The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #110 with Craig Jones & Alex Volkanovski

00:00:03.000 The Joe Rogan Experience.

00:00:05.000 Train by day.

00:00:07.000 Joe Rogan Podcast by night.

00:00:08.000 All day. 0.98

00:00:13.000 And we're up with the baddest motherfucker in the 145-pound division on the planet Earth, Alexander the Great Volkanovski! 0.97

00:00:21.000 And by default, the number one grappler on the planet because he poisoned his teammate. 0.97

00:00:26.000 Yeah, but you're breaking secrets there.

00:00:27.000 Oh, it's a lie.

00:00:28.000 It's not true. 1.00

00:00:29.000 Craig Jones, you bad motherfucker. 1.00

00:00:31.000 What were you about to say? 1.00

00:00:33.000 I'm just glad to be present right now because last time we had our podcast, I don't even remember it.

00:00:38.000 How do you not remember it?

00:00:39.000 Well, Vegas got me.

00:00:41.000 I remember coming in.

00:00:42.000 I'm like, yeah, man.

00:00:43.000 And I was in a weird bubble.

00:00:45.000 Maybe nerves and that included in it.

00:00:47.000 I don't know what it was, but I literally don't even remember it because I had big nights over there.

00:00:52.000 Oh, okay.

00:00:53.000 Big, big nights.

00:00:54.000 And then I barely remember it.

00:00:56.000 So I'm like, man, what did I say?

00:00:58.000 I literally thought like...

00:01:00.000 The boys are in the green room and they're like, oh no, you talked about this.

00:01:02.000 I go, I talked about that?

00:01:04.000 Like, I honestly couldn't remember nothing.

00:01:05.000 Welcome to my life.

00:01:06.000 Yes.

00:01:06.000 I leave here and people are mad at me.

00:01:08.000 And I'm like, what the fuck did I say? 0.98

00:01:10.000 And they're like, you said that thing about the guy. 0.99

00:01:12.000 And I'm like, did I? I don't remember.

00:01:14.000 I don't know what the fuck I said. 0.99

00:01:15.000 Yeah, if you're in a good conversation, it just goes down the hole. 0.99

00:01:19.000 Speaking of good conversations, you were on the Great and Powerful Alex Jones Show yesterday.

00:01:24.000 Yes. 0.99

00:01:24.000 What the fuck was that like? 0.99

00:01:25.000 A great experience. 0.99

00:01:27.000 Alex is just as funny in real life as he is on the show.

00:01:31.000 He's hilarious.

00:01:31.000 I could listen to that guy talk all day.

00:01:33.000 Yeah, he easily could be a stand-up comedian.

00:01:36.000 Easily.

00:01:36.000 I think I'm actually trying to convince him.

00:01:38.000 I believe he's going to come to the grappling show this Friday night, and I'm going to persuade him to jump in the corner, so I'm going to have Alex Jones and John Danahoe.

00:01:46.000 Joe, what do you reckon?

00:01:47.000 Are you going to jump in there too, maybe?

00:01:48.000 No, I just might have to separate John from Alex.

00:01:51.000 I don't know if those personalities will work so well.

00:01:54.000 I imagine that as a podcast.

00:01:57.000 I don't.

00:01:58.000 There's certain things you don't want to mix.

00:02:00.000 I don't think I'd mix those two together.

00:02:01.000 I think, you know, you want to listen to John talk.

00:02:04.000 I'll get John to whisper things to Alex, and Alex can give me that energy he brings to the show.

00:02:08.000 Oh, right.

00:02:09.000 Like, have John whisper certain instructions.

00:02:12.000 It would be like one step. 0.99

00:02:13.000 He'd fuck it up, though. 0.97

00:02:14.000 Like, he wouldn't really know. 0.99

00:02:16.000 Step on his leg! 0.99

00:02:17.000 No, over.

00:02:18.000 Over the leg.

00:02:20.000 You know?

00:02:22.000 So he's going to be there.

00:02:23.000 Yeah, he's coming.

00:02:24.000 I think he got very excited when I said Eddie Bravo would be there.

00:02:27.000 John's going to be there as well, doesn't he?

00:02:29.000 Yep, John flies in.

00:02:30.000 I think he might have landed already.

00:02:31.000 Yeah, John's here tomorrow.

00:02:32.000 He's on the podcast tomorrow.

00:02:34.000 You're his number one guy right now, so you know what I mean?

00:02:37.000 We'll give it a bit of time before I claim it.

00:02:39.000 Well, we're hoping we can fix Gordon whatever his stomach issue is.

00:02:44.000 So, are you done filming The Ultimate Fighter?

00:02:47.000 Finished.

00:02:48.000 Finished filming, yeah.

00:02:49.000 How many weeks, all told, did you do?

00:02:50.000 We did a little four and a half weeks, I think it was.

00:02:52.000 Four and a half weeks, but yeah, all done now.

00:02:54.000 And this is the return of the Ultimate Fighter for the last, how many years it's been off the air?

00:02:59.000 Three?

00:02:59.000 Yeah, two or three.

00:03:00.000 Two or three years?

00:03:01.000 Yeah, but that's what it's called, the return of the Ultimate Fighter.

00:03:05.000 How was it?

00:03:05.000 How was it for you?

00:03:06.000 It was good.

00:03:07.000 You know, obviously we can't give too much away, but it was good.

00:03:10.000 It was a great experience for all of us, and it's pretty interesting as well.

00:03:14.000 How is the talent level of the upcoming guys, the guys that are on the show?

00:03:18.000 Yeah, they're good.

00:03:19.000 They're great.

00:03:21.000 Cool dudes.

00:03:21.000 They're all actually pretty good dudes from both shows.

00:03:25.000 Obviously, a little bit gets heated here and there, but some good fights as well.

00:03:30.000 If you look back at The Ultimate Fighter and you see over the years, it's amazing the level of talent just keeps getting better and better and better.

00:03:39.000 You know, in the beginning days, the guys were, you know, you had guys from, like, smaller circuits and, you know, guys who are maybe some were veterans, maybe some were beginners.

00:03:48.000 But now, like, if you watch Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender Series, it's like so many of those guys are really talented.

00:03:55.000 It's pretty amazing.

00:03:56.000 Like, you see guys that have UFC debuts and you watch them and you go, wow, these guys are good.

00:04:01.000 Like, really smooth, good flow, you know, great transitions, great overall, you know, octagon IQ. I'm noticing that as well.

00:04:12.000 As you said, Dana White Contender Series.

00:04:15.000 You did watch it back in the day.

00:04:17.000 Obviously, it was a little bit different, I guess, but obviously the knowledge is more out there now and everyone's sharing that knowledge in big gyms and all that type of stuff.

00:04:25.000 I feel like I've noticed that a lot, the level in this.

00:04:29.000 Even though they're all entertaining, they know exactly what they're doing in there as well.

00:04:32.000 It only makes sense that you bring in a fellow Aussie to be a grappling coach.

00:04:36.000 Yeah, I mean, when Alex gave me the call to come in...

00:04:39.000 Talk up to this thing. 1.00

00:04:39.000 Bring that sucker up to your face. 1.00

00:04:40.000 There you go. 0.99

00:04:41.000 When Alex gave me the call to jump in, yeah, I was very excited.

00:04:43.000 Obviously, big MMA fan.

00:04:44.000 Too scared to do MMA myself.

00:04:47.000 But I really had a lot of fun jumping in with the guys, and the level of grappling was awesome.

00:04:51.000 Did you...

00:04:52.000 We've got a kickboxing session in as well.

00:04:55.000 I saw that. 0.98

00:04:55.000 He fucked me up on the wall and grappled for ten minutes each, but then I've got five minutes to bash him up a bit. 0.98

00:05:01.000 Push it out so that it's like, you don't have to do that, but just get it right in front of your face. 0.99

00:05:05.000 Right there?

00:05:05.000 Yeah, there you go.

00:05:06.000 Like there.

00:05:07.000 But you can move so you don't...

00:05:08.000 I don't want you doing this.

00:05:09.000 Cramped up.

00:05:09.000 It's a little uncomfortable.

00:05:11.000 Had you done a lot of striking training before?

00:05:15.000 I mean 10 years ago when I was sort of getting into Jiu Jitsu I would just put on the MMA gloves and me and my buddies would just beat the shit out of each other.

00:05:22.000 We'd go home with headaches and stuff but really I would say no formal training.

00:05:26.000 I wouldn't have put gloves on for 10 years but really I created an OnlyFans account for a bit of a laugh and I wanted to put Alex on but I figured it would only be fair so we do 10 minutes of grappling Ten minutes of wool work, because I guess wool work is sort of like the intermediary, but then five minutes of kickboxing.

00:05:41.000 I was only meant to do kickboxing, but he beat the shit out of me so bad, I had to shoot a takedown.

00:05:48.000 I'm like, that's not the rules.

00:05:49.000 What's going on here?

00:05:50.000 He stood it up. 0.99

00:05:51.000 He got the cameraman to give a fucking referee stand-up. 0.99

00:05:54.000 I was like, this is unfair. 0.99

00:05:55.000 Let me survive a little longer.

00:05:56.000 I think it was very fair, because it was just kickboxing.

00:05:59.000 You've never had any itch at all to do MMA? A little bit, but I used to go to university and study psychology, and I remember all it took was one section on traumatic brain injury, and I was like, what do they get paid?

00:06:11.000 That's probably not enough.

00:06:12.000 That's not enough for me.

00:06:13.000 I've got footage of him hitting pads with Joe Lopez, so I might put that up.

00:06:18.000 Yeah, give the people a laugh.

00:06:20.000 It wasn't bad, actually.

00:06:21.000 It wasn't bad.

00:06:21.000 He had some technique in there.

00:06:22.000 I mean, people will be entertained by it.

00:06:24.000 They'll get a good laugh out of it for sure.

00:06:25.000 It wasn't that bad.

00:06:26.000 Well, when you see him, world champion, obviously fine.

00:06:29.000 Does it give you pause?

00:06:31.000 A little bit.

00:06:32.000 I mean, so obviously we were talking before the show about the Gabby Garcia thing, and I always say I would definitely take an MMA fight with Gabby Garcia because obviously we both can't fight either.

00:06:41.000 You know what I mean?

00:06:41.000 It'd be a fair fight there.

00:06:43.000 So if that happened in Japan, I would probably jump in and keep doing it if the money was right. 1.00

00:06:47.000 Probably come back and train with Alex for it.

00:06:49.000 Dude, she's beat the shit out of some- I don't want to be a part of that one. 0.99

00:06:54.000 She has beat the shit out of some ladies. 1.00

00:06:56.000 Have you seen some of those fights? 0.86

00:06:57.000 Yeah, I mean, they're entertaining.

00:06:59.000 I remember she- What are they doing over there?

00:07:00.000 In Japan, they go, what do you do?

00:07:02.000 You work in a laundromat?

00:07:03.000 Come here.

00:07:03.000 Want to fight Gabby Garcia?

00:07:05.000 Like, they take some lady that looks like she's 100 pounds lighter than her. 1.00

00:07:09.000 And she was 55. She was 55 years old.

00:07:12.000 That's so crazy.

00:07:13.000 I would take that contract. 0.95

00:07:14.000 If they're like, hey, you want to beat up some old women? 1.00

00:07:16.000 I mean, if the price was right, I'd jump in for that, for sure.

00:07:18.000 You wouldn't do it just for the hate that you would get online.

00:07:21.000 That's true.

00:07:22.000 Come on, man.

00:07:22.000 You didn't want to post an Alex Jones clip and you're worried about beating up old ladies?

00:07:26.000 I'm worried about getting banned, though.

00:07:27.000 I can't lose the Instagram account.

00:07:29.000 Explain to me that you guys were saying that you're shadow banned.

00:07:33.000 I couldn't tell you exactly why I'm shadow banned, but I am.

00:07:38.000 I've noticed that there's a few UFC fighters as well that are shadow banned.

00:07:43.000 I don't know if it's...

00:07:44.000 Because of the sport or what, I don't think it's anything that I've put up.

00:07:49.000 The content, you can understand with Craig Jones.

00:07:53.000 You can understand with Craig Jones.

00:07:54.000 But I've got a children's book, so I'm a family man.

00:07:58.000 Obviously, I like to have a bit of fun, but I ain't putting anything out there that I should be shadow banned for, but I am.

00:08:04.000 Now, when you say you're shadow banned, what makes you say that?

00:08:07.000 Because say if you were to look me up, that's what Shadowband is like.

00:08:12.000 If you try and look us up, you literally need to have to write our full name to get us popping up.

00:08:17.000 I'll get all my fan pages coming up before me.

00:08:20.000 Let me see.

00:08:20.000 I'm going to do that right now.

00:08:21.000 Okay.

00:08:21.000 So let's go right now.

00:08:23.000 We'll go to Instagram.

00:08:24.000 Is that the case if they're following you as well?

00:08:26.000 If they're following you already, I believe it should pop up.

00:08:28.000 Okay.

00:08:30.000 I don't know.

00:08:30.000 But I definitely know.

00:08:32.000 Right away you pop up.

00:08:33.000 Comes up straight away.

00:08:34.000 I definitely know why I got shot up.

00:08:35.000 You pop up first.

00:08:36.000 I typed in Alex and you popped up first.

00:08:39.000 Oh, okay.

00:08:40.000 Maybe the band's off for you.

00:08:41.000 Maybe the band's off.

00:08:42.000 Now I'm doing a podcast with Craig Jones.

00:08:44.000 He's going to ban me again, I reckon.

00:08:45.000 I think if somebody doesn't know who you are, like if, you know, you think about how many Alex's there are out there in the world.

00:08:52.000 If someone's just searching for you, it's probably just a flaw in their algorithm.

00:08:57.000 A lot of people think, the reason why I'm asking this is there are definitely people that are shadow banned.

00:09:02.000 But there's a lot more people that think they're shadow banned.

00:09:04.000 And usually when people think they're shadow banned, I'm like, bro, you gotta stop paying attention to your numbers.

00:09:08.000 You're getting wacky.

00:09:09.000 Because you're just like...

00:09:10.000 Why am I not getting more interactions?

00:09:13.000 Why are more people not paying attention to my posts?

00:09:16.000 I don't think they would shadowban you.

00:09:19.000 If they're not shadowban Derek Lewis, Derek Lewis has legitimate homicides on his Instagram.

00:09:25.000 He's got people getting hit by trucks, falling off of trees. 1.00

00:09:28.000 If you want to watch fucked up shit, you go to Derek and it's always, he's okay. 1.00

00:09:32.000 That's the best Instagram page, for sure. 1.00

00:09:34.000 He's the best!

00:09:35.000 Derek Lewis is the best.

00:09:37.000 He's the best.

00:09:37.000 He knows how to use Instagram better than anybody.

00:09:39.000 He's a funny dude, too.

00:09:41.000 It's funny, because you say that, but I know, because I remember we looked into it, and someone said that, oh, you must be, because they explained it to me.

00:09:47.000 I didn't even know what shadow banning was.

00:09:49.000 And then I ended up going, what?

00:09:50.000 I told them to type in a couple of other names from UFC, and there was a lot of them that were.

00:09:54.000 They wouldn't come up.

00:09:55.000 And all our fan pages and all that would come up first before us, but hopefully it's changed.

00:10:00.000 And hopefully you don't fuck that up.

00:10:02.000 Jamie, you're skeptical about that stuff, right?

00:10:04.000 Aren't you?

00:10:05.000 You know more about it than I do.

00:10:06.000 Maybe, but there could be reasons.

00:10:11.000 I think Joe's saying the right thing, though.

00:10:13.000 You're probably not posting anything negative that would require any sort of shadow banning.

00:10:18.000 I mean, I checked myself.

00:10:20.000 It's really based off of what you do on the site.

00:10:22.000 So I typed in Alex, it's not coming up, but if I hit V, it shows itself.

00:10:27.000 But there's someone with an Alex V, that's their account name.

00:10:30.000 You would think that would show up before yours because that's his actual account.

00:10:34.000 I don't know.

00:10:35.000 Yeah, it's complicated.

00:10:36.000 Can you check me?

00:10:37.000 I'm pretty confident.

00:10:38.000 Yours was a little harder to find because...

00:10:40.000 I got shadow banned for something I did in Texas.

00:10:42.000 I messed up.

00:10:43.000 What'd you do?

00:10:44.000 So we're in a porn store, like a used goods store, right?

00:10:47.000 It's like a famous...

00:10:48.000 A used good porn store?

00:10:49.000 I can't even say the right word. 0.99

00:10:50.000 P-A-W-M. Oh, porn stars. 1.00

00:10:53.000 Porn stars. 1.00

00:10:53.000 I was like, what the f... 1.00

00:10:54.000 A used goods porn store? 0.99

00:10:56.000 I'm like, that sounds disgusting. 0.99

00:11:00.000 That would be literally the most disgusting store on earth. 0.99

00:11:03.000 A used goods porn store. 0.99

00:11:05.000 Okay, so you're at a pawn shop.

00:11:07.000 Yeah, so a pawn shop.

00:11:09.000 Yeah, my accent kills it.

00:11:10.000 But we went in.

00:11:10.000 It's a famous place that sells a lot of messed up stuff, right?

00:11:13.000 Like they even had a mummified dead body in there for $15,000.

00:11:17.000 What?

00:11:17.000 So I'm in there and the guy was like, you can film whatever you want.

00:11:19.000 So I'm filming in the store.

00:11:20.000 I'm walking around and we get to the World War II section.

00:11:24.000 And they have a lot of, obviously, Nazi stuff in there.

00:11:26.000 So I'm seeing all these Nazi helmets and symbols for sale, and I just start filming.

00:11:30.000 That is why I'm like, look at everything.

00:11:32.000 This place is selling.

00:11:33.000 And that just freaked out.

00:11:35.000 People reported me, because you can't...

00:11:36.000 Even in the context, if you went to a museum, you cannot show the Nazi symbol.

00:11:40.000 Which I was like, I just showed a dead body, but I'm now in trouble with Instagram for showing Nazi symbols.

00:11:46.000 Wow.

00:11:47.000 That's wild.

00:11:48.000 Yeah.

00:11:49.000 That's interesting.

00:11:50.000 What if you had a photo of Himmler and Hitler or something like that?

00:11:54.000 You can't do that?

00:11:55.000 Context doesn't matter.

00:11:57.000 That seems crazy, doesn't it?

00:11:59.000 I mean, it's a historical photograph.

00:12:01.000 Yeah, I mean, it was a learning experience for me.

00:12:03.000 I had a connection, a guy that worked at Facebook.

00:12:06.000 I had to get him to go in and do a request to give me back some privileges and stuff.

00:12:11.000 Wow.

00:12:12.000 Just from filming something that's for sale in a store.

00:12:16.000 Yeah.

00:12:16.000 That seems kind of crazy.

00:12:18.000 It seems like when you do stuff like that, you give that symbol even more power.

00:12:23.000 Right?

00:12:23.000 If you make it, like, forbidden, where you can't even post it?

00:12:26.000 Yeah, for sure, I would agree with that.

00:12:28.000 Yeah, then crazy Nazis, it's like, almost like you're giving them more juice.

00:12:33.000 Yeah, I mean, it's just World War II stuff.

00:12:35.000 It's not like modern day Nazis, you know what I mean?

00:12:37.000 Yeah, no, I do know what you mean.

00:12:39.000 That doesn't make any sense to me.

00:12:41.000 That's...

00:12:41.000 What's up, you looking up?

00:12:42.000 I'm looking at their web, their Instagram account.

00:12:44.000 They have a ring with...

00:12:46.000 Whoa! 0.71

00:12:49.000 That's crazy. 1.00

00:12:50.000 They sell some crazy shit in there. 1.00

00:12:51.000 They had like an old cowboy that was selling his trigger finger in there. 1.00

00:12:56.000 Literally, the finger off his gun from back in the Wild West days.

00:12:59.000 His finger.

00:13:00.000 His finger is mummified sort of finger.

00:13:03.000 Which way does the Nazi one go? 0.86

00:13:05.000 Does it go the other way?

00:13:06.000 Because there's a left one and a right one, right?

00:13:09.000 Yeah, this has mentioned the Buddhism and Hinduism use of it, but I personally don't.

00:13:14.000 Although it says on the top right here, it's distinguished left-facing and right-facing.

00:13:18.000 Oh, okay.

00:13:20.000 The term swastika is often used to distinguish the left-facing from the right-facing swastika symbols, a meaning which developed in 19th century scholarship.

00:13:27.000 Both the right-facing and the left-facing variants are employed in Hinduism and Buddhism.

00:13:32.000 However, the left-facing is more commonly used in Buddhism than Hinduism and the right-facing is more commonly used in Hinduism than Buddhism.

00:13:39.000 Okay, that doesn't help.

00:13:40.000 So you reckon the algorithm can tell which direction the symbol does? 0.94

00:13:43.000 How the fuck could it possibly? 0.92

00:13:44.000 I think somebody must have reported you. 0.99

00:13:46.000 That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

00:13:48.000 Yeah, it happened real quick.

00:13:49.000 Wasn't that?

00:13:49.000 It was an Okinawan symbol too.

00:13:52.000 Back in the day, I remember when I was a kid, there was a Shotokan school that had like a swastika as one of their patches.

00:14:01.000 I'm trying to remember this correctly. 0.99

00:14:04.000 Because I remember saying, what the fuck is that? 0.97

00:14:06.000 And they were like, no, it's the wrong way. 0.99

00:14:07.000 But it was basically a swastika.

00:14:11.000 And it was some emblem for this Okinawan karate school.

00:14:16.000 Is that true?

00:14:17.000 Yeah?

00:14:19.000 Let me see what that looks like.

00:14:20.000 Same thing?

00:14:21.000 Yeah, there it is.

00:14:23.000 And there's actually a Hindu temple near my house, my old house in California, that had all these swastikas with the dots like that all around the outside of it, and they had explained.

00:14:35.000 There were signs all over the place.

00:14:36.000 This does not have anything to do with Nazi Germany.

00:14:40.000 This building was made in the 1920s, and this is the whole reason why it's here, and la-la-la.

00:14:45.000 You guys are definitely giving me a shout-out Bandai. 0.98

00:14:47.000 Oh my god, there's fucking swastikas all over the map. 0.99

00:14:51.000 Oh my god! 1.00

00:14:53.000 That's crazy!

00:14:54.000 So if it's inverted, if it's facing the other direction, that becomes a Nazi symbol?

00:14:59.000 It's just nuts that a weird design that's been around for thousands of years has become connected so horribly to this one point in history with the Nazis that all these people that had it forever can't use it anymore.

00:15:15.000 Manji symbol.

00:15:17.000 Japan has decided to update the manji symbol as well as a number of others to be more tourist friendly with the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

00:15:26.000 Wow!

00:15:26.000 Buddhist temples will be represented by a tiered pagoda.

00:15:31.000 Huh.

00:15:32.000 So they changed it?

00:15:33.000 Yeah.

00:15:34.000 They gave into it?

00:15:35.000 Yeah, I guess it's just it's problematic as they say.

00:15:42.000 So you filmed this for five weeks?

00:15:45.000 You were filming it for five weeks?

00:15:47.000 Just under five weeks.

00:15:47.000 And how many episodes will air?

00:15:49.000 I think there will be 13 or 12. 12 or 13 episodes, I think.

00:15:54.000 And they'll all be on ESPN? Yeah.

00:15:57.000 Yep.

00:15:57.000 Nice.

00:15:58.000 ESPN. This is the first time they've aired on ESPN. So the return of the Ultimate Fighter will be on ESPN. I don't think they've ever had the Ultimate Fighter.

00:16:07.000 How was it working with Brian Ortega?

00:16:10.000 To be honest, mate, he doesn't say much.

00:16:12.000 He doesn't say much.

00:16:13.000 Look, I don't know.

00:16:17.000 I'm a bit over him, to be honest.

00:16:19.000 A bit over him?

00:16:20.000 Yeah, just a couple of things, you know what I mean?

00:16:22.000 Like, I just think he's fake. 0.99

00:16:24.000 I think he's fake and I don't believe his shit, so that's just sort of how it is with me. 1.00

00:16:29.000 That's what I think. 1.00

00:16:29.000 When you say fake, in what way is he fake? 1.00

00:16:32.000 Oh man, just, yeah. 1.00

00:16:34.000 I just think he plays a nice guy and some of the shit he says, I just think it's all bullshit. 0.99

00:16:39.000 But yeah, I guess you can watch the show and sort of see with little things. 0.99

00:16:43.000 But even with a couple of things, I don't think he's that bad of a guy.

00:16:47.000 Maybe I'm just looking for things to hate on him for.

00:16:49.000 I'm sure you are.

00:16:50.000 Yeah, probably.

00:16:51.000 You know what I mean? 1.00

00:16:51.000 So I'm just sitting there being like, nah, fuck, Brian will take it. 1.00

00:16:54.000 You know what I mean? 1.00

00:16:54.000 I'm going to find something to hate him for. 1.00

00:16:56.000 But, you know, maybe that's what it was.

00:16:57.000 But I mean, like still, yeah.

00:16:59.000 Little things I was just like, yeah.

00:17:00.000 But I mean, like I said, it's not hard to get under his skin.

00:17:03.000 Even me just saying that, I guarantee he's boiling up.

00:17:05.000 So maybe that's going to be strategy for my next fight because I know how easily he's triggered. 1.00

00:17:09.000 So I'm just going to be like, hey, Brian, fuck you. 1.00

00:17:12.000 That's it. 1.00

00:17:13.000 When are you guys scheduled to fight?

00:17:15.000 At the end of the series?

00:17:17.000 Well, yeah, yeah.

00:17:18.000 So when it is, yeah.

00:17:19.000 So from what I'm told, I don't know if I'm going to get in trouble saying this.

00:17:22.000 I'm not sure.

00:17:23.000 But I think it's like September, early September.

00:17:25.000 So you'll be fighting him sometime in September.

00:17:27.000 And that will be in the United States?

00:17:29.000 Yeah, I'm guessing.

00:17:31.000 Nice.

00:17:31.000 Interesting.

00:17:33.000 It's a great fight.

00:17:34.000 If you look at the fight on paper, especially after his fight with the Korean Zombie, it's a fun fight to watch.

00:17:40.000 Yeah, he definitely looked good in that fight.

00:17:42.000 He surprised me in that fight too.

00:17:43.000 He definitely changed his game a little bit and fought a different fight that I wasn't expecting.

00:17:49.000 But again, I'm confident in my abilities.

00:17:52.000 I just believe I'll be too much.

00:17:54.000 The beautiful thing about it, I can say what I want, but I get to prove it soon.

00:17:58.000 I wish I got to prove it March when I was scheduled to fight, but obviously that didn't happen.

00:18:03.000 I'll prove that very soon anyway.

00:18:06.000 It's a special division, man.

00:18:08.000 That 145 is a really special division because there's so much talent, man.

00:18:13.000 It's hard to say.

00:18:15.000 I think it's between 55 and 45, the most amount of real top-level talent.

00:18:21.000 But 45 is just so filled.

00:18:24.000 So filled with guys.

00:18:25.000 There is, man.

00:18:26.000 There's a lot of guys that are coming.

00:18:27.000 Even some of the guys that are higher in the rankings, just starting to come up.

00:18:31.000 There's a lot of dangerous guys.

00:18:32.000 And that's the beautiful thing about it.

00:18:34.000 That motivates me.

00:18:36.000 I'm looking forward to it.

00:18:37.000 These are the guys I want.

00:18:38.000 I want these guys that are people.

00:18:40.000 I love being the underdog as well.

00:18:41.000 Even though I'm champ, you're still going to have the doubters and all that, and I love that.

00:18:45.000 You know what I mean?

00:18:45.000 I want to be the underdog, and I want them doubters, and I love proving people wrong.

00:18:50.000 You like being the underdog?

00:18:51.000 Yeah, I do.

00:18:52.000 I do, man.

00:18:53.000 I really do. 0.99

00:18:53.000 It's got to be hard to be the underdog when you're the fucking champ. 0.99

00:18:56.000 Yeah, yeah, it's true. 0.99

00:18:57.000 I know.

00:18:57.000 But, I mean, I guess I wouldn't say underdog, but, I mean, the doubters maybe.

00:19:00.000 Right.

00:19:00.000 Maybe, yeah, and I use the doubters as fuel.

00:19:02.000 Right.

00:19:03.000 So, again, I love proving them wrong.

00:19:05.000 Mate, if I was an underdog for this fight, you know, I don't know if I would be, but I mean, if I was, I would not care one bit.

00:19:11.000 I'd be like, alright, at least I get to make my boys or whoever's betting on me more money.

00:19:15.000 Let's go, you know what I mean?

00:19:16.000 So I'm all good.

00:19:17.000 Now, you guys were supposed to, you were scheduled to fight, but then you got COVID. And when you got COVID, when you got tested, initially, when you got tested, you didn't feel sick, right?

00:19:27.000 Man, before, because we got tested a fair bit.

00:19:29.000 So I'm guessing before we went into the bubble, I must have got it from someone or whatever.

00:19:35.000 And then, you know, a few days later, we got tested a couple of times.

00:19:38.000 It didn't pop up.

00:19:38.000 But then we got tested, yeah, one of the days.

00:19:41.000 And that was like right at the end of my camp because I went there a bit early for Brad Riddell to corner or be with him because he fought the week before me.

00:19:50.000 So I did my last week of training, hard training, in Vegas after traveling and doing all that.

00:19:54.000 And then I got COVID. I must have had it trained like hard.

00:19:59.000 You know, we get stuck into it.

00:20:00.000 So I did back-to-back because the schedule got tightened up because we arrived a bit later in the week.

00:20:05.000 So back-to-back really, really solid sessions while I probably had COVID. But I mean, I sort of had started getting headaches and that before.

00:20:12.000 I was like, man, I'm getting headaches.

00:20:13.000 It's Vegas, maybe, you know, just dehydrated and whatnot.

00:20:17.000 But yeah, then I tested positive and then I started getting the symptoms after that.

00:20:21.000 And when you say, like, your schedule tightened up, so you guys have a very rigid program that you follow no matter what?

00:20:27.000 Like, this day you're doing this?

00:20:29.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:20:30.000 So we've got, you know, we've got a few hard sessions.

00:20:33.000 And when I say hard sessions, you know, they're, you know, they're mind-blowing type of sessions.

00:20:37.000 Like, for some people, that will watch it.

00:20:39.000 But, you know, that's just our schedule.

00:20:41.000 And usually you have good rest in between them.

00:20:44.000 And, like, that's, you know, you need to have the rest.

00:20:46.000 You want good recovery so you're able to do them, you know, and...

00:20:49.000 This camp was beautiful.

00:20:50.000 We did it.

00:20:51.000 Absolutely.

00:20:51.000 We nailed the camp.

00:20:52.000 I was doing some of the hardest sessions, but I was recovering on point.

00:20:57.000 My recovery was on point.

00:20:58.000 I was like, man, I'm getting older, but I feel like the camp's getting easier.

00:21:01.000 How's that happening right now?

00:21:02.000 But that week got tightened up, so I ended up doing a couple of these really, really high-loaded sessions.

00:21:09.000 They ended up being back-to-back, where usually I would have high-low session, high-low session.

00:21:16.000 What was the decision?

00:21:17.000 What made the decision to do high-back-to-back?

00:21:20.000 Again, it was just more the fact that we just need to do a couple.

00:21:25.000 I still don't think it was that, but I felt fine while I was doing that.

00:21:28.000 I didn't think nothing of it, but because I end up getting pretty rattled from the COVID, that's why I was like, man, maybe my immune system was down at the end of camp, obviously dieting and all that type of stuff.

00:21:41.000 I felt fine, but I'm pretty sure I started feeling some of the symptoms before I was getting into them hard sessions as well.

00:21:48.000 Yeah, all the fighters that I know that got it bad, it was all the same sort of situation when they were in camp, really beaten up.

00:21:53.000 Like Cody Garbrandt, same thing.

00:21:55.000 Cody had COVID for probably weeks and was training with it before he even got tested.

00:22:01.000 And then they're like, bro, you got COVID. And he's like, oh, well, that explains a lot.

00:22:05.000 And then, you know, he was pretty fucked up for a few months. 0.97

00:22:08.000 But he had trained, like, real hard. 0.97

00:22:11.000 Well, that's obviously going to, you know, play a big factor.

00:22:15.000 And the thing is, like, you hear, and then you hear, like, the...

00:22:19.000 Hazmat, you know, sort of situations, Codogarbrant.

00:22:21.000 So, like, we wanted to keep an eye on it, you know what I mean?

00:22:23.000 And that's why we got it.

00:22:24.000 And then they end up finding, oh, you got the pneumonia.

00:22:26.000 And then, you know, then the symptoms, yeah, I felt the symptoms a fair bit.

00:22:31.000 But then I got that pneumonia and then, like, the sort of the infection just started getting a little bit worser.

00:22:36.000 So I end up getting, you know, coughing up like pinky bloody sort of stuff. 0.75

00:22:40.000 And then the blood just got more and more.

00:22:42.000 So then we went back and that's when they got me on the medication.

00:22:45.000 And, yeah, because I was coughing up blood.

00:22:47.000 And all told, how long were you sick for?

00:22:51.000 Probably, what would it be, maybe...

00:22:54.000 10 days or something maybe like seven or ten days did they do ivy vitamins or anything like that uh yeah once once i was in the hospital they were doing that you know but i mean as soon as i got on the medication um you know for dexamethasone like my largest improvements like straight away yeah yeah and you got it a while ago right you got covered a while back yeah so i had it probably august last year so we were training obviously during the lockdown in new york and uh I believe one of the Gracies,

00:23:22.000 I won't say which one, had come back into the gym and I believe he had COVID. Son of a gun.

00:23:28.000 And like all of us got it.

00:23:29.000 Basically, I think there were 20 of us training secretly in the blue basement.

00:23:32.000 Not so secret anymore.

00:23:34.000 We just spilled the beans.

00:23:35.000 We're out of there now.

00:23:36.000 It's safe.

00:23:37.000 And yeah, basically all 20, 25 of us got it.

00:23:40.000 For me, it was nothing too bad.

00:23:41.000 But obviously, I don't train as crazy as obviously someone preparing for a fight.

00:23:45.000 But yeah, very mild symptoms for me.

00:23:47.000 But what wasn't mild for you was when you got vaccinated.

00:23:50.000 Yeah, so I got vaccinated probably six weeks ago.

00:23:53.000 And the logic behind it was my family's back in Australia, so I haven't seen my parents, my brother, for probably close to two years now.

00:24:00.000 And Australia's going to be definitely one of those places you're going to need the vaccine, I assume, to travel there.

00:24:05.000 So I went and got it.

00:24:07.000 And yeah, it was a rough time.

00:24:08.000 Obviously, I had the standard side effects of fever, cold sweats, a lot of exhaustion, headaches.

00:24:15.000 But then my lymph nodes started to swell up and I started to get some crazy pregnant looking stomach and actually had to pull out of a grappling match for it.

00:24:23.000 So I was on the ultimate fighter.

00:24:24.000 So I was going to bail out one of the weekends on the show, go compete.

00:24:29.000 But yeah, it was just for a week.

00:24:30.000 I think I was carrying this fluid for close to a week.

00:24:33.000 And they never drained it to see what it is or anything like that?

00:24:36.000 No, I just peed it out eventually.

00:24:38.000 Volks was telling me, he's like, sleep upright, pull your pants above your stomach, and yeah, eventually it came out of there.

00:24:43.000 Because you could see it, mate, he was wearing pants, and you could see it sort of like the fluid would get caught there.

00:24:49.000 Yeah.

00:24:49.000 And I'm like, yeah, just sit upright.

00:24:51.000 Jamie, show the image of it, because it's very weird.

00:24:54.000 It's funny, because who else got the COVID test?

00:24:56.000 Sorry, who else got the vaccines?

00:24:59.000 It was a few of yous.

00:24:59.000 Me, Woods and Joe all got it and yeah, I was the only one that really got messed up.

00:25:04.000 Woods said he felt pretty shit for probably three, four days. 0.54

00:25:07.000 Did Woods have COVID at any time? 0.98

00:25:09.000 I don't believe so.

00:25:10.000 Neither is Joe.

00:25:11.000 Joe's somehow immune.

00:25:12.000 He was with you throughout the whole...

00:25:13.000 Joe, mate, like we were, even when we got it, the four of us got, there was like four of us that got it in our camp.

00:25:18.000 Joe was training with us.

00:25:20.000 Like he was sharing drinks, everything with one of the guys that, you know what I mean?

00:25:24.000 And just...

00:25:25.000 Didn't get it.

00:25:25.000 Yeah.

00:25:26.000 They don't know why.

00:25:27.000 I mean, they think there's a bunch of factors.

00:25:29.000 They think it's your blood type.

00:25:32.000 It's definitely how healthy your immune system is based on how healthy you're eating, exercise, all that stuff.

00:25:38.000 But they don't know why.

00:25:39.000 It doesn't make any sense.

00:25:40.000 Because some people, they drink, they smoke, they live in a house filled with people that got COVID. They don't get it.

00:25:45.000 It's weird.

00:25:46.000 It's crazy, yeah, because Joe does like to have a good time, and yeah.

00:25:49.000 Joe hates me saying this, but I've been told old pissheads don't get how they have it.

00:25:54.000 That's a good image, but let's go to the image before that.

00:25:57.000 That's the one you really see it on the side.

00:25:59.000 See where his pants are? 0.58

00:26:00.000 Yeah.

00:26:01.000 Very strange. 0.96

00:26:03.000 Yeah, it's fucking weird. 0.72

00:26:04.000 I mean, I was worried, to be honest, because, like, I remember the medic on Tough, he's like, man, that's just lymphatic fluid, it should drain, but it just, it would slowly, getting bigger and bigger, and when I would walk, it would be, I wouldn't say it was too painful, but it was quite uncomfortable. 0.88

00:26:17.000 So I'd walk around holding my stomach and stuff, and I was just like, at the point it started to drain, I was like, I'll give it one more day, and then we'll investigate.

00:26:24.000 But yeah, I was peeing out some crazy colors, so, like, very strong colors.

00:26:27.000 Did you take any photos of it?

00:26:28.000 Of the crazy colors?

00:26:29.000 No, no, I should have, though, yeah. 1.00

00:26:30.000 Damn. 0.99

00:26:31.000 I want to see that. 0.99

00:26:33.000 One doctor told me if you're peeing out some crazy colors, maybe it affected your liver or something.

00:26:36.000 But, yeah, we've been too busy with ultimathleta, to be honest, to get anything else done.

00:26:42.000 And so the medic wasn't concerned.

00:26:44.000 They were just a little worried because it was weird, but they weren't like, hey, we've got to get you to a doctor.

00:26:50.000 He definitely wasn't too concerned.

00:26:51.000 What was funny, actually, was when I brought those symptoms to him, he's like, well, man, it's a vaccine.

00:26:56.000 He's like, we're in sort of unknown territory here.

00:26:58.000 He himself even said, he's like, I had Johnson& Johnson and he said he was the sickest he's ever been in his life for 12 hours and then he snapped out of it.

00:27:06.000 So nothing he told me was reassuring at all, unfortunately.

00:27:11.000 So you're supposed to get a second shot though, right?

00:27:13.000 I was meant to get it.

00:27:14.000 So Woods and Joe went and got it.

00:27:16.000 I actually took him to the place and I didn't get it. 0.97

00:27:19.000 They were definitely calling me a pussy for not getting it, but who knows what would have happened if I did get that second shot. 0.98

00:27:24.000 Yeah, that's a... 0.99

00:27:25.000 Because you knew you were competing as well, didn't you?

00:27:29.000 I knew I'd be competing because I'd pulled out of that match and we were looking to reschedule that for mid-June and I was just like, man, I don't want to miss another week of training potentially.

00:27:38.000 Then obviously this comp, I hadn't known when I was going to compete.

00:27:41.000 It was real last minute, this one, this Friday.

00:27:43.000 But yeah, so I really just didn't get it again because I was worried about potentially missing more training.

00:27:49.000 But yeah, after talking to some people, probably for the best, I don't get it.

00:27:52.000 Yeah, I don't know.

00:27:54.000 Obviously, I'm not a medical expert, but what I'm reading is that people that have already had COVID that get vaccinated are more likely to have issues than just regular people.

00:28:04.000 And it's still a low number.

00:28:05.000 You see, you hear a lot of people get issues.

00:28:07.000 You got to think of how many people have been vaccinated.

00:28:09.000 I think at this point in time...

00:28:11.000 Are they saying it's like 50% of all adults in America have been vaccinated?

00:28:18.000 I think that's the most recent number, which is what?

00:28:20.000 Like more than 100 million people, I think.

00:28:22.000 Which is pretty crazy.

00:28:24.000 So, it's just one of those things.

00:28:28.000 Is that what it is?

00:28:29.000 Yeah.

00:28:31.000 I wish they could tell you.

00:28:33.000 You know, I wish I could tell you, you're going to be fine.

00:28:35.000 Like, go ahead and take that second shot.

00:28:38.000 Yeah, there's no assurance of that, really.

00:28:41.000 So it stopped, it affected your training for how many days?

00:28:45.000 I would say I probably missed a good seven days of training, I think.

00:28:48.000 I mean, they came to a point where the fluid was almost gone, but I was just like, man, I don't know if I should be grappling and squashing this around.

00:28:55.000 Just didn't want to grapple me, that was all it was.

00:28:58.000 The fluid was gone and it was just like, nah, you know what I mean?

00:29:03.000 But now you're fine.

00:29:04.000 Yeah, fully back to normal, yes.

00:29:05.000 Obviously I feel great because I'm going to compete this week.

00:29:08.000 If there was anything dicey going on, I definitely wouldn't have taken the match.

00:29:12.000 And how long did it take before you fully ramped up your cardio sessions and all your training sessions so that you felt like 100%?

00:29:19.000 I'm not even sure, to be honest.

00:29:21.000 I felt like just getting back into training, it was pretty normal.

00:29:24.000 My fitness level was low just having missed the week, but I didn't feel like there was any long-lasting side effects.

00:29:29.000 But I guess that'll be to be determined, right?

00:29:32.000 Have you taken a week out before?

00:29:33.000 But you guys train so much.

00:29:35.000 One of the crazy things about the Donaher Death Squad is you guys are seven days a weekers.

00:29:39.000 Seven days a week, yeah.

00:29:40.000 Unfortunately, John holds us to a high standard because he's there seven days a week.

00:29:43.000 I wish that guy would take a vacation every now and then.

00:29:46.000 It's one of the craziest things I've ever heard of in my life.

00:29:49.000 A guy like that who literally used to teach philosophy at Columbia. 0.98

00:29:55.000 Fucking brilliant guy who also is like super high-level grappler himself. 0.96

00:30:01.000 And decides to dedicate his life to training the best grapplers on Earth. 0.99

00:30:06.000 And has had these insane results.

00:30:08.000 I mean, it's a really wild story.

00:30:10.000 If you looked at the John Donaher origin story, it's like a Marvel Comics, you know, like some sort of a mentor in Doctor Strange or something like that.

00:30:19.000 You know what I mean?

00:30:20.000 Like, he doesn't seem like a real guy.

00:30:21.000 For sure.

00:30:22.000 He's like some sort of mythical sort of being. 1.00

00:30:24.000 Like, because most people, like, you've shot the shit with him. 1.00

00:30:27.000 You know what I mean? 1.00

00:30:27.000 But most people never see that. 1.00

00:30:29.000 They just see his instructionals or his interviews and stuff where he's very, very serious.

00:30:35.000 But yeah, it's crazy how knowledgeable he is in jiu-jitsu.

00:30:38.000 And what's funny is I sort of taught myself leg locks in Australia watching his guys compete on EBI and stuff.

00:30:45.000 I had no idea what I was doing, but I'd watch them using these moves because they didn't teach it in instructionals back then.

00:30:52.000 So we were just left trying to figure it out.

00:30:53.000 I'm sure Eddie's guys were trying to figure it out as well.

00:30:56.000 But that was how I learned leg locks.

00:30:58.000 And then it was just funny to ultimately one day join the team that I'd been stealing their moves from for years. 0.99

00:31:03.000 I couldn't beat Gordon, so I was like, fuck it, I'll jump in as well. 0.95

00:31:06.000 Well, it's so interesting. 0.99

00:31:07.000 When I was training a lot, there was very little leg locks.

00:31:12.000 I remember Dean Lister in 2003 in Abu Dhabi.

00:31:15.000 He was leg locking a lot of guys.

00:31:17.000 And Dean was one of the few guys It was like a few other guys, but he was one of the real top-level guys who was winning by heel hook and even ankle locks and stuff, knee bars.

00:31:29.000 And then John and him have this one conversation, one time, where he says to John, why would you ignore 50% of the body?

00:31:37.000 And John's like, ding!

00:31:39.000 And then he just develops this entire system based on leg locks.

00:31:43.000 And then you guys start dominating.

00:31:46.000 Gary Tonin, Gordon, Nikki, you, all these guys start dominating.

00:31:50.000 Eddie start dominating with leg locks.

00:31:53.000 And then everybody else is trying to dissect your system and put it together.

00:31:57.000 It's really crazy because that's not that long.

00:32:00.000 Like, if you think about, like, how long...

00:32:03.000 Arm bars have been around, rear naked chokes, standard jujitsu techniques.

00:32:07.000 Then all of a sudden, somewhere around, like what year was it?

00:32:10.000 2015 or something like that?

00:32:12.000 Like what year did leg locks just start taking over?

00:32:15.000 Yeah, definitely.

00:32:15.000 I would say around 2015. I mean, indirectly, I guess Eddie Bravo is sort of responsible for this in a way because he gave the guys the platform to demonstrate this.

00:32:25.000 In jiu-jitsu at the time, apart from ADCC, you couldn't really do heel hooks in any tournaments.

00:32:29.000 Right.

00:32:30.000 So a lot of people didn't put any energy into it because they were like, why am I going to become a master in this skill set when there's no platform for me to use them on?

00:32:38.000 Yeah.

00:32:39.000 We had Husamar Poharis. 0.97

00:32:41.000 Terrifying guy.

00:32:41.000 Yeah, terrifying guy in the UFC, and he would heel hook you and hold on to it.

00:32:46.000 Yeah.

00:32:46.000 Yeah, and just not let it go, which was terrible.

00:32:49.000 You know, I mean, he ruined guys' knees.

00:32:51.000 He's the only guy that I know that's been kicked out of two organizations.

00:32:54.000 The PFL kicked him out, and then the UFC kicked him out first, and then the PFL kicked him out too.

00:32:59.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:33:00.000 Thank God he disappeared from grappling and everything.

00:33:02.000 He was actually one of the catalysts for me to learn leg locks because I qualified for ADCC and I was in the same weight division as him. 0.98

00:33:09.000 And I was like, I've got to learn this shit or this guy's going to potentially injure me forever. 0.98

00:33:14.000 You know what I mean? 1.00

00:33:15.000 Right, right.

00:33:15.000 That is what you had to think too.

00:33:17.000 Do you ever see the match with David Avalon where they rolled out of bounds?

00:33:21.000 Have you seen it?

00:33:22.000 I think I have.

00:33:23.000 They rolled out of bounds and he was attempting to get a heel hook on Avalon. 0.99

00:33:27.000 They roll out and so they restart him. 0.91

00:33:29.000 But I don't know who the fuck allowed this, where you restart and let a guy have a fully sunken heel hook and go, ready, go.

00:33:39.000 A static position like that doesn't occur. 0.99

00:33:43.000 You never have hands on someone and go, ready, go, where you let them fully secure and adjust.

00:33:50.000 Exactly.

00:33:50.000 Lock themselves in their cores, ready to just...

00:33:52.000 Because it's all in motion.

00:33:54.000 Jiu Jitsu is in motion.

00:33:55.000 But why would he get into that?

00:33:56.000 What do you say if you're David?

00:33:59.000 If you're in the middle of this match, what do you do?

00:34:00.000 You say, no, I quit?

00:34:02.000 Like, no, you can't get a full heel hook on me? 0.97

00:34:04.000 Even though he kind of had it, but he was defending it. 0.99

00:34:06.000 So they let him lock in and he just fucking yanks it. 0.98

00:34:10.000 And held it. 0.97

00:34:11.000 And then, you know, see him tapping like...

00:34:13.000 And it just mangled his leg.

00:34:15.000 I love the aftermath.

00:34:16.000 Do you remember the aftermath?

00:34:17.000 Pow Harris gets up, celebrates, walks, he does a circle, comes back to shake David Avalon's hand, and David doesn't shake it, and then Pow Harris is like, shocked.

00:34:24.000 He's like, why would he not shake my hand?

00:34:26.000 He's an odd guy.

00:34:28.000 I had a match with him.

00:34:29.000 One of the most boring matches in history, but we signed a contract for a 190-pound match, and he shows up the day before with a note from his doctor, and he's 220 pounds, and he says, I will die if I cut any weight.

00:34:45.000 And the promoter of Kasai was like...

00:34:47.000 I remember that photo too, actually.

00:34:49.000 Yeah, that was crazy. 0.99

00:34:49.000 He was fucking jacked. 0.99

00:34:52.000 So he was 220? 1.00

00:34:53.000 He showed up at 220. And he used to fight in the UFC at 85. 85. And he had had...

00:34:58.000 Actually, he even made 170 for a few fights.

00:35:01.000 Yeah.

00:35:02.000 Dude, when he fought Gary Tony, he looked like he ate a whole pharmacy.

00:35:06.000 Yeah.

00:35:06.000 He looked like he ate all the drugs.

00:35:08.000 Like, everything they had, he's like, let's go.

00:35:11.000 Let's see what that one does. 1.00

00:35:12.000 Shoot that one in here. 1.00

00:35:13.000 Like, he was so big when he had that match with Gary. 0.99

00:35:16.000 Oh, for sure, yeah.

00:35:17.000 I don't know.

00:35:18.000 What did he weigh then?

00:35:19.000 Look at the size of him!

00:35:20.000 Yeah, that's the one I remember seeing.

00:35:21.000 Jesus Christ, look at the size of him! 1.00

00:35:22.000 Fuck. 1.00

00:35:23.000 He looks like a fake person. 1.00

00:35:24.000 He looks like Wario from Mario Kart or whatever.

00:35:27.000 I know, and look at that mustache, too. 0.99

00:35:28.000 I always want them fucking arms around my heels, that's for sure. 1.00

00:35:30.000 Oh, fuck all that. 1.00

00:35:31.000 Get that away from my legs. 1.00

00:35:33.000 Well, he had a horrific childhood.

00:35:34.000 If you talk to any of the guys from his team that knew him, he was insanely poor.

00:35:42.000 He used to have to eat pig slop, and he worked on a farm.

00:35:46.000 It was just...

00:35:47.000 The story behind his childhood is terrible.

00:35:50.000 And I guess just it made him a ferocious fighter.

00:35:53.000 Just whatever that horrible childhood was like, it made him literally...

00:35:59.000 Like, that guy got a hold of people's legs.

00:36:00.000 He would go like this on the sidelines.

00:36:03.000 And back then, really, he was like one of the most sophisticated guys in MMA when it came to heel hooks.

00:36:08.000 When he'd wrap a hold of your legs, man, you had a real problem.

00:36:11.000 He must have got some nutrition in there somewhere, though. 0.87

00:36:13.000 He looks pretty damn... 0.98

00:36:14.000 Damn good. 0.98

00:36:15.000 Eventually. 0.92

00:36:16.000 Eventually he got nutrition.

00:36:17.000 Yeah.

00:36:18.000 And a lot of pharmacological intervention.

00:36:20.000 I would actually sympathize with him in MMA because I remember thinking I'd watch his fights and I'd be like, he's not a striker.

00:36:25.000 And the striker would be punching him, punching him, punching him.

00:36:28.000 He'd eventually get to the heel and be like, MMA, the striker would tap.

00:36:31.000 Right.

00:36:32.000 And it's like, he's like, well, I want to, let's even it up.

00:36:34.000 You know, you punch me in the face for the last 15 minutes.

00:36:35.000 Let me get a couple of pumps. 1.00

00:36:36.000 I'm going to fucking break your leg. 0.99

00:36:38.000 Yeah, but he even did it to Jake Shields. 0.99

00:36:40.000 He poked Jake in the eye before that as well.

00:36:42.000 Oh, that's right.

00:36:43.000 Jake was so angry.

00:36:44.000 Multiple times, right?

00:36:44.000 Yeah.

00:36:45.000 He poked him in the eye and then held a Kimura, right? 0.68

00:36:48.000 Yeah, and Jake was actually out grappling him, and that's why he started resorting to cheating.

00:36:52.000 He really takes advantage of the fact that...

00:36:55.000 That people do perceive, like he's self-aware enough to know what you think of him.

00:36:59.000 Like to know that you think he's a little slow.

00:37:03.000 He takes advantage of that and skirts the rules a little bit.

00:37:06.000 So I wouldn't say he's like a sophisticated guy per se, but he's self-aware enough to know what he can get away with in matches.

00:37:13.000 That's interesting.

00:37:14.000 When did you have a match with him?

00:37:16.000 Was it before or after Gary had a match with him?

00:37:17.000 After Gary.

00:37:19.000 And Gary actually, in that match, Gary actually popped in pretty bad.

00:37:22.000 Like, he injured his legs pretty bad.

00:37:24.000 So when we had the match, and I came out with John Danner, because I was like, well, we're going to do the camp against the scariest leg locker in the world.

00:37:29.000 I better have John in the corner.

00:37:31.000 And I don't know if that triggered Pal Harris to not commit to anything.

00:37:35.000 But what happened in the match was nothing was happening, and he was stalling.

00:37:39.000 So the referee started giving him penalties.

00:37:41.000 But in my head, I'm like, this guy knows he's going to lose.

00:37:44.000 He's taking penalties.

00:37:46.000 Eventually, he's going to attack.

00:37:48.000 So I'm waiting.

00:37:49.000 I'm waiting.

00:37:49.000 And then the time runs out.

00:37:50.000 I'm like, what the fuck? 1.00

00:37:51.000 This guy knew he was losing. 1.00

00:37:52.000 He just didn't try to make up that ground. 0.98

00:37:55.000 Maybe his legs were so fucked up from the Gary match that he just didn't want to risk it. 0.97

00:37:59.000 I think that definitely played a factor. 0.98

00:38:02.000 It's such a weird injury, right? 0.98

00:38:04.000 Because if you get your legs locked and you get heel hooked or something like that, you're tearing your meniscus and that shit never gets better. 0.75

00:38:11.000 Could it be an ego thing where he's like, I can't get my legs out, I don't want to submit from a leg lock, but I'm just not going to go there. 0.98

00:38:19.000 Maybe.

00:38:21.000 Have you seen the Meow Brothers? 1.00

00:38:23.000 Yeah, what the fuck? 0.99

00:38:24.000 Have you seen the clip of him with the toehold? 1.00

00:38:26.000 Well, I've seen the clip of him with a knee bar where his knee is like bent the other way.

00:38:30.000 It's like some, whoever he's grappling with, full on like hips down, like the knee is like completely hyperextended, like many degrees the wrong direction.

00:38:44.000 And you watch it like, and the guy never taps.

00:38:46.000 Yeah, it's crazy as well, because obviously in MMA, you guys, for the most part, are making quite good money.

00:38:52.000 But you'll see grappling tournaments all the time where, oh, watch your guy let his leg break for no money.

00:38:56.000 I'm like, what are you doing, bro?

00:38:58.000 That's never going to be the same.

00:39:00.000 What is the Meow Brothers deal?

00:39:02.000 A lot of Brazilians just don't believe in leg locks.

00:39:05.000 There's guys like Leandro Lowe, when I had a match with him, just completely let his leg snap because he always said, I'm never going to tap to a lower body submission.

00:39:13.000 So he just let you break his leg?

00:39:14.000 Let me break his leg, yeah.

00:39:16.000 Actually, I put him in a heel hook and he exploded the wrong way and kind of broke his own leg.

00:39:20.000 And then he just shakes it out and keeps going.

00:39:25.000 That happens all the time.

00:39:26.000 It's honestly crazy how many people let things break in jiu-jitsu.

00:39:29.000 Oh my god.

00:39:30.000 Well, that's what I mean.

00:39:31.000 They just tell me, like, nah, I ain't tapping into that.

00:39:34.000 Yeah, like Vinny.

00:39:35.000 Yeah, Vinny Magalese let you break his leg.

00:39:37.000 I watched that live, and I was like, what is happening here?

00:39:39.000 Because that was one of the ones where I was like, what's going on?

00:39:42.000 I was thinking the same thing.

00:39:44.000 Yeah.

00:39:44.000 I was like, are you sure you want to keep going?

00:39:47.000 Because you felt his leg break.

00:39:48.000 Yeah, because I knew I had done substantial damage.

00:39:51.000 But I was like, does Vinny not know?

00:39:54.000 I was like, I feel like I should stop and tell him what's wrong.

00:39:57.000 And again, Vinny did stop.

00:39:58.000 He goes, I think you broke my leg.

00:40:00.000 So I was like, well, I mean, you're going to keep going.

00:40:02.000 I'm going to go straight back for that leg again.

00:40:04.000 You said that to him?

00:40:05.000 Well, that was my thought process.

00:40:06.000 And when I put him in the heel hook the second time, there was no resistance.

00:40:10.000 And I started seeing the bone.

00:40:13.000 Starting to poke out of the skin.

00:40:15.000 It didn't break the skin, but I was looking at it and I was like, you know what?

00:40:18.000 I think I like...

00:40:19.000 Vinny's actually a really nice guy.

00:40:20.000 Really nice guy.

00:40:21.000 I just felt bad that he made it his shtick.

00:40:23.000 Leg locks don't work.

00:40:24.000 You shouldn't do that because, I mean, eventually, even if you're flexible, like for him, his knee and ankles were flexible, but the weakest link was his fibula.

00:40:31.000 So his fibula snapped and disconnected from his ankle.

00:40:39.000 How is he now?

00:40:40.000 Is he okay?

00:40:41.000 He's fine, yeah.

00:40:42.000 Surprisingly, I think the tib-fib breaks actually come back a little quicker than the knee, except for obviously the PTSD from looking at your broken leg.

00:40:49.000 But at the time, when I spoke to Vinny after the match, he seemed like he was most worried about what his wife was going to say.

00:40:55.000 That seemed like the priority number one for him.

00:40:57.000 Why was he worried about what his wife was going to say?

00:40:59.000 Because I think at the time, she didn't want him to go compete because it was during COVID and stuff.

00:41:03.000 Oh, wow.

00:41:04.000 And he was like, I think he was like, no, I gotta do it.

00:41:05.000 And then he went and he broke his leg and it's like, oh, all these things at once, eh?

00:41:10.000 But honestly, that's the craziest, one of the craziest moments in grappling where I was just like, I was like, how much is Chael paying you? 0.92

00:41:17.000 He's not paying me enough to fucking let my leg break.

00:41:19.000 Like, what's going on behind the scenes there? 0.99

00:41:21.000 That's just so nuts.

00:41:22.000 Like, some guys, it's just pride, I guess, huh?

00:41:25.000 Yeah, I've got none of that.

00:41:26.000 Hey, you get it?

00:41:26.000 I'm tapping.

00:41:27.000 You know what I mean?

00:41:28.000 Good for you.

00:41:29.000 Good for you.

00:41:30.000 Like, live to battle another day, man.

00:41:32.000 Especially with leg breaks.

00:41:34.000 You know, like, after watching Weidman's leg break a couple weeks ago against Hall, that was dark.

00:41:42.000 You know, like, see it snap like that and him fall over and the bone poked through the back of his calf.

00:41:49.000 That's hard to watch.

00:41:50.000 That's hard to watch.

00:41:51.000 I'll be honest.

00:41:52.000 I'm still leg kicking there.

00:41:53.000 Yeah, I'm sure.

00:41:54.000 That's my thing, right?

00:41:56.000 Are you worried at all about that?

00:41:58.000 Nah, nah, I'm not.

00:41:59.000 I'm not saying I can't have it.

00:42:00.000 I don't want to jinx myself.

00:42:01.000 But nah.

00:42:02.000 Man, look, obviously...

00:42:06.000 Man, that's just the game, I guess, as well.

00:42:08.000 But I mean, every kick of mine isn't 100%.

00:42:13.000 I use it for so many different things.

00:42:16.000 Obviously, if I feel like they're going to be checking something really good, I'm going to be pretty cautious of that.

00:42:21.000 I'm not just going to run straight into a knee or something.

00:42:23.000 I'm not saying that you can see that coming, but there will be awareness of it probably now.

00:42:28.000 Because after seeing that, I was like, oh yeah, I might have to...

00:42:31.000 Look into this a little bit more, but I mean now, I'll still be using them.

00:42:35.000 Well with Chris, if you watch it in slow motion, he winds up and throws everything, everything into the first kick he throws.

00:42:43.000 I mean, it's just full body torque, 100%. 0.96

00:42:46.000 I guess he just decided right away he's just gonna really damage the shit out of Uriah's leg. 0.99

00:42:51.000 And then the first kick he throws, you hear the snap, and the snap was, look at this fucking... 0.99

00:42:58.000 He's loaded that up. 0.99

00:43:01.000 It's just so crazy that it happened to him.

00:43:03.000 I know.

00:43:03.000 Man, look, look where it hit as well.

00:43:06.000 Oh, look at it folded.

00:43:07.000 The skin's folded.

00:43:08.000 That hit more on the side of the leg, did it?

00:43:10.000 Or did I... Look at this.

00:43:12.000 Oh, man.

00:43:15.000 That's not enough money for that.

00:43:17.000 The crazy thing is there's only been three leg breaks like that in the history of the UFC and he's been involved in two of them.

00:43:23.000 He's been on the receiving end and the giving end.

00:43:25.000 Yeah, that's...

00:43:26.000 Crazy.

00:43:26.000 It is crazy.

00:43:27.000 What the fuck are the odds? 0.98

00:43:28.000 All the thousands and thousands and thousands of fights in the UFC. Three leg breaks. 0.99

00:43:33.000 He's been one of them.

00:43:34.000 Yeah.

00:43:34.000 I was cooking a barbecue at the time.

00:43:36.000 I just heard him like... 1.00

00:43:38.000 The fuck? 1.00

00:43:38.000 I run inside. 1.00

00:43:39.000 And then I was like, what the fuck? 0.99

00:43:42.000 And then I was like, wow, it didn't catch on straight away. 0.99

00:43:44.000 And then people are like, how's that?

00:43:45.000 And they're talking about Anderson Silva and he's doing that.

00:43:48.000 And then it just clicked. 1.00

00:43:49.000 I was like, oh, fuck. 1.00

00:43:50.000 It was a blowout. 1.00

00:43:52.000 Absolute blowout for me.

00:43:53.000 The other time I've seen it is in kickboxing with Tyrone Spong and Gokan Saki.

00:43:58.000 I saw that.

00:43:59.000 He handled it so well, man.

00:44:01.000 He was just like, yeah, my leg broke, just chilled out.

00:44:03.000 Yeah, he just laid down, just sat down.

00:44:05.000 That was crazy.

00:44:05.000 He handled it that well.

00:44:07.000 I'd be freaking the fuck out.

00:44:08.000 Yeah, 100% you would.

00:44:09.000 Yeah, he's that guy.

00:44:10.000 Tyrone Spong is a guy where I'm like, man, I'm kind of surprised he hasn't made more of a splash. 0.98

00:44:15.000 Because he was such a terrifying fucking striker in kickboxing. 0.96

00:44:18.000 And then he decides he's going to go over to boxing. 0.99

00:44:21.000 And he had a real chance with a top contender at one point in time.

00:44:25.000 But something happened, and he tested positive for something, and they pulled him out of the fight.

00:44:30.000 He failed the drug test?

00:44:31.000 Yeah, something happened.

00:44:33.000 And he said it was like a tainted supplement or something like that.

00:44:36.000 We don't have that in grappling, luckily.

00:44:37.000 Yeah, here it is with Gokhan. 0.98

00:44:40.000 I mean, this was a great fucking fight, too. 0.99

00:44:44.000 Right there. 0.99

00:44:45.000 Boom! 0.99

00:44:46.000 There it is.

00:44:47.000 He just looks at it, eh? 1.00

00:44:48.000 He looks at it like, ah, shit. 1.00

00:44:50.000 That's the most relaxed response, eh? 1.00

00:44:52.000 Yeah, I mean, the fucking pain. 0.99

00:44:54.000 They go touch gloves, you know? 1.00

00:44:56.000 The ref just kicks his leg. 0.98

00:44:57.000 Yeah.

00:44:58.000 That's Steve Mazzagotti.

00:45:00.000 Whoops.

00:45:01.000 Is that Steve Mazzagotti?

00:45:03.000 No, it's not.

00:45:04.000 If it was Steve, the fight would still be going.

00:45:06.000 Yeah, he'd be like, get up. 1.00

00:45:07.000 Don't be a pussy. 1.00

00:45:12.000 Sorry, Steve. 1.00

00:45:13.000 Just joking.

00:45:14.000 That was a horrible one.

00:45:15.000 But, I mean, that particular style of leg break is just so hard to watch when someone checks, you know, with a shin kick.

00:45:23.000 Have you done much kickboxing sparring other than what you did with those guys and your friends?

00:45:29.000 None, really.

00:45:30.000 To be honest, nothing.

00:45:31.000 Did it make you think while you were sparring with these guys?

00:45:34.000 Were you sparring with Alexander?

00:45:36.000 Like, maybe?

00:45:37.000 I mean, that turned me off completely.

00:45:39.000 You know what I mean?

00:45:39.000 Like, starting at the top there.

00:45:42.000 I wasn't even turning them in, mate. 0.99

00:45:45.000 I know, but it was just so out of my depth that I was just like, fuck, this is too late. 0.97

00:45:51.000 Does it make you want to learn something? 0.94

00:45:52.000 I know that Gary, which is real crazy, is that John Donaher actually is a striking coach for Gary, too.

00:45:59.000 Which is just, to me, so bananas.

00:46:01.000 Because I was like, who's been training Gary striking?

00:46:04.000 Because his striking looks pretty sharp.

00:46:05.000 I'm like, did you guys fly someone out to Puerto Rico?

00:46:08.000 I'm like, no, it's John.

00:46:09.000 John does it all.

00:46:10.000 John runs MMA class followed by jiu-jitsu class.

00:46:13.000 They just do a lot of MMA. Shit, I didn't even know that. 0.99

00:46:15.000 Yeah, a lot of MMA drills. 0.99

00:46:16.000 He's an MMA coach. 1.00

00:46:18.000 Oh, shit. 1.00

00:46:19.000 Bro. 1.00

00:46:20.000 He's a real wizard.

00:46:22.000 Yeah, man, he is.

00:46:23.000 And the attention to detail with everything, even, again, I didn't know that, but I could still tell that, you know, the way you would study fights and break things down, which is, it works.

00:46:32.000 You know, you get the right philosophies and, you know, the attention to detail can really capitalize on that.

00:46:37.000 He takes all the guesswork out.

00:46:40.000 Right? 0.99

00:46:40.000 There's a lot of, like, a lot of in training jiu-jitsu, there's a lot of, like, you know, just kind of rolling and learning things and figuring things out, and you get tapped with something, and then your teammate says, you left your leg here, and if you do this, you're okay, but if you do that, you're fucked. 0.99

00:46:54.000 And you go, oh, okay. 0.77

00:46:55.000 But with John, everything is, like...

00:46:58.000 The process of learning is shortened radically because he cuts out all the nonsense and just gets you to the points that you need to focus on.

00:47:07.000 When I watch you guys train under him and I watch him coach, I was like, this is very interesting because he's completely eliminated guesswork.

00:47:16.000 It doesn't always work.

00:47:18.000 Guys are going to lose matches because they're going to face talented grapplers.

00:47:22.000 In grappling right now, especially the no-gi game, the level of competition.

00:47:27.000 This Who's No.

00:47:28.000 1 event this weekend, I love these.

00:47:30.000 I love that they have them here in Austin because the level of competition is so high.

00:47:33.000 It's so exciting to watch.

00:47:37.000 No one does it quite the way John does.

00:47:40.000 It's very interesting.

00:47:41.000 No one coaches the way that guy does.

00:47:43.000 He's just like an innovator.

00:47:44.000 What's crazy is like we'll come to class, right, and he would just drop some random thing.

00:47:49.000 He'll be like, I was watching the 1988 Greco-Roman wrestling final and I saw this move.

00:47:54.000 Let's test it out.

00:47:55.000 Let's see if it works.

00:47:55.000 And we'll just run a couple of experiments.

00:47:57.000 And that's like a common thing.

00:47:59.000 Like he's innovating, but he's borrowing stuff from other arts from another time.

00:48:03.000 Long forgotten things.

00:48:05.000 It's pretty crazy. 1.00

00:48:06.000 It's like, damn, when do you have time to watch all this shit? 1.00

00:48:08.000 Yeah, he watches tape every night. 1.00

00:48:10.000 Every night.

00:48:11.000 It's a good thing because when you're looking at things like that, there's a lot of people that do good things instinctively.

00:48:18.000 You know what I mean?

00:48:18.000 They don't even know they're doing it, but some people have just been in their positions.

00:48:21.000 They just do things.

00:48:22.000 So fight study and all that type of stuff, because we did a lot of it in the house, Honestly, you start watching and your thought process around things, I felt like it made me understand things even a little bit more.

00:48:36.000 I thought I already had a good understanding, but watching other people and then capitalize, oh, he does this, and then you start learning figures, oh, let's nullify that by doing this.

00:48:45.000 You can go real deep, and that's why I'm watching.

00:48:47.000 Again, a lot of people do things that they probably don't even know.

00:48:51.000 It's just more instinctively, oh, this happened, so he done this.

00:48:54.000 It was the right reaction, and we can capitalize on that just from watching.

00:48:57.000 How much tape do you watch?

00:48:59.000 Say a fight like Holloway.

00:49:01.000 You beat him the first fight and then you're going to have a re-batch with him.

00:49:04.000 Do you watch the first fight?

00:49:05.000 Do you watch his other fights?

00:49:06.000 I'll be honest.

00:49:07.000 I don't watch as much.

00:49:09.000 We've got the coaches that do that.

00:49:10.000 I have Joe Lopez and Eugene and Brad Riddell.

00:49:12.000 They'll watch and they'll get a lot of the details.

00:49:16.000 But I mean, after doing a lot of it...

00:49:18.000 And I trust them anyway.

00:49:19.000 But I mean, after doing a lot of it in the house...

00:49:22.000 And just breaking things down, I'm like, you know what, I'm going to start paying attention to that.

00:49:27.000 I'm going to start looking at it myself, even though obviously I trust them, but I can just figure things out myself as well.

00:49:32.000 So I think I am going to start doing that, but I've got full faith in the coaching staff and they do a great job.

00:49:39.000 They get right into detail.

00:49:41.000 You know what I mean?

00:49:42.000 And it works.

00:49:44.000 It's interesting.

00:49:45.000 There's different schools of thought when it comes to how you prepare.

00:49:50.000 And some schools of thought think you need time off. 1.00

00:49:53.000 Well, you don't think about shit. 0.99

00:49:55.000 Well, you just go and play basketball or go fishing or just relax. 0.99

00:50:00.000 You need that relaxed time.

00:50:01.000 And other people say, no, no. 1.00

00:50:03.000 You need your fucking nose to the grindstone, period. 0.99

00:50:06.000 Well, the thing is, people do their camps. 1.00

00:50:09.000 They do their camp and then they stop at all on a break until next camp.

00:50:13.000 So where's your time for learning?

00:50:15.000 Where's your time for evolving?

00:50:16.000 Because when I'm in camp, that whole camp is structured for that fight.

00:50:21.000 You know what I mean?

00:50:21.000 So I'm doing every session, every drilling session is structured for that fight.

00:50:26.000 You know, obviously a lot of it's cardio and getting yourself ready for the fight.

00:50:30.000 But then when you're not fighting, say after the fight, like, alright, just doing a heap of drilling with Craig or like with the coaches, just doing a heap of striking and just working on other things.

00:50:41.000 And get a real understanding of things that, yeah, I don't need in the next fight, but I've got time to evolve and expand the brain.

00:50:47.000 Like, you know what I mean?

00:50:48.000 Like, so that's where I feel like it's the best time. 1.00

00:50:50.000 It doesn't mean you have to go and bust your ass. 0.99

00:50:51.000 Right. 0.99

00:50:52.000 But I mean, I feel like in between camps is where you evolve.

00:50:56.000 That's where you learn.

00:50:57.000 Yeah, that's where you learn and get as much knowledge as you can.

00:50:59.000 But then once I know I'm fighting someone, all right, eight weeks, that eight weeks before it is purely...

00:51:05.000 Structured towards that fight.

00:51:07.000 Now when you say structured towards the fight, so do you guys have With City Kickboxing, do you have it mapped out like in advance where you have like here's your eight-week camp This is what we're gonna do on Monday.

00:51:19.000 This is what we're gonna do on Tuesday.

00:51:21.000 Everything is completely mapped out.

00:51:22.000 Yep.

00:51:23.000 So everything's and again like as I was saying earlier about having you know the high sessions and low sessions you need to have the you know the sessions in between and Like the chill sessions where you are going to drill certain things that you're going to need in that fight or a pad session or something like that, game planning.

00:51:38.000 So we have everything from eight weeks structured specifically for the fight.

00:51:43.000 So we even do sessions exactly the time we're going to fight.

00:51:46.000 Obviously in Australia it's Sunday.

00:51:48.000 So we don't really have any days off because Sunday's usually our day off, but that's when we fight in Australia.

00:51:53.000 Right, because it's Saturday night in America.

00:51:54.000 Yes, exactly.

00:51:55.000 So we'll just have the night off.

00:52:00.000 So we'll have three half days in a row.

00:52:02.000 So that's our recovery.

00:52:03.000 So we will train seven days a week, but there's three days where you've got high sessions, but they're going to be nothing the rest of the day.

00:52:13.000 And then we'll do that.

00:52:14.000 And then on the Sunday.

00:52:15.000 So it's everything specifically for...

00:52:17.000 For that fight.

00:52:18.000 What time is like 9 p.m.

00:52:21.000 Pacific time in Australia, in America?

00:52:24.000 It would be about lunch time.

00:52:26.000 So lunch time you train like you're fighting?

00:52:28.000 Yeah, lunch time or Pacific time.

00:52:30.000 Actually, that might be a bit different.

00:52:31.000 But yeah, it would be...

00:52:32.000 The time of, say, the main card would usually be around lunch time or just after.

00:52:37.000 And do you guys do anything to make sure that your sleep gets in that rhythm in advance?

00:52:43.000 What do you do for that?

00:52:44.000 Yeah, 100%.

00:52:44.000 Especially, say, a good example was Brazil.

00:52:48.000 So when we went over there, so the time's still going to be the same, but when you're in Brazil, We had to be up.

00:52:55.000 We made sure that we stayed up till like 2 o'clock in the morning.

00:53:00.000 Was that right?

00:53:02.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:53:02.000 Sorry, yeah.

00:53:02.000 2 o'clock in the morning because I was going to fight around 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock.

00:53:07.000 So we made sure that we'll wake till then and then I'll go to sleep after that because we wanted the body clock to be like, all right.

00:53:15.000 1 o'clock in the morning, 1.30, 2 a.m., that's go time.

00:53:19.000 We need to be alert.

00:53:20.000 So you were sleeping like that in Australia?

00:53:22.000 No, no.

00:53:22.000 Because in Australia, the times worked out okay.

00:53:24.000 But in Brazil, it wasn't.

00:53:25.000 So the week we were there, we made sure we just stayed to the same sort of pattern as we do in Australia.

00:53:32.000 How long were you there for?

00:53:33.000 Just a week.

00:53:34.000 So once you get there for a week, you go, okay, we're staying up until 2 o'clock in the morning every night.

00:53:38.000 And I would even do a session that late.

00:53:40.000 Just so my body was like, knowing that I had to.

00:53:43.000 Same as Abu Dhabi.

00:53:45.000 So when I fought in Abu Dhabi, we did the exact same thing.

00:53:48.000 But because we were going to bed at like 7, so we could get up at 4 in the morning.

00:53:53.000 Because I was going to fight.

00:53:54.000 We wanted to be up a few hours before we fight.

00:53:57.000 So that's why we had a pattern like that.

00:53:59.000 I think a lot of people were doing that.

00:54:00.000 But that's why, you know, and then, you know, fight night, you know, I'm trying to sleep in and that's when like USADA come in and woke me up and like I had to do the piss test and I had to skull water.

00:54:11.000 On fight night?

00:54:12.000 On fight night.

00:54:12.000 Really?

00:54:13.000 They woke me up.

00:54:13.000 Yes, I was asleep at seven and they woke me up at like 10, 11. I was like, what the hell?

00:54:17.000 Fuck. 1.00

00:54:18.000 Joe Lopez, my coach, he was absolutely fuming, which he had a right to be. 1.00

00:54:22.000 He's like, mate, it's fucking fight night. 0.98

00:54:24.000 You're going to come in and wake him up. 0.99

00:54:26.000 And then it wasn't that easy.

00:54:27.000 I just pissed.

00:54:28.000 I remember getting up not long before, pissing, went back to sleep.

00:54:31.000 And then I had to go there and then I couldn't piss.

00:54:34.000 So I had to skull water, water load so I could piss so I can go back to sleep. 0.97

00:54:38.000 That's ridiculous. 0.99

00:54:39.000 Then you're up all night pissing. 1.00

00:54:40.000 You know what I mean? 1.00

00:54:40.000 That is fucking ridiculous. 1.00

00:54:41.000 Yeah, it was pretty bad. 0.99

00:54:42.000 And then because we've got melatonin and all that, I don't ever do it fight night.

00:54:46.000 But I'm like, all right.

00:54:47.000 I'll have a melatonin so I can get back to sleep and things like that.

00:54:51.000 Why would they do that on Fight Night? 1.00

00:54:53.000 That's so dumb. 0.99

00:54:54.000 That's why Joe was fuming. 1.00

00:54:56.000 He's like, are you doing that for his opponent and whatnot?

00:54:58.000 He was fuming.

00:55:00.000 But I just thought...

00:55:03.000 I think...

00:55:05.000 I made it clear that I'm sleeping from 7 till 4. I was talking about it in media.

00:55:10.000 Everyone knew about it.

00:55:10.000 I even changed.

00:55:11.000 Come test you at 6.30.

00:55:13.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:55:14.000 I even told the UFC, but maybe they just did it themselves. 0.99

00:55:18.000 They don't give a fuck. 1.00

00:55:19.000 Well, yeah, they clearly don't. 1.00

00:55:20.000 Yeah, they don't give a fuck. 0.99

00:55:21.000 Look, and I appreciate them. 0.99

00:55:22.000 I like how strict they are with everything.

00:55:24.000 Keep doing it. 0.99

00:55:25.000 But don't wake up someone fucking fight night. 0.99

00:55:28.000 No, no. 0.99

00:55:28.000 I couldn't believe that. 0.99

00:55:29.000 I was like, are you fucking serious? 0.99

00:55:31.000 Joe woke me up. 0.99

00:55:31.000 I remember, and he's like, I'm like, What? 0.99

00:55:35.000 He's like, you're so easy. 0.98

00:55:36.000 I'm like, are you fucking serious? 0.95

00:55:38.000 Like, do we literally have to go through this right now? 0.97

00:55:40.000 Like, I have to get up?

00:55:42.000 Skull water. 1.00

00:55:42.000 So dumb. 1.00

00:55:43.000 That's so dumb. 1.00

00:55:44.000 That really, that's infuriating. 0.99

00:55:46.000 Do you have any specific strategy that you do when you get to a place to avoid jet lag?

00:55:50.000 Is it melatonin?

00:55:51.000 Does it, like, block the windows out?

00:55:53.000 Well, the fight dietician, Geordi, usually has us on melatonin.

00:55:56.000 But again, I won't do that fight night because I feel like sometimes in the morning it can make you that little bit.

00:56:00.000 Like, you know, like you're alright, you're there, but like just a little bit maybe drowsy, yeah.

00:56:05.000 So like you're still in that sleep sort of pattern.

00:56:07.000 But yeah, like we usually, I would, you know, especially when we come, we usually go overnight.

00:56:12.000 So I'll try and get as much sleep as I can, you know, on the plane as hard.

00:56:15.000 But I'll make sure I stay awake till the time I want to go to bed.

00:56:20.000 I don't care how tired I am, I just hold out and then usually I'll get to sleep and by the time I'm ready to wake up, I'm hitting my time zone anyway back home.

00:56:31.000 I've got it now every time I'm in Vegas to be honest.

00:56:33.000 My sleeping pattern is on point every time I get in.

00:56:36.000 Do you adjust your meals like when you eat to facilitate that as well?

00:56:45.000 No, I think it still works out now.

00:56:48.000 I guess I'll just make it, try whatever pattern that I want.

00:56:53.000 I'll have the breakfast and do all that.

00:56:55.000 Say I'm in Vegas now and I'm going to fight this time.

00:56:57.000 I want to go to sleep this time and I'll just make sure the pattern of the food.

00:57:01.000 Wake up at this time, eat and still have the lunch.

00:57:03.000 However I'll do it back home.

00:57:05.000 I just adjust it to how I'll do it here in Vegas.

00:57:08.000 Do they have you on a specific meal plan so you're eating like every x amount of hours and you're eating everything's portioned out for you?

00:57:15.000 Fight week you mean?

00:57:16.000 Like period?

00:57:17.000 Period, yeah.

00:57:18.000 We've got a pretty strict schedule.

00:57:21.000 When you get the right nutritionist on board, I'm eating more than I would out of camp almost because we're training so hard.

00:57:29.000 We need, you know, it's all about performing in the training.

00:57:32.000 So we, you know, the performance is key and you're training so much.

00:57:35.000 So I eat a lot.

00:57:36.000 So eating isn't too bad, to be honest, during camp.

00:57:39.000 I used to struggle with it because I didn't, you know, know or I didn't have guys helping me with it.

00:57:44.000 But now, mate, like I'm, sometimes I look at the meals like, man, I don't even know if I can eat that.

00:57:48.000 Like, that's too much, you know.

00:57:51.000 Obviously the science behind it is amazing.

00:57:54.000 It is amazing when you get experts behind your camp and get experts behind your training that a lot of the problems that you were having previously, they get fixed.

00:58:02.000 Like your back issue that you were having with your back would blow out every now and then.

00:58:07.000 And then since you've been working with the strength and conditioning guys, it never happened again, right?

00:58:11.000 Yeah, so Baymed performance we talked about last time.

00:58:14.000 They've been great.

00:58:16.000 Even when I do get a little bit of a spasm, Just like what I know now is like, mate, within a day or two, I'm like, you know, I'm back to grappling 100% like within a day or two.

00:58:26.000 You know, where before it'd be like two weeks.

00:58:27.000 I wouldn't be training and then I'll try and get back into it because I wasn't doing much.

00:58:31.000 Bang, it'll happen again.

00:58:32.000 This will go on.

00:58:33.000 Like, you know what I mean?

00:58:33.000 This would go on the whole time where I'm telling you before, in between camps, I want to evolve.

00:58:37.000 I wouldn't even be able to train because I was constantly getting back issues.

00:58:40.000 And then I'll get six weeks to prepare for a fight.

00:58:43.000 And that's how it was.

00:58:44.000 That was happening for years. 0.99

00:58:45.000 I was like, man, fucking, what do I got to do here? 0.99

00:58:47.000 It's amazing what real experts can do to help you in that regard. 0.99

00:58:52.000 Yeah, just having a full time.

00:58:53.000 Every time you get a niggle here, do this, do this, and just that.

00:58:56.000 A lot of the times the stretching and all that that we do is before training so we can train.

00:59:01.000 It's not going to heal.

00:59:02.000 I'm not going to be flexible because I'm doing this, but my body's going to move right for that session.

00:59:07.000 And they're just on point with that sort of stuff, and it helps a lot. 0.98

00:59:10.000 Craig, when you compare the way someone has to prepare when they're a professional grappler like yourself versus someone who's doing all these different disciplines smashed in together in MMA, do you look at it and go, fuck that? 0.91

00:59:22.000 Well, I'm just listening to the professionalism of his gamps and stuff. 0.98

00:59:25.000 Amazing, right?

00:59:26.000 Me, man. 1.00

00:59:26.000 I'm eating shit food. 1.00

00:59:27.000 I'm winging it. 1.00

00:59:28.000 Fuck, are you really? 1.00

00:59:29.000 Take away 24-7 this bloke, I'm telling you. 1.00

00:59:31.000 I don't stretch.

00:59:32.000 I don't warm up.

00:59:33.000 You don't stretch or warm up?

00:59:35.000 No, nothing.

00:59:35.000 Just get straight into it.

00:59:36.000 How old are you now?

00:59:37.000 29?

00:59:37.000 Yeah, when you get to be like 34, you're probably going to be like, you know what?

00:59:40.000 You're going to start stretching.

00:59:41.000 I'll just pick an easy round, you know?

00:59:42.000 If we're going to go, I'll be like, that guy's not going to injure me.

00:59:45.000 You know what I mean?

00:59:45.000 I'll be like, I'll flow it out and by the second round we'll be good.

00:59:48.000 That's crazy.

00:59:49.000 You don't warm up at all?

00:59:51.000 Not at all, no.

00:59:52.000 Surely that's going to change soon, man.

00:59:54.000 You can't do that forever.

00:59:56.000 I know.

00:59:56.000 Listen, you're talking to a world champion professional.

01:00:00.000 Motherfucker's got everything dialed in. 0.99

01:00:02.000 Listen to him. 1.00

01:00:03.000 He's your friend.

01:00:04.000 You know, because you don't want to get injured, man.

01:00:07.000 You know, and then get injured because you didn't stretch.

01:00:09.000 That would be...

01:00:10.000 You'd be so mad at yourself.

01:00:11.000 Everyone is different. 1.00

01:00:12.000 This motherfucker's never even had knee problems. 1.00

01:00:14.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:00:15.000 All the leg locks he does, no knee problems. 0.98

01:00:17.000 Maybe the grappling, so much grappling and all that, being him fucking upside down, fucking going leg locks, you know how he's rolling. 0.96

01:00:23.000 Maybe that's got him flexible and flexible enough to not even have to worry about it. 0.98

01:00:27.000 But you're going to get old soon, mate.

01:00:29.000 It's coming. 0.99

01:00:29.000 It's going to fucking change. 0.99

01:00:31.000 Well, some people can just take leg locks and take joint locks. 0.98

01:00:35.000 I remember when Hoyler Gracie fought Eddie, the second time he fought him, and Eddie put him this terrible leg lock that he calls the vaporizer.

01:00:43.000 Oh, yeah.

01:00:44.000 And Eddie had pants on.

01:00:47.000 This is what's crazy.

01:00:48.000 They made some weird deal where, you know, there was like weird rules where they're trying to figure out what to do and what not to do.

01:00:54.000 And the rule was if Eddie had pants on, Hoyler could grab his pants.

01:01:01.000 But the amount of friction you have with pants, Eddie's like, sure.

01:01:05.000 Grab him.

01:01:05.000 Go grab him.

01:01:06.000 And he destroyed Hoyler's leg.

01:01:09.000 And Hoyler would not tap.

01:01:10.000 And when you're watching it, you're just like, oh my god!

01:01:13.000 You see him just ripping his knee apart.

01:01:16.000 And Eddie goes, it's popping.

01:01:17.000 It's popping.

01:01:18.000 He goes, it's normal.

01:01:19.000 It's normal.

01:01:19.000 It's fine.

01:01:20.000 He's just taking it.

01:01:21.000 A healthy bone.

01:01:22.000 See if you can find Eddie Bravo vaporize Hoyler Gracie. 0.99

01:01:29.000 Even when you watch the folk style wrestling and that, and then you see the way their legs are positioned, and I'm like, mate, that fucking something's got to go there. 0.98

01:01:36.000 You know what I mean? 0.98

01:01:36.000 They're just reaping it there, the body weight's on it, the leg. 0.98

01:01:39.000 They're still hanging on while the guy's lifting, you know, shoving the leg. 0.99

01:01:42.000 And you're like, how the fuck is their leg not fucking weight? 1.00

01:01:44.000 Most of those guys, when they retire, they have fucked up knees and fucked up backs. 1.00

01:01:49.000 It's like the neck, the back, and the knees. 0.99

01:01:52.000 No warming up.

01:01:53.000 It's coming.

01:01:54.000 Looking forward to that or what?

01:01:56.000 Well, you're a healthy guy in terms of your mindset, though.

01:02:00.000 Like, I've seen you roll before.

01:02:01.000 You're not a meathead.

01:02:03.000 You know, you roll, you flow.

01:02:05.000 So maybe that helps as well.

01:02:06.000 Like, you know when your body's warmed up.

01:02:09.000 But stretching is probably a good idea.

01:02:11.000 It's probably good.

01:02:12.000 Do you have a routine?

01:02:13.000 What routine do you recommend?

01:02:14.000 I've never stopped stretching.

01:02:16.000 I've been stretching since I was a kid.

01:02:18.000 To me, it's giant.

01:02:20.000 I mean, it's everything.

01:02:20.000 Can you still do the splits?

01:02:22.000 Oh yeah.

01:02:23.000 I can do them right now.

01:02:24.000 I don't even have to warm up.

01:02:26.000 I've stayed flexible.

01:02:28.000 But that's just because I always stretch.

01:02:31.000 I just think it's everything.

01:02:33.000 Range of motion is everything.

01:02:35.000 I started in Taekwondo and you have to have range of motion if you want to kick.

01:02:38.000 You want range of motion to kick people in the head, but it's also to prevent injuries, so you can do things with...

01:02:44.000 Eddie's got the craziest leg dexterity, and he's got weird flexibility.

01:02:49.000 He doesn't have flexibility like I have, kicking flexibility, but he's got jujitsu flexibility.

01:02:54.000 The groin, right?

01:02:55.000 Yeah, he can put his legs right behind his head.

01:02:57.000 No problem at all, both legs behind his head.

01:02:59.000 And he can move his legs like a hand.

01:03:03.000 I have to grab my foot.

01:03:05.000 If I go into Mission Control, I have to grab my heel and pull it down.

01:03:09.000 I'm kind of flexible in that regard, but nothing like him.

01:03:12.000 He can do it all without even holding on to his feet.

01:03:15.000 He can just move his legs in certain ways.

01:03:18.000 And he's nothing compared to some of his other guys, like Richie Martinez.

01:03:22.000 Oh yeah, very flexible.

01:03:23.000 He's crazy flexible, because these guys were all elite breakdancers.

01:03:28.000 And they could do, like, where they would stand, they would do handstands, and then they would put their legs into a lotus position in a handstand and hop around on the handstand with their legs crisscrossed above their head. 0.99

01:03:39.000 Like, what the fuck are you doing? 0.95

01:03:40.000 Like, how are you doing that? 0.99

01:03:41.000 So here's Hoyler's leg.

01:03:44.000 It's tough to find in a good video.

01:03:45.000 This is Robin Black's breakdown of it.

01:03:46.000 Oh, perfect.

01:03:47.000 Robin is awesome.

01:03:48.000 So there it is.

01:03:49.000 And, dude, I was standing there watching this while it's happening, and his, like, right there, his leg is going sideways. 0.97

01:03:58.000 I mean, it is getting fucking destroyed. 0.95

01:04:00.000 And he's just tolerating it, man. 0.99

01:04:02.000 It's crazy.

01:04:03.000 If you've ever been put in this position, it is horrible.

01:04:07.000 It's so bad for you.

01:04:08.000 And he's like, no, fine.

01:04:09.000 This is what he's saying.

01:04:10.000 You see Hoyle go, that's fine, that's fine.

01:04:14.000 Look how bad that is, man.

01:04:15.000 Oh, he flinched. 0.99

01:04:16.000 I mean, he was in fucking agony. 0.99

01:04:18.000 I mean, if you know how nasty that is, and you see Eddie do that to Hoyler and the fact that Hoyler didn't tap, that's a tough man. 0.99

01:04:27.000 Eddie looked great for that.

01:04:29.000 He looked in great shape.

01:04:30.000 Yeah.

01:04:30.000 Put a lot of prep into that one, hey.

01:04:31.000 Well, he realized this is his last go at it.

01:04:34.000 He was in his 30s, late 30s.

01:04:36.000 And he's like, okay, might be even older than that.

01:04:39.000 When was that?

01:04:40.000 What year was that?

01:04:41.000 In 2014?

01:04:44.000 That was so cool.

01:04:46.000 Metamorris for that.

01:04:46.000 I remember watching the first Metamorris, and when they dropped the trailer to announce that, I still remember Eddie being like, everybody said it was a fluke.

01:04:52.000 I was like, no fucking way. 0.80

01:04:54.000 They got this rematch booked. 0.98

01:04:55.000 I was huge for professional grappling at the time.

01:04:58.000 Yeah, it was crazy.

01:04:59.000 And it was huge for Eddie, because he didn't just beat him.

01:05:03.000 And I mean, they made it a draw, whatever.

01:05:05.000 He dominated every aspect of that fight.

01:05:07.000 And he talked through it when we watched the match.

01:05:10.000 We watched it on the podcast and he talked through it.

01:05:12.000 And he goes, here he thinks he's doing better.

01:05:15.000 He goes, I let him do that so I can adjust and get back to a better position.

01:05:19.000 I'll let him get on top of me.

01:05:20.000 And everybody cheered.

01:05:21.000 He's like, he didn't do that.

01:05:22.000 I did that.

01:05:23.000 And then he moved back to where he was before.

01:05:26.000 But with these pants on, when he's got pants on and he's attacking legs, you can't just get out of it, you know?

01:05:32.000 Like, that's always been the issue with gi jiu-jitsu.

01:05:35.000 I think it's one of the reasons why they've had heel hooks and IBJJ. Like, they've kept it out.

01:05:41.000 They're allowed now, though, right?

01:05:43.000 They just allowed them for, yeah, 20...

01:05:45.000 I believe some stage during 2020, they allowed them in no gi. 0.98

01:05:49.000 They finally added them, yeah.

01:05:51.000 But not gi? 0.84

01:05:52.000 Not gi, no. 1.00

01:05:53.000 Interesting.

01:05:54.000 It goes both ways in the gi because although there's so much friction and you can easily pop a guy's leg, they can also reach back and hold onto your sleeve.

01:06:03.000 So when you're trying to twist, they can hang onto the sleeve and take a bit of the mobility out of it.

01:06:08.000 But would you think that it's easier to get somebody with the gi pants on? 0.66

01:06:14.000 I would say once you've got it, it's easier.

01:06:17.000 But just based on the nature of how people pass in the gi, they can use more distance passing.

01:06:21.000 It might be easier to stay safe.

01:06:23.000 But again, like you said, once you're in there, the amount of friction, like even when I roll with 10th Planet guys and they're wearing gi pants, it's always a nightmare when they put me in half guard. 0.76

01:06:30.000 I want that sweat to slip out of there a little bit.

01:06:33.000 Yeah.

01:06:34.000 Do you train in the gi at all?

01:06:36.000 I took the gi off when I got to Black Belt just because I wasn't as good in the gi, first and foremost. 0.87

01:06:41.000 And I saw the way the sport was going.

01:06:42.000 I saw, like, gi was becoming ultra-specialized.

01:06:45.000 No gi was becoming ultra-specialized. 1.00

01:06:47.000 And I always say, it's better to be good at one than shit at both. 0.99

01:06:50.000 You know what I mean? 0.99

01:06:50.000 You should probably put your attention to one of those arts. 0.99

01:06:53.000 It's always fascinating to me how some people, for the longest time, thought that to compete in no-gi, you had to train in the gi.

01:07:00.000 I really didn't understand the logic.

01:07:02.000 It was very strange.

01:07:03.000 Yeah, crazy.

01:07:04.000 I mean, people, even MMA fighters are trained in the gi. 0.99

01:07:06.000 I'm like, you can train in the gi for fun, but that's not going to fucking help you at all. 0.66

01:07:09.000 It was like saying you have to play ping-pong if you want to get good at tennis. 0.95

01:07:13.000 Yeah, I agree.

01:07:14.000 You're kind of doing a different thing.

01:07:16.000 You could use that energy for so much more useful things, really.

01:07:21.000 Don't train the key.

01:07:23.000 Learn how to wrestle.

01:07:24.000 But, I mean, Gordon talked about it the last time I had him on the podcast.

01:07:27.000 It seems like that argument has kind of gone away.

01:07:30.000 The argument used to be that it's better to train in the gi for no gi.

01:07:33.000 But now, you don't hear that argument at all anymore.

01:07:36.000 Everybody who's an elite no gi grappler essentially trains in the gi, or trains with no gi.

01:07:41.000 For sure, because I think if we go historically and we look at the ADCC champions, they were mostly gi guys. 1.00

01:07:46.000 But that's because there was no avenue for no gi competition.

01:07:50.000 So there were very few no gi only guys.

01:07:53.000 So all the champions in the Gi, every second year would just be like, we'll take the Gi off, we'll do ADCC. And because that population was so much bigger, the talent was so much bigger, they could easily translate to no Gi.

01:08:04.000 But as no Gi grew, again, thanks to things like Meta Morris and Eddie Bravo, and even like Submission Underground, obviously who's number one today, guys saw an avenue where they could do no Gi all the time. 0.57

01:08:14.000 And then now we see that really it's like the Gi's not really going to help you in no Gi at all. 0.75

01:08:19.000 No, well, Eddie learned from John-Jacques Machado, right?

01:08:22.000 And John-Jacques Machado only has one hand.

01:08:24.000 And because John-Jacques had one hand, his jiu-jitsu is never based on holding on to collars and sleeves.

01:08:30.000 His jiu-jitsu is more like Greco-Roman underhooks and overhooks and things along those lines.

01:08:35.000 So when he went over to Abu Dhabi...

01:08:38.000 His game immediately transitioned.

01:08:40.000 You watch when he competed against Kao Uno and Sakurai.

01:08:43.000 He just dominated those guys because he was already using no gi all the time because of the fact that he was born with one hand.

01:08:50.000 Yeah, beautiful butterfly guard switch.

01:08:52.000 Yeah.

01:08:52.000 I still remember watching Jean-Jacques back in the day being so impressed with how he would play guard.

01:08:56.000 It would be a very innovative way to play guard.

01:08:58.000 Yeah, he was one of the first guys that went over to Abu Dhabi that was finishing everybody and just showing everybody that his jiu-jitsu directly applies.

01:09:08.000 Some guys would come over and they'd compete in the UFC and they would be these elite jiu-jitsu guys, but you take away their gi and they lost like 50-60% of their game because they couldn't grab collars and everybody was slippery and then their takedowns weren't that good.

01:09:22.000 The cage, you could use the cage and the cage blocking certain things there.

01:09:25.000 That's a big difference.

01:09:27.000 It's crazy how far ADCC's come from those days to today.

01:09:30.000 Yeah, like the guy that runs at Mojasim, he's put a lot of money in to try to really give it an elite-level status in sports and stuff.

01:09:38.000 But it's also such a crazy event, because obviously UFC has drug testing and stuff.

01:09:42.000 You see some of the most jacked guys coming in and competing in these events.

01:09:47.000 There's no drug testing at all, right?

01:09:48.000 No drug testing.

01:09:49.000 I keep trying to get Moe.

01:09:50.000 I'm like, Moe, at the rules meeting, can you please just stand in front of everyone and be like, I would like to announce we are drug testing this year, just to see the crowd reactions.

01:09:57.000 Could you imagine that?

01:09:58.000 Someone would be like, I have my knee.

01:09:59.000 Can you imagine if they did that?

01:10:01.000 It would be hilarious, right?

01:10:02.000 Yeah.

01:10:03.000 Everybody would fall out.

01:10:04.000 Yeah.

01:10:05.000 I mean, literally, it would be like 80% of the lineup.

01:10:07.000 Some of the dudes, they're so big.

01:10:09.000 I mean, see, can we get a picture of a guy called Muhammad Ali?

01:10:13.000 Yeah.

01:10:14.000 That's his name?

01:10:15.000 Muhammad Ali, but it's spelled different.

01:10:18.000 The last name's spelled A-L-Y. When you see this guy for ADCC, it's like 265 abs, just terrifying looking human being.

01:10:27.000 I'm not speculating here, but I mean...

01:10:29.000 But you are.

01:10:30.000 Some of the shape.

01:10:32.000 Yeah.

01:10:33.000 When you guys train, and I know that there's, you know, John teaches mixed martial arts classes and he teaches grappling classes.

01:10:42.000 Are you doing any strength and conditioning to supplement your grappling?

01:10:46.000 Do you do anything else?

01:10:47.000 I do, but I just do it like, I do it for injury prevention mainly.

01:10:51.000 Look at that guy.

01:10:52.000 Yeah, so this guy was in there.

01:10:54.000 It looks a little saucy.

01:10:55.000 Crazy stacked.

01:10:57.000 I do strength and conditioning for injury prevention, but obviously if you've seen some of the guys on my team, like we've got Nicky Rod, even Nicky Ryan, Ethan, even Gordon.

01:11:04.000 These guys are doing some crazy bodybuilding workouts. 0.97

01:11:06.000 And I'm like, I'm not sure the sports science behind it, but I know they just want to look fucking jacked. 0.93

01:11:11.000 Is that what it is? 0.97

01:11:12.000 They want to look jacked?

01:11:13.000 Yeah, they love it, man.

01:11:14.000 They love it.

01:11:14.000 Nicky Rod loves it.

01:11:15.000 Any chance he gets shirts off, flexing, you know what I mean?

01:11:18.000 And I've seen the workouts, and they are kind of bodybuilding workouts, too.

01:11:23.000 Nicky Rhodes, so when he takes guys in the gym, he's like, don't worry about technique, just get it up.

01:11:27.000 Just get the weight up.

01:11:28.000 100 reps.

01:11:29.000 What?

01:11:29.000 I love it, though.

01:11:31.000 That's that Jersey character.

01:11:33.000 No warm-up either?

01:11:34.000 No warm-up?

01:11:35.000 That's a good question.

01:11:36.000 I wonder if the other guys warm up.

01:11:37.000 Gordon's pretty banged up.

01:11:39.000 Gary's obviously pretty banged up, so I would imagine those guys do warm-ups.

01:11:42.000 Yeah.

01:11:43.000 Well, how could he not be banged up when you're training seven days a week for years?

01:11:48.000 Yeah, you're right.

01:11:49.000 I mean, Gary's definitely paid a price.

01:11:52.000 I sometimes wonder if he transitioned to MMA just because it would be easier on the body.

01:11:56.000 Really?

01:11:57.000 Yeah.

01:11:58.000 That's hilarious.

01:11:59.000 Yeah.

01:11:59.000 MMA's easier.

01:12:01.000 I mean, easier in certain respects, you know what I mean, like on the joints and stuff.

01:12:04.000 Like, there's so much load on the body just doing that every day.

01:12:07.000 How banged up is Gary?

01:12:09.000 Like, what's banged up about him?

01:12:10.000 His neck's banged up.

01:12:11.000 I believe he had some stem cells in the neck and stuff.

01:12:14.000 Like, what's funny is he's had those crazy armbar escapes.

01:12:17.000 And he told me that, like, you remember the Krone Gracie where he slipped out of the armbar?

01:12:21.000 I'm trying to think he had another match.

01:12:23.000 EBI overtime, even Vinny on the arm, he was able to slip out with ease.

01:12:26.000 But he was telling me that...

01:12:28.000 The time he injured his elbow the worst was when he was rolling gently with a girl that was visiting the blue basement and he gave her an armbar and she just ripped it on him.

01:12:35.000 All these crazy moments in comp where he just almost looks like he's going to let his arm break and he was telling me that was the one that got him.

01:12:42.000 That's crazy.

01:12:43.000 Some badass girl out there. 1.00

01:12:45.000 Got Gary's arm on her wall as a trophy.

01:12:47.000 I wonder if she even knows.

01:12:49.000 She knows now, man.

01:12:50.000 Yeah, I was going to say, she knows now.

01:12:52.000 That was me.

01:12:53.000 So, but he's doing, is he doing those kind of bodybuilding workouts as well?

01:12:58.000 Gary, no, Gary.

01:13:00.000 Gary, I'm not sure what he does in terms of workouts.

01:13:02.000 I think he does a lot of bodyweight style stuff.

01:13:04.000 But yeah, the other guys, man, I've done some workouts and watched them do workouts, and I'm just like, man, jiu-jitsu's bad enough on the body, let alone we throw in bodybuilding-style workouts as well.

01:13:13.000 Like, I don't want the wheels to fall off after this career too soon, you know?

01:13:17.000 Yeah, I mean, I wonder, like, how do you find the line between too much and not enough?

01:13:22.000 And I would say the same thing to you, because, like, obviously your coaching staff, they've got it boiled down to a science.

01:13:29.000 Yeah.

01:13:29.000 But how do you know when it's too much?

01:13:33.000 How do you know when you're being lazy versus how do you know when you're overtraining, when you're going too far and you're not giving your joints and your muscles and everything a chance to recover?

01:13:43.000 Yeah, man.

01:13:43.000 Well, I guess it comes down to the people with the knowledge as well.

01:13:48.000 And what works.

01:13:49.000 Like, you know what I mean?

01:13:50.000 Right now, it's working for me, so I'm happy with what we're doing.

01:13:52.000 But, yeah, I just trust the guys.

01:13:57.000 Just trust.

01:13:57.000 Yeah, that's how I am.

01:13:58.000 Well, that's what's great about having such a professional camp with high-level guys and world champions.

01:14:04.000 I'll be honest, and this shows you, like, when I'm overseas, you know, say I'm in a city kickboxing, and we're training there, so we're busting our ass doing that, but I don't have my team that I do, like, Baymeda Performance, where I go do my strength and conditioning and my physio and all that,

01:14:20.000 and they look after me.

01:14:21.000 My body, like, recovery and all that's way worse in New Zealand.

01:14:25.000 Because I'm doing the maintenance and even the strength and conditioning and things like that, when I'm in Australia, where my body, my recovery, everything, I feel like my body doesn't lock up nowhere near as much as it would when I'm away, where I don't really have that treatment.

01:14:42.000 Where I will, I'll wait until I'm like...

01:14:44.000 I can't move or I'm going to go see someone.

01:14:46.000 Where I'm just constantly, you know, even the strength and conditioning we do, it's more about injury prevention and obviously getting your strong as well.

01:14:58.000 But I mean, at the same time, they can't give me a bodybuilding exercise, like, you know, sort of session when I've got to go bust my ass in the MMA training, like, you know, the next hour.

01:15:07.000 So it's all, you know, it's all got to work together.

01:15:10.000 So again, they, the guys at Baymed, they make sure that I'm getting what I need to keep me strong and keep my body moving right, but I can still do all my MMA, my striking, my wrestling.

01:15:21.000 Because if they bust my ass, and I'm doing the workouts we're doing, it's just too much.

01:15:27.000 Are you guys in Puerto Rico, do you have a good massage therapist? 0.98

01:15:30.000 Do you have physical therapy there?

01:15:32.000 No, nothing like that.

01:15:33.000 Hey, nothing.

01:15:34.000 I have to drive 25 minutes to hit this gym, this hard body gym.

01:15:38.000 It's like it's from the 80s or something.

01:15:39.000 That's where I go lift weights when I'm down there.

01:15:41.000 That's why I'm trying to push these guys to move to Austin.

01:15:45.000 Mate, you should see him do his workouts, eh?

01:15:48.000 Each rep on his phone.

01:15:51.000 We're going to recover.

01:15:51.000 We're going to recover in between sets, eh?

01:15:54.000 A lot of people think that weightlifting, that that's how you should do it for strength.

01:15:57.000 It's interesting.

01:15:59.000 There's a lot of different schools of thought, but Pavel Tatsulin, you know, the guy from Russia, the godfather of kettlebells, He believes that you should never, when you train, you should never go to failure and that you should have long periods of rest in between sets.

01:16:16.000 And I was like, well, how long?

01:16:17.000 He's like, 10 minutes.

01:16:18.000 I said, 10 minutes? 1.00

01:16:20.000 Oh yeah, long ass fucking workouts. 1.00

01:16:22.000 Like you're eating in the middle of your workout because you're hungry. 1.00

01:16:24.000 Is this like every session?

01:16:27.000 He just thinks strength is a skill.

01:16:29.000 And the idea is you should only do that skill when you're recovered.

01:16:35.000 Think about it this way.

01:16:37.000 Again, I'm not necessarily saying that he's correct, but I work out this way a lot when I lift weights, when I'm not working with a trainer. 0.99

01:16:45.000 My trainer doesn't let me do this kind of shit, but when I work out by myself, I take these big-ass fucking times. 0.99

01:16:51.000 I watch a fight. 0.99

01:16:52.000 I watch a whole fight in between sets.

01:16:54.000 This is when you're doing strength though, yeah?

01:16:56.000 That makes sense.

01:16:58.000 If I'm doing like cleans with like a heavy kettlebell, like a 90-pound kettlebell or something like that, if I can do 10, I don't do 10, I do 5, and then I sit it down, and then I wait a long ass time, and then I do another 5, and then I wait a long ass time, and then I'll do another 5, and then a long ass time,

01:17:13.000 And that way, I'm getting every rep, I'm not exhausted.

01:17:18.000 Whereas if I was doing a set of ten, and I could only do like two sets of ten, and then I'm fucking broken down, and the third set I could only get to like five or six, and then I'm like completely exhausted.

01:17:29.000 Well, then I would have done 26 reps, but I've done 26 reps where the last ones are kind of shitty and my muscles are all blown out.

01:17:37.000 The other way, I might do five sets of five.

01:17:42.000 I'm doing 25 reps, but every one of them is...

01:17:46.000 Like full, clean, clear, like great technique, not exhausted.

01:17:52.000 Getting you stronger.

01:17:53.000 And your muscles don't, they don't feel as tired the next day.

01:17:56.000 Like you're not as beat up.

01:17:57.000 Like going to failure, and many people believe 100% in going to failure, and that that's the only way to do it.

01:18:04.000 And again, I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, a weightlifting expert.

01:18:08.000 But Pavel's, his recommendation is never go to failure and do big breaks in between the sets and stretch out your weightlifting sessions and think of it as a skill.

01:18:20.000 Don't think of it as trying to wear yourself out.

01:18:22.000 Think of it as getting stronger.

01:18:24.000 And another guy who follows that is Farah Sahabi.

01:18:27.000 Farah Sahabi believes in that as well.

01:18:29.000 That's his philosophy when he comes to it.

01:18:31.000 So it goes with different chains as well, doesn't it?

01:18:32.000 So that's how we do a lot of our sessions.

01:18:34.000 We've got some that we're just real power-based.

01:18:38.000 So we've got lactic sessions and more power-based.

01:18:42.000 They change.

01:18:43.000 They're all different chains.

01:18:44.000 So there's some where... 0.99

01:18:46.000 We've got big rest in between and I'm just like, fuck, I'm ready for the next rep. 0.96

01:18:49.000 But I'm like, no, we've got to wait because we want you to give 100%. 0.97

01:18:52.000 And we do that a lot with our sessions.

01:18:55.000 Especially, like you said, you work in strength and you want to get strong and more explosive.

01:18:59.000 So we want every single rep to be 100%.

01:19:02.000 When we're going 80, how are we going to get stronger?

01:19:03.000 The reps go down, you're not doing them properly or you've got to go lower weight.

01:19:07.000 Well, it's the same as when I noticed, especially this camp.

01:19:11.000 I recovered better in between my sessions and I absolutely fucking smashed my high sessions.

01:19:17.000 And it got me fitter because I was able to go harder in them sessions. 0.70

01:19:22.000 So I pushed my body to even a higher limit because my body could.

01:19:26.000 But then I just noticed that this is the fittest I've ever been for this last camp that I had.

01:19:30.000 And purely because I think it was the rest in between.

01:19:33.000 I honestly felt like my fitness was on a whole nother level. 0.99

01:19:36.000 And I was getting through some of these sessions that were like, oh fuck. 0.98

01:19:39.000 Where I was just absolutely smashing it the next week. 0.99

01:19:43.000 Like, I could do another round of it, you know what I mean? 0.98

01:19:45.000 It was like, add another round on top of this fucking thing, I'm ready to go. 0.98

01:19:48.000 Because the recovery was just on point. 0.98

01:19:50.000 Well, it's such a big part of your arsenal, too, is your ability to push a pace.

01:19:54.000 I mean, the Holloway fight's a great example of that, especially the first one.

01:19:58.000 I mean, you just...

01:19:59.000 Your pace is so ferocious, and you can keep that up for 25 minutes where you're never fading.

01:20:05.000 It's so giant, man.

01:20:06.000 The difference between a guy who fades and a guy who doesn't fade, it's so big.

01:20:10.000 Because so many guys, especially when you see guys that are coming up in the ranks, they're kind of contenders, they're doing really well.

01:20:15.000 You'll see them do real well in a fight for the first two rounds, and then you'll see a substantial drop-off in the third round.

01:20:21.000 And that seems to be the difference between the really elite guys.

01:20:25.000 And I know a lot of it is energy management for sure, but a lot of it is just that work that you do in the gym to make sure that you can push that crazy pace.

01:20:33.000 Well, like you said, you want to be able to hold that energy, but then you've got sessions like your sparring and all that type of stuff where you can do that. 0.97

01:20:40.000 You need to have sessions that's going to get you ready for a fucking war. 0.97

01:20:43.000 And that's what we do. 0.99

01:20:45.000 I don't want to experience an uncomfortable feeling in the fight. 1.00

01:20:48.000 I'm going to experience it in the fucking camp. 0.99

01:20:50.000 I'm going to go to literally... 1.00

01:20:52.000 I get nervous.

01:20:53.000 As I say, I get nervous for some of my sessions.

01:20:56.000 I get more nervous for my sessions than I do for my fight.

01:20:58.000 Because I know I'm going to... 0.98

01:21:00.000 I know I'm getting fucked up in this. 0.98

01:21:02.000 I'm going to be very, very uncomfortable, but I accept that. 0.98

01:21:06.000 We do sessions where you are going to breaking point, but I've learned to just accept that.

01:21:13.000 From being in those positions, I get tired, but I don't tell myself you're getting tired. 0.95

01:21:19.000 I've fucking done much worse in training. 0.97

01:21:21.000 Let's go. 0.99

01:21:22.000 So I'm just going to pick up the pace again.

01:21:23.000 So I literally, we do that in some of these sessions where, I'll be honest, a lot of people don't. 0.98

01:21:29.000 There's sessions that we were doing in our, sort of like during the tough series and that, and I don't know if they're probably like, fuck, you know what I mean? 0.96

01:21:38.000 I'm like, mate, like... 0.95

01:21:40.000 I'll do another two or three of these types of sessions.

01:21:42.000 I'll just bring one for you guys, you know what I mean?

01:21:43.000 And I'm like, man, a lot of people just won't go to that.

01:21:46.000 Obviously, some of them aren't full-time fighters and whatnot, but again, I want to be...

01:21:52.000 I'm expecting to go out there and the fight not be that hard, but I'm going to be prepared for however hard it gets.

01:21:58.000 That's a thing too about being a part of an elite camp, right?

01:22:04.000 Everyone knows that they're going to do that and everyone knows how to do that.

01:22:08.000 They know how to push literally past your limit.

01:22:12.000 Whereas you see guys where they're kind of the king of their domain and they run the whole camp and they're kind of in control of everything.

01:22:19.000 It's very hard to force yourself to go through hell.

01:22:22.000 You know, some people can do it, but you really kind of want a bunch of people going through hell with you, and you want someone who's the general.

01:22:29.000 You can't have yes, man, and just be like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to chill, and you just chill the whole way through.

01:22:34.000 You can have guys go, no, fucking get it, and get that session done. 0.99

01:22:37.000 When Conor fought Dustin Poirier the last time, one of my friends was watching one of the interviews where they were talking about how Conor can basically just train himself now, and my friend goes, the fuck he can. 0.99

01:22:49.000 That ain't good. 0.97

01:22:51.000 I don't know what caused it.

01:22:54.000 I'm of the belief that it's the low calf kick that was the big issue in that fight. 0.99

01:22:58.000 His leg gave out, and then when his leg gave out, he kind of knew he was fucked. 0.99

01:23:02.000 It definitely was the calf kick. 0.99

01:23:04.000 But you can see in a lot of his fights where you're going to start.

01:23:06.000 But again, he's very fast twitch.

01:23:08.000 And he's an opportunist. 1.00

01:23:09.000 If there's a shot there, he's throwing that fucking punch as hard as he can. 1.00

01:23:13.000 But you're fast twitched too. 1.00

01:23:15.000 Yeah, look, I guess...

01:23:16.000 That's what's different.

01:23:17.000 It's like, you don't get tired like that.

01:23:19.000 That's one thing that I must just have, like, the...

01:23:21.000 But, I mean, if you look at, like, when it comes to explosiveness, there's guys that are a lot more explosive than me.

01:23:25.000 I feel like I've got this really good balance.

01:23:27.000 Middle ground.

01:23:28.000 Yeah, this middle ground where I've got that cardio, but I've got the explosiveness.

01:23:31.000 You know, I don't know what it is.

01:23:32.000 And maybe, obviously, the training, you know, Mike, with Joe Lopez, the way, like, we've been training, he's always put me in, like, these sort of positions.

01:23:40.000 As I said, like, you know, being...

01:23:42.000 Uncomfortable and all that.

01:23:43.000 You're pushing the pace and all that.

01:23:44.000 So I've always had that anyway.

01:23:45.000 But I mean, I feel like there's a lot of things for me that made it work.

01:23:51.000 A lot of different things.

01:23:52.000 Obviously, there's a lot that comes into training and all that.

01:23:54.000 But even maybe my build or maybe just through life, the way I did things and maybe I built that type of...

01:24:02.000 Cardio or, you know, fast twitch, I don't know, but there's a lot of things that come into play that make me be able to do what I do.

01:24:08.000 Do you think part of it has to do with the rugby background because there's so much running involved in rugby?

01:24:12.000 Yeah, I think so.

01:24:13.000 Could be for cardio, could have been a benefit?

01:24:15.000 Maybe, again, it's headspace as well.

01:24:17.000 Like, on the type of guy that...

01:24:21.000 I can chill.

01:24:22.000 When you're playing rugby league, you can go take a run and then just chill. 0.99

01:24:26.000 I don't fucking chill. 1.00

01:24:27.000 I'm the type of guy, if we're in our 10-meter line, give me the fucking ball. 0.99

01:24:31.000 I'm going to run it. 1.00

01:24:32.000 Someone else runs it, give me the fucking ball again. 1.00

01:24:34.000 That's just how I am. 1.00

01:24:35.000 That's how I've always been.

01:24:37.000 Where I just feel like some people, I'll just chill for a bit.

01:24:40.000 I just wouldn't do that.

01:24:42.000 Interesting.

01:24:43.000 Now, when you see a guy who does get tired early, like a guy who's real fast-twitched and explosive and get tired early, do you ever think, is it just a cardio issue,

01:24:58.000 like they haven't pushed themselves hard enough?

01:24:59.000 Do you think it's an energy management issue?

01:25:02.000 Is it a combination of things?

01:25:04.000 Maybe a combination of things.

01:25:06.000 Again, if you're always trying to be in a position where you're comfortable and all that type of stuff, as soon as it gets uncomfortable, you're not thinking right, you're struggling, you're like, oh no, you're starting to doubt yourself.

01:25:16.000 Again, that's why we put ourselves in that sort of position.

01:25:20.000 I notice it, especially when you're fighting or even sparring. 0.97

01:25:24.000 Everyone's fucking good for the first minute. 0.95

01:25:26.000 They're on point. 0.98

01:25:27.000 They're eager.

01:25:28.000 You can't slip up for a second because they're ready to pull the trigger.

01:25:31.000 One minute goes by.

01:25:32.000 Next minute, they're looking for a, you know, give me a second to reset it. 1.00

01:25:36.000 I'm like, I ain't giving you fucking shit. 1.00

01:25:37.000 I'm in your face. 1.00

01:25:38.000 You know what I mean?

01:25:38.000 And that's it.

01:25:39.000 And you just seem crumbled.

01:25:41.000 But early, I can't do that.

01:25:42.000 I have to...

01:25:43.000 Yeah, wear them out and then be on them and then you just start to see like their reactions from the first minute to even the second, completely different.

01:25:52.000 Yeah.

01:25:52.000 And just be like, thank you.

01:25:53.000 Doesn't it seem like that should be doctrine?

01:25:56.000 Like that should be understood in every camp. 0.99

01:25:58.000 I wish I didn't fucking say it. 0.99

01:25:59.000 Maybe. 0.99

01:26:01.000 Here's the thing, I think you can say it and I don't think it matters.

01:26:04.000 Because I think it's a will issue.

01:26:06.000 Like some people just don't have the will to push themselves in that way.

01:26:09.000 Or maybe they don't think they have to or maybe they're deluding themselves and they think they're pushing themselves harder than they really are. 0.99

01:26:16.000 Like maybe, like if someone like Connor came and trained with you and saw how you prepare, maybe you'd be like, oh fuck. 0.99

01:26:25.000 Like obviously the guy's super fucking talented. 0.99

01:26:28.000 Obviously, he rises to the occasion. 0.97

01:26:30.000 Obviously, he handles pressure as good as anybody alive.

01:26:33.000 But there have been moments in his fights where he's faded.

01:26:37.000 And not faded like a world champion.

01:26:39.000 Faded like a guy who's got a flaw.

01:26:42.000 Like, you've got a hole in his game.

01:26:43.000 Like, you would expect world championship caliber fighters to be at the elite of the elite.

01:26:47.000 Their energy management's on point.

01:26:49.000 Everything's on point.

01:26:50.000 Cardio's on point.

01:26:51.000 The training camp's on point.

01:26:52.000 Unless there's an injury and there's some sort of a, you know, pre-existing problem...

01:26:57.000 They shouldn't have those energy management issues.

01:27:01.000 Again, he's fast twitch and he goes for the kill. 0.99

01:27:06.000 So if you throw a jab and he sees an opening, he's got a good eye, he's going to fucking pull that trigger. 0.99

01:27:12.000 And when you know you've got a hard workout, maybe I'm not pulling the trigger. 0.97

01:27:16.000 When I'm sparring, I'm not pulling the trigger because I don't want to knock out my trainer partner. 0.99

01:27:19.000 But I mean, once I'm fighting, I am literally throwing everything in this fucking punch. 0.99

01:27:24.000 Yeah. 0.98

01:27:25.000 And the opportunity, like, you know, again, I'm in his face because he's the type of fighter he gets in your face, makes you panic punch and just capitalizes every time.

01:27:31.000 So he wants to be there in the heat of, you know, he wants to be in the fire because he knows people are going to make bad decisions and he capitalizes on it.

01:27:37.000 But I mean, again, that's putting himself in a position where he needs to go a lot harder, especially when he's trying to go for the kill at the same time.

01:27:44.000 Maybe there's a balance that he needs to, I don't know what it is, but Again, but going back to when we're talking about adversities in the gym and all that type of stuff, that's why I love this sport so much.

01:27:56.000 I feel like there's a lot of gyms, obviously.

01:27:58.000 That's just how they are.

01:27:59.000 It goes discipline and all that.

01:28:00.000 All these great life skills that we take out of it.

01:28:04.000 You know what I mean?

01:28:04.000 And the adversities are...

01:28:06.000 That you do in our gym and what I've always done with freestyle and even city kickboxing, I feel like that just helps when you're under the pressure outside of MMA or whatever.

01:28:17.000 You just deal with things a lot better just because, again, you've been in uncomfortable positions and you've had to adapt.

01:28:24.000 And be able to move forward and look forward.

01:28:26.000 And, you know, again, you see that with a lot of people that, you know, they're good under pressure and all that type of stuff.

01:28:31.000 And then you get people that aren't and can't.

01:28:34.000 That's really one of the best things about martial arts as it applies to life, is that it makes regular life easy.

01:28:40.000 You know, even just jujitsu, you know, without the kickboxing and the striking and all that stuff, just the struggle of jujitsu, for the most part, is so much more difficult than the struggle of everyday life.

01:28:51.000 It makes everyday life seem kind of relaxing.

01:28:54.000 Like, problems seem minuscule in comparison to, I'm sure, like having Gordon Ryan on your back.

01:29:01.000 Yeah, for sure.

01:29:02.000 I mean, that's the way we train for the rolling portion is we'll basically do 60 minutes straight with no rest, but we always do bad positions first.

01:29:10.000 So your first round of the day is under mount.

01:29:12.000 Then we'll go turtle, close guard, potentially even start on an armbar for that fourth round. 0.92

01:29:17.000 So in terms of like, we can't hide.

01:29:19.000 Like when I used to train in Australia and I was one of the better guys in the gym, I would never be in bad positions.

01:29:24.000 And then in competition, if someone put me there, I'd freak out.

01:29:27.000 I'd either get out and be tired or I wouldn't get out.

01:29:30.000 And then training with John, training with these guys, I'd be forced to do bad positions every day.

01:29:35.000 So then because we're doing back to back to back rounds, you can't use explosiveness to get out.

01:29:41.000 You have to use efficient movement.

01:29:42.000 So it forced me to really become an expert at how to stay calm in those bad positions and use technique to get out.

01:29:48.000 Because again, what's the use of getting out if you've got no energy afterwards?

01:29:52.000 Yeah, that seems to be one of the most important things about jujitsu is your defense.

01:29:57.000 And it's one of the things that people neglect.

01:29:59.000 And one of the things that Hickson always emphasized, like Hickson, who's always considered one of the greatest of all time, if not the greatest, when you would talk to him, he would always say, it's all about defense.

01:30:10.000 Like he goes, in any position, I remember talking to him about this, he goes, I am safe.

01:30:15.000 He goes, if he has my back, I'm safe.

01:30:17.000 If I'm mounted, I'm safe.

01:30:19.000 He goes, I'm always safe.

01:30:20.000 And then it's always, he's like, we start from a neutral position, and then, I'll never forget this, it was kind of spooky, because you know how good Hickson is.

01:30:29.000 I can listen to a guy who is just dominant over everyone that he competed against, and all the people he trained with.

01:30:35.000 He goes, I move from zero to number one, and when I go from number one, I'm going to two, and I'm not going back to one.

01:30:43.000 And I'm going to checkmate.

01:30:45.000 And the way he's explaining it, like, super intense about his, like, his philosophy about just having perfect position and perfect technique.

01:30:54.000 And his thing was always have excellent defense.

01:30:57.000 You could never just rely only on offense.

01:30:59.000 And we've all seen guys like that that have this fantastic offense, but then they get stuck in a bad situation.

01:31:05.000 You see them flail and spaz and, you know, explode and they get tired and then they wind up getting caught.

01:31:11.000 Well, good defense gives you the confidence to be more offensive.

01:31:15.000 It's probably like with an MMA. If you know if that guy takes you down, the fight's over. 0.54

01:31:19.000 You're probably going to be pretty nervous and not be as offensive.

01:31:22.000 Whereas if you know you're going to get back up if he puts you down, it probably gives you more ability and confidence in your striking.

01:31:28.000 It opens up strikes for grapplers in a way that, like, one of the great examples is Kevin Randall when he fought Mirko Krokop.

01:31:38.000 Because Mirko Krokop at the time was, and still is, one of the most legendary strikers to ever compete in MMA. Just terrifying kickboxer.

01:31:46.000 But Randleman had him so scared of the takedown, he faked a shot and hit him with a left hook and knocked him out.

01:31:52.000 You know, dropped him and then finished him off.

01:31:54.000 Heavy knockout, too.

01:31:56.000 Yeah, heavy. 0.99

01:31:56.000 Well, Randleman was a fucking powerhouse, man. 0.99

01:31:59.000 He also had the worst staph infection I've ever seen in my life. 1.00

01:32:03.000 Oh, the hole here.

01:32:03.000 Oh, Mike, that was bad.

01:32:04.000 Remember that?

01:32:05.000 It was literally like he had an armpit on the side of his body where you could look in and see all the muscles, you could see all the tissue, everything.

01:32:14.000 Horrible.

01:32:14.000 Steph's no joke.

01:32:15.000 That's the worst part of this sport.

01:32:16.000 I've had some decent holes in me from Steph, to be honest.

01:32:18.000 I remember having a big hole in my arm.

01:32:20.000 I've had some nasty ones as well.

01:32:22.000 Not like that, not like a random one.

01:32:23.000 You guys use defense soap?

01:32:25.000 Do you use that stuff?

01:32:26.000 I should.

01:32:27.000 You don't have?

01:32:27.000 Dude.

01:32:28.000 I will bring some, because Guy Sacco sent some to my house the other day.

01:32:33.000 I got way more than I need.

01:32:34.000 You want some too?

01:32:35.000 Yeah, that'll be good.

01:32:36.000 Are you going to be at the matches?

01:32:38.000 No, we leave.

01:32:39.000 I tried to convince him to stay, but we couldn't do it.

01:32:42.000 I'll bring you a box of it, because he gives me a lot of it, because he's the nicest guy ever. 1.00

01:32:46.000 But that stuff is the shit. 0.99

01:32:48.000 Because it's all like natural tea tree oil and eucalyptus oil. 1.00

01:32:52.000 It's good for your skin.

01:32:53.000 It doesn't kill anything.

01:32:55.000 It just gives you a healthy environment for the skin.

01:32:58.000 So it's not like antibacterial where it kills all the good bacteria. 0.98

01:33:01.000 You can only use it for a certain amount of time because it's going to fuck you up. 0.98

01:33:04.000 It smells good. 1.00

01:33:05.000 It's good shit for you. 1.00

01:33:06.000 But it's like that and probiotics. 1.00

01:33:09.000 Probiotics are really important.

01:33:11.000 Acidophilus, giving your body healthy bacteria, things like kombucha, all those things. 0.99

01:33:16.000 Do you fuck around with any of that stuff? 0.99

01:33:18.000 I'm pretty fucking lazy, to be honest. 0.99

01:33:20.000 I should get onto it, eh? 0.99

01:33:22.000 It's fucking in-and-out burger. 0.98

01:33:23.000 When a guy trains seven days a week, he's literally one of the top three best grapplers on planet Earth, and you say how lazy you are, it's kind of hilarious. 1.00

01:33:30.000 He's fucking in-and-out burger every fucking meal. 1.00

01:33:33.000 Take away food. 1.00

01:33:34.000 It's tempting, yeah.

01:33:38.000 How much better do you think you'd be if you didn't...

01:33:40.000 I asked the same question to Gary back in the day. 0.88

01:33:43.000 Because Gary Tonin, when he was on my podcast years ago, he had a similarly shitty diet.

01:33:48.000 I mean, it's not terrible, but...

01:33:50.000 Yeah.

01:33:51.000 Yeah, I don't know.

01:33:52.000 I don't know what the bridge would be, how much better I would be.

01:33:55.000 I feel like quite often when I lose, it's never because they're stronger, faster, or in better fitness. 0.80

01:34:00.000 It's usually almost like, no, I fucked up with this particular move.

01:34:03.000 So I think the fact that I focus on the technique probably distracts me from other reasons that I could be losing particular matches.

01:34:10.000 So your body is in good enough shape so you can execute.

01:34:14.000 It's just mistakes.

01:34:16.000 Even now, I'm pretty lazy.

01:34:17.000 When I take a match, I don't even care what weight division it is.

01:34:20.000 I'd rather face someone bigger than cut weight.

01:34:23.000 I'd rather avoid cutting weight.

01:34:25.000 I'll cut weight for ADCC, but other than that, I'm just like, just give me a bigger guy.

01:34:30.000 I'd rather a bigger guy than starve myself.

01:34:32.000 Well, it makes sense when it doesn't come down to striking.

01:34:37.000 Yeah, yeah, for sure.

01:34:38.000 That's a luxury grapplers have.

01:34:39.000 Yeah, when you look at a guy like Francis Ngannou, you're like, I think I can lose some weight.

01:34:43.000 I think I can definitely lose some weight. 1.00

01:34:46.000 Fuck away from that guy. 1.00

01:34:47.000 We'll see how he goes, because he had me cooking meals for him the last five weeks. 1.00

01:34:51.000 He was cooking healthy, cooking healthy meals.

01:34:53.000 Yeah, you can cook, man.

01:34:54.000 I watched some of your videos.

01:34:55.000 You're a real cook.

01:34:57.000 I love cooking, yeah.

01:34:58.000 We had a couple of hits that they liked, so I just kept those on repeat almost every week, but...

01:35:03.000 I was even on the show cooking for everyone.

01:35:07.000 You're going to have to wait and see.

01:35:09.000 I love my barbecue.

01:35:11.000 I love my steaks and that as well.

01:35:12.000 One thing I do want to get some of the meats you guys have over elk.

01:35:16.000 We don't have that back home.

01:35:18.000 But in New Zealand, there's a lot of wild stag and a lot of wild animals.

01:35:23.000 They've got elks over there too.

01:35:24.000 Yes, they do.

01:35:26.000 Farmed elks over there. 0.99

01:35:27.000 Yeah, but you should go get it yourself.

01:35:29.000 Yeah, that's 100%, but that's what I like to do.

01:35:33.000 Kangaroo.

01:35:34.000 Hey.

01:35:35.000 Kangaroo meat's pretty healthy too, right?

01:35:36.000 It is, yeah, high in protein.

01:35:38.000 I've never had kangaroo, but I've had ostrich.

01:35:40.000 Really?

01:35:41.000 Yeah, there's a place called Fuddruckers, a cheeseburger place, and me and Eddie Bravo, we used to lift weights at 24 Hour Fitness, and we'd go get Fuddrucker ostrich burgers.

01:35:50.000 Mate, the kangabangers are good.

01:35:51.000 They're good, man.

01:35:52.000 Kangaroo.

01:35:53.000 Kangaroo's good?

01:35:54.000 Kangaroo sausages.

01:35:55.000 Kangabangers, we call them.

01:35:56.000 Oh, kangabangers.

01:35:57.000 You could probably get kangaroo here, right?

01:35:59.000 I reckon you could.

01:36:00.000 We've got that many of them in Australia.

01:36:03.000 There's a lot.

01:36:04.000 Yeah, it seems like there's a lot.

01:36:06.000 I watched a video once of, like, it looked like thousands of them running across a field.

01:36:09.000 It's crazy.

01:36:10.000 Mate, like, you go, you start going out west and, like, just every 10, 15 meters on the side of the road, like, obviously, I mean, being hit by cars.

01:36:20.000 There's a lot of damage to cars, deaths and everything from just driving on roads and kangaroos.

01:36:25.000 Like, a lot.

01:36:27.000 And don't they have people go out and try to lower the numbers?

01:36:32.000 People hired by the country?

01:36:34.000 And that's with a lot of animals in Australia.

01:36:36.000 Koalas too, right? 0.94

01:36:37.000 Do they call koalas?

01:36:39.000 I think so. 1.00

01:36:40.000 Oh, shit! 1.00

01:36:43.000 I didn't know about that. 1.00

01:36:44.000 Those little sweeties? 1.00

01:36:45.000 I think so, yeah.

01:36:46.000 I don't think so.

01:36:48.000 Koalas? 0.87

01:36:48.000 I hope not. 0.87

01:36:49.000 I think koalas are very limited because they have an extremely limited diet.

01:36:54.000 I think they only eat eucalyptus.

01:36:57.000 I think that's all they eat.

01:36:58.000 Yep, yeah.

01:36:59.000 Don't they have like a hepatitis?

01:37:01.000 Chlamydia.

01:37:02.000 Koalas have chlamydia, yeah. 1.00

01:37:03.000 How does people find that out?

01:37:06.000 But maybe that's why.

01:37:07.000 Are they keeping numbers down for that?

01:37:09.000 Found out the hard way.

01:37:12.000 I think koalas only eat eucalyptus.

01:37:15.000 Eucalyptus, yeah.

01:37:15.000 That's why they hang around.

01:37:16.000 They're always high. 1.00

01:37:18.000 Eyes are just glassy and red as fuck. 0.99

01:37:20.000 Really? 1.00

01:37:20.000 Eucalyptus gets you high? 1.00

01:37:21.000 I think so.

01:37:22.000 That's what I've been told.

01:37:23.000 We're just spreading a lot of misinformation on this show.

01:37:25.000 That makes some crazy noises, koalas. 1.00

01:37:27.000 I think so, though.

01:37:28.000 Yeah, they sound like a demon or something.

01:37:30.000 Hey, it's actually a scary noise.

01:37:31.000 Oh, really?

01:37:31.000 If you're out in the woods.

01:37:32.000 This is mainly.

01:37:33.000 Oh, mainly?

01:37:34.000 What else to eat? 1.00

01:37:35.000 Pussy? 1.00

01:37:36.000 Hey! 1.00

01:37:37.000 Chlamydia, dirty pussy. 1.00

01:37:41.000 But I don't think they call them, though. 1.00

01:37:43.000 It also says they're extremely picky with their food, but will occasionally branch out.

01:37:47.000 Maybe if they can't find any more eucalyptus.

01:37:49.000 Yeah, like they just hang out in eucalyptus trees.

01:37:51.000 That's pretty much it.

01:37:52.000 That's why I'm surprised they ate anything else.

01:37:54.000 I don't think they're...

01:37:55.000 They're not overpopulated, though.

01:37:58.000 I don't think they would call them.

01:37:59.000 Oh, so they...

01:38:00.000 That's what I was looking at before that.

01:38:01.000 They did... 0.99

01:38:03.000 Fuckin' hell, really? 0.99

01:38:04.000 Fuckin' a hundred years ago though. 0.99

01:38:05.000 Alright, I'm a bit late on that. 0.99

01:38:08.000 800,000 were killed to send for the United States.

01:38:11.000 Oh my god, that's nuts!

01:38:13.000 Culling was banned in New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria in the early 1900s, but continued until 1927 in Queensland.

01:38:20.000 It was eventually banned after a massive public backlash.

01:38:23.000 Have you heard about the emu war?

01:38:24.000 The Australian military went to war with emus?

01:38:27.000 Yes, I did hear that.

01:38:28.000 We lost. 0.98

01:38:29.000 My friend Monty Franklin has a fucking great bit about it. 0.97

01:38:32.000 He's Australian, and he's got a great stand-up comedy bit about the emu war. 0.59

01:38:37.000 I told John Danaher about that, and he looked at me for probably 30 seconds silent before he went straight to Google.

01:38:42.000 Then he came back in the next day an expert on the emu war. 0.97

01:38:45.000 Knew every single fucking detail about it. 0.97

01:38:48.000 What is the deal in the emu war? 0.99

01:38:50.000 Why did they have to go to war with emus?

01:38:52.000 There were so many of them? 0.99

01:38:53.000 I think they were fucking up some crops somewhere, so they sent the military out there, but they couldn't kill them. 0.98

01:38:58.000 There's a lot of animals in Australia. 0.97

01:39:01.000 You go out west than that, where we are, and they're just everywhere.

01:39:06.000 Yeah.

01:39:07.000 Well, the thing about it is you have to get within, you know, what, 500 yards?

01:39:11.000 And they're birds.

01:39:13.000 Like, good luck. 0.99

01:39:14.000 Once they realize you're shooting them, they're going to get the fuck out of there. 0.99

01:39:16.000 And then you're chasing them. 0.99

01:39:17.000 So how are you chasing them?

01:39:18.000 Are you chasing them by plane?

01:39:19.000 Are you chasing them on a truck? 0.84

01:39:21.000 Like, are you going to shoot individual bullets at individual birds?

01:39:24.000 That's a long project.

01:39:25.000 This is not like a simple, easy-to-do project.

01:39:28.000 It's not like buffalo that just stand there.

01:39:31.000 The thing about when they extirpated buffalo from the plains, buffalo would just stand there.

01:39:37.000 They would drop around each other like, boom!

01:39:40.000 One would fall down, the other ones would just keep eating. 0.99

01:39:42.000 They're like, what the fuck's going on? 0.98

01:39:43.000 They didn't know what was happening. 1.00

01:39:44.000 I would imagine those emu, they get hip to that ship pretty quick. 0.65

01:39:48.000 Very quick, yeah.

01:39:50.000 Can you eat emus?

01:39:51.000 Yeah, yeah, I believe so.

01:39:53.000 Yeah, I'm pretty sure we do.

01:39:55.000 They are like the coat of arms as well, the kangaroo and emu.

01:39:57.000 That's true.

01:39:58.000 People get so angry when you tell them you eat kangaroo.

01:40:00.000 Really?

01:40:01.000 Yeah, they don't like it because I guess it's such a sweet looking animal.

01:40:04.000 But they're vicious.

01:40:05.000 Choke each other and stuff. 0.98

01:40:06.000 Oh yeah, and they get jacked too. 0.98

01:40:08.000 Some of them are really jacked. 0.86

01:40:10.000 Yeah, they literally have... 1.00

01:40:11.000 They've got biceps and shit. 0.99

01:40:13.000 They've got a chest. 0.99

01:40:13.000 They come out and they staunch you like this. 0.99

01:40:15.000 Like, literally, have you seen the one? 0.95

01:40:16.000 There's one that you go on, like, I think it's a window, like, comes up to a house, and they're on the other side of the window, so the kangaroo can't see him, but he's seeing himself in the window, and he starts shaping up, just like, shoulder charging it like this, like, what, you want to fucking go like that? 0.89

01:40:30.000 Mate, huge, I mean huge.

01:40:32.000 Like, the big reds, big red kangaroos, massive. 0.63

01:40:35.000 Well, they kill people, right? 0.91

01:40:36.000 Well, mate, they supposedly get you, like, in a tight clench, And they stand on their tail, get their both legs and just smash your guts. 0.55

01:40:43.000 But sometimes they've got big claws. 0.90

01:40:44.000 I've been told they can rip you.

01:40:46.000 They've got that little chug too.

01:40:48.000 You see them choke each other out.

01:40:50.000 See them choke that dog out? 0.98

01:40:52.000 And the guy fights him?

01:40:55.000 If you had to go out, you've got to arm drag a kangaroo, right? 1.00

01:41:00.000 I would think arm drags the move.

01:41:01.000 They probably have no idea what to do if you get to their back.

01:41:04.000 They got that tail.

01:41:05.000 You know, the tail could stop you from passing.

01:41:07.000 You hang on to the tail.

01:41:09.000 I feel like you could get them.

01:41:10.000 It'd be tough to leg lock, that's for sure.

01:41:12.000 Very tough to leg lock, but I feel like they would have no idea. 0.92

01:41:15.000 You get one good arm drag, you get their back, and they're going to fucking flop around and try to figure out. 0.95

01:41:21.000 This would be a good question for John. 0.98

01:41:22.000 If you ask him about any battle between animals, he will just go.

01:41:27.000 Anytime I want training to start a little later.

01:41:29.000 Start studying their body shapes.

01:41:31.000 What is the deal with the big giant knives that he gives you guys when you get your black belt?

01:41:36.000 I don't know, to be honest.

01:41:38.000 But it is very cool.

01:41:39.000 Usually he gives us a knife if we've had a good performance or something.

01:41:43.000 Because he sort of sees us as the blade and he's sharpening us.

01:41:48.000 And that's sort of like a metaphor for that.

01:41:50.000 But yeah, it's very interesting, yeah.

01:41:52.000 How many knives do you have?

01:41:54.000 I think I've got three.

01:41:55.000 I've only got three.

01:41:56.000 So, obviously, some of the boys have got a lot more.

01:41:58.000 Gordon's probably got an arsenal at home.

01:42:02.000 It's got to be a trip to train with a guy like that who's, you know, Gordon's only 25 years old, and he's already known as the greatest ground fighter of all time.

01:42:13.000 Like, if you ask people, who's the greatest jiu-jitsu practitioner ever, Most people today that are in the know will say Gordon Ryan, which is crazy because he's 25 years old.

01:42:23.000 But if you look at his accomplishments, the guy hasn't lost in 39 fights. 0.92

01:42:27.000 Like, who the fuck can say that in grappling? 0.98

01:42:29.000 That's never happened. 0.99

01:42:30.000 Yeah, very, very crazy.

01:42:31.000 I mean, he just took it to another level of dominance.

01:42:33.000 There's been guys that have been dominant, like obviously Hodgie Gracie and stuff, but for the most part, a lot of the dominant grapplers didn't finish everyone.

01:42:40.000 And he just goes out and just finishes people.

01:42:42.000 But it's good for my confidence because even if I have a bad day in the gym with him, I'm like, well, it can't get any worse.

01:42:46.000 Yeah.

01:42:46.000 Right.

01:42:47.000 You're literally rolling with the goat.

01:42:48.000 Yeah, no one's going to do that to me.

01:42:50.000 Well, I hope.

01:42:51.000 Yeah.

01:42:52.000 Well, you hope.

01:42:53.000 I had my moments.

01:42:56.000 Now, what is it like when you brought a guy like him in?

01:42:58.000 What were you thinking, bringing him in for camp?

01:43:01.000 Oh, man.

01:43:01.000 Good banter as well.

01:43:03.000 Obviously, knowledge.

01:43:03.000 You know what I mean?

01:43:04.000 We knew that.

01:43:04.000 And I've trained with him a few times.

01:43:06.000 But I mean, we just knew he was over here as well.

01:43:09.000 So we hit him up. 0.89

01:43:11.000 We just thought it'd be good to have him on the show because again, we get along and the type of crowd, the crew we have has good banter and we're like shit-stirring each other and all that.

01:43:20.000 We knew he would fit well and he did.

01:43:22.000 So it was great.

01:43:23.000 It really was.

01:43:24.000 But I mean, training in that was good as well.

01:43:26.000 And I'm glad I did that because...

01:43:29.000 Just through the start, like, man, I'll tell you right now, I was averaging, he was submitting me, you know, once a minute.

01:43:37.000 That would have been my average.

01:43:38.000 You know what I mean? 0.97

01:43:39.000 If I did 10 minute round, I was doing, I was getting fucking submitted 10 times once a minute. 0.97

01:43:43.000 Honestly. 0.98

01:43:44.000 And like, I'll be like, fuck, and now we're getting them numbers, we're getting them numbers lower. 0.99

01:43:49.000 So it's all right. 0.99

01:43:50.000 So thank you.

01:43:51.000 Between 195 and 200?

01:43:53.000 And you walk around at like 160s?

01:43:56.000 Yeah, 167, like right now.

01:43:59.000 But yeah, when I first started the tough and that was about 165. Your game is so pressure and volume and a lot of striking.

01:44:09.000 But one of the things that you showed in the Holloway fight is you can mix it up and grapple too.

01:44:13.000 Like a lot of people...

01:44:15.000 When you're approaching a fight and you have this real wide array of skills, How do you decide, like, do you do based on strategy and game plan before the fight, how to approach a specific fighter, or do you flow?

01:44:31.000 Do you feel it in the moment?

01:44:32.000 A lot of it's flow.

01:44:33.000 Obviously, the game plan goes a long way, but, I mean, you need to play what's in front of you as well.

01:44:38.000 Like, with that last fight, you had Max, who changed his whole... 0.74

01:44:44.000 Fucking, you know, he's been successful for a long time in this certain style. 0.92

01:44:48.000 And then he went to, we call him Muay Thai Max. 0.99

01:44:50.000 He went Muay Thai Max in the last fight, which we just did not expect him to change his whole game.

01:44:54.000 More upright, legs are closer together, and, you know, didn't care too much about getting out, you know, like making you miss and then countering.

01:45:03.000 It was more just, I'm going to let you run it.

01:45:04.000 Like, we did not expect that at all.

01:45:06.000 So you've got to make adjustments.

01:45:09.000 We're good to go.

01:45:24.000 And then again, just being able to use certain tools, even knowing that that tool ain't going to work, but I'm going to get him thinking about that tool and I'm going to use this tool and just constantly mixing it up.

01:45:34.000 So if I don't get them takedowns, I'm not too fussed because that's still a piece of the puzzle he's trying to figure out or he's committing to stopping that takedown.

01:45:41.000 Once he's committing, I capitalise somewhere else.

01:45:43.000 But that's somewhere where I feel like I could always take it.

01:45:49.000 Before, if you look at five fights ago, five, six fights ago, everyone just thought I was a wrestler grappler.

01:45:56.000 Now, people just think I'm just a striker.

01:45:58.000 From the last few fights, they just look at me as a striker.

01:46:01.000 But it just shows you where, obviously, we did a lot more training with City Kickboxing and that.

01:46:07.000 So I've always had that wrestling background and that gritty, hard-working sort of mentality.

01:46:13.000 We knew a lot about going to City and the fine details.

01:46:16.000 We had details on the wall and all that type of stuff.

01:46:18.000 But going over there and they have just some attention to detail with striking.

01:46:24.000 And you've seen it in my last fights where people don't even know I've got wrestling or grappling. 0.87

01:46:29.000 Now I'm fucking up for Craig Jones. 0.78

01:46:32.000 He is doing a lot better on the ground. 0.98

01:46:34.000 I'm glad. 0.99

01:46:34.000 I don't need to grapple him anymore, so I'm just going to talk a heap of shit. 0.99

01:46:37.000 I want to see him and Ortega after the fire actually have a grappling match because people obviously ride very, very high on Ortega's grappling, but I think, yeah, very underrated. 0.68

01:46:46.000 I would love to see him.

01:46:47.000 Ortega's very good on the ground.

01:46:50.000 His submissions are...

01:46:51.000 There's something about his squeeze that's really phenomenal.

01:46:55.000 Like when he caught Cub Swanson, he almost got him at the end of the first round.

01:46:59.000 I think it was the first round that he got him in the second.

01:47:01.000 But at the end of whatever the round it was, he caught him in a darse, had it fully locked up, and it looked like it was going out.

01:47:06.000 And then the buzzer rang.

01:47:08.000 And then he caught him in a guillotine in the second round.

01:47:10.000 And it's just the details of the way he cinches it up.

01:47:13.000 And it's so tight and it's so precise.

01:47:15.000 And you can see his adjustments when it's not that...

01:47:18.000 Even when he had...

01:47:19.000 Was it Cub?

01:47:21.000 When he used the cage, even kicked off the cage and hopped up a little bit and got even more over the neck and then really sunk it.

01:47:27.000 So again, he knows where to put the head.

01:47:30.000 He knows how to get that head down and capitalize on that.

01:47:33.000 I was surprised though when he fought Max that he didn't get it to the ground or make substantial attempts to get it to the ground.

01:47:40.000 I was surprised.

01:47:41.000 I was surprised that he decided to fight a stand-up fight with him.

01:47:43.000 Well, he's the type of guy where he said it himself.

01:47:45.000 He goes, I don't need to wrestle. 0.99

01:47:47.000 Someone wants to take me down, I'm going to fuck them up with my jiu-jitsu. 0.99

01:47:51.000 It's a pretty bad mentality. 0.99

01:47:52.000 What if you need to, as you did in that fight, need to get it to the ground?

01:47:57.000 You know what I mean?

01:47:57.000 The wrestling goes a long way.

01:47:59.000 There's a lot of control in wrestling, defensively and offensively.

01:48:02.000 So, you know, having that tool goes a long way.

01:48:05.000 Yeah, I don't think you can have any holes in your game at the elite level anymore.

01:48:09.000 It's not...

01:48:10.000 Unless...

01:48:11.000 I mean, even if you're a great striker, what if you get clipped?

01:48:16.000 Anything can happen.

01:48:17.000 Yeah, 100%.

01:48:18.000 And you've got to understand that.

01:48:20.000 You know what I mean?

01:48:20.000 Even though...

01:48:22.000 You don't want to talk yourself up.

01:48:24.000 You don't want to be cocky, but I'm definitely confident.

01:48:26.000 But a lot of these opponents that I see, even with this next fight, there's a lot of different challenges that I need to be aware of, but I still feel like it's just more about him landing a certain shot or him maybe in a submission.

01:48:39.000 So it's just about nullifying that.

01:48:41.000 But I just feel like...

01:48:43.000 Without any disrespect to him, I just feel like that's his go-to.

01:48:47.000 But again, we're in MMA where that could definitely happen.

01:48:50.000 But I'm pretty defensively sound and working with him.

01:48:54.000 Now I feel like my jiu-jitsu is at a whole other level, especially defensively.

01:48:59.000 When you've had matches with a guy like Holloway, you've had these two epic fights with Max Holloway, and you have two victories over him, but real close fights.

01:49:09.000 How important is that for a guy like you to have a foil like that, to have...

01:49:16.000 A guy that is your rival.

01:49:18.000 Like Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier.

01:49:21.000 You know, there's these epic rivalries where you have more than one fight together and they're just these crazy close fights.

01:49:28.000 Ten rounds.

01:49:29.000 Yeah, man.

01:49:30.000 It's crazy.

01:49:31.000 But I think, obviously, it's like someone I was talking to when they talk about having teams.

01:49:36.000 You can go and then You've got two teams, and then just because of the jersey you're wearing, you're going to have millions of people hate you and pick on absolutely everything you do.

01:49:44.000 You know what I mean?

01:49:44.000 So that's always going to be happening.

01:49:46.000 So a lot of the attention is just purely they're either a Max Holloway fan or an Alex fan.

01:49:51.000 You could be both.

01:49:52.000 Yeah, or be both.

01:49:53.000 I'm both.

01:49:54.000 Exactly.

01:49:54.000 But I mean, what a lot of people are missing is what happened in that cage, man.

01:49:58.000 There was some very, very high-level...

01:50:01.000 It was a high-level chess match.

01:50:03.000 Even in the first fight and the second fight, the adjustments he made in between, the adjustments I made mid-fight, even in the first fight, if I go into detail, there's times where he wanted to just catch me.

01:50:16.000 Every time I feel a kick or something, he just wanted to get me and just come forward.

01:50:18.000 He's a volume fighter.

01:50:19.000 So once he did that, I was just making him run into things because I knew he was going to come in.

01:50:23.000 Then he realized, oh, he's trying to catch me coming in.

01:50:25.000 So I'm going to pretend to go in and then catch him after he tries to catch me coming in.

01:50:31.000 And then I caught on to that, then I end up, you know what I mean?

01:50:33.000 So it was like, it was this, little tiny adjustments.

01:50:35.000 This was happening, like, I can show you sequences, oh, this is where this happened, and little chess matches the people are going to miss, you know what I mean?

01:50:41.000 And obviously I can't give away too much of what was going on in there, but there were so many things that we had to just, a lot of it was the fact that I just kept changing things up as well to make it harder for him to get a read on me.

01:50:52.000 But, you know, but again, there was a chess match where he would make, you know, great little adjustments, and it would work, and then I'll catch on to that, then I'll change it up, and he would do that, and you know what I mean?

01:51:03.000 But people are going to miss that, because they're just going to be like, you know, going to carry on how they do, which I get, you know, and I respect people, yeah, for obviously being that emotional about it, you know, because that's what we write off.

01:51:14.000 We want that, but...

01:51:16.000 Mate, there was 10 rounds, and again, you talk about it, and obviously, you're going to get people to say whatever they want, that's fine, but I think they're just missing the point of how competitive, yeah, it was very competitive, even though I've got the two wins,

01:51:32.000 but the chess match we're having in there, I just think is missed by too many people.

01:51:38.000 Yeah, I think you're probably right.

01:51:39.000 The people that don't appreciate it just think it's a great fight.

01:51:44.000 But the people that appreciate it and have seen a lot of fights and understand the high-level aspects of it, were like, wow, this is pretty special.

01:51:52.000 I felt like it was pretty special.

01:51:54.000 And I think it's just so impressive that you have these two victories over Max when you look at how Max has performed with everybody else in the division. 0.99

01:52:02.000 Like the last fight with Calvin Cater, who is a fucking beast. 0.99

01:52:06.000 And Max just lit him on fire. 0.99

01:52:08.000 That was, in my opinion, one of the most impressive performances I've ever seen.

01:52:12.000 Oh, it was a great performance.

01:52:14.000 Again, people...

01:52:16.000 I'm going to give credit when credit's due.

01:52:18.000 No, you do.

01:52:19.000 He looked great.

01:52:20.000 He did.

01:52:21.000 Even I was like, wow.

01:52:22.000 I said that.

01:52:23.000 But then obviously afterwards, I go, yeah, you're hitting them numbers on these guys, but you ain't hitting them numbers when I'm in front of you.

01:52:28.000 But again, you're obviously going to say that, and people aren't going to be happy with that.

01:52:33.000 But at the same time, again, you know what I mean?

01:52:35.000 He's a smart dude.

01:52:37.000 He's got a high fighter IQ. You have certain habits.

01:52:41.000 Their team's going to pick up on it, and Max is going to pick up on it.

01:52:44.000 You exit a certain way and that's the only exit. 0.99

01:52:47.000 He's going to fucking piece you up if you keep doing that. 0.98

01:52:49.000 And again, like, you know, there was, and I know no disrespect to Takeda, but there were certain things that, you know, Max caught on and just fucking made him pay. 0.99

01:52:57.000 He was being first and then fucking stayed on him. 0.90

01:53:00.000 He was the first to get going. 0.98

01:53:02.000 As soon as he got him where he knew he was going to direct him.

01:53:05.000 Just kept going.

01:53:06.000 But the way he even mixed that up, I don't think I've ever seen him mix kicks, knees, so much.

01:53:12.000 After our fights, I feel like, especially from the first to the second, his tool was always his jab, his hands, and the volume fight.

01:53:18.000 The second one, obviously, he used so many different tools.

01:53:21.000 In this fight, you've seen him just...

01:53:22.000 The volume was there, the way he just mixed up all the tools.

01:53:25.000 So again, I'm going to give him a lot of credit because...

01:53:28.000 The kid can fight.

01:53:29.000 You know what I mean? 0.98

01:53:29.000 He can fight his ass off. 0.98

01:53:30.000 He takes a shot too. 0.98

01:53:31.000 And I can guarantee you we're going to meet again.

01:53:32.000 But obviously I've got jobs to do.

01:53:34.000 And it's going to be a big fight.

01:53:35.000 And people are going to really want to watch that one.

01:53:38.000 But right now, obviously I've got Ortega to worry about and watch this season. 1.00

01:53:43.000 Everyone can watch me stir him up and give him shit. 0.97

01:53:46.000 What is the pressure like of hanging out with a guy that you're going to fight for five weeks? 0.99

01:53:50.000 You're just hanging out, day in, day out, seeing each other all the time.

01:53:53.000 I was talking about how I adjust and adapt to things in front of me, even in the fight.

01:53:58.000 I'm just like that 24-7.

01:54:00.000 I'm the type of guy that whatever I'm doing, that's it.

01:54:03.000 I'm me. 0.99

01:54:03.000 I forget I'm a fucking UFC champ. 0.99

01:54:05.000 I forget I'm even a fighter half the time. 0.99

01:54:08.000 Once I'm home, I'm daddy, that's it.

01:54:10.000 That's how I am.

01:54:11.000 I went in there and I just knew I didn't run a reality TV show.

01:54:15.000 He's going to be there, whatever. 0.98

01:54:17.000 It was funny, because again, you're trying to get reads on him and things like that, but again, I just think he's fucking awkward. 0.98

01:54:24.000 He's an awkward dude. 0.97

01:54:25.000 What do you reckon?

01:54:26.000 What did you get out of it?

01:54:27.000 Yeah, that's for sure.

01:54:27.000 He definitely wasn't a fan of me by the end of the show.

01:54:30.000 Really?

01:54:30.000 He almost got fired for one of the pranks I played on him, but we weren't allowed to...

01:54:34.000 You almost got fired or he almost got fired?

01:54:36.000 I almost got fired for it.

01:54:37.000 Which one was that?

01:54:38.000 Really?

01:54:38.000 That was the...

01:54:40.000 We had to take five COVID tests a week, so obviously there's pranks on the show. 0.99

01:54:43.000 This won't make the TV show anyway, but I did pretend to put his COVID test on my ass. 0.99

01:54:49.000 It didn't really happen. 0.99

01:54:51.000 So we're pretending to piss on his signs and all that.

01:54:54.000 We've got photos of us just stirring up.

01:54:56.000 Again, a bit of laughing, a bit of banter, but we know how he carries on.

01:55:00.000 There was a photo that he put.

01:55:02.000 You put it up, didn't you?

01:55:03.000 Of the keys.

01:55:04.000 Yeah, we pretended to take his car. 1.00

01:55:06.000 We just had a photo of the keys and supposedly he had the fucking shits and he was like, oh, I'll fucking fight Craig. 0.99

01:55:14.000 I'm like, I'm in the photo too. 1.00

01:55:15.000 Why aren't you saying you'll fucking fight me? 0.98

01:55:17.000 Yeah, he's like, if he touches the car, we'll fight him. 0.98

01:55:20.000 But I mean, again, whether he was just going along with it or whatever it was, or he's just easily triggered, I don't know.

01:55:28.000 So we started realizing that, so we just started playing on that a fair bit.

01:55:32.000 Hey, knowing that he's easily triggered, there might be a route to this next fight as well.

01:55:37.000 What happened with the COVID test swab? 1.00

01:55:40.000 Like, you took a photo pretending that you were sticking up your ass? 1.00

01:55:43.000 Can we get this up? 1.00

01:55:45.000 Airdrop it to Jamie.

01:55:46.000 Get the photo of us pissing as well.

01:55:50.000 You guys are grown, man. 0.86

01:55:51.000 Get the photo of us pissing. 1.00

01:55:53.000 And the thing with me with the thing up my ass? 1.00

01:55:55.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:55:56.000 Get that.

01:55:58.000 Mac Pro, Jamie?

01:55:59.000 Yep.

01:56:00.000 No, MVP. Oh, there it is.

01:56:03.000 Something happened.

01:56:04.000 But again, just have a bit of a laugh, you know what I mean?

01:56:07.000 It's on the wrong computer.

01:56:08.000 I got this one.

01:56:11.000 I mean, it's pretty lighthearted, you know? 1.00

01:56:12.000 Like, I wouldn't really stick his oral COVID swab up my ass. 0.99

01:56:15.000 How could you even get a hold of it? 1.00

01:56:17.000 I mean, isn't that stuff controlled?

01:56:18.000 That's what I don't understand. 0.99

01:56:19.000 Like, where the fuck is the nurse? 1.00

01:56:21.000 Oh, I just waited until the nurse had to go to the bathroom, you know? 1.00

01:56:25.000 Swab.

01:56:26.000 There it goes.

01:56:28.000 Oh my god.

01:56:30.000 That cheeky smirk too, eh?

01:56:32.000 They actually almost fired me for this one, so I probably crossed the line a little too much.

01:56:37.000 But hey, remember, this is a different swap, just in case you still get in trouble.

01:56:41.000 Yeah, this is fake, ladies and gentlemen.

01:56:43.000 It's just a joke.

01:56:43.000 Allegedly.

01:56:44.000 It might have been a flavoured test, you never know.

01:56:46.000 LOL. So, what did they say to you?

01:56:50.000 Well, I mean, I did have some ideas for some COVID pranks, because obviously we're trying to get them, but they did tell me because they spent so much money on COVID testing, they were like, that's a line we can't cross.

01:57:00.000 But I just couldn't resist.

01:57:02.000 But Craig did it anyway.

01:57:04.000 That's probably not on the film.

01:57:06.000 All our tests were sitting in the same section.

01:57:09.000 Yeah, I get it.

01:57:11.000 Listen, it makes sense to me.

01:57:13.000 You gotta do what you gotta do.

01:57:14.000 But it's part of the fun of the show, right? 0.99

01:57:16.000 It's fucking with everybody. 0.99

01:57:17.000 Yeah, exactly. 1.00

01:57:18.000 The whole pranks and stuff like shits through each other.

01:57:21.000 And the more conflict there is, the better the ratings are, the better the show does, the better it is for everybody when you guys have a big fight.

01:57:29.000 I mean, financially, it's hard because a lot of people think of martial arts, they think of honor and respect and commitment and discipline and all that, which is all real.

01:57:38.000 But this is a business, and it's an entertainment business. 1.00

01:57:42.000 And one of the reasons why Conor McGregor's worth a half a billion dollars is because that motherfucker knows how to stir some shit. 0.99

01:57:49.000 The fight with Jose Aldo, where they went on this world tour for months at a time, by the end of that tour, he had a whole apartment complex under Jose Aldo's skin. 0.99

01:58:01.000 I mean, he wasn't just under his skin.

01:58:03.000 He had fucking camped out, led sewer lines, electrical. 0.98

01:58:06.000 I mean, he lived there. 0.99

01:58:08.000 He was in Jose's health, in his head, and it factored in the fight.

01:58:14.000 Because Aldo was uncharacteristically reckless.

01:58:17.000 He just charged forward, looking to land that left hook, and got clipped with that straight left on the way.

01:58:22.000 And you even see the way he was trying to draw that out of him, too.

01:58:26.000 So you've got to give credit to Conor, because again, he lands all these shots, but he sets them up.

01:58:32.000 He puts them under the pump.

01:58:34.000 See when he's warming up and he's showing the exact technique he's going to use?

01:58:38.000 In the warm-up, in the locker room, before the fight.

01:58:41.000 He's mimicking Aldo and he's mimicking him.

01:58:44.000 And he's mimicking dropping a left hand on him and then he went out and started.

01:58:47.000 Knowing that he's going to put that pressure, get in his face and get the big reaction and capitalize on it.

01:58:52.000 And like you said, he pictured it.

01:58:54.000 Boom.

01:58:54.000 Got exactly what he went.

01:58:55.000 Amazing.

01:58:56.000 It was good.

01:58:58.000 Do you anticipate staying at 45 for the remainder of your career?

01:59:01.000 Look, I can see myself going to lightweight, but again, I want to just stay in the division and win the next couple of fights and cement myself as the man of the goat of the featherweight division and all that type of stuff.

01:59:16.000 I mean, there's going to be a time where I'm going to be waiting to find the next number one contender and things like that, and I want to move up.

01:59:23.000 But right now is not the time.

01:59:26.000 Again, I'll wait.

01:59:27.000 I've still got a fair bit to work on.

01:59:30.000 Obviously, you've got fights that you've got to do anyway.

01:59:34.000 And obviously, build your brand and all that type of stuff.

01:59:37.000 Build your stocks.

01:59:38.000 And then they'll want that fight.

01:59:40.000 So I don't think that's too far away.

01:59:42.000 Yeah, there's so much in your division already, as it is.

01:59:46.000 And as long as you're not having a hard time.

01:59:48.000 There's a big gap.

01:59:50.000 55 and 45. 10 pounds is a lot.

01:59:52.000 It really is.

01:59:53.000 And it's one of the reasons why I think boxing has a better system in terms of weight classes.

01:59:58.000 I think the UFC has way too few weight classes.

02:00:00.000 I really do.

02:00:01.000 When it gets between 85 and 205, that to me is crazy.

02:00:05.000 20 pound gap, that's bananas. 0.67

02:00:08.000 It's just so much.

02:00:10.000 205 and 265, what the hell?

02:00:13.000 That's a big jump.

02:00:14.000 That's a big jump, man.

02:00:15.000 Like, and you see, Jon Jones is actually having a hard time putting weight on.

02:00:19.000 Like, he's...

02:00:20.000 Yeah, it's the same that.

02:00:21.000 Yeah.

02:00:21.000 I mean, the weight he's putting on...

02:00:23.000 Look, there's weight, and then there's Francis Ngannou weight, right?

02:00:27.000 It's a different thing.

02:00:28.000 Like, you look at Francis, like, that's a giant human.

02:00:32.000 He's cutting weight to make 265. He's a natural 265. Enormous fists.

02:00:40.000 Enormous shoulders.

02:00:41.000 Everything about him is huge.

02:00:43.000 If you want to get to look like that, that's a multi-year process to go from a guy who makes 205. Francis ain't making 205, bro.

02:00:54.000 He's just not making that.

02:00:55.000 So if you want to go up and fight that guy, you either have to be a rock-solid 240, Or if you're going to really try to get to the 260 range.

02:01:04.000 I mean, I've talked to pro powerlifters and bodybuilders and people who do stack a lot of weight on and put muscle mass on.

02:01:12.000 I'm like, it takes years.

02:01:13.000 It takes years.

02:01:14.000 And then on top of that, then there's the cardio requirement of all that muscle.

02:01:18.000 John Jones is a cardio machine.

02:01:20.000 But being used to that weight.

02:01:22.000 Exactly.

02:01:23.000 It's a different world.

02:01:24.000 It's a different world.

02:01:25.000 Talking about Nagano, I was meant to be on the same card as him.

02:01:28.000 And we got COVID. But we didn't know.

02:01:31.000 So we're still going to the PI and things like that because we're getting tested and the latest test was all good.

02:01:36.000 And then the morning I fired – sorry, the day that we found out we had COVID because there was a few of us – We were sitting in the sauna, shaking hands with Nagano, and he was fighting the next day, and we're like...

02:01:49.000 Oh, no.

02:01:50.000 And then we're here, we're watching ads of Nagano's fighting, and we're looking at each other like, I fucking hope so, you know what I mean? 0.94

02:01:57.000 We started shitting ourselves, like, please don't tell me we gave him the COVID and things like that. 0.99

02:02:01.000 He wouldn't be fucking happy. 0.99

02:02:02.000 Is that when he fought Rosenstreich? 0.99

02:02:04.000 No, no, that was the last one.

02:02:06.000 That was with Stipe?

02:02:06.000 Yes.

02:02:07.000 Yeah, that was the last one.

02:02:09.000 I was meant to be on that card with Ortega.

02:02:11.000 Imagine if that killed the whole card.

02:02:13.000 Oh, mate, that's what I mean. 0.91

02:02:14.000 I was like, we were fucking nervous, I'll tell you that.

02:02:18.000 I'm like, finding that and he's going to know it's from us. 0.56

02:02:21.000 You know what I mean?

02:02:22.000 It's like, well, Alice got it. 0.99

02:02:24.000 A few days later, I fucking got it. 0.98

02:02:25.000 Well, the good thing about him is he doesn't have to cut weight, so his body never is depleting. 0.99

02:02:31.000 He's just sort of like watching his diet, and he gets down to 265. He's not draining himself.

02:02:37.000 Do you incorporate a lot of sauna into everyday workouts, or is it just when you're cutting weight?

02:02:45.000 No, no, because I like getting a good sweater, even hot baths and all that.

02:02:48.000 I love flushing that body out. 1.00

02:02:51.000 I just think it's...

02:02:53.000 Makes me feel good, too.

02:02:54.000 Everyone does the ice-cold baths. 0.97

02:02:57.000 I don't fucking like cold water, I'll be honest. 1.00

02:03:00.000 I fucking hate it. 0.99

02:03:01.000 I did better through this trip being at the UFC PI. We got into the recovery room, and I got into the ice bath a fair bit, so I was happy with that, but I fucking hate it. 0.99

02:03:12.000 But I mean, I love the hot baths, and I feel like whenever I do that, I feel like my body feels unreal. 0.91

02:03:17.000 I feel like it really does help with my...

02:03:19.000 With my recovery. 0.98

02:03:20.000 I don't know if there's science behind it, but I'm fucking claiming it. 0.96

02:03:24.000 I reckon it works. 0.84

02:03:25.000 Yeah, no, there is definitely science behind it.

02:03:26.000 Even for recovery and things like that?

02:03:29.000 Yeah.

02:03:29.000 Okay, well there you go.

02:03:30.000 It also increases your endurance.

02:03:32.000 It has a mild red blood cell count expanding effect, like a mild EPO type effect.

02:03:39.000 There's something about doing it particularly, I think...

02:03:42.000 Is that the same with baths as well?

02:03:44.000 No, not quite.

02:03:45.000 It's something.

02:03:46.000 It does something.

02:03:47.000 It's just you're not going to be able to get hot as hot.

02:03:49.000 But it's definitely better than nothing.

02:03:52.000 They say the same thing about steam, but the real benefit is in the sauna.

02:03:56.000 And the studies that they've done...

02:03:57.000 Because it's hotter, did you say?

02:03:58.000 Yeah, it's hotter.

02:03:59.000 I have fun. 0.94

02:04:00.000 Like when I do the hot baths, it gets fucking hot. 0.94

02:04:02.000 I think it's hotter than it's meant to be. 0.97

02:04:03.000 Oh, I'm sure it gets hot, but it doesn't get 200 degrees, right?

02:04:09.000 Oh, no, I don't think that much.

02:04:10.000 You know who Laird Hamilton is, the surfer?

02:04:13.000 Yep. 1.00

02:04:13.000 He's a fucking alien, okay? 1.00

02:04:15.000 Like, dude, like a legit alien. 1.00

02:04:18.000 The guy broke his ankle and never did anything about it, just kept walking around on it, so his ankles fused, and it's like the size of this fucking coffee pot. 0.98

02:04:25.000 When did this happen? 0.98

02:04:26.000 A long time ago. 0.99

02:04:27.000 This is like, doesn't give a fuck, just keeps walking around on it. 0.99

02:04:29.000 Show his ankle. 1.00

02:04:30.000 Show Larry Hamilton's ankle.

02:04:31.000 By the way, never had it worked on.

02:04:33.000 Just cracked his ankle and just kept walking around, surfing. 0.99

02:04:36.000 He doesn't give a fuck. 0.99

02:04:39.000 But I was going to say about him, he's just one of those guys that, world champion surfer, but just like insanely mentally strong. 0.99

02:04:47.000 Gets in a sauna at 220 degrees with oven mitts on and rides an airdyne bike. 1.00

02:04:51.000 Fuck. 1.00

02:04:52.000 I'm not bullshitting. 1.00

02:04:53.000 Look at his ankle. 1.00

02:04:54.000 Oh, fucking hell. 0.99

02:04:57.000 Yeah, so that's how his ankle is right now. 1.00

02:05:00.000 Walks around with this fucking completely blown out ankle. 0.98

02:05:03.000 That's like a jiu-jitsu ankle. 0.99

02:05:04.000 I know, right?

02:05:08.000 People get the knuckles.

02:05:10.000 Some people's knuckles, like Megaton Diaz.

02:05:13.000 You ever seen Mackenzie Dern's dad?

02:05:16.000 His hands are just crazy knuckles.

02:05:19.000 They must be so painful.

02:05:20.000 Oh my god, I mean, that's crazy arthritis.

02:05:23.000 Every joint is swollen like a knob, like a tree, like a knot in a tree.

02:05:29.000 Yup, yup.

02:05:30.000 My fingers used to kinda be like that when I would train ki every day, like they were heading to that point, and I remember the relief in my hands when I switched full-time to nogi.

02:05:37.000 It was just like, I noticed it basically overnight.

02:05:40.000 My hands just recovered immediately.

02:05:42.000 It's that kind of gripping that people do all the time like that.

02:05:45.000 I mean that's got to have like some long-term Consequences and the grip breaks like all the time my finger would just swell up I'd be like like it gets stuck off a grip breaks I'm gonna kick out of a grip and it would just be like fuck But you have to train again the next day Did you do anything to try to mitigate that, like ice?

02:06:01.000 I would just try to keep it moving.

02:06:03.000 I felt like the first few times I'd be like, I better rest this, and then it would take forever to heal. 0.84

02:06:07.000 But no matter how painful it was, I would just keep trying to kill that finger back.

02:06:11.000 There was a period where I couldn't get any of my fingers back to the hands, but then just keep crushing it.

02:06:15.000 Literally?

02:06:15.000 You couldn't do this?

02:06:17.000 Yeah, like in terms of the curling motion.

02:06:19.000 Like, obviously that was fine, but it would be the kill.

02:06:21.000 You couldn't curl your fingers back to touch your hands?

02:06:23.000 I couldn't connect them, yeah.

02:06:24.000 Wow!

02:06:25.000 Just from so much Gage Jiu-Jitsu, yeah.

02:06:27.000 In your 20s.

02:06:29.000 Yeah, early 20s.

02:06:30.000 Old man hands.

02:06:31.000 Yeah.

02:06:32.000 Yeah, so many guys have arthritis as they get older, particularly in the hands.

02:06:36.000 I mean, you see the old pictures of Elio's hands when he was rolling?

02:06:40.000 No, I haven't seen those.

02:06:42.000 Elio was like in his 80s and 90s and he was still rolling.

02:06:45.000 That's crazy.

02:06:46.000 It's just the guy never stopped training.

02:06:49.000 Obviously, I'm sure he picked his training partner and said he's going to roll with Nicky Rod or something like that. 1.00

02:06:54.000 I have to roll with that fucking guy every day. 1.00

02:06:57.000 That guy's such a freak. 1.00

02:06:58.000 When he was at the Who's Number One last time and I'm standing next to him, I'm like, how are we the same species?

02:07:04.000 Yeah.

02:07:04.000 You know, like, if we were any other animal in the woods, you would see, like, this is one, you know, like, gorillas are basically the same size, right?

02:07:12.000 They're all, they all get pretty big, you know, but he's this fucking enormous super athlete dude. 0.86

02:07:17.000 Like, what does Nicky weigh? 0.96

02:07:19.000 I think he's about 250 with abs, can do backflips.

02:07:22.000 Oh, yeah, freakish athleticism.

02:07:25.000 Freakish.

02:07:26.000 You know?

02:07:27.000 And just crazy hip mobility, too. 0.98

02:07:30.000 I remember asking him about that, too, because with his match with Yuri, I was like, the fucking hip mobility that he has is crazy. 0.74

02:07:38.000 Like, his ability to move, his flexibility, like, you usually see a big, giant guy like that, and they're all weighed down from squats and deadlifts and everything stiff. 0.89

02:07:48.000 He's not stiff.

02:07:49.000 Yeah, he's pretty mobile.

02:07:51.000 Yeah, look at him.

02:07:53.000 A pretty freak. 1.00

02:07:54.000 The size of that fucking freak! 1.00

02:07:56.000 He says the funniest shit, too. 1.00

02:07:57.000 He's always like... 0.99

02:07:58.000 I remember one time he had staff and it exploded on an airplane, but then by the time he landed the flight back to America, it had somehow started to heal up, and he was like, it's just mindset, bro.

02:08:08.000 Positive thinking.

02:08:11.000 Well, it's also being 24. How old is he?

02:08:15.000 Yeah, I think he's probably 24. Yeah, when you're young, you heal everything really quick.

02:08:18.000 But staph, was he taking antibiotics?

02:08:21.000 No.

02:08:22.000 He's like, I'll just wait till I get back.

02:08:23.000 It was huge.

02:08:24.000 It was when he had the match with Luke Rockhold.

02:08:25.000 You could see it in the match, like this nasty staph infection. 0.99

02:08:28.000 Fucking hell. 0.99

02:08:29.000 Really? 1.00

02:08:29.000 He just doesn't give a fuck, yeah. 1.00

02:08:30.000 He just rolled with it in the match? 1.00

02:08:32.000 There's a school of thought.

02:08:34.000 Like, should you take antibiotics or should you just compete with the staff and then take antibiotics afterwards?

02:08:42.000 Obviously, you're putting your opponent at risk, which is the problem.

02:08:44.000 I would take antibiotics and compete. 1.00

02:08:46.000 I would just be like, yeah, fuck. 1.00

02:08:48.000 I'd rather get onto this and still compete. 1.00

02:08:50.000 But the antibiotics wreck you.

02:08:53.000 Yeah, they used to.

02:08:54.000 They used to battle me.

02:08:54.000 Yeah, they used to.

02:08:55.000 But for some reason now, the last few times I've had it, I didn't, I felt fine in camp.

02:09:00.000 Like I thought, like I used to, like back in the day, like a few years ago, I'd notice it. 1.00

02:09:05.000 I'd be like, man, a full fucking shit. 1.00

02:09:07.000 Where I'm expecting that. 1.00

02:09:09.000 And then it's just...

02:09:10.000 I'm like, oh, I'm fine.

02:09:12.000 So now I'm not too worried about it.

02:09:13.000 I've had staph twice, and the one time that I had it, the first time I had it, it was...

02:09:18.000 I caught it early, but the antibiotics...

02:09:21.000 I remember being lightheaded at a restaurant...

02:09:24.000 I was just like, oh my god, my world was closing in.

02:09:28.000 I felt so tired, and I was like, I wonder if this is the staph or the antibiotics.

02:09:34.000 I'm like, I think it's the antibiotics, because the staph was real minor.

02:09:37.000 My buddy Tate had caught it. 0.91

02:09:39.000 We were at the airport together, and I was wearing shorts, and I had my foot up like this, and there's some shit on my calf. 0.97

02:09:46.000 He goes, what's on your calf? 0.97

02:09:48.000 I go, I don't know, what is it?

02:09:49.000 He goes, dude, I think that's staph.

02:09:51.000 I go, come on, these little pimples? 1.00

02:09:53.000 He's like, yeah, that's what it looks like.

02:09:55.000 Go get it checked out.

02:09:57.000 And I went in, the doctor's like, oh yeah, we're going to get you on antibiotics right away.

02:10:00.000 We're going to do a culture test, but I'm pretty sure it's staph. 0.96

02:10:04.000 And so he put me on those antibiotics and I was feeling fine.

02:10:06.000 And then that night I was just like... 0.93

02:10:09.000 And I was thinking, and I tried training, not like rolling, but I tried lifting weights and shit, and I felt so weak. 0.99

02:10:16.000 And I was like, how the fuck does anybody fight like this? 0.98

02:10:19.000 Because I remember Luke Rockhold, when he beat Chris Weidman, he had staph. 0.99

02:10:23.000 He was on antibiotics while he beat him, which is crazy.

02:10:27.000 I feel like some people, yeah, like me, I was taking antibiotics every month for staph, so I was like, I just don't think there's any good bacteria left to kill, so I just didn't notice the...

02:10:36.000 You were taking it every month for how long?

02:10:38.000 When I was in New York, I had staph every month for 12 months, so I do a week of antibiotics every month. 1.00

02:10:44.000 That shit can get dangerous too, man. 0.98

02:10:47.000 Obviously, we've got the meat, it's around the meat, but that gets under the second layer of skin and gets near the bone, and you get infections through there. 1.00

02:10:55.000 My friend Brian Callen, his friend's wife died from staph. 0.97

02:10:58.000 They tried to use some sort of holistic methods to heal it, and her fucking gums were bleeding. 0.98

02:11:05.000 And he came over the house and he's like, bro, you got to get her to a hospital. 0.98

02:11:08.000 And it was too late.

02:11:10.000 A jiu-jitsu kid died because his contact lens fell on the map, put it in his eye, staff in his eye, straight to the brain, dead.

02:11:16.000 It's like an 18-year-old kid.

02:11:18.000 I can't remember his name.

02:11:19.000 It was in Los Angeles, though.

02:11:22.000 What?

02:11:23.000 Took him out.

02:11:24.000 It can rock you too.

02:11:25.000 I've had MRSA before and I had it on my arm and as you were saying, I had fevers and it absolutely rattled me.

02:11:34.000 Obviously after Aldo and me, that was something different.

02:11:40.000 Cellulitis.

02:11:40.000 Cellulitis, so I got that and that absolutely.

02:11:42.000 Cellulitis is the same thing.

02:11:43.000 Yeah, well that's what I mean.

02:11:44.000 That's what I had.

02:11:45.000 40 plus, I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit, but I was losing the plot.

02:11:51.000 I didn't know where I was.

02:11:52.000 I was gone.

02:11:53.000 Actually, we were a bit worried because last camp broke my finger and a bit of skin, like it was skin sort of cut open on the top.

02:12:03.000 So we didn't know if that was from the bone ripping through.

02:12:06.000 So we were worried about getting an infection.

02:12:08.000 During camp that happened?

02:12:09.000 Last camp, yeah.

02:12:10.000 And that's funny.

02:12:11.000 We were just talking about that.

02:12:12.000 I don't know if you can see, it's still fattening a bit more.

02:12:15.000 Yeah.

02:12:15.000 Because I was going to, oh, we're going to do surgery after the fight.

02:12:20.000 How far into the camp was this?

02:12:23.000 I don't know, a couple weeks into camp.

02:12:25.000 So the rest of the camp you fought, you just trained with a broken finger?

02:12:28.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:12:29.000 You fucking animal. 1.00

02:12:30.000 But then I was like, the guy goes, we'll just do the surgery afterwards. 1.00

02:12:34.000 And if we, you know, whatever happens, if we have to pull the bone out, we'll pull the bone out.

02:12:37.000 But I mean, you've got like the tendons and that as well.

02:12:40.000 But I didn't fight. 0.99

02:12:41.000 So I'm like, well, fuck, do I do it now? 0.99

02:12:43.000 I don't know when I'm fighting. 0.99

02:12:43.000 So we just left it. 0.99

02:12:45.000 So now I'm just going to leave it.

02:12:47.000 And you didn't need any surgery or anything?

02:12:50.000 Did you get an x-ray?

02:12:51.000 I don't know.

02:12:52.000 I probably should look into it.

02:12:53.000 But I mean, we're running...

02:12:55.000 Again, I was just going to do it after the fight.

02:12:57.000 But I mean, you feel like it's alright now.

02:12:59.000 We're grappling every day and all that.

02:13:01.000 But man, once they told me that, obviously I was worried about it. 1.00

02:13:04.000 I was like, fuck. 0.99

02:13:05.000 Like, you know, what's going to happen here? 1.00

02:13:06.000 But they're like, oh no, look, we'll just worry about it after the fight.

02:13:08.000 Sweet.

02:13:09.000 So I'm punching with it. 1.00

02:13:10.000 I'm fucking, it hurts. 0.99

02:13:11.000 Right. 0.99

02:13:11.000 You know, you hit it wrong, you're trying to clinch up and things like that. 0.99

02:13:15.000 You lose a bit of strength there.

02:13:17.000 Did you have to tape the other fingers to it to give extra support?

02:13:21.000 Nah, well, they gave me a splint for the training.

02:13:23.000 That helped a fair bit. 0.99

02:13:24.000 But, I mean, you fucking bang it. 0.99

02:13:26.000 It's going to fucking hurt. 0.99

02:13:27.000 But, I mean, obviously, while you're fighting, you're fighting with it. 0.99

02:13:29.000 You're hurt.

02:13:29.000 You just keep going.

02:13:30.000 You worry about it afterwards.

02:13:31.000 Then I'll get a surgery.

02:13:32.000 That was the plan, but that didn't happen.

02:13:34.000 And when did you get MRSA? MRSA, I think I've had it.

02:13:39.000 Twice?

02:13:39.000 Well, I had it on my hand.

02:13:41.000 I don't have my phone on me, but I've got photos.

02:13:44.000 It ended up being a big hole in my hand and it rattled me.

02:13:47.000 So we had to get the nurses come to my house and all that every day in the morning afterwards. 0.97

02:13:53.000 I didn't know much about it, but they were trying to get antibiotics.

02:13:58.000 They were trying to find out the bacteria and they were like, you're on Mercer, we're going to have to get the big guns out.

02:14:02.000 I didn't know what that meant, but they just gave me a...

02:14:04.000 It rattled me.

02:14:05.000 I had to pull out of a fight.

02:14:06.000 But that was well before UFC. I've had staff and been on antibiotics for my second fight in the UFC too, Mizuta Hirota.

02:14:17.000 So I had staff then and I remember it was the fucking worst because I went to Vegas for the UFC retreat like two weeks before the fight.

02:14:27.000 And I was there for a couple of days. 0.88

02:14:29.000 So I travelled all the way from Thailand to America.

02:14:34.000 And then I did that for a couple of days and then flew all the way back.

02:14:38.000 And then I just got everything.

02:14:39.000 I got staff.

02:14:39.000 I ended up getting the flu.

02:14:41.000 I ended up getting sick the night of the fight. 0.99

02:14:43.000 I was just like, fuck, this is the worst. 0.99

02:14:44.000 But I won, so it's all good. 1.00

02:14:48.000 Staff scares the shit out of me. 0.92

02:14:49.000 And what really scares the shit out of me is a lot of gyms don't tell people, like the young people that are starting out, what it is. 0.95

02:14:55.000 Like, my friend Ari and I were playing pool, and he was limping.

02:14:59.000 He was walking around the pool table limping.

02:15:00.000 And I go, what's going on?

02:15:01.000 He goes, I got a spider bite.

02:15:03.000 I go, let me see.

02:15:04.000 He pulls his pants up and shows me his knee.

02:15:06.000 I go, dude, stop.

02:15:07.000 And I unscrew my puku.

02:15:09.000 I go, we're going to the hospital right now.

02:15:11.000 And he goes, you serious?

02:15:12.000 I go, you got to go to the hospital right now.

02:15:14.000 I go, you got a staph infection.

02:15:15.000 I go, that's really bad.

02:15:17.000 I go, that's from jujitsu. 0.99

02:15:19.000 And he's like, why the fuck don't they tell you? 0.97

02:15:20.000 There should be signs everywhere. 0.98

02:15:22.000 I'm like, yeah, there should be.

02:15:23.000 I don't run the gym.

02:15:25.000 Have you heard of EKC? No.

02:15:27.000 EKC is another jujitsu one that I only found out about last year, but it's viral pink eye.

02:15:34.000 It's like epidemic keratoconjunctivitis. 0.99

02:15:37.000 Fuck, I've seen them go through some gyms, mate. 1.00

02:15:39.000 It permanently ruined the vision in one of my eyes. 1.00

02:15:43.000 What?

02:15:44.000 So you catch it, right?

02:15:46.000 Your eye will not stop watering.

02:15:47.000 and crusting and like I couldn't see out of the eye properly for a good six months.

02:15:52.000 At all?

02:15:53.000 So it's different to pinkeye?

02:15:55.000 It's viral pinkeye, yeah.

02:15:57.000 So it's just like there's no known treatment for it.

02:15:59.000 You have to do steroid drops in the eye, antibiotic drops in the eye.

02:16:04.000 I had to compete with it and it was like horrible, horrible.

02:16:08.000 So your opponent got pinkeye after that?

02:16:09.000 I did give two of my opponents pinkeye.

02:16:11.000 But it was for ADCC. If it was any other event, I would have been like, you know what, I'm stepping out.

02:16:15.000 But I'm like, this shit's every two years. 1.00

02:16:16.000 You filthy bastard. 1.00

02:16:17.000 The worst was, for ADCC, you have to make weight three days in a row. 1.00

02:16:23.000 And I had to drop four kilos every day, so it would be like nine, ten pounds. 0.68

02:16:27.000 And the worst thing was, I had to jump in the sauna, and the hot air on my eye was fucking unbearable every day.

02:16:35.000 Every day I would have to do all the steroid drops and stuff and then I would have to do like a chemical burn cup for your eye.

02:16:41.000 I'd have to fill that with saline, hold it onto my eye, blink a bunch of times, try to clear out all the fluid.

02:16:46.000 But yeah, literally I was on the meds for probably six to eight weeks.

02:16:49.000 Then you have to wean off because your eye gets adjusted to the corticosteroids.

02:16:53.000 And literally six months at nighttime driving, I couldn't see out of my right eye.

02:16:57.000 I would be like completely blurred vision.

02:16:59.000 And the doctors, the eye doctors were like, man, this is just, there's nothing we can do.

02:17:04.000 Eventually your eye will be better.

02:17:05.000 But then because of the leakage and the conjunctivitis, it scarred my eye. 0.93

02:17:10.000 So it's like one eye is great, one eye is slightly still fucked up from it. 0.99

02:17:14.000 Like, how fucked up? 0.99

02:17:16.000 Can you read? 1.00

02:17:16.000 Not too bad. 1.00

02:17:16.000 Yeah, I can still read and stuff. 1.00

02:17:17.000 Because if you close your eye, you can read?

02:17:18.000 Yeah, yeah.

02:17:19.000 Just slightly worse.

02:17:20.000 But it was just like, I remember catching that, and it's super contagious.

02:17:24.000 When it hits a gym, it gets everyone. 1.00

02:17:26.000 And you're like, fuck it. 1.00

02:17:27.000 I'll give it to everybody. 1.00

02:17:28.000 I'll send it to Thailand. 1.00

02:17:29.000 Go literally fool everyone.

02:17:31.000 Really?

02:17:31.000 In Thailand.

02:17:32.000 Like, you go there and then like, you go, I'm like, every time I've seen someone, I'm like putting fucking, what do you call it, like the alcohol wipes in my eyes and shit like that, just trying to make sure I didn't get it and I'll just see it just go through that many people.

02:17:44.000 Did you avoid it?

02:17:45.000 I didn't get it.

02:17:46.000 How'd you do it?

02:17:46.000 So the...

02:17:47.000 The fucking sanitizers in the eyes, maybe. 1.00

02:17:50.000 You put sanitizers in your eyes? 1.00

02:17:51.000 Literally, at some point I'll be like, oh fuck, I touched him. 1.00

02:17:54.000 I touched my eye. 0.99

02:17:55.000 I'd wipe it, but obviously not in my eye.

02:17:58.000 But just, yeah, man, just trying to stay away from him.

02:18:02.000 I've seen it go through at least 15 different people.

02:18:07.000 It's so bad.

02:18:08.000 In the short time I was there. 1.00

02:18:10.000 You get it, and within a day or two, your fucking eye blows up. 0.99

02:18:13.000 Did you talk to those two dudes that you gave it to? 0.99

02:18:15.000 I did apologize to him, yeah. 0.99

02:18:19.000 You're like, sorry, man, but it's fucking ADCC. What did they say? 0.96

02:18:22.000 Like, I can't see, motherfucker. 1.00

02:18:24.000 One of them was cool. 1.00

02:18:25.000 The other one wasn't cool when he started showing symptoms, but forgave me afterwards and stuff.

02:18:31.000 But yeah, some of the competitors in the show knew it was going around, tried to get me eliminated from the event.

02:18:36.000 And I was just like, come on, it's ADCC. It's Olympics.

02:18:39.000 You know what I mean?

02:18:39.000 What are you going to...

02:18:40.000 It is what it is, man.

02:18:41.000 You know, like, wow. 1.00

02:18:43.000 Some of these fucking infections and that, they can get nasty. 1.00

02:18:47.000 When you said that you had staph every month for a year, how the fuck does that happen? 1.00

02:18:55.000 How do you never get over it? 0.97

02:18:56.000 Was it in the same spot over and over again?

02:18:58.000 Because obviously this would fuck Gordon's stomach up, right?

02:19:01.000 From this massive amount of antibiotics.

02:19:03.000 And he had a similar situation, right?

02:19:05.000 So it was just going through the whole gym?

02:19:07.000 Maybe the in-and-out cured it though.

02:19:09.000 When we moved to Puerto Rico, I just stopped getting staffed.

02:19:13.000 I don't know if it just happened to be the Blue Basement, the particular strain that was going around there, maybe I was very vulnerable to, but the second we moved to Puerto Rico, started getting more sun, started getting in the ocean, felt like it actually helped.

02:19:26.000 I was worried though, because Puerto Rico's humidity, like Thailand's staff's wild. 0.98

02:19:30.000 I was thinking, fuck, maybe it's going to be worse in Puerto Rico. 0.99

02:19:33.000 But it just... 0.99

02:19:33.000 I've had staff once since then. 0.99

02:19:35.000 I wonder if getting in the ocean is good for your skin.

02:19:38.000 I mean, it must be better than whatever was happening in New York.

02:19:42.000 Well, and I would also imagine the ocean around Puerto Rico is pretty nice.

02:19:46.000 Like, it's probably not polluted.

02:19:48.000 Yeah, not as bad.

02:19:49.000 Not as bad as...

02:19:50.000 Definitely not as bad as New York, right?

02:19:52.000 Yeah.

02:19:53.000 But I would imagine there's probably some benefit of being in the ocean.

02:19:57.000 Here it goes. 0.98

02:19:57.000 Mineral-rich ocean water can calm irritation Fucking Jamie on the ball, 0.98

02:20:14.000 as always. 0.92

02:20:16.000 So, we're getting staff in the same spot.

02:20:18.000 No, just different spots.

02:20:20.000 I think some of it was to do with overtraining as well.

02:20:24.000 Usually that's an indicator for me that I am overtraining.

02:20:26.000 Overtraining, take away food.

02:20:28.000 That'll do it.

02:20:30.000 Giving them a hard time about the food.

02:20:33.000 It is a lot just immune systems.

02:20:36.000 I believe that if you're run down in that, that's when I would always get them.

02:20:41.000 Even stressing about weight cutting, not eating right, all that type of stuff, I'd get them now because I'm on point with most of it.

02:20:47.000 I I barely get them.

02:20:48.000 You know, I don't stress about it.

02:20:49.000 When I see people, I used to be like, oh, freak out.

02:20:51.000 And then, yeah, the next day it gets worse.

02:20:53.000 But I reckon the immune system definitely plays a big part with a lot of things, doesn't it?

02:20:58.000 Sunshine.

02:20:58.000 Sunshine on the mats too.

02:20:59.000 I think like basement gyms, I think that's going to be much more susceptible to it.

02:21:04.000 Whereas a gym with some sunshine in there, I feel like it just really does help.

02:21:08.000 Oh, for sure.

02:21:08.000 I would imagine it's just a healthy environment overall.

02:21:11.000 But that purple, the blue mat, rather, down in the basement at Henzo's, do they defumigate that place? 0.98

02:21:17.000 Do they do anything to fucking kill off all the cooties that are running around that joint? 1.00

02:21:21.000 I think so. 0.99

02:21:22.000 They started doing something wild after COVID started coming around.

02:21:24.000 They started putting UV lights on the mat and stuff. 0.98

02:21:27.000 I don't even know what it was, doing some wild shit down there. 0.82

02:21:30.000 Was that for the COVID in that as well, seeing them doing it? 0.98

02:21:33.000 Yeah, I think it was for the COVID. Yeah, I don't know.

02:21:35.000 I mean, some people, they just didn't get staff.

02:21:38.000 And then others...

02:21:39.000 And generally speaking, if I speak to white belts and blue belts that are hobbyists, they don't really get it.

02:21:44.000 And I think that they're not as susceptible because their immune system's not as crashed.

02:21:48.000 So I think it's mostly the athletes that are vulnerable.

02:21:51.000 Do you think there's a balance to be had?

02:21:54.000 Maybe you work out a little too much?

02:21:57.000 Like maybe if you took it back a notch...

02:22:00.000 It would actually be better for you?

02:22:01.000 I mean, it could be.

02:22:02.000 You're going to have to convince Jon.

02:22:03.000 I don't know how you could.

02:22:05.000 I mean, I don't know.

02:22:06.000 You know, when I talked to him and I said, what about rest days?

02:22:08.000 He goes, no rest days. 0.92

02:22:10.000 He just looked at me like that was ridiculous.

02:22:12.000 He goes, if you're tired, just train light.

02:22:14.000 Yeah, I mean, I do sneak rest days.

02:22:16.000 Like me, I'll just go, I'm just going to train until one day I wake up and I'm like, no, I can't do it today.

02:22:22.000 I'll take a day off.

02:22:23.000 But some of the guys will just...

02:22:25.000 They're there every day.

02:22:26.000 And that's typically the guys that I would say train the hardest, probably the juniors, like the up and coming guys, because I feel like they've got ground to catch up.

02:22:33.000 So those are the guys that really never miss any sessions.

02:22:36.000 Gary was probably the most infamous for training, like just a crazy person.

02:22:40.000 Like he would just be there all day, every day.

02:22:43.000 He just puts in that work.

02:22:44.000 Well, he's doubling it up too, right?

02:22:46.000 Because he would do the MMA, Gordon was saying, MMA sessions and then Jiu Jitsu sessions in the same day, every day.

02:22:52.000 And he's a smaller guy, right?

02:22:54.000 So it's like, it's easier for me, even me, like obviously I'm not as big as Gordon or Nicky Rod, but it is easier for me to be like, oh, just pick, I'll pick a smaller guy, I have an easier round.

02:23:04.000 Whereas a guy like Gary, you know what I mean?

02:23:06.000 Most of the training partners are either the same size or bigger.

02:23:08.000 So it's a bit tough.

02:23:09.000 It's probably like you at City Kickboxing, you know what I mean? 0.99

02:23:11.000 Like, if you're trying to have a light round, you're like, fuck, these guys are all bigger than me. 0.98

02:23:14.000 It's a bit harder to manage. 0.99

02:23:16.000 Everyone's bigger than me. 0.97

02:23:20.000 We were fucking with him on the show, actually, every time. 0.98

02:23:22.000 We started the season, right, every time we'd take a team photo, I'd get everyone to stand on their toes and we wouldn't tell Alex. 0.99

02:23:29.000 They clearly don't need to, but they would anyway.

02:23:33.000 But it was just, I just didn't know. 0.99

02:23:35.000 Like, I seen them, I'm like, what, they're fucking all in on this fucking joke? 0.98

02:23:38.000 I'm like, when did this happen? 0.99

02:23:40.000 I'll see the photo and literally all of them, I'm like, what, you just have a fucking group meeting? 0.97

02:23:44.000 Let's make Alex look even shorter. 0.93

02:23:47.000 Listen, bro, we're in the same boat.

02:23:48.000 I feel your pain.

02:23:49.000 There's nothing you can do about it. 0.94

02:23:51.000 I'm shrinking as I get older, too, which is even more fucked up, because my discs, I'm having problems with some of my discs.

02:23:58.000 You know when you see old people shrink? 1.00

02:23:59.000 That's what's going on.

02:24:00.000 It's like their discs is deteriorating.

02:24:03.000 You know, they call it, what is it called?

02:24:04.000 Spinal stenosis.

02:24:05.000 Okay.

02:24:06.000 So deterioration of the disc.

02:24:09.000 You know, that's when people get bone on bone, they have to get their discs fused.

02:24:13.000 That's what's going on.

02:24:14.000 There's only so much you can do to prevent that too.

02:24:17.000 Yeah, this just happened at an early age for me. 0.97

02:24:20.000 Well, so many guys are fucking, as they get older, they're getting disc replaced. 0.98

02:24:23.000 Like, I talked to Braulio Estima. 1.00

02:24:25.000 He sent me an x-ray of his fucking neck. 1.00

02:24:27.000 You want to see some crazy shit? 1.00

02:24:28.000 He's got two fake discs in his neck. 1.00

02:24:31.000 It's funny, because I always say that as well.

02:24:32.000 People go, how tall are you?

02:24:33.000 I'm like, five foot six.

02:24:34.000 On a good day.

02:24:35.000 Once I've done a bit of yoga and stretched out, I'll be five six.

02:24:39.000 Because I'm like, just on the border there.

02:24:41.000 I'm like, just under it.

02:24:42.000 But I claim 5'6".

02:24:43.000 That was it.

02:24:43.000 Look at this.

02:24:44.000 This is Braulio's neck. 1.00

02:24:46.000 Holy shit. 0.99

02:24:46.000 So two of those in his neck are... 0.99

02:24:49.000 There's how it's pieced together.

02:24:52.000 That's not Braulio's neck, though. 0.99

02:24:54.000 That might be his lower back or some shit. 0.98

02:24:56.000 You've seen the video of when he... 0.99

02:24:58.000 I think that's just a random photo.

02:25:03.000 Because his actual neck is this, Jamie.

02:25:05.000 He has fake discs.

02:25:07.000 Here, I'll send it to you.

02:25:08.000 I'll send it to you so you can have it.

02:25:09.000 Hold on. 0.99

02:25:10.000 But he won the Worlds with a fucked up neck. 0.99

02:25:13.000 Did you see the video when he actually inches it? 0.99

02:25:16.000 No.

02:25:16.000 Oh, that was right, right?

02:25:17.000 Was he going for, someone got him in a guillotine?

02:25:20.000 I think it was like the guy hip-tossed him against the cage and he landed fully vertical, like spiked into the cage and immediately couldn't move. 1.00

02:25:29.000 Fuck. 0.99

02:25:30.000 Yeah, that happened to Mark Holman too. 1.00

02:25:32.000 Scary, man.

02:25:32.000 Scary.

02:25:32.000 Yeah.

02:25:33.000 Because even last camp, again, I had to get a cortisone shot in my neck for the last camp because that, I don't know what happened, I think it was a punch or something, then my whole arm just like went dead and my whole shoulder and everything just started burning.

02:25:48.000 Really?

02:25:49.000 Burning. 1.00

02:25:49.000 I was like, what the fuck? 1.00

02:25:50.000 I thought, you know, you get stingers, but it just would not go away. 1.00

02:25:53.000 You can get bad stingers, man.

02:25:54.000 Those are terrifying as well. 0.99

02:25:55.000 Yeah, but this one just stayed and I'm like, fucking burnt, burnt. 0.97

02:25:58.000 All that stuff is your discs, right? 0.98

02:26:01.000 Bulging and pushing against the nerves.

02:26:03.000 Exactly.

02:26:04.000 And as you...

02:26:05.000 It felt like fire.

02:26:07.000 See how, like, those are spacers.

02:26:09.000 So those are titanium articulating discs that they replace his neck disc with.

02:26:15.000 And he competed with that? 0.97

02:26:17.000 Well, he competed with his disc completely fucked up and won the world. 1.00

02:26:20.000 Shit. 1.00

02:26:21.000 One of the worlds before the surgery and then they got the surgery. 0.99

02:26:23.000 Now he's trying to avoid getting surgery on the ones above it and below it because they all start deteriorating. 0.99

02:26:29.000 So I've got like three or four of them that have shrunken down and become a real pain in the ass. 0.99

02:26:34.000 And one of them is my lower back and I've been doing some shit. 0.99

02:26:37.000 For that, you can kind of stretch out. 0.97

02:26:39.000 But you've got to always be aware.

02:26:41.000 And if you're training, if you're doing jujitsu, every day it's just a little bit of squish and everything's getting compressed and all that stuff is...

02:26:51.000 It's the worst injury, right?

02:26:53.000 Can you train hard?

02:26:54.000 Yeah, I can train hard, but only like a day a week or two days a week.

02:26:58.000 I can't do...

02:26:59.000 I could never do seven days a week.

02:27:00.000 There's no way. 1.00

02:27:01.000 My shit would start falling apart. 1.00

02:27:02.000 I would start getting... 1.00

02:27:03.000 I get...

02:27:04.000 What's it called?

02:27:06.000 Sciatica.

02:27:06.000 I get that down because of my lower back.

02:27:09.000 Sometimes it bulges against...

02:27:11.000 But it's all... 1.00

02:27:12.000 As long as I'm not going crazy at 53 years old, I can do a lot of shit. 0.99

02:27:18.000 But there's just... 0.99

02:27:19.000 There's limitations.

02:27:21.000 Like, the disc limitation's a big one.

02:27:23.000 Because there's not...

02:27:24.000 Like, if you tear a ligament, they could fix it.

02:27:26.000 But if you fuck your discs up, it's like the options are do what... 0.90

02:27:31.000 Eddie Bravo, too. 0.98

02:27:32.000 He's got a fake disc in his lower back.

02:27:34.000 Yeah.

02:27:35.000 Like, quite a few...

02:27:35.000 Aljamain Sterling just got a fake disc put in.

02:27:38.000 He just got his disc replaced in his neck.

02:27:41.000 Chris Weidman has a fake disc in his neck.

02:27:44.000 There's quite a few guys who have replaced discs.

02:27:47.000 And it's like, man, that gets sketchy.

02:27:49.000 I know a guy who had a bunch replaced in his back.

02:27:51.000 He went to Germany.

02:27:54.000 They did a procedure on a bunch.

02:27:56.000 And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, one of his legs just started shrinking.

02:28:00.000 Really?

02:28:00.000 So, like, his calf is, like, non-existent on one of his legs.

02:28:04.000 His calf is, like, a bone.

02:28:06.000 And he's this big, strapping guy.

02:28:08.000 And one of his calves just atrophied.

02:28:11.000 And the doctors don't exactly know why or what to do about it because he had all this work done on his back.

02:28:16.000 But something is blocking the nerve, whether it's scar tissue or inflammation or what have you.

02:28:22.000 It's like, back scares the fuck out of you.

02:28:24.000 Yeah, man.

02:28:25.000 That's what's funny, I told you last time, the guy, when I first went to Bayman, telling him about my back and that, and he's like, oh look, I wanted to show him my discs, and he goes, look at that.

02:28:37.000 Once you can't control your bowels, and you've got the foot drop, then we'll look at it, you'll be right.

02:28:41.000 So they just went, let's see how we go with a bit of maintenance and all that, and then sure enough, I was moving.

02:28:47.000 I do know that they are doing some work now where they're actually injecting stem cells directly into discs.

02:28:53.000 And they're having discs...

02:28:55.000 I mean, this is...

02:28:56.000 I don't know.

02:28:56.000 Maybe Google this.

02:28:58.000 Because this is all hearing from people that have been doing research on it.

02:29:03.000 And I don't exactly know what the studies show.

02:29:04.000 But they're apparently having some results. 0.98

02:29:08.000 That's why they can do a lot of wild shit in, like, Colombia and Panama. 0.98

02:29:12.000 You go down there to, like, BioAccelerator and, you know, Dr. Neil Reardon's place in Panama. 0.96

02:29:16.000 They just... 0.96

02:29:18.000 They can do all sorts of shit that they can't really do in America yet. 0.99

02:29:21.000 That's where Cejudo went, right? 0.99

02:29:22.000 I remember him telling me.

02:29:23.000 He went to Columbia, I believe.

02:29:25.000 Yeah.

02:29:25.000 And TJ Dillshaw went to Neil Reardon's place, which is in Panama.

02:29:28.000 I sent my mom there, too.

02:29:30.000 My mom went down there twice for her knee. 1.00

02:29:32.000 Helped?

02:29:33.000 Helped her?

02:29:33.000 Yeah, helped a lot.

02:29:34.000 She was in serious pain.

02:29:35.000 And then six months later, no more pain.

02:29:37.000 Gone.

02:29:37.000 Yeah, in their 70s.

02:29:39.000 You know, her knee was pretty fucked up. 0.89

02:29:41.000 But it's just, it's not legal in America yet to do a lot of the stuff that they do. 0.96

02:29:47.000 You can do some stuff here, but you definitely can't do stuff to the extent that you can do in Panama and some of these other countries.

02:29:55.000 It's interesting.

02:29:56.000 I'll need this.

02:29:56.000 Or I need to start warming up.

02:29:58.000 One day.

02:29:58.000 Well, just one day.

02:29:59.000 I need to warm up because I'll eventually do that.

02:30:03.000 What you've done is interesting because what you've figured out is whatever issues you were having with your discs and your back Strengthening all the muscles around and preventing it is the best way to go about it.

02:30:14.000 By getting on a program where you really put a lot of rigidity into your back and made it all strong and supported, you've prevented all the problems.

02:30:22.000 A lot of movement at the hips before training and that again.

02:30:25.000 Let's try and get the load off the back. 1.00

02:30:26.000 If your hips aren't moving right, where's all the movement?

02:30:30.000 Lower back.

02:30:30.000 And you're putting all that pressure.

02:30:32.000 Like you said, not using the wrong muscles and all that type of stuff.

02:30:35.000 That's exactly what happened.

02:30:37.000 They were telling me to tense certain muscles and try and use this without using your core.

02:30:42.000 I couldn't do it.

02:30:43.000 You've got to use your glutes.

02:30:44.000 My glutes weren't firing.

02:30:46.000 I couldn't even do it. 0.99

02:30:47.000 That's how much I would use other muscles, back muscles and things like that, where they're like, no, you should be using your fucking glutes here. 0.98

02:30:54.000 You know what I mean? 0.96

02:30:55.000 But now, after doing all that now, Are you doing neck strengthening exercises or anything too?

02:31:03.000 I had to do it for this in the last camp because, as I said, I got the cortisone shot in that camp and it just kept happening.

02:31:11.000 So I ended up going there and I got that and it got burnt and then a couple of days later got back in.

02:31:16.000 I had to have a few days off.

02:31:17.000 From the stingers?

02:31:17.000 Yeah, because I've had things before and they just go away.

02:31:21.000 This would end up staying on fire for a while.

02:31:24.000 Did you get an MRI? Nah.

02:31:26.000 Oh yeah, we did.

02:31:27.000 And then they end up saying it's just all ugly in there. 0.98

02:31:31.000 They look at it and they go, yeah, they're just like, you could tell you played fucking rugby league and you're an MMA fighter, put it that way. 0.96

02:31:37.000 But I mean, sometimes they don't like looking at them because they know it's going to look fucked up, especially guys that have been in sport their whole life. 0.91

02:31:44.000 But he goes, and they could see where the problem was, so that's why they put the cortisone.

02:31:47.000 Because it happened a couple of times, and they would have to have a few days off.

02:31:50.000 I was like, well, we can't do this all camp. 0.99

02:31:52.000 Like, I can't just have fucking... 0.99

02:31:53.000 How old are you now, Alex? 1.00

02:31:55.000 32. So then they put that in, and then, like, let that sort of soak.

02:31:59.000 Like, whatever they've got to do, you've got to have a few days off for that.

02:32:02.000 And then, even though it would happen here and there, it was just minor, and I was perfectly fine within a minute.

02:32:08.000 Do you ever use that iron neck device?

02:32:10.000 Which one's that?

02:32:11.000 You don't know the iron neck?

02:32:12.000 Is that the turning one?

02:32:13.000 Yeah.

02:32:13.000 Yeah, actually, we had that at the apex.

02:32:16.000 It's the shit. 1.00

02:32:16.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:32:17.000 But they got me on, like, a thing where, like, you put on the door and then, like, they pull your head up and you open yourself up.

02:32:21.000 Oh, that too, yeah.

02:32:22.000 Yeah, but I started doing sunscreen thing and stuff, yeah.

02:32:25.000 Where it, like, decompresses your spine.

02:32:27.000 Yeah, exactly.

02:32:27.000 I love that thing.

02:32:28.000 That was good.

02:32:28.000 Like, click, click, click, click, click, and you're, like, kind of hanging yourself.

02:32:32.000 Yeah, but it's good.

02:32:33.000 That's exactly what it is.

02:32:33.000 I mean, that's what you need to try to give it some space and stretch it out.

02:32:36.000 So, if you do that on a regular basis, that'll provide you with some benefit.

02:32:39.000 Yeah.

02:32:40.000 There's another machine that I use all the time at home.

02:32:43.000 It's called the Dex.

02:32:45.000 It's by Teeter, and you hang from your hips.

02:32:48.000 You get in it almost like a leg curl thing, and you lean forward, and all the weight is on.

02:32:54.000 It's all just gravity.

02:32:57.000 It relaxes your back.

02:32:58.000 You feel it pop.

02:32:59.000 I think you showed me.

02:32:59.000 Yeah, I think I did, too.

02:33:00.000 You showed me that.

02:33:01.000 That's right.

02:33:01.000 After the studio.

02:33:02.000 I don't remember much of it, but I remember that.

02:33:06.000 Craig, do you ever use any weightlifting things for your neck?

02:33:09.000 Use like iron neck or anything?

02:33:10.000 No, I did try it at the apex though.

02:33:12.000 It was cool.

02:33:13.000 Because I see you, you don't turn your neck much.

02:33:15.000 No, I'm pretty stiff.

02:33:16.000 Yeah, I'm noticing that.

02:33:17.000 I'm like, is it hurt?

02:33:19.000 Or is it just how you move?

02:33:20.000 I think just tight from jiu-jitsu. 0.97

02:33:21.000 Just people hanging off it and shit, but yeah, I should. 0.93

02:33:24.000 Could it be because you didn't stretch? 0.99

02:33:27.000 Maybe.

02:33:29.000 I wonder if you did stretch and you did, like, somebody worked on you, if you would have better movement and you'd actually be better.

02:33:36.000 I wonder.

02:33:37.000 Yeah, I feel like very stiff, and then when I'm on the mats and they're stretching me out and stuff, I feel like that's when I start to loosen up.

02:33:44.000 But yeah, it'd be good to be a bit looser all the time, I think.

02:33:46.000 Well, you're a professional athlete.

02:33:48.000 Why don't you just do that?

02:33:49.000 I should.

02:33:50.000 I should.

02:33:51.000 Let's be real.

02:33:52.000 It's an intervention.

02:33:53.000 It seems like we've stepped in here.

02:33:55.000 It's your job.

02:33:55.000 It is your job, right?

02:33:57.000 We're just into him now.

02:33:59.000 Come on, you've got to do this.

02:34:01.000 Sort out the diet, sort out the stretch.

02:34:02.000 But in saying that, hanging with him and that, maybe didn't do them types of things, but he's constantly on YouTube and studying things, looking up wrestling and all that, and goes and watches and get breakdowns of certain things.

02:34:17.000 So, like, obviously you can see, again, you can still see what separates some people from the rest of them.

02:34:23.000 Like, yeah, maybe he doesn't pay as much detail or attention to maybe the mobility side of things, but you see a lot of energy towards film studies and all that type of stuff and obviously train it.

02:34:34.000 Yeah, and you, well, your history of learning, like, watching a lot of the submissions that the Donaher crew was doing before you joined them and learning them from YouTube videos than just applying it to your own game.

02:34:47.000 Yeah, basically.

02:34:48.000 When I started training jiu-jitsu, my original coach was my cousin, Matt Jones, and he was a four-stripe white belt at the time because the city we were from wasn't much jiu-jitsu going on.

02:34:58.000 So even from day one, I never really had a really, I guess, experienced coach.

02:35:03.000 So I would just be trying to figure things out.

02:35:06.000 I'd watch the UFCs and see a submission and be like, fuck, I'm going to try that, try that in the next class. 0.88

02:35:12.000 I didn't even train with a black belt until I was well into my purple belt. 0.96

02:35:16.000 I just had no high level exposure.

02:35:18.000 So I was just forced to try and reverse engineer everything I saw.

02:35:23.000 I really had the assumption that I'm behind the eight ball, so I've got to try and find little tricks to get ahead.

02:35:27.000 And that's where the heel hook stuff really took off.

02:35:30.000 Well, once you started competing though and started traveling and doing that, it's really interesting that you did have this very limited exposure to top-level talent, but you just decided to throw yourself into the fire and go out there and literally travel the world and compete.

02:35:45.000 Yeah, I would literally just go on a seminar tour and use the seminar portion, Rolling With Strangers, to keep myself fit.

02:35:52.000 And when I'd show up to an event like EBI here in Austin, I remember I just put up an Instagram post.

02:35:58.000 I was like, who wants to be in my corner?

02:35:59.000 I don't have anyone to coach me.

02:36:00.000 And funnily enough, Denny Prokopos jumped in the corner.

02:36:04.000 He was in my corner the whole event. 0.99

02:36:06.000 I don't know what the fuck he was saying the whole time. 0.98

02:36:08.000 He was trying to give me code words and stuff. 0.99

02:36:10.000 But he was there for support. 1.00

02:36:12.000 He was saying shit. 1.00

02:36:13.000 That I had no idea what he was talking about. 1.00

02:36:14.000 Some of the shit he was saying, yelling out 10th planet moves, and I was like, I don't know what's going on, bro. 0.99

02:36:19.000 Crackhead control. 0.99

02:36:21.000 You're like, what?

02:36:22.000 Did you ever see Denny's staph infection, his knee?

02:36:25.000 No.

02:36:26.000 Bad one.

02:36:27.000 He had to open up his knee like a fish.

02:36:29.000 Like, it's a huge scar on his knee.

02:36:32.000 It was just horrible.

02:36:34.000 I think he, I don't know if it was Mercer or what kind of staph it was, but it was awful.

02:36:39.000 Those are scary.

02:36:40.000 It gets so nasty, man.

02:36:41.000 Even when I was in the hospital in Rio, it ended up being in Chile by the time we got there.

02:36:48.000 Just even me, because I had to have my leg up so the blood could go down and all that because of all the swelling and all that.

02:36:55.000 Finally, we want to go home.

02:36:57.000 We haven't been home for a while.

02:36:59.000 We're there for a week and then they end up doing MRIs and then found out from me having my legs up and being in that position so much, my lungs were like right up in my chest so I couldn't get on the plane so that we had to like do certain things to bring my lungs back down so I could get back onto an airplane.

02:37:15.000 So I had to do these blowing things.

02:37:17.000 As hard as you can to get my lungs back down to the normal spot because if I flew the way it was, not because of the staff, but just from the position I was in.

02:37:26.000 Really?

02:37:27.000 That's what I mean. 0.99

02:37:27.000 I'm just like, fucking hell. 0.99

02:37:28.000 What do you mean I can't go home yet? 1.00

02:37:30.000 Your lungs have moved?

02:37:31.000 Have you heard of that before? 0.99

02:37:32.000 My lungs pushed up higher from me being in this position and being in there fucking all day for four or five days. 0.94

02:37:40.000 They did MRI and then they seen that my lungs were too far up. 0.63

02:37:44.000 Yeah, so they're like, you can't go on a plane like that.

02:37:47.000 We need to bring them down.

02:37:48.000 The way you put it down was blowing on this little thing.

02:37:50.000 You get stuck everywhere. 0.99

02:37:51.000 It's so fucking crazy. 0.95

02:37:52.000 You always get medical conditions and get stuck, like COVID. I don't know what it is. 0.99

02:37:58.000 It happens every time, every time we do camp.

02:38:00.000 You've been stuck in America for three months now, right?

02:38:03.000 Yeah, exactly. 0.99

02:38:04.000 Every time I'm meant to fight or fight, something fucking happens. 0.98

02:38:08.000 Now, to go back home, do you have to get vaccinated? 0.99

02:38:11.000 What do you have to do to go back home?

02:38:12.000 We're still quarantined, so we leave tonight, but I'm going to go home and I still need to do the two-week quarantine.

02:38:17.000 But why is it two weeks?

02:38:18.000 Does that make sense?

02:38:20.000 I don't know.

02:38:21.000 I couldn't tell you.

02:38:22.000 I feel like, because they tested it the whole time.

02:38:25.000 Obviously in a week, I thought maybe in a week's time, they still see you don't have it.

02:38:29.000 Well, not only that, you've already gone through COVID. Well, I can't get it.

02:38:31.000 So you have the antibodies.

02:38:32.000 It's a long time.

02:38:33.000 Well, we're in the show.

02:38:35.000 Because I had it, and obviously I'm immune to it or whatever it is, but I didn't even have to get tested because they know I can't get it.

02:38:42.000 But I mean, I still need to go.

02:38:44.000 People have got it twice.

02:38:45.000 My friend Mo got it twice.

02:38:46.000 Within the 90 days as well?

02:38:47.000 No, not within 90 days.

02:38:48.000 He got it a few months later.

02:38:49.000 He got it a second time.

02:38:50.000 But he said the second time was so mild.

02:38:52.000 It was nothing. 0.70

02:38:54.000 The first time, it kind of sucked, but the second time was nothing.

02:38:56.000 Is that because he still had some antibodies, do you think?

02:39:00.000 Yeah, the second time was much more mild because he had some antibodies.

02:39:06.000 He could take care of himself a little bit better.

02:39:10.000 He's not an athlete.

02:39:12.000 He's not out there taking care of his body. 1.00

02:39:14.000 He just fucked up. 1.00

02:39:15.000 He's a comedian. 1.00

02:39:16.000 Hilarious dude, but living that wild life.

02:39:21.000 That's how you catch it twice.

02:39:23.000 Yeah.

02:39:24.000 Yeah.

02:39:24.000 Well, it was Dave's whole crew.

02:39:26.000 Dave Chappelle's whole crew.

02:39:27.000 They all caught COVID. Like a shitload of them got it.

02:39:30.000 Oh, fuck. 1.00

02:39:30.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:39:31.000 There's quite a few.

02:39:33.000 Six or seven people, I think, got it.

02:39:35.000 Yeah.

02:39:36.000 I've been around a bunch of people that got it and I never got it.

02:39:38.000 I went to a concert once.

02:39:41.000 Backstage.

02:39:41.000 We're hanging out in the green room.

02:39:43.000 All having a good time.

02:39:44.000 Everybody got COVID except me.

02:39:46.000 Everybody.

02:39:46.000 The keyboard player had COVID. Didn't tell everybody.

02:39:50.000 And one of his band members was like, why are you wearing a mask? 0.99

02:39:53.000 What the fuck's going on? 0.99

02:39:54.000 Turns out he had COVID. And you didn't get it. 1.00

02:39:56.000 That's crazy.

02:39:56.000 I didn't get it.

02:39:57.000 No, everybody got it.

02:39:58.000 I mean, I was talking to everybody.

02:39:59.000 Everybody.

02:40:00.000 I'm on a shitload of vitamins, and I've been on a shitload of vitamins forever.

02:40:04.000 Do you drink a lot?

02:40:05.000 No, I'm joking.

02:40:06.000 That's something that we've sort of come onto.

02:40:08.000 I do drink, though.

02:40:10.000 I enjoy alcohol, but I don't drink a lot. 0.98

02:40:13.000 I don't get a fucking hammer or anything. 0.97

02:40:15.000 It's pretty rare if I do. 0.98

02:40:16.000 But the thing that I do do is, first of all, sauna every day, mass amounts of vitamins, testosterone replacement.

02:40:25.000 That has a big impact, apparently.

02:40:27.000 There was an article...

02:40:28.000 That just came out yesterday about testosterone, high levels of testosterone and COVID symptoms.

02:40:34.000 And they used to think the opposite.

02:40:36.000 They used to think people with testosterone, like they thought that men had bad COVID responses.

02:40:40.000 They thought it might have been connected to testosterone.

02:40:42.000 But now they found that people with higher levels of testosterone, they have lower COVID symptoms, less severe COVID symptoms.

02:40:51.000 And they think it's like, like naturally, like if your body's natural production of testosterone, it depends on your sleeping habits, how you're eating, taking care of yourself.

02:41:01.000 But if you're on testosterone replacement, it's the same level, no matter what.

02:41:07.000 Like, so it's actually like a better level of testosterone than you would have Normally, just due to your endocrine system.

02:41:14.000 Apparently, that helps with people that have COVID. So that was one time that I was around it and everybody got it and I didn't get it.

02:41:20.000 Another time was my whole family got it.

02:41:22.000 My wife got it.

02:41:23.000 Kids got it.

02:41:24.000 Everybody got it. 1.00

02:41:25.000 And I was like, I talk all this shit. 1.00

02:41:27.000 I was like, let's see. 1.00

02:41:28.000 So I didn't wear a mask.

02:41:29.000 Just hung out with them. 1.00

02:41:30.000 Did normal shit. 1.00

02:41:32.000 And just never got it. 1.00

02:41:34.000 It's funny you say that because, well, Colby, the guy that's with us and he was on the show with us, he's got very low testosterone.

02:41:42.000 I think it was from, which I've never really heard of.

02:41:44.000 I don't know if you've heard of it.

02:41:45.000 They found out that the testosterone was so low that he was like a little kid or female levels, like really low.

02:41:55.000 He's still an animal, but...

02:41:58.000 I think it was from all the training, like the negative calories, and doing that for so long.

02:42:04.000 Head injuries, too.

02:42:06.000 Oh, really?

02:42:06.000 Yeah.

02:42:07.000 That's one of the things that Dr. Mark Gordon has done a lot of work with.

02:42:10.000 Don't tell me that.

02:42:10.000 He'll blame me for that.

02:42:12.000 That's a part of it, getting hit in the head.

02:42:16.000 Getting hit in the head is terrible for your pituitary gland, apparently.

02:42:20.000 It's not just getting hit in the head from fighting, it's playing soccer, people hitting the ball, they wind up with low testosterone.

02:42:28.000 Jet skis, just riding, the bouncing of jet skis rattles your head, you do it every day, you get low testosterone.

02:42:36.000 Because of that, because they found out, he got out of the fight dietitian, We're good to go.

02:42:57.000 As bad symptoms as me. 1.00

02:42:59.000 Maybe I'm just a little bitch with lower testosterone. 1.00

02:43:02.000 For you, for sure, it has to do with the training. 0.98

02:43:04.000 I mean, the thing is, like, people would think that someone who's training for a fight would be in excellent shape and you would ward off all sort of sicknesses and injuries.

02:43:13.000 But what they don't realize is you're far past working out and you're in this area of This fine line between breaking your body down too much and breaking it down just enough so that your body is forced to reach,

02:43:28.000 like, hyperhuman levels of conditioning.

02:43:31.000 And you can't do it forever.

02:43:32.000 This is the thing that people don't understand about strength and conditioning training in regards to a fight camp, is that when a fighter's peaking for a fight, you cannot just stay there.

02:43:42.000 It's not like you can just keep pushing that level up.

02:43:45.000 Exactly right. 0.98

02:43:45.000 Your body, like, there's super physiological levels that your body can achieve During a small window, whether that is like 8 weeks, 10 weeks, whatever it is, where you ramp up and you get to this fucking BAM! Where you're just ready to go. 0.98

02:44:00.000 And I see you guys. 0.95

02:44:01.000 When you run into that cage on fight night and you're fucking slapping your hands together, that is a rare state of performance. 0.75

02:44:08.000 And it can only be achieved by balancing that edge. 0.81

02:44:12.000 And when you talk to top-level strength and conditioning coaches that work with fighters, It's an art to sort of balance that out. 0.95

02:44:20.000 But during that time, your immune system gets fucking crushed. 0.97

02:44:23.000 Yeah, 100%. 0.98

02:44:24.000 So I was fit.

02:44:25.000 I was that.

02:44:26.000 Because I had the aura ring, so I could see my heart rate.

02:44:30.000 I think some of the medication, like while I was in hospital, that can bring the heart rate down.

02:44:35.000 But I'm like low 40s.

02:44:37.000 But I was averaging 35 all night.

02:44:39.000 That's crazy.

02:44:40.000 35. And I started freaking out because I started doing the old Google search and Google doctor.

02:44:45.000 And I'm looking and I'm like, yeah, it can be if it gets into your heart, the infection gets into your heart, your heart rate will go lower or hurt more. 0.99

02:44:51.000 And I'm like, what the fuck? 0.99

02:44:52.000 I'm watching this go down. 0.99

02:44:53.000 I was like, yeah, I'll be 38. The next day I was like 35 and I was under 40 the whole night.

02:44:59.000 Like, you know what I mean?

02:45:00.000 That's just sitting there. 0.99

02:45:01.000 But it just shows you how fit I fucking was. 0.99

02:45:03.000 Yeah. 0.98

02:45:03.000 But I mean, obviously the immune system probably down from that hard training that we were doing. 0.98

02:45:09.000 Yeah, for sure.

02:45:10.000 But that low heart rate is, I mean, if it's not because of the medication or the sickness, it's an indication of extreme cardio.

02:45:16.000 Bisping, I believe, when he was in his prime, he had a resting heart rate in the high 30s.

02:45:23.000 Oh, really?

02:45:23.000 It might have been in the mid-30s.

02:45:25.000 It might have been like 35 or something like that.

02:45:27.000 Bisping was crazy fit when he was in his prime. 0.98

02:45:30.000 But again, so fucking tough that he destroyed his knees. 0.96

02:45:34.000 Bisping's got two artificial knees now. 0.97

02:45:36.000 Is it true that he was fighting with one eye?

02:45:38.000 Oh yeah! 1.00

02:45:39.000 That guy's a fucking animal. 1.00

02:45:42.000 He can barely see out of his right eye. 1.00

02:45:44.000 Barely see.

02:45:46.000 Now it's a fake one, isn't it?

02:45:48.000 He wears a contact.

02:45:49.000 He gives a contact that makes it look normal. 1.00

02:45:51.000 Because it's so fucked up. 0.99

02:45:53.000 You know, from the Vitor Belfort fight, detached retinas, surgeries. 0.99

02:45:57.000 Did I see somewhere that he pulled his eyeball out, doesn't it?

02:46:00.000 They took the lens out.

02:46:01.000 He's got like a lens, a contact.

02:46:03.000 I thought he had pulled his eye out.

02:46:04.000 I thought like literally he's got a fake eye now.

02:46:06.000 No, when he puts the contact in, it looks normal.

02:46:09.000 Oh, okay.

02:46:10.000 But I don't think he can see through that contact.

02:46:12.000 So he's essentially blind in one eye. 0.99

02:46:13.000 And he said for his like, I think he said the last 10 fights he had, something crazy, his eye was fucked. 0.98

02:46:20.000 Yeah, I heard that. 1.00

02:46:21.000 He's an animal. 1.00

02:46:22.000 I mean, that motherfucker is so tough. 1.00

02:46:25.000 Some of the shit these fucking fighters put themselves through, eh? 1.00

02:46:28.000 Too tough, but he walks around knowing he was the middleweight champion of the world. 1.00

02:46:31.000 I mean, that guy knocked out Luke Rockhold when Luke Rockhold was the fucking champ. 0.96

02:46:35.000 And, you know, that guy walks around with that glory forever. 0.98

02:46:40.000 You never take that away from him.

02:46:41.000 You know that. 1.00

02:46:43.000 You are the fucking featherweight champ of the world. 1.00

02:46:47.000 No one can take that from you. 1.00

02:46:48.000 That's who you are, no matter what. 1.00

02:46:50.000 I mean, even if you wind up losing, at one point in time, you were the baddest motherfucker that walked at 145 pounds. 0.99

02:46:55.000 That's a fact. 0.99

02:46:56.000 I ain't losing for a while now.

02:46:59.000 He had to get that in quick.

02:47:00.000 Before you finish that sentence, before you change the subject. 1.00

02:47:05.000 Well, hey man, that's why you're the fucking man. 0.99

02:47:07.000 And the division that you're in, it's so exciting because there's so many guys that are challenging for that position. 0.99

02:47:14.000 You do have Max Holloway just put on that amazing performance against Calvin.

02:47:18.000 You do have Brian Ortega who's coming up next. 0.88

02:47:20.000 And I'm fucking pumped for that fight.

02:47:22.000 I'm really excited for that. 0.91

02:47:24.000 I'm real excited to see how you guys play off each other on The Ultimate Fighter.

02:47:27.000 But that showed to me...

02:47:30.000 I always want to get to the fights. 0.99

02:47:32.000 I don't want to see if we're going to throw watermelons at each other and give each other wedgies and shit. 1.00

02:47:35.000 Like, okay, okay. 0.98

02:47:37.000 This season's more serious, though.

02:47:38.000 The producers did tell us.

02:47:39.000 They said, obviously, in the past we've picked some crazy people to try to stir up the reality aspect, but they said this time they really wanted to pick proper fighters, serious fighters.

02:47:47.000 Good, good.

02:47:48.000 Well, it's ESPN, too, right?

02:47:50.000 ESPN's going to have a different approach than, say, a lot of these networks that are more reality TV focused.

02:47:55.000 But at the end of the day, it's a house full of guys that are stuck with each other. 0.99

02:48:00.000 I don't care how chill they are, shit's gonna happen. 0.99

02:48:04.000 And you know what? 0.99

02:48:05.000 There's some real amazing thing about being a part of that show because that show is what launched the sport.

02:48:11.000 You know, in 2005, when they had the very first season of The Ultimate Fighter, The Fertittas had already dumped, they were like $40 million in the hole.

02:48:20.000 And they were like, Jesus Christ, we're losing money.

02:48:23.000 We can't burn out all of our money on this thing that we're trying to make happen.

02:48:27.000 And they fortunately were very wealthy.

02:48:30.000 What it was is like, when Eddie Bravo and I would go to the fights way back in the day, we used to always joke around, like, you know what the sport needs? 0.97

02:48:37.000 Some fucking crazy billionaire who loves the sport that's just going to dump a bunch of money in it and let everybody else know how great it is. 0.95

02:48:44.000 And that's what they did. 1.00

02:48:45.000 Like, really, that's what it took.

02:48:47.000 The Fertittas bankrolled that show. 0.88

02:48:50.000 It was their money that put that show together.

02:48:53.000 I don't think they got a penny to do that show.

02:48:55.000 I think they bankrolled the whole thing, and they were $40 million in the hole and thinking about selling.

02:48:59.000 They were thinking about selling the UFC before they did that.

02:49:02.000 And then the ultimate fighter becomes a hit, and then Stefan Bonner versus Forrest Griffin in the finals is It was such a wild fight. 0.98

02:49:10.000 Fucking bang. 0.91

02:49:10.000 All these people were just calling their friends up. 0.91

02:49:13.000 Dude, you gotta see this shit. 1.00

02:49:14.000 Turn on the Spike TV. Turn on Spike TV. And then it became what it is today. 1.00

02:49:19.000 And then Chuck Liddell and his fights and the chaos that he would bring to the octagon sort of embodied what people wanted to see in the sport. 0.99

02:49:27.000 This hard-nosed savage with a fucking head tattoo just coming out trying to murder people. 0.99

02:49:32.000 And it became this thing. 1.00

02:49:34.000 And now you guys are on it.

02:49:36.000 That's what I mean.

02:49:37.000 And it's coming back.

02:49:37.000 So much history there.

02:49:39.000 So much history.

02:49:40.000 We've all watched it.

02:49:41.000 We all know about the Forrest Griffin-Stefan Bonner fight.

02:49:45.000 All of it.

02:49:46.000 So now to be a part of it, it's pretty crazy.

02:49:49.000 And it was good fun.

02:49:50.000 We enjoyed it.

02:49:51.000 Yeah, it really is history.

02:49:52.000 I mean, when it comes down to this sport, the Ultimate Fighter is really synonymous with the beginning of the public awareness of MMA. 100%.

02:50:02.000 Never gonna fight in MMA, right?

02:50:04.000 I don't know, man.

02:50:05.000 You're thinking about it?

02:50:06.000 He's got some hands, you know.

02:50:07.000 We've been working with him a bit.

02:50:09.000 The tough thing would be it would be hard to get a good first fight, you know what I mean?

02:50:13.000 People are gonna probably give me something difficult because of the jiu-jitsu career.

02:50:16.000 Yeah, of course.

02:50:17.000 And what really keeps me out of it as well is like...

02:50:20.000 That five minute round.

02:50:22.000 You know what I mean? 0.96

02:50:22.000 If I have a five minute grappling match, it's fucking hard to take someone down or pull guard and submit them when they're trying to grapple you. 0.96

02:50:28.000 Let alone, I have to not get knocked out, take them down, not get stood up, hold them down, and submit them. 0.99

02:50:34.000 It's really that five minute thing that I'm like, fuck, that doesn't favor jiu-jitsu guys. 0.99

02:50:38.000 That favors strikers and wrestlers. 0.98

02:50:40.000 Right, because you just have to be defensive enough to hold your position for five minutes and then get stood up again.

02:50:44.000 Every round starts taking that.

02:50:46.000 Exactly.

02:50:46.000 Even with the weight difference here, if I'm on top of Vox and he's like, he doesn't want to engage, it's hard to submit someone like that.

02:50:53.000 You know what I mean?

02:50:53.000 Even with a huge size and weight discrepancy.

02:50:56.000 I can't not fucking gauge it. 0.99

02:50:59.000 I'll just have to go like, I'm going to get fucked here, but I'm fucking trying something. 0.99

02:51:04.000 Every time I'm rolling, I was just like, why the fuck did I go for that? 0.99

02:51:06.000 I was like, why did I just sit there? 0.93

02:51:09.000 I guess that's made me who I am anyway.

02:51:13.000 What did you guys think of the old Pride way with the 10-minute first round?

02:51:16.000 That was cool.

02:51:17.000 I like that.

02:51:17.000 I think that's cool.

02:51:18.000 I like that.

02:51:20.000 Especially a guy like you who's a pressure fighter who likes to come forward and put a lot of pressure and see guys break.

02:51:25.000 You get more of an opportunity for that.

02:51:29.000 Round one, when it's seven minutes in, you have three more to go.

02:51:32.000 I'll be honest with you, when we do sparring and that, I'll get a couple of guys, they'll probably do two and a half minutes each sometimes.

02:51:40.000 And these guys are probably fit, but when I'm fit, in the two and a half minutes, They start.

02:51:45.000 Again, everyone's on point at the start, but the next minute, they've slowed down, and by the end of the two and a half minutes, I'm going with them.

02:51:52.000 They're like, ugh, and the next one in, and you do the same thing.

02:51:55.000 But to have ten minutes with someone, one whole round, because again, I just get better and better as the rounds go, especially as later the round goes.

02:52:04.000 So I would absolutely love that.

02:52:06.000 Absolutely love it, but...

02:52:08.000 I don't know. 0.97

02:52:09.000 I think there's a real argument for that, and I think Pride had some great fucking rules. 0.98

02:52:14.000 They really did. 0.99

02:52:15.000 They had some great rules. 0.98

02:52:16.000 They had some little sketchy rules, like stomping on the head and soccer kicks and shit like that. 0.93

02:52:21.000 Some fake fights as well, right? 0.95

02:52:22.000 A lot of fake fights!

02:52:23.000 In the early days, there's a lot of fake fights, yeah.

02:52:27.000 They had quite a few that you could clearly see.

02:52:29.000 What was that, Mark Coleman vs.

02:52:30.000 Takata?

02:52:31.000 Takata, yeah.

02:52:31.000 The heel hook, where he's like, I'm not gonna tap!

02:52:34.000 I'm not gonna...

02:52:35.000 I love the commentary too.

02:52:36.000 He's like, he passed his guard and now he's moving back to guard.

02:52:39.000 So I'm not sure what's going on.

02:52:41.000 It was unfortunate.

02:52:42.000 But, you know, they had this weird combination of pro wrestling and actual fighting.

02:52:49.000 And most of the fights were actual fights.

02:52:52.000 Like, you know, Fedor and Minotauro. 0.99

02:52:54.000 Holy shit. 0.99

02:52:54.000 Go back and watch those fights. 0.99

02:52:56.000 Watch Fedor and Cro Cop.

02:52:58.000 And Fedor in his prime back then when he was running Pride...

02:53:01.000 I think he's one of the most impressive fighters that's ever lived.

02:53:04.000 He was a man.

02:53:05.000 And he could do anything.

02:53:06.000 He could submit you.

02:53:06.000 He could knock you out.

02:53:08.000 He would kickbox with Mirko Krokop.

02:53:10.000 I mean, he was that good. 1.00

02:53:11.000 He was a fucking monster. 1.00

02:53:13.000 And the face would not change the whole way through. 1.00

02:53:15.000 Stoic.

02:53:16.000 Top and bottom submissions too.

02:53:18.000 Everything.

02:53:18.000 Crazy.

02:53:19.000 Yeah. 0.83

02:53:19.000 Arm bars. 0.83

02:53:19.000 Remember Hongman Choi was seven feet tall and he armbarred him? 0.83

02:53:22.000 Like, that was wild.

02:53:23.000 Yeah.

02:53:24.000 Wild, man.

02:53:25.000 Fedor was, I mean, he's a real legend.

02:53:27.000 It's still going at it, which is kind of crazy, right?

02:53:30.000 Yeah, I wonder what keeps someone in there at that point in their career.

02:53:33.000 KGB. Telling him to keep fighting.

02:53:38.000 Maybe he still just enjoys it.

02:53:40.000 I mean, you've experienced the highs that that guy's experienced.

02:53:45.000 Being the pride heavyweight champion for so long.

02:53:47.000 Is it still money?

02:53:49.000 Is he still getting good coin?

02:53:51.000 Bellator probably is paying him well.

02:53:53.000 Bellator is being very smart.

02:53:54.000 What they're doing is they're recognizing that there's some real elite talent that's in these negotiating situations with the UFC. Guys like Gegard Mousasi.

02:54:05.000 Guys like Rory McDonald.

02:54:07.000 Elite guys.

02:54:09.000 And then they have these conversations.

02:54:11.000 Corey Anderson. 0.99

02:54:12.000 They have these conversations and they go, look, we'll fucking pay you more. 0.98

02:54:15.000 Like, come on over. 0.98

02:54:15.000 Corey said he made more money. 0.98

02:54:17.000 I had dinner with him down in Houston when we were out there for the fights.

02:54:21.000 And Corey said he made more for two fights in Bellator than his entire UFC career. 0.99

02:54:29.000 Damn. 0.99

02:54:31.000 Crazy. 1.00

02:54:31.000 That is crazy to think. 1.00

02:54:32.000 That's crazy.

02:54:33.000 And I was like, wow.

02:54:35.000 Well, you can't argue with that, you know?

02:54:37.000 I mean, the guy's a prize fighter.

02:54:38.000 He's there to make money.

02:54:39.000 And they have high-level talent there, too, man. 0.99

02:54:42.000 You know, it's not the same talent, the same level of talent as the UFC, but that Pitbull guy, Patricio Pitbull, he's a bad motherfucker. 0.98

02:54:50.000 I know, look at him. 0.98

02:54:51.000 Immediately.

02:54:52.000 He's going to come up.

02:54:54.000 He's going to be loving that.

02:54:56.000 I wouldn't mind putting hands on him, too, so...

02:54:59.000 Yeah, well, but obviously you've got to recognize that he's a good fighter, and that's why you want to fight him.

02:55:04.000 You're not dismissing him. 0.88

02:55:06.000 You're like, oh, I'd like to fuck that guy up, because you realize that he's elite. 0.98

02:55:10.000 Douglas Lima, one of the best 170-pounders in the world. 1.00

02:55:12.000 Man, that guy's a fucking beast. 0.99

02:55:14.000 Mousasi. 1.00

02:55:15.000 Gegard Mousasi's a fucking animal, man. 1.00

02:55:17.000 I mean, he's so good. 1.00

02:55:19.000 So there's real good talent over there.

02:55:21.000 And I think that's good for everybody.

02:55:22.000 I think it's good for the UFC. I think it's good for...

02:55:25.000 I mean, the bigger the PFL grows, the bigger one grows, it's better for everybody.

02:55:30.000 It's better for the sport.

02:55:32.000 You know, the sport...

02:55:33.000 But at the end of the day...

02:55:35.000 The UFC is the UFC, and that's, you know, it's the NFL of the sport.

02:55:42.000 It's like if you think about MMA, you think about who's the UFC champ, and then you think, well, there's some great fighters in other organizations too, but the UFC is without a doubt the number one.

02:55:53.000 But I think that's good for everybody.

02:55:56.000 I don't think there's anything wrong with recognizing all these other elite fighters in the rest of the sport.

02:56:01.000 I think it's good.

02:56:03.000 Especially when they come across like Chandler did.

02:56:05.000 Yes!

02:56:06.000 That's really cool. 0.98

02:56:07.000 It's fucking good, man. 0.97

02:56:09.000 I mean, knocks out Dan Hooker in one round. 1.00

02:56:11.000 Holy shit, you know Hooker. 1.00

02:56:12.000 He's fucking good. 1.00

02:56:14.000 He's a problem. 1.00

02:56:16.000 He almost did it to Oliveira.

02:56:18.000 Oliveira came out and did it to him.

02:56:20.000 That was a crazy fight.

02:56:21.000 Woo! 0.99

02:56:22.000 What happened in the Soda Man and Tom Mike?

02:56:24.000 Yeah, it's hard to keep up.

02:56:25.000 The sport is so wild now.

02:56:27.000 I mean, there's just so many fights like that.

02:56:29.000 Like Usman Masvidal, the second fight, when Usman knocks him out.

02:56:32.000 Who expected that? 0.99

02:56:35.000 You know, it's just like these fucking guys are so good and everybody's getting better. 0.99

02:56:40.000 It's like the level. 0.99

02:56:41.000 And because of guys like you and Max and Usman and all these fucking elite guys and Oliveira, all these elite guys, like everybody's getting better. 0.92

02:56:51.000 It's like the level of the sport is just rising. 0.95

02:56:53.000 I love it because that's motivating, right?

02:56:56.000 Yeah.

02:56:56.000 Because I look at that as like, what I know now won't be enough in a couple of months.

02:56:59.000 Right.

02:57:00.000 I need to keep learning.

02:57:01.000 I need to keep evolving.

02:57:03.000 The sport's evolving.

02:57:04.000 I need to keep evolving and be a step ahead.

02:57:06.000 I want to be a step ahead.

02:57:07.000 You know what I mean?

02:57:07.000 I need to keep evolving with it.

02:57:10.000 So that motivates me. 0.99

02:57:11.000 I was like, fuck yeah, let's go. 0.99

02:57:13.000 Let's go! 1.00

02:57:13.000 Let's fucking go! 1.00

02:57:14.000 Well, listen. 0.99

02:57:15.000 Thank you, gentlemen, for being here.

02:57:17.000 Alex, you know I'm a fan.

02:57:18.000 I love it.

02:57:18.000 Love when you fight.

02:57:19.000 Can't wait to see you in there.

02:57:20.000 Whatever the date is, whenever it's announced, make sure we blow it up, you and Ortega.

02:57:25.000 And this Friday, I'm going to be there to see your match.

02:57:28.000 Who are you competing against again?

02:57:29.000 Luis Panza.

02:57:30.000 So obviously filling in.

02:57:31.000 Gordon's...

02:57:32.000 This is the guy that Gordon was supposed to fight.

02:57:33.000 Exactly.

02:57:34.000 Yeah.

02:57:35.000 So be cool.

02:57:35.000 You'll be there.

02:57:36.000 Alex Jones.

02:57:36.000 Alex Jones will be in your corner.

02:57:38.000 Alex Jones, I'm going to make it happen.

02:57:39.000 He's getting in the corner.

02:57:41.000 I want to drunk Alex Jones in the corner, too.

02:57:43.000 Oh, you don't want to drunk Alex Jones in the corner.

02:57:44.000 Maybe you do.

02:57:45.000 You did ask me to choke him out yesterday, but I didn't do it.

02:57:48.000 You asked everybody to choke him out.

02:57:52.000 So that's on flowgrappling.com.

02:57:54.000 If you're not a member, you should subscribe.

02:57:56.000 It's awesome.

02:57:57.000 There's so many good matches you can watch on there, and they consistently hold these high-level matches at Who's Number One in Austin.

02:58:04.000 They have them once a month towards the end of the month.

02:58:07.000 Went to it last time.

02:58:08.000 I've gone to the last two here.

02:58:10.000 It's incredible.

02:58:11.000 And so that's flowgrappling.com and that'll be available Friday.

02:58:14.000 Subscribe.

02:58:15.000 It's not expensive.

02:58:16.000 If you're a supporter of jiu-jitsu, it's definitely worth it.

02:58:20.000 What is your Instagram handle again?

02:58:22.000 Alex Volkanovski.

02:58:24.000 Alex Volkanovski.

02:58:25.000 And yours is Craig Jones BJJ. That's it, yeah.

02:58:27.000 That's it.

02:58:28.000 All right.

02:58:28.000 Bye, everybody.

02:58:29.000 All right.

02:58:30.000 See ya.

02:58:32.000 Hey, nothing but love to attack. 1.00

02:58:33.000 Be a piece of shit. 1.00

The Joe Rogan Experience - May 27, 2021

JRE MMA Show #110 with Craig Jones & Alex Volkanovski

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript