In this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, I sit down with UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Donald Cowboy Cerrone to talk about his recent win over Jon Bones Jones, his upcoming fight with Khabib Nurcayang, and much more. Joe is a legend in the jiu-jitsu world and is one of the most respected martial arts fighters in the history of the sport. He has been around the block in his MMA career and is on his way to becoming the next UFC Lightweight Champion. He is a great example of how hard work and dedication can pay off in the long-term. I can't wait to see what he does next in his UFC career and what he has in store for the future! I hope you enjoy this episode, it's a must-listen! If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts! Subscribe, Like, and Share to stay up to date with the latest MMA news and everything else going on in the MMA and Muay Thai community! Cheers, EJ & Rory! -Jon & Rory <3 -Jon Sorrentino -Syracuse MMA & Featherweight Champion, UFC Fighter of the Decade, Conor McGregor & UFC Champion, Donald "The Eagle" Dana White Conor Mcgregor and much much more, Jon & Rory talk about the upcoming UFC Fight Night, UFC 246 & UFC 246, UFC 232, UFC 194, UFC 197, UFC 244, and UFC 246! & much more! , UFC 246. & more! -Jon Rogan Podcast, check it out! . . . , UFC 246 . , and much MORE! -Joe Rogans Podcast -The Joe Rogans Experience Podcast (featuring UFC Podcast by Night Podcast, UFC Fight Show, UFC 214, UFC Welterweight Champion & UFC BJJ Podcast, , & much MORE!! Thanks for listening to the JOE Podcast, J.R. -J.Rogan Experience Podcast, Jon Rogan's J. , J. Rogan Experience, R. R. Rogan Show, - J.J. Experience, J-Rogan Podcast, and the J.O. Experience - The J. Rogans Show, and so much more!! -ROBY ROGAN PODCAST
00:00:38.000It's like, when I look back at it, where I've been, where I'm at right now, I still don't even believe it, but it's like, I still need to get over that hurdle where people still don't believe in you, people still looking for excuses of why you beat this guy, why you beat that guy, why you don't deserve the title shot.
00:00:54.000But isn't that always the case, and then all of a sudden you're the fucking man?
00:00:57.000Like that was Charles Oliveira, right?
00:00:59.000For the longest time, people thought, oh, he falls apart, he falls apart, and then all of a sudden everybody had to go, you know what, he's the fucking man, you know?
00:01:06.000Until Islam got a hold of him, he was, you know, he was like a completely different entity than he was like back when Cub Swanson knocked him out.
00:01:15.000Yeah, when you look at the way his career is, the way...
00:01:17.000People don't give him enough credit for that.
00:01:19.000And the way he dominated some of the best guys once he was in his title reign.
00:01:23.000When he beat Gaethje, the way he beat Chandler, I mean, my God.
00:01:27.000But, I mean, now people know how good a slam is.
00:01:29.000People are respecting him the same way I feel like.
00:01:35.000Plays with him like that, beats him on the feet, and then finishes him on the ground.
00:01:38.000I think that now people are realizing, alright, well, Islam isn't all talk.
00:01:42.000When DC and all of them are saying that he's going to be better than Habib, now they're realizing it.
00:01:47.000Anybody who said it was all talk is a fool.
00:01:49.000If you watch the way he submitted Drew Dober, he just smushed him.
00:01:53.000I'm like, there was no getting up there.
00:01:55.000It was just a matter of time before he put the smush down on him.
00:02:00.000Training with those guys, I tell people, I'm like, if you never train with the guys from Dagestan, from somebody on their team, you don't know what it feels like.
00:05:04.000Yeah, I was rolling with him, and that first week, he's catching me with, like, an anaconda choke every time I'm going with him, and it's just squeezing, squeezing, and I'm, like, tapping, and then Islam's nice, so, like, he'll tell you, like, you need to do it, you need to do it this way, and he'll show me the technique with it.
00:05:19.000When Habib's on top of you, he's, like, breaking me at every single point, and I'm asking for it to, no, brother, you just gotta keep going.
00:05:27.000So the next time he does it, he's just on top of me again.
00:05:29.000He's like mounting me, then I'm turning, giving him my back, and then he's like just laughing as he's talking to the guys outside of the cage as he's on top of me.
00:05:35.000And I'm feeling like disrespected, but it's like this is not me.
00:05:39.000But at least like Islam, he'll be like, brother, do this way, do this.
00:07:03.000So it's like it's a real fight field the guys outside of the cage will sit there peek in So you get those little nerves that you would get in a fight and I'm sparring with somebody his cousin Abu Becker Who's also in the UFC welterweight you're sparring with somebody really not used to so you also still have that that tension That you feel like I don't know what this guy's gonna do He's not one of my normal training partners where I know well he's got a good left kick or he got a good Cross.
00:07:28.000I know what he's going to bring to the table.
00:07:29.000It's like, no, it's a real fight feel every single time.
00:07:32.000Because I don't know what he's going to bring to the table.
00:07:34.000He doesn't know what I'm going to bring to the table.
00:07:36.000And we have two corners cornering each other in there.
00:07:39.000So when it's your hard sparring, you're in the cage.
00:07:41.000When it's not hard sparring, you're outside of the cage.
00:07:43.000You're doing a little bit of technique.
00:08:24.000You have to keep trying to do what the best teams are doing and seeing how their team is, how disciplined they are.
00:08:29.000It's like none of the guys are going to show up late to practice.
00:08:31.000You're not going to show up late and smile and laugh.
00:08:33.000It's like once he lines everybody up, you better sprint there in that line because he's going to tell you what your duties are for that day.
00:09:04.000I just want to bring their mentality, I think, is a different type of mentality that a lot of gyms don't have of being more disciplined.
00:09:10.000And I think that comes from being Muslim.
00:09:12.000I think a lot of it comes from that is just being religious, you're bringing a different type of discipline where you have to pray five times a day and every single one of the guys is doing that.
00:09:22.000None of the guys are going out and partying.
00:09:23.000if there's guys that come to practice and they look a little bit tired, Khabib will take their phone away from them, and he won't give it to them until the next day tomorrow morning.
00:09:32.000So he'll take their phone at night, 9 p.m., and then you have to go to sleep, get a good night's sleep, and then next practice he'll give you your phone back because you're probably on your phone all night playing games or something stupid.
00:09:41.000And he pays attention to those things.
00:09:44.000And the fact that he wants you to win that bad, because he doesn't need to be there, he doesn't need to give you the knowledge, he doesn't need to care that much about you if you don't care about yourself, but it just shows you how much of a great person he is too.
00:09:57.000And it just makes you want to work that much harder for him.
00:09:59.000Well, just being around someone who is...
00:10:01.000If he's not the GOAT... I mean, is there a GOAT? I don't know.
00:10:10.000There's a conversation to be had for many fighters when they're in their prime.
00:10:15.000Like, but Khabib's the first one to really retire completely undefeated, where you can make the argument that even the rounds he lost, if he lost, like, one round against Conor, and maybe one round at another point in his career, there were barely, barely.
00:10:28.000There were, like, coasting rounds where he just, like, was refreshing himself and then comes back and dominates.
00:10:34.000So, if you're training with a guy like that, like, fuck, man.
00:10:38.000Yeah, and I think that that's a big thing, too, is...
00:10:41.000You know, one time we were training in Vegas, and I have a Moroccan kickboxer that I trained with, and we were down there training with Habib's team, and he's sparring one of their guys.
00:10:50.000And, you know, he's a great kickboxer, and their guy's obviously a great grappler, but he has striking.
00:10:55.000So the first round, he's taking my guy down, beating him on the ground, and the second and third round...
00:10:59.000He's like, let me strike with him a little bit because the ground is kind of too easy.
00:11:41.000So many guys just decide to trade with people for no reason, and they wind up getting lit up when they really should be taking the guy down.
00:11:47.000Yeah, and I feel like that's what a lot of these newer guys coming up.
00:11:51.000I was training with an Ohio State wrestler.
00:11:54.000He was in Vegas visiting and he was like, gonna transition into MMA. And he was telling me like, yeah, you know, I like this gym, but you know, in wrestling, I'm killing the guys, but then I don't know nothing about sparring.
00:12:05.000So on sparring day, I'm telling these guys, you know, it's, I'm still learning.
00:12:07.000And then he said, everybody's trying to throw hard at me because I'm killing them in wrestling.
00:12:11.000And I'm like, you got to find a gym where the guys don't have egos, where they're going to try to help you build yourself.
00:12:16.000Because if you're sparring hard and you don't really know how to take a punch or anything, you're only going to hurt yourself.
00:12:20.000And you're going to get your ticket punched too many times.
00:12:23.000And then by the time you get into fights, I mean, there's quite a few guys that I know that by the time they have their first or second pro fight, they've already had six, seven concussions in the gym.
00:12:31.000You know, and like, man, like you already had a deficit.
00:12:34.000Yeah, I look at when I go to gyms and I see guys, like they're laughing about it.
00:12:38.000Like, oh, I knocked Chris out yesterday, man.
00:13:04.000And if you find the right training partners, and I feel like I have the perfect training partners where we spar super light and we're still getting that same movement, that same fluidity with the striking, with the speed, with everything, but we're not putting an extra umph on it.
00:13:17.000And if you don't have any guys like that in your gym, I think a lot of these guys are going to have shorter careers or they're going to get broken a lot earlier than they should have.
00:13:26.000It makes a big difference with timing, too.
00:13:28.000You really develop timing when you get a guy who's willing to spar light with you, because then you're not thinking about the consequences of missing or getting countered, and you could really just develop that ingrained timing.
00:13:42.000Yeah, but hard sparring all the time I mean the early days of the UFC guys would just fight they would go into the ring and in their their whatever their gym was and they would beat the fucking shit out of each other and Somewhere along the line people realize like hey this is you can only sustain this for so long You're not gonna have a long career doing this and you're not gonna reach the best of your potential like when you look at all the variables that take place in a person reaching their full potential and I think one of the things you're doing that's really good is going to different places.
00:14:16.000And being exposed yourself to the guys like Farras Ahabi or Khabib or all these other different minds that can give you a different approach and you can take a little bit here and a little bit there.
00:14:25.000But also it's like being smart in your training and knowing when to push and not when you're being a bitch and when you're actually being a meathead because you're just going too hard and you're fucking your body up.
00:14:36.000Yeah, and A lot of guys have to learn that the hard way, where it takes them like, you know, when you're coming up, you're fighting for pennies.
00:14:47.000I used to fight for $150, and I'd tell my family, no, I'm making like $15,000.
00:14:52.000Yeah, I would sit there and lie to them.
00:14:54.000But it's because you had that dream, you had that push, and I had that end goal, where I knew I was going to make it, or I felt like I could have made it.
00:15:03.000You've got to have, I think, leaders in the gym room that are going to teach you the right things.
00:15:08.000Because if you have those guys in those bigger gyms, I feel like there's so many UFC fighters in there, 20, 30, 40 guys.
00:15:14.000Yeah, it's great training partners, great things, but if it's a guy like...
00:15:18.000Trying to come up, on the come up or anything like that.
00:15:20.000They're going to use you as a body for them.
00:16:18.000I need better that I was still on the come up learning So just getting beat up is not gonna help me.
00:16:21.000Yeah, the small gym versus a large gym That's the big debate because some people think a place like American top team they have dormitories You got all these guys coming in from Russia and Morocco and all these all these places all parts of the world They're coming to American top team and you know, you might get some sparring with some fucking killers But how many coaches are really paying attention to you when you're just a guy who just started out there?
00:16:47.000Are you running the risk of being injured because you're just going to war every day versus a small gym where you get individualized attention and people are really paying attention to you?
00:17:37.000And finding the right training partner is so crucial.
00:17:40.000Yeah, I think the key, honestly, is training partners, you have to have the right guys that really care for you.
00:17:45.000I've been at gyms where guys really don't care if you win or lose.
00:17:48.000But if you have that family feel where they're going to be in the gym for you no matter what, and they're going to push for you, and they're going to watch your opponent and give you that opponent's look, In bigger gyms, if I'm a UFC fighter and you're a UFC fighter, you're telling me I'm fighting Wonderboy.
00:18:01.000And in my smaller gym, I had every single one of my five guys that I've trained with, all of them try to give me that Wonderboy look.
00:18:07.000They're all paying attention to what he does.
00:19:59.000Yeah, and you got to find a reason to hit him and dislike him.
00:20:04.000And just like his highlight reel and I'm looking at it like I said I was in two camps watching these guys and They're telling me like it's nothing like these other guys.
00:20:11.000It's like kicks are snappier It hurts so much and you're seeing them I'm like man I do not want to be on his highlight reel I do not want to get hit with a spinning heel kick and he was coming off of a loss and I feel like guys coming off of one loss is their mentality is different They're that much hungrier where they want to get it right back.
00:20:26.000I was so impressed with him in Kevin Holland fight That Kevin Holland fight was amazing.
00:21:18.000That fight was crazy because I just couldn't imagine why he wouldn't want to vary his approach when you're fighting with a 57-0 kickboxer.
00:21:30.000Bro, I had so many people message me after my fight with him, like, bro, all you did was hump him, all you did was, like, bro, he's 57 and an old kickboxer.
00:21:41.000Yeah, they're like, he's old, he's this, he's this, and I'm like, whoa, look, he beat Haaland in striking, so I guess he's still got some fight left in him, huh?
00:22:51.000I'm like, and then when I took him down, they just started giving me building the confidence, building the confidence, building the confidence.
00:22:56.000So like, alright, well my wrestling is up there.
00:22:58.000Where people beforehand were like, Johnny Hendricks couldn't take him down.
00:23:03.000Johnny Hendricks is a national champion.
00:24:00.000And then you're thinking back to the GSP fight where it's like, how could somebody be that good and like somebody who...
00:24:07.000Almost beat the GOAT, who a lot of people said to the GOAT, and all of a sudden you fall off that much, and it's only like two years, three years later.
00:25:18.000Yeah, he got fucked, and that's unfortunate.
00:25:20.000I don't like when someone gets by just because they're famous and they have this big personality and everybody loves them.
00:25:27.000The problem with that is people are going to be rooting against him now in the next fight.
00:25:31.000And so now he's going to go in there against someone, and maybe he's going to go in against someone who's on another level, like one more level up, and he's going to be in trouble.
00:25:39.000Yeah, and for a guy like him, I just don't think that he really wants it that bad.
00:25:44.000If you're going out of camp and you're getting up to 200 pounds, 210, and you're getting that big, you're not in the training room.
00:25:50.000For me, I'm in the practice room all day.
00:25:52.000I don't care if I have a fight or not a fight.
00:25:54.000And it's just building skills in between fights.
00:27:58.000And you always have that mentality, like when you're in camp and it's about to be like two or three weeks out and you feel so good because you're eating healthy for...
00:28:06.000Six to eight weeks, and your body feels good, your energy feels good, and I always tell myself, like, after this fight, I'm not eating bad.
00:28:11.000I'm not gonna go on any bad binges or anything.
00:28:13.000But it's like, right after you win, you're like, I don't care no more.
00:29:51.000But the reality is, it's fucking terrible for you.
00:29:54.000And if you're a professional athlete, and you're in this world of professional athleticism that has very little room for error, which is what you're in.
00:30:05.000I mean, you're in the hardest fucking sport, I think, in the world.
00:30:09.000And if you can maximize your recovery and maximize your health and maximize your vitality by not drinking alcohol, I would tell people to do it.
00:30:20.000Maybe a glass of wine here and there, a little glass of whiskey, no big deal.
00:30:24.000But guys who get drunk, guys who really like to party and drink, man, you are fucking chipping away at your health.
00:30:31.000There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
00:30:33.000Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of guys that do it, and then they'll come into their practice room on Monday or hungover or something, and you're not really getting as much out of the session.
00:30:42.000Yeah, and I've seen it happen to a lot of guys, and I tell them, like, how bad do you want it, how serious do you want it, these younger fighters?
00:31:16.000That's a mentality that I really appreciate because it's hard to do and no one has to tell you that.
00:31:21.000When you're not making these monumental leaps in terms of like public consciousness and being celebrated, you're steady up that fucking ladder.
00:32:45.000Sometimes they do consequential fights, and sometimes they do fights where they give a guy a good opponent, but give it to him in their hometown, and they have it set up so it's nice.
00:32:54.000They offer you a fight that makes sense financially, and it looks good.
00:34:23.000Well, the thing about the middleweight thing is like, yeah, he could go up to middleweight and he would be a top flight middleweight, but he has fought at welterweight.
00:38:05.000When you see what he's capable of when he puts the fucking pedal to the gas and really just stomps it to the floor, like, that motherfucker's scary.
00:39:48.000But my friend who knows him well said, dude, he got really fucked up from that punch because he didn't see it coming.
00:39:53.000And Jorge just ran up to him and sucker punched him in the face.
00:39:57.000But when you're that person, you have to have security with you.
00:40:01.000All the trash talk you say, all the dumb stuff, all the people that want to kill you, I'm sure American Top Team, all the Brazilians you talk trash about, you don't think that somebody sees you on the street is going to hurt you.
00:40:11.000That's what I feel like a lot of these guys need to start realizing.
00:40:13.000You can say whatever you want to build a fight, but when you're talking about a guy's family, his kids, he deserved that.
00:40:19.000I know that it was a sucker punch, it was dirty on Masvidal's end.
00:40:24.000Be a street fighter, go street fight him in the streets, hit him with something, but don't hit him and run off.
00:40:39.000I've had hate for Sean Strickland, and I've called him out before, and I was at the fight when he fought Pereira, and Pereira knocked him out.
00:40:46.000And I got up to go to the bathroom, and Ali's like, brother, stop.
00:41:28.000I'm assuming because he's claiming brain damage with the court case.
00:41:33.000And I know like some lawyers, like injury lawyers, and he's like, yeah, when somebody comes in claiming brain damage, like all I hear is cha-ching.
00:41:39.000Like I know that I'm going to get paid for it because you could claim like future injuries or anything like that, like stuff that's going to happen in the future.
00:41:48.000And the court can't do anything like, well, we'll wait 10 years before we let you get paid or anything.
00:41:52.000And if you're suing Masvidal, who's worth millions of dollars, and you're claiming brain damage, and they see you take a fight, they're probably going to be like, how are you going to take a fight if you have brain damage?
00:43:20.000from it yeah and you're like how the heck did this guy just change so much off of that and you're like they took that much damage in a fight you don't know which fight it's going to be and that's what i tell guys don't spar hard because you don't want to lose those years lose those that toughness from your chin because you can't you can't gain muscles on your chin right and i think tony ferguson was a big one of that like after that gaethje fight he was never the same and it's like a prime example of like bro People get hurt and something changes in their body or mind or something.
00:44:36.000But you think back to those, like how you said, he almost dropped him at the end of the first, and you're looking back at Pereira and Adesanya where he almost dropped him at the beginning of the first, you're like, how many of those fights are there where it's like, one more second, this guy would have won and the whole thing would have changed.
00:44:49.000Yeah, if Izzy caught him with that punch two minutes to go instead of two seconds to go, who fucking knows, man?
00:44:55.000He couldn't have stopped him in the first round.
00:45:37.000I think MMA rules are superior in that you get dropped and you come back up because of the fact that there's ground fighting and ground and pound.
00:45:51.000When someone gets hurt and someone can put that person away, that's the end of the fight.
00:45:55.000There's a thing that happens in boxing when a guy gets dropped.
00:45:59.000Where you're like, one, two, and you get up, and then no one's hitting you.
00:46:02.000And they brush your gloves off, and they go, come to me, and there's all this time, and you have time to sort of get your equilibrium back and move around.
00:46:58.000Like, you should have a fucking clock.
00:47:01.000Like, if this is 10 seconds, there should be a giant digital clock, and the moment someone gets dropped, that clock goes, and it has nothing to do with the referee.
00:47:08.000The referee should be reading that shit off the clock.
00:47:32.000And when you're looking at it, too, like you said, when it comes to famous guys, or like if Patty Pimbley was boxing, and the ref liked him more, am I going to count faster for you?
00:50:09.000Glover is one of those guys where I felt bad for him because I thought it was going to be one of his last fights for them to take the title fight away from him.
00:50:16.000Every time I see him in the PI, he's the nicest guy.
00:50:19.000I saw him there that weekend for the Ankalaya fight.
00:53:59.000Well, he fought Alex Perez, yeah, and that was 2020. Yeah, and then before that he fought Benavidez, he stopped Benavidez twice, he beat him twice, and then Brandon Moreno, and then the last one I thought Moreno won, man.
00:55:02.000A little bit more if you're going to go in there and throw a fight.
00:55:04.000Well, if you have an injury and you go and fight, it says UFC's Jeff Molina suspended for alleged substantial involvement in ongoing James Krause investigation.
00:55:14.000Yeah, he was on, I've heard a thing that he was on his Discord, and he said that, like, Jeff Molina said that, like, you know, I paid my mortgage, my house, my phone bill, everything with this Discord right here, make sure you guys join it.
00:55:27.000So, he was pushing it hard, so I'm sure, you know, he was under Krause.
00:55:31.000So his Discord, is that something that they were using for gambling?
00:55:36.000Yeah, I think somebody was telling me that they had...
00:57:58.000Yeah, but I feel like you should be able to gamble.
00:58:00.000You definitely should be able to gamble on your fighter, and you definitely should be able to gamble on yourself.
00:58:05.000As long as you're not gambling for someone to lose, and if there's a situation like this where it shows that someone is either taking a dive or the coach lets everybody know, hey, this guy's injured, you know, bet on the other dude, that kind of shit you really should be banned for.
00:58:20.000I mean, I don't know what Kraus actually did and what actually is going to happen to him, but that makes me upset.
00:58:30.000Especially, you ruined it for all these guys that, like, if you wanted to fight Hamzat and you wanted to bet a hundred grand on yourself or you wanted to bet on yourself against Colby, you should be able to do that.
00:59:58.000Yeah, but I mean, I think that's another issue too with like the UFC PI where you see guys fight week, random guys are walking in and if they see somebody getting worked on who's fighting and they see, oh, he's getting his ankle worked on.
01:00:10.000So you're like, go back, oh, I think something's wrong with his ankle or something's wrong with...
01:00:13.000Yeah, I'd heard about TJ Dillshaw's shoulder before that fight.
01:01:16.000But what he was explaining to me is that he tore it early in his career and that he's just been using bands and all these things to keep all the other muscles strong and keep the stabilizer strong.
01:01:26.000But eventually that shit just gives out.
01:01:28.000And then it just popped out of socket during the fight.
01:03:18.000And I'm like, you know, you're thinking of Michael Bisping and what happened to him?
01:03:22.000And you're like, you don't know what to do.
01:03:24.000So then, you know, we go to the, I had to go to the surgery right away because he's like, the longer you wait, you're going to lose vision more and more.
01:03:32.000So, they had to, like, put a bubble in my eye.
01:03:36.000And then, like, I still didn't know what it was.
01:03:37.000So, like, I'm assuming, like, once he takes the Band-Aids off, I'm going to be able to see.
01:03:41.000So, he takes the, you know, the next, I go in there, get the surgery done.
01:03:44.000And then, like, the next Monday, I go in there and takes the Band-Aids off.
01:04:14.000I couldn't watch, you know the massage tables where you have to put your head down?
01:04:18.000I had to sit on one of those to watch TV with a mirror that was downward and it was pointing up to the TV because I couldn't look up like this.
01:04:25.000I had to keep my head down so the pressure's on there.
01:04:29.000So I'm like, I had to watch TV like this.
01:04:30.000Did you watch TV through a hole in the massage table?
01:04:33.000Dude, it was honestly the most depressing thing that I've ever gone through in my life and it was like the hardest thing.
01:06:05.000The 12-week period was when the bubble was gone and then probably like Maybe like eight weeks into it.
01:06:12.000After that, where I was trying to get back into shape, getting back to the thing, and finally trying to go hard sparring without the goggles on.
01:06:30.000You know, you get poked in the eye sometimes during training or anything, but, like, you just don't think nothing of it.
01:06:35.000So, you know, you don't really go get checked, but, like, I never wondered.
01:06:37.000And so then he just, like, it was just constant wear and tear on it.
01:06:43.000So did, after you got the surgery done, was there a point in time where you're like, hey, I don't know if my career is going to be over here?
01:06:53.000That point was during the Leon fight when he poked it and I couldn't see nothing.
01:06:59.000And I was like, this is what the doctor said.
01:10:03.000But like I said, for the first detached run, I didn't know how long it was going to be before I see, but thankfully with this one, it was full of blood afterward, but I was able to see.
01:12:45.00034. When you think about how much time you have left in this life to have one eye to go through all that time because of fighting.
01:12:55.000There's certain things they can do now to fix eyes, but I sent Bisping an article actually that I read about them bringing vision back to people that have lost eyes, but he said it didn't apply to him because his nerves are already dead.
01:15:41.000So you can still grapple because you can open it up and you can clamp down on stuff But but your natural inclination see if you get a video or a photo of it His gloves the shit and I know he was in negotiation with the UFC I forget what happened something went wrong and I talked to the UFC and I talked to him I'm like what is going to do that get his gloves Way to make it work.
01:16:05.000Yeah, I think like the UFC well I don't know what the story was, but there was some business deal that they could abridge a It could not be crossed.
01:16:12.000I don't know what it was if I wish There's a lot of things that I wish I was in control if I was in control that glove right there.
01:19:28.000I mean, if Usman fights that fifth round cautiously, that never happens.
01:19:34.000If he fights that fifth round and just circles away from him and doesn't try to close the distance and doesn't try to take him down or doesn't engage, just plays defensively, he wins that fight.
01:19:48.000But, you know, what Leon did was perfect.
01:20:20.000He's fighting a guy who already beat him before.
01:20:22.000He's fighting Usman, who at the time was the man of mans.
01:20:28.000I mean, everybody thought he's the greatest welterweight, arguably is the greatest welterweight of all time, right up there with Georges St-Pierre.
01:22:20.000Running, yeah, I'm still getting my miles in, but I love just swimming.
01:22:23.000I don't have the best technique, but you don't get the same wear and tear on your body as you would get with all that extra stuff on there.
01:22:30.000So that's your favorite form of conditioning, swimming?
01:22:48.000It was funny because when he was fighting with us at Rube Sporting, he was training with us, and I'll tell the guys, I'm going to swim, and he'd be like, all right, let me go try it.
01:22:57.000And he only used to swim a lap and then walk a lap, and then swim a lap.
01:24:18.000I feel like minimum 190. So when he cuts, how much water is he cutting and how much is he just dehydrating himself like throughout the month of camp?
01:24:29.000I mean, honestly, like, the way they do it is different.
01:27:06.000So this time he's like, well, we'll just, we went in a sauna bag for like 20 minutes and then we went under towels for like 10 minutes and I was probably like 174 the night before.
01:27:18.000And he's like, just go to sleep because you know, you're not usually sleeping the night before a weight cut.
01:28:42.000I've never felt out-muscled or anybody at 170, and I'm so close to the title fight at 170. I'm like, what would be the point of going on at 55?
01:28:53.000If I get to the point where they're still not giving me a shot or pushing me at all, then I was going to offer to go down there and be like, let me see if I could make it, do a test run or something like that.
01:29:03.000There's some dudes who get to 55, like Islam, where I'm like, how are you 155?
01:32:06.000For him, he was also like telling me to like, I just want to get, I want to be able to just go to Starbucks one time and just sit down and have coffee like I used to.
01:32:40.000Well, hopefully, I mean, I want him to be happy.
01:32:43.000I want him to do whatever he wants to do.
01:32:44.000But if he did decide to just do that, to just coach, I... Man, the knowledge that that guy has and also the amount of motivation he could give people because you realize you're getting coached by the GOAT. Yeah.
01:33:00.000And he doesn't ask for nothing in return.
01:35:52.000And I was like, oh, and I would share it for my boys.
01:35:54.000He's like, oh, well, just share it with just him.
01:35:55.000And I was like, it makes sense, because being a Muslim, people look up to you, and I see younger guys look up to me, and I don't want them to think that I'm this certain way.
01:36:03.000Like, I want to hold myself up to a higher standard.
01:36:05.000Like, they can't even look at girls in bikinis in videos?
01:36:08.000No, like, you should, like, no, you're not supposed to.
01:36:11.000It's supposed to be, like, lower your gaze, where it should only be you and your spouse, or your wife, or anything like that.
01:37:37.000And being in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for those five weeks, it was great for me because it was like not an eye-opener, but it was just more like refreshing because you're training and then you're here to call a prayer.
01:37:48.000So every single person I don't care if you're the janitor or the workman or the fighter or anything.
01:37:55.000You're all going to pray at the same time.
01:37:57.000You're all shoulder to shoulder praying next to each other.
01:38:31.000What you're doing, it needs to stop for this.
01:38:34.000And every single one of those guys had that mentality.
01:38:38.000When you stop to pray, how long do you stop for?
01:38:41.000Every prayer is probably like five, ten minutes long.
01:38:44.000So once you begin the prayer, it's not that long.
01:38:49.000So like I tell people all the time where they're like, dang, you got to pray five times a day?
01:38:53.000But in the end, it's 50 minutes out of your life, 50 minutes out of your day, out of 24 hours, when you waste so much time scrolling through TikTok, scrolling through the phone, things like that.
01:39:02.000It's like, give those ten minutes to God.
01:39:04.000Give those ten minutes to the person that brought you here.
01:39:10.000Usually, so there's a morning prayer, when you wake up in the morning prayer, then there's afternoon, then there's a midday prayer, and then there's a sunset prayer, right when the sun sets.
01:39:19.000So usually, right after that prayer is the fights, after that probably, and then after the fight, you pray again, your late night prayer.
01:39:27.000So for me also, just hold you accountable too, to no matter what happens in the fight, whether you win or lose, I still owe to God to pray, whether it's I'm thanking Him for a win or I'm thanking Him that I'm still able to pray, I'm still alive right now after this fight, that I'm still here, because anything can happen.
01:39:48.000These prayers are at very specific times during the day, or if you're in the middle of something, are you allowed to put it off and then pray afterwards?
01:41:25.000I forgot to do the stuff that I was supposed to do for work.
01:41:27.000But it's like, I did the most important things, which is pray.
01:41:31.000And when you're in a camp, I would imagine that that kind of...
01:41:36.000Having a rigid schedule like that and having extreme discipline and having a real purpose, like when you're doing this to pray to God and you have these five prayers you do during the day, like it keeps you on the path.
01:45:01.000You shouldn't be going to clubs or anything like that.
01:45:03.000So, in the end, I think it's like the...
01:45:07.000That's why you're seeing most of the Muslims starting to be the best fighters out there.
01:45:11.000Well, it's also that they're coming from really tough camps, too.
01:45:15.000Having a great camp is just such a massive advantage.
01:45:19.000And you must feel that, having trained with Khabib and his boys.
01:45:23.000Having an elite camp like that, when you're surrounded by killers, you must rise up to the level of your competition that you're surrounded by.
01:45:58.000Like, I've rolled with Umar before, and I was like, dude, this guy is like a monster.
01:46:02.000And They don't have that fear themselves where you go to gyms and it's like, oh, well, the bantam weight's on this side, the light weight's on this side, this side.
01:46:27.000We have to stay there for two minutes, three minutes, until, like, Habib sees you, like, breaking.
01:46:31.000And then push-ups, then jump squats, then lunges.
01:46:35.000And I think it's those little burnouts after practice when you're tired and your arms are dead.
01:46:40.000That levels you up with strength, but they also do have a strength coach that they would do twice or three times a week while we were in Abu Dhabi, that he would put them more through high reps for time.
01:46:52.000So they'll go from doing shoulder presses to punching the bag, doing box jumps to kicking the bag, little things like that, that I think just builds strength and cardio at the same time.
01:47:05.000When you are in Chicago, do you have a regular strength and conditioning coach that you work with?
01:47:59.000So right now it's just like a strength building phase.
01:48:02.000And then once it gets into camp mode, then it's more for reps.
01:48:06.000So like right now it's heavy with low reps.
01:48:08.000So if I'm benching, it's maybe 250 for like four or five reps, but they're like cluster sets where I'm putting it back on, then I bring it back down, then I explode back up with it.
01:48:19.000And then with squats, it's sitting down on a chair and then exploding up, sitting down on a chair and then exploding up with it.
01:48:25.000But it's heavier, but it's just lighter reps.
01:48:28.000And then when it gets closer to the fight, he changes it up to like higher rep stuff for the conditioning aspect of it.
01:48:35.000Are you trying to put weight on with this heavyweight, or are you just trying to maintain your strength?
01:48:39.000I'm just trying to build more strength and explosiveness.
01:48:41.000So I want to get stronger, especially once you're in the next guy, whoever my next opponent would be, I figured it would be a stronger guy, heavy grappler.
01:48:50.000So I figured I would need the strength.
01:48:53.000And I'm not the biggest welterweight, so I want to make up for it with strength and explosiveness like that.
01:49:01.000When people look at me, they don't think that I'm strong.
01:49:03.000But when they feel me inside the cage, then I feel like a lot of them guys get their eyes open.
01:49:07.000Like, oh, he's a lot stronger than I thought.
01:49:10.000Yeah, there's certain dudes that are just strong as shit and they don't look like it.
01:49:25.000Like, when you'd watch him fight in Bellator when he was in his prime, when he was ragdolling, like really high-level fighters, and you're like, what is going on here?
01:49:34.000I know it's technique, but that motherfucker seems strong as shit.
01:49:38.000I used to train with him when I would go down to Rufusport and I would drive down there once a week.
01:49:43.000It's like two hours away from Chicago.
01:49:45.000But I would go in there and I would train with him and I'm like, we're sparring with big gloves on and he was the best striker.
01:49:52.000So I'm feeling like, oh, I'm lighting him up.
01:49:54.000But once he grabs a hold of you, it's like he takes you down and you cannot move once you're on bottom.
01:50:41.000I'm like, you got a dude who could do whatever the fuck he wants to people.
01:50:45.000But he did the Koreshkov and you're like, my God!
01:50:48.000And Koreshkov's still killing it right now.
01:50:49.000That was when he was in his younger version of himself.
01:50:53.000And to have Ben just maul you and take you down at will.
01:50:57.000I tell people, it's harder to beat somebody for five rounds than it is to finish him in the first round.
01:51:03.000It's like, if I could beat you, dominate you for 25 straight minutes, That's a harder task than me going out there and finishing you in one minute, one kick, that's it.
01:51:12.000Those guys get all the credit, but it's like, the guys like Ben, those are the ones that are having to push through for those full 25 minutes, dominating, knowing that all it takes is one punch or one kick, and they avoided all of that, got to be a real champion at one FC, and he just doesn't get the credit.
01:52:48.000That's what it sucks when you see guys like that who are OGs, him and Woodley, and when they lose like that and the world forgets that they were at the top.
01:53:13.000The Wonderboy fights, he was the one who had Wonderboy hurt.
01:53:17.000Wonderboy, who's the great striker, never really had him hurt.
01:53:20.000Yeah, at all in either one of those fights.
01:53:23.000No, I mean, they were kind of boring fights, but again, unless you're going to fight him the way you fought him, I feel like you've got to fight Wonderboy in a boring fight.
01:53:56.000I do not like I don't I do not like having the best guy in the world not being the champion I do not like the best guy in the world not fighting for the title against John if like if Francis wanted to resign And he wanted to say I'm done.
01:54:10.000I had a great career, but I made some money and I'm gonna relax.
01:54:22.000I don't I suspect some of it involved him wanting to be able to box as well, because there may very well be a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.
01:54:30.000But I don't know, because Tyson Fury is back to fighting real boxers.
01:54:34.000Yeah, he's fighting Usyk now, and there's a Deontay Wilder fight out there, I feel like, but if you're Francis, do you want to fight a Wilder who has that one-punch power?
01:56:17.000Gervonta is so interesting because I think if you look at all the active boxers who are champions, he may throw the least amount of punches.
01:56:27.000Because he sets guys up, and so the first few rounds, he's just calculating you, trying to find your openings, testing you, moving towards, like, the first round of his last fight, I mean, how many punches did he throw?
02:01:45.000Just the books, the motivational books.
02:01:47.000But her motivation is, I better have abs at the end of this 75 days.
02:01:50.000And I'm like, I mean, if you're eating healthy and you're working out twice a day, I'm pretty sure you have at least two abs by the end of it.
02:01:57.000Depends on what you start from, though, right?
02:02:14.000And for Jon Jones, who, remember when he came back from OSP, he looked so stiff.
02:02:20.000And that was a time off and putting a lot of muscle on.
02:02:23.000He just looked like a slower version of himself.
02:02:25.000So now this time, it's a longer time off, and you're coming back with way more weight on, and you're going against one of the faster heavyweights and the more smoother heavyweights.
02:02:35.000Instead of Yangon, you were, you know, he lands that hard punch.
02:02:38.000I could do it, but I could just shoot under that hard punch.
02:02:40.000Yangon, I mean, Sirogan, you have to watch the kicks, watch the footwork, cut him off.
02:02:58.000You know, I talked to Eric Nixick and he said Francis's grappling is on a totally different level than he used to be before and he's so big and so strong.
02:05:12.000I'm mad because I feel like we were deprived of one of the great fights in MMA. One of the most compelling fights in MMA. Does it mean I'm not interested in Cyril Gan and Jon Jones?
02:11:46.000Being in the gym and being who you are, Jon Jones, you know there's people who want to see how he is and a million people are trying to get an inside scoop of, oh, how does he look?
02:11:53.000And we really haven't heard anything like that from any of the little birds on somebody's shoulder or something like that.
02:11:59.000So I wonder if he's actually sparring with anybody, training with anybody, or if he just has that much loyal teammates that are not going to say a word about it until he wants to.
02:14:08.000I think Cormier was talking about how he used to train with him, and he was like, yeah, he'd be in a practice room with us all the time and stuff like that.
02:17:10.000It was supposed to be in, I think, Korea, and then Korean Zombie was supposed to be on the card, but I think he got injured, so then they moved it back to America, but they already had the time slot done.
02:18:20.000Being in Dubai when they had a couple fights on, and the time change was so much, and I was like, not want to watch it until the next morning.
02:18:26.000I was like, I'll do the cardio in the morning and watch it on my phone.
02:18:29.000And then my coach, hey, did you see Sanhagen and Song Yudong, his cut?
02:18:34.000And I was like, bro, I did not want to know the results.
02:19:55.000I think they just gave her Alexa Grasso, Shevchenko against Grasso, but like you said, it's not like, I'm not looking at it like, oh man, but if I see Blanchfield in there, even right now, if it hits the ground, I'm interested.
02:21:19.000Which is, that's the wrong house to break into, son.
02:21:23.000I was, uh, one of my buddies, he's like, uh, he teaches people to get their guns, uh, to get their gun permits in Chicago where they carry it on and they're carrying a conceal.
02:21:32.000And he's like, some dude tried to break into my garage.
02:21:35.000And I gave him the, yo, stop where you're going.
02:21:38.000And he turned around super quick, so I had to shoot him.
02:21:40.000I was like, you broke into the wrong house.
02:21:43.000He's like, dude, I'm at the freaking gun range every single day.
02:22:19.000I train with cops and I roll with cops.
02:22:23.000One of my cousins, he has a cell phone store and he's telling me, he put his shutters down and he's like, there's people outside my store trying to break in with the shutters.
02:22:53.000Like obviously my guy has like a gun inside the store so he's like shooting upward outside of the store so people like run away and like people end up running away so then we pull up and people are like across the street yelling like you guys got insurance you guys want to try to kill us over it you guys know you got insurance that's so crazy don't shoot at me while I'm robbing you I want to like just like people are just so airheaded so like we literally like they put everything into trucks and took everything out of the store and people saw us taking everything away and they still broke in and just smashed everything For no reason at all.
02:25:13.000Because, like, they make a concession.
02:25:15.000Like, say if there's five fights on an undercard, and the undercard has to take place within X amount of minutes, you know, because it's on ESPN+. Like, if fights go the distance, and they look at the time, they don't like the first fight went the distance, second fight goes the distance, they go, no interview.
02:25:32.000Yeah, and I tell them, like, you know, dads are always the ones looking out for you, like, how can they give this guy an interview and now you an interview?
02:27:11.000Now it's being very careful and being smart with the way I'm treating my body.
02:27:15.000One of the biggest things I learned from the guys from Habib's team is they'll come in before practice and he'll ask you, today's your hardest part, how do you feel mentally?
02:27:35.000Interesting, because it's hard sparring, because basically you're in a fight.
02:27:38.000Yeah, you're going to be in a fight, and if you're not fully engaged and you're not fully ready for it, you're really not going to gain anything, and you're going to hurt yourself.
02:29:16.000I'm waking up and I'm seeing what it says.
02:29:20.000When I started really believing it was when I caught COVID. I woke up and it was like the...
02:29:25.000The day before I was supposed to come to a fight, and I was fighting Lyman Good, I mean Diego Lima, and then we were supposed to leave the next day, and I woke up and it said zero on my recovery.
02:29:34.000Yeah, it said zero, and I was like, what the fudge?
02:29:36.000And then all of a sudden, that night, I was literally just shivering in bed.
02:29:40.000I woke up in the middle of the night shivering, and I was like, what the heck's going on?
02:29:43.000And I was freezing, and I was like, no, no, I've got to fight this week.
02:29:47.000So I put my jacket on, went to bed, and I'm like...
02:29:50.000still shivering with my jacket on and i was like what the heck's going on so then i look at my whoop and it says that and i was like so i called like my buddy who's a doctor and i'm like dude what do i do for shivering he's like he's like he's like bro uh i think you should go get tested it was like early on when covid first hit and i was like no i don't got covid dude i'm fighting this week and he's like i don't know i think you those are symptoms for covid And I was like, I hung up on it.
02:30:16.000But the whole night, I was up the whole night and I was like, I hit up Ali and I was like, are they going to test me when I get there tomorrow?
02:30:40.000So you're going to fight even if you were sick with COVID? Yeah, because you go through a whole camp.
02:30:45.000Were you still training when you were that sick?
02:30:47.000Well that was just like the first day it hit so I was like shivering that day and then the next day I was supposed to leave so I woke up the next day my flight's in like a couple hours and I'm like why the heck am I freezing or whatever and then like I'm calling everything that time and I'm like I don't want to fly to Vegas and then them send me back but for me I'm like if it's a cold I'll get over it in a day I'll get over it in a couple days and then the flight's Saturday so I still have three or four days to get over it How many days did it take you to get over COVID? It was probably like two days of
02:31:18.000just like chills and shivering and then just like body soreness.
02:31:21.000But like by like day three, I was feeling okay.
02:31:24.000But like I was like in the best shape ever.
02:31:26.000Like you're in your camp, you're healthy.
02:31:56.000And while he was sick as a dog, that motherfucker was still going to the gym and doing rounds in the bag and working out like a beast and then he was throwing up blood.
02:33:12.000But, I mean, for me, like I said, who knows if it wasn't my fight week, if I would have just still continued on, or if I ever got even tested.
02:33:53.000So he's just getting in the gym, coughing up a storm while he's sick as fuck.
02:33:58.000It was real bad for a lot of people that didn't take time off, didn't take breaks.
02:34:04.000Because if you think you're tough, The problem with being tough is you are breaking down your immune system every time you work out hard.
02:34:12.000So if you're sick already, so immune system's compromised, and then you're breaking your body down because you're tough, because you're working out, now the COVID's really getting into your body.
02:34:21.000I mean, that can happen with the flu, that can happen with everything.
02:34:23.000Yeah, and that was the hard part too, because you're at a gym and you're wondering, if you have a fight, you're like...
02:34:29.000Hey, make sure you don't come to the gym if you have COVID. Make sure if you have any type of symptoms and you don't know to trust anybody and like you catch COVID and it's my fight week and I'm like, look at who to blame.
02:34:38.000I'm like, how did I get COVID? I didn't do nothing else.
02:35:44.000But thank God the UFC kept those fights going on at the Apex.
02:35:46.000Put together that whole COVID bubble, tested the shit out of everybody, made sure that everybody was clear before they got in the building.
02:35:54.000I felt so privileged to be there during that time.
02:35:57.000I remember thinking when I was there for the Tony Ferguson-Justin Gaethje fight, which was in Florida, in an empty arena during COVID. Empty arena.
02:36:14.000But yet here we are watching this fight Live with no audience and it's a fucking amazing fight and there's only like 10 people here watching it.
02:36:23.000Does that change the way like you commentate it too?
02:36:25.000Because obviously the energy is different.
02:36:30.000But I tell you what though, I really do love fights at the Apex Center.
02:36:34.000Like when we were talking about Cheeto and Sanhagen, I'm really thinking about flying in for that just because I love seeing fights at that Apex Center, man.
02:37:27.000When you're in a cage, it's weird for you because you're like, you're here in D.C. and Disney talk, and I was like, I wanted something to do.
02:40:28.000I'm drinking, getting my electrolytes in.
02:40:30.000I'm making sure that I'm having good carbs that I'm going to have so I'll be able to train.
02:40:33.000So I'm eating white rice, eggs, good protein.
02:40:36.000So I just have to be very smart with what I'm eating and not just like junk.
02:40:40.000A lot of people during Ramadan, They're gaining more weight because, like, you're not eating all day, you're not drinking all day, then it's time to break your fast, so you'll eat a little bit of dinner.
02:40:48.000Your stomach's already shrunk, so you're not that hungry, but then you're eating sweets, sweets, sweets.
02:40:52.000And that's the biggest thing for us is, like, your mom's making all these sweets during Ramadan.
02:42:29.000Doing as much as you can possible to be closer to God and be a better Muslim.
02:42:33.000During the day, getting your mind off the fight.
02:42:35.000I think it helps me a lot of the time too because I'm not stressing about the fight because I'm trying to be the best type of Muslim I can be.
02:42:50.000Learn more about the religion and everything like that.
02:42:53.000If you had a title shot that took place during Ramadan, would you have any apprehension?
02:42:57.000Like, if you had your qualms, if it was your choice, would you rather have a fight outside of Ramadan, or would you be fine getting a title shot during Ramadan?
02:43:06.000No, I mean, I would definitely want it outside of it.
02:46:39.000It's such a talent-stacked division, man.
02:46:42.000That division is so filled with talent.
02:46:44.000But it's rough, too, for yourself because when...
02:46:47.000Leon Edwards, we're at the place I'm at right now, where he was on an 8-fight winning streak, and the world was begging for him to get the title fight, and I'm like, I've fought way better guys than Leon Edwards.
02:46:58.000Leon Edwards hasn't been one top 10 guy in the division besides Usman, and Colby Covington has no top 10 wins in the division besides Masvidal, who he beat on a 3-fight losing streak.
02:47:08.000So, How hard was it for you to the Leon Edwards fight get stopped because of an eye poke and then they don't give it back to you?
02:49:44.000Yeah, but then now it's, oh, well, Sean Brady was getting threats that somebody was going to bury him in the desert if he beat Bilal Muhammad.
02:53:52.000I forget who said this, but they were talking about how you have to think of diet not just in the food you consume, but also in the things you consume with your mind.
02:54:03.000And if you're, like, consuming people saying they're going to burr you in the desert and all these fucking idiots, assholes, telling you you're a loser and you're fat and you're going to get killed, like...
02:54:39.000When you have kids, you go to games, and when you go to games, you see how some parents take it so goddamn seriously.
02:54:47.000I cheer for my kids, and I'm happy when they do well, and I always try to cheer them up if it didn't go well, and try to give them as many tips about keeping your head up and try to think straight.
02:55:54.000They hate it so much, and they despise it.
02:55:58.000You look at them, and you're like, you're at the top of the world, and you're going to make it to the NBA, and they're like, I don't even like it.
02:56:03.000I don't even want to be here right now.