In this episode, I sit down with a good friend of mine who is a professional MMA fighter. We talk about how he got into MMA, what it's like to be a fighter, and the benefits of using CBD. We also talk about ketamine and how it can be used as a tranquilizer, and how to make sure you're not getting too much sleep. I hope you enjoy this episode and that it makes you think about how important it is to take care of yourself and your mental health when it comes to taking care of your mental well-being. If you're interested in getting in touch with me, you can find me here: and if you'd like to support this podcast and/or have some money to give away, I'll be giving away $10 to one lucky patron who leaves a review on iTunes and I'll give you $5 to support the other patron. Thank you so much for being a supporter of this podcast, it means the world to me and I can't thank you enough. I'll see you soon! Cheers! -Tune in next week for our next episode. -Jon Sorrentino Jon & Matt (Jon & Matt) Don't Tell a Friend About This Podcast: Jon talks about his experience with CBD and how he uses it to improve his mental health. Matt talks about what he's found to be one of the best things he's ever done and how much he's been able to do in his life. Can't wait to give back to someone else? Will you give him a review of this episode? Mike talks about it? Will he give you a review? Do you give it a rating? ? Can you rate it a review and tell me what you think it's the best thing you've ever done in your life? Is it the best one you've done in the past week? or what you're looking forward to doing it in the next episode or what he thinks it's going to do for you and what you'll be doing in the most important thing you're going to get in your next day? Thanks for listening to this episode of the most amazing thing you can do in this episode?? or do you have a review or what's your thoughts on the most recent episode of your life right now? Can t wait to do it in a future episode of this one?
00:02:45.000It's amazing that CBD has that kind of power.
00:02:48.000Yeah, I've never used a topical cream like that, but I've used pills and things like that with CBD, and I feel like it definitely does make a difference.
00:02:56.000I don't know, there's a huge difference.
00:03:27.000Like the stress that you go through on a regular basis is so bonkers.
00:03:32.000If you really think about it, you're around all these other human beings that are going about their day, driving their cars, going to work.
00:03:38.000You're preparing to throw bones at girls.
00:03:50.000It's like pre-fight when I'm sitting there and I'm feeling all my nerves.
00:03:53.000My boyfriend, he's told me, he's like, you need to be thankful for this because he's like, most people don't get to experience shit like this in their life.
00:03:59.000Most people don't get to experience these kinds of feelings, like these extreme feelings because they just have their regular jobs.
00:04:05.000It's like what I'm doing is something crazy.
00:05:56.000All girls, I feel like from that area, they got that extra toughness to them and she definitely is superior in that.
00:06:03.000Yeah, for her it just feels like grappling came like a little later for her and that can be a problem with someone of your caliber.
00:06:11.000You know, the thing about, like, grappling is, God, it takes so long to catch up, and while you're catching up, that person's still getting better.
00:06:19.000If they're training every day, and it's like when someone is at a super high grappling level, and if you're just getting into grappling now, like, you're just surviving.
00:06:31.000And it's a long time until you're doing anything other than surviving.
00:07:36.000In the gi, it's like, whoa, man, you can't get out of that very well.
00:07:40.000At least in no gi, there's a little bit more maneuverability.
00:07:44.000When someone's grabbing your legs and they've got your pants and they're holding on to the cuff in here, it's like, ooh, that's tight for a leg lock.
00:07:52.000I'm almost more nervous competing no gi now than versus fighting MMA. Really?
00:07:58.000No, gay girls are so well-versed in leg locks and that shit's dangerous.
00:08:03.000It's like that can put me out for six months a year plus where it's like the worst thing I've ever had happen in a fight is I got 11 stitches in my nose.
00:08:11.000It's like besides that and even that I grappled a month later.
00:08:15.000Who was that woman, that heavily tattooed woman?
00:09:13.000The only reason that I even thought about them is because the ref was like, you need to do something, I'm going to stop this.
00:09:18.000And I was like, oh shit, I've got to change something up.
00:09:22.000But I was initially going for a knee bar when she was just hitting me with elbows.
00:09:27.000And then I gave up on that because of the ref.
00:09:32.000Isn't it interesting how subjective refereeing can be?
00:09:35.000And that there's some referees that are really good at letting people just fight out of stuff.
00:09:40.000And then there's some referees that like just getting hit even with a few hammer fists that aren't going to stop you if you don't defend them.
00:09:47.000Some refs will just stop it right there.
00:14:18.000I feel like my choking game is definitely different than anybody else's.
00:14:24.000It's a feel that I've been working on for years, and I feel like I still haven't even perfected it.
00:14:29.000But I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to making it perfect.
00:14:33.000And I think the Rose grappling match was probably one of the opportunities where I feel like I really got it just that little bit more close to perfect.
00:14:47.000She had her chin tucked, and my hand was in poor position.
00:14:51.000I feel like I was just able to walk it closer and closer until I was able to make that hole tighter, and she had to give up her throat at that point.
00:14:58.000Well, what I was super impressed with was your use of the shoulder.
00:15:03.000How you're using your right arm to control the shoulder, because you don't quite have it, but you've got a nice grip on the cup of the shoulder, and you're using that leverage, like that improvised.
00:15:11.000Then when you switch to the gable grip, I was like, oh shit.
00:15:33.000So I'm just inching my hand deeper, my head deeper until I can really just make it so it's too small.
00:15:40.000I'd love what you said that you have like a feel for it because I think people would think of it like oh It's just like you know, you know the movement you do it right, but it's just like everything else.
00:15:50.000It's like playing guitar It's like any other thing that you learn how to do that's difficult There's like levels and levels and levels and levels and levels and when you watch like really high level black belts going at it going back and forth and trying to keep up with each other it's like You're watching the craziest kind of game ever.
00:16:13.000I've taught my choke to multiple people and I feel like people just don't get it still because it's something I've worked on for years.
00:17:18.000Yeah, he's the engineer behind a lot of whatever I do.
00:17:23.000And he kind of devised this way of going for the neck and just off balancing opponents attacking the throat and we've been drilling it for years and years and years and even like I feel like the way he's described it to me hasn't really clicked until like recently where we've been drilling it for years and now it's like all right I kind of get this.
00:17:44.000Yeah, the way you do it, it's so brilliantly the way it progresses.
00:17:52.000What's beautiful to watch, especially the rose match in particular, is the squeeze that you put, the progression of it, is what you want to see.
00:18:01.000At a really high level, that's what you want to see.
00:18:03.000And when someone executes and executes it on someone who is champion of the UFC, it's really incredible.
00:18:09.000I mean, that was an amazing showcase for you.
00:18:15.000My last fight with Piero Rodriguez, I was in mount throwing elbows the whole time, and every time she tried to turn her back a little bit, her coaches were like, no, no, don't give your back!
00:18:25.000So they're just making her lay on the ground and take elbows to the face instead of giving up her back.
00:18:30.000So I'm like, it's the worst of two worlds there.
00:19:19.000When you see where really good, high-level submission artists get smushed by guys like Khabib, you're like, wow!
00:19:31.000It's like there's layers and layers to everything.
00:19:34.000And we didn't know the layer of like controlling the legs with the legs until Khabib came along and did it.
00:19:39.000And when he would do it so thoroughly, he'd be like, Jesus Christ, he does this to everybody.
00:19:43.000Like he didn't even have a bad moment, you know, until like there was like I get the Gleason Tebow fight was a pretty close fight, I believe.
00:24:56.000I think it was probably like four or five months before I started taking the MMA class there, but I wasn't like thinking about fighting.
00:25:02.000It was just, there was a kid who was on the wrestling team at my high school who started training at Dean's Gym, and he was like, oh, why don't you take the MMA class?
00:25:10.000And I thought, okay, I'll have a partner.
00:25:26.000What was it about fighting and martial arts that you became so obsessed with?
00:25:34.000I don't know what it was at first, because I didn't start Jiu Jitsu, especially in the Gi, until like a year after I started training.
00:25:41.000But when I started Gi Jiu Jitsu, I fell in love with that 100%, where it's just the technique of it and the little tiny details of Jiu Jitsu that matter so much.
00:25:52.000Like if you put your thumb on this side of the hand or on this side of the hand, it makes a huge difference.
00:25:57.000It's like the little tiny techniques that can make the difference where now a 115-pound girl at the time could do whatever she wanted to a 200-pound guy.
00:26:07.000You know, I was manhandling these guys around the room.
00:26:09.000And I'm like, just because of these techniques that I learned.
00:26:16.000Jiu-Jitsu is the one martial art that delivers as promised, where the smaller trained person can defeat the larger untrained person.
00:26:25.000Whereas a lot of other martial arts, I mean, you have a better chance, but when they're really big...
00:26:32.000You know, and some guy's swinging, if he knows how to punch a little bit and you get clubbed with one of those giant hams, you get fucked up.
00:26:39.000But if you get into a struggle, like some sort of a scramble, and you knock into some chairs and all of a sudden you get a hold of this person, now he's fucked.
00:27:01.000Even in striking, it's like a person cannot know anything, but if they're big enough, they throw their hand the right way, they can knock you out.
00:27:48.000Because if you ever see, like, street fight videos, the most horrific ones are some poor asshole who wants to start a fight with someone who's a trained fighter, and the trained fighter fucks them up.
00:27:59.000But you could see, like, they have no idea how fast things can happen.
00:28:04.000Like, I'm sure you've seen the Joe Schilling one.
00:31:18.000Even with what they're doing now with Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler, it's great, but perfect shit-talking when Conor tells them, you'll do as you're told.
00:32:46.000Where they try to weed people off their tech addictions.
00:32:50.000I was just talking to one of the boys who's actually on the Conor McGregor season over the weekend, and he said the exact same thing as me.
00:32:57.000He was like, it was the best and worst experience of my life.
00:33:01.000Because it's like, when you're in the gym, there's so many highs, it's so great.
00:33:04.000But then when you go back to the house, you're just sitting there for hours, and you're bored, and it sucks.
00:34:48.000What is your ideal camp size in terms of weeks?
00:34:53.000I would say probably about six to eight weeks.
00:34:56.000I like just to get focused on that opponent, really start breaking down their style and game planning for them specifically.
00:35:03.000But it's like with the UFC, you never know what you're getting.
00:35:07.000Right, like how often do they call you last minute?
00:35:10.000I've gotten a handful of last minute ones and then I feel like it's almost just as bad getting like the ones 16 weeks out and things like that because you're just sitting there waiting for so long.
00:35:57.000But I mean, what an amazing way to get better.
00:35:59.000You know, I mean, when you think about grappling and think about Gordon Ryan, no one doubts that he's the best no-geek grappler ever, right?
00:36:08.000But no one also doubts that he works 365 days a year.
00:36:17.000And you're essentially doing that in MMA. That's what I think you see with, like, a lot of black belts or, like, people who are at a high level is they stop drilling.
00:36:26.000They stop doing the stuff that, like, Gordon Ryan still drills every day, and that's why he's so good at what he does.
00:36:31.000And it's like, people at a high level in MMA, they're just doing what the black belts do and sitting on the side until it's time to roll, you know?
00:36:38.000And it's like, you gotta be drilling every day.
00:36:40.000You gotta be putting in the hours, like...
00:36:43.000My coaches are there with me every hour of the day if I wanted for them to be, you know?
00:38:08.000It's like, they're super nerd assassins.
00:38:11.000There's a ton of them, and you're one of them on the female side.
00:38:15.000Yeah, I feel like that's, I don't know, for me, it's like I said, I've never been someone athletic.
00:38:20.000I volunteered with animals growing up, you know?
00:38:22.000I was always the quiet kid in the back of the class, and it's like, just, I don't know, with jiu-jitsu, it's being able to be that, like, I don't know, be that voice in a way, you know?
00:38:33.000Being that way to express myself, and it's, I feel like, It was just completely not who I was when I was little.
00:40:20.000That's what I feel like was so beneficial for her.
00:40:22.000She doesn't have to worry about getting taken down, typically.
00:40:25.000So she can be a little bit reckless and come in with those strikes, and that's exactly what she needed to do with Angela Hill, and she was able to do it.
00:40:32.000And she's dangerous on her feet now, too.
00:41:00.000It's like, when you can watch jiu-jitsu like that in MMA, like a real world champion, when it goes to the ground, like, her, like, moving from position to position to position to finally securing it, it's like, woof!
00:41:17.000It's just like that kind of like high-level jiu-jitsu and MMA some of my favorite shit to watch.
00:41:23.000You know there's there's certain people that just have either one or two elite high-level moves that they could pull off and when they do it you just like you're doing this to the best of the best in the world and I feel like with Jiu Jitsu, it's just like, I don't know, just moving with people so much.
00:41:44.000I feel like it's so impressive to watch how people can just float on top of people.
00:41:47.000It's like knowing when to control and when to release, almost, you know?
00:42:06.000You're better at finding the openings as you threaten them in different areas and just move into position and hold it.
00:42:13.000Not necessarily me threatening them, but them falling into their own mistake.
00:42:18.000I feel like I'm just sitting there doing damage until I see the opening, until I see my opportunity, until I see that one mistake that you made and I capitalize on it.
00:42:30.000And is this how you've always done it, or is this something you're doing now better than you've ever done before?
00:42:36.000This is something I'm definitely doing now better than I've ever done before.
00:42:40.000Was this the same approach that you had in the beginning of your career when you first started?
00:42:43.000I don't think as much, just because now I feel like I went from a jujitsu girl who did MMA to an MMA fighter more.
00:42:51.000Whereas now, a lot of my early submissions were arm bars off my back.
00:42:57.000Where I was just comfortable playing guard.
00:42:59.000I didn't care because I was good at jujitsu.
00:43:02.000Whereas now I'm always looking to do damage wherever I'm at.
00:43:07.000Typically, I like to sit on top and do heavy ground and pound and heavy top pressure until they're like, alright, we need to get this girl off me.
00:43:47.000I feel like nobody understands the cardio that it takes to get up and get down and get up and get down in MMA versus if you're just doing jujitsu or you're just doing kickboxing rounds.
00:43:58.000Once you mix it all together, it changes the pace.
00:44:45.000Honestly, a lot of those battles, I'm just like, if we can find an opportunity to break off, I'm willing to.
00:44:51.000Because it's like, if I didn't get the takedown initially, then I'm just going to be grueling.
00:44:56.000Like you said, it's going to be hard work to get them down.
00:44:59.000Where it's like, let's break off reset and find the opportunity, find the right timing for the takedown instead of sitting here and just grinding it out and just tiring both of us out.
00:45:10.000It's such an interesting time for MMA because you're seeing people like yourself that are young and grew up with it and got to watch it on television.
00:45:23.000What was the first MMA fight that you ever saw?
00:45:26.000I think the first one that I ever watched was Jon Jones and I think it was Rashad Evans.
00:45:32.000So you were watching at a very high level as opposed to a lot of the people that like even Jon Jones, the stuff he got to see was stuff from 10 years before that.
00:45:44.000And like the kids of today, kids like yourself, like you, the people growing up now, you guys have the most amazing library of champions to study in all the different forms of martial arts.
00:45:58.000And to see people like yourself that are putting it together so obsessively and to watch it succeed over and over again inside the octagon, it's fucking cool.
00:46:11.000I feel like it's the beginning of MMA as a sport where it's like for so long it's been jujitsu guys who do a little bit of striking or like wrestlers or strikers but now it's like it's people putting it together and making styles and systems based upon these things where it's like I feel like,
00:46:31.000honestly, Dean, obviously I work with him, but he's one of the best in trying to innovate, and that's why I appreciate his mind so much of just trying to make it MMA as a sport whenever he's on the techniques that he has me drilling, where I feel like it's like Donaher innovated the no-gi game with leg locks.
00:46:51.000It's like we need to change this from being kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, and wrestling to being mixed martial arts.
00:46:57.000Dean always has awesome input whenever we're doing the shows and that they cut to him.
00:47:01.000He'll always point out something that I probably missed.
00:47:03.000And when you're watching these high-level people that are coming up right now, there is still the room for the specialist.
00:47:11.000There's still the room for the Anderson Silva-style striking.
00:47:15.000The problem with all fights is they all start standing up.
00:47:19.000And if you are standing up with a guy like Alex Pajeda, you're in a world of danger.
00:48:55.000It's definitely, when you have a good striker, it's hard to, obviously, like we discussed earlier with the space, you know, you can never guess what's going to happen.
00:49:03.000But it's just like, I feel like if you are a good grappler or a good wrestler and you are able to get it to the MAC, you can be that much more effective than having a good striker in front of you.
00:49:14.000The difference is you can control what's happening.
00:49:18.000If you can get someone and you get on top of them, right?
00:49:20.000What I always wonder is, like, I wonder if there are the people like Pajeda or of that ilk, Cedric Dumbay, who I think is now going to fight for PFL. Have you ever seen that guy fight?
00:49:54.000They do these strength and conditioning routines where...
00:49:57.000It's like one round of sprinting on one of those self-propelled treadmills, and then one round of going hard on the bag, and then one round of plyos, and they're just rotating back and forth between all these different exercises.
00:52:13.000And he, you know, if he can figure out the grappling, my question is always like, is it better to be well-rounded or is it better to be a specialist?
00:52:22.000I used to think it'd be better to be a specialist wrestler.
00:52:24.000I felt like, and I still think that to a certain extent, that at least the base beginning of amateur wrestling Those guys seem to be the toughest.
00:52:32.000They seem to be, they have the most mental fortitude.
00:52:35.000The grind of becoming a successful wrestler is unlike any other athletic pursuit that I ever, I only wrestled in high school for one year is one of the hardest things in my life.
00:52:55.000So I felt like that's like the cornerstone.
00:52:58.000But every fight does start standing up.
00:53:01.000And so then you get a guy like Mirko Krokop, who figures out how stuffed takedowns, and now you're dealing with one of the most elite kickboxers alive.
00:53:10.000So I always wonder, like, what is the best approach?
00:53:14.000Do you think it's to be a fully-rounded mixed martial artist putting all your time in all these different things?
00:53:20.000Or do you think maybe there's some room for the idea of, like, the world champion specialist?
00:53:27.000I think it's best to focus on everything.
00:53:30.000Try to make yourself a mixed martial artist.
00:53:31.000I think if you are a specialist to begin with, say like someone like him who's a world champion kickboxer, you probably shouldn't be investing all your time into jiu-jitsu at that point.
00:54:06.000I can have someone who is a better wrestler than me, but I can guarantee you they won't want to stay in my guard, you know?
00:54:12.000For me especially, I think the two most important are striking and jujitsu because they are the finishing elements.
00:54:20.000So it's like those are the ways I can take people out of the fight, where it's like wrestling, I can control a little bit more, but I don't have any finishing options.
00:54:28.000Well, that's a brilliant way of looking at it.
00:54:50.000But I do think there's some room for people that...
00:54:53.000At least if you come, maybe it's like if you get to a certain age, maybe at a certain age you must go all in on all MMA. But if you could be a specialist early in your life, like if you're a specialist in striking, I think, maybe early in your life, you would have a, like if you look at all the best kickboxers and even all the best boxers for the most part, A lot of them start when they're very young.
00:55:16.000It seems to be like striking for some reason.
00:55:22.000And even when they're in their 30s, they can learn it and they get really good at it.
00:55:25.000But for a lot of people, there's something about the timing of striking that if you don't pick it up when you're really young, you don't really achieve this sort of...
00:55:33.000There's like a plateau for a lot of folks.
00:55:46.000Striking, I feel like, it just takes that little bit more athleticism, I guess, where it's like, I'm not the most athletic fighter, so I feel like I can't really use my mind to just make quicker decisions in striking as much as I can in jiu-jitsu where it's easier to do.
00:56:03.000Well, that's a brilliant way to do it.
00:56:05.000I think, you know, especially for your mind and your approach, striking is just a means to an end, right?
00:56:14.000You're just trying to strangle people.
00:56:17.000And I'm not going to say I'm never going to have a knockout because obviously I want – that's the goal is to be able to develop power.
00:56:23.000But it's just – It's so much easier for a heavyweight to just throw his fist and knock somebody out.
00:56:28.000Where someone, a girl, any of the 25 or 15 or just the smaller girls, it's really hard to develop that kind of power unless you're born with it.
00:56:38.000Well, that's why Valentina is so scary.
00:56:41.000Valentina Shevchenko, when she landed that head kick on Jessica I, I was like...
00:57:30.000I feel like that's one of the things I've always admired about her.
00:57:33.000It's hard to do what Alexa did, is to be able to get her out of position and be able to capitalize on it.
00:57:39.000Get her to mentally not be there for a split second and be able to see that opportunity.
00:57:44.000Isn't it crazy that she did it off a spinning back kick?
00:57:48.000I feel like Valentina was just kind of like, this chick won't go away.
00:57:52.000I thought this was going to be easier.
00:57:54.000And she started making, like, not the smartest decisions.
00:57:57.000You really think that's what happened?
00:57:58.000You don't think maybe it was just fatigue?
00:58:00.000I think a little bit of that, but a little bit of frustration maybe, too.
00:58:03.000Just, like, Valentina was winning the fight and had a lot of good opportunities, but Alexa, like, Alexa was the only one walking in there knowing that she was going to win that fight no matter what that night.
00:59:06.000It's like two world titles on a spinning back kick, miss.
00:59:09.000I feel like it was just like, I don't know, it wasn't a smart thing.
00:59:12.000It was just like a lapse of thought for her for that second where she was just like, alright, I'm gonna throw this and Alexa just capitalized.
01:00:55.000And to be winning this fight in this way, Is in fucking credible and all off of Weidman missing one shot really look at me He's just beating the shit out of him It's hard to watch man because Weidman is like really kind of helpless at this point And he's so battered from these elbows and it's like and he's too tough He's so tough the guy will never quit and so this is this is one where I'm like maybe this could have been stopped earlier You could stop this at any second right here.
01:02:16.000There's a lot of my fights where I feel like I am the better fighter, but they showed up that night.
01:02:24.000It's always a learning process though, right?
01:02:26.000Like every experience that you have, you're putting into your mental database of how to deal with different conditions, how to deal with different thoughts that come in your head.
01:02:34.000Oh yeah, I feel like it's a huge learning process.
01:02:37.000And for me, I think, like, I didn't really get a lot of regional experience, you know?
01:02:41.000I was three and two when I came into the tough house.
01:04:00.000It's like, you can't make any kind of mistake.
01:04:03.000It's like on a regional level, say you make a little mistake, but they're not going to capitalize on it because they're just, they're not smart enough, maybe, you know?
01:04:10.000It's like, a lot of, or like, whatever it is, but then once you get up to a high level, it's like, these people are good.
01:04:17.000If you make that one little mistake, then you're getting knocked out.
01:04:33.000The fact that you do it constantly and consistently is just such an advantage, I believe.
01:04:38.000Because, you know, I mean, I know it just from training in Jiu Jitsu.
01:04:42.000Even when I was training like four days a week, like really regularly, I would be in with those guys that are training five, six, seven days a week and they would be getting better than me.
01:05:05.000If you can dedicate enough time and focus to something over long periods of time, if you really stay true to it, You get better and better and better.
01:05:12.000And when I see someone like yourself that does that and goes from the tough house and goes to that fight in Liverpool, to me that's like one of the great American success stories.
01:05:27.000It's an amazing thing to be this person who's a socially awkward kid and then all of a sudden you strangle some girl in her hometown in front of the whole world in this crazy arena.
01:05:51.000Even on my bad days, it's better than going to any other job.
01:05:55.000I love training more than anything else.
01:05:58.000I can always remember, I've worked at vet's offices, I worked at Chili's right before I got into the Tough House, and I'm like, my worst days at the gym are better than any day I had to go to one of those jobs.
01:06:12.000I remember getting off of a shift at Chili's, getting off of a shift at the vet's office, working like 10 hours a day, and just going straight to the gym, and there's nothing better than the feeling of the mats underneath your feet.
01:06:45.000Enthusiasm and discipline is really the right combination.
01:06:48.000You can't just be disciplined and just kind of trudge through it because the person that's more interested in it, that's more passionate about it, that's more excited about it, that person's more jazzed up, they're going to learn it quicker.
01:06:57.000And they're going to put it on you quicker.
01:06:59.000It's the ultimate testing ground for ideas and focus.
01:12:00.000I think the way our lives are getting more and more interconnected with technology, we're going to come to a point in time Where I don't think there's going to be anything to hide that anybody has.
01:12:12.000And that's going to be a weird time to be alive.
01:12:14.000I swear I think about things and my iPhone tells me.
01:13:09.000And this is 1968. Cars drove like shit.
01:13:12.000So I Google this, I watch this chase scene, and I'm looking at like builds that people have made where they've made replicas of that car, including this company called Revology that makes this sick Mustang.
01:13:25.000And they make like a new 1968 Mustang.
01:13:29.000Instead of it being a 1968 Mustang, it's like a 2023 1968 Mustang, but with modern technology in it.
01:13:35.000So this is Steve McQueen and this dude getting this wild chase scene in San Francisco.
01:17:58.000So I just had like a short camp, but me just doing straight jujitsu for that short camp, I was like, it's so much harder to get submissions when you can't punch them in the face.
01:18:06.000When you can't just like get them to like try to push you off or create the space when you can't do the damage.
01:18:12.000That's a really good argument for learning it the way you're learning it then from the beginning.
01:18:16.000Because that's a really good argument for learning MMA jujitsu.
01:18:23.000I think Nogi and MMA Jiu-Jitsu, they're just, like, getting farther and farther away from each other as the years go.
01:18:29.000I think that Nogi is taking its own path, and MMA is a completely different world, where it's like, even my choking style, I feel like, doesn't translate as well to Nogi as it works for MMA. Hmm.
01:18:48.000It's like the the level that exists now both in in jiu-jitsu and in MMA is so different than at any other time I'm looking at these guys that are just now entering into the UFC and they look they look like world champions like they move like world champions It's so it's such an interesting thing to see and for you to be a part of it and To love it so much.
01:19:11.000It's got to be one of the wildest experiences a person could go through and Oh, it's crazy.
01:19:16.000At my gym right now, we have a kid who just started training with us.
01:19:57.000I got into the UFC extremely young, so I feel like it was a lot of stepping stones.
01:20:02.000But now I am in the prime of my life, and I have the right combination with Goat Shed and Dean Thomas, and I feel like I'm just in a good spot mentally and physically, and I feel like I'm ready for these opportunities that are coming my way.
01:20:15.000That sounds like you prepared that one.
01:23:13.000Yeah, that one fight where he got dropped early in the round and the dude's swarming on him and he measures him, measures him, measures him, BLEAM! Woof!
01:23:24.000Tyrone Spong, crazy first round knockout, because it's nuts.
01:23:28.000This dude comes after him, big tall dude, hits him with a big shot and drops him.
01:23:32.000And then the way he responds and the way he cracked that dude, just how staying calm under fire, looking for a shot, extending his left hand, then drops a right on him.
01:27:02.000Otherwise people wouldn't keep doing it.
01:27:04.000I think that it's also, you also feel like if you get someone who does a lot of it and then they get a hold of you, you're like, oh my god, I'm too small for this weight class.
01:27:12.000You know, if you're one of those guys, like Frankie Edgar is an animal.
01:27:15.000Frankie Edgar weighed 155 and won the 155 pound world title.
01:28:56.000But he gets down to 185. All my fights besides my last one have been at 125 in the UFC and then my last one was at 115. So just the difference between the 25ers and the 15ers is extremely different.
01:29:10.000I feel like that girl we watched earlier, Maria Agpova, She, I remember I trained with her at ATT and she would come into camp around like 150, 155 and cut down to 125. Where I was coming into camp at 130 and cutting down to 125. So, yeah, it's just, I don't know.
01:29:31.000I don't know how the girls do it, but I'm like, there's a huge difference between like the 15ers and the 25ers, just size-wise.
01:30:37.000That's what everybody loves in boxing.
01:30:38.000I feel like it's getting more and more like that in MMA too.
01:30:42.000I have more respect for fighters who is like, you can see that they've taken tough matchups versus the fighters who is like, they fought nobody but they have an undefeated record.
01:30:52.000What do you think about a fighter that gets an opportunity to take a fight they know they probably shouldn't take?
01:30:57.000And they take it early in their career against someone who's far more experienced and it can be very dangerous.
01:31:03.000But sometimes an opportunity presents itself and they say, hey, do you want to fight in the UFC? We've got to fight against this guy.
01:31:18.000I've never taken opportunities that big, like fighting contenders in the UFC, but I feel like it is important to take every opportunity that comes your way, because it's more eyes on you.
01:31:28.000You have an opportunity to show what your abilities are too, even if you are the B side of the matchup necessarily.
01:31:34.000But every opportunity I've taken, win or loss, I feel like it's helped lead me to the point that I'm at today, and it's also built the foundation that you need losses, you need to learn, and you need that to fall back on.
01:31:49.000Even if you know you're seriously overmatched, take it anyway?
01:33:44.000It's like ever since I was, even in my amateur fights I had a lot of tough girls, but like all my pro fights, I've had one, no, two fights where the girls haven't made it to the UFC at this point.
01:33:55.000So it's like I fought all UFC level competition.
01:33:58.000My last amateur fight was actually against Cheyenne Blissmas on Rise of Warrior, my little hometown show.
01:34:05.000So it's like another UFC girl fighting when I was an amateur.
01:34:08.000So it's like I've always had the highest level of competition.
01:34:37.000I remember when I went to the tough house, it's like that's the first time I was really, I don't know, around a lot of girls from, they were all around the world.
01:34:44.000And they were asking me about alligators.
01:34:46.000They're like, what do you do about them?
01:34:48.000I'm like, what do you mean, what do we do about them?
01:38:59.000Someone's going to take this idea and someone's going to die.
01:39:02.000You've got to put the disclaimer on it.
01:39:05.000One of my favorite stories about Florida was this guy was involved in a car chase with the cops, and he parks on a bridge, jumps out of the car, lands on a gator, and gets killed in front of the cops.
01:39:18.000That's one of those ones where I'm like, can we get that fact checked?
01:43:58.000I like probably one of my me being Canadian fighting in Edmonton was probably like my one of my most memorable fights just because of that the energy in the crowd just because of how many people were screaming and it's like I'm not walking out in Liverpool and getting booed you know right did that feel like it had added pressure on you It didn't add pressure.
01:44:20.000The fights at the Apex almost don't have the same feel to me.
01:44:25.000They don't have the same vibe around them.
01:44:27.000Even the winds, it's just like you're celebrating by yourself.
01:44:31.000To have the crowd there and just that energy in the room, it just makes everything different when you're walking in the cage.
01:44:37.000I totally get it, but as a fan, watching the Apex is really special.
01:44:41.000There's something about being able to watch fights with no crowd, and the fights are being broadcast on television.
01:44:46.000I was thinking at every one of them, like, wow, I'm so lucky that I can be here and do this.
01:44:53.000Because just to be in this moment, there's only 100 people here.
01:44:57.000This is in the middle of these crazy, weird times, but I'm getting to experience Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gaethje, this wild, crazy fight with no audience.
01:45:06.000And it was a fucking war, a crazy fight with no audience.
01:45:41.000Or just watching as a fan, you can hear the shit talk between the fighters on the mics.
01:45:48.000It just definitely adds a different aspect.
01:45:50.000Well, that's why Mark Henry's got such a fascinating way of doing it, where he comes up with nicknames for every move, and they're different for every camp.
01:46:47.000I feel like also that's what's helped me build great decision-making, and I feel like at a championship level, decision-making is what makes one of the biggest differences.
01:46:59.000That's the thing about it, like, for the overall health of the pupil.
01:47:03.000Yeah, because as you're going through the challenges, they're going to get more difficult, and you're going to have to kind of sort it out on your own, and then whatever mistakes are made, you correct in the gym.
01:47:11.000For me, at the end of the day, I'm walking in the cage by myself.
01:48:21.000So it's like I'm constantly getting that cardio work, getting that push.
01:48:26.000I feel like there's nothing that can really match that MMA pace, that MMA cardio.
01:48:31.000So it's like you can do striking for six months then come to jujitsu and have shitty jujitsu cardio.
01:48:37.000So it's like I think you have to be doing MMA to get MMA cardio.
01:48:41.000I don't think running or anything like that necessarily supplements it.
01:48:44.000Do you guys do things like switch out opponents and live drills and things like that to like ramp up your heart rate and simulate moments inside fights?
01:49:50.000All my strength and conditioning is just getting rounds in, doing sparring.
01:49:55.000Well, I mean, there's nothing that makes you stronger than wrestling, right?
01:49:59.000And if you're doing that kind of thing, like trying to get as many takedowns as possible, I mean, that is a form of strength and conditioning for sure.
01:50:53.000Versus using, like, MMA sparring gloves, like six ounce.
01:50:57.000What are your thoughts on hard sparring versus technical sparring?
01:51:02.000I think you need a little bit of both.
01:51:04.000I think you definitely need to learn how to bring that dog out in the fight when you need to.
01:51:08.000So you need those hard sparring rounds.
01:51:10.000You need those rounds to make you confident in walking forward and confident in pushing the pace.
01:51:16.000But it's also technical sparring rounds is...
01:51:20.000You need a hundred times more of those.
01:51:22.000You can do as many of those as you want because you're not taking the damage.
01:51:25.000But that's what's going to build your reaction time, what's going to make you think more.
01:51:30.000A lot of times if you get too much hard sparring, then you get a little bit like punch shy.
01:51:35.000You're not going to build the right reactions.
01:51:37.000So if you get more technical sparring, you're building more right reactions and you're building just, I don't know, I feel like you need both.
01:51:47.000And I think most people would probably agree with you.
01:51:50.000But for longevity, the one concern is like how much hard sparring you do in training and how much that takes out of your longevity, how much that takes out of your overall career.
01:52:02.000Like Max Holloway is not sparring at all anymore, which I found really fascinating.
01:52:07.000His reasoning is you take unnecessary damage in sparring and I know how to fight and I'll just do drills and work on my conditioning and do it through drills and he's been very successful doing it.
01:52:18.000Someone like him it might be a little bit of a different circumstance where he just has that dog in him you know you don't need any he doesn't need the hard sparring to bring that out of him at all or to like make him feel comfortable there like that's just Max has that in him.
01:52:32.000He's also had so many high level fights that like the Timing.
01:53:41.000I feel like so many people fall in love with the stardom and the starlight of the sport, and they don't realize that it's the showing up every day and grinding and getting the work in that's really going to produce results.
01:53:58.000But it's got to be exciting to be in the spot of the process that you're at, knowing how you were in the beginning when you just started taking kickboxing classes to look at you now.
01:54:07.000I feel like it's been a short process in the grand scheme of things.
01:54:11.000It's been 12 years since I started training and six years of that has been in the UFC. Which is really fun.
01:54:22.000I feel like it's just gone by so fast, really.
01:54:26.000It's crazy to work with people and work with people who it's their first day and you're trying to teach them, like, all right, move your hip over here.
01:56:36.000I just remember when I was in the cardio kickboxing class with a bunch of soccer moms, pretty much, and after the first day, I didn't expect it to be that much of a workout.
01:57:42.000If I wanted to tell a story about an MMA fighter who did nothing until she was 16 and takes cardio kickboxing, and then some little old lady says, you keep coming back!
01:59:01.000I think I'm capable of something that a lot of people aren't capable of, and how I can, I guess, show this sport, how I can translate this sport.
01:59:14.000You're definitely a unique person and a very thoughtful person and a person that if someone talked to you and they did not know that you are a professional cage fighter of the highest level, they would never imagine it!
01:59:28.000You seem so, like, friendly and normal.
01:59:31.000And then if I show, like, there should be a show where people get to meet you and then guess what you do?
01:59:58.000I feel like it's almost like two completely different people, like Jillian and the Savage.
02:00:03.000I'm like, when I'm in the cage, I'm like, it's a completely, like, after, it's actually the Maria Agpova fight, I sit down on the floor and I throw up two middle fingers.
02:00:13.000And post-fight, one of the UFC guys, he was like, so you throw up the two middle fingers, like, what was all that about?
02:00:56.000I don't know, like even in that fight, I was sitting there and I'm choking that girl and I'm just looking at the ref like, oh, she's out trying to tell him calmly.
02:01:03.000I'm like, it's just something, I don't know, something weird, something different that happens whenever I'm in the cage.
02:01:09.000Do you feel like you get like a tunnel vision?
02:01:12.000Do you feel like, or do you feel like legitimately like you're a different person?
02:01:18.000It's probably more of just like a tunnel vision.
02:01:20.000After the fight, I think I'm a different person.
02:01:23.000Sometimes I'm like, I'm sitting there screaming and shit.
02:04:09.000Well, you're literally pumping blood into your brain to try to stay consciousness because the pressure of the G-force, you see black on both sides like an elevator door.
02:04:17.000Like, it's closing your consciousness.
02:07:49.000It's, I mean, obviously Invicta, you know, there's a lot of chicks that are doing commentary.
02:07:54.000And it's a great thing for the sport to have fighters like yourself that can, you can have an insight into, especially if like there's like a big fight in your weight class.
02:08:04.000You know, like maybe someone who you could eventually face and you've been looking at tape on them and, you know, you could maybe exploit some things and talk about it.
02:08:13.000Yeah, I love it like when Felder does it or DC does it.
02:08:50.000Yeah, I just love to, like, I'm not sure if coaching is necessarily the right step for me, and I would want to do something where I'm staying with a sport.
02:10:31.000Because as long as you stay focused and try to be positive and try to be happy, there's a process going on with anything you're trying to get good at.
02:10:39.000And if you're really involved in something and you're really interested in it and you really focus on it, you're going to get better.
02:10:45.000And then you're going to look back and go, wow, I'm glad I kept doing that thing.
02:13:00.000I don't know, I've been to a couple, I went to a bare knuckle MMA and just a regular bare knuckle fight and both of them, I'm like, I'm sitting there cringing the whole time.