In this episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Joe and I talk about his recent victory over Francis Ngannou in the UFC Fight Night event in Las Vegas. We talk about how he broke the UFC's Puncher record, why he thinks he's better than everyone else, and why he doesn't care if people don't think he has natural power. We also talk about some of the most underrated strikers in the world and some of our favorite jiu-jitsu techniques and how they can help you improve your jiu jitsu game. Joe also talks about his plans for his next fight and what he's looking forward to in his upcoming fight against Neil Magny on Nov. 9th at UFC 246. We also discuss some of his favorite fighters to watch and who he would like to see him fight in the future and who to watch out for in his fight with in the PFL and UFC. We finish the episode with some thoughts on the upcoming UFC 246 fight between Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone and Khabib Nurcayare vs. Conor McGregor. And we talk about our favorite UFC fighters of the past and what we look forward to for the future of the UFC in 2020 and beyond. Enjoy! -Joe Rogan Podcast Check it out! -The Joe Rogans Experience Podcast by Night Podcast by Day, by Night all day long. - by Night, all day all day. by Night. Check us out! -By Night Podcast! - By Night Podcast, All Day! by Day by Night! By Night by Day Podcast! by Night by Night - By Day Podcast. All Day Podcasts by Night All Day by Day podcast. , All Day Morning Podcast, By Night, All Night Podcasts By Night - All Day, Night all Day, By Day, Day By Night! -Day by Night? -Night all Day Podcast, by Day all Day! -Night by Night -By Day Podcast? , by Night By Night podcast by Night?? -Day All Day? , By Night? by Night Night Podcast? -Day, Night, Day, Morning, Night? By Day? -Night, Night - Day, Any Day, Evening, Night...By Night, Any Night? - Night, Night?? -Day - Day...By Day, etc., Night, etc. etc., etc.. - Night? ... etc. -Day?
00:01:44.000And even then, probably there, I was probably light because I was injured.
00:01:47.000So I was probably about 212, 214 when I hit that.
00:01:50.000And just to put it up, I'm going to post it whenever I get back home.
00:01:56.000And I'm going to post a video and I'm going to post a picture also of me hitting higher than that at 181. I only have the picture, but Tuco, who's Brendan Allen's coach, was there.
00:02:05.000I think someone has kicked it up to like 187. I think that's the newest high kick, which is crazy.
00:03:41.000There is a thing, though, where you could unlock horsepower in a human being, but you only have so much when it comes to power.
00:03:51.000There are certain people, and I think we've all seen them, they just don't hit hard.
00:03:56.000Whatever reason and they look big they can look strong and then there's certain guys that for whatever reason they fucking hit crazy hard and they're not that big and a lot of it is Efficiency and fluidity and the technique and the leverage and that's all learned right, but there's like a certain thing to like Bone structure and just natural power.
00:04:20.000My bones got to be trashed, Joe, because I'm fucking having two surgeries and being beat up.
00:04:25.000I just think it's the amount of power that you generate.
00:04:27.000I mean, that's probably a lot of it, too.
00:04:29.000It's probably a corny thing to say, but I was told that I almost generate too much force for my bone density to handle.
00:04:48.000Dude, when you fought Razak Al Hasan, you are on...
00:04:53.000There's a thing that happens with fighters where you see them, you see anxiety, you see first fight, you see nerves, you see jitters, you see skills, but it's hard to see the full range of them.
00:05:07.000And then they start getting comfortable.
00:05:09.000And when they start getting comfortable, like the Mirshard fight, you just stomped him.
00:05:14.000But the Razak Alhassan fight, like, dude, you were on another level.
00:05:19.000That's like, when people talk about a guy in the gym, like, dude, you gotta see this motherfucker in the gym.
00:05:25.000And then, seeing that manifest itself inside the octagon, to me, that's one of my favorite things to see.
00:05:33.000I love watching guys show their potential.
00:05:36.000You know, and in that fight, Razak al-Hasan is a beast.
00:07:36.000I knew Gerald Mearshart, however you say it.
00:07:40.000Bro, I mean, that dude, to me, without being disrespectful, I don't know how he's been in the UFC. The guy I first fought, you know, he's not in the UFC anymore, but he had eight knockouts.
00:08:24.000It's on a big platform, but yeah, man.
00:08:27.000Abdul was just somebody you had to be careful with, but...
00:08:30.000I didn't think he boxed better than me, and I think DC even says that as I'm walking into the cage, and his best shot was to knock me out, and if he couldn't knock me out, he wasn't winning that fight.
00:09:53.000It's almost like, you know, I'm not going to say any names, but, you know, they're...
00:09:58.000There's a guy that just recently lost who I like, and it's like, man, when you've had that off button shut off to the point where you're frozen, it's not like you got TKO'd.
00:10:25.000But yeah, no, I've never been, I've never had the lights, like, shut off or anything, so thankful for that, but I pride myself on my defense, too, you know what I mean?
00:12:35.000I'm a huge fan of Yoel Romero, by the way.
00:12:37.000Yoel Romero is the freak of all freaks.
00:12:40.000I've said this many times before on this podcast, but he is the single most impressive athlete I've ever seen in all my years of watching fights.
00:12:57.000He was a part of the Cuban athletic program.
00:13:00.000And there's something about that dude, whether it's genetics or who knows what it is, but I've told this before, so I apologize if anybody's heard this.
00:13:07.000The UFC had brought him to a doctor after one of his fights.
00:13:10.000I think it was one of his fights in Australia.
00:13:13.000And the doctor said to the UFC, where did you get this guy?
00:13:18.000And they were like, he's one of our fighters.
00:13:21.000He said, I've never seen anything like him.
00:13:25.000I've never seen a human being like him.
00:13:28.000The tendons in his eyes are three times larger than normal.
00:13:32.000They said that his orbital bone, when it fractured, by the time they got him to the doctor, a couple days later, it already started healing.
00:13:41.000That dude was eating fucking bark or something from growing up.
00:13:45.000I mean, he was something super special.
00:13:48.000I have to say, he was someone that I loved watching.
00:13:53.000I loved that Paulo Costa and Joel Romero fight and whatnot.
00:13:56.000I was always sad that I never got to see him win a belt before he left.
00:14:00.000Well, he was in the UFC. He started in the UFC, I believe, in his very late 30s.
00:14:05.000Yeah, like 37. Yeah, something crazy like that.
00:14:08.000Like when he knocked out Lyoto Machida, I think he'd be like 38, 39. He was already at the range where most guys are looking to hang it up.
00:15:58.000I mean, I think if you want to have that peak performance, you want to have that peak human being for whatever you're trying to, you know, put them in.
00:16:43.000Like, if you are a athlete for a totalitarian dictatorship, like whether it's Cuba or Russia or China, whatever it is, they will do whatever they can to make their athletes the best.
00:17:08.000I apologize to people who listen, but...
00:17:11.000Brian Fogel, what he was going to do is he did a bike race, and he did a bike race natural, and he's a very good athlete, endurance athlete.
00:17:20.000So he did this bike race natural, and then he went to this guy who's the head of the Soviet anti-doping program, and he said, this is what I want to do.
00:17:28.000I want to do it natural one year, and then the next year I want you to just juice me up to the tits, and we're going to do a documentary and see how I do juiced versus natural.
00:17:38.000In the process of filming all this, it got released that the Sochi Olympics were rigged.
00:17:46.000And so what Russia was doing was they put a hole in the wall where the urine samples were, and they were swapping urine samples.
00:17:54.000So they're taking the dirty urine samples from their, because it was in Russia.
00:17:57.000So they're taking the dirty urine samples from their athletes and swapping it out for clean urine samples.
00:18:02.000But they got caught because they found these micro scratches on these jars that were supposedly impossible to open.
00:18:10.000And that these impenetrable jars, they store the urine in to make it secure.
00:18:14.000But then they did an analysis in the jar, and they said, like, somebody's been fucking with these jars.
00:18:18.000And so then they analyzed the urine, and then the whole house of cards came tumbling down while this guy was doing this documentary.
00:18:31.000That gentleman, who was the head of the Soviet doping program, got in the witness protection program and then spilled the beans on the Soviet Union.
00:19:03.000He's actually funny, but it's an amazing documentary.
00:19:07.000I can't recommend Icarus enough, but it just shows how far these countries are willing to go in order to gain national superiority by having their athletes gold medal more than anybody.
00:19:19.000Power, it's the most addicting thing, right?
00:19:21.000Yeah, and it's also, you know, it's national pride.
00:19:42.000It's funny because a lot of people have said shit to me, and I'm like, listen, when I came back after I broke my arm, I was big before I broke my arm, but I was big in the wrong way.
00:21:40.000And, you know, I lost sponsorships, I was depressed, suicidal, all that shit, and 20 years of my life, I think, at that point.
00:21:46.000So you were really concerned that that was the end?
00:21:49.000Yeah, I mean, look, Joe, I started this at four and a half years old, you know, I don't know how much you know, but, you know, I started this at four and a half years old, and I haven't seen another path, and this was my A, and there was no B. So if A didn't work, that was it.
00:22:01.000So at four and a half, you knew you wanted to fight?
00:22:04.000Eight years old, I knew I wanted to fight.
00:22:07.000Five years old, I did my first competition in Naga.
00:22:11.000And yeah, I mean, eight years old, I started developing like a little bit of a confidence.
00:22:16.000I was so run down and abused that that was where my confidence started coming from.
00:22:22.000I never had a dream of the belt, and I can say all these years, I've never had a dream of holding a belt, but I always had a dream of people chanting my name when I was walking out to a sold-out crowd.
00:22:30.000So that was always my dream, and I've always wanted that.
00:22:34.000And, yeah, I mean, I wasn't a kid that hung out with kids.
00:22:38.000You know, I was homeschooled, and, yeah, there's a lot of detail to uncover in there.
00:22:43.000But, yeah, I mean, I've known I wanted to do this all my life.
00:22:47.000And when I tell you there was no plan B, bro, there was no plan B. When did you have your first MMA fight?
00:23:59.000You know, so when I say I know, a lot of these guys will say, oh, I know these people.
00:24:02.000I'm the OG in the gym as the young guy because I've been around for so long.
00:24:09.000So that's why when these fucking clickbait turds come out and they say, oh, you know, he's fighting a guy with a lot of experience and Gerald Mearshaw, he's got the most submission.
00:24:17.000I'm like, motherfucker, you're not doing anything that I have never seen.
00:24:22.000Now, there's a difference between watching on the TV and saying, ah, he doesn't do anything special.
00:24:26.000And you get in there and you feel somebody's presence.
00:25:14.000I don't want to give the short version, right?
00:25:16.000This is a moment right now that I get to recognize that I'm in front of somebody who has, you've heard so many stories, so many crazy things, and you know, my story is definitely not up there with the crazy things, right?
00:25:26.000But my story, I'm unique, I'm one of one.
00:25:29.000So my story is, you know, I started out, the abuse started when I was a year old.
00:25:36.000My parents both blame each other, you know, child services in and out of our lives.
00:25:59.000The story is I shit my diaper reached in my diaper wiped on the walls and then I got beat for it Neither parent owns up to it, but both parents have blamed each other Just because of the physical physical abuse on my father's side hundred percent has to be him My mom was not Physically aggressive by nature,
00:26:18.000you know, I mean she she definitely what my ass, you know A good amount, but it was never with the mean intentions You know comparable to my father It was more verbal on her end, but uh, but yeah, so it started then and bro since the time I've had memory I remember getting my head stomped getting beat getting screamed at slap Humiliated just run down told you're never gonna be anything and you know,
00:26:42.000my sisters received unfortunately received the the same treatment and Yeah, so I mean abuse has been something and toxic and I mean toxic like when I want to say like Breaking somebody down.
00:26:54.000I didn't have an ounce of self-esteem.
00:26:57.000I didn't know no life being homeschooled You do school right that is he still around?
00:27:03.000Still living yeah still living I'm not sure where I've parted ways with him and I don't want to talk to him next time I see him is probably you know yeah when it's done and I don't hate him.
00:27:18.000I don't hate him, but I despise him as a human being as far as, you know, what he's given back to the world and the kind of person that he's accepted to be.
00:27:26.000But yeah, I mean, yeah, he's still around.
00:27:28.000I just don't know where and I don't really care where.
00:27:30.000So I know my mom still lives at the house that I grew up in.
00:27:34.000It's so hard to believe that some people are capable of becoming what they become, you know, and to do that to their child.
00:27:43.000You know what's fucked up about it the most is that It was almost better for me to have never known him than to know him and see how it went and lose him.
00:28:00.000And I never thought he was a liar, you know, and then right around 15 years old, and I definitely think I was behind, you know what I mean, socially, just because of being homeschooled.
00:28:10.000So my dad wound up getting a social security disability, and he was a stay-at-home dad, you know what I mean, collecting SSD and fucking doing nothing, but beating his kids and screaming and sitting, basically just being, you know, a child abuser to all of us, you know, and...
00:28:28.000Never once has he ever taken accountability for the wrongs that he's done.
00:28:31.000And if he's tried to finagle it, it's been to be like, hey, you were a bad kid.
00:28:38.000It's like, yo, I want to know how I was a bad kid.
00:30:19.000It's a horrible thing to hear You know as parents it's terrifying to think that a parent another parent could do that to their child But we all know it's true and we all know that it can do one of two things to someone It could just ruin your life or it can give you this unstoppable fuel and that's what it seems to have done with you I would never wish that on anybody but I often see people like you that are so fucking driven and so angry in there and And so effective because of that,
00:30:48.000so dangerous because of that, I often wonder, is it even possible to make a guy like you without that?
00:31:33.000And, you know, he got jumped all the time.
00:31:36.000Back then, it was, you know, a very segregated type, you know, you don't come into this part of Philly and you don't cross this part of Philly.
00:31:43.000And so he would get jumped all the time.
00:31:44.000I think he was like a timid, like skinny, nerdy, malnutritioned child growing up.
00:31:50.000So I know his dad, my grandpa, who I've met a handful of times, was in the Vietnam War.
00:31:57.000But then when he came back, apparently my dad's story is that he used to sell drugs all the time and It was always high.
00:34:44.000So I think that from what I've heard, I think it depends on the commission and where you're fighting.
00:34:50.000In PA, I know he has to have, I think, and I may be wrong, so somebody don't roast me for it, but I think you have to have, I think it's called a 2200. It has to be some type of visibility.
00:35:01.000So you have to be able to see objects?
00:35:27.000But my point is I try to give back to a lot of my teammates because I didn't let the things that hardened me and made me upset become a piece of shit.
00:40:03.000It seems like that's what they want to do.
00:40:06.000It seems like that's the fight that they want to do.
00:40:08.000But he keeps vocalizing to Tom Aspinall, you know what I mean?
00:40:11.000And I feel like he already wrote, which we all kind of assumed, but I think he'll have that fight with Stipe if Stipe's still hanging around.
00:40:19.000And then, you know, kind of run off into...
00:40:22.000Maybe, or maybe he'll do Aspinol, depending upon...
00:40:25.000I don't think he has any interest, to be honest.
00:42:15.000When I say good fight, I think that this is...
00:42:20.000A fight that I'm very capable of winning at this point in time with the trajectory I'm on, with all the, you know, people call it hype, but I fucking earned it.
00:42:56.000We just got to do this man like you do this you're going back to the UFC and it was the first time I ever worked with my my head coach John Marquez and How far out did you break your thumb?
00:43:10.000Yeah, so bro when they grabbed my hand like the commission grant like the medical tent and they grabbed my hand I was like But I wound up getting it.
00:43:19.000I took an XL glove or double XL glove because, you know, my hands aren't that big, but I, bro, it was terrible.
00:48:38.000I live in a condo, so I got rid of it because I was going to put it in the house, and I was like, oh, my landlord wouldn't like that, so I was like...
00:48:44.000You're going to ride the bike right into the house?
00:48:46.000I was going to sit it in the living room.
00:48:49.000But I didn't do it, so I got rid of it.
01:00:57.000Well, I mean, regular Raptors are usually turboed.
01:01:00.000The regular Raptors are turbo six, and this is, I think it has the same engine as the GT500. I think that's the idea behind it, because it's 700 stock from the factory.
01:01:12.000And then Hennessy takes it and he jacks it up.
01:02:20.000I mean, these kids that are born into money, it's actually someone we both know where it's like sometimes...
01:02:27.000And even people back home, it's like I know people that have kids where it's like they don't know how to fit in because status and money and shit like that.
01:02:38.000So that could be damaging for a kid, you know?
01:03:33.000The other branch of that story is you got the abuse from at least my earliest memory of four and a half, five years old until 15 years old.
01:04:19.000So he found somebody to prey on, to manipulate, to do his thing.
01:04:22.000And then it was like, I don't need my kid no more after I went to court.
01:04:25.000I didn't understand the consequences of testifying in court against your mom and being dragged to court out of school and that humiliation.
01:05:54.000I lived in a two-bedroom apartment, and my dad, his girl at the time, which he's married to now, and her two daughters, we all lived in a two-bedroom apartment.
01:06:10.000So it was a terrible living situation.
01:06:15.000And then the beatings, man, I swear to God, he used to beat me up just to prove that he could...
01:06:20.000Beat me, you know, and show his girl that he was tough, and he, you know, like, nobody could fuck with him type of deal, and it was just like, man, so it got real dark, man, and started, like, stomping me, breaking my, like, broke my teeth.
01:06:33.000I had two crowns, you know, because of him, because of breaking my teeth, and I would curl up.
01:06:37.000Like, he would punch me like a grown man, but I would curl up, but he would throw uppercuts.
01:06:40.000Like, that's how intent this guy was on getting me.
01:06:45.000The last fight we had, it was over a fucking game called Uncharted 3. We were playing co-op, but because I would get more kills than him, this is the kind of shit he would rage at.
01:06:55.000Mind you, throughout all these years, he's on SSD. The reason being, he had a car accident.
01:07:02.000I forget the story of who blew the light, but when he was going through the light, he got t-boned, or he t-boned somebody, blew out his back, had to get surgery.
01:07:12.000Whenever he wanted to jump up and whoop your ass, though, dude wasn't crippled no more.
01:07:16.000So it's crazy, you know, and he would go box 15 rounds, but throughout 2004, all the way until I was 15 years old, and then some, this man was on narcotics all the time.
01:07:49.000Yeah, I mean, it just got worse as I got older, but I remember the last fight that we had, it was, you know, I used to, I remember I used to look at him and be crying and say, you know, like, how come you don't love me?
01:07:59.000Like, I got this empty hole in my chest, because I didn't understand emotion, so I'd, like, try to plead with him, like, yo, like, something's wrong with me, I got something, I got a hole, I got...
01:09:17.000And yeah, so I left, slept in the park for a couple nights, and then I wound up standing up for a kid, a black kid that was getting called Rachel Slurs, and that was my first friend I had made, and yeah, I mean, he wound up having...
01:09:38.000Unfortunately, he had some things that people would pick on him for, like being overweight, and he would say some weird stuff and whatnot, but yeah, he was the first friend that I developed, and his brother was in Juvie for arson, trying to light somebody's house on fire, and he was adopted by a white man.
01:09:58.000But the house that they lived in, bro, it was the most disgusting living environment you could fucking think of.
01:10:06.000Cat piss infested, hoarder of comics that were all destroyed from cat piss.
01:10:12.000Like every part of the house would have been sticky like your shoes would stick to the fucking floor and there were shit everywhere the smell was like a pneumonia Maggots in the sink because he refused for about four years to fix the garbage disposal That's how long I sat there broken live wire on the overhead of the oven so I lived in there and I wind up with I used to run papers to the courthouse and make like 75 bucks a week and So every time I would make a little bit of money,
01:10:38.000and his dad would give me some money sometimes to try and help straighten up the house.
01:10:42.000And I would buy bleach and fucking bleach shit and try to clean.
01:13:42.000Yeah, I mean, I owe my mom respect for that because she's a hard-working woman.
01:13:48.000And it didn't matter if she used to work at ShopRite, Home Depot, those were her two jobs, and then CNA, and, you know, she did what she could, you know?
01:14:35.000So, yeah, I mean, so my point is making light of something, you know, dark, you know, but then coming back to the dark side, man, if I didn't have MMA, I don't think I would be successful.
01:14:48.000I don't think I would have been strong enough.
01:14:50.000I don't think I would have had confidence, and I think life would have broke me, man.
01:14:54.000I think I would have taken, you know, the easy way out.
01:14:58.000You're in a great position now, though, man.
01:15:00.000You know, I know you've gone through hell, but I really do think that it's prepared you in a way that nothing else does.
01:15:09.000You know, just for the ability to overcome adversity, the ability to deal with things, and again, the superpower of that horrible childhood.
01:15:16.000It sounds like a terrible thing, I would never wish it on anyone, but when I know that someone has been through that, and then you see them succeeding, that's a special kind of person.
01:15:25.000That's a person that's got some extra gears.
01:17:21.000Was only there for a short period of time.
01:17:24.000The whole relationships wind up falling apart.
01:17:26.000I was trying to fight while knowing somebody that I thought was a best friend had fucked around with my girl while he was engaged to his girl.
01:17:32.000And that was my fucking living situation.
01:17:35.000And I was so, you know, eager to have a best friend that the motherfucker was never a best friend, right?
01:17:45.000Man, the heartbreak that I got every fucking turn, and this was two weeks before I had one of the biggest fights that really put me on a trajectory like, man, I'm gonna kill everybody I'm fighting.
01:18:10.000I never even put my hands on him to this day.
01:18:13.000But it was one of those times where you know how when you...
01:18:16.000I don't know if you've ever had this moment where somebody gets in your face and you're a kid and you have the chain quiver and you're like fucking nervous and it's like...
01:18:21.000It's almost like you're trapped in fear.
01:18:24.000Man, he said some shit about putting a bullet in my head.
01:18:28.000He said he was gonna come back and put a bullet in my head.
01:18:30.000I was like, yo, motherfucker, before you get to that car, I was like, I'm gonna bury you.
01:18:51.000He was a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, but I could beat him.
01:18:53.000And I think that started to intimidate him.
01:18:55.000And I think that's why the beatings got worse and worse and worse.
01:18:59.000I think he was scared that I was going to rise up against him.
01:19:05.000But yeah I mean that was the last time and yeah I mean shit man so I've just had like betrayal, betrayal, betrayal, betrayal but I haven't lost faith in people you know I met a couple really good ones that changed my life and you never let them go.
01:19:18.000The horrible thing about having horrible people in your life is it can ruin your faith in people but the one thing that it does do it makes you really appreciate good people.
01:20:32.000All these other gyms, all these other puppy mill fucking gyms that want to brag about this and that, and they got nice state-of-the-art shit.
01:20:37.000We got some hand-me-down fucking weights, and we're a grind, man, but we work fucking hard.
01:21:33.000And then when your response, when you try to express emotion, one of the things, because this shit haunts me to this day, because I wish I could have heard him.
01:21:43.000My sister said she wanted to kill herself because she felt like her dad didn't love her.
01:22:14.000We're like, man, something's about to go down.
01:22:15.000Like, as soon as she opens the door, like, grabs her by her hair, grabs her by her pants, fucking throws her, chucks her in the fucking room, starts strangling her in, like, threw her on the fucking couch, and then starts strangling her in between the cushions.
01:22:29.000And then we all have to fight them to get them off.
01:22:32.000That's your response to your daughter who's suicidal.
01:23:49.000I have a loss on my career as an amateur because I was 174 pounds fighting at 185, training twice a week with a full-time job with that girl that just fucked me up.
01:24:01.000My first pro loss, struggling with suicide, depression, things like that.
01:24:06.000Still hadn't settled that beef with myself.
01:24:09.000First time I ever went in a fight was absolutely dominating the fight.
01:24:59.000Mental health is something I fight every day, and the reason I keep bringing it up is because I'm going to fight, and I'm going to win, and then I'm going to take some time.
01:25:07.000And then I'm going to go on vacation, and I'm going to settle some things I got within myself.
01:25:13.000You feel like that's something that you have to do, like something you're putting off?
01:26:07.000And I also want to take time because I haven't taken a vacation since I've been in UFC a couple years before that.
01:26:13.000I haven't taken a vacation since before I broke my arm.
01:26:18.000I think part of, you know, one of my biggest things isn't holding the UFC title, but one of my biggest things is buying a beach house and that supercar I've always wanted, that Dodge Viper, and, you know, having a loved one and going and traveling the world before I'm dead.
01:26:32.000I think that's what my idea of peace and happiness is, and I'm desperately searching for it.
01:26:39.000Like I said, you get a lot of power off the horrible experiences of your childhood, but the key is to not be trapped by it forever.
01:26:46.000And that's where some people have to figure out a way to come Come to grips with your life and just accept it and to move forward in a positive way.
01:27:41.000To not live with it all the time would be very beneficial for you.
01:27:46.000Because then you would get all of the positive attributes that come from having a horrible childhood, which is this unstoppable drive, this fury that you can unleash inside the octagon that's very different than other people's.
01:27:58.000But you can get to the point where it doesn't consume your everyday life.
01:28:04.000And it's not something you have to think about all the time.
01:28:06.000And you can think about positive things.
01:28:08.000You can think about growth and expansion and progress.
01:28:11.000And I think you're very capable of doing that.
01:28:14.000It's just so many people, they rightly so, dwell on the horrible experiences of their childhood forever.
01:28:23.000And there comes a time where that doesn't serve you anymore, and it rots at you.
01:28:30.000Where even with success, you're still angry.
01:28:32.000Even with success, you're still bitter.
01:28:33.000Even with success, you still want to talk about it, you want to live it again, and you want to go over it in your head.
01:28:39.000And that can rot you out from the inside.
01:28:42.000Because at a certain point in time, your mind can't handle it anymore.
01:28:47.000Yeah, I would say I grew emotionally thin when I lost my first pro fight.
01:28:53.000I can talk about it now and I can evoke the strong emotions, what I remember with it, but I forgive them.
01:29:00.000I view my dad now as somebody, like I said, I don't respect as a man because I don't think he's the definition of what a man's supposed to be for someone that teaches their kids useful tools and whatnot, but I... I've forgiven him because I think it's beyond his help because he never got help.
01:30:52.000It's very common, so I think I find light, and you always hear me say, I don't know if you've recognized, but after every fight, I don't want to be a role model, but I want to be an inspiration for the kids that it's like, hey, stay in a sport.
01:31:19.000I would play chess every day with my wrestling coach during lunch because kids would laugh at me every time I said, I'm going to be in the UFC. Everybody would snuff, you know, like giggle at it.
01:31:30.000So I just removed myself, put myself in a better situation.
01:31:52.000That's a giant part of it, putting yourself around the right people.
01:31:55.000Either it's through watching documentaries about the right people, if you don't have access to the right people, or if you're very fortunate, like yourself, to get to a gym with these great people and to live like...
01:32:13.000Because when I joined that team, man, I was not in UFC. I don't think a lot of people had a lot of faith in me, but Coach John took me in and never charged me a penny.
01:32:24.000And I couldn't have afforded it if he did.
01:32:28.000I made the switch before I even got the second surgery.
01:33:12.000He's a very unorthodox power puncher like Ford, but there's a lot of openings to clip him, and he doesn't have a granite chin in my opinion.
01:33:19.000He could take a shot, but I don't think he's fought anybody that could test his chin yet.
01:34:22.000I have a lot of respect for Sean because Sean when I fought Gerald was in the back and even before I was in the UFC he said hey you want to come train?
01:34:29.000I said no because I knew it was like man like I don't like training with people that I'm gonna have to fight.
01:37:09.000And I might in a couple years, you know, but I think I would take the proper time to not be disrespectful and fight a fucking guy as big as Johnny Walker or somebody like that.
01:38:03.000Yeah, I use the guy Castro with UFCPI who's been great, and Charles a little bit.
01:38:08.000Okay, but UFCPI, those guys are experts.
01:38:11.000But I don't like, like I keep them updated with my weight cut as I'm coming down, but I don't do like, I don't know how people fucking water load, man.
01:38:33.000Yeah, I sweet sweat, do a couple rounds, pad work, get the sweat flowing, do it a couple ground and pound, you know, wrestling drills, and then do a couple ground and pound rounds, and then I'll hop in the sauna.
01:39:27.000I don't want to overeat, and I don't want to overdrink where I feel so bloated or I feel so heavy, but I probably walk in around 210, 208. So I blow up.
01:40:35.000I've been going as far as to say, somebody's fucking poisoning us, because there's no way that everybody I fucking know got sick at the same time, and everybody's sick for two, three weeks with it.
01:40:45.000Well, there's a COVID strain that's going around right now, and then there's the flu.
01:41:13.000Do you know what to do as far as how much to take of this and that?
01:41:16.000I just have my morning routine of everything I've taken and I got it from the UFC PI. They gave me a sheet and then I've been doing it for Long enough now that I know what I need.
01:43:12.000I mean, that guy is elite in terms of people who just trained grappling.
01:43:17.000And for him, a guy who was training MMA, fighting in the top echelon of the UFC, fighting against some of the best of the best, for him to go and beat Craig Jones in a straight-up grappling match, that's incredible.
01:43:34.000And that's the Phil Rowe, you owe me money.
01:43:36.000He bailed out of a bet he was supposed to, you know, and this was years, whatever, before I was in the UFC. You know, I met Phil Rowe playing with Randy Brown on Call of Duty.
01:44:54.000And it's just, you know, Calvin, I told Calvin a long time ago, dude, I go, if you're 170, I think you're a potential world champion.
01:45:03.000But at 85, the difference between a guy like you and a guy like him, just the physical frame difference, like Adesanya or Pajeda or any of these really big 85ers, they're just so much bigger.
01:45:14.000Drekus, the difference, like, Kelvin's my size.
01:45:18.000You're not just fighting talent, you know, let's say the skill is matched, now you're fighting size.
01:46:13.000I mean, I don't think he's working with a strict nutritionist that's really got it all dialed in.
01:46:17.000Hey, listen, like, I told people, too, in my post-fight, too, like, that was Sean's first time being overseas and whatnot, and look, he knows where he's best, right?
01:47:17.000I think there was a certain coach that's no longer on our team that I never fucked with, that shouldn't have been in his corner, and doesn't know how to fucking...
01:47:24.000Bro, the head coach, the guy that was supposed to...
01:47:53.000He had a mental bug and I think Sean's more of like an introvert where he keeps things to himself and he's very like his private life is his private life and you know and I can respect that versus me I'm outspoken and I'll say what I'm feeling and I said it the week at bro I was fucking sad as shit when I fought Abdul.
01:48:07.000I didn't turn it on until I started walking.
01:52:00.000I just watched some recent one where some guy went into a Muay Thai gym and the dude hit him with a leg kick and then fucking shinned him in the head.
01:52:58.000What are people telling you not to talk about?
01:53:00.000Ah, well, you don't talk about politics, you don't talk about people's parents, you don't talk about religion, shit like that, you know what I mean?
01:53:05.000I would say don't talk about other people's parents.
01:54:42.000But it was nothing that really made me feel like I was a special person until I started doing martial arts.
01:54:47.000Then when I started winning, and I became obsessed, I was training every day, and I started getting really good, winning tournaments, and then I realized, oh, I'm not a loser.
01:55:19.000I didn't have a lot of boxing experience.
01:55:21.000And some of the guys that I was training with were going into boxing, particularly this one kid, Dana Rosenblatt, who went on to be the New England middleweight champion.
01:55:29.000He beat Vinnie Pacienza, he beat Howard Davis Jr. Vinnie Pacienza fought Roy Jones.
01:55:39.000But when I was watching those guys, one of the things that I was seeing was brain damage.
01:55:45.000I was seeing guys where I knew them from five years ago and then I know them now and I was noticing slurring, a slowness to the way they were thinking.
01:55:55.000You know I was just seeing the people didn't just spar they fought in the gym and You know there's a lot of that from the early days of MMA as well You know particularly shoot the box those guys just beat the fuck out of each other like the old Miletic fighters those guys beat the fuck out of each other there was a lot of camps where The amount of damage,
01:56:17.000like I've talked to Shaub about this too, about him training with Shane Carwin and those guys back in the day in Denver, they beat the fuck out of each other.
01:56:26.000And the damage that you take in the gym, that shit counts.
01:59:12.000I don't like reading that stuff because that sits in the back of my mind, too.
01:59:16.000I don't want to be a fucking vegetable, right?
01:59:18.000But I'm not and I'm not knocking our pay, but we don't make what any other professional athlete makes Well, you do at the high end at the high end, right?
01:59:29.000Yeah, you know, I'm three fights in I'm fortunate to be getting the main event and I I don't know, but I was told that there's only one other person that's done that in my division.
02:00:52.000The moment hits you, it's a weird feeling.
02:00:57.000It's so different even for me sitting as a fan watching.
02:01:02.000Like you don't realize what that person's going through when you walk out and it's like a cold sweat because it's a fucking big-ass building like AC. It's like that cold sweat, but you're kind of hot and then you fucking realize when you're in there, it's like everything's like so amplified and you're like fuck man like I'm about to get into a fist fight.
02:01:19.000But then, that's where you make that decision.
02:01:21.000Once that finally hits your brain, which we all have it, you either can hone in on what you're about to do, or you can hone in on the fact that you don't feel like being there.
02:01:30.000And one of the things that I've come to terms with is, I think that changed my trajectory of my career and the way I fought.
02:01:36.000Because if you watch my early fights, I would just go out there and try to blitz and get out of there.
02:01:41.000And just fuck you up and knock you out and get out.
02:02:42.000And then it's very difficult to express that inside the octagon.
02:02:46.000So when you hear a lot of great things about fighters and then you see a performance, You got to go, okay, they got to get over the anxiety, they got to get over the pressure, they got to get over the experience boundary, because you do need experience in front of different styles, no matter what.
02:03:01.000No matter how well you train and how good your training partners are, you need live experience against really talented fighters to really develop to your full potential.
02:03:10.000And in the Razak fight, I saw it with you.
02:03:13.000I was like, okay, he hit another level.
02:10:56.000So I think that's kind of like a part of his defense.
02:10:59.000A lot of people that do the Philly show, like me, sometimes I'll dip into a certain side, and it's like he just kind of stands straight and leans and either puts his arms out.
02:11:09.000The problem with dipping with kicks is like...
02:12:26.000And when you look at the Volkanovski that fought Makachev the first time, that was a guy who went through a full fucking camp and was A +, rip ready to go, full gas tank, let's fucking go.
02:12:38.000Let alone what it does for you mentally.
02:12:43.000You have to go through that suffering to know that you were built strong enough to withstand what you're about to go through, and I won't take no fucking short notice fight.
02:14:47.000I remember I was so excited, we couldn't afford to fucking buy it, but I was like, when him and Brock Lesnar fought, and I was like, man, I just remember the hype video, and I was like, yo, these are two fucking giants.
02:15:00.000But then again, Brock probably shouldn't have taken that fight either, because Brock was just a few months out of diverticulitis surgery, where he had to get a length of his colon or his intestine removed.
02:15:11.000Thank God, man, I've never had anything like that.
02:15:13.000And to get kicked in the body like that from Alistair, who's a K-1 Grand Prix champion, and juiced to the tits at 260. Alistair was huge!
02:16:54.000I think it would be the cleanest organization to have...
02:16:58.000Every 10 pounds, but without like boxing, there's four different fucking belts at each weight class or whatever it is.
02:17:05.000Well, there is kind of with the UFC, you know, I mean people respect, obviously Jotty Eblen is like one of the best middleweights on the planet Earth, without a doubt.
02:17:13.000And unfortunately, he's fighting at Bellator and the casual has no idea who he is.
02:18:35.000When I look at a guy like Buckley, and hopefully he watches this or he doesn't watch this and get offended, How does he fare against somebody like...
02:18:45.000You still got Kevin Holland, who whooped him.
02:28:53.000I think they would have less deterioration of their endurance over the course of a five-round fight if they weren't fucking radically dehydrated 24 hours ago.
02:29:37.000But, you know, trying to convince guys to do that when there's guys like you that are cutting the weight that are massive for that weight class, it's crazy.
02:31:07.000And I didn't have a chance to ever have a power program because I took a fight a month after I won the contract.
02:31:13.000And then I didn't have a chance to have a weightlifting program because I'd had a comeback fight and then I broke my ankle.
02:31:19.000So I never got a long enough period to build my body back.
02:31:23.000And I also didn't have a strength coach.
02:31:25.000For some reason, I never thought I needed one.
02:31:27.000I made it to the UFC on the first before I continue.
02:31:30.000I made it to the Contender Series, hitting pads three days a week with the man that I brought, Sam Morpiza, who had a full-time job, and we would do it at 5 a.m., three days a week.
02:31:41.000I wrestled with one of my best friends, who literally was only a wrestler, had no MMA experience, and he was like 5'7".
02:31:49.000And he was just like a sauced fucking wrestler, and that's it.
02:31:53.000I literally, and I sparred with Corey Anderson once a week.
02:31:59.000That's how I was making all these fights, and I was knocking everybody out and doing all this.
02:32:02.000So now that I have structure, now that I actually have a system with Marquez, I have jiu-jitsu with Jonathan Webb, like, and I beat fucking Gerald Merchardt, the middleweight submission, highest fucking whatever.
02:32:14.000Dude got waxed, like, didn't even come close to beating me.
02:32:19.000My jiu-jitsu is underrated and my wrestling is underrated.
02:32:22.000But I think it will come to light with a guy like Jack.
02:32:26.000So you started the strength and conditioning program?
02:32:27.000So I started the strength and conditioning program.
02:33:03.000And then now I started putting on size and I wanted my back I've always had a real big back like strong back like wide and So yeah, I mean we were doing we were doing a power program and then we would go right into like Explosiveness and jumps and ladder drills and just doing real simple movements, but a lot of functionality like a lot of core twisting a lot of med ball slams a lot of kettlebell stuff and Yeah, that's my coach right there, Adam Ferris.
02:33:51.000I was going to be evicted from where I was living if I didn't get side money from Dana who gave me a place to live after I won my contract.
02:33:58.000And then when I got the 50 grand bonus, I was like, I'm going to fucking eat.
02:35:09.000And that's the only thing I'll say, and I'll leave my last.
02:35:12.000If you look at Jack, and you look at me the way my mind is, Jack's not been able to climb to the top, but he's been against the best, and he's lost to the best.
02:35:21.000Me, if you look at him where he is now, coming off an injury, 35 years old, do you look at him and say, hey, this guy could hold the belt?
02:36:00.000Can't say it yet, but this was actually filmed by Chandler Henry, who is actually a kid that I went to high school with, so now I got him a job and he does this for a living, and this was made by him.
02:36:12.000So we're hoping really soon, I just can't say yet, because that's Alex's job now.
02:36:15.000Alright, well Alex will take care of it, I'm sure.
02:36:17.000So we'll end on this, and this is available online, you can watch it.