going to get to the hall of fame unless you can be
00:27:34.880 trusted in the small things whether whether you believe in god the universe serendipity whatever it is
00:27:40.420 it's going to work out like that it's the small that's how do you eat an elephant you eat a big
00:27:45.000 old elephant one tiny little bite at a time you know but taking pride in every single one of those
00:27:50.160 little bitty bites every single one of those boring bricks doing it perfectly yeah that's what
00:27:55.380 nick saban talks about you know he talks about we're not going to run the play until we get it
00:27:59.420 right we're going to run the play until we can't get it wrong and that's what it comes down to and i
00:28:03.640 think what's important to point out about what we're talking about is that most people who have big
00:28:09.660 dreams who have big goals who have aspirations and you young guys who listen you need to really
00:28:14.460 listen to this okay you guys have to understand you may not be lebron james you may not run a 4-2-40
00:28:21.720 you might not have this exceptional talent but what michael's done and what guys like jerry rice have
00:28:27.300 done is they've taken very average upbringings and skill sets i mean you were 103 is that fair to say
00:28:35.840 103 pounds yeah i mean is it fair to say average right yeah okay very average well most people
00:28:40.720 would deem average yes most people like everybody out here starts at a place like that and they say
00:28:48.100 because they're not that gifted guy on the wrestling team or they're not that gifted guy on the football
00:28:53.720 field or they're not that gifted guy with business who happened to start something and in two years he
00:28:59.300 was worth you know 50 million dollars or whatever right or 10 million or a million right these we we
00:29:06.060 tend to like sell ourselves short and we say well dude i don't have that i don't have those parents
00:29:11.720 that lended me the money to start my business i didn't and i didn't i wasn't born with 4 5 40 speed
00:29:18.620 you know i don't have good genetics we tell ourselves all these stories and we fail to realize that there is
00:29:25.200 a way and the way is what we're talking about with michael and jerry rice these guys and by the way
00:29:32.420 that's been true for me too i don't have special talent i don't have special skill set but what i do
00:29:38.200 have is i have grit and fortitude and i'm willing to get up every day and do everything i can do to
00:29:43.440 get there yes and i appreciate the sentiment that you have thrown my direction right now but let me let
00:29:47.860 me just talk about you for a second now for for those guys listen listening i'm here at the hq
00:29:53.100 when i was i was gonna ask you if you even have a cleaning crew here but i did see someone come
00:29:58.460 around i saw no less than 10 people wash their hands and then they're cleaning down and wiping down
00:30:03.800 the countertops in the in the in the gym every single weight is lined up perfectly every single
00:30:10.880 dumbbell is is lined up perfectly the place is spick and span and it's a it's a we mentality and you
00:30:18.040 leading from the front i mean you don't you don't even have to i don't even have to know you
00:30:21.380 to walk into your establishment to see your team and see the way that these people operate and it
00:30:26.760 is the physical manifestation of the way that you do one thing is the way that you do everything and
00:30:31.760 it is the little things right first form is not going to become the one of the biggest companies
00:30:36.480 on the world because your weights are perfectly right sat right it's really not right maybe it
00:30:40.620 does maybe it doesn't matter at all but it's just it's a it's a standard that is set right and that
00:30:46.220 that's what people can really see i mean i wish people could see and and and really see it because
00:30:51.580 it is inspiring and this this place is a it's it's people here but it just the building itself if i was
00:30:57.940 walking into this building it's itself just the bricks and the mortars and the pieces of equipment
00:31:03.100 and the walls and that kind of stuff this is perfection personified right it's it's absolutely
00:31:09.820 but it's a standard that you that you set and you're leading from the front too right it's not hey
00:31:14.740 you guys all do this but really whenever you put the weights you got your butler behind you
00:31:19.120 putting them all yeah i know yeah right yeah it only works if you live it yeah man and it's but
00:31:24.520 it's it's those little bitty things done with enthusiasm and done done as if it's not even a
00:31:30.020 question there is no question it's going to get done and it's and it's going to be done well we're
00:31:34.380 very blessed to have you know because of how authentic and open i am about my feelings about the world and
00:31:40.940 my standards on the podcast we are very blessed to have high drive high standard individuals want
00:31:47.600 to come to work here very rarely do we get someone that's not like that you know and and uh i'll tell
00:31:53.500 you a little secret about that that a lot of you guys you know we have a big entrepreneurship
00:31:57.440 listenership here on the show if you want your team to do that you all you i get this this is probably
00:32:03.840 my most asked question how do you get your team to do that stuff what do you do do you find them no
00:32:09.360 dude look it's very simple and i think you'll agree with this you already said it those little
00:32:16.440 things that we do they add up into the big things how we do the big things so when you're a leader
00:32:22.840 and you're trying to get your team to execute at a high level what you have it's not hey do this
00:32:29.700 it's this is how it is hey man look when we straighten those weights you're making an investment in your
00:32:36.900 discipline and your attention to detail in your ability to recognize something that needs to be
00:32:42.460 fixed and fixing it and every time you do that you're making a deposit into your own skill set
00:32:48.160 which will translate into how you execute in your career in your life and here your goal is to make
00:32:54.700 money and build a career so if you can build that skill set better you're going to do better as a
00:32:59.020 career and and so when we teach our team that you know they're already exceptional human beings
00:33:04.660 they're already high drive they're hungry to get better they they buy into that immediately because
00:33:09.200 they're like yeah dude i'm looking to get better yeah like you said it's not the actual weight itself
00:33:13.720 yeah act of the weight but it's what it does to that's right deservedness one little that one
00:33:18.460 little penny in the bank yeah the deservedness to be like we were all created with greatness inside
00:33:23.720 of us but not everyone deserves to get to that if they don't make the requisite sacrifices or have the
00:33:28.940 requisite discipline right even and and obviously my my life is has been fitness and and and fighting
00:33:36.500 and wrestling and all these different things and every business now and now business yeah but every
00:33:40.760 single little practice i mean you don't see the results you know i'm putting dollars in the bank
00:33:45.340 in the discipline bank today that i won't see until june 29th right i'll start to get a little bit
00:33:50.580 more shredded or start to get a little bit more fast or start to get a little bit more x y and z
00:33:55.000 but it's it's doing things today and maybe not seeing results for two months but that is exactly
00:34:00.200 what you're talking about too these little things that add up to the thing when you stand at your
00:34:05.880 greatest moment of opportunity or your darkest hour you have to be able to ask answer that question
00:34:10.280 did i do enough am i enough and you are enough if you've done the little things leading up to it
00:34:15.820 and that's the thing dude the path does not get easier now so we have to build ourselves into these
00:34:21.980 people that can endure the path because you just said that hour of darkness that's coming for all
00:34:29.100 of us and it looks different in different ways and by the way it doesn't just come for us once
00:34:34.240 it comes over and over and over again it comes in the form of losing a job or it comes in the form of
00:34:42.120 getting a divorce or it comes in the form of getting an illness or a death in the family and there's all
00:34:48.280 these things that come at us for our whole lives and if we don't build ourselves into someone of
00:34:53.020 determination grit resilience discipline we're in a situation where we can't handle these things
00:34:58.500 and and and dude our families our friends our significant others they look up to us for these
00:35:05.020 things and if we're not there to handle it that's a life failure that is a life failure and people don't
00:35:11.060 realize how much these little things actually create the the character skill set because i call it a skill
00:35:17.860 set right because we're developing it it's not a trait people aren't naturally highly disciplined
00:35:23.380 i mean maybe some people are but really it's something that we build and we can all build it
00:35:28.500 and you mentioned the litter thing right that's a big deal for me like i will walk freaking half a
00:35:34.780 mile out of my way if i see a bag going because i'm like dude i can't let it go yeah i can't let it go
00:35:40.240 i'll remember that you know and when we little things like that people just don't think about and then
00:35:46.860 you think about if everybody did think about those things how much different would the world be how
00:35:53.140 much different would the world look if everybody said hey i cannot let that go i've got to fix that
00:35:59.800 you know what i mean yeah and and and dude we live in a completely different society uh in general
00:36:05.640 society of excellence high standards treating people with respect that's one of the things i love about
00:36:11.060 you most bro is as good of a fighter as you are you're a better dude you're a better man and a
00:36:16.760 better husband and a better father and it's very very admirable dude and um i really appreciate
00:36:22.420 the standard that you set as a man uh not just as a fighter it's it's it's really special bro thank
00:36:30.240 you yeah i know i just uh it was actually funny because i was just with my wife you know and we've kind
00:36:33.980 of been having these conversations because you you also well one thing going back to what you just
00:36:38.020 said too you you can be a absolute optimist and love life and full of joy and all those things
00:36:43.040 and still admit that you're going to suffer hardship you're going to get kicked in the mouth there's
00:36:47.320 going to be bad things that happen you're going to get things that you don't deserve to happen to you
00:36:52.040 but they're going to happen so you have to be built up and ready for those things and even right now
00:36:57.100 having the foresight to realize what's about to happen in my life right and it's and it's what i asked
00:37:02.400 for this i prayed for this moment i asked for this moment and even talked to my mom or my my wife
00:37:07.340 this past weekend and we're just like you know pray for continue to pray for humility pray for
00:37:12.260 wisdom man because the enemy is going to attack and this is going to be big and this is going to
00:37:16.960 be an out-of-body experience in this in my eye my the temptation for my eye to be taken off of the ball
00:37:23.300 is going to be so immense right so you you have to know that you got a big battle ahead of you and
00:37:29.960 you got some things that are going to happen to you but you can still be optimistic and know
00:37:33.680 that you're the man for the job know that you have earned it know that you're right where you're
00:37:38.420 supposed to be because the next season for me is going to be you know it's going to be i can't even
00:37:43.860 really put into words what what's going to happen i can't all i can do is ask for wisdom and know and
00:37:51.400 know and hope and pray that i'm able to operate right and that's what you got to do every single day
00:37:56.100 because life is going to continue to get thrown at you let me ask you this what so you know you mentioned
00:38:00.540 your mom your dad your your upbringing what was the support like when you decided to get into
00:38:05.340 fighting what where it was it was uh mom like no my baby like i mean did you have any of that no my
00:38:11.000 mom's my mom's pretty rough around the edges man like she's a she's a sweetheart sweet little
00:38:15.600 betty little little bitty italian lady um and she's she's an amazing soul but she's a little rough
00:38:22.160 around the edges right when it comes to like she loved wrestling man like she was getting in
00:38:26.480 oh that's all arguments and fights in the stands like you know the wrestling wrestling community is
00:38:31.000 like bro that's midwest moms yeah exactly yeah you know and but it you know but obviously for me too
00:38:37.800 i had my my big brothers right tyron and ben who we looked up to and my mom idolized them as well
00:38:43.020 she's like well tyron and ben think you'll be all right so i think you'll be good i mean
00:38:46.360 and it wasn't the way that i wrestled anyway it wasn't real slick and and fast and whatever it was
00:38:51.980 just it was basically a fight every single time i stepped on the wrestling mat anyway you know
00:38:55.700 except i wasn't allowed to punch legally or kick and that kind of stuff it was aggressive but it
00:39:00.500 was aggressive man because it really was you know hey because i started wrestling as a freshman in
00:39:04.780 high school like i i didn't really have i wrestled a couple years when i was younger like but like
00:39:08.640 five years old when you're basically running around the mats and just playing games playing tag
00:39:12.220 and i started really taking it serious and dedicated my life to the sport when i was 14 years old and i've
00:39:17.080 been doing hand-to-hand combat since so i wasn't going to be able to out slick you out technique you
00:39:22.240 out wrestle you but i could freaking out fight you i could out cardio you i could push you off
00:39:26.360 the mat run back to the center and headbutt you and get my hands make it very uncomfortable
00:39:32.000 you might beat me you might be better than me but you don't you don't want to wrestle me again
00:39:36.320 that was kind of the mentality i had and then as i got more and more skilled i've been able to
00:39:40.940 dial that back a little bit you see a lot in my fight style you know it's kind of it's kind of the
00:39:45.400 way bro you're fucking bulldog man 14 yeah dude i told you that that uh remember after
00:39:52.120 the poirier fight remember me texting you and i said what you say i said bro that was even though
00:39:58.580 you lost i said that was the greatest fucking fight i'd ever seen in my life and it was because
00:40:02.800 of how tough you fought that fight bro yeah like that was i don't know how you feel about no i do
00:40:09.820 it no it's one of those that was a loss yeah that was a win yeah you know like and that's and that's
00:40:14.460 what you realize too man it is it was a loss on paper yeah absolutely you're gonna you're gonna
00:40:19.260 when i retire you're gonna look at it no that was a loss on his record but dude i won right look at
00:40:23.960 the fight i have now every single time i've lost it's been another win it's another it feels like a
00:40:28.400 demotion but it's a promotion if you've done the right things you get rewarded yeah fuck dude has
00:40:33.620 anything changed because you're because you typically you fight at lightweight right but this
00:40:36.940 is a welterweight fight yeah so so that's 170 i think no nothing's really going to change
00:40:42.140 i'll be able to eat a little bit more and eat a little bit more carbs this this you know a lot
00:40:47.080 of people i fucking love cars yeah yeah well they bring up they'll bring up michael phelps right
00:40:51.620 because everyone's heard the story like dude are you just pounding the calories with how much you're
00:40:54.780 training and you'd be flabbergasted to know like i'm usually eating between like 1200 and 1500 calories
00:41:00.600 per day and training twice a day five days a week or five days a week once on saturday and then two of
00:41:08.040 those two of those five days in between i'm hitting a third cardio session a third workout
00:41:12.480 on 1200 to 1500 calories a day shrinking my body down losing a little bit of muscle getting rid of
00:41:18.540 all the fat and then dehydrating myself at the end but so for 170 you know i'm like 185 ish right now
00:41:25.020 because i've already been training for the last four weeks um so i'll probably eat enough to keep
00:41:29.900 myself get like shred down a little bit lose a little bit of body fat get myself right where i need
00:41:33.780 to be which is going to be like that 177 mark and then just a nice little easy water cut at the end
00:41:38.800 it's going to be the best camp of my life man i can't wait to fight 170 that's awesome do you what's
00:41:44.020 the difference between your what's your normal fight weight 155 okay unfortunately do you think that
00:41:49.360 there's a a difference in the the cardio aspect of those two weights um like fighting at 155 versus
00:41:57.080 fighting at 170 yeah like in general the two weight classes yeah i think there's i mean there's a
00:42:02.120 generally i don't listen man i don't know a ton about mma i i'm a fan but i'm a casual fan yeah
00:42:08.400 but generally generally the lower the the more you get up in weight class the hot the lower the pace
00:42:13.540 right the slower the pace so yeah 155 there's there's better cardio than than at 170 you know
00:42:18.340 but for me i feel like i'm i'm gonna be just weighing in at 170 instead of dehydrating myself
00:42:22.880 to 155 and once again i'm gonna do the exact same training camp just eat a little bit more maybe
00:42:27.800 thank god you know yeah take eat drink a couple more protein shakes what kind of diet do you follow
00:42:32.520 man so since i have to get i basically have to shrink my body down i'm eating basically no carbs
00:42:39.220 like starchy carbs at all i'm basically doing protein and veggies two two meals a day with a
00:42:44.540 snack in between um and a protein shake once a day mainly um so it's really just meat and veggies
00:42:51.440 for low carbs eight eight weeks so this time i'll be able to have a yeah this this way this time
00:42:56.540 i'll have a little bit of sweet potato yeah daily yeah thank god yeah well dude listen man i i i think
00:43:06.220 it's really cool to hear you talk about you know the work ethic aspect you know out of all the guys
00:43:15.100 that you fought and trained with who who do you respect the most for their work ethic who's a who's a
00:43:21.980 guy that like you look at and you're like damn dude he gets it i think eddie alvarez yeah um and i say
00:43:28.440 that too because i have inside scoop because i now i train with i train with my coaches you know henry
00:43:34.060 hoofed who was who was eddie's coach i think for like four or five years he henry who is my my head
00:43:38.660 coach right now cornered against me whenever i when he coached eddie against me when i lost my my first
00:43:45.340 fight rematch yeah so it's you know it's kind of funny how it all came full circle but it's
00:43:49.860 numerous times he's been like you know you remind me of eddie because because i'm always like 30
00:43:54.660 minutes early to practice i'll already be rolling out by the time uh coach comes in or other guys are
00:43:59.420 coming in because i want to get there a little bit early i want to i want to be stretched i want to be
00:44:02.160 warmed up i want to be ready because when it's time to go i don't want to take me 30 minutes to get
00:44:06.000 my get the juices you want to get good work in yeah i want to get the good work in i already want to be
00:44:10.000 ready he's like you know he's always said that and i'm like yeah and the funny thing between me and eddie
00:44:14.100 is like dude you cannot try to kill somebody for 25 almost 50 minutes he and i had two of the best
00:44:20.120 fights in mma history um you cannot do that with somebody for that many minutes inside of a cage
00:44:28.060 and not have a ton of respect for each other so we have a ton of respect for each other um those were
00:44:33.360 fun fights and it's always good when you know a guy lives that life too right you know he's he he lives
00:44:40.560 the champion lifestyle he does things right he's a good dude he's a family man it's it's the kind of
00:44:45.760 guys that you're like dude this is you you deserve it i deserve it i believe i deserve it a little bit
00:44:50.560 more i want to beat you but dude this is about to be a good one you know yeah that's awesome man yeah
00:44:55.520 dude i was over here thinking too man because when you had mentioned even like you know that you went
00:44:59.740 three fights losses back to back it was like how many days you said like six hundred and eighty eight to
00:45:04.520 go that long you know work all that time for this big climax of an event to have that even just that
00:45:12.020 and then to deal with that one time how did you bounce back off of that well so there there is a
00:45:18.180 little bit of a lesson in there and there's and and it was it was the way that i was conditioned
00:45:21.820 right because the sport of wrestling the great the greatest thing about it is you're going to get 30
00:45:26.040 or 40 opportunities to wrestle per year right yeah if i lost a tough match on wednesday i'm down on
00:45:31.700 myself wednesday night i get back to practice thursday saturday i get the opportunity to right
00:45:36.540 that wrong to go from the lost column to the win column very quick you get another opportunity but
00:45:42.640 in mixed martial arts it's like dude i mean i haven't fought since november 2022 and most of the
00:45:47.220 time we're fighting when you get to the upper echelon and the higher levels you're fighting twice a year
00:45:51.940 maybe three times a year but probably usually twice a year so you got to sit on that loss for five
00:45:56.680 months six months right so the biggest thing for me was is getting back in the mistake that
00:46:01.620 i made was right away i wanted to hide from it i kind of i i didn't want to you kind of lose that
00:46:07.300 motivation to train a little bit you're like was it like an embarrassment big time embarrassment man
00:46:11.880 you know and it's in in but now not anymore no no i get it i'm glad i had to go through that to
00:46:16.580 to realize it and anybody who is listening right now and if you have that it really is ego right
00:46:21.060 people don't care that much yeah we we think people care more about us so much more about us than
00:46:26.200 that's facts right yeah and when you and almost like i said sometimes it's it's supposed to be a
00:46:32.360 part of the journey it's supposed to be a part of your journey it's i was supposed to lose those
00:46:36.800 fights or i was supposed to have this shortcoming because if a bad thing happens but a good thing
00:46:42.200 comes from it was it really a bad thing and how many times have you had that play out in your life
00:46:46.920 right and you'd ask you're like well a good thing came from it so i that thing that i thought was a
00:46:51.880 bad thing i can't really call it a bad thing anymore because it turned into a really good thing and a
00:46:55.880 god had me in the palm of his hand the entire time and then it led to this and it led to that
00:46:59.700 um but yeah the problem was losing that fight and then going in like dealing with uncharted territory
00:47:07.280 because i hadn't lost a competition since two or three years prior in wrestling and at that point
00:47:13.120 it didn't really matter because i had just become an all-american i kind of got to where i wanted to
00:47:16.520 go anyway um so i dealt with it and not in a great way not in a very mature way and uh and then i
00:47:23.920 didn't get the opportunity to right that wrong for months and months and months it was probably
00:47:28.380 six months that i had to sit out and go through a training camp figure out who's next who am i
00:47:32.120 fighting next um and uh yeah it's just i i deal with losses so much better now and so much and
00:47:40.760 maybe it's just you kind of just isn't it awesome though too i was thinking about that today just the
00:47:44.640 older you get you just don't care as much anymore when it comes to like dude i used to care so much
00:47:49.440 about what people thought and used to care so i'm like i'm so solidly standing on my own two feet
00:47:54.840 now and and the 50 if you thought 15 year old michael saw the 38 year old michael he would be
00:48:02.060 like ah how did you get there dude because i don't see how we get from here to there because we are we're
00:48:07.780 on like another planet you know but it was just the constant every single day great things in my life
00:48:14.020 and some of the tough things getting kicked right in the teeth and and this sport wants to keep you
00:48:18.340 down as long as it as long as you will let it and it's up to you to pick yourself back up and
00:48:22.480 i've been able to do it now for 16 17 years that's the key dude you know a lot of people they will they
00:48:29.560 will get in those dark times and and they don't understand that that time is meant to build a new
00:48:36.700 skill set to give you a new perspective and the only way that you can discover that is by continuing
00:48:42.320 down the path there's so many people that have the hardship happen and then they stop right
00:48:48.160 they get embarrassed they get they get because dude i'm gonna tell you this as much as you guys
00:48:53.440 think it's embarrassing to start and be bad at something it's a million times more embarrassing
00:48:58.520 to be great at something and have everybody in the world see you fucking fall on your face
00:49:02.440 that's way worse and it is ego and and i do agree with you as you get older you start to realize
00:49:08.860 it's not as big of a deal but i also think that that comes from us firmly understanding
00:49:14.940 the work that needs to be done to get past that right um i think when you're when i at least when
00:49:22.420 i was younger and i felt i felt setbacks i didn't have enough confidence in the work the work that
00:49:29.780 needed to be done to understand that i could pull myself out of it and and ignorantly but also
00:49:37.660 thankfully i just got up the next day and kept going dude like i didn't know what else to do so i would
00:49:43.300 get up and i would go and you know think dude i can't i mean most of my business life i live within
00:49:49.460 weeks of being out of business people don't think that about entrepreneurs dude like you're you're
00:49:54.520 living on the edge all the time you know until you get to a you know where we're at now it's not like
00:50:00.000 that anymore but you know most of your life as an entrepreneur the first 10 10 plus years it's
00:50:05.580 it's scary and you're going to take hits and sometimes those hits are nearly ending of your
00:50:12.780 journey but like when you don't know what else to do you wake up the next day and you just keep doing
00:50:17.680 what you've been doing um and because people don't do that and they get embarrassed and they
00:50:23.740 they get humiliated in their own mind um i can relate to that bro i can relate to the hiding and
00:50:30.800 the shame and the the embarrassment and the feeling of letting people down and uh if you guys just push
00:50:37.700 through those times and you continue down the path what you'll figure out is what michael's talking
00:50:41.760 about which is dude this is here to serve you this is here to build you this is here to give you a new
00:50:46.480 perspective and a new skill set which will eventually lead to a place like you were saying where you're
00:50:52.280 standing on your own two feet and you have total real confidence in yourself not fake confidence not
00:50:58.020 bravado beating my chest not running my mouth but knowing that if something negative comes around
00:51:05.500 or i i get a setback that it's not a total devastating loss it's exactly that it's a bump in the road it's
00:51:11.640 a setback yeah i mean and what i did what i started doing too and i forced myself to do this you know
00:51:16.880 when i take a loss i'm making sure i get on as big of a platform as i possibly can asap and talk about
00:51:24.060 it right because right ego would say well let's just hide because if you get on the microphone all
00:51:29.080 those people who doubted you and they're going to point the fingers now you're on a microphone you're
00:51:32.580 talking about this loss you're reliving this loss in real time on a microphone and i i have forced
00:51:37.200 myself to do that you know busting with the boys i don't know if you know those guys yeah yeah dude
00:51:40.620 will compton is my first guy yeah that's right yeah he's st louis guy yeah that's right so yeah so
00:51:45.160 those guys are in nashville too so i like to make it a habit it was hilarious yeah win lose or draw i mean
00:51:50.580 i'm gonna try to go on the bus on monday and i've done it with black eyes and still stitches and my
00:51:56.060 nose you know my nose is all jacked up from the the fight of the 48 hours prior because i want to do
00:52:01.640 that because and it's not for the will and taylor it's not for you it's not and i honestly love my
00:52:06.580 fans and supporters but it's not for anybody it's for me yeah so i can get on there and i can sit
00:52:11.180 right here and say yeah you know what look at me look at my scars but this reminds you that i'm still
00:52:15.560 here look at the black eyes look what i've gone through and if i can get on here and talk right
00:52:20.380 now after i just had the whole world laughing at me in my mind and i can brave that and hop on this
00:52:26.280 microphone you know it it wells something up inside of you and then once you've done it a couple times
00:52:31.180 you're like man i i got so much positive feedback from that because people want to see that they
00:52:37.040 don't because they don't expect they expect you to not go into hiding not going to hiding necessarily
00:52:41.580 but hey let's let them take some time off it's like no i'm doing this for me and i want to get on
00:52:45.320 here and i'm gonna it's kind of like writing the wrong that we just talked about it's like i'm
00:52:48.660 writing the wrong i'm taking the power away from it until you talk about it until you until you wear
00:52:54.580 it like a badge of honor you own it you're yeah you're giving it all the power until you take that
00:52:59.120 power back and say here it is it's right here you want to talk about it it's okay me and it's okay
00:53:04.240 yeah because this is what this is what what it is this is what it is and this is how it's supposed
00:53:08.620 to happen and those those areas of us right will be broken the the weakest areas of us where we need
00:53:15.700 to get better where we're falling short where we've got some ego where we've got all these
00:53:19.460 shortcomings those little areas will break and then scar tissue will be laid over top of it and
00:53:24.240 then you will be stronger in those areas where we were weak and that's it's it's life it's like it's
00:53:30.020 life revealing to you where you need to get better let's talk about the technical aspect of improving
00:53:36.340 from your losses yeah do you watch film i was just about to ask that film study yeah yeah i mean i
00:53:42.380 don't watch a ton of film i i obviously got to go back and watch my fights back um win lose or draw
00:53:47.200 obviously i love to watch the wins better than i love to watch the losses but that's another part of
00:53:51.560 the healing process too it's like hey sit down here right now and watch it you know don't watch it
00:53:55.740 too many times you don't want to sit there and have a negative mental highlight reel in my head
00:53:59.500 no just to learn yeah i could have done this better is that what you do yeah and even just
00:54:03.980 watching you know watching yourself whether it be technical whether it be spiritual because you
00:54:08.260 can see those moments where you had a momentary lapse of judgment or where you lost a little bit
00:54:12.160 of focus or maybe you got a little bit tired or maybe you made a silly decision you see that on
00:54:15.500 the film yeah and you can kind of see it because because because you start to have flashbacks a
00:54:19.200 little bit and it's not necessarily because it's a fight and you're getting punched in the head that
00:54:22.100 you don't really remember a lot of stuff you're just you're really in that kind of fight or flight
00:54:25.680 mode you're tied onto a tornado so you're you don't remember a ton of it so you need to go back
00:54:30.340 and then as you're watching it you're kind of starting to feel and see mental glimpses in of
00:54:35.080 what you remember in your mind and uh yeah just going back and seeing different areas um and then
00:54:42.760 it's also a place of gratitude win lose or draw you just go back and then then you can hear the
00:54:47.140 announcers talking you know you hear john annick and joe rogan daniel cormier whoever it might be and
00:54:51.680 you're watching it and you're just like man i'm watching this movie happen and i'm the main character
00:54:56.300 whether i win or lose it's another it's another cool way to to remind yourself man you're doing
00:55:02.040 what you were called to do win lose or draw you're not defined by your wins and losses you're defined
00:55:06.220 about by how you carry yourself and uh yeah take some notes talk to the coaches take a little bit
00:55:12.800 of time off stay in shape and stay built up and start kind of the the recovery process of the mind and
00:55:18.840 the heart after a loss especially and continuing to be out in the public and not be afraid to wear it
00:55:25.300 like a badge of honor let me ask you this because you obviously i mean the people love you right
00:55:30.100 you have a shit ton of support people absolutely love you the nfl has armchair quarterbacks what's
00:55:36.220 the ufc guy what do you what do you guys call it yeah no how do you address those those those people
00:55:40.580 you know what i'm talking about yeah no for sure um i see red bro i don't know i was in that ring
00:55:46.620 i don't know all he had to do was hit him with the overhand right you know hold my beer i'll show you
00:55:51.700 yeah exactly no i mean oh we got a lot of them man and you know you guys have a special name for
00:55:56.140 no i don't really think so i'm sure i'm sure the you know the chat might have him later you know
00:56:01.260 later on like what they call him but yeah dude i mean i actually just was talking to some guy
00:56:05.820 today um and i sent him a message and just said hey uh i hate to see her but i hate to hear about
00:56:10.660 the passing of your uh of your thread of videos that you that you've made like 10 videos talking
00:56:15.500 about how i'm an idiot and i'm waiting for connor and it's never connor's never going to come back
00:56:19.160 and fight me and fights never going to get booked and all this kind of stuff so we kind of had a
00:56:22.340 little banter back and forth and it's all fun and games because i heard it from a million people
00:56:25.940 um but yeah i mean you hear those people and it is just really funny and and and some of the
00:56:32.080 sometimes you agree with them you're like yeah dude you go back and watch this in slow motion you
00:56:36.080 reverse it and watch it five times you're like yeah that was a dumb decision why did i do that or why
00:56:40.160 didn't i do that but what they don't realize is they are they are criticizing and critiquing
00:56:46.080 something that was happening in real time making split second decisions with the information that
00:56:50.360 you have part muscle memory part instinct part training and you just hope that you zig when you
00:56:56.900 should have zagged or or vice versa or whatever and you're just in there you're in there responding
00:57:03.080 and reacting so it is uh it is really funny because yeah i mean it especially mixed martial arts
00:57:09.420 right because there's so many dudes who talk trash who would never in a million years
00:57:13.000 say anything to me to my face or and that's what i've realized moving over to the ufc i mean i went
00:57:19.880 from bellator i was i was the biggest name in bellator had the largest social media following in
00:57:24.780 bellator kind of the the biggest name there and everybody saw the writing on the wall that i was
00:57:30.240 going to test free agency the day that i signed with the ufc i got like 600 000 followers in like 24
00:57:37.600 hours right on just on instagram and that's not in that doesn't mean i'm any cooler than anybody else
00:57:44.020 but it was just it's pretty cool it was pretty cool but like how quickly how quickly it happened
00:57:48.500 right and then i was like oh shoot man most of the time people were just talking to me because they
00:57:53.320 liked me now it's like people just want to talk to me because they want to hate on me and it went
00:57:58.240 to a way different level which was so good for me because i needed it i really am i got into this
00:58:03.460 sport wanting everybody to love me and i'm like man if i just do the right things and i fight hard
00:58:08.480 and i entertain them and i and i say what i believe and i do it people are gonna love me man everyone's
00:58:13.040 gonna love me nobody's gonna dislike me oh it's like you know so i had to get over that and it was
00:58:20.520 really good it was a very immature thing i mean you you know like yeah and and even hearing you speak
00:58:26.160 and the way that you operate and and and you've unlocked things in me because it really is a
00:58:32.020 blessing to be in a in a position where people are hating on you because it means you're doing
00:58:34.940 something right yeah but i was i wasn't ready for it um and now with the whole connor thing now it's
00:58:40.080 about to go to the moon so i'm gonna have to continue to add layers to my skin when you're
00:58:47.500 authentic when you are an authentic human being you are gonna have people are gonna hate you dude
00:58:53.520 like it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter if you're just for that bro
00:58:57.340 exactly yeah they're gonna hate the way that you show up that you shine bro you don't have it's not
00:59:03.500 even about being successful it's just about being authentic people do not like people with authentic
00:59:09.580 opinions they are very used to seeing people pander they are very used to seeing people go with the
00:59:15.900 flow or tiptoe around and when you show up like we do every day and we're like this is what i think
00:59:22.680 regardless of what you think people don't like that you know what i'm saying and and it doesn't
00:59:28.780 matter if you are curing cancer or if you're solving world hunger or you're creating world peace
00:59:37.160 people are still going to be pissed off about it man and so many people hide behind trying to avoid
00:59:44.160 that criticism when in reality if you are doing something of any significance at all the fact that
00:59:50.800 people are giving you that sort of attention is that is a really good sign and um what's really
00:59:57.500 cool is that at least in my case and i know this is your case too because i've seen it a lot of people
01:00:03.240 start off hating they're like god dude i can't stand that guy all he ever does all he ever does is talk
01:00:09.000 shit i can beat his ass yeah and then after six months they're like this man you know what i used to
01:00:18.460 and i like you dude but i really like you yeah that is my favorite thing because because and uh you
01:00:24.940 know who's a good example of that right now is a guy named bo nickel he was like bo nickel's the first
01:00:28.940 form oh there you go so bo is exactly like me in a lot of ways yeah he's he got booed yeah you know
01:00:35.500 he got booed at the weigh-ins or he's got a little bit of boo in the crowd for no reason just the fact
01:00:40.500 that that he's getting this this love from the ufc and he's getting he's getting pushed and he's being
01:00:44.760 promoted and and there was the same thing with me i came into the ufc and everybody's like who's
01:00:49.040 this bellator punk getting this and getting that i got a title shot on my second fight and i'm like
01:00:53.480 guys first of all i didn't choose this it wasn't like i came in and and all of a sudden i'm in charge
01:00:58.760 of dana and dana's making his decisions like this is how they're doing it and don't be mad at me right
01:01:04.280 and a year in and i talked to bo about this too man because they're gonna hate on you because
01:01:09.480 because they they see it and maybe their favorite fighter is this guy and you're getting more shine than
01:01:13.700 that guy everybody's got their reasons why they don't like you right and then but then eventually
01:01:17.460 you're just like man and i think bo said that in his post fight press conference or in his post fight
01:01:21.400 speech he was just like hey just give it time i promise you're gonna you're gonna like me yeah
01:01:24.920 and that's kind of what i said i'm like dude there's no reason why you should dislike me just give it time
01:01:29.420 and my favorite my favorite interactions are those ones where it's like dude i didn't like you when he
01:01:34.880 came into the ufc because of this because of that or whatever it might have been but dude
01:01:37.760 i've i've come around i'm like dude me winning you over is actually so much better than me
01:01:43.460 you liking me from the get yes yeah liking me from the get-go because all you can do is just
01:01:48.180 be authentically yourself yeah and i think it is it is unbecoming to so many people because
01:01:53.000 because they're living a life of they're living a life of knowing that they're not being their
01:01:58.840 authentic self and when they see somebody operating in authenticity it it feels weird to them you know
01:02:04.580 and i and i think i was somewhat like that when i was younger right well yeah bro you know and then
01:02:10.120 and i've as i've grown we all try to be what we think the success part of looks like yeah you know
01:02:17.220 and and what we don't realize brother is that it looks like us it looks like who we are yeah you know
01:02:23.640 and we live in social media where it's all marketing and it's all look at me and it's all clicks and
01:02:29.080 likes and shares and when you're an authentic person especially when you're a person who doesn't buy
01:02:34.340 into the debauchery of society it makes people feel weird you know that makes people feel like
01:02:41.740 you're being too good or you're standing on a pedestal which dude i know this in your case that
01:02:46.260 is not the case at all yeah and yeah and that's i think that's the toughest ones for me is where
01:02:51.440 people like ah i don't know there's just something about him i don't think it's i don't think it's
01:02:55.540 authentic i don't think that's really who he is and i'm just like i don't know man whatever yeah
01:02:59.360 those people save everybody like it's what it is i got some so many skeletons in my closet and i
01:03:03.780 was like i don't know dude whatever i ain't perfect i'll tell you that much show me yours first
01:03:07.160 sorry sorry if you don't like me but well i think that's where people get in trouble too is they
01:03:11.100 pretend to be perfect yeah you know they're like oh yeah i'm a perfect guy i've never made any
01:03:15.500 mistakes fuck dude i fucked it all up yeah all the shit you know what i'm saying well you know what
01:03:22.020 was funny for me too was going on to the ultimate fighter and i had this real conversation with my
01:03:25.880 wife i was just like hey babe i'm i gotta be honest with you i'm like really nervous because
01:03:31.160 you know we're on espn and it's like you're mic'd up and you know i'm something's gonna happen i'm
01:03:35.600 gonna end up mother effing connor or saying whatever and like and that ended up happening
01:03:40.120 you know it really ended up happening and i'm like and i'm like worried about my father-in-law who i
01:03:44.020 respect like like respect them so much my parents and my sons my like it lives on the internet forever
01:03:50.060 my sons will hear me you know say the f word on espn and they bleeped it out to connor when we got
01:03:55.640 gotten our little you know put pushing match but my wife who i like obviously she is my favorite
01:04:01.080 human being on the planet the one that i confide in the one that i love the most out of anybody and
01:04:06.640 she just looked at me she's like hey you're not perfect don't try to be perfect if you try to be
01:04:10.060 perfectly it's not real you're not perfect and i love you that you're not perfect i love you
01:04:14.080 through your imperfections and if you swear or you cuss or you do this or you do that or you come off
01:04:19.140 any way you come come off it doesn't matter i love you and everybody who really loves you loves you
01:04:24.320 and i'm like absolutely dang dude i'm about to cry you know she's like yeah and then it gave me
01:04:28.380 that permission because it really is a scary thing because you don't i don't want to come off
01:04:33.200 differently than than i want to be right i just want to be myself and do it and if something bad
01:04:39.000 happens or i say something i wish i would have said i might have to apologize or maybe i don't
01:04:42.720 need to apologize well bro i i think that the fact that you know how i see that i see that from a
01:04:48.440 little bit different perspective i see that as a testament to how hard you you put the effort in
01:04:54.680 to not be that way yeah right like if you're just how you are where you don't really curse and you're
01:05:00.620 you're very composed and you have a good uh disposition and you're polite and respectful
01:05:06.920 sometimes when that gets out of whack a little bit it actually just is a testament to how hard someone
01:05:13.160 works to keep that in check yeah and so that's how i see those things yeah no i like that i i yeah
01:05:18.000 because it because it definitely came out you know yeah i'm like whatever but the well let's be real
01:05:22.620 dude in a fight situation there are no rules yeah yeah exactly yeah exactly and the funny thing was
01:05:28.780 was that my father-in-law was was visiting that day to vegas whenever that whole fight thing happened
01:05:34.420 and i just got done mother effing connor or whatever but it was it was funny too because
01:05:39.260 now that it's happened i'm like that was actually wasn't that bad you know it's once again and it's
01:05:45.900 weird how as a 38 years old i'm like dealing with this and i'm still learning the uncharted territory of
01:05:50.900 of that right and you're like and to people who are out there like well michael chandler looks like
01:05:55.200 he's got all figured out i'm like dude i'm trying to get this thing figured out every single day yeah bro
01:06:00.000 dude can we talk a little bit about your faith yeah yeah man so yeah dude so so was this something
01:06:07.160 that you grew up with or something that you came around or so high ridge missouri um on high ridge
01:06:13.360 boulevard there was a little catholic church up there um so we i was raised catholic we did you
01:06:18.680 know our first holy communion and we did psr which is public school religion on mondays we would go
01:06:23.200 there for hour or two on mondays uh first holy communion got confirmation and then we kind of stopped
01:06:28.600 going to church for a little while you know three boys baseball getting you know very very busy
01:06:33.760 family um and then i got invited by uh another guy from st louis who was on my wrestling team
01:06:40.160 to his name's kenny bowen to twin rivers uh church on lee may ferry tess on ferry one of the two
01:06:47.240 and uh he's like hey man we got this youth group that we got on wednesday nights you know we're
01:06:51.380 going to go after practice i'm like sure dude i don't have a car but if you want to pick me up let's
01:06:55.360 go so that was the first time that i kind of started going to like a spirit-filled non-denominational
01:07:00.560 church and then after i started going then my brother started going and then my mom and dad
01:07:05.200 started going so that was kind of our first introduction to kind of a spirit-filled church
01:07:11.200 if you will and that's where i really got saved i was 14 15 years old um and it was an invitation
01:07:17.540 started with an invitation from a guy who i looked up to he's a year older than me kenny bowen all the
01:07:22.580 girls loved him he was cute he was handsome he was an athlete like he was the guy right but he was
01:07:26.920 also a really really great dude um so that's not always the best yeah dude isn't that the best when
01:07:32.820 you meet someone who's got all the skill all the talent got all the stuff and you find out that
01:07:37.180 they're even a better dude yeah dude that's the best like it's you know and that's the guys that
01:07:41.700 i always kind of gravitated towards and then wanted to be um obviously and then um so yeah i mean
01:07:47.600 that's when i really really when i got saved and then you know it's been my guiding light
01:07:51.580 since then um and it definitely ain't all sunshine and rainbows and just because you got
01:07:57.100 you know jesus in your heart and you've accepted him that all of a sudden things are going to work
01:08:00.640 out for you you know your test is your your faith is tested every single day um but it's been the one
01:08:06.220 thing obviously that i've been able to look back on and be like man once again looking at this whole
01:08:12.160 big picture right the bad things that have happened to me that that ended up being good and how god's had
01:08:17.740 me in the palm of his hand the entire time whether it be through the right person through the wrong
01:08:22.480 person through the ups through the downs through everything it's just been um you know and then now
01:08:29.120 to have a platform where i can you know i don't talk a ton about my faith but it's it's my favorite
01:08:35.360 it shines through bro it shines through and my two favorite kind of philosophies about faith for me
01:08:40.660 and this is how i do it right is live your life with so much joy and zeal and happiness that uptight
01:08:46.820 christians question your salvation all right that's number one um and number two preach the
01:08:52.900 gospel at all times but but only use words when necessary right you are a living testimony the way
01:08:59.200 that you operate the way that you live your life the way that you love people um the way that you
01:09:03.560 compete the way that you just live life is your your your testimony and your expression of your faith
01:09:10.860 you don't i don't have to sit here and talk to you about my favorite scriptures or try to get
01:09:15.040 every single person that i talk to saved because it's not the right time for the right or it might
01:09:19.800 be the right person but at the wrong time and everybody's going through their different things
01:09:22.800 and if i can be a light in that way and uh and that's that's what feels authentic to me and that's
01:09:28.940 how i share my faith as much as possible bro i'll be honest with you uh just knowing you and observing
01:09:35.680 that part of you has inspired me in that way just so you know thank you man yeah it's it's really cool
01:09:41.200 and i recognize that you live it and um it's just what it's it's one of the things i admire most
01:09:48.880 about you bro because you're you've been at the top of the world you're one of the most famous guys
01:09:53.520 in the world um in the most famous sport in the world and you've never let that change who you are
01:10:00.720 and you've always continued to live that message and and be a good dude and uh you are that dude
01:10:06.980 you know what i'm saying you're that guy that i'm talking about when you say you meet this guy
01:10:11.080 who's got this and this and this and this and then you find out dude this guy's even a better human
01:10:16.040 and um it's one of it's my favorite thing about you bro dude thank you man that's cool i appreciate
01:10:20.940 it man yeah and i'm that's that's uh because i do hear it a lot where people i mean i really thank
01:10:27.460 you thank you for talking about your faith and to me i don't really feel like i talk about it that
01:10:31.940 much in in a very uh i think in a very uh formal way if you will right because you think like
01:10:38.260 what what does it what does it sound like to talk about your faith right do we have to talk
01:10:42.680 scripture do we have to say talk about god's perspective on every single every single thing
01:10:47.400 do we have to you know do we have to operate as jesus would do we you know how do you do it i mean
01:10:53.860 i think the biggest thing is is if the holy spirit is inside of you and you try to do your best and
01:10:59.820 you're just operating in that way he doesn't have to he doesn't necessarily want you to be talking
01:11:05.040 about him all the time he just wants you to be a shining light to live it just to just live it
01:11:09.560 that's really preaching the gospel at all times but only using words when necessary only quoting
01:11:14.620 scripture when necessary you know and and people can tell people can tell how you by how you live
01:11:21.180 your life most of the time where your faith is at and that's a lot more effective than a lot like
01:11:25.760 you said the uptight christians you know i like that one yeah make me feel uncomfortable i like
01:11:30.280 that one we well we see this we see this in society right now right because things have gotten so far
01:11:36.760 out of control that people are morality people are finding jesus again which is awesome but what we're
01:11:44.600 what i'm seeing and observing is like people are going so far to where they're standing on their little
01:11:50.060 pedestal and they're preaching at you trying to say this and then really when you look at them you're
01:11:56.160 like well bro are you actually living that or are you just good at quoting the numbers and and the
01:12:02.300 passages and this and that yeah and i personally believe in by by no means am i an expert but i
01:12:09.980 personally believe that leading the way in that and how you live how you treat people how kind you are
01:12:15.200 how graceful you are uh and that doesn't mean that sometimes you don't have to stand for yourself or
01:12:20.000 you know jesus flips some tables over once in a while you know what i mean he wasn't a pacifist
01:12:24.180 um but i think that's far more important and far more impactful than someone who just preaches all the
01:12:31.400 time yeah no one one thousand i think i think it's damaging a lot of times i think a lot of people
01:12:36.340 are so preachy that people who are kind of on their way to finding it are like oh man we all feel it
01:12:42.440 yeah we all feel that whenever you're whenever you're around somebody who you're just like dude
01:12:46.620 you you are unattainable like nobody wants somebody who's nobody wants to really be around nobody wants
01:12:52.160 would you really want to be a christian if it if it seems like the level at which you need to be to
01:12:57.480 be a good little boy and a good little christian i think it's it's unbecoming and it makes it makes
01:13:01.960 me feel uncomfortable yeah right you know like you're not good enough yeah like and that's the that is
01:13:06.580 the biggest problem right right like god doesn't call the qualified he qualifies the called
01:13:11.760 he he is qualifying you every single day whether whether you are whether you like you said know
01:13:17.500 every single chapter and verse or you're absolutely perfect or you have screwed every single thing up
01:13:23.080 but you've had a change of heart and you're trying to work your way you know back into being a man of
01:13:28.360 faith and walking in a certain direction and a lot of times man it's those who have gone through the
01:13:35.420 craziest things the most embarrassing things the most the most painful sinful down in the dumps down
01:13:42.500 in the valley things that god uses the most man those are the people who i can look at him and say
01:13:47.220 yeah but look where he came from and look what god did with his life and look at how look at the
01:13:53.100 testimony that he has you know you can't have a testimony without a without a few scars man you know
01:13:58.120 um because it is it's on it's on uh it's unattainable you know and then there's there's people who
01:14:03.620 you know like a guy like tim tebow you know he's he's very very every single thing that he talks
01:14:08.560 about is is faith driven right and that's what feels authentically to him and that's his calling
01:14:13.460 right it feels authentic from him from him yeah from him and he's got a calling on his life man
01:14:18.400 and he's that guy but but if if you were like hey man i need you to be a little bit more like tebow
01:14:23.260 i'd be like hey dude it's not you i don't know if yeah that's my thing yeah and that's does that make
01:14:28.540 him uh does that mean when we stand at the pearly gates we're not both walking waltzing right in
01:14:32.960 you know no we both are um but my testimony is different and and i actually did a podcast with
01:14:40.560 uh uh brian tome who's a pastor and we we were talking back and forth and we were kind of talking
01:14:45.620 about you know because i've i've spoken at churches before i've spoken at men's conferences i've spoken
01:14:50.260 um on you know on the at the pulpit right and and you'd be so surprised at how many people
01:14:57.780 you would think would be like well dude how can this guy be a fighter and a christian it's like well
01:15:02.700 fighting is just the shiny object right we've all got we've all got these talents and these gifts and
01:15:09.340 these shiny objects that get people to look both the followers and the non-followers and the people
01:15:13.720 who have not come to christ yet we've all got that shiny thing that we can say hey this is this is going
01:15:18.480 to get you to look now peel back the layers and now let me make you feel something right now through
01:15:22.600 our interaction mine just happens to be fighting in a cage and it's no more it's no more better or worse
01:15:28.960 than anybody else's calling on their life because you know and this pastor said this brian said he's
01:15:34.680 like man you are reaching people that i would never in a million years be able to reach right that's
01:15:39.380 right like if you look at it just straight from a faith standpoint and you say well this guy fights
01:15:45.080 in a cage and he can win this many but this guy's a preacher and he can win this many it's not crazy
01:15:51.620 to think that i have a greater crowd of witnesses and i have i have some impact that i can make that
01:15:57.340 leads maybe not that person to me to then give their life to christ but that person to the next
01:16:01.880 rung to the next rung but i was one of the catalysts that started that right that's the way that i look
01:16:06.320 at it and the way that i operate is uh just authentically to myself and speaking about it when i
01:16:13.260 want to or or me to or when i'm asked about it or when i feel led to um but that's one of the biggest
01:16:18.840 things god doesn't call the he doesn't call the qualified he qualifies the called and he will well
01:16:23.620 something up inside of you and at different times different seasons right once again the fighter
01:16:28.800 that i am today needed to go through that lost streak or needed to go through this self-doubt and
01:16:32.260 needed to go through that needed to have this upbringing that's the that's the faith journey
01:16:36.580 in a nutshell right as long as it eventually leads to this one spot you're going to go through
01:16:42.780 these different seasons and you might and it might be it might be the right path it might and
01:16:46.800 you might be the right person but it just might not be time yet it might not be the right time
01:16:50.820 i love that you know i love it i love it so what's what's so so what's after fighting
01:16:58.340 man um now i know this but yeah i want people to hear and support yeah i mean after fighting man
01:17:07.560 you know so i'm involved in a couple different companies both through investment and then uh
01:17:11.500 kind of leadership roles and uh you know i have a fitness app that i work on and we're building a
01:17:18.600 community i mean obviously fitness is always going to be a part of my life and it's and it's changed
01:17:22.400 my life it's made me a living it's made me a platform it's made me everything right if i hadn't
01:17:27.100 found the sport or sport of wrestling and then it turned me into the man that i am today um you know
01:17:32.420 i just i just owe a debt of gratitude to fitness and making people find the best versions of themselves
01:17:38.380 right um so continue to work on my businesses build that um i want to speak on stages i want to write
01:17:44.720 i want to just impact as many people as possible um both you know in front of the camera behind the
01:17:50.360 camera on the microphone behind the microphone um and just leave my mark on this planet um you know
01:17:57.780 when i get done fighting and it's really great too like hearing you know we have a lot of the same
01:18:01.320 friends who have who have kind of always said the same thing man like you're the fortune you're going
01:18:05.900 to make and the impact that you're going to make and the platform that you're going to make is going
01:18:08.720 to be tenfold after you lay the gloves down and i'm like hold on dude i don't know you know
01:18:13.620 you kind of you kind of it's gonna you know you kind of get into that mode you're like really dude
01:18:17.280 well okay well if you see if you see that man i want to i'm going to keep on working and i'm going
01:18:20.840 to keep on talking and i'm going to keep on getting after it and uh you know i i just see myself in a
01:18:26.040 position to be able to use the the lessons that i've learned through the last 23 years of of 24 years
01:18:32.960 of hand-to-hand combat and it's uh it's similarities to the fights that all of us are going through in
01:18:38.720 every single aspect of our life and uh turning it into a masterpiece that's going to be able to
01:18:44.480 reach the masses yeah and you're close to some of the best entrepreneurs in the world i know you're
01:18:48.780 really good with with ed you're close to ed uh you're close to dana you know dana's people see dana
01:18:55.720 on the usc but they fail to realize how intelligent and how smart he is as a businessman so smart man bro
01:19:02.820 and and it was really revealed this weekend and i'm really really happy that it happened but you saw
01:19:08.380 there was 300 000 bonuses this weekend so max holloway won 600 000 in bonuses so there's four
01:19:13.820 bonuses one bonus each for the two guys in the in the fight of the night and then one performance of
01:19:19.260 the night and one knockout of the night um normally they're 50 000 bonuses which isn't a bad night at the
01:19:25.060 office for a bonus one of the reporters asked hey ufc 300 you should up into 300 000 and about one
01:19:32.280 second later he goes done and he just and it's badass it was very badass and i almost tweeted it
01:19:38.540 um and i talked to dana a little bit after the fights via kind of voice notes and stuff but
01:19:43.340 when i was negotiating with dana it was he and i and he made me an offer and i asked for i think it
01:19:50.540 was like 30 more you know i was like dana what's holding you back from you know 30 more he's like you
01:19:55.700 know what kid fuck it done and i was just like and that's how dana talks right yeah and uh that so
01:20:03.300 hearing the word done it just it it it made me remember if you bring enough to the table the
01:20:11.140 problem is don't out point your coverage the problem is don't don't take all the meat off the
01:20:15.600 bone man don't make it make it a win for them yeah right yeah don't yeah make it up make it a win
01:20:21.720 win man make it make it so that if you win they're like dang we got a great investment if you lose
01:20:28.160 they're like dang man well at least we didn't at least he didn't come and swing for the fence as
01:20:32.780 you know yeah so it was really cool and i what's really funny about dana and the ufc is i just don't
01:20:39.700 understand you know obviously he gets a ton of a ton of flack for not paying the fighters enough
01:20:45.980 fighter pay and this and that man but he's taking care of guys so much better than i think a lot of
01:20:50.160 people even realize well also too nobody sees the inner like people dude people think that you get
01:20:57.120 a bottle of protein here and it costs you 50 cents and you're selling it for 60 bucks that that's they
01:21:03.420 when they look at the ufc they don't think about you know all the expense all the operating costs all
01:21:10.740 the things that it takes to run a business they don't nobody thinks about those things they just
01:21:15.080 think they they do the math how many people watched yeah how much was the ticket how much was the
01:21:19.900 ticket how much are the how much are the the ad revenue they don't even think about the sponsorship
01:21:24.120 because they don't think that far ahead yeah and then they say okay well everybody should be making
01:21:28.220 a hundred million dollars and it's like everybody should have yeah dude now see the superpower that
01:21:32.820 i have and why i think why i have such a great relationship with the with the ufc and why i will
01:21:38.580 always love the ufc is i have the i have the unique perspective of the other organizations right
01:21:43.540 bellator was the number two organization in the world and i would watch how the ufc would promote
01:21:50.200 their fights and i don't think it's crazy to say that the ufc spends more money promoting
01:21:56.840 one fight than bellator spent the entire year on promotion the ufc was continuing to elevate the
01:22:04.860 game of mixed martial arts the whole sport of mixed martial arts and bellator pfl one championship all
01:22:11.420 these other organizations were just rising with the tide that the ufc was raising um and i and i
01:22:18.500 said that to dana and he actually just uh he actually just talked to me yesterday about this
01:22:22.800 sent me the voice notes we were kind of so he's like because i basically thanked him hey hey man
01:22:26.540 it's been a long journey glad we got this thing done can't wait to go out there and put on a crazy
01:22:30.780 show on june 29th and he was kind of reminiscing about my first phone call with dana basically he was
01:22:36.160 on he was on the tarmac in las vegas about to head out to somewhere we're talking for like five minutes
01:22:42.280 we're having a great back and forth conversation and i and i said this and it's 100 true it was just
01:22:47.480 just as true then as it is now and even five years prior i said dana number one i didn't know i i don't
01:22:55.200 i don't know if i would have been the man that you needed me to be a couple years ago when i had these
01:22:59.000 other opportunities these other opportunities to come over to the ufc so i'm really happy happy it's
01:23:03.360 happening right now and you have not paid me one dollar you have not signed your name on one of my
01:23:07.700 checks over the last 12 years but indirectly your name has been on every single one of my checks
01:23:13.060 because you have built and quarterbacked and championed this entire sport and then dana's like
01:23:18.640 oh my god i love it he basically hangs up hangs up on me calls hunter calls me back and he said hey
01:23:24.760 dude i know we got some sticking points but dude i don't know what you've been saying to my people but
01:23:28.360 they absolutely love you i love you i've always known we've loved you you're awesome you're
01:23:33.180 every single thing that we need and we want you to come over we're going to get you whatever we
01:23:36.880 need to get you to come over to the ufc and that's how the conversation went that's bad and then
01:23:40.460 and but it wasn't it wasn't a negotiation tactic it wasn't a ploy no it wasn't it was it was so
01:23:46.300 genuine and it is true man it's like and they get they take so much flack but of course they do
01:23:53.140 because the tallest nail is always going to get hammered you know and they're going to continue to
01:23:56.760 get hammered and they're going to continue to keep looking down while everybody else is is you know
01:24:01.880 trying to grab their ankles and pull them down instead of trying to just reach up to the next
01:24:05.420 rung they're trying instead of them reaching themselves up and trying to get themselves to
01:24:08.840 the next rung they're trying to reach up and pull the ufc down and that's just never a recipe for
01:24:13.300 success man and and the way that he operates man it's it's uh it's special man and it's it's a
01:24:18.940 blessing to be a part of it i think he sets a great example for for a lot of business owners
01:24:23.660 who are afraid to stand for what they believe in and speak for what they believe in now you don't
01:24:29.720 have to agree i happen to agree i love daniel yeah like i think i'll agree in this i got this
01:24:34.640 little i got this little note in my phone you know because dude i catch a lot of shit right like
01:24:39.200 yeah you don't say what what we say and not catch stuff a little something a couple of armchair
01:24:44.480 hey listen the best part about it is i become immune to it it does not affect me i think the
01:24:48.920 part about it i had this note what the people came back came back and they said you were right
01:24:54.440 yeah yeah oh yeah exactly no not me we yeah but but i had this note in my phone this was like i
01:25:00.080 don't know five years ago and it says like for when the when the heat would come it would always
01:25:05.860 it's it just says very simply what would dana white do what would he what would he say yeah yeah and
01:25:10.640 you know what i just follow that blue pic i'm like you know what hey fuck you this is what i do
01:25:15.160 if you don't like it turn to channel and once again like it's it's very it's it's very hard for
01:25:23.040 people to see that because they're like dude i don't like that guy because he is so confident
01:25:27.100 in himself i don't like because he really does not care like i don't like him because all the
01:25:32.520 things that i have to deal with all the things all my doubts and fears and insecurities that bother me
01:25:36.440 all the stuff that bothers me i don't like him because he doesn't have to deal with what i have
01:25:40.080 to deal with you know and it really is tough tougher in 2024 than it was in 1924 because of social
01:25:46.220 media and the world that we live in now and keeping up with the joneses and all of this stuff
01:25:49.940 i will admit and i will concede that it is tougher to live in the world that we live in
01:25:54.840 from that standpoint absolutely criticism standpoint it's easier to make yeah you didn't have to you
01:25:59.340 didn't have to see it back then yeah it's easier to make money it's easier to be successful it's
01:26:03.520 easier to do all those things because the internet and all these different things but it is very
01:26:07.080 challenging from that perspective so when we see somebody like that or a guy like yourself you're
01:26:11.600 like dang dude i don't like him it's like well do you not like him why don't you like him you just
01:26:16.040 don't like him because you wish you were more like that i mean i want to be more like that
01:26:20.000 everybody wants to be more like that that is that is freedom yeah and that really is you get this
01:26:25.620 short window of opportunity to live on this earth right and if you can operate the way that he's
01:26:31.220 operating man well you got to stand in the fire dude like that's the thing people don't understand
01:26:35.420 like when you don't stand in the fire right when you don't let the heat come and you just censor
01:26:40.500 yourself first of all you're degrading your own sense of worth you're saying i'm not being
01:26:45.380 authentic i'm not being who i am for fear of judgment for fear of criticism and that will
01:26:51.540 drive your self-esteem your self-worth your trust in yourself into the basement because you know you're
01:26:58.300 not presenting what you truly believe and if you would just stand out in the heat a little bit
01:27:03.420 it's like getting out in the sun bro the first day you get burnt you're like oh man yeah i should
01:27:08.300 have put some sunblock on right not really because i don't need it i don't need it yeah
01:27:13.440 no i don't bro i get darker than you i actually got burned the other day actually yeah but but
01:27:21.780 dude we're we're in a situation you get immune to it like you're yeah that you get conditioned to
01:27:27.200 it it's like a cold plunge yeah like you the first time you're in the cold plunge you're like
01:27:31.160 oh dude this is horrible and then you you get in it more and more and more and more and before you
01:27:37.920 know it you're in there for eight minutes at 35 degrees and you're like bro this is the best part of my
01:27:42.360 day yeah you know and and dude so when you get in that situation if people would just step out
01:27:47.920 and just allow themselves to feel it eventually you become conditioned to it and it doesn't bother
01:27:54.380 you it's just like anything else it's like when you start to go out and train the first day it's
01:27:58.860 hard second day it's hard and then it gets like kind of really hard for a minute and then all of a
01:28:04.640 sudden you acclimate and it gets easy yeah and uh and because people can't stand out there and take it
01:28:09.880 the first time or the second time or the third time they don't realize that like if you would
01:28:14.560 just stand there and and stand on your own two feet this stuff would stop stop killing you man
01:28:20.440 yeah and i think and i think you might have been the first person that ever really hear like kind
01:28:24.680 of drill it into this this idea of being able to trust yourself yeah this this idea of like self
01:28:29.000 image how do you have a high self image if you can't trust yourself i mean we've we've we've talked
01:28:32.840 about it 20 different ways about yeah doing the small things and setting a certain standard because
01:28:37.640 you know when you're that's another part of it when you when you when you cut corners are you lazy
01:28:42.320 or you you leave your shopping cart sitting over there you do litter whatever that's you know whether
01:28:47.780 you thought about it or not or you felt entitled enough to leave your hotel room a mess because
01:28:52.200 the cleaning lady's going to take care of it you're you're losing a little bit of trust with yourself
01:28:56.320 to get the job done so whether it's fighting in a cage or whether it's running a business or whether
01:29:00.640 it's running a household or whether it's being a parent how are you going to be able to trust
01:29:05.340 yourself in those moments if you know you can't get small little things done and and that's that's
01:29:11.780 something that i think you you you just spoke about but people probably just heard it and didn't they
01:29:16.160 kind of glossed over it you really are breaking a promise to yourself every single time you don't
01:29:20.740 stand up for what you believe in that's right every single time that you every single time that you
01:29:24.480 water yourself down every single time that you you copy there was i actually uh had a mindset coach
01:29:30.060 named jim hensel he called it moving the truth right it's kind of like omitting the truth but
01:29:34.140 you're moving the truth like it's not really the truth but you're moving the truth to accommodate
01:29:38.400 others yeah you make up you make up a story or you or you you say sorry for this when really you're not
01:29:43.500 sorry because you're doing what you're doing what it was authentically yourself you're breaking the
01:29:48.100 trust and promise that you have with yourself and you do it long enough before you know it you're a
01:29:52.140 shell of the man that you were called to be and you i owe it to my family i owe it to my wife i owe it to
01:29:57.280 my god my creator i owe it to society and i got i 100 honest we fail you even you you're you seem
01:30:05.280 like you're and maybe even dana every now and then there might be those moments where oh for sure you
01:30:09.560 know like okay i probably should have just said what i wanted to say there for sure but that's that
01:30:13.260 unlocks things too where you're like okay that dana's imprinted impenetrable he always says what's
01:30:17.240 on his mind i'm sure he's got those moments where yeah but when they become more and more far and few
01:30:21.500 between you're not a hundred thousand percent trustworthy but it's 99.9 percent and 99.9
01:30:28.620 is a heck of a place to be yeah dude you know i get criticized a lot for my positions on things in
01:30:34.860 the world obviously but like first of all i don't expect everybody to agree with me that's not the
01:30:39.700 purpose of me sharing them the purpose of me sharing them is to give my take on it right i feel like i have
01:30:47.140 a skill set a knowledge base i have enough life experience to give a reasonable take that should
01:30:53.920 be considered and you know people will say to me they will say why don't you just take it easy on
01:30:59.360 this or why don't you just because dude if i don't say what i believe to be true if i do not say exactly
01:31:08.160 what i believe to be true i am lowering all of the qualities that i need to operate as a human being
01:31:15.200 and if we would just look at it instead of saying oh just let people do whatever they want and let
01:31:21.580 dude there's limits to that there's limits to this because eventually when we're pacifying other people
01:31:27.620 and moving the truth to your point we we do become we lose our confidence we lose our swagger we lose our
01:31:35.000 belief and self that we need to be us like you can't walk out in the middle of a ring in front of
01:31:42.040 a hundred million people on television or whatever it is right and not think you're the man bro like
01:31:50.240 you have to and it has to be real it has to be real dude and that requires being authentic to self
01:31:57.960 as a baseline foundation and um you know i think if people would consider what
01:32:05.340 not being authentic does to their character and does to their belief in themselves they would be
01:32:12.300 a lot more likely to do so yeah and i think it's kind of what i what i said earlier because i was
01:32:16.500 just thinking about it how the older you get you just start caring less and less yeah and is it that
01:32:21.540 you care less and less or is it that you know what it feels like to move the truth and not be
01:32:26.920 authentically yourself that eventually you just start to be like no wait why have i done that for so long
01:32:32.560 and then and then obviously there's usually the older you get there's more success or the older
01:32:37.100 you get now maybe you've got a wife and kids you got people or you got your company has now tripled
01:32:41.720 quadrupled 10x in time in size right so it doesn't matter you you've just got more and more life
01:32:47.200 experience and you care less also because you know you used to care and you used to move the truth and
01:32:52.280 you used to pander and you used to water yourself down and it really was just so inauthentic yeah and
01:32:57.080 it bothered me like like anytime i've ever done that in my life i i like dude i'll remember it
01:33:02.840 forever for like years yeah i'm like fuck i can't wait till i see that guy again because i'm gonna
01:33:08.120 tell him the truth this time that's what i think that's i think when i get the maddest yeah it's
01:33:12.680 really hard for somebody else to steal my joy and make me mad at them yeah and it's funny too because
01:33:18.100 me and my wife are very similar right like and that's how it is when she gets her most upset it's
01:33:23.340 never at anybody else because it's like dude someone can't do that someone can't do enough
01:33:28.160 to you to make you as mad as you could probably get at yourself when you know you've made a mistake
01:33:32.680 or pandered or man this is not who i am why did i do this why did i just tell him this is what i want
01:33:37.980 this is how i want it to be this is how it should be and i deserve it not in a cocky uh entitled way but
01:33:44.000 like this is what we got to do right you know and and that's when you get really mad at yourself right
01:33:48.420 and it's and it's uh that's when i get and i will remember it right but it also sometimes you need
01:33:54.400 to go through that also too to finally put you back in line yeah yeah put you back in line but
01:33:59.020 also i feel like sometimes that's a little bit of a an inadvertent like you probably shouldn't let it
01:34:04.660 happen but each time it does happen you're getting closer and closer to that person who just doesn't
01:34:08.580 give a heck yeah you're like i don't give a rip dude yeah you know and it helps you and it doesn't
01:34:12.940 mean you got to be it doesn't mean you're gonna take advantage of people be a bad person not a person of
01:34:17.300 integrity do bad things you're doing really really good things but i'm just not going to
01:34:22.160 sacrifice who i am and how i do things that's right yeah you know i want to ask you this man
01:34:27.040 like like give me give me a straight fucking answer the first time that bruce announced you
01:34:32.080 how was that dude my my first experience of fighting in the ufc was i've had some really really
01:34:40.400 really great moments in my entire career but that one was extra extra special so i mean yeah i get
01:34:46.880 getting chills thinking about it because yeah when it happened because it's one of those deals
01:34:51.640 where i've watched the ufc from afar from so long and i've got to be honest with you i've done
01:34:56.080 interviews where i'm like yeah i deserve to be in the ufc but i didn't really truly believe it you
01:34:59.860 know when i was a little bit younger and then i needed to get to the point where i finally believed
01:35:03.940 it and i deserved it and i knew i i almost forced the door to open about four or five years ago because
01:35:10.980 i went through three different contract renewals or four different contract renewals with ufc or with
01:35:15.280 bellator each time i was going to have the opportunity to become a free agent take a chance
01:35:20.100 and go to the ufc and each time it just never felt like the right time until it felt like the exact
01:35:25.360 right time which was you know 2020 when it happened and i was taking a chance on myself i was leaving
01:35:32.160 relative i was leaving relative security bellator loved me they were paying me very well i was going
01:35:37.180 to come over to the ufc i thought i was going to take a pay cut turns out i did not take a pay cut
01:35:41.040 and i was very pleasantly surprised um but i was still taking a chance i still there's a lot of
01:35:47.020 people who were like i mean you know and even my wife you know for for years it's like well we got
01:35:51.720 a great thing going but i want you to do what you want to do and i was like yeah babe but if i go there
01:35:56.540 if i go to a barbecue it's over i'm getting cut she's like is that what you want to do i'm like yeah
01:36:00.940 that's what i want to do because i wasn't going to be able to lay my i pictured the 40 year old me
01:36:05.280 the 42 year old me retired laying in bed at night and i just cannot get comfortable because my head
01:36:11.020 is laying on this 40 pound cinder block of why did you not go test yourself against the best guys the
01:36:17.560 biggest the baddest the best guys in the world why did you not take a chance on yourself you walked on
01:36:21.500 to mizzou nobody knew who you were everyone from high ridge missouri was like hey dude why don't you
01:36:26.840 just go to missouri baptist or why don't you just go to cmsu they're offering you scholarship you did it
01:36:32.220 back then how could how could 18 year old michael make that choice but 34 year old michael can't make
01:36:36.760 that choice after all of god's faithfulness after all the things that you've done right
01:36:41.640 but that moment when i was walking out there to that first fight in the ufc man you can just see
01:36:47.900 the joy like it was it was i knew i was right where i was supposed to be i would and i had zero
01:36:53.660 doubts whatsoever which most of the time i do luckily walking into the cage but that was it was a special
01:36:59.700 special night and dan hooker's number five in the world knock him out in the first two and a half
01:37:03.280 minutes he had just went 25 minutes with dustin poirier the number two guy in the world at that
01:37:07.360 point and yeah bruce announcing the name and finally watching the ufc from afar hearing bruce
01:37:12.580 buffer from afar all those years and now he's saying iron michael chandler man it's uh it's pretty crazy
01:37:18.580 dude we're gonna wrap it up because i i uh we got some other stuff to do too yeah we got some other
01:37:25.500 stuff yeah but s'mores party s'mores we got s'mores to eat some of this guy so dude let me
01:37:32.720 before we go i'd like i'd like to close with with just one thing um what's what's your message to
01:37:40.880 connor i'm just kidding no let's go you know actually i would actually like to clear something
01:37:48.400 up so i actually uh i gotta ask this uh a little while back before the fight was announced and whatever
01:37:53.780 like what's the message to connor you know ed and i have been talking about this a lot and he's like
01:37:58.440 the thing we're gonna hammer home michael is that you have earned this you really really have and i
01:38:02.900 know there's got to be a tiny little part of you that little guy from that little town it was taught
01:38:06.440 to do little things that i always talk about he's still in there and there's a part of you that's
01:38:10.180 like hey man yeah you're here but you haven't earned it you don't deserve it right and i'm like
01:38:14.660 yeah no there's there's that there's always that little inkling in all of us right he's like but
01:38:17.720 we got a hammer home that you earned this right you have yeah and i and i and i and i answered this
01:38:23.060 question um a couple weeks ago and i was getting a little bit of hate for it because it kind of came
01:38:27.800 off like hey connor hasn't earned it and i have earned it we must be very clear connor mcgregor
01:38:32.760 was the best thing for mixed martial arts ever ever in the history of the sport he has built the sport
01:38:39.180 he he i'm making more money because of him the next fighter's making more money because of him
01:38:44.020 more people know us because of him he's elevated the sport the ufc has done a lot of that as well
01:38:49.700 connor mcgregor has earned every single thing that he's ever gotten he's probably earned more
01:38:54.500 he probably could have made more had there not been some other things decisions that he has made he
01:38:58.480 has done every single thing that he needs to do to be exactly where he is at but when it comes to
01:39:03.380 the last couple years when it comes to who's going to put more work in who has been putting
01:39:08.540 more work in who has been more steadfast more immovable more disciplined i'm the guy who has earned
01:39:13.980 it right i'm the guy who stepping into that cage when i do finish him and his eyes roll back in the
01:39:20.240 back of his head i'm not going to feel anything but i am very very blessed man and i earned this
01:39:27.720 and i deserve this and i think i finish him in the second round let's go all right one thing this is
01:39:34.060 what i was really gonna ask sorry i love it i just hijacked i just hijacked you no no no i loved it
01:39:40.000 but what i really want to ask because i think it's important because we have a lot of young
01:39:45.700 hungry ambitious people that listen to the show if you could go back from where you are now and you
01:39:53.740 said earlier you couldn't see that 15 year old connecting the dots to be where you are now what
01:39:59.760 would your message be to the young men and the young women and that 15 year old michael chandler
01:40:05.360 who is filled with uncertainty and uncertain about the path and really can't connect the dots
01:40:13.820 they know they want to get somewhere but they're not sure how to do it what would that message be
01:40:19.380 man i think the message is going to be it's all going to work out and never ever ever grow weary in
01:40:27.460 doing good people are going to try to put you into a box people are going to tell you
01:40:32.820 that you have to live your life this way you have to talk like this you have to walk like this
01:40:37.840 you have to do this you have to act like this these are the things this is what society says
01:40:42.840 that you have to do this is what we say you need to do this is what your parents say you need to do
01:40:49.720 this is what your friends say you need to do there's going to be all of these conflicting
01:40:52.880 things and then you're going to get into your path and then there's going to be even more people
01:40:58.300 talking and and and the road to wherever way you're going to go and there's going to be so
01:41:03.640 much uncertainty because you're you're not quite sure how to build it if you step on that square
01:41:09.860 right there is it a foothold is it going to fall out underneath you or is it going to take you to
01:41:13.500 the next step you're not quite sure all you can do is boil it all the way back down distill it
01:41:19.960 all the way back down to just operating with integrity and doing the best becoming the best
01:41:24.840 version of yourself brick by boring brick and doing the small little things because yeah when
01:41:29.520 I was younger um if if you would have told me that I was going to be sitting here on the cusp of 75
01:41:35.480 days away from the pinnacle of what mixed martial arts is um I would have thought you were absolutely
01:41:42.880 crazy I would have I would have told you right there don't you bring don't you bring that energy
01:41:47.560 toward me right now because I feel like you're lying to me there is no way that that is going to
01:41:50.800 happen and then eventually you get to the point where you look back at that 15 year old boy and
01:41:55.820 you think man I'm so proud of you for never giving up and I'm proud of you for making those decisions
01:42:01.660 I'm proud of you for walking on I'm proud of you in the face of adversity you pulled yourself back up
01:42:08.060 I'm proud of you for the way that you've operated and I'm proud of you for never ever wavering
01:42:15.840 because it's going to be the things that kept you small the things that suppressed you it's going
01:42:22.800 to be the things that held you down that will eventually springboard you into something that
01:42:27.460 is so much bigger than you ever thought could ever ever be possible you're going to get the
01:42:32.380 opportunities for the big big things because of the things that kept you small because of the things
01:42:40.700 that held you down because of the things that you hated yourself for and the way that you did
01:42:45.700 operate and how you were afraid and the fear and the doubt and all of that all of that stuff is the
01:42:51.920 reason you're going to get this opportunity so just stay steadfast in that and as long as you're doing
01:42:57.160 what you can do as long as you're doing the best that you can do it might not be tomorrow it might not
01:43:02.540 be next week but eventually the hard work will pay off but you still have to be standing there
01:43:06.300 to receive it when it does bro I love that man dude thank you so much man this has been an
01:43:14.460 awesome conversation uh this has been an amazing show it's one of my favorite conversations we've
01:43:18.820 ever had thank you and uh 75 days bro 75 days I give you my word I'm going to go as hard as I can go
01:43:26.280 for the next 75 days just just to support that's going to be my way to support all right and I know
01:43:33.360 there's going to be a lot of people listening that will do the same we're going to get behind
01:43:36.520 you in this fight so um I would say good luck but I don't think you need it I know you're going to
01:43:41.860 show up every day and I know you're going to do the work um brother I'm proud to be your friend
01:43:47.060 I'm proud to have you as part of first form I'm proud of who you are as a man and uh you're a great
01:43:53.060 example for for everybody listening including myself and bro I just appreciate you man thank you bro
01:43:58.120 it's an honor honor to be here thank you for this and I'm proud to be part of first form and what you
01:44:02.500 have created here because I am extremely extremely proud of it well it's day one bro day one baby
01:44:07.420 that's right day one all right guys that's the show uh I appreciate you guys I love you guys
01:44:13.940 and uh don't be a hoe for the show
01:44:16.540 went from sleeping on the floor now my jewelry box froze fuck a pole fuck a stole counted millions in
01:44:24.140 the cold bad bitch booted swole got her on bankroll can't fold doesn't know headshot case close
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