In this episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, I sit down with Olympic Gold Medalist and World Record holder Kyle Snyder to talk about doping in the sport of wrestling. We talk about what it's like being part of a state-sponsored doping program, and how to deal with the pressure of being a member of one. We also talk about some of Kyle's favorite memories of competing in the Olympics, and what it was like growing up in a sport where doping was rampant. I hope you enjoy this episode, and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite streaming platform so you don't miss the next episode! -Joe Rogan Podcast by day, Train By Night, by night - all day, all day! Check it out! -JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCES by DAY, Train by Night, All Day, by Night! -The Joe Rogans Experience by Night -The J.R. Experience by Day, Training By Night -By Night, all Day, By Night! -Training By Night by Night - The J. R. Rogans Podcast by Day -Training by Night By Night By Day - By Night...by Night, By Day...By Night...By Day... by Night... By Night.... By Day.... By Night!! -By Day.... - By Day!! by Night!! - By DAY by DAY! , By DAY! by DAY By DAY, By MONTH! by MONTH, By DAY by DAY , By WEEK, By WEEK by WEEKLYN by WEEK By WEEKLY, By DECADE by WEEK by WEEK, BY MONTH BY WEEK, AND SOON AUGMENT BY WEEK , AND EVERY OTHER DAY, BY DECADE, AND MONTH By WEEK BY WEEKLY AND EVERY MONTH BY WEEK By WEEK By EVERY OTHER THAN EVERY WEEK - BY WEEK! By EVERY DAY - AND WEEKLY... By WEEKYYY By A MONTH.... EVERTHING, EVERY WEEK, EVERY FAST AND EVERY WEEKEND, EVERY DECADE & THE DECADE... And EVERY WEEK!! , ...and EVERY WEEK!!! WELL, EVERY MONDAY, AND EVERY MOST OF THAN EVERTHING I HAVE A FRIENDS AND EVERY DAY, AND THE NEXT WEEK, AND THE MONTH EVERTHING EVERTHING! I LOVE IT!
00:00:48.000That's the first legitimate, real proof that somebody's kind of come out with.
00:00:54.000But everybody kind of knew that's what's going on.
00:00:57.000That was so insane, though, that they had a hole in the wall where they were handing through the dirty urine and getting back clean urine and then submitting that.
00:01:08.000And if it wasn't for micro-analysis of the jars, then they realized, oh, the Soviets had figured out, well, it wasn't the Soviets, it was the Russians, had figured out some way To open up these unopenable jars because they had scratched them in little places.
00:01:28.000And it's like, for them too, it's a different level.
00:01:32.000The guys that won that were very successful maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago, those guys are like big government positions and stuff.
00:01:41.000In the U.S., You win the Olympics in wrestling, you win like a quarter million bucks, and it's a big deal for like a month, and then you kind of move on.
00:01:49.000But over there, it's like you're kind of set for life.
00:01:51.000So it's like, yeah, it's a completely different kind of motivation, I think.
00:01:56.000What is it like competing when you know that there's like state-sponsored programs that are involved in these other countries doping up their athletes?
00:03:14.000He's like two inches taller than me, freaking jacked as hell, and does a forward roll and squat jump, and his feet are over my head.
00:03:23.000And I'm like, what the hell is going on here?
00:03:26.000And we're just this random tournament in Rome, and I'm wrestling some dude that I don't even know, and he killed me.
00:03:31.000It's the only time I've ever wrestled a match where I really got whipped.
00:03:35.000Single leg took me down, gut-wrenched me, and he came down from probably like 235. He was way bigger than me.
00:03:42.000And then I got off the mat, and I was like, what the just happened?
00:03:46.000And then the coach was like, oh yeah, this guy was...
00:03:52.000World silver medalist, world bronze medalist like five years ago, but the last five years he got banned, he got popped, and so he hadn't competed in five years, he'd just been freaking training and juiced.
00:04:03.000And then he actually, the next round, he beat my teammate Kyle Snyder, who was an Olympic gold medalist, the exact same way, like smoked us both.
00:04:10.000And I was like, what the hell is going on here?
00:04:13.000So then World Championship that year comes along, and now they're getting tested, and he went 0-1.
00:04:31.000It's a thing they're trying to do where I guess what they're doing is they're allowing athletes and they're going to do it at the same time as the Olympics.
00:04:42.000And they're allowing athletes to juice and they're doing it supposedly responsibly with doctors involved and they're trying to break all the records.
00:05:51.00099% of guys really aren't doing that especially as we get tested a lot like in collegiate athletics and stuff and It's just something that is kind of very looked down upon in what we do but it is interesting to think about like What would I be like if I was doing these things?
00:06:09.000I can compete at such a high level already, and I think that my biggest asset in wrestling and in fighting is my mind.
00:06:22.000And I think that with time, I'm very disciplined and do things a certain way.
00:06:27.000I'm going to get to it as close as I can be.
00:06:30.000But there is this other level that's kind of unnatural where it's interesting to think about, but while I'm competing and stuff, it's obviously not an option.
00:06:42.000But at the end of the day, I probably have competed against a lot of guys that are juiced up, and we'll see what the UFC's drug testing program is like since USADA's over at the end of the year.
00:06:57.000I'm pretty confident in myself regardless.
00:07:01.000If I've got to fight a dude that's juiced up and you're willing to take a backdoor to try to get an advantage and win, I think that you're probably cutting corners in a lot of other areas as well, which I'm not doing.
00:07:18.000The thing is when the guy's not cutting corners and juicing and has talent.
00:07:23.000I just think that if they're willing to do that, if they're willing to go outside the rules and do that, to me that's kind of like they're trying to get an unfair advantage.
00:07:36.000To me that means they're Fearful that they wouldn't be able to do it without it.
00:07:42.000Yeah, they might be doing everything right, but I know that in their mind, there's a little weakness there to me.
00:07:47.000And I can take advantage of that and capitalize on that because at the end of the day, I'm going to do every single little thing right.
00:07:52.000I'm going to make sure my sleep's on point, make sure my nutrition's on point.
00:07:55.000And not only am I going to do this for a camp, but I'm doing this all the time.
00:07:59.000And I've been doing this since I was a little kid.
00:08:01.000So take what you want, do all that stuff, but you're not going to outwork 20-plus years in the short amount of time that you have to prepare for me.
00:08:12.000So that's kind of my mindset around it.
00:08:15.000It's just the reality of the situation.
00:08:17.000I'm going to fight guys that are probably doing stuff that I'm not doing.
00:08:22.000Well, I believe that the new UFC drug doping program is going to be real similar to USADA. They're just not going to do the dumb shit like wake people up the morning of the weigh-ins and things along those lines.
00:08:35.000Unfortunately, they're still not going to let them take certain things that just like peptides, things that will enhance their body's ability to heal, which I really think they should.
00:09:36.000And I think like, you know, all right, I'm going out in front of all these people and like putting my health on the line and this and that.
00:09:44.000And at the end of the day, it's like, you know, you look out of a business perspective and it's almost like a circus, right?
00:09:50.000Like, you know, I'm putting myself out there and it's entertainment.
00:09:54.000But like I'm the one that has the real consequences and stuff.
00:10:20.000You know, coaching, I could be in business, I could be doing whatever I want to do, but I'm choosing to do this, and there's a lot more consequences on the negative end of what I'm doing now, but I just freaking love it.
00:10:44.000So, you know, I mean, you've fought, so you understand.
00:10:49.000But, like, when I was wrestling and I would pin somebody in front of, you know, 10, 20,000 people and the crowd's going nuts, freaking out, this and that, it's like...
00:11:02.000And then, come to the UFC, that same big stage, even bigger stage, millions of people watching worldwide, knock a guy out cold, it's like, phew, you can't beat that.
00:11:14.000When did you decide, or when did you even entertain the idea of transitioning to MMA? So, I always loved fighting, and I was always a fan of the UFC. I probably started watching when I was, I don't know, 11, 12. It was something with my family, we'd go to Buffalo Wild Wings on Saturday, we'd watch the fights, or we'd get the pay-per-view at home.
00:11:36.000It was always something that I was like, I could do that.
00:11:39.000Me and my friends would fight and stuff, or we'd fight other kids just for fun.
00:11:43.000So it was always something that was kind of in the back of my mind.
00:11:46.000You know, really through high school, through early college, I'm wrestling.
00:12:53.000So was that jujitsu class, was that the first thing outside of wrestling you'd done in combat sports?
00:13:01.000I had done like, so this is actually kind of funny, when I was like 12 or something, no I was probably younger, I was probably like 10 or 11, there was a jiu-jitsu tournament at a high school that, my high school, so my dad was a high school wrestling coach, and this jiu-jitsu, it was like Naga or something, they wanted to put on a tournament at the high school, and so my dad set it up, like put all the mats in and stuff, and I was like, why don't you enter?
00:13:38.000I'd watched UFC, so I knew, alright, the guy's going to try to guillotine me, or he's going to try to get my back, and I'm just like, don't let him do that.
00:14:31.000But he knew good wrestling, so I couldn't really do anything to him.
00:14:35.000And I didn't know the rules at all, so he was winning on advantage, but then I somehow got past his guard at the very end, and then they gave me a point and I won.
00:15:36.000Well, your last performance, man, like, the thing about, you know, watching you fight inside the octagon, like, everybody knows how good of a wrestler you are.
00:18:27.000When you have that wrestling base, it is such a giant advantage.
00:18:32.000I always tell any young athlete that that is the 100% best foundation for Because you get to choose whether a fight is standing or on the ground, and then there's the threat of that.
00:18:44.000And the threat of that has so many consequences in terms of how your opponent's going to react and what they're going to do.
00:19:17.000Now that's what they're focused on, rather than winning the fight.
00:19:20.000And, you know, of course, you know, the actual skills that come with that, of being able to implement that, the game plan, and do it is big, but if you ever notice and you watch guys fight or compete, especially in training, if you see one guy's a little more tense, a little more nervous, a little, like, more reacting, That's such a big part of how much energy you spend in the overall time of the fight.
00:19:48.000I noticed when I got a lot better at wrestling and when I started pinning a lot more guys was when I just relaxed.
00:19:53.000It was like this huge thing for me because I pinned a lot of guys growing up and got a lot of pins, but Then in college, guys get a little better.
00:20:03.000They learn how to hold you off a little better.
00:20:04.000And so I would use all my energy, all my strength, try to throw them on their back.
00:21:02.000But more than likely, that's never going to happen.
00:21:04.000So they're going to be very tense, nervous, worrying about that stuff.
00:21:07.000So that's kind of how I feel about the wrestling advantage.
00:21:12.000Exactly like you said, it's so big to have that comfort and confidence.
00:21:16.000Yeah, and that knowledge of when to hit the gas and when to be relaxed, that plays such a critical factor when you move from three to five rounds as well.
00:21:25.000So when a guy is a champion and a guy has been fighting most, like a John Jones type guy, has been fighting five rounders for a decade plus, for a guy like him, he has almost like an internal sense.
00:21:39.000Of when to hit the gas and what to do and how much energy he has.
00:21:52.000And then to go from 15 to 25, that's a huge jump.
00:21:56.000So that's something I'm definitely preparing for in my mind.
00:21:59.000And I think that fighting can become such an emotional thing.
00:22:04.000People get baited into fighting a certain way that it's so important to be disciplined.
00:22:10.000Obviously, you actually have to have the training and the base and the cardio to be able to do that, then to also implement it in front of millions of people and all the pressures on you.
00:22:22.000And now there's this other guy who's a monster coming at you, trying to knock you out.
00:22:27.000You know, you got to be a certain type of person, I think, and have a certain mindset to be able to be disciplined and calm and stoic in that fire, right?
00:22:38.000Because you could have all the cardio in the world, but if you go 100% for two and a half minutes, you can't do that for 25, right?
00:22:47.000You're going to lose it no matter what, even if you have the training.
00:22:50.000So keeping cool in that situation, I think, is almost equally as important.
00:22:54.000Yeah, we've seen that in so many fights where guys get really emotional and they really try to hit the gas in the first round.
00:23:00.000And then you see in the second round, they've already blown their wad.
00:23:13.000Being tired in a fight is pretty much the worst thing that you could be, right?
00:23:17.000Like, you know, you got a guy who's a little more fresh than you, who's popping you a jab, who's kicking your legs, you know, pushing you up against the fence.
00:23:26.000It's like, you do not want to be tired.
00:23:35.000When you get to the end of the round and the end of the fight, you see Adesanya is just beat up and tired and Sean's just constant pressure on him.
00:23:43.000Yeah, I would say that my assessment is you've got to be good at everything, but cardio is a real X factor in MMA, almost more so than any other sport, just because you can just put that on somebody, and if they can't sustain it, As long as you don't get knocked out in the first few minutes, they're just going to fade and you're going to gain that energy and eventually you're going to kind of overpower them.
00:24:11.000It's the way that it works and it happens time and time again.
00:24:14.000It happens so often in MMA. How the fuck did you get so good at striking so quick?
00:24:20.000Did you have any fucking around with your friends, hitting the bag, anything when you were younger, hitting mitts?
00:24:32.000Yeah, I think that really it's two things.
00:24:36.000Again, my coaches, the guys I work with, they're incredible.
00:24:41.000So knowledgeable, experienced, and not only, like I said, I have these guys holding pads for me and coaching me, but the guy Moose, I get to spar with him.
00:24:52.000How many MMA fighters have a guy that's a collegiate national champion with 80...
00:24:59.000Amateur boxing fights as their main sparring partner.
00:25:02.000Most guys in MMA are striking other MMA fighters.
00:25:04.000So I know if I'm hanging in there with him and I can move and defend and hit him with some shots, what are these guys going to do to me?
00:25:24.000And that's another thing that I learned from wrestling where I think I had a big leg up on people because I was studying it like a science almost at a young age.
00:25:35.000Watching Kale Sanderson, you know, when I was eight years old, watching Satieff Brothers, watching, you know, multiple-time world champions.
00:25:46.000Every tournament, and my dad was a coach, so I'd be at every high school wrestling tournament watching, and I absorbed a lot of information from that.
00:25:53.000And so I just took those principles, and now I apply them to MMA. So, you know, it's not unusual for me to...
00:25:59.000Study four or five hours of film in a week where, yeah, maybe I can't train an extra four or five hours, but now I have this extra four or five hours on top of the competition that, you know, these guys, I don't think they're really willing to do that, to put that time in.
00:26:10.000When you are watching film and you're studying, like, how are you doing this?
00:26:31.000Sometimes I'll watch just kind of as I won't say entertainment because it's not purely entertainment, but I'll just watch and enjoy and appreciate the art.
00:26:41.000And I'll just look at it like, wow, that was amazing.
00:26:45.000And kind of, you know, be more on the creative side of, you know, trying to think about things in that way.
00:26:53.000And then other times I can be very analytical and break things down and look at positioning and kind of start from the ground up where I see how they move into a position that puts them at an advantage.
00:27:08.000Now their opponent has to react or counter a certain way or stay in a spot.
00:27:12.000Now that gives them time to see, think, decide what they're going to do.
00:27:17.000And really I learned a lot of my film study habits in the analytical sense from the guys was telling me about Barry Robinson.
00:27:24.000He is, to me, the best film study breakdown guy there is.
00:27:31.000I'll also do stuff with him where I'll say, hey, I want to look at Southpaw Orthodox matchups, or I want to look at how somebody effectively counters a big right hand, or a good example of a guy that checks kicks, or a good example of a guy that manages the clock.
00:27:48.000So we'll look at all these specific things and then he will help me break them down analytically and then I just kind of take some of the stuff that I learned from him and I do it on my own as well.
00:27:58.000It's such an interesting thing to see a guy coming from that analytical approach to wrestling where you become incredibly successful and then just apply that to other combat sports because I think there's a lot of young athletes, unfortunately, that I don't think they maximize their time.
00:28:18.000I think they show up and train and they train hard, but I don't necessarily think they're doing it systematically and technically and breaking things down.
00:28:30.000They're just trying to be good instead of really focusing on very specific aspects.
00:28:36.000And when you did that your whole life with wrestling, applying that to striking just seems kind of natural.
00:28:52.000Everybody can go learn how to throw a kick to the body or how to do a technique.
00:28:58.000But if you don't have a system and you don't have a way to apply it in actual competition, then there's really no point to what you're learning.
00:29:07.000And I think the MMA, the culture of MMA, It's such a new sport, one, but it's such a tough guy mentality sport of, you know, let's bang, bro, like, let's get in there, let's do this, and it's, you know, that's not really, to me, I see fighting moving in a different direction.
00:29:25.000I see it moving in a way, and I hope to push it more towards an analytical, professional way to go about your sport, the way that NFL quarterback plays.
00:29:37.000You hear an NBA basketball player talk about offenses, schemes, setting it up.
00:29:42.000That's not the way an MMA fighter talks about fighting.
00:29:45.000And I hope to move MMA into a more professional realm where now we can look at things, we can systematize, we can break stuff down, we can analyze, and then it's gonna make everyone better.
00:30:02.000And I think that when you talk that way too, It appeals to a much broader audience, and it'll get more eyes on the sport, which is also very positive.
00:30:10.000What 40-year-old mom wants to hear guys talking about just crushing each other's faces and heads and this and that?
00:30:20.000But maybe that 40-year-old mom will listen to an interview where Tom Brady talks about being a quarterback.
00:30:28.000That's kind of the way that I look at it.
00:30:31.000A lot of it comes from my background in wrestling and just the way that I've approached that sport and the way that my coaches in wrestling have handled themselves and just what I've been taught.
00:30:44.000I think the MMA, people still want to see violence, but I would hope that we can make it Into a platform where there's some people that want to see the sport.
00:30:55.000And I would hope that it continues to...
00:30:58.000I think it's already trending that way, but continues to move that way.
00:31:00.000The reason why I think it's going to go that way is because I think those fighters are going to be the most successful.
00:31:05.000Just like those quarterbacks that study tape, they are the most successful.
00:31:13.000Going over plays, they're the most successful.
00:31:16.000And I just think it's, you know, one of the things that DC said when you won your last fight, he just started saying, blue chip!
00:32:03.000So tell me what you think of this, because I kind of look at the sport and see the trends and the way things are going.
00:32:10.000So it started off in MMA. It was like, which martial art beat which?
00:32:17.000And we kind of saw the wrestlers had some success, but then Hoist Gracie in jiu-jitsu was like, if you don't know jiu-jitsu, you're going to get destroyed.
00:32:47.000He's not a wrestler, but super well-rounded.
00:32:49.000Great jiu-jitsu, great wrestling, great striking, good conditioning.
00:32:55.000The well-rounded guys had the biggest advantage.
00:32:59.000I think now it's moving to a point where It's almost coming back, and I'll use myself as an example, but you have to be a specialist in one thing where it's like, dude, that one thing is better than anyone in the world.
00:33:14.000And then everything else has to be elite.
00:33:18.000He's the best kickboxer, one of the best kickboxers in the world, but he also has...
00:33:24.000Great takedown defense, and you even see him throw up subs in some of his fights, things like that.
00:33:28.000Or, you know, you see guys where it's like, dude, you have this one thing, Khabib.
00:33:32.000This one thing, his grappling is so, like, outrageous.
00:33:36.000But then everything else is, like, freaking world class.
00:33:39.000It's like, that's where I think it's getting, you know, now these guys that have one thing that can kind of overwhelm and overpower somebody in a certain area, but everything else is, like...
00:33:53.000I definitely think there's a gigantic advantage to being elite in one specific area, whether it's wrestling, for you, or if you look at Alex Pajera, the kickboxing.
00:34:03.000His kickboxing is so fucking dangerous that every fight starts on the feet.
00:34:09.000And when you have a guy that's a two-division glory world champion, That just knocks people into other dimensions.
00:34:15.000And then now this guy is learning takedown defense and all those things.
00:34:21.000And it's interesting to see, particularly in the Euro Prochaska fight, and then in the fight with Jan Bohovic as well, he's learning how to defend himself on the ground.
00:34:30.000But it seems like it's limited, right?
00:34:34.000Like, it doesn't seem like he's very good at takedown defense.
00:35:25.000That's how I want to develop my style, ideally, is to where when somebody comes out to fight me, to game plan, they're like, alright, well, we obviously don't want to wrestle with him.
00:35:38.000Dang, he also has knocked a lot of guys out.
00:37:21.000It's like, even like an admission from a guy like yourself that is one of the best wrestlers in the world, you would need four weeks at least of real training and just wrestling.
00:38:27.000For the wrestling community on a bigger stage.
00:38:30.000And so, you know, I'm still very involved in it.
00:38:33.000But, yeah, at the same time, it's like I'm adjusting my training and kind of fine-tuning it to what I think is best for what I'm, you know, mainly focused on.
00:38:54.000Well, I should ask you, like, strength and conditioning, skill set acquisition, maintaining wrestling base, like, how do you manage all those very specific things, and how do you know whether or not you're optimizing?
00:39:10.000You know, a lot of it is nobody's really done it the way that I have.
00:39:14.000You know, most people, they wrestle in college, maybe they try to make the Olympic team, and now they go to flight, and they move, and they start at an MMA gym, right?
00:39:24.000What I've done is I've partnered up with Dan Lambert, American Top Team.
00:39:29.000We built a gym right near Penn State campus.
00:39:32.000And the idea is that'll be a pipeline for any other wrestlers, specifically Penn State wrestlers who want to come and fight after they're done wrestling, right?
00:40:02.000So I've been using him since I was in college.
00:40:05.000So he has worked with Penn State wrestling for a long time.
00:40:10.000He's known one of our coaches for 25 years.
00:40:12.000So when I started getting serious about my strength conditioning, nutrition, recovery, he was a guy I started using maybe as a junior in college.
00:40:20.000And so I have a good relationship with him.
00:40:22.000But for the most part, it's on me to organize it.
00:40:54.000He started about a year later than me, so now he kind of gets the benefits of me tinkering for that year.
00:41:01.000And then the guys behind him, they'll get the benefits of us tinkering and figuring stuff out.
00:41:05.000And we're really trying to build You know, a program.
00:41:09.000We're trying to build a team that we're going to do things a certain way.
00:41:13.000And, you know, it's fortunate and unfortunate because I'm the first guy to do it, I'm going to get the credit and I'm going to be probably like, you know, everybody's excited about it and things like that, so I get benefits there.
00:41:26.000But I do have to, like, take the time and effort to test everything out and figure out what works and what doesn't.
00:41:33.000And, you know, there's so many variables, so...
00:41:50.000Which is so interesting because everybody's program is different.
00:41:53.000Like, Georges St-Pierre famously later in his career stopped doing all strength and conditioning.
00:41:57.000He said efficiency is more important than anything.
00:42:01.000And, you know, in his mind it was really just about Specific training for MMA, meaning just sparring, rounds in the bag, those type of things.
00:42:13.000You know, I think that everybody, you know, if you're a real true professional, you brought up GSP. GSP is the guy I look at.
00:42:22.000He was the first guy that came into MMA There was kind of a true professional about it who was very organized, even in the media, well-spoken.
00:42:30.000And the way he trained, the way he committed not only his time training but his lifestyle, I felt like that aligned a lot.
00:42:37.000That aligns a lot with how I want to do things in a professional manner.
00:42:40.000And so if you are a true professional, you have to take Ownership of that and take responsibility.
00:42:47.000If you're not getting what you need, you need to make an adjustment.
00:42:50.000And now, luckily, I have the freedom to be able to do that.
00:42:52.000And I'm fortunate that I had the foresight to kind of see that and know, all right, let's look at MMA. There's a lot of people doing a lot of good things out, but it's been a sport for 20 years.
00:43:04.000And so there's a lot of people that also don't know what's going on, that don't know what they're doing.
00:43:11.000It's one of the oldest sports in the world.
00:43:13.000There's so many tried and true methods of training and how it works and what's best for you.
00:43:17.000And not only have I been part of that for 20 years, but I was a part of the most elite organization and really dynasty in wrestling history, you know, with being on the Penn State team.
00:43:30.000Like my coaches, they started at Penn State in 2009. They have notes for training sessions and recovery days for pretty much every day of the year.
00:43:40.000Since 2009. So they know what they did.
00:44:00.000I'm just kind of learning these things through osmosis.
00:44:02.000And now I'm trying to apply them to my career.
00:44:04.000And again, we're going to continue to refine and get better at them.
00:44:08.000By the time I'm done, Hopefully I can give this system that I've created and what I've put together to a new generation of guys that are going to do even bigger and better things than me.
00:44:20.000Hopefully they'll win more than me, make more money than me, be more famous.
00:44:23.000That's what I hope for those guys that are coming.
00:44:45.000From nutrition to recovery to making notes and learning and adjusting to each training session and figuring out what went wrong and what went right and how do you feel and how was the performance.
00:44:59.000I love when it's just a full, comprehensive analysis of every single aspect of it, and then you see these insane results, like the Penn State team.
00:45:12.000I didn't know it at the time because I was just a high schooler, but that was a big thing that drew me to the program was the culture, how they approach the sport.
00:45:21.000And everything we're talking about right now too is like, It's not even half of it because we're not even talking about the psychology of it, right?
00:45:27.000Of what it's like to mentally go out there and perform and do what you need to do.
00:45:32.000But like you said, leaving no stone unturned, making sure that I've done every single thing that I can do to put myself in the best possible position to have success here— That's what I want to do in fighting.
00:45:47.000That's what I feel a lot of people don't do.
00:45:50.000They're tough dudes who have some skills.
00:45:52.000They're athletic and they're smart and they go out there and they fight.
00:45:55.000It's like, well, that's not really the way that I look at the sport.
00:46:00.000I look at it like, like you said, all-encompassing, comprehensive.
00:46:04.000How can I optimize every single part of my lifestyle to...
00:46:09.000Now go out there, be comfortable, be confident, and I'm not here to guess.
00:46:28.000I want to be ready and prepared to the point where, you know, now I'm fighting guys that are, you know, unranked, that people see as low level.
00:46:37.000Like, nobody's low level in the UFC, but people see as a lower level, and I'm demolishing them, dominating them.
00:46:42.000By the time I fight a guy in the top 15, top 10, top 5 championship, I'm planning on doing the exact same thing to you, bud, because this is the way that I'm structuring my life.
00:46:51.000So, if that takes more time for me to improve and get better, Fine, no worries.
00:46:55.000I'm willing to be disciplined and not be in a rush to do that.
00:47:00.000Like you said, that just comes from the overarching theme of doing things right, doing things correctly, and always trying to learn and improve and grow and do better and just come at it in a professional, intelligent way.
00:47:17.000Speaking about your last fight from there until now, that is quite a large amount of time.
00:47:23.000Is it difficult for you to get fights?
00:47:26.000Is it difficult for you to get quality opponents?
00:47:28.000Because, I mean, there was obviously a lot of hype on you before you even got into the UFC. There's a contender show and, you know, watching you compete and everybody knew right away, like, oh, this guy's got something special.
00:47:40.000And then you got guys who are like, hey, I'm like fucking one and one.
00:47:53.000And have my confidence crushed and realize that the gap is so wide.
00:47:58.000Realistically, there's some guys that are competing that unless they have some monumental breakthrough or unless they leave their training camp and move into a completely new environment and get totally new coaches and radically restructure their life, they're never going to die.
00:48:16.000And so how hard is it for you to get quality opponents and the kind of opponents that you really do need in order to continue to not just you're developing these skills obviously in the gym, but you also need to be implementing them in real fights.
00:48:32.000You know, it's been so interesting, my journey.
00:48:35.000I feel like I always try to look for people to compare and see how they did things and maybe take the positives and negatives and apply those to what I'm doing.
00:48:47.000And there really hasn't been that many people that have done what I've done.
00:51:39.000Yeah, so my initial plan, like, before any of this happened, was I'm going to get 10 fights in the regional scene, you know, and then I'm going to go UFC, and I'm going to be the champ by, like, 13, 14 fights.
00:52:13.000And I'm like, okay, well, then, you know, in my mind, I was always, I'm going to the UFC. Like, you know, these other organizations, I think they do a good job and stuff, but that's not really me.
00:52:56.000This is going to make me seem like a real dummy, but my gym is like 200 yards away from where I live.
00:53:02.000And there's a main road that you have to cross to get to it.
00:53:06.000It's probably like a 40, 45 mile an hour speed limit, but it's not super busy, but it's a little busy.
00:53:11.000And so I used to, you know what a one wheel is?
00:53:14.000So I used to ride my one wheel like to and from practice.
00:53:17.000And I would just do this all the time.
00:53:20.000And so I'm riding back from training session once and I've got, so I'm barefoot, I've got like a Yeti bottle, I've got my phone and wallet and like my flip-flops in my hand, and I've got no shirt on, and I'm just like, it takes like 25 seconds, so I'm just like, and I'm going on this road, and my buddy pulls behind me, he's leaving practice too, and then I have another car behind me.
00:53:44.000And I'm like, I don't want to make these people wait.
00:55:06.000He's worked with the wrestling team for 30 years.
00:55:08.000And he does a lot of like, kind of, he's a more like Eastern philosophy guy.
00:55:12.000So we're moving energy through it and doing a few different things.
00:55:15.000And I started to feel a little better, feel a little better, and I'm about to fly out to Vegas, like, the next day, and I'm like, well, it's the day before I'm about to, the two days before I'm about to fly out, I'm like, okay, if I wake up tomorrow and I don't feel significantly better, like, I'm gonna have to pull out of this fight.
00:55:33.000And so I woke up the next day, and I was like, alright, it feels okay, it felt better.
00:55:37.000So I hit pads and, like, did a couple things, and I was like, alright, whatever, let's just do it.
00:55:42.000So let's freaking go into the fight, and I ended up, I knocked that dude down, hit him in a triangle, choke him out, win the fight in whatever, less than a minute, and I'm like, fire it up, and I'm like, let's go, let's do it again, get me in there again in December, I tell Dana and Hunter, and they're like, done.
00:55:59.000And so then everybody's like, he's fine in December, and I got back home, and I was like...
00:56:17.000So I don't, I don't do that anymore, but, yeah, I, getting, so, going from regional scene, contender series to UFC, it was like, I kind of went a lot faster than I wanted to, but I, uh, I felt like I wasn't going to be able to get the fights, and the UFC can get me the fights.
00:56:38.000And so now, in the past, really since whatever that was of 2022, so the last year and a half, really over a year span, I fought five times professionally.
00:56:49.000And then I was thinking, I can keep going at this pace.
00:56:53.000I can fight five more times in the next year.
00:56:57.000I can only fight so many guys until I'm moving up into the top 15, top 10. I've only trained MMA a little over two years, so is that really the best move for me?
00:57:09.000Do I want to be fighting a top 15 guy in the world?
00:57:15.000Or do I want to, you know, take control while I can, slow it down, learn, develop, get better?
00:57:20.000Like, I'm still a prospect, so, you know, these type of things are things that are on my mind, things that, you know, people that I'm close with, coaches, have, you know, just helped me with, because, like, I want to get there, right?
00:57:31.000Like, I have goals and a plan, but there's also, I think, a better way to go about it that I'm trying to be, you know, considerate of and manage.
00:57:42.000Yeah, well, I think you're doing a great job in that regard.
00:57:45.000And I also think, I'm very happy that you decided to go with the UFC. Because no disrespect to the other organizations, there's very good fighters in the other organizations, but I often feel like they're wasting their career.
00:57:56.000Because I see these elite fighters that are fighting in Bellator and PFL. I'm like, hey guys, no one's watching.
00:58:34.000To me, Johnny's probably the best middleweight on the planet right now.
00:58:38.000I really wish that guy would come to the UFC. Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, To me, when I was making that decision, it really wasn't a decision because I knew I was like, I'm going to be in the UFC. That was always what I wanted to do.
01:01:26.000After I signed my UFC contract and knew I was going to fight, the two things I always wanted was I wanted to have Bruce Buffer announce me and I wanted to do a post-fight interview with you.
01:01:37.000I was like, yo, these two things, those are bucket list things for me.
01:03:39.000Did you hear what he said yesterday or a couple days ago?
01:03:42.000He was talking about the Revolutionary War.
01:03:44.000He's like, one of the reasons why we lost the Revolutionary War, one of the problems with the Revolutionary War was they didn't have enough airports.
01:04:59.000We kind of worked with one of his secretaries to make some announcements and do some stuff, but then we just golfed for four hours, rode in the cart with him, and he was the coolest guy, so with it, so smart, asking me about fighting, we were talking about boxing, we talked about football, we talked about golf, and he was so sharp and with it, and it was me, this is the craziest thing, I grew up in a town of 5,000 people in Wyoming.
01:05:26.000Now I'm fighting on the UFC and then with Trump golfing.
01:05:31.000It's me, Trump, O.J. Anderson, who's an NFL running back, Super Bowl MVP, and LT. That's the foursome.
01:05:39.000And I'm like, what the heck is going on here?
01:08:24.000In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington Commander-in-Chief.
01:08:41.000The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware, and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown.
01:10:09.000Because he's literally, I think this was 1998 that he said this.
01:10:14.000And literally he called what's happening.
01:10:18.000The level of contradiction is going to rise excruciatingly, even beyond the excruciating present levels of contradiction.
01:10:29.000So I think it's just going to get weirder and weirder and weirder, and finally it's going to be so weird that people are going to have to talk about how weird it is.
01:10:41.000And at that point, novelty theory can come out of the woods because eventually people are going to say, what the hell is going on?
01:10:58.000I look for the invention of artificial life, the cloning of human beings, possible contact with extraterrestrials, possible human immortality, and at the same time, appalling acts of brutality, genocide,
01:11:15.000race-baiting, homophobia, famine, starvation, because the systems which are in place to keep the world Sane are utterly inadequate to the forces that have been unleashed.
01:11:33.000The collapse of the socialist world, the rise of the Internet, these are changes so immense, nobody could imagine them ever happening.
01:11:45.000And now that they have happened, nobody even bothers to mention what a big deal it is.
01:11:51.000The mushroom said to me once, it said, this is what it's like when a species prepares to depart for the stars.
01:11:59.000You don't depart for the stars under calm and orderly conditions.
01:13:27.000I think we all have to think about it.
01:13:29.000Life is more strange now than it's ever been in the entire history of human beings.
01:13:36.000And getting stranger every day, like with this chat GPT shit and AI, like kids are using chat GPT to write papers and study their homework, just changing a few words about it.
01:13:49.000And you get – people are firing their lawyers just using chat GPT to – I've seen this.
01:13:56.000I'm going to give some people some game right now, but I'll go into chat GBT and you have to ask it the right questions, but I'll say, hey, formulate a game plan for this type of fighter.
01:14:06.000I'm a wrestler at middleweight, this, that, blah, blah, blah.
01:15:18.000And that artificial general AI is now like an intelligent life force.
01:15:24.000Yeah, it was funny because I've heard you say before, like, we're going to integrate with it and become part of it together.
01:15:31.000And the other day, my wrestling coach, so every day, he, Coach Kale Sanderson, he'll get up in front of the team and talk and, you know, tell parable or this and that.
01:15:41.000And then our director of ops needed the kids to go on their phones for something.
01:15:46.000And he was like, all right, everybody get your phones.
01:15:50.000It was something for tickets or something like that, for the matches.
01:17:09.000So I asked how to train for a sanctioned MMA match in Nevada under UFC rules against a professional fighter with a skill set equal to a wrestler such as Bo Nickel.
01:17:56.000Yeah, but I think that if it could figure out a way to integrate a video where it could study every single second of fight film that a person has and now points out, all right, every time...
01:18:08.000Every time you throw a low kick, they step to the left or something weird.
01:18:12.000But then it's like, okay, well, that's valuable.
01:18:16.000Well, I think if you can show fights, like say if you were supposed to fight a guy, let's say Sean Strickland, and then you take Sean Strickland, who's the UFC middleweight champion, and you put all of his fights...
01:18:29.000And then you take all of your fights and put that into ChatGPT.
01:18:33.000And then it says, okay, this is where I believe you have an advantage and this is something that you can do, that you can take advantage of when you're looking at specific things that he does.
01:19:32.000Like, I was listening to a John Jones clip.
01:19:34.000It was just a soundbite of him talking about how he analyzes film, which, to me, I think he's probably one of the best game planners in the sport right now, just with the way he breaks guys down.
01:19:48.000But he was talking about something that was really interesting.
01:19:50.000He was like, I even focus on how they flinch.
01:19:53.000Like, if I throw a feint at them, like, how are they flinching?
01:19:56.000Like, I've always thought about How does the guy react to certain techniques defensively?
01:20:02.000But he takes it to a whole other level of, alright, if I feint a jab, does the guy flinch the same every time?
01:20:09.000Does he try to catch it, or does he slip one way or the other?
01:20:28.000Yeah, and I would imagine a computer, something like ChatGPT with artificial intelligence is going to be able to see that better than anybody will.
01:21:07.000I like going out, you know, five miles into the mountains and just, I got my bow and let's figure it out.
01:21:13.000Like, let's figure out if I can make this happen.
01:21:16.000And, uh, so I think about something like that and it's so pure and valuable to me, that real human experience.
01:21:24.000And there's a lot of, obviously hunting is a great example, but there's a lot of different examples that, you know, you can have that in fighting as a good example, but It would be nice to have a GPS in my brain.
01:22:48.000It doesn't seem like it's going to be able to be stopped.
01:22:50.000It just seems like human beings have this insatiable thirst for innovation.
01:22:55.000Everybody wants the latest, greatest thing, and everything is constantly moving forward.
01:22:59.000I think it's hard for us to see it because we're in it, but I think we're...
01:23:07.000You ever see where they take like a bowl almost and they spin like a marble around it and it goes around the circle and then as it gets lower it goes faster and faster and faster and faster.
01:23:49.000So I've read this before, and I think there was a study that backed it, but humans, we can't understand things that naturally...
01:23:59.000We can maybe be taught, but our natural understanding of something like compound interest, we don't get that.
01:24:06.000That's why a lot of people think, All right, I'm not going to invest and put $5,000 or $7,000 into a Roth IRA. What's that going to do for me?
01:24:15.000But in reality, in 30 years, it's going to be $5 million or something like that.
01:24:19.000So we don't have a natural inclination to think that way.
01:24:22.000And so I feel like with what you just said, how many...
01:24:30.000A hundred years ago, imagine you showed somebody an iPhone.
01:26:30.000So, you know, it's like a balance, right?
01:26:32.000I mean, we all have our day-to-day life, family and things going on and, you know, got to get an oil change on your car and things like that.
01:26:41.000Alright, well there's also pretty significant evidence that we have some extraterrestrials flying around Earth.
01:26:50.000There's pretty much explicit evidence that certain people and organizations are trying to mass manipulate the entire population and make it...
01:27:02.000I forget what they call it, but basically whatever the thing where they're making all the world...
01:27:39.000No, Borla from Pfizer was talking about a pill that you would take Like, say if you took a pill, some sort of pharmaceutical pill, and the pill has a signal that it sends to people that it shows that you took it.
01:27:54.000And then it's like, imagine the compliance.
01:28:05.000You're a real threat to freedom with that kind of talk.
01:28:07.000Like, obviously, your drugs have not gone through the rigorous tests that you claim they have.
01:28:13.000Because the side effects that people experience from a lot of your fucking drugs are dangerous as shit.
01:28:18.000And if you're fast-tracking drugs and then imagine the compliance on these fast-tracking drugs with, by the way, the crazy thing when it comes to things like vaccines, there's no repercussions.
01:28:55.000I'm so skeptical and I feel very glad that I'm the age I am because I feel like people a little older than me, they got that heavy and they didn't really see a lot of the repercussions.
01:29:06.000They were the ones that got the negative ends of it.
01:29:08.000And I think a lot of people, at least Maybe their parents were a little more awake to that type of thing, but for sure it's huge now.
01:29:22.000I see on Instagram, every single person I see is buying 10 acres, homesteading, getting chickens.
01:29:32.000Drinking raw milk, eating beef liver, that's the trend now.
01:29:37.000People are starting to see, I'm not going to freaking eat McDonald's and take these drugs and do this crap.
01:31:18.000They learned a lot about how quickly people roll over.
01:31:21.000Well, I hope that there are more people now, too, that feel...
01:31:27.000More skeptical and more inclined to ask questions and feel like they can just make a decision what's best for them based on the information rather than the emotional response, right?
01:31:43.000So many people got with the emotion of it, and they didn't actually look into it.
01:31:49.000And I was glad that, you know, I feel like you set a good example and people that you're around of getting the information out there.
01:31:57.000It's like, I don't really care what...
01:31:59.000You want to think, like, this is the right info.
01:32:10.000And pay very close attention to people that are fighting against the truth and fighting against that information.
01:32:16.000Because what's interesting about now, and one of the things that McKenna talked about with the internet, is that I don't think anybody ever anticipated things like podcasts, like the Huberman Show or Peter Attia Show or Lex Friedman Show, where you're getting unbiased information, scientific information that is not connected to any official information.
01:32:40.000Government agency or news source where they're vetting all that and telling you what you can and can't say.
01:32:46.000And when you do say something that goes against their narrative, they fucking come for you hard.
01:33:04.000You don't give a fuck about the truth.
01:33:05.000And people started to realize, too, it's like, okay, if somebody can make money off something, if they're getting paid for this and that, You can't trust that information.
01:33:31.000But it is a great time though to get information because you're getting, like I talked about Huberman who's so fucking fantastic, you're getting unbiased source information from a legitimate scientist from Stanford Who's telling you, this works, and this is why it works, and these specific nutrients are responsible for these specific things that happen in your body.
01:33:52.000This was never available before, and now it's available for millions and millions of people.
01:33:58.000I mean, the Huberman's podcast is gigantic, and people are listening to it every day.
01:34:10.000And people are seeing these immense physical benefits from it, health benefits from it.
01:34:15.000Yeah, it's super exciting, you know, as somebody who I feel like, as an athlete, I kind of had to be a little ahead of the curve on that, just because I wanted to take care of myself.
01:34:25.000And so, you know, The cold plunge, the sauna, the nutrition, what's good for you, what's bad for you, understanding certain things.
01:34:34.000My mom and dad are doing cold plunge every morning now.
01:38:43.000I don't do hot until after I'm done training.
01:38:46.000I like to do hot with elevated heart rate.
01:38:48.000I like to do hot right after I do rounds in the bag.
01:38:51.000I like to finish my workout with Tabatas.
01:38:53.000So either I finish my workout with Tabatas on an Airdyne bike or a heavy bag.
01:38:58.000And then once I do that, then I like to go in when I'm at 90 beats per second, or per minute rather, and I go right in when my heart's already pounding.
01:39:09.000And then I get in that 185 degrees and just throw some water on the rocks and fucking suck it up.
01:39:32.000It's just hard that I know other people aren't willing to do.
01:39:35.000It makes me feel like I'm really living life.
01:39:41.000Because if everything's just comfortable and easy and you're never really that stressed and your body's never put under any pressure, you're just kind of floating and you're good.
01:39:51.000And I'm like, I would friggin' blow my brains out if I had to live that way.
01:39:59.000And I think that a lot of people are starting to Get more into that where their priority isn't comfort.
01:40:09.000I think for a long time in human history, the priority was just stay alive and if you can be a little comfortable, then that's great.
01:40:19.000But they were in circumstances where 80% of their life was really difficult already.
01:40:24.000So when they got that comfort, they enjoyed it.
01:40:26.000When you can sit on a couch in front of the fire after you've just been fucking busting your ass all day, exhausted, that's when comfort is appreciated and valuable.
01:40:36.000And when you got that, when humans were able to get that easily through cars and grocery stores and planes and things where everything was kind of cell phones at your hand, that stuff is such a distraction from being the best version of yourself.
01:41:07.000This bizarre place that we are where so many people are just seeking comfort and taking the path of least resistance and trying to do things the easiest way possible.
01:41:16.000And people have never been more depressed, never been more unhappy, never been more unsatisfied, more lost.
01:41:21.000More existential crisis and it's got to be connected to that because I think the human body and the human mind have Requirements in terms of you need tasks and you need difficult things to do and if you don't do those things There's a contrast you don't enjoy the easy moments unless you have hard moments.
01:41:40.000Oh for sure Yeah, I mean I know for a fact that's true because If I were to just go eat an In-N-Out cheeseburger, it would be nice.
01:41:49.000But after I go through a full fight camp and I cut 20 pounds and then I go win a fight and then I head to In-N-Out and have that cheeseburger, I'm like, hell yeah.
01:42:36.000Didn't go to bars, didn't party, no alcohol, nothing.
01:42:39.000Just straight up focus and that was it.
01:42:43.000And then I remember my buddy and I, Anthony, the guy I keep bringing up, we both won national titles our senior year and the next week we went out and we had a freaking time.
01:43:32.000Hey, I wanted to talk to you about Sam Calavita.
01:43:34.000I'm very fascinated by that guy because I've seen some of the footage of the training sessions that they put on in his garage with TJ Dillashaw.
01:43:43.000Juan Archuleta and a lot of those guys that go down there and train with him.
01:43:47.000And it just seems like he's got very unusual strength and conditioning approaches.
01:43:55.000Coach Cal, I don't even like to talk about the garage because it's like PTSD, like seriously.
01:44:04.000I feel like the trauma that I've lived in my life has been through, you know, I've been very fortunate, so I haven't been through any real trauma, but in my mind the real trauma is like Losing at competitions and these crazy hard training sessions and the garage really, dude.
01:44:20.000It's like, bro, he kills us every time.
01:44:22.000And it's interesting that it is just like a two-car garage.
01:44:25.000So, yeah, you just roll up to his house.
01:44:27.000Pull up the video of Sam Calavita at the garage.
01:46:35.000And so I show up, and he's got his garage door open, and he's got, like, the big-ass, you know, 70 to 120-pound med balls set out and, like, all this stuff.
01:46:56.000He always does this thing, too, where It goes 0-100 at the beginning.
01:47:02.000It's not too much to where you're going to get injured or anything, but the workout will be like, alright, hop on this BOSU ball, and I'm going to throw this 70-pound med ball at you as hard as I can.
01:47:10.000You're going to catch it and throw it back to me, and we're just going to freaking get after it.
01:47:13.000Or hold on to this 50-pound med ball and hop backwards up this hill.
01:50:09.000Because I don't feel like physically, it's not a physical benefit thing.
01:50:13.000And a lot of times, too, he's teaching us a lot of new things that we're implementing in the program.
01:50:18.000So he might do three or four different things that are different days for us, but we have to learn them and how to do the exercises there, and we only have one day to do it.
01:50:29.000So now it's like we're doing all of this in one, whereas now I'll go back home and this will be split up.
01:50:34.000So he's trying to teach us stuff as well.
01:50:36.000But it's more just like, hey man, you want to work with me?
01:53:00.000How do you, because you're saying you essentially organize everything yourself when you're back at home.
01:53:05.000How do you decide, like, when to do strength and conditioning, when to do skill acquisition, when to do specific drills?
01:53:14.000So, because I have trained so much and so long and because my dad was a coach, so my dad was always putting programs together for his teams, understanding Peaking, understanding how to periodize, understanding when we want to have tough matches, when we want to push ourselves.
01:53:31.000That was something I was always around.
01:53:33.000And then coming into Penn State, it was like that on steroids.
01:53:36.000And so I think a lot of it is just learned and absorbed from what I've been around.
01:53:43.000And just seeing a typical schedule of when our coaches have had us do certain things and when we've had recovery days and stuff.
01:53:52.000So it's not something that I've really had to go find.
01:53:57.000It's just been ingrained in me since I was five.
01:53:59.000And I had a good example with my dad because he coached...
01:54:03.000Tons and tons of high school state champions, state championship teams, and guys who went on to compete in college and do big things.
01:54:11.000I got that solid idea of what it takes to organize a program very young.
01:54:18.000Like I said, when I got to college, it was like, okay, here's a new level.
01:54:21.000Then I started working with Coach Cal.
01:55:53.000That's for me what I feel like is the right move.
01:55:56.000And I think people are doing too much, honestly.
01:55:59.000People are going every day, twice a day, and it's like...
01:56:02.000Not really, to me, manageable, reasonable, and I think they're overtrained.
01:56:07.000How did you come to those conclusions?
01:56:09.000Was it through data or was it through trial and error?
01:56:12.000Well, that two days off comes from Coach Cal.
01:56:15.000Yeah, that's from him and all of his data and his trial and error, and also, like, From Penn State, from our program, how we've run things and stuff.
01:56:25.000So that was a standard for me as soon as I got to college.
01:56:41.000And I'm really fortunate because my buddy Anthony, me and him are on the exact same schedule.
01:56:45.000So we always just do everything together, which is great.
01:56:47.000Because now I have a partner to do all these things with.
01:56:51.000But we have a bunch of basically bodyweight exercises and stretches and certain things that we do alongside the contrast tubbing and sauna.
01:57:01.000And then I'll either get a massage or go to the chiro and basically just take care of all the little things I need to.
01:57:10.000I have specific injuries I need to focus on.
01:57:14.000To me, you get an injury, you don't just do rehab for eight weeks and then move on.
01:57:18.000I'm always taking care of these things so that I never have re-aggravated.
01:58:22.000So I would like to fight this fight, and then my next fight, I would like to get somebody that's maybe right outside the rankings, right in there, like in the mix.
01:58:30.000And then hopefully that'll be ideally like July.
01:58:59.000They're like, they don't really do that.
01:59:01.000He's like, so you can either just do the UFC Miami card and then hopefully something, maybe something will fall out and you'll get there or you can guarantee yourself on 300. And I was like, well, I'd rather, I really want to fight on UFC 300. So let's just do that.
02:01:14.000No, seriously, go back and watch all my fights.
02:01:16.000So my last fight, I cracked the dude with the right hook, and he kind of came over the top and barely touched my head, but it was almost like a slap.
02:01:37.000I expected, like I said, to have a different path, but here I am, and I'm going to make the most of it, and I'm excited to just keep getting better is the main thing.
02:01:46.000I just want to keep getting better, improve, improve, improve.
02:01:49.000I have big goals and stuff, but the main thing is just keep getting better.
02:03:50.000I love that chess match too, you know, between you and the animal.
02:03:53.000It's the same as a fight and I actually like, when I got my bow, it was probably June or July and I started shooting it and I was like, Yeah, I'm not doing this this fall.
02:04:41.000But I just thought that was the coolest thing.
02:04:44.000When I go to Lancaster, they help me a ton.
02:04:46.000So they help me get set up correctly and things like that, which now when I tell people who ask me about it, who are interested in doing archery, I say, the most important thing is Go to a good archery shop and get set up and have them teach you good fundamentals.
02:05:01.000But you don't want to learn bad initially and then have to unlearn it.
02:05:04.000Yeah, all the other stuff, tinkering, what do you want to use for a release or stabilizer?
02:05:10.000Just get set up, get your draw link correct, get your peep height, get everything put on, get your grip right, and have a good starting point and good foundation.
02:05:20.000And then you can kind of go from From there, you're going to be on so much better trajectory if you're learning incorrectly from the jump.
02:05:28.000So I was able to learn correctly from the beginning.
02:05:30.000And then it's the same thing with striking.
02:05:32.000I just apply everything I know with wrestling, and now that's hunting and archery for me.
02:06:07.00080 pounds, and I have a pretty long draw length, so mechanical, like I'm not that worried about penetration.
02:06:13.000But, you know, in a longer shot or a follow-up shot, I have iron wheels as well for a longer follow-up where I'm more worried about something like that.
02:06:22.000And then, you know, like I said, it's going to be different for every animal, for every situation, so I think some people get so stuck on, like, This is the way to go.
02:06:30.000It's like, well, I mean, it's different for everybody.
02:06:32.000Like, if I have a 30 and a half inch draw, it's going to be different than somebody with a 27 inch draw.
02:06:37.000It's going to be different than somebody shooting 65 versus 80 pounds.
02:06:40.000It's like, you know, it's all, so I'm not married to anything, really.
02:06:50.000No, I feel like, so I wasn't originally using the index release, but once I started using the thumb release, I just got so much more accuracy and consistency, and it was like, I mean, that was just, to me, the way to go.
02:07:04.000Yeah, I killed my bull last one with a knock to it.
02:07:08.000I think it's just, it's such a great release, and I really do like the two fingers, too.