The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #162 with Belal Muhammad

00:00:00.000 - Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out. - The Joe Rogan Experience.

00:00:06.000 - Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. - All right, what's up?

00:00:13.000 Good to see you, man.

00:00:14.000 Congratulations.

00:00:15.000 Appreciate you, man.

00:00:15.000 Good to see you, brother.

00:00:16.000 The champ is here.

00:00:17.000 Everybody has to shut the fuck up now.

00:00:20.000 That's the best part right now is now I can just talk as much as possible and they can't say nothing.

00:00:26.000 They can't say nothing.

00:00:27.000 There were so many doubters, so many naysayers, so many people didn't want you to get that title shot.

00:00:31.000 It was so unfair, dude.

00:00:33.000 It was really wild.

00:00:34.000 It was wild to see.

00:00:36.000 It really was.

00:00:37.000 It really was.

00:00:38.000 Because I'm like, are you guys not watching his fights?

00:00:40.000 Like, what the fuck are you guys seeing?

00:00:42.000 I do not understand when people don't appreciate excellence.

00:00:48.000 I really don't get it.

00:00:49.000 Like the Sean Brady fight, you see that fight, you don't think this dude is a fucking problem for everybody?

00:00:56.000 You see the Wonderboy fight, see all your fights.

00:00:58.000 And all of them, they've been different, right?

00:01:00.000 With Deshaun Brady, all I did was stand up.

00:01:02.000 I didn't shoot one takedown on him.

00:01:03.000 Gilbert Burns, I didn't shoot one takedown.

00:01:05.000 Wonder Boy, I took him down.

00:01:06.000 Obviously, I'm not going to strike with a kickboxer, so I've showed you guys all forms of martial arts.

00:01:11.000 And people still hate it.

00:01:12.000 They're still hating.

00:01:13.000 So crazy.

00:01:15.000 Even with the Leon fight.

00:01:16.000 I think they have to shut the fuck up.

00:01:19.000 I think everybody has to shut the fuck up and just recognize what you did.

00:01:22.000 Because you put so much pressure on him standing up.

00:01:27.000 You were in his face from the very first second of the very first round.

00:01:31.000 You just advanced.

00:01:32.000 And you could tell he wanted that space.

00:01:35.000 And you could tell it was a different experience than what he thought he was going to get from you.

00:01:39.000 Yeah, I mean, when we saw him against Kobe and him against Usman, the third fight, we saw that he's an expert at distance.

00:01:45.000 He manages the distance.

00:01:47.000 He puts it at his own pace.

00:01:48.000 So we were like, bro, we got to make this the dirtiest fight, the hardest fight for him.

00:01:52.000 So we got to step right away.

00:01:53.000 So even when the ref was, like, looking to me, telling me to back up, when he looked at Leon and said, you ready?

00:01:58.000 You ready?

00:01:58.000 I'm walking forward right away.

00:02:00.000 So I'm right in his face before he even, like, looks up.

00:02:03.000 So I was like, I got to get him on his back foot right away, make him uncomfortable.

00:02:06.000 And I knew he's not good uncomfortable.

00:02:09.000 No striker is really good moving backwards, but I knew Leon specifically, I don't want to be in his kick range.

00:02:14.000 I don't want him at his slow pace like he did against Kobe and these guys where he kicks, moves, kicks, moves.

00:02:20.000 I'm like, I'm going to be in his face nonstop, punching him in his mouth and taking him down whenever I see an opening.

00:02:26.000 The Kobe fight I thought was going to be different.

00:02:29.000 I think Kobe broke his foot real early in that fight.

00:02:33.000 I mean, I think Kobe sucks, but...

00:02:35.000 For me, I think that Kobe wasn't...

00:02:38.000 He's just not a good striker.

00:02:40.000 Even with the fights that we see that he was really good at, it was just because he put a good pace on all these guys.

00:02:45.000 And he dictated the pace with RDA and Robbie Lawler, all these guys, but none of those guys really had that type of cardio.

00:02:53.000 When we saw him against Usman...

00:02:55.000 Usman showed you, alright, he could keep up that pace with Kobe, and then Kobe can't take him down, so it ended up being like a kickboxing match.

00:03:01.000 For Leon, he knew if he dictated the pace with Kobe, Kobe wasn't going to be able to do anything to him.

00:03:06.000 And I don't think the time off, I think, hurt Kobe's distance management because his shot takedowns were terrible in that fight.

00:03:12.000 Like, he didn't...

00:03:14.000 If he's telling the truth, though, I think the foot had a big factor.

00:03:17.000 I think he broke his foot.

00:03:19.000 I think Leon checked the kick real early on, or he kicked low and hit the shin and broke his foot, hit the knee, something.

00:03:25.000 I don't remember exactly what happened, but apparently in the first round he broke his foot.

00:03:30.000 If you can't move against Leon, you're in real trouble.

00:03:34.000 Yeah, especially because Leon's so good at his lateral movement and his kicks hurt so hard.

00:03:39.000 So for me, I was like, I can't be in kicking range at all.

00:03:42.000 I think I felt like one body kick early and I was like, alright, let me step forward on it.

00:03:47.000 So even with my mindset the whole camp, I probably took...

00:03:51.000 2,000 to 3,000 body kicks and then move forward on each of them.

00:03:54.000 And if I backed up at all, my coach is yelling at me, look what you did here.

00:03:57.000 You did this wrong.

00:03:57.000 Move forward.

00:03:58.000 Move forward.

00:03:59.000 We can't take one step back.

00:04:01.000 So I was writing it down.

00:04:02.000 I was putting it in my head.

00:04:03.000 Do not take a step back.

00:04:04.000 Do not take a step back.

00:04:05.000 And then it just came out in the fight.

00:04:07.000 It came out perfect.

00:04:08.000 It was a master plan.

00:04:10.000 It really was.

00:04:11.000 Watching you execute it, I was just so shocked, first of all, his inability to deal with you on the feet.

00:04:18.000 Because even if it was just a kickboxing match, there was so much pressure and so much volume of strikes.

00:04:24.000 You were constantly on him.

00:04:26.000 Your boxing was so on point, man.

00:04:28.000 It would look better than it's ever looked.

00:04:29.000 Yeah, I think people just underestimate me when they look at me because they say, oh, he doesn't have a bunch of knockouts.

00:04:35.000 But when you look at my fights and you see the way I've pieced up a lot of these big names like Gilbert and Sean Brady, I beat them both on the feet.

00:04:43.000 And for the Leon fight...

00:04:46.000 My gym is small, but I work with, I think, who's the best striker in the UFC right now.

00:04:50.000 He's a 55er, Ignacio Balamondes.

00:04:52.000 Like, this kid is a monster.

00:04:54.000 He probably has like...

00:04:54.000 Monster.

00:04:55.000 You saw, yeah, his spinning heel kick knockout.

00:04:57.000 Dangerous dude.

00:04:58.000 I'm sparring with this dude every single day.

00:05:00.000 So I'm like, nothing that Leon was going to throw at me was going to surprise me.

00:05:03.000 Nothing was going to make me uncomfortable.

00:05:05.000 And for me, if you're beating me up, I want to keep going to you.

00:05:09.000 So for Nacho, I'm like, bro, throw the kitchen sink at me.

00:05:12.000 I want you to throw everything you have in your tool bag at me so whatever Leon throws, I'm just going to be comfortable in that fire.

00:05:20.000 So for me, it was just nonstop, nonstop, sparring, sparring, sparring.

00:05:23.000 Even if it's not hard sparring, light sparring, just enough to see everything and have my reaction time.

00:05:28.000 And I think that helps a lot with the way I've been fighting lately.

00:05:31.000 How much time did you have to prepare for Leon?

00:05:34.000 I had about eight weeks.

00:05:35.000 Did you kind of have an inkling that it was going to happen before that?

00:05:39.000 Like, had you been preparing mentally before that?

00:05:42.000 That was the hardest part, right?

00:05:43.000 The lead-up, because it was after beating Gilbert, they were like, you're guaranteed next.

00:05:48.000 And then you're like, when is it happening?

00:05:51.000 They're like, well, Kobe has to fight first.

00:05:52.000 So then I'm sitting there playing the waiting game.

00:05:55.000 And then they offered me Usman.

00:05:56.000 They're like, well, you know, if you don't want to wait, we can give you Usman.

00:05:59.000 So we were at talks with Usman, and then Usman ended up fighting Hamza on short notice.

00:06:03.000 So then I was like, alright, well, there's nothing else they can put in front of me.

00:06:05.000 It's going to be me against the winner of Kobe and Leon.

00:06:08.000 Then that fight happens, and then Leon's trying to brush it off like...

00:06:11.000 Nah, there's still other guys I could look at and see who's next.

00:06:14.000 And he even brought up Gilbert Burns.

00:06:16.000 And I'm like, bro, I just beat Gilbert Burns.

00:06:18.000 So I'm sitting there, you know, in limbo.

00:06:20.000 Like, what's happening?

00:06:21.000 I'm calling my manager every day.

00:06:22.000 And Ali is my manager.

00:06:24.000 And he's like, bro, trust me.

00:06:25.000 Dana's not going to go against his word.

00:06:26.000 He's going to give you the shot.

00:06:27.000 He's going to give you the shot.

00:06:28.000 And then all of a sudden, a 300 comes up.

00:06:30.000 And I'm like, oh, so we're probably going to be 300. And then they say, oh, they offered to fight to three other guys.

00:06:35.000 And I wasn't one of those guys.

00:06:37.000 So then, like...

00:06:38.000 I'm sitting there like, bro, wait.

00:06:39.000 No way am I about to get screwed right now.

00:06:41.000 Are they going to give it to somebody else?

00:06:43.000 Did you ask...

00:06:44.000 Like, why didn't I get the fight at 300?

00:06:47.000 If they were trying to get Leon to fight at 300, why didn't you get that title shot?

00:06:51.000 For me, it was just...

00:06:52.000 I put it out there.

00:06:53.000 I said if they really wanted Leon to fight there, they would have put me on there.

00:06:56.000 Because I said yes.

00:06:57.000 You know, they said they asked Islam, they said they asked Shavka, they said they asked Hamza, and they all said no because of Ramadan.

00:07:04.000 But I fought multiple times during Ramadan.

00:07:06.000 So for me, I'm like, if they really wanted Leon...

00:07:10.000 They could have had him with me.

00:07:11.000 But I think they just wanted to have that shock factor with 300, where it's like, oh, double champ status for Islam.

00:07:17.000 Or Habsett's obviously a huge star.

00:07:20.000 He comes back down.

00:07:21.000 So I think they just wanted that.

00:07:22.000 And Leon's not a promoter.

00:07:23.000 He doesn't really promote his fights in general.

00:07:25.000 Obviously, he's a great fighter.

00:07:27.000 But for 300, I think they want somebody that's going to try to push the event.

00:07:30.000 Yeah, but still.

00:07:32.000 Yeah.

00:07:32.000 The rules are the rules.

00:07:34.000 You know, a guy makes it to the top of the heap.

00:07:36.000 He's supposed to be next in line for a title shot.

00:07:37.000 Yeah, I mean, for me, I'm like, what else do I got to do?

00:07:40.000 All the purists felt that way.

00:07:43.000 I didn't see anybody who's like a real solid MMA fan who felt that was a lot of the casuals.

00:07:49.000 A lot of the casuals jumping in with their goofy opinions on things.

00:07:53.000 But that's the age we live in, right?

00:07:55.000 The troll age.

00:07:56.000 Nobody has a profile picture.

00:07:58.000 They just say the dumbest stuff.

00:08:00.000 Well, not only that, you have a...

00:08:02.000 Look, the reality of the numbers is...

00:08:05.000 I had a joke in my act that 90% of all Twitter is done by 10% of the people, and those people are 100% retarded.

00:08:13.000 It really almost is that.

00:08:15.000 I mean, it's a joke, but it's kind of almost true because...

00:08:18.000 Are you commenting on shit all the time?

00:08:20.000 Do you go to someone's YouTube videos and talk shit?

00:08:22.000 No.

00:08:22.000 You're busy.

00:08:23.000 You're busy being the fucking welterweight champion of the world.

00:08:26.000 You ain't got no time for that.

00:08:27.000 So the people that have time to be doing that all the time are, unfortunately, generally not doing that good.

00:08:35.000 Michael Jordan's not leaving YouTube comments.

00:08:37.000 You know what I'm saying?

00:08:38.000 It's like the people that are engaged in these attacks on specific fighters in particular, they're usually just dorks.

00:08:46.000 And I get it that these dorks buy pay-per-view, and I get it that these dorks...

00:08:49.000 But they're not most people.

00:08:51.000 Most people want to see the best people fight the best people.

00:08:54.000 And would it be exciting to see Islam go up and try to win at 170?

00:08:58.000 Fuck yeah, it would be.

00:08:59.000 I'd be all in for that fight, unfortunately for you.

00:09:02.000 I mean, it sounds great, but...

00:09:04.000 If I was running things, I'd be like, the fights are going to be fucking great anyway.

00:09:09.000 It's UFC 300. Everyone's going to be super hyped up.

00:09:12.000 There's so much on the line.

00:09:13.000 It's a crazy fucking card.

00:09:14.000 That's a great fight.

00:09:16.000 It's a great fight.

00:09:17.000 Yeah, and it's two guys that are on 10 fight winning streaks.

00:09:21.000 Yeah.

00:09:22.000 But how weird was it to have to do the fight at like 5 in the morning?

00:09:25.000 Oh my god.

00:09:26.000 So let's explain that to people who don't know.

00:09:30.000 The UFC that was done in England was done on American pay-per-view time.

00:09:34.000 So the card had to start, what did it start, like 1 a.m.?

00:09:38.000 Yeah, it started, yeah, the first fight was 1 a.m.

00:09:40.000 First fight of the night.

00:09:42.000 1 a.m.

00:09:44.000 Undercard.

00:09:44.000 UFC fight pass.

00:09:46.000 First fight of the night.

00:09:47.000 That's crazy.

00:09:49.000 That's so crazy.

00:09:51.000 As if we can't watch it earlier in the day.

00:09:54.000 As if UFC fans on a fucking Saturday are going to say, oh, the pay-per-view starts at noon.

00:10:00.000 Okay.

00:10:01.000 We watch football games at noon.

00:10:03.000 We wouldn't watch world title fights at noon.

00:10:05.000 Making you guys fight at 5 in the morning to me was bananas.

00:10:09.000 I was like, that is so contrary to anything you would want from optimum physical performance.

00:10:16.000 Yeah, it was wild.

00:10:17.000 Like, we got down there the week before on Saturday.

00:10:21.000 And, you know, we found a gym, so we're like, let's start trying to work out at 4 a.m.

00:10:25.000 Because being the main event, they said we'd probably be on around like 5, 5.30.

00:10:29.000 So the hardest part was just trying to stay up from midnight to 4 a.m.

00:10:34.000 to go drive to this gym.

00:10:36.000 And, you know, we had like a big house, so we had a bunch of people with us.

00:10:40.000 But one person yawns, and it's like, addictive.

00:10:42.000 And it's like, bro, it's midnight.

00:10:44.000 We're all just like watching Netflix.

00:10:45.000 And then we like, we didn't have no games or anything.

00:10:48.000 So we're just like trying to watch movies.

00:10:50.000 Wow.

00:10:50.000 And then one guy yawns.

00:10:51.000 You're like, I'm gonna go upstairs by myself for a second.

00:10:54.000 And then just like, the PI is really good because they gave us like some jet lag like glasses that shine light in your eyes that you're supposed to turn on right when the sun sets.

00:11:05.000 Because when the sun sets, you start getting melatonin.

00:11:07.000 Uh, in your body and it makes you want to go to sleep.

00:11:09.000 So they like, put this on when the sun sets so it like shocks your body, make you think it's about to be sunlight.

00:11:14.000 Really?

00:11:14.000 Yeah.

00:11:15.000 Oh wow.

00:11:15.000 So I'm walking around the house with like these glasses that are like shining light in my eyes and it still was hard.

00:11:23.000 Your body's like, fuck you bitch, it's three in the morning.

00:11:27.000 We went to go work out.

00:11:28.000 So I'm trying to get everybody to work out with me.

00:11:30.000 So like we had Maybe five or six guys with us.

00:11:34.000 And then the gym was at 30 minutes away.

00:11:36.000 So by the time we finished working out at night, the sun was rising because it was like 7 a.m.

00:11:42.000 And I'm like, how am I about to fall asleep right now?

00:11:44.000 So I would take melatonin, fight week, And then it would wake me up at like 2 p.m.

00:11:49.000 And I would still be a groggy the rest of the day.

00:11:51.000 And then you have to do like interviews and stuff like that.

00:11:54.000 It was hard.

00:11:56.000 So did you try to stay on Chicago time the whole thing?

00:12:01.000 I tried, but it was still hard just because, like I said, that time in between where that board time.

00:12:07.000 Right.

00:12:08.000 Where we're like, all right, we got to work out at 4 a.m.

00:12:10.000 And then, you know, during the day we had interviews and stuff starting at 3 p.m.

00:12:14.000 They adjusted those times.

00:12:16.000 So then we would finish everything and it would be like 7 p.m.

00:12:19.000 How have they done London cards in the past?

00:12:21.000 Did they do that in the past?

00:12:23.000 They've done it once with, I think it was Bisping against Hendo twice.

00:12:27.000 Hendo 2. The second one?

00:12:28.000 Yeah, the second one.

00:12:29.000 But other than that, they would just do it and American time zone would be like daytime here.

00:12:35.000 That's so crazy.

00:12:36.000 But I think pay-per-view wise, they expect more people to buy pay-per-views in primetime, like 9pm.

00:12:42.000 Probably.

00:12:42.000 Yeah.

00:12:43.000 Yeah, I guess.

00:12:44.000 But when they go to Abu Dhabi, we still fight.

00:12:47.000 Abu Dhabi time, night time.

00:12:48.000 Yeah.

00:12:49.000 And then over here, it's daytime.

00:12:50.000 Yeah.

00:12:50.000 But I wonder if they see a change in numbers with that, and that made them adjust.

00:12:54.000 They probably do, but whatever.

00:12:57.000 Yeah.

00:12:58.000 That's my feeling.

00:12:59.000 It's whatever.

00:13:00.000 You can't have people fight at 5 in the morning.

00:13:02.000 That's nonsense.

00:13:03.000 You can't have an audience there at 5 in the morning.

00:13:06.000 Fucking exhausted for a world title fight.

00:13:08.000 Exhausted.

00:13:08.000 Can't even believe you're still awake.

00:13:10.000 For me, I was like, I hope they are exhausted.

00:13:11.000 Because I'm like, they're probably going to be booing me anyway.

00:13:13.000 So I'm like...

00:13:14.000 Let them get drunk starting at midnight.

00:13:16.000 Let them be dead tired once it gets to that level.

00:13:19.000 How many people were asleep in the audience?

00:13:21.000 People started leaving early.

00:13:23.000 It was like the fourth round.

00:13:25.000 And I think I got the last takedown and I was like finishing on top of him.

00:13:29.000 They said people were leaving.

00:13:30.000 Wow.

00:13:30.000 And I was like, that's a good sign.

00:13:33.000 That just tells me that they know that there's nothing else he could really do.

00:13:36.000 He had one big moment in the last round.

00:13:39.000 Yeah, I still got it right here.

00:13:41.000 I just keep shaking my head every time I think of it.

00:13:43.000 But it just tells me that I still have stuff to fix, still have stuff to work on.

00:13:47.000 And you can never get too comfortable, especially with him.

00:13:51.000 But yeah, my coach is the type that'll like...

00:13:55.000 Tell me everything I did wrong after a fight instead of the stuff I did right.

00:13:58.000 So right away, now look at your face.

00:14:00.000 You did that because you took your foot off the gas for one second and something could happen.

00:14:05.000 Who knows if there was a minute left what could have happened or blah, blah, blah.

00:14:08.000 I'm like, I won, coach.

00:14:10.000 I'm the world champion.

00:14:11.000 You chill out.

00:14:12.000 But he wants you to be perfect.

00:14:14.000 It was interesting because you could see him using energy management.

00:14:20.000 You could see him trying to figure out when to just defend and when to try to break free and when to plan himself and fire shots and when to just stay on the back foot and keep moving.

00:14:33.000 He tried to hold you off a few times.

00:14:36.000 I think whatever you were doing for strength and conditioning, your cardio was insane.

00:14:42.000 Because the volume, just the sheer volume and pressure that you were putting on him, and the fact that you keep that up solid five rounds, that was insane.

00:14:51.000 Yeah, I think every fighter's fear is to get tired in the cage.

00:14:55.000 Every fighter's fear is to be in there and not be able to lift up your arms.

00:14:58.000 And you've seen it happen with a lot of guys, big name guys, where you'll see them give up a choke, and it'll be like...

00:15:04.000 He just lifted up his neck and maybe he was too tired.

00:15:06.000 No, he just wanted to get out of there.

00:15:08.000 For me, I had no fear.

00:15:09.000 And I know that I could go harder than any of these guys.

00:15:12.000 And if I'm tired, I know he's going to be twice as tired.

00:15:14.000 But I think a lot of it, like you said, is just the team I have around me.

00:15:19.000 I do strength and conditioning with my boy Matt Murphy, but it's not anything outrageous, right?

00:15:24.000 We're not doing that crazy new stuff that's coming out.

00:15:26.000 We do heavy weights and we do the big muscles like chest, lower back, and squats.

00:15:34.000 But we put all this other stuff around it, like the cosmetic stuff, too.

00:15:38.000 And we're lifting three days a week.

00:15:39.000 What do you mean by cosmetic stuff?

00:15:40.000 Like, say if I go heavy on my squat, and then we'll still end up doing lower back, chest, and dumbbells, chest, and everything on that day.

00:15:50.000 But on a heavy chest day, we're going legs, lunges, lesser weight.

00:15:56.000 So we go heavy with squats, chest, and deadlifts one day a week for each of those.

00:16:02.000 We still do full body stuff that same day, but just like lower the weights and higher reps.

00:16:06.000 So you're essentially doing almost like you're doing like power lifter work.

00:16:11.000 Yeah.

00:16:11.000 You're doing bench press, like just power generating stuff.

00:16:14.000 Yeah.

00:16:15.000 Are you doing any plyometrics or any of that kind of stuff?

00:16:17.000 I mean, I do a lot of swimming, cardio-wise, and then people make fun of me a lot.

00:16:23.000 Swimming is so hard.

00:16:25.000 Swimming is fucking hard.

00:16:26.000 People don't know how to...

00:16:27.000 When I take them to the pool, like when I take a brand new fighter to the pool, and if they never swam before, they get so tired.

00:16:33.000 And I tell them, bro, it's a full-body workout.

00:16:35.000 It's everything you need, especially for fighting.

00:16:38.000 It's like one of the hardest things you could do.

00:16:39.000 Especially if you're like built like you because you probably sink like a rock.

00:16:43.000 Yeah.

00:16:44.000 So it's hard to stay above water.

00:16:45.000 Yeah.

00:16:46.000 Like fat people, they say swimming's not hard.

00:16:48.000 Right.

00:16:48.000 Because you got a floaty on.

00:16:50.000 You're literally swimming around with a floaty.

00:16:51.000 You could float.

00:16:52.000 Yeah.

00:16:53.000 Dense dudes just go right under.

00:16:55.000 You got to struggle to stay above water.

00:16:57.000 And I don't have like the best technique to doing it.

00:16:59.000 So I still like go there and I'm like, I'm going to go a mile and then I'll go and I'll take a little break, go take a little break.

00:17:04.000 And then like I said, you see like that fat person just going nonstop.

00:17:06.000 You're looking at them like, bro, I just want to slap them out.

00:17:09.000 What am I doing wrong?

00:17:10.000 They're cheating.

00:17:11.000 They're cheating.

00:17:12.000 They got a human floaty on.

00:17:14.000 I remember Maurice Smith was the first guy that started using swimming for MMA. Maurice Smith was training with Frank Shamrock when Frank Shamrock was just a cardio machine.

00:17:25.000 I think Frank Shamrock was the first guy in the UFC that had like a full, complete arsenal of MMA weapons.

00:17:31.000 He could stand, he could take guys down, he could strangle you, he could arm bar you, he could do everything.

00:17:37.000 He could submit you off his back.

00:17:39.000 And Frank was just a cardio machine.

00:17:41.000 And when Maurice went from kickboxing and got into MMA, he was doing a lot of training with Frank.

00:17:49.000 Maurice was super cardio focused.

00:17:51.000 Yeah.

00:17:51.000 So that was like when he beat Mark Coleman.

00:17:53.000 He beat Mark Coleman because Mark Coleman got tired.

00:17:56.000 And then Maurice defended off of his—and that was the old days, bro, when they had headbutt.

00:17:56.000 Yeah.

00:18:00.000 That was the headbutt days.

00:18:02.000 You know?

00:18:03.000 That's crazy.

00:18:04.000 And Maurice started tuning him up on the feet.

00:18:06.000 Once Maurice got up to his feet, he was just leg-kicking the shit out of him.

00:18:09.000 Yeah.

00:18:10.000 And he was talking to him, saying, come on, Mark, ground me and pound me.

00:18:12.000 I thought you were going to ground me and pound me.

00:18:14.000 Whack!

00:18:15.000 He didn't take any crazy chances, so he didn't get taken down at the end, but he won the heavyweight title.

00:18:21.000 It's funny how you say that.

00:18:23.000 The headbutt days.

00:18:24.000 I did an interview yesterday with the Chicago News, and then the lady's like, she had no idea who I was.

00:18:29.000 I'm like, you didn't do no research, because she's like, you're the champion of street fighting, right?

00:18:32.000 Oh, boy.

00:18:34.000 Imagine that.

00:18:35.000 You're literally the world champion, and this person hasn't even done five minutes of research in the sport you do.

00:18:41.000 I was wild, and I was like, people still think that.

00:18:45.000 You should just start making shit up.

00:18:46.000 Yeah, we made it in alleyways, you know, it's not even, you gotta get it on the dark web.

00:18:50.000 I fight with a roll of nickels in my hand.

00:18:53.000 I don't give a fuck.

00:18:54.000 I didn't realize there's still people out here that have that mindset.

00:18:58.000 Well, there's people in the news that aren't even humans.

00:19:00.000 They're just robots.

00:19:01.000 They're like media robots.

00:19:03.000 All they want to do is be on TV. They have no opinions, no personality.

00:19:08.000 Oh, I hear you're the champion of street fighting.

00:19:12.000 I'm looking at the teleprompter.

00:19:13.000 I'm like, I feel like that's all they do is just read the teleprompter.

00:19:15.000 That's so disrespectful to someone who has risen to the top of the greatest organization ever for combat sports.

00:19:24.000 We all know.

00:19:25.000 Look, I'm a huge boxing fan.

00:19:27.000 Boxing's amazing.

00:19:28.000 I love boxing.

00:19:29.000 But we all know if Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury had a fight fight, That shit would not last one round, not a chance in hell, if they had a fight fight, a real fight, like an MMA fight.

00:19:40.000 Boxing is a sport.

00:19:42.000 MMA is the sport of fighting.

00:19:44.000 It's the hardest fucking thing to do for an athlete.

00:19:46.000 The hardest thing to do is what you did.

00:19:48.000 Become the champion of the world in a tank filled with sharks.

00:19:51.000 It's not saying that it's not if you were a 170-pound boxer.

00:19:55.000 It'd be just as difficult.

00:19:56.000 I'm not saying boxing's not hard to do.

00:19:59.000 It's hard as fuck to be a Ryan Garcia.

00:20:03.000 Hard as fuck to be a Javante Davis.

00:20:06.000 Just the same mentality they have, they would have been world champions in MMA. But MMA is harder.

00:20:12.000 It's harder, and it's more effective.

00:20:14.000 It's the real sport of fighting.

00:20:16.000 So for you to reach the pinnacle in the greatest combat sport ever, and this lady to go, you're the champion of street fighting, and you're on fucking TV! That's so crazy!

00:20:27.000 Why can't they bring in an expert?

00:20:29.000 There's so many people who could have interviewed you.

00:20:30.000 I was like, yeah, don't you guys have a sportscaster or somebody that's going to interview me?

00:20:34.000 Call in Ariel Helwani.

00:20:35.000 Call in somebody.

00:20:36.000 There's somebody out there that can do this.

00:20:38.000 This is crazy.

00:20:39.000 Or do...

00:20:40.000 One little second of research.

00:20:42.000 Yes.

00:20:42.000 Oh, the UFC. Yeah, but even then, they're going to be asking you stupid-ass questions.

00:20:46.000 You should have someone who knows what the fuck they're talking about.

00:20:49.000 They have to have a sports guy.

00:20:52.000 Don't they have a sports guy?

00:20:53.000 The sports guy's got to know.

00:20:54.000 They did, and that's what I was like, why am I getting with these two?

00:20:57.000 And she was like, so you do boxing then, too?

00:20:59.000 And I'm like, well, boxing's a part of it.

00:21:01.000 It's mixed martial arts.

00:21:02.000 A lot of thumb wrestling.

00:21:03.000 Yeah.

00:21:03.000 That's a real important part of my game.

00:21:06.000 We do power slap.

00:21:07.000 Yeah.

00:21:08.000 I'm the champion of that.

00:21:09.000 I have the most powder on my hand when I slap.

00:21:14.000 It's just disrespectful.

00:21:16.000 It's just a bummer that people don't get it yet.

00:21:22.000 Way more people get it now than never got it before.

00:21:25.000 When I first started doing commentary for the UFC, it was in 97, when I first started doing backstage interviews, and people were acting like I was doing porn.

00:21:33.000 They're like, what are you doing?

00:21:35.000 Like, why are you doing that?

00:21:36.000 Are you crazy?

00:21:37.000 I go, I love it.

00:21:38.000 It's great.

00:21:39.000 What the fuck are you talking about?

00:21:40.000 Yeah, it was like being involved and that was bad for your career.

00:21:44.000 That's wild.

00:21:45.000 Yeah, Dana and I have talked about it so many times.

00:21:47.000 Like, people would tell people that he bought the UFC and they'd be like, what the fuck are you doing?

00:21:51.000 Like, God, that's terrible.

00:21:54.000 Meanwhile, everybody watches it now.

00:21:56.000 Yeah, it's going to be up there bigger than I think all the other sports.

00:22:00.000 It'll be bigger than everything but football in America.

00:22:02.000 You're never going to beat football.

00:22:04.000 You can't beat football.

00:22:05.000 You're seeing this next younger generation.

00:22:07.000 It's just wild how they're coming up.

00:22:10.000 Kids are starting.

00:22:11.000 My boy, Ignacio, his brother's 15 years old, and he's already 5-0 pro.

00:22:16.000 Crazy.

00:22:17.000 I'm like, bro, you had to start in this young?

00:22:20.000 15. Yeah, and you're a pro?

00:22:21.000 Crazy.

00:22:21.000 I'm like, that's wild.

00:22:22.000 Fighting pro at 15 is nuts.

00:22:24.000 That's nuts.

00:22:25.000 You're fighting pro men at 15. Yeah, his next fight is for a title.

00:22:29.000 He's like a 30-year-old, and I'm just like, bro.

00:22:30.000 Oh my god, that's so crazy.

00:22:32.000 Where's this happening?

00:22:33.000 It's in Colombia.

00:22:34.000 Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

00:22:36.000 Yeah.

00:22:36.000 You go wild down there, boy.

00:22:38.000 They don't have any fucking rules.

00:22:40.000 That's funny.

00:22:41.000 You can fight at 15. But imagine when he gets to his 20s, the experience he's gonna have.

00:22:45.000 Oh, yeah.

00:22:46.000 And then if one of these younger guys now that only fought locally in Chicago or something, they see him.

00:22:51.000 He's gonna look at them like, okay, let me show you what I do.

00:22:54.000 Do you think there's something to be said for not jumping in too quick?

00:22:58.000 Because I feel like there's some fighters that...

00:23:03.000 They just got rushed and they weren't really prepared for an elite fighter and they got tuned up and they were kind of never the same again.

00:23:11.000 I think there's been a few guys like that that I think had real potential, but someone rushed them into a top 10 situation way too quick.

00:23:18.000 Yeah, 100%.

00:23:20.000 I think Darren Till is probably the biggest one I think of when I think of that, when he rushed into the title fight.

00:23:25.000 It's hard to say, though, because Darren Till, when he knocked out Cowboy...

00:23:29.000 See, people have two Darren Tills in their head.

00:23:31.000 They have Darren Till with knee injuries later in his career, and you have Darren Till when he was 170. Yeah.

00:23:37.000 Darren Till, when he could make 170, and dude, he was dangerous.

00:23:41.000 When he fucked up Cowboy, I was like, Jesus Christ, this guy's fucking terrifying.

00:23:46.000 He was ferocious.

00:23:48.000 But he didn't keep that for whatever reason.

00:23:51.000 He didn't keep that level of success.

00:23:53.000 He had mad potential.

00:23:55.000 So I'm not sure if he got rushed or if he just got injured.

00:23:58.000 Or if it was just a grappling game.

00:24:00.000 He was too late taking in the grappling game.

00:24:02.000 I think there's a lot of guys that don't know how to take a loss.

00:24:05.000 I think that once they, you know, he was undefeated, then you get your first loss.

00:24:09.000 Right.

00:24:09.000 And then you go back to the gym, your confidence deflated.

00:24:12.000 You look at, people look at you differently.

00:24:14.000 Like, you don't have that same, you know, mentality, I'm the biggest one in the room.

00:24:18.000 And then...

00:24:18.000 Tyron Woodley, he fought Tyron when Tyron was in his prime.

00:24:22.000 That was prime time Tyron Woodley, and Tyron Woodley fucked him up.

00:24:26.000 But Tyron Woodley in his prime fucked everybody up.

00:24:29.000 Everybody just thinks about that Jake Paul fight.

00:24:31.000 Get that out of your head.

00:24:32.000 That's an older athlete at the end of his run doing something only really mostly for money.

00:24:37.000 Usman said it yesterday.

00:24:38.000 He said, like, people are so quick to forget, right?

00:24:40.000 Of the stuff you did when you were great.

00:24:42.000 Yeah.

00:24:42.000 When you're at the top.

00:24:43.000 And especially guys like Woodley, where he was one of the best to ever do it.

00:24:48.000 One of the best.

00:24:48.000 Then later, you start losing a couple.

00:24:51.000 Exactly.

00:24:51.000 And then it just tarnishes everything.

00:24:52.000 I'm like, bro, go back to the knockout of Robbie Allard.

00:24:55.000 That was crazy.

00:24:55.000 Yeah.

00:24:56.000 Like, the way he did it.

00:24:56.000 And Robbie was the man at that time.

00:24:58.000 I think one of his most impressive performances, two of his most impressive performances, are performances that weren't even that exciting.

00:25:05.000 And that's the Wonderboy fight.

00:25:07.000 Because he fought the perfect fight with Wonderboy.

00:25:09.000 He never led.

00:25:10.000 Never led.

00:25:11.000 He's like, let's make it boring.

00:25:13.000 I don't give a fuck.

00:25:13.000 But then when they had exchanges, Tyron hurt Wonderboy.

00:25:17.000 Wonderboy never hurt Tyron.

00:25:18.000 Wonderboy is a 57-0 kickboxer.

00:25:21.000 One of the greatest strikers the UFC's ever seen.

00:25:24.000 But he was so worried about those takedowns that he didn't really commit either.

00:25:28.000 And he was always worried about the takedown, which, of course, you know, opens up punches.

00:25:33.000 And Tyron could fucking crack.

00:25:36.000 Tyron could crack back then.

00:25:38.000 When he knocked out Lawler with one punch, like, holy shit.

00:25:42.000 Tyron could crack.

00:25:43.000 People forget.

00:25:44.000 Yeah.

00:25:44.000 When I fought Wonderboy, that was like one of the fights I watched.

00:25:48.000 And that was one of the fights I was most afraid of.

00:25:50.000 Because you're looking at him against Woodley, him against Johnny Hendricks, and none of these guys could take him down.

00:25:55.000 And then Anthony Pettis told me, like, bro.

00:25:57.000 I was like, should I bring in somebody for him?

00:25:59.000 And he's like, nah, because nobody moves like him.

00:26:01.000 And his kicks hurt harder than anybody else that brought in.

00:26:04.000 Because he brought in Sage Northcutt and those guys to be like him.

00:26:08.000 And Mike Biggie Rhodes.

00:26:09.000 And he's like, bro, Wonderboy's just different.

00:26:11.000 So he said, I would just try to wrestle.

00:26:13.000 And I was like, alright, let's go.

00:26:15.000 And then I was like, let me just get ahead of him right away and grab ahold of him.

00:26:21.000 The problem with Wonderboy is he can do some shit that other people can't do.

00:26:24.000 And one of them is that lead leg.

00:26:26.000 That lead leg's a real problem.

00:26:28.000 Because he's got the best front leg sidekick in the business.

00:26:31.000 And he also throws that round kick off the front leg over your shoulder.

00:26:36.000 His first knockout in the UFC. He throws that shit over the shoulder.

00:26:39.000 You don't see it until it's up there.

00:26:41.000 And you're like, oh shit, it's too late.

00:26:42.000 Yeah, and he disguises his stuff so beautifully, but he disguises it with his personality, because before the fight, he's like, hey, what's up, bro?

00:26:49.000 How you doing?

00:26:50.000 And then I'm like, bro, I know you're going to try to kill me tomorrow, man.

00:26:52.000 But he's genuinely sweet.

00:26:54.000 Some guys will do that just to try to throw you off, but that literally is Wonderboy.

00:26:59.000 He's a sweetheart of a guy.

00:27:00.000 The nicest.

00:27:01.000 Which just happens to be a killer.

00:27:02.000 And I feel like Wonderboy, man, he's one of those guys.

00:27:07.000 He...

00:27:08.000 I feel like if he had gotten into MMA earlier and really learned grappling earlier with that kickbox...

00:27:15.000 Like maybe if he hadn't had 50 kickboxing fights but only had like...

00:27:18.000 He was an elite at, you know, 20 fights in I'm sure, 30 fights in.

00:27:22.000 And really gotten into MMA when he was a younger man.

00:27:26.000 Because the thing about fighting...

00:27:27.000 Like he's 40 now or 41, right?

00:27:30.000 The thing about fighting is if you're not cheating...

00:27:34.000 You know you're getting into your 40s like there's no way There's no way you're the same guy you were when you were 25. It's not possible Yeah, so if you don't have the same body to work with it doesn't matter how good the mind is Doesn't matter how good we've all seen it from the great champs They just hung around too long and the body just doesn't perform anymore And they know what to do, but the body can't do it.

00:27:54.000 Yeah, and everything just slows down.

00:27:56.000 Your reflexes, even your mindset, right?

00:27:59.000 It's the hardest thing to train for.

00:28:01.000 You have to fight every day in the practice room to train for a fight.

00:28:04.000 So these guys who've been doing it for so long, you're burnt out.

00:28:07.000 So if you get to your 40s and you've got a family and stuff, you're like, do I want to train two to three times a day?

00:28:12.000 Do I want to go to the gym right now and wrestle?

00:28:15.000 I think that's one of the keys that my coach is very good at.

00:28:18.000 He tells all of his guys, We're wrestling three times a week.

00:28:21.000 If you're not at wrestling practice, then you're not going to be at sparring practice.

00:28:25.000 A lot of our guys are really great strikers.

00:28:27.000 Nacho has been striking with him since he was 16 years old.

00:28:30.000 He tells him, I don't care if you hate this right now, you don't know how to wrestle, you're going to lose.

00:28:34.000 You could be the best striker in the world.

00:28:37.000 But all the champions know how to wrestle.

00:28:39.000 That's a solid coach right there.

00:28:41.000 Because every guy needs to learn that because there's so many dudes who don't want to roll because they don't want to get tapped out.

00:28:45.000 But they're elite kickboxers.

00:28:47.000 There was a bunch of those guys in the early days of the UFC just didn't quite pick that part up and never excelled.

00:28:54.000 Yeah, I see that a lot with guys, like I said, that don't want to get beat up.

00:28:57.000 They go to practice and they don't want to get in bed.

00:28:59.000 That's when the ego comes in, right?

00:29:01.000 Like, I'm a UFC fighter.

00:29:02.000 I shouldn't be losing to Joe Schmoe at a jiu-jitsu class.

00:29:05.000 Right.

00:29:06.000 So there's, like, avoid those guys.

00:29:08.000 Yeah, I don't think Wonderboy ever avoided anybody like that.

00:29:10.000 I just think he was late to the game, you know, and he was training a lot with Weidman, who's an awesome wrestler.

00:29:15.000 But, like, he got his first loss in the UFC, I think, was Mike Brown.

00:29:18.000 Yeah.

00:29:19.000 And Mike Brown just mauled him.

00:29:20.000 Just mauled him.

00:29:21.000 That was Mike Brown in his prime, who was a scary motherfucker.

00:29:23.000 The fucker, the dude played no games.

00:29:26.000 He played no games.

00:29:27.000 Mike Brown was trying to kill you.

00:29:29.000 I would wish that I would never get that call to like, hey, do you want to fight Mike Brown?

00:29:33.000 And I was like, bro, no.

00:29:36.000 My brother's like, call him out.

00:29:37.000 And I'm like, bro, I'm not going to call him Matt Brown.

00:29:38.000 My brother's always the type of guy, you can be anybody.

00:29:41.000 And I was like, nah, if they call me for Matt Brown, I'll do it, but I'm not going to call him out, though.

00:29:45.000 You don't want to get him motivated.

00:29:47.000 Yeah, he's the boogeyman.

00:29:48.000 I feel like there's some dudes that for whatever reason with Matt Brown, you know, he died.

00:29:54.000 You know, he had overdosed and he had like a serious drug problem.

00:29:57.000 I think there's guys who see the other side and they come back and they just have a different mentality.

00:30:04.000 You know, they almost lost their life to some really stupid shit and they have like a grip on life that's a little bit different and a drive that's a little different.

00:30:13.000 There's been a few guys that I know They were like real heavy drug addicts and got off the drugs and just became performance freaks.

00:30:20.000 Just endurance freaks.

00:30:22.000 Just animals.

00:30:24.000 And like so disciplined.

00:30:25.000 You're like, wow, how is it that this guy used to be a drug addict?

00:30:28.000 A junkie.

00:30:29.000 And now this guy's weighing his food and drinking electrolyte-filled water and fucking showing up before anybody and putting in those rounds on the air dine machine after practice.

00:30:39.000 Like, god damn.

00:30:41.000 I lived with Jared Gordon for three years together.

00:30:44.000 He's like my best friend.

00:30:45.000 Same situation.

00:30:46.000 He would say, I'm going to go for a jog.

00:30:47.000 And I'd be like, alright, cool.

00:30:48.000 And he'd be like, come back like three hours later.

00:30:50.000 I'd be like, I just ran 20 miles.

00:30:52.000 And I'm just like, you said you're going for a jog.

00:30:54.000 That's not a jog.

00:30:54.000 It's like a marathon.

00:30:56.000 And he would just do that out of nowhere.

00:30:58.000 Like you said, they just had that crazy cardio endurance.

00:31:00.000 And they would just go non-stop.

00:31:02.000 And I think it's that type of mindset, right?

00:31:04.000 It just gets your mind off all their stuff.

00:31:06.000 They're a little extra spooky.

00:31:08.000 It's a little extra spooky, those former junkies.

00:31:11.000 I don't know why, man.

00:31:12.000 They're, like, not playing any fucking games.

00:31:15.000 You know, guys that have almost died, they are not playing any fucking games with you.

00:31:19.000 It's interesting, because, like, there's different things that make a great fighter.

00:31:25.000 There's a lot of stuff.

00:31:26.000 There's genetics.

00:31:27.000 There's gifts.

00:31:28.000 Some people just have that touch of death.

00:31:30.000 They just have that one-shot KO power.

00:31:33.000 Some guys just are born with crazy...

00:31:35.000 Like Cain Velasquez, they said, just has genetic cardio.

00:31:38.000 They said, that motherfucker could take months off the gym, come in, and just smother everybody.

00:31:42.000 And nobody could deal with him.

00:31:44.000 They said it was crazy.

00:31:45.000 Nobody had ever seen anything like it.

00:31:47.000 I think Kane, for sure, was an elite fighter because of his mind, his discipline, his drive, his determination, his skill set.

00:31:55.000 I mean, he was, I think, in his prime, there's the argument of who's the best heavyweight of all time, and I always throw Kane in there.

00:32:02.000 I think prime time Kane was, he was a tornado.

00:32:05.000 He was a tornado.

00:32:06.000 You couldn't understand how a heavyweight could be throwing so many punches.

00:32:10.000 He never stopped.

00:32:11.000 And he could take you down.

00:32:12.000 And if you took him down, he didn't give a fuck.

00:32:13.000 You'd get right back up.

00:32:14.000 Like with Brock Lesnar?

00:32:16.000 Yeah.

00:32:16.000 Bro, he was a tornado in that cage.

00:32:19.000 And I was able to go down to A.K.A. and get some work in with the guys down there, and Kane was there.

00:32:25.000 Oh, wow.

00:32:26.000 Yeah, it was just, I was so intimidated.

00:32:28.000 I'm like, oh, this is Kane Velas, he's a killer.

00:32:30.000 Yeah.

00:32:30.000 And he's like the nicest guy in the world.

00:32:32.000 Super nice guy.

00:32:33.000 But seeing how athletic he was, he was like doing cartwheels in the gym, and just like seeing how he moves, I'm like, now I can understand why he was such a great heavyweight and such a killer.

00:32:41.000 Yeah.

00:32:42.000 He was the perfect model heavyweight in his prime.

00:32:44.000 You know, like 240, not too big.

00:32:46.000 So he has insane cardio.

00:32:48.000 You're never going to see a guy like Francis that has the kind of cardio that Kane has.

00:32:52.000 I don't think it's possible.

00:32:54.000 I think you'd get a trade.

00:32:55.000 With Francis, you get the touch of death.

00:32:56.000 You get that one shot.

00:32:58.000 Everybody's like, oh, shit!

00:33:00.000 Like the Alistair Overeem fight.

00:33:01.000 God!

00:33:02.000 Dance!

00:33:03.000 Like, he had that crazy, crazy power.

00:33:05.000 But I don't think you get that power with that endurance.

00:33:10.000 I've never seen anybody that has that kind of power that also, like Connor even, amazing power, but he doesn't have the kind of endurance that some of these guys that have less power do.

00:33:19.000 Yeah, I'm interested to see how Aspinall is past the first round, right?

00:33:22.000 Because we've seen him.

00:33:23.000 He looks so fast.

00:33:24.000 You're like, nobody moves like him.

00:33:26.000 He looks like a younger Kane.

00:33:27.000 But he just keeps knocking these guys out so quick.

00:33:29.000 So I'm like, let me see him past the first round to see if he has that cardio as well.

00:33:32.000 It's a bit of a problem for him, right?

00:33:34.000 Because he has not been tested in that way.

00:33:37.000 And, you know, you're getting up to elite status where you're calling out Jon Jones.

00:33:42.000 Yeah.

00:33:42.000 Right?

00:33:43.000 That's the boogeyman.

00:33:44.000 Jon Jones is the fucking boogeyman.

00:33:46.000 And maybe he hasn't died, but he's probably coming.

00:33:49.000 He's probably knocked on the door a couple of times like, what's going on, Def?

00:33:52.000 You in there?

00:33:54.000 You know, Jon Jones has had some trials and tribulations, but the skill set and the ability to push deep into rounds is nuts.

00:34:03.000 Jon fought, when he fought Gustafson, he had almost no training camp.

00:34:07.000 They said he barely showed up.

00:34:10.000 I talked to Jackson about it, and Greg Jackson was telling me he didn't even train for that fight.

00:34:16.000 And then he pulled that fight off in the fourth and fifth rounds.

00:34:19.000 That's when he really turned it up.

00:34:21.000 So you're talking about a guy who hasn't even been training.

00:34:23.000 And then you saw the real Jon Jones in the second fight.

00:34:26.000 That's motivated Jon Jones.

00:34:27.000 Who's like, I'm gonna show you what the fuck is really up.

00:34:30.000 And then he just beats the shit out of Gustafson in the second fight.

00:34:33.000 And I wonder if it's going to get him to that point, all this talking from Aspinosa, to get him motivated, right?

00:34:38.000 Or is he going to be at a point like, let me be done with Stipe and be done with it, but I don't want a heavyweight motivated Jon Jones if I'm on the other side.

00:34:45.000 The way he just pulled Gon down so easily and choked him out, I was like, bro.

00:34:50.000 And then Gon looks good his last two fights.

00:34:53.000 Gan is like one of the most exciting guys on the feet.

00:34:56.000 He's so athletic in that style.

00:34:59.000 He's had a weird front kick, too.

00:35:00.000 You ever notice his front kick?

00:35:01.000 Like a twisting front kick off the front leg?

00:35:04.000 Yeah, a little push kick, yeah.

00:35:05.000 But it's weird because he turns it and snaps it up.

00:35:08.000 So he jabs you with the toes.

00:35:10.000 There's a kick in Taekwondo that's kind of a goofy kick.

00:35:13.000 It's called a twisting kick.

00:35:14.000 And you kind of do it to the face.

00:35:16.000 And it's like you swing your leg up and kick like this.

00:35:20.000 It's like this.

00:35:21.000 Yeah.

00:35:21.000 But that's what he's doing in a sideways stance.

00:35:23.000 He's just doing it to the body.

00:35:25.000 He's like got a twisting front kick.

00:35:27.000 Nobody kicks like him.

00:35:29.000 And he hurt Bam Bam with that, right?

00:35:31.000 Bro, he fucked Bam Bam up.

00:35:32.000 That was like Cyril Gan at his very best.

00:35:35.000 A guy like Bam Bam who just comes forward and takes a hell of a shot.

00:35:39.000 He's not scared to take one to give one.

00:35:41.000 I mean, Tuivasa is one of the most exciting guys of all time, right?

00:35:44.000 Yeah, it's crazy how...

00:35:46.000 But that style, with Gon, Gon's this elite striker, incredible lateral movement, you know, counter-punching the ability to move out of range and dive right back in real quick.

00:35:56.000 Yeah.

00:35:57.000 But Aspinall is like, we've only seen him smash.

00:36:01.000 We've only seen, we've never seen him be the nail.

00:36:04.000 No one ever, right?

00:36:05.000 And I thought Pavlovich was going to be the one that was like, alright, it's going to be a banger, and then he just puts him to sleep.

00:36:09.000 And he took Pavlovich's fight with a fucked up rib.

00:36:11.000 He couldn't even wrestle.

00:36:12.000 Yeah, short notice too, right?

00:36:14.000 I mean, imagine you going up against Pavlovich, you know the only guy who's ever beat him was Overeem, and Overeem took him down, beat him up on the ground.

00:36:20.000 And you're like, I gotta get this guy down.

00:36:21.000 This guy's knocking everybody dead.

00:36:23.000 And he knocks him out standing.

00:36:25.000 He's so fast for a heavyweight.

00:36:26.000 But again, you're saying the right thing.

00:36:29.000 Like, what is it like in the fifth round with Jon Jones?

00:36:31.000 Because if you can't steamroll Jon Jones and he starts side kicking your fucking kneecaps, There's nobody better with distance than John.

00:36:40.000 Nobody comes close.

00:36:41.000 A lot of that too.

00:36:42.000 I know you've experienced that.

00:36:45.000 How many eye surgeries have you had to have?

00:36:48.000 I've had three.

00:36:52.000 They're literally the hardest thing in the world.

00:36:53.000 The most depressing thing in the world.

00:36:56.000 Did you have one after the Leon fight or before?

00:36:59.000 I had one after that as well.

00:37:01.000 Even in my fight when I fought Luque, After the third round, I went back to my corner and I was like, there's something in my eye.

00:37:10.000 And like I couldn't see out of my eye and I'm like trying to blink it out.

00:37:14.000 And then the cut man, Tate, he's like, bro, ain't nothing wrong with your eye.

00:37:16.000 Stop touching your eye.

00:37:17.000 So then I was like, all right, well, whatever.

00:37:19.000 So I go back in there to fourth and fifth round and I just can't manage distance.

00:37:22.000 I'm like just shooting in and then I was like, man, there's still something wrong with my eye.

00:37:26.000 And then I ended up going to the doctor like two days later because I thought it was just a scratch cornea or something.

00:37:31.000 But it ended up being like a detached lens.

00:37:33.000 Oh, Jesus Christ.

00:37:34.000 So like the whole lens they had to like take out and then like sew back in.

00:37:38.000 Yeah.

00:37:39.000 And it was, my eye was like super bloodshot red for like two weeks.

00:37:42.000 And then I ended up doing like a weigh-in show with the UFC at their pay-per-view.

00:37:46.000 And everybody's like posting pictures of me like, oh, look, somebody farted on his pillow because he had like a red eye.

00:37:51.000 And they're like making it in front of me.

00:37:54.000 I'm like crying myself in my room.

00:37:56.000 I don't got pink eye.

00:37:57.000 It's surgery.

00:37:59.000 How long did it take to recover from that?

00:38:02.000 That one wasn't as long.

00:38:05.000 That blood was still in there for probably like a month.

00:38:08.000 The detest retina was the hardest one.

00:38:09.000 That one is like eight weeks of not doing absolutely nothing.

00:38:14.000 I have to be like this.

00:38:16.000 My head sideways for a full eight weeks.

00:38:20.000 Really?

00:38:20.000 Yeah, and it had like a bubble in your eye the whole time.

00:38:22.000 And then even when I'm watching TV, I have to put my head in a massage chair.

00:38:26.000 Oh, wow.

00:38:27.000 And there's a mirror at the top, so I aim the mirror at the TV. And I can't do nothing.

00:38:31.000 Wow.

00:38:32.000 But keep my head down or sideways.

00:38:34.000 And how long did you have to stay like that for?

00:38:36.000 It was like eight weeks.

00:38:38.000 Whoa!

00:38:38.000 Did you go to sleep in a massage chair?

00:38:41.000 Yeah, I had to sleep with my face down in that massage chair the whole time.

00:38:45.000 Wow!

00:38:46.000 That was the hardest thing.

00:38:48.000 How hard is it to sleep like that?

00:38:50.000 And I'm a back sleeper too.

00:38:51.000 I hate sleeping on my stomach.

00:38:54.000 So it was like the worst two months of my life.

00:38:59.000 And then you're like, you don't know if you're going to be able to train after that and fight after that because the doctor's looking at me like, I'm stupid.

00:39:05.000 I'm going back to the gym.

00:39:07.000 And, yeah, it was rough.

00:39:09.000 Doctors always want you to just stop doing what you're doing.

00:39:11.000 Yeah.

00:39:12.000 How'd you hurt your shoulder?

00:39:13.000 Jujitsu.

00:39:14.000 Oh, you need to quit that.

00:39:15.000 That's what they always say.

00:39:16.000 Yeah.

00:39:16.000 Or you need surgery.

00:39:17.000 And I'm just like, there's no form of rehab or, like, exercises I could do.

00:39:21.000 They love to give you surgery.

00:39:23.000 Right away.

00:39:24.000 But even with the eye, I'm so afraid to even go to the doctor in general.

00:39:28.000 So I was avoiding it at all costs.

00:39:30.000 So I would see a little black dot inside of my eye.

00:39:33.000 And I'm still training.

00:39:34.000 I'm like, whatever.

00:39:35.000 And then I was supposed to go with Jared to Brazil when he fought Charles Oliveira.

00:39:39.000 And I had my ticket booked and everything.

00:39:41.000 And then the week before, I'm sparring with him.

00:39:43.000 And then all of a sudden, that black dot turned into a black sheet.

00:39:46.000 And it just went full black.

00:39:48.000 And I'm just like, I think I should go to a doctor now.

00:39:51.000 And then they were like, you gotta go under the knife right away.

00:39:54.000 So it was like, I had to get surgery right there.

00:39:58.000 Yeah, I had a friend of mine who had a detached retina and he didn't go in quick enough.

00:40:02.000 And he lost most of his vision in that eye.

00:40:05.000 Yeah.

00:40:06.000 He had a bunch of surgeries that could never fix it.

00:40:08.000 He said that whoever told him that it wasn't a detached retina fucked him because if he had known right away when he went in to check it that it was a detached retina, he would have been able to immediately get surgery and they would have saved it.

00:40:22.000 Wow.

00:40:23.000 Yeah.

00:40:23.000 That's the hard part because you always think about Michael Bisping and you're looking at him like, I don't want to be that guy.

00:40:29.000 Exactly.

00:40:30.000 How gangster is that motherfucker?

00:40:32.000 That dude fought ten times in the UFC with one eyeball.

00:40:36.000 That's wild.

00:40:36.000 Couldn't see.

00:40:37.000 He memorized the fucking eye chart.

00:40:40.000 Yeah, I literally had moments where I'm looking at myself like, am I going to have to do that?

00:40:45.000 Am I going to have to figure out something to do to do this?

00:40:48.000 Well, how about fucking, what's his face?

00:40:50.000 The pirate.

00:40:53.000 Shot a bullet?

00:40:54.000 Yeah, shot a bullet.

00:40:55.000 Yeah.

00:40:55.000 That's crazy.

00:40:56.000 That guy's crazy.

00:40:57.000 He's only got one eye.

00:40:58.000 But it's wild, right?

00:40:59.000 Because, I mean, he still looks like he sees everything when he's fighting, right?

00:41:03.000 Oh, yeah.

00:41:04.000 Just his management's incredible.

00:41:05.000 Yeah.

00:41:05.000 It makes you think, how good was that motherfucker with two eyes?

00:41:08.000 They can fight that good with one eye.

00:41:10.000 I fought in Abu Dhabi my first time there when Khabib fought Dustin Poirier.

00:41:13.000 And then he was just like a fan.

00:41:15.000 And he came up to me and he said, I'm going to be in the UFC. And I remember the picture with him because he tagged me.

00:41:19.000 And obviously you can't forget that face.

00:41:21.000 Right.

00:41:21.000 But then when I saw him...

00:41:22.000 Like, undefeated killer.

00:41:23.000 I'm like, bro, dang, he wasn't lying.

00:41:25.000 He is a beast.

00:41:25.000 Oh, he's a beast.

00:41:26.000 Yeah, he's a monster.

00:41:27.000 I watched him fight before he was ever in the UFC when he was on other organizations.

00:41:31.000 And I was like, Jesus Christ, this guy can kick.

00:41:34.000 He kicks like you're thinking he's going to get tired from all that kicking.

00:41:38.000 And he does not get tired.

00:41:39.000 Yeah.

00:41:40.000 It's wild, the volume of kicks.

00:41:42.000 He reminds me a lot of Yair.

00:41:44.000 You know?

00:41:45.000 Yair is like one of those guys like, yo, you better stop thinking about kicking with him.

00:41:51.000 You ain't kicking with Yair Rodriguez.

00:41:53.000 You better figure out a way to get past that shit, because that guy can kick in a weird way.

00:41:58.000 I train with Yair, and even if it's just light sparring, I don't even want to play with him.

00:42:04.000 Because he just comes from all different angles.

00:42:06.000 But he's so good at like, he'll get so close.

00:42:09.000 It'll be like right here and he'll just pull it.

00:42:11.000 I think that's where I learned a lot from him.

00:42:14.000 And then just like, when you're going with somebody who flows like that and knows how to move like that, it makes you more creative too.

00:42:19.000 Right, because you're not so tense, you're worried about getting knocked out.

00:42:22.000 Yeah.

00:42:23.000 I think that makes it the best.

00:42:24.000 That's the best kind of sparring.

00:42:25.000 It's like with a guy like Yair, if you're going to fight a guy like Yair, You gotta find some Taekwondo champion and bring him in, but even then, they're not gonna know how to punch that good.

00:42:34.000 They're not gonna know how to wrestle, so you're gonna be missing part of it, because Yair can submit a lot of people.

00:42:38.000 He's fucking wicked off his back.

00:42:40.000 His triangle is fast as fuck.

00:42:42.000 People don't know how good he is, and even his wrestling is really good, but when he puts it all together, but I think even when he gets in there, it's just like so much, right?

00:42:51.000 He puts so much energy into everything that sometimes it leaves openings for guys to take him down and hold him down, and if I'm a guy fighting him, I'm like, bro, I'm...

00:42:58.000 I don't want to give this guy any distance or any room to do anything.

00:43:01.000 Yeah, that style is just so taxing.

00:43:04.000 For people that don't see the difference, there's two things in the octagon that are probably the most taxing that you wouldn't really guess.

00:43:12.000 The biggest one is the clinch.

00:43:14.000 Bro, you see guys just get drained after the first round in the clinch and they go back to their corner and then everything's coming slower.

00:43:21.000 The punches are coming slower.

00:43:23.000 The footwork looks slower.

00:43:24.000 Reaction time is slower.

00:43:25.000 They'll take a shot that maybe they could have got away from because they just don't want to move.

00:43:28.000 Yeah.

00:43:29.000 We literally do this in the gym where it's like, all right, let's do 20 pushups and then just hand fight for three minutes.

00:43:35.000 And then we start sparring.

00:43:37.000 It's like little stuff like that because that's when you get lactic acid in your arms.

00:43:40.000 You're tired.

00:43:41.000 Now let's see you throw punches.

00:43:42.000 Right.

00:43:43.000 Right now.

00:43:44.000 And it'll stop people from actually throwing hard at practice.

00:43:46.000 It'll make you want to conserve your energy and stuff.

00:43:48.000 But yeah, that feeling when you're in there and you can't lift up your arms.

00:43:52.000 Damian Maia shot on me like 30 times.

00:43:54.000 And it's the third round.

00:43:55.000 I was like, bro, my arms are like dead right now.

00:43:57.000 So if he does take me down, I'm going to be in a bad spot because my arms are so heavy.

00:44:02.000 And Damian Maia.

00:44:03.000 Yeah.

00:44:04.000 That guy had that creepy grappling strength where he would get a hold of guys and they'd be like, what is happening here?

00:44:10.000 Like, how is this guy so fucking stressed?

00:44:12.000 Especially at 170. Bro, Damian Maia at 170 was terrifying.

00:44:16.000 Yeah.

00:44:16.000 People keep forgetting, man.

00:44:17.000 They do keep forgetting.

00:44:18.000 He got fucked in the Kamaru Usman fight.

00:44:20.000 He got fucked.

00:44:22.000 He got to Kamaru's back.

00:44:25.000 He had one hook-in standing up, and they fucking separated him.

00:44:29.000 It is one of the greatest tragedies and travesties in the history of the sport.

00:44:34.000 That one positional change.

00:44:36.000 That is a terrible...

00:44:38.000 I don't know what referee it was.

00:44:39.000 I don't want to call him out.

00:44:40.000 People make mistakes.

00:44:41.000 But for Damian Maia, he got fucked.

00:44:44.000 Because he had Kamaru's back.

00:44:46.000 And Kamaru's only loss up to that point was rear-naked choke in his first fight.

00:44:50.000 Yeah.

00:44:51.000 And Kamaru was nowhere near the grappler in terms of submissions that Damian was.

00:44:55.000 That Damian will set traps, that will do shit to you, and he just gets ahold of guys.

00:44:59.000 Like, what he did to Neil Magny.

00:45:00.000 Like, Damian gets ahold of dudes and you're like, what is happening here?

00:45:04.000 Yeah.

00:45:05.000 This is a different kind of squeeze, man.

00:45:07.000 Yeah.

00:45:07.000 And he got fucked.

00:45:08.000 He got totally fucked.

00:45:10.000 But that's crazy, right?

00:45:11.000 Because a lot of fights could change off of one ref or one judge could change the whole thing.

00:45:17.000 Everything could have changed from that fight.

00:45:19.000 Everything could have changed.

00:45:20.000 So let's imagine the judge doesn't do that.

00:45:22.000 There is a 30% likelihood Camaro's gonna get him to the ground and strangle him.

00:45:27.000 Legitimately.

00:45:28.000 You're looking at primetime Damian Maia in the worst possible position.

00:45:32.000 One hook in, he's got your back.

00:45:34.000 How are you shaking him off?

00:45:36.000 Yeah.

00:45:37.000 You got a 30% chance of shaking him off.

00:45:41.000 You're stuck.

00:45:42.000 You've got a good chance of holding off until the end of the round.

00:45:47.000 You might be able to stop him from advancing, but it's perilous.

00:45:50.000 This is a terrible position you're in.

00:45:52.000 Damien Maia's on your back, and the referee's like, break it up!

00:45:56.000 There's no action here!

00:45:58.000 Are you a champion street fighter?

00:46:00.000 It's the same shit.

00:46:01.000 It's like, what are you doing?

00:46:03.000 This is the sport.

00:46:05.000 The sport is this guy is a professional strangler, and he's finally gotten a hold of this guy.

00:46:10.000 Oh, boo!

00:46:11.000 The casualties are booing, so you're going to separate it?

00:46:14.000 This is...

00:46:15.000 It's the worst, for me, the biggest travesty I've ever seen in MMA. That was number one.

00:46:21.000 If I really had to go over all of them, I'd probably find a few other ones that were right up there.

00:46:25.000 I mean, even Leon against Kamaru too, when Kamaru was on top of him and the ref stood him up because the crowd was booing, right?

00:46:30.000 And then he got head kicked.

00:46:31.000 Right.

00:46:32.000 It's like, bro, he's on top of him the whole five rounds, but now you want him to stand him up because the crowd's booing right now.

00:46:38.000 I believe in no stand-ups.

00:46:39.000 Yeah.

00:46:40.000 I know it's boring.

00:46:41.000 I don't give a fuck.

00:46:42.000 No stand-ups.

00:46:43.000 No stand-ups.

00:46:43.000 I go a step further.

00:46:45.000 No stand-ups, and I think the fight should resume exactly what position you were in at the end of the round.

00:46:51.000 That'll be the game-changer.

00:46:53.000 That's a real fight though, right?

00:46:54.000 Yeah.

00:46:54.000 That's a real fight.

00:46:55.000 Like, how did you get back up to your feet?

00:46:57.000 Well, the round ended.

00:46:58.000 Yeah.

00:46:59.000 Okay, what are we doing?

00:47:00.000 We're cheating for the striker?

00:47:01.000 Because that seems like you're kind of cheating for the striker.

00:47:03.000 I know everyone's used to doing it this way, but if you want to look at it realistically, the striker has an advantage for the first few seconds of every fight.

00:47:10.000 Every fight.

00:47:11.000 The fight starts standing.

00:47:12.000 So in that distance where the striker has his advantage, it starts off with the striker's advantage.

00:47:18.000 So if a grappler gets you to the ground, why do you get that advantage back in the next round?

00:47:23.000 Yeah, and it's the hardest thing to get somebody down and figure it out.

00:47:26.000 And it's the hardest thing to get up.

00:47:27.000 Yeah.

00:47:27.000 So if you can never get up, that's tough shit.

00:47:31.000 Yeah.

00:47:31.000 Tough shit.

00:47:31.000 It's on you.

00:47:32.000 It's on you.

00:47:33.000 That's the sport.

00:47:34.000 The sport is not boo, stand them up, just boo.

00:47:39.000 You know?

00:47:40.000 Here it is.

00:47:40.000 Look at this.

00:47:41.000 Let's look at this again.

00:47:42.000 Take it back from the beginning.

00:47:45.000 So, Damien gets the clinch, right?

00:47:48.000 And Kamaru's got an overhook on the left arm, and he's defending so far.

00:47:52.000 So Damien's working towards the takedown.

00:47:54.000 Damien sneaks that leg in, and now Kamaru starts to get in trouble.

00:47:58.000 Because Damien takes that left arm, he goes all the way over and cinches the waist.

00:48:01.000 So now he's pretty deep.

00:48:03.000 The thing that's saving Kamaru here is his right arm.

00:48:06.000 That whizzer on his right arm is the thing that's saving him.

00:48:08.000 But he's in danger.

00:48:09.000 Now he's in much more danger.

00:48:11.000 Because now Damien has the hook, and now Damien's pulling that arm over the top of Kamaru's whizzer.

00:48:16.000 So he'll connect his arms if the referee lets him.

00:48:19.000 What he wants to do is connect his hands in front of Kamaru.

00:48:22.000 Kamaru does not want that.

00:48:23.000 They're hand fighting right here.

00:48:25.000 But this is a dangerous spot for Kamaru, because the only thing that's saving him is that whizzer.

00:48:30.000 Without that whizzer, he's fucked right now.

00:48:32.000 And he knows it, and he's strong as fuck, and he's holding on to that whizzer with everything he's got.

00:48:36.000 But Damien is just slowly inching, and he's putting leverage with his leg.

00:48:40.000 He's using that left hook.

00:48:42.000 Yeah, and look, he's further.

00:48:43.000 Now he's even further.

00:48:45.000 Now he can punch him.

00:48:46.000 He's even further.

00:48:47.000 So he's progressing.

00:48:48.000 So he has gotten to a spot where, and the referee is telling him, I guess he's grabbing gloves, the referee's saying he's just gotta grab the wrist.

00:48:56.000 And he's closer to doing like a twister, standing twister.

00:48:58.000 Yeah, look, and he's closer.

00:48:59.000 He's even closer now.

00:49:00.000 Now it's even better.

00:49:01.000 Now it's even better.

00:49:03.000 So now Damien is trying to figure out when he can get his right hook in and what he's doing with his left arm.

00:49:10.000 So the Whizzer is still holding that left arm in place, but Damien at one point in time had sort of threatened to creep it up over the top of Kamaru's left shoulder.

00:49:19.000 And that's what he wants to do here.

00:49:21.000 So he wants to put all this pressure on, make Kamaru do something to defend all the leverage he's putting on his legs, defend these punches.

00:49:28.000 He's setting up little traps, just trying to open up the space so that he can get that right hook in and that left arm over the top.

00:49:34.000 So he is on the back now, like fully on the back.

00:49:39.000 And then the referee stops him.

00:49:41.000 Wow.

00:49:42.000 And this is the first round when they're still driving.

00:49:44.000 Bro, in fucking sane that this referee did this.

00:49:47.000 In fucking sane.

00:49:49.000 A travesty.

00:49:50.000 An unfair advantage.

00:49:53.000 For Camaro, for sure.

00:49:54.000 And then Camaro caught him with a left hand or a right hand.

00:49:57.000 He's catching with jabs.

00:49:58.000 He shouldn't be in this position now.

00:50:00.000 Camaro should be still trying to fight out his way out of that clinch.

00:50:02.000 And guess what?

00:50:03.000 He might not have fought his way out of that clinch.

00:50:06.000 He was like six steps to checkmate, you know?

00:50:09.000 He was pretty close.

00:50:11.000 Six out of ten, he was in.

00:50:13.000 It's crazy because it's the first round, so it's like, even if the crowd's booing, it's like, bro, he just got to the spot this early.

00:50:19.000 Damien punched his butt, so you don't think a butt punch hurts?

00:50:23.000 He's trying to do something to get Kamaru to react.

00:50:26.000 He's trying to get movement out of him.

00:50:28.000 Yeah, you want him to make the mistake.

00:50:30.000 Yeah.

00:50:31.000 Travesty.

00:50:32.000 Yeah, now that I look at that, I'm like, that's wild.

00:50:34.000 Travesty.

00:50:35.000 Now, imagine.

00:50:36.000 Damian Maia submits him.

00:50:38.000 The world changes.

00:50:39.000 Kamaru goes to that next fight.

00:50:40.000 Now everybody's looking to submit him.

00:50:42.000 Things change.

00:50:43.000 He's not the boogeyman anymore.

00:50:44.000 Somebody just tapped him.

00:50:46.000 Maybe his confidence goes down a little bit.

00:50:48.000 Maybe he doesn't get a favorable matchup in his next fight.

00:50:50.000 Maybe he loses again.

00:50:52.000 Damian goes, gets the belt.

00:50:54.000 Yes, Damian gets the belt.

00:50:55.000 Things happen, man.

00:50:57.000 Weird things happen.

00:50:58.000 Weird things happen in the sport.

00:50:59.000 You know, that's why it's so incredible when someone reaches the title.

00:51:03.000 When you actually do it, you become Islam Makachev, you become Bilal Muhammad, you get all the way up there and you win the title.

00:51:11.000 There's so many hurdles.

00:51:12.000 Like, you've lost fights.

00:51:13.000 The eye poke with Leon was crazy.

00:51:16.000 You've had bad moments.

00:51:17.000 And to get all past that and get to the title.

00:51:20.000 Just thinking back to all your ups and downs, just looking at the journey in general, and you're like, why did this happen or why did that happen?

00:51:27.000 Especially after law, I'm a terrible loser, so you're like, why is this happening to me?

00:51:31.000 But then now that I look back at it and thinking about the stuff that I changed, and then I started doing this more, I started fixing this, and now it just made me the fighter I am today.

00:51:39.000 And it's like, I'm glad those downs happened because now the ups feel so good.

00:51:45.000 Nobody could take that away, right?

00:51:47.000 The mountain I climbed was way higher than anybody else climbed.

00:51:50.000 It was a lot harder than anybody else climbed.

00:51:52.000 There's a lot to that.

00:51:53.000 There's a lot to that.

00:51:54.000 There's a lot to that because the guys that come up real fast and super talented and just fuck everybody up and never get tested, I think for some of those guys it's harder to maintain that motivation because you don't know the downs.

00:52:08.000 They have a belief in themselves.

00:52:11.000 B.J. Penn is a good example of that, in my opinion.

00:52:13.000 I always put B.J. in the category of one of the greatest of all time.

00:52:16.000 I always say you've got to look at B.J. in his prime.

00:52:19.000 You have to look at B.J. when he was beating Sean Shirk, B.J. when he beat Joe Dowdy Stephenson.

00:52:23.000 B.J. was a monster, man.

00:52:25.000 Just a monster.

00:52:26.000 He had crazy flexibility, unbelievable balance.

00:52:29.000 You could try to take him down, he would hop around on one leg like he had two.

00:52:33.000 It was nuts, man.

00:52:34.000 But BJ was so fucking talented that I think BJ didn't really like to work that hard.

00:52:39.000 He didn't really get up for it as much as some of the other guys that weren't as talented.

00:52:43.000 And when BJ wasn't as primed, that's when he was training with the Marinovichs.

00:52:47.000 That's when he was doing those crazy plyometric workouts.

00:52:50.000 So he had this insane gas tank with all the talent of a BJ Penn.

00:52:55.000 Yeah, and like you said, people forget how good he was.

00:52:58.000 These new-age fans, they've never seen him before.

00:53:00.000 They never saw him fight.

00:53:01.000 They forget.

00:53:02.000 They're like, oh, he's in a fight by losing streak.

00:53:04.000 Like Tyron Woodley, the same kind of thing.

00:53:05.000 You think about him only when they're at the end of their career.

00:53:09.000 You don't think about how good they were.

00:53:11.000 Nobody can maintain that forever.

00:53:13.000 It's not possible.

00:53:14.000 It's not possible.

00:53:15.000 Habib said it from the beginning, right?

00:53:16.000 He said, you're always going to lose.

00:53:18.000 There's a time for your thing.

00:53:19.000 He said it about Kamaru.

00:53:20.000 He said it about Tony Ferguson.

00:53:21.000 He said, these guys, they're going to learn the hard way.

00:53:24.000 And for me, he said, if I stayed in, I'd probably end up losing sometime.

00:53:27.000 I don't think he would lose, but yeah.

00:53:29.000 He said, you're thinking, I could still go with him.

00:53:32.000 And I'm looking at this guy like, bro, you could be the heavyweight champion right now.

00:53:36.000 It's like nuts.

00:53:37.000 What does he weigh now?

00:53:39.000 I think he's probably like 200. Because he rolls...

00:53:43.000 Consistently with everybody and he always says I have to jog 30 minutes a day.

00:53:46.000 He always is on a treadmill at least 30 minutes, but just like him and grappling, it's wild.

00:53:52.000 When I first got the fight announced from Dana White, I was over there in New Jersey training with Islam for his fight when he was fighting Poirier.

00:53:59.000 And then, like, they announced it, and I'm like, Habib's like, oh, come with me over here, train.

00:54:03.000 And then he's just killing me.

00:54:05.000 Like, literally, like, throwing me around, and then I'm just, like, getting murdered.

00:54:08.000 Then my coach tells me, hey, you see Dana White announced you got the title fight?

00:54:12.000 And I'm looking at myself like, really?

00:54:14.000 All right.

00:54:16.000 What's crazy is he's still in his prime.

00:54:18.000 Yeah.

00:54:18.000 That's what's crazy.

00:54:19.000 Like, he'd get out 29-0 in his prime.

00:54:22.000 He's like, I'm done.

00:54:23.000 I made a promise to my mom.

00:54:24.000 And do it on top.

00:54:26.000 No injuries.

00:54:27.000 Nobody does that.

00:54:28.000 Nobody does that.

00:54:29.000 Only the greats, right?

00:54:30.000 I mean, GSP did it.

00:54:32.000 But GSP came back and he fought when he was older.

00:54:35.000 He fought Bisping at 85. And GSP, he had gone through some wars.

00:54:45.000 And at the end, that last one, he was just like, I need some time off, you know?

00:54:51.000 Yeah.

00:54:51.000 I think a lot of these fighters, they need the time off, but they don't take it.

00:54:56.000 And they try to rush back in after the losses, and it just adds up.

00:54:59.000 You see it with, I mean, Tony Ferguson, prime example.

00:55:02.000 I think after that Gaethje fight, that should have been time off.

00:55:06.000 That should have been like...

00:55:07.000 Alright, let me take a year off, not do nothing, but you want to rush back in there and then all of a sudden the losses start adding up.

00:55:15.000 Your body's taking damage.

00:55:17.000 Here's another one.

00:55:18.000 So let's imagine Tony Ferguson doesn't trip over those wires backstage.

00:55:21.000 So he's about to fight Khabib for the title in Madison Square Garden.

00:55:26.000 He trips over some wires backstage and tears his knee apart.

00:55:30.000 Just a freak accident.

00:55:31.000 Yeah.

00:55:32.000 Just a freak accident that could happen to anybody.

00:55:34.000 Tears his knee apart, has to get knee surgery, misses the title fight.

00:55:38.000 Al Iaquinta steps in, has a good fight with him.

00:55:41.000 And Tony Ferguson, the one guy that we were always like, how would Tony do?

00:55:45.000 Because in his prime...

00:55:47.000 People forget, in his prime, that motherfucker was terrifying.

00:55:51.000 He had a long-ass wind streak and fucking everybody up.

00:55:54.000 He was cutting people, strangling people.

00:55:57.000 He was a beast, dude.

00:55:58.000 Tony Ferguson was a fucking monster.

00:56:01.000 But people forgot.

00:56:02.000 They forgot.

00:56:03.000 They only see Tony Ferguson now when he got knocked out by Chandler.

00:56:06.000 They see Tony Ferguson now when Patti Pimblett beats him.

00:56:09.000 Like, you don't understand.

00:56:10.000 He's 40-whatever-he-is years old.

00:56:13.000 Like, he's natural.

00:56:15.000 The body just can't do what the mind wants it to do anymore.

00:56:18.000 Man, you're looking for that one point where at least a coach, family, or somebody that tells them, like, ah, you're done.

00:56:22.000 But maybe you want to end on a winning note, or you want to just, like...

00:56:26.000 I think these guys just like it.

00:56:27.000 They want to fight, and that's all they know.

00:56:29.000 Yeah.

00:56:30.000 It's different in different people.

00:56:31.000 Like, some people get out, and they go, I think I did enough.

00:56:34.000 I'm out.

00:56:35.000 And they hold to it, like Khabib, or like Andre Ward.

00:56:38.000 Andre Ward's another one.

00:56:39.000 Goes out on top.

00:56:41.000 Gold medalist in the Olympics.

00:56:43.000 Two division world champions.

00:56:44.000 Like, that's it.

00:56:45.000 I'm good.

00:56:46.000 I think they offered him when Canelo fought Kovalev.

00:56:53.000 When he knocked out Kovalev and won the light heavyweight title.

00:56:56.000 They were saying maybe Andre Ward would come back, and they were going to throw a lot of money at him.

00:57:02.000 And I think he considered it, but I think he said, I serve boxing better in the position that I am.

00:57:06.000 So here's a guy, Olympic gold medalist, two-division world champion, speaks perfectly.

00:57:11.000 Nothing wrong with him at all.

00:57:13.000 Very religious man, never swears.

00:57:16.000 I did a podcast with him.

00:57:17.000 He got upset that I said the F word.

00:57:19.000 He did.

00:57:20.000 He called me afterwards like, I didn't know you were going to be swearing.

00:57:23.000 Oh, wow.

00:57:24.000 He would want people from his church to listen.

00:57:27.000 So now he can't say, yeah, he's got to say, don't listen to that one.

00:57:30.000 Joe Rogan's got a potty mouth.

00:57:33.000 I thought he's a boxing champion.

00:57:35.000 I was going to talk to him like a regular dude.

00:57:36.000 But he's one of the wise ones that said, that's it.

00:57:41.000 Everybody else comes back, man.

00:57:43.000 Marvin Hagler, he was another one.

00:57:45.000 Never came back.

00:57:45.000 So that's it.

00:57:46.000 I'm done.

00:57:47.000 Yeah.

00:57:48.000 But Ward, I think...

00:57:49.000 Even now, like I said, in the commentary, the way he breaks stuff down, his new book was so good.

00:57:53.000 Just him, it's like hearing his stories.

00:57:55.000 Wow.

00:57:56.000 Yes.

00:57:56.000 It's a crazy story.

00:57:57.000 But him and Canelo would have been crazy.

00:57:59.000 That would have been crazy.

00:58:00.000 Yeah.

00:58:01.000 I would have loved to see that fight.

00:58:02.000 I want to see Canelo and Benavidez.

00:58:04.000 Like, come on, Saudi Arabia.

00:58:06.000 Throw that money.

00:58:08.000 Throw that money.

00:58:09.000 Let's see that fight.

00:58:10.000 Because if Crawford, if they're not going to have him fight Crawford, which I did want to see.

00:58:13.000 I did want to see.

00:58:14.000 Even though I know it's crazy.

00:58:15.000 It's a giant weight jump.

00:58:16.000 Yeah.

00:58:17.000 But Benavidez is not a weight jump.

00:58:19.000 That's the right weight.

00:58:19.000 And that guy's a killer.

00:58:21.000 And it makes the most sense.

00:58:22.000 It makes the most sense.

00:58:24.000 And Canelo's like, give me $200 million.

00:58:27.000 I can see them just offering it.

00:58:29.000 Let me just go on my bank account.

00:58:30.000 I'll just give you that check real quick.

00:58:31.000 The Saudi Arabia guy.

00:58:33.000 I hope that Benavidez and him do fight, and I hope it's at 168, because I think that's Benavidez's best division.

00:58:41.000 I mean, he fought that last fight at 75 against a good guy, and he won the fight, but he didn't look like the same guy that he looks like at 68. I don't think that power carries quite as much with those bigger guys.

00:58:52.000 It's a little bit of a step.

00:58:54.000 Step up.

00:58:56.000 There's very few guys that keep that power as they keep going up and up and up in weight.

00:59:00.000 And there's so many weight classes in boxing, right?

00:59:04.000 Like I said, for Canelo and him, it's the fight that makes sense.

00:59:07.000 So for him, he's like, I need to find the biggest fight and it's, alright, let me move up a couple more pounds here.

00:59:12.000 And then you think it's not a big jump, but those pounds make a difference.

00:59:15.000 It makes a difference, but for Crawford, I think he just wants the big money fight.

00:59:18.000 Like, what is the big money fight?

00:59:20.000 Canelo's the big money fight.

00:59:21.000 You know, Crawford is one of the best ever.

00:59:23.000 He's 36. He's like, maybe this is, you know, let me get one big money fight and get the fuck out of here.

00:59:29.000 Yeah.

00:59:29.000 But he's got boots in us.

00:59:30.000 You know, knock on his door, too, which is another amazing fight, but super dangerous.

00:59:36.000 Just like Benavidez is dangerous, Boots Ennis is very fucking dangerous.

00:59:40.000 Very dangerous.

00:59:41.000 There's always somebody coming, right?

00:59:43.000 Right behind you.

00:59:43.000 And these guys who've been at the top so long, you're like, alright, let me get somebody that's on my level, Canelo.

00:59:48.000 He's been in the game just as long as me, and alright, let's just do this for his paycheck, and then move on.

00:59:53.000 I think when they get to a certain level and they realize they only have a few fights left, they want the big money fights.

00:59:58.000 And Canelo is obviously the biggest money fight.

01:00:01.000 Even though Boots Ennis is a great fighter, most people don't know who he is yet.

01:00:05.000 And with Canelo, everybody knows who Canelo is.

01:00:08.000 You get the Canelo fight, that's Red Panties night.

01:00:11.000 You're in.

01:00:12.000 Let's go.

01:00:13.000 I mean, that's the Jon Jones effect with Stipe, right?

01:00:16.000 Not a lot of people know where Aspinall is yet.

01:00:19.000 I mean, the real fans know him, but everybody knows Stipe, right?

01:00:22.000 Everybody knows he was one of the greatest heavyweights to ever do it.

01:00:24.000 It's a great thing if Jon can beat him on his resume.

01:00:28.000 It's one more notch that Jon beat the most accomplished heavyweight of all time.

01:00:33.000 But here's the thing.

01:00:35.000 Everybody's sleeping on Stipe.

01:00:37.000 Here's the thing about heavyweights.

01:00:39.000 Heavyweights mature later, and they get compromised later, too.

01:00:46.000 Like, George Foreman won the heavyweight title at 45 years old.

01:00:51.000 And that was in the natural days.

01:00:53.000 I think there's, maybe not natural.

01:00:55.000 I mean, I don't know what George is doing, but I was thinking of Vanderhoele.

01:00:58.000 Maybe there's something going on.

01:01:02.000 But my point is that, like, heavyweight fighters, I think, because there's not as much movement.

01:01:09.000 It's a different thing.

01:01:10.000 The body matures.

01:01:11.000 It takes longer.

01:01:12.000 They're just bigger human beings.

01:01:14.000 I could see a guy that's in his 40s still fighting elite.

01:01:18.000 And we haven't seen Stipe since he got knocked out.

01:01:21.000 So we saw that fight against Francis where Francis just looked unstoppable.

01:01:25.000 Francis knocks him out and we haven't seen Stipe in years now.

01:01:28.000 When was the last time Stipe fought?

01:01:30.000 I remember it was at the apex and it was in the middle of the pandemic because there was no crowd.

01:01:35.000 Yeah.

01:01:36.000 Which was crazy to see a heavyweight title fight with no crowd.

01:01:39.000 It was nuts.

01:01:40.000 Yeah, the pandemic days were wild.

01:01:42.000 Wild.

01:01:43.000 Everybody's wearing a mask, hanging over their nose.

01:01:45.000 It's all so stupid.

01:01:46.000 St. Francis, right?

01:01:47.000 Yes.

01:01:48.000 Yeah, so March 27th, 2021. 2021, dude.

01:01:52.000 2021. And we're getting real close to 2025. So 2025, if this fight happens in November, 2025 is just a fucking month away.

01:02:00.000 That's a long-ass time.

01:02:02.000 But it's also a long-ass time with no head injuries.

01:02:05.000 Yeah.

01:02:06.000 It's a long-ass time without getting, you know, two or three fights, a serial gun fight, another fight, this fight, that fight.

01:02:13.000 It's a long time without getting beat up.

01:02:15.000 And you don't know if he comes as a different version himself.

01:02:17.000 Yeah.

01:02:18.000 What if he's been working on some stuff and he's...

01:02:20.000 Yes.

01:02:21.000 I mean, if he knows he's fighting Jon Jones, and he probably knew probably for the last year and a half, I'm just studying one guy for a year and a half, just focus on him.

01:02:28.000 Exactly.

01:02:29.000 It changes a lot of stuff.

01:02:30.000 And, you know, he's had time to rest.

01:02:32.000 Like, let the chin recover.

01:02:35.000 I think Daniel Cormier landed the picture-perfect right hand when he knocked out Stipe.

01:02:40.000 But I also think Stipe was probably beaten up from that Francis fight.

01:02:45.000 That Francis fight was not much...

01:02:48.000 I mean, I don't remember how many months...

01:02:49.000 How many months was there between Francis...

01:02:51.000 Stipe fighting Francis and then Stipe fighting DC? Seven.

01:02:55.000 Seven months?

01:02:56.000 That's not enough time.

01:02:57.000 And a year before the previous fight.

01:02:59.000 Yeah.

01:03:00.000 A year before, that's a different thing.

01:03:02.000 It's the Francis fight was the damage.

01:03:04.000 Francis was, in the first round in particular, he landed some big shots.

01:03:07.000 He was fucking scary as shit, dude.

01:03:10.000 So, I think him coming in and fighting Daniel...

01:03:15.000 I gotta imagine he took some heavy blows in that fight.

01:03:19.000 And, you know, even if he didn't lose, he had to have gotten some damage.

01:03:24.000 Like, he may have been concussed.

01:03:26.000 Like, he got hit hard.

01:03:27.000 No doubt.

01:03:28.000 Yeah.

01:03:28.000 Hard in that fight.

01:03:30.000 And then...

01:03:31.000 Do you go right back in a train?

01:03:33.000 No, you should take a long-ass time with no contact at all and let everything heal up.

01:03:37.000 And he probably didn't get a chance to do that.

01:03:39.000 I think that's also Volkanovski after Islam.

01:03:43.000 Yeah, I think that was his biggest mistake, right?

01:03:46.000 Huge mistake.

01:03:47.000 Two mistakes.

01:03:48.000 One, you don't fight Islam on 10 days notice.

01:03:50.000 You just can't.

01:03:51.000 That just doesn't make any sense.

01:03:53.000 That's crazy.

01:03:54.000 He's so hard to beat.

01:03:55.000 He's so good.

01:03:57.000 If he's not the best, it's you and him for the best, pound for pound, and you're gonna risk that on 10 days?

01:04:03.000 That's crazy.

01:04:04.000 And that, again, changes the course of his career, right?

01:04:07.000 That's wild, right?

01:04:08.000 Imagine if he doesn't take that fight.

01:04:10.000 He says, I can't.

01:04:11.000 I'm ready for Ilya Tepuria.

01:04:12.000 That guy's coming.

01:04:13.000 And he knows how fucking dangerous Ilya is.

01:04:15.000 And so he doesn't take that fight, and then he goes in fresh against Ilya, and you have a much better fight.

01:04:20.000 Yeah.

01:04:21.000 Who knows who would have won, but you've got to think he was compromised from that.

01:04:24.000 I mean, he got head kicked.

01:04:26.000 Yeah.

01:04:27.000 Head kicked.

01:04:28.000 Shin to the dome, which is just, for sure, it's going to rattle you for a long time.

01:04:34.000 When you're just getting put out cold like that, and especially, he probably cut a lot of weight to get to that point, because he looked kind of flabby in that Islam fight, so you're taking a fight on 10 days notice.

01:04:43.000 There's not a lot of guys that are around their weight class anyway, so they're cutting a lot.

01:04:47.000 Then you have to go, alright, now I'm going to fight Islam, who's number one, pound for pound, and then that head kick.

01:04:52.000 Islam looked like Michelangelo sculpted him.

01:04:55.000 He's so big.

01:04:57.000 And he's so strong, so good.

01:04:58.000 What does he weigh?

01:04:59.000 What does he weigh like normal?

01:05:01.000 Like right now, if you called him up.

01:05:03.000 What do you weigh, brother?

01:05:04.000 I would say at least minimum like 185, 190. Get the fuck out of here.

01:05:09.000 He's 210 pounds.

01:05:11.000 That guy's 250 pounds.

01:05:14.000 His strength feels like 250 pounds.

01:05:16.000 That's what I hear.

01:05:16.000 But that's the thing with them.

01:05:17.000 They're always training.

01:05:18.000 No matter what they're doing, they always at least run once a day or grapple.

01:05:23.000 So he's losing roughly 30 pounds to make 55?

01:05:26.000 From the start, I would say.

01:05:28.000 Yeah.

01:05:29.000 He's big.

01:05:30.000 That's about as big as you can get and keep doing that.

01:05:32.000 That's big.

01:05:33.000 Yeah, and he's tall.

01:05:34.000 He's lengthy, and he has power.

01:05:36.000 He could go up to 70 easily, I think.

01:05:39.000 Yeah, easily.

01:05:39.000 He's got real power now on his feet, which is a new addition over the last X amount of years.

01:05:46.000 His stand-up has gotten elite.

01:05:47.000 He knocked down Oliveira.

01:05:49.000 He had Oliveira in real trouble.

01:05:51.000 The Volkanovski head kick, though, and it was also the way he set it up.

01:05:53.000 He kept kicking to the body.

01:05:55.000 Oh, my God.

01:05:56.000 I think people just assume that all he's going to do is wrestle.

01:06:00.000 But then when you see him go in there and outstrike somebody, he even boxed with Poirier.

01:06:03.000 He has some really good hands in there with him.

01:06:06.000 And people are like, oh wait, he can strike too.

01:06:08.000 But his grappling is just as good.

01:06:09.000 He can do everything.

01:06:11.000 He's as good as it gets.

01:06:13.000 He's the most complete fighter on the roster.

01:06:16.000 Because he submitted Poirier in the final round.

01:06:20.000 Incredible.

01:06:20.000 Incredible submission.

01:06:21.000 But he was winning that fight already.

01:06:23.000 Yeah.

01:06:23.000 But then, you know, he can also knock you out.

01:06:26.000 He literally does everything.

01:06:28.000 He's one of the best wrestlers in the sport.

01:06:29.000 His top control and his squeeze is insane.

01:06:32.000 Yeah.

01:06:33.000 Remember when he tapped out Drew Dober?

01:06:35.000 He got a hold of Drew Dober.

01:06:36.000 It's like, Drew Dober had zero chance of moving.

01:06:39.000 He wasn't going anywhere.

01:06:40.000 He was just crushed.

01:06:41.000 It was like he was fighting a man twice his size.

01:06:44.000 I was just bringing that up when I talk about Dan Hooker.

01:06:47.000 He just went to war with Gamrot.

01:06:49.000 Exactly.

01:06:49.000 And Islam just took him down and tapped him out within the first two or three minutes.

01:06:53.000 And tapped him out to the point where you're like, please tap.

01:06:54.000 Please tap.

01:06:55.000 Fucking tap.

01:06:56.000 Dude, just tap.

01:06:57.000 Don't let him do it.

01:06:57.000 It looked like he was going to break his fucking arm apart.

01:07:00.000 It's so funny because Habib will get guys in there and he's the type that will grapple and just have a conversation as he's grappling.

01:07:07.000 But he had Ali and Kimura and he's laughing and Ali's tapping.

01:07:12.000 And he's just like, brother, give me coffee.

01:07:14.000 And he's just like, I'm like, bro, I think you're going to break his arm at some point.

01:07:17.000 That's a terrible break, too, that spiral break.

01:07:20.000 It's the worst.

01:07:21.000 And I'm like, they're so strong and just effortless with them.

01:07:24.000 Their bodies move crazy.

01:07:26.000 I remember Michael Johnson.

01:07:28.000 Khabib got Michael Johnson in that Kimura.

01:07:30.000 And I was like, Jesus, please tap, Michael.

01:07:32.000 God damn it.

01:07:32.000 Tap, please, just tap.

01:07:34.000 I was like squirming in my chair because I'm waiting to hear crack!

01:07:37.000 Because I've seen it in Nogueira fight with Frank Mir.

01:07:40.000 Remember that?

01:07:41.000 Yeah.

01:07:41.000 You see his arms, you hear the snap, and you see him look over at his arm, and his arm's like halfway hanging.

01:07:48.000 Oh!

01:07:49.000 That's the scary part about the whole thing.

01:07:51.000 It's so scary.

01:07:52.000 That's such a scary break.

01:07:53.000 This arm is never the same again.

01:07:56.000 It's never the same again.

01:07:57.000 No matter what.

01:07:58.000 They're gonna screw things in there and bolt things.

01:08:00.000 All your muscles have been cut.

01:08:02.000 All your nerves are fucked up.

01:08:04.000 It's never gonna be the same arm.

01:08:06.000 And then you have guys that are crazy enough to keep fighting after that.

01:08:09.000 Yeah, they don't give a fuck.

01:08:10.000 With a broken arm.

01:08:11.000 Break my arm.

01:08:11.000 Yeah, go ahead.

01:08:12.000 Tim Sylvia.

01:08:13.000 When Frank Mir broke his arm.

01:08:14.000 Oh, here it is with no gear.

01:08:15.000 Oh, Jesus!

01:08:16.000 You're going to make me...

01:08:16.000 Look at this!

01:08:20.000 And he looks down at his arm like...

01:08:25.000 Goddamn, please, ladies and gentlemen, tap.

01:08:28.000 Please tap.

01:08:28.000 Sometimes you have to tap.

01:08:30.000 I know, I know, but sometimes you gotta tap for the future.

01:08:33.000 Did you see that guy Mikey Musumechi fought in one FC and he destroyed his leg?

01:08:39.000 Yeah.

01:08:39.000 The guy wouldn't tap.

01:08:40.000 This fucking guy's an animal.

01:08:42.000 He would not tap, and I was tapping at home.

01:08:45.000 I couldn't believe it.

01:08:46.000 He broke his leg like three times.

01:08:48.000 He just kept breaking his knee left and right and ripping it apart.

01:08:51.000 I'm watching his knee.

01:08:52.000 I'm like, that's destroyed.

01:08:53.000 There's your LCL. Look at this.

01:08:56.000 This is so horrible!

01:08:58.000 Oh my god!

01:09:00.000 Like right now, his leg is destroyed.

01:09:02.000 His leg right now is fully destroyed.

01:09:04.000 It's totally twisted.

01:09:06.000 All his ligaments are fucked.

01:09:09.000 He couldn't walk after this fight.

01:09:10.000 I mean, look at his heel is totally the wrong way.

01:09:13.000 His knee is twisted completely around.

01:09:16.000 That is horrible!

01:09:17.000 Oh!

01:09:18.000 Oh, he's going that way with it!

01:09:19.000 Oh my god!

01:09:20.000 The dude never tapped.

01:09:22.000 The dude got his leg destroyed and never fucking tapped.

01:09:25.000 But he's probably never gonna be the same again.

01:09:28.000 Mikey has to have some, like, craziness inside of him just to keep going, though.

01:09:31.000 Oh, he's an evil little man.

01:09:32.000 He has to be evil.

01:09:33.000 He's an evil little man.

01:09:34.000 He's a really, really, really nice guy.

01:09:37.000 Yeah.

01:09:38.000 But he's also got a switch.

01:09:40.000 Yeah.

01:09:40.000 There's a switch, and he gets into that octagon, and what's that?

01:09:44.000 Why'd you do that to me?

01:09:46.000 That's what Mikey said to him.

01:09:47.000 Yeah.

01:09:48.000 He felt bad that the guy wouldn't tap.

01:09:52.000 It was a crazy demonstration, but that poor guy.

01:09:56.000 I mean, I gotta think.

01:09:57.000 What kind of surgery?

01:09:59.000 Find out what kind of surgery that guy had to have after that fight.

01:10:02.000 I hate leg locks in general.

01:10:04.000 Even at practice, I'll tell you guys, if you're going to put leg locks on, I'm just going to tap.

01:10:07.000 I'm not even going to play it.

01:10:08.000 Well, I came up before leg locks, so I didn't learn leg locks until late in my jiu-jitsu journey.

01:10:13.000 I was already a black belt before leg locks became the big thing.

01:10:17.000 We already knew about them.

01:10:18.000 I had seen Dean Lister use them.

01:10:20.000 When Eddie went to Abu Dhabi, I went down there with him, and Dean Lister was tapping people.

01:10:24.000 Dean Lister was the first guy to really fuck a lot of guys up with leg locks.

01:10:27.000 And a few of those Luta Livre guys were really good at leg locks.

01:10:31.000 They would do them.

01:10:32.000 Leg locks in jiu-jitsu tournaments were booed.

01:10:34.000 Really?

01:10:35.000 Yeah, man, because they ruin people's knees and no one really knew how to defend them.

01:10:39.000 Torn ACL, torn MCL, torn meniscus, and a broken ankle.

01:10:46.000 My God.

01:10:47.000 That's wild.

01:10:48.000 He tore everything.

01:10:49.000 Mikey said, I'm sick to my stomach.

01:10:51.000 I never felt someone's leg explode like that in a match.

01:10:53.000 I've been training for 22 years.

01:10:54.000 I never broke someone's leg that much.

01:10:56.000 I've broken a lot of legs, but that leg exploded.

01:11:00.000 I didn't know what to do, and it was just disgusting and gross.

01:11:02.000 I really wish he tapped.

01:11:03.000 The result didn't change.

01:11:04.000 Now he's in the hospital, so I don't know.

01:11:06.000 But what a worry he is for showing his will.

01:11:08.000 That's why you gotta choke people.

01:11:11.000 You gotta choke people.

01:11:12.000 Some people just they don't want to tap and they just go to sleep and that's okay.

01:11:16.000 That's Marcello Garcia's route.

01:11:19.000 Marcello Garcia never used Kimuras because Marcello Garcia, of course you could do a Kimura, he never used Kimuras because he felt like Kimuras were like a strong man's move because you have to kind of yank it and you're resisting the arm.

01:11:29.000 It's not perfect technique.

01:11:31.000 So Marcello was all about grabbing your neck.

01:11:34.000 Like, he had the nastiest guillotines.

01:11:36.000 Did you ever watch Marcelo fight?

01:11:37.000 Yeah.

01:11:37.000 Oh my God, dude.

01:11:38.000 I was there live when he fought Shaolin in Abu Dhabi.

01:11:41.000 Oh my God.

01:11:43.000 Oh my God.

01:11:44.000 It was like, what was that dude?

01:11:45.000 The Tasmanian Devil from the cartoons?

01:11:47.000 That was like, just spinning around him, getting his back and put him to sleep.

01:11:51.000 That's crazy.

01:11:52.000 Oh my God.

01:11:53.000 And nobody knew who Marcelo was.

01:11:54.000 That was what was crazy.

01:11:56.000 Like, a lot of people respected him.

01:11:58.000 Everybody knew he was a black belt.

01:11:59.000 You know, Fabio Gurgel lineage, solid lineage.

01:12:02.000 Everybody knew he was good, but God.

01:12:03.000 Damn.

01:12:04.000 Killer.

01:12:05.000 Killer.

01:12:06.000 Did you watch that million-dollar tournament with Craig Jones?

01:12:08.000 I did.

01:12:09.000 Yeah, I did.

01:12:10.000 That one match was really good in the semifinals with them two kids.

01:12:13.000 Oh, yeah.

01:12:14.000 Rutolo.

01:12:15.000 Yeah.

01:12:15.000 Who was the other caddy fire?

01:12:16.000 I forgot, but that was crazy.

01:12:18.000 I think they said it's on YouTube as the greatest grappling match of all time.

01:12:22.000 Yeah, that was a wild one.

01:12:23.000 The Rutolo brothers are so good, man.

01:12:25.000 They're so good.

01:12:26.000 And again, look, 20 years old, 19 years old, just coming up.

01:12:29.000 The young ones, man.

01:12:30.000 Young and explosive and wild.

01:12:32.000 They do all kinds of crazy techniques.

01:12:34.000 They catch Darces from everywhere.

01:12:36.000 And I like the ring they did.

01:12:37.000 Andrew Tackett, who's also a killer.

01:12:39.000 So it was an incredible match.

01:12:41.000 And these guys just went at it.

01:12:43.000 I don't like that ring.

01:12:45.000 It's fun.

01:12:45.000 It's like something different.

01:12:46.000 I don't like it.

01:12:47.000 I don't like it because it's another obstacle.

01:12:49.000 I think they had it right before when there was no obstacles.

01:12:52.000 Like, this is an obstacle, right?

01:12:54.000 This keeps you from being able to get upright.

01:12:56.000 It's a thing that you have to think about.

01:12:58.000 This is why, like, I've said this before.

01:13:01.000 I apologize for everybody who's heard it.

01:13:03.000 I think fighting should take place with no cage.

01:13:06.000 It would be easier to see and I think it should be on a basketball court and you fight in the center.

01:13:10.000 If you can have basketball in the same arenas where we have UFCs, you take an enormous space, you mat it up, you put security around it so nobody can get in, you put ropes up, and guys step in and they fight right in front of everybody.

01:13:25.000 That would be epic.

01:13:25.000 No time limit.

01:13:27.000 Nah, I think you should have time limits.

01:13:29.000 I think you should even have rounds.

01:13:30.000 But if I was running things, this is what I'd do.

01:13:33.000 Number one, first thing I'd do, cover the fingertips.

01:13:36.000 Why are the fingertips open?

01:13:37.000 They don't have to be open.

01:13:38.000 All you need is the same UFC gloves right now and extend the leather like a mitten over the tips of the front fingers and pull it back in there.

01:13:47.000 I think it would help grappling.

01:13:48.000 I don't think it would hurt grappling.

01:13:50.000 So I don't think grapplers would have a problem with it.

01:13:51.000 It would have no difference at all on your striking.

01:13:54.000 You would just pull it like a bag glove.

01:13:56.000 You know like those old Everlast bag gloves?

01:13:58.000 Yeah.

01:13:58.000 But not even as thick.

01:13:59.000 Just have it.

01:14:00.000 So now you have one piece.

01:14:01.000 So you don't have nothing that can go in your eyeball.

01:14:03.000 Like we've seen fingers go in eyeballs before.

01:14:06.000 So that would be eliminated.

01:14:08.000 You'd still have some abrasions of the eye.

01:14:10.000 You could still run into fingers like that.

01:14:12.000 It would suck.

01:14:13.000 It would suck less though.

01:14:14.000 Yeah.

01:14:15.000 It would suck less.

01:14:15.000 So that would be my first thing I would do.

01:14:17.000 Second thing I would do, nobody gets stood up ever for any reason, unless someone gets injured or some foul or something happens wrong, somebody bites somebody, some crazy shit, then stand people up.

01:14:28.000 And then I think you put them right back down to the position after you take the point away or whatever you're going to do.

01:14:33.000 But once a guy gets you down, it's your job to get back up.

01:14:37.000 And at the end of the round, if you're on your back and he's mounted you, you start the next round with him mounted you.

01:14:44.000 You put the arm in the exact same place.

01:14:45.000 He had an overhook on the right arm and he's on top and he's got his hand on your bicep.

01:14:50.000 Okay, this is how the round ended.

01:14:52.000 This is how we start.

01:14:52.000 And everybody looks at the screen and everybody looks at the guys and they go, three, two, one, fight.

01:14:59.000 That would be wild.

01:15:01.000 That would be real.

01:15:01.000 Yeah, that would be cool.

01:15:02.000 Because it's not five fights.

01:15:04.000 It's one fight.

01:15:06.000 It's one fight that's five rounds.

01:15:07.000 Why should it start on your feet every round?

01:15:10.000 That's crazy.

01:15:11.000 Why?

01:15:12.000 Because that's how it is in boxing?

01:15:13.000 They come out of their corner?

01:15:14.000 Who fucking cares?

01:15:15.000 That's stupid.

01:15:17.000 Yeah.

01:15:17.000 You've got to get better the same way you got sick.

01:15:21.000 You got taken down, you've got to get up.

01:15:23.000 Somebody got you down, you've got to get up.

01:15:25.000 Because if you don't get up, then he's winning.

01:15:27.000 He's figured out a way to hold you down.

01:15:29.000 You don't want to be held down.

01:15:30.000 He's holding you down.

01:15:31.000 So he's winning.

01:15:32.000 Even if he's not doing any damage, he's winning.

01:15:35.000 He's holding you down.

01:15:36.000 Everybody, boo, boo.

01:15:38.000 So what?

01:15:39.000 So it'll affect your ticket sales.

01:15:41.000 So you'll get less money for pay-per-views.

01:15:43.000 So what?

01:15:44.000 But this is what real fighting is.

01:15:46.000 That's real.

01:15:47.000 That's the most pure version of the sport that we could offer.

01:15:52.000 Giant matted down space.

01:15:54.000 You make it so that, you know, you have security around it so no fucking psychos can rush.

01:15:59.000 You know, you put ropes up so people can't pass it.

01:16:03.000 Everybody's gonna have a clear line of sight.

01:16:04.000 No cages in the way.

01:16:06.000 You still have the big monitors and everything like that.

01:16:08.000 They fight in an enormous space.

01:16:10.000 And you have a danger zone.

01:16:11.000 You got an outside danger zone.

01:16:13.000 And if you keep going into that fucking danger zone, they take a point away.

01:16:17.000 If you get kicked in the nuts, take a point away.

01:16:19.000 You get poked in the eye, take a point away.

01:16:22.000 Well, grab the fence, I think.

01:16:23.000 Take a point away, too.

01:16:24.000 But let's have no fence.

01:16:25.000 Yeah.

01:16:25.000 No fence.

01:16:26.000 So there's no way to take someone down except taking them down.

01:16:29.000 You've got to actually take them down.

01:16:31.000 You can't get them up against the cage and trip them because their back is...

01:16:35.000 No, no, no.

01:16:35.000 You have to take them down.

01:16:37.000 On a flat ground with no help.

01:16:39.000 And he's got to get up without the cage.

01:16:41.000 He can't wall walk up to the cage and press his back up and use the leverage.

01:16:45.000 Uh-uh.

01:16:46.000 Uh-uh.

01:16:46.000 Get up.

01:16:47.000 You're in the middle of the fucking matted area.

01:16:50.000 Get up.

01:16:50.000 I'm just imagining guys like MVP and Wonderboy, like to be able to catch those guys in a basketball court would be wild.

01:16:56.000 Hard.

01:16:57.000 Sean O'Malley.

01:16:57.000 Yeah, hard.

01:16:58.000 Great for them too.

01:17:00.000 Bad for them if they get taken down, though.

01:17:02.000 Real bad.

01:17:03.000 Because now you have to actually be able to get up.

01:17:05.000 And you're stuck there.

01:17:06.000 And imagine getting up with Khabib on top of you.

01:17:08.000 Has anybody ever gotten up?

01:17:10.000 Dude, that guy gets on top of you.

01:17:12.000 You're fucked.

01:17:12.000 You've got to wait until the round's over.

01:17:14.000 Bro, when we grapple, the round will be over with and he'll still be going.

01:17:18.000 And he's like, no, brother, you have to get up.

01:17:20.000 And I'm just like, bro, I can't move.

01:17:22.000 The bell rang, bro.

01:17:23.000 You've got to get up.

01:17:24.000 That's what you mean.

01:17:25.000 It'll just stay on top of you.

01:17:27.000 It'll be like a 15-minute round.

01:17:28.000 It'll be just like...

01:17:29.000 That's so crazy.

01:17:30.000 Non-stop.

01:17:30.000 It's wild.

01:17:31.000 But that mentality is why that camp produces so many assassins.

01:17:34.000 I was very impressed with Umar.

01:17:36.000 Very impressed.

01:17:38.000 Very impressed.

01:17:38.000 Because I always knew he was an elite kicker.

01:17:42.000 You know what I mean?

01:17:42.000 He's an elite striker, too.

01:17:44.000 But to see him fight a guy like Sanhagen, who's so complex, he does so many things well, and to see him dominate that fight, I was like, wow, that's really impressive.

01:17:54.000 That's really impressive.

01:17:55.000 Yeah, I think he still only has less than five fights in the UFC. He's still...

01:17:58.000 Yeah, he's incredible.

01:17:59.000 Starting.

01:18:00.000 Yo, I butchered his name one time.

01:18:01.000 So bad.

01:18:02.000 I could see it all the time.

01:18:04.000 It couldn't get out of my mouth.

01:18:05.000 I don't know what it is.

01:18:07.000 Sometimes my mouth just don't work right.

01:18:10.000 And that's fine if you're doing a podcast.

01:18:12.000 You can just say it again.

01:18:13.000 Yeah.

01:18:13.000 But if you're saying it, guys, I was like...

01:18:15.000 Fuck.

01:18:17.000 Fuck.

01:18:17.000 I'm like, what did I say?

01:18:19.000 I felt so bad because I really love the guy.

01:18:21.000 I think he's awesome.

01:18:22.000 And especially after the Sanhagen fight, I think he's the most compelling contender in that division after Merab.

01:18:27.000 Yeah.

01:18:27.000 So after Merab, I think he's got to get that shot.

01:18:30.000 Whoever wins and him against either one of those guys is sensational.

01:18:34.000 That's a sensational fight.

01:18:35.000 That's like an elite top.

01:18:37.000 That's like as good as we have to offer today in terms of martial arts talent.

01:18:41.000 Yeah, 100%.

01:18:42.000 The way he did...

01:18:43.000 Like, Sanhagen's one of my favorite fighters.

01:18:45.000 He's so good.

01:18:46.000 To see how good Umar did against them.

01:18:48.000 Didn't have really any moments of difficulty in there.

01:18:51.000 And I was like, he's elite.

01:18:53.000 Yeah, he's super elite.

01:18:55.000 You know, I think about Sanhagen.

01:18:57.000 One thing I think about is...

01:19:00.000 Here's a bummer.

01:19:01.000 T.J. Dillshaw.

01:19:02.000 Like, T.J. Dillshaw.

01:19:03.000 Let's imagine if T.J. Dillshaw didn't blow out his shoulders.

01:19:05.000 Because T.J. Dillshaw beat Sanhagen with one leg.

01:19:08.000 Yeah.

01:19:09.000 Which is crazy.

01:19:10.000 And he beat Sanhagen, Sanhagen.

01:19:12.000 Sanhagen that had fucked up Marlon Marais.

01:19:14.000 Sanhagen, Sanhagen.

01:19:16.000 Like, the Sanhagen of today.

01:19:18.000 You know, that guy is fucking top of the food chain.

01:19:22.000 He's very good.

01:19:23.000 And TJ beat him with one leg.

01:19:24.000 And a fucked up shoulder.

01:19:25.000 His shoulder wasn't good back then either.

01:19:27.000 Yeah.

01:19:27.000 It was fucked up.

01:19:28.000 But he figured out a way to win.

01:19:30.000 It wasn't the most exciting fight, but how could it be?

01:19:31.000 He had one ACL. He blew his fucking knee apart.

01:19:34.000 But he still beat him.

01:19:35.000 That guy's had so many fucking injuries.

01:19:37.000 If you imagine TJ Dillashaw not having all those injuries.

01:19:40.000 And someone talking him out and going down to 25. Yeah.

01:19:44.000 You see how big he is right now?

01:19:46.000 Bro, he's huge.

01:19:46.000 He's like 180 pounds.

01:19:48.000 It's wild.

01:19:49.000 I'm like, that's what I want to be.

01:19:50.000 I wish I was tighter with him.

01:19:52.000 Because I would have said, do not fucking do it.

01:19:55.000 Look at him now.

01:19:55.000 He's huge.

01:19:56.000 Oh my god.

01:19:57.000 Yeah, his piss would melt that U.S. sauna cup.

01:20:01.000 Just put him and Chad Mendes in a room and just have him just like duke it out.

01:20:05.000 Do a best body contest.

01:20:07.000 They're both just like takes.

01:20:08.000 But you gotta think, man, how good Cody Nolove was when he beat him, you know, when he stopped him.

01:20:14.000 Dude, TJ Dillashaw was a bad man.

01:20:16.000 Hennen Burrell was the pound for pound considerate of a number one fighter in the world when he was the Bantamweight Champion.

01:20:22.000 A lot of people, he was in consideration.

01:20:24.000 And TJ just pieced him up, and he did it like he was sparring.

01:20:28.000 He was all loose and relaxed, and he had that...

01:20:31.000 Dwayne Ludwig, I don't know, have you ever trained with Dwayne?

01:20:34.000 No.

01:20:34.000 He's got an incredible system.

01:20:36.000 That Bang Muay Thai system is one of the most complex and well-thought-out striking systems I've ever seen.

01:20:43.000 He's a maniac.

01:20:44.000 He's got notebooks, like binders, with all these moves locked in.

01:20:50.000 If you watch Dwayne fight, though, it's so crazy, because he didn't fight that way.

01:20:54.000 Yeah.

01:20:54.000 Dwayne fought, you know, he had like kind of traditional, like a lot of Muay Thai, a lot of Dutch kickboxing style, nasty striker, but he didn't like switch stances all the time and do like TJ, but he figured that out.

01:21:06.000 He figured out that this is the way, the constant switching and striking from each stance and the constant footwork and movement and all these patterns that they would get guys to lead into certain positions and do it.

01:21:16.000 It wasn't just like smashing buttons like Stylebender likes to talk about.

01:21:20.000 Dwayne's thought about it as like a real comprehensive striking program.

01:21:24.000 T.J. was his best pupil.

01:21:26.000 And T.J., when he fought Hannon Burrell, was showing that style in its world-class form.

01:21:32.000 But people forget.

01:21:33.000 People forget how good T.J. Dillashaw was.

01:21:35.000 They forget.

01:21:36.000 He has that fight with Cejudo.

01:21:37.000 He tests positive for EPO. Literally dying to make 125. He looked like an Auschwitz concentration camp survivor.

01:21:46.000 He did.

01:21:46.000 He looked like they just opened the doors and let him out of the concentration camp.

01:21:49.000 He had no skin on his face.

01:21:50.000 His face was just, it was just bones.

01:21:53.000 He looked terrible.

01:21:55.000 And TJ is a big guy for 35. He's big.

01:21:59.000 He's a good, solid, perfect 35-pound frame.

01:22:03.000 And somehow or another, someone talked him into it or he wanted to do it for the challenge.

01:22:07.000 Chasing that greatness.

01:22:08.000 Yeah.

01:22:10.000 Fuck that, man.

01:22:12.000 Fuck that kind of cut.

01:22:13.000 Yeah.

01:22:13.000 Because he had to be starving to death in camp.

01:22:18.000 So he must have been like doing his camp while he was starving.

01:22:21.000 Literally starving to death.

01:22:22.000 Like your organs are shutting down.

01:22:24.000 Your brain's not working anymore.

01:22:27.000 And then when you're thinking about, was the EPO just because of the weight cut?

01:22:32.000 That's what he said.

01:22:33.000 Right.

01:22:33.000 But then you think if he was using it beforehand, how good Cody Nola was before he fought him.

01:22:38.000 And after him beating Dominique Cruz, that was like the best performance I've ever seen in my life.

01:22:41.000 And then he goes and gets knocked out by him.

01:22:43.000 And then he says...

01:22:45.000 Because he was on EPO. Right.

01:22:46.000 And it's like, that changed your whole career.

01:22:48.000 It does.

01:22:49.000 It does change your whole career.

01:22:50.000 And, you know, there's guys that have accused him of doing stuff other than that.

01:22:54.000 And I don't know who's telling him.

01:22:55.000 That's what he looked like.

01:22:56.000 Oh, my God.

01:22:57.000 That's so crazy.

01:22:58.000 That is so crazy.

01:23:00.000 I wish I was his friend.

01:23:01.000 I wish I was tight with him back then.

01:23:04.000 I wish he would have listened to someone who said, just don't do that, man.

01:23:09.000 Don't fucking do that.

01:23:10.000 You could be one of the all-time greats at 35 and stay there.

01:23:13.000 But you also got to think, how many of his injuries got amplified because of that weight cut?

01:23:17.000 How much body deterioration was he going through and then also going through camp?

01:23:22.000 So he's pushing hard, he's wrestling, he's hitting the mitts, he's sparring, all this while his body's deteriorating.

01:23:28.000 So all his mass is down, all the muscle that's protecting his shoulders, which are, you know, his supraspinatus has been missing forever.

01:23:35.000 His supraspinatus has been ripped off the bone from like the beginning of his career.

01:23:39.000 We were just, I was talking to a guy yesterday about weight cutting.

01:23:42.000 We were at the sushi spot, sushi by scratch.

01:23:46.000 And then the sushi guy who was rolling it, he was like, I used to be a weight cutter in high school when I was a wrestler.

01:23:51.000 And I had to have heart surgery because I was cutting weight since I was six years old.

01:23:54.000 My dad would make me cut weight.

01:23:55.000 And I was like...

01:23:56.000 Oh my god.

01:23:58.000 That'll change your whole life because you started cutting it that young.

01:24:01.000 And he's like, bro, I had so many issues, problems from there.

01:24:04.000 And it was just wrestling.

01:24:06.000 He said I wasn't even grappling or anything.

01:24:07.000 I was just wrestling since a kid.

01:24:08.000 My dad just made me cut weight since I was a kid.

01:24:10.000 It was like 109 pounds to like 90 pounds.

01:24:14.000 And I was like, why are you cutting weight that young?

01:24:16.000 It's so bad for you.

01:24:18.000 It stunts your growth.

01:24:19.000 It does a lot of wild shit to your body.

01:24:21.000 It can make your kidneys fail.

01:24:23.000 Changes your life.

01:24:24.000 Changes your life.

01:24:25.000 Yeah, and you don't grow up right.

01:24:28.000 It's like you're being poisoned from the time you're a kid.

01:24:30.000 Your body doesn't develop right.

01:24:32.000 Who knows what it could do to the future of your life.

01:24:35.000 It might have taken a decade or two off of his life.

01:24:37.000 And it just burns you out in general if you go to fighting after that.

01:24:41.000 Exactly.

01:24:41.000 You've been cutting weight since that long.

01:24:43.000 Now you're a fighter.

01:24:43.000 Now you have to cut weight.

01:24:44.000 Right.

01:24:45.000 Every single fighter, I think, has like an eating disorder or two now after.

01:24:48.000 Oh, yeah.

01:24:48.000 Yeah.

01:24:49.000 I'm sure.

01:24:50.000 I'm sure.

01:24:51.000 Well, how much do you have to cut?

01:24:52.000 Me, like, I get around to like 190, and then when I'm in fight camp and I'm training, I'm walking around at 185. Oh, that's not bad at all.

01:25:00.000 At 15 pounds, yeah, but I keep a chef with me for like this last five weeks.

01:25:06.000 Ian Larios, he'd been with like DC, Kane, and all them guys, and he lives in my house for five weeks, and I tell people...

01:25:14.000 It changes your life.

01:25:15.000 You train so much better off it because he's giving you the right food to eat.

01:25:20.000 Before I would sit there when I'm cutting my meat myself, I was like, I'm not going to have breakfast.

01:25:23.000 I'm just going to go to the gym and train.

01:25:24.000 Now I'm waking up and he's giving me potatoes and eggs and I'm like, bro, I can't have carbs.

01:25:28.000 What are you giving me these for?

01:25:29.000 Bro, you're not going to train.

01:25:30.000 You're not going to have a good workout unless you have this stuff.

01:25:33.000 So there's no thought process with me.

01:25:35.000 He just gives me everything, my shakes, my food, and then I come home from practice and then he has lunch on the table.

01:25:41.000 Then I come home after another session and he has dinner on the table.

01:25:44.000 And is he calculating the calories for each meal and how it's set up?

01:25:48.000 That's where it gets fascinating, right?

01:25:50.000 When they calculate the calories for each meal, and they give you the exact right amount.

01:25:54.000 Yeah.

01:25:54.000 I hate looking at the scale.

01:25:56.000 So, like, he'll make me step on the scale, and it'll be five weeks.

01:25:59.000 I'm like, bro, no, we're not.

01:26:00.000 We still have, like, five more weeks.

01:26:01.000 He's like, get on the scale, so I won't look at it.

01:26:03.000 So he'll look at it right in his phone, and then he'll just keep track of it the whole time.

01:26:07.000 That's an eating disorder.

01:26:08.000 It is.

01:26:09.000 Yeah, man.

01:26:09.000 You won't even look at it.

01:26:10.000 I was like, bro, I don't even want to look at it, because then it just...

01:26:13.000 It tells me like, oh man, I gotta do this or I gotta do that more.

01:26:15.000 But it'll make me push that much harder at practice.

01:26:17.000 But I'm like, I'm gonna push hard anyway for the fight.

01:26:20.000 But I think mentally I just hate scales.

01:26:23.000 I won't step on a scale until I have a fight.

01:26:25.000 Yo, nobody's got an eating disorder like Patty.

01:26:28.000 Oh my god!

01:26:29.000 Patty celebrates his eating disorder.

01:26:32.000 That motherfucker gained 40 pounds after his last fight.

01:26:34.000 And that's going to literally kill him, I feel like.

01:26:38.000 It's wild.

01:26:38.000 It's not good.

01:26:39.000 Well, he's so good, though, man.

01:26:41.000 I'm so impressed with him.

01:26:43.000 I thought Jared Gordon beat him.

01:26:45.000 And I thought that fight, to me, that was another one of those fights.

01:26:49.000 If Jared Gordon wins, then all of a sudden Jared Gordon's got another big fight, another big fight.

01:26:53.000 He had two blunders in a row.

01:26:56.000 Not his fault.

01:26:57.000 The other one was the headbutt with Bobby.

01:26:59.000 Yeah.

01:27:00.000 But the Paddy one was a big one, man, because the Paddy one, he was fucking winning that fight, man.

01:27:05.000 I felt that he was landing the big shots.

01:27:07.000 That counter left hook was sweet.

01:27:09.000 He looked good.

01:27:09.000 I thought he won the fight.

01:27:10.000 I thought it was a good fight, but I thought he won the fight.

01:27:13.000 And then Paddy fights Bobby Green, and he looks like a world beater.

01:27:18.000 He looks like a world beater.

01:27:20.000 The strategy was perfect.

01:27:22.000 Stay on the outside, fuck his legs up, and then you realize how big Paddy is, too.

01:27:26.000 Paddy's a big 55er, because Bobby's big.

01:27:28.000 Yeah.

01:27:29.000 Excuse me, King.

01:27:30.000 He's King now.

01:27:31.000 That's wild.

01:27:32.000 Change his name to King.

01:27:33.000 I love that dude.

01:27:35.000 Change his name to King.

01:27:36.000 So King is, you know, he's a tall dude too for the division.

01:27:40.000 Yeah.

01:27:40.000 But you realize how big Patty is.

01:27:42.000 And people think of Patty only as a grappler, but his kicks were on point, man.

01:27:46.000 His kicks were on point.

01:27:47.000 And he's tough in general.

01:27:48.000 Yep.

01:27:48.000 Those guys...

01:27:50.000 When you hit a guy and he's still standing in front of you, it makes you want to shoot on him.

01:27:53.000 Because I'm looking at Bobby like, why would you shoot a takedown on Patty?

01:27:55.000 I feel like this is the only way of beating you is to catch you in a submission.

01:27:58.000 I think his legs were getting fucked up.

01:27:59.000 Yeah.

01:28:00.000 Yeah.

01:28:00.000 But it just makes you uncomfortable.

01:28:01.000 So he shot.

01:28:02.000 Here it is.

01:28:05.000 Yeah, I think he was seeing where this was going.

01:28:07.000 Look how big he looks, man.

01:28:09.000 You realize, like, damn, he's a big 55er, and you caught him with that inside low kick.

01:28:13.000 I mean, it might have been just instinct where Bobby just felt like he had to catch, excuse me, King felt like he had to catch that kick because it was available, but as a trap.

01:28:21.000 The crowd in Manchester, when Paddy walks out, it's like nuts.

01:28:26.000 Yeah, he's a star.

01:28:27.000 Yeah, over there, it's crazy.

01:28:29.000 When I was sitting in the back, we were sitting in the back warming up, and then we just hear the people going nuts, and my family's like texting me like, man, I wish we were fighting so I could just enjoy this right now and watch Paddy walk out.

01:28:40.000 He's a scouser.

01:28:42.000 He's just fun.

01:28:43.000 He looks like he's having a good old time when he's out there, and he can back it up.

01:28:47.000 So that fight was big for him because that fight moves him into elite status, right?

01:28:51.000 He goes from Jared Gordon and now, you know, a couple other fights, now bam, Bobby Green, bam, someone's gonna be a big name.

01:28:59.000 Someone next is gonna be a big game.

01:29:00.000 So he's thinking right now about Islam.

01:29:02.000 He's thinking about those guys at the top of the heap.

01:29:05.000 He's at the point where I think one more, especially because of his name, if he gets like a hooker or a Chandler, and he gets past one of them guys, I see them giving a touchdown.

01:29:13.000 Don't you think, considering the amount of growth that we've already seen from him, though, like if you were in his corner, wouldn't you say, a couple more would be good, a couple more, a couple more, don't rush?

01:29:22.000 Don't rush.

01:29:23.000 I would, but for money-wise, I think he's about the big name, especially if the UFC, when you're thinking of lightweight, Oliveira just lost, Gaethje just lost, Hooker already lost to Islam.

01:29:34.000 If Islam gets past Armand, there's...

01:29:37.000 I mean, if McGregor comes back and he beats Chandler, he's there.

01:29:40.000 But there's not a lot of names right now for Islam because Gamrot was supposed to be the backup, and he just lost to Hooker.

01:29:46.000 But Islam walked through Hooker.

01:29:48.000 So you're like, who is Islam going to fight after Armand?

01:29:50.000 Right, right.

01:29:51.000 It's a good question.

01:29:53.000 Good question.

01:29:54.000 You know, because Gamrot was an interesting one.

01:29:56.000 We were looking forward to that versus Islam.

01:29:59.000 Like, that could be interesting because he's such a good grappler.

01:30:01.000 But when, you know, people forget about Dan Hooker.

01:30:04.000 They forgot about him, too.

01:30:05.000 He's a dog, yeah.

01:30:06.000 He's a dog.

01:30:07.000 Dan Hooker went blow for blow with Dustin Poirier.

01:30:10.000 That was as close a fight as you're going to get.

01:30:12.000 And again, another change of the career, right?

01:30:14.000 Dustin moves on from that, gets the corner fights.

01:30:17.000 Dustin becomes the man.

01:30:19.000 Yeah, people forget about that fight.

01:30:20.000 That was a fucking very close fight.

01:30:22.000 A very good fight.

01:30:23.000 And there were some moments where Dan Hooker was tuning Dustin Poirier up.

01:30:27.000 There's a video compilation online of Hooker having Poirier against the ropes.

01:30:33.000 Just rap, rap.

01:30:35.000 He's ripping shots before the end of the round.

01:30:37.000 He's a bad motherfucker.

01:30:39.000 His only got fought with a broken arm.

01:30:42.000 He got his arm broken.

01:30:43.000 Didn't say shit.

01:30:44.000 Didn't say a goddamn word about it.

01:30:46.000 Wins the fight.

01:30:47.000 And they're like, what happened to you?

01:30:48.000 It's just a scratch.

01:30:51.000 Even in this fight, his face is like bleeding in between rounds.

01:30:53.000 And he's like, I love this stuff.

01:30:55.000 Well, he also loves, like, you know, he had that devastating knockout loss to Chandler, right?

01:31:00.000 Chandler comes out, catches him with that leaping hook and drops him and just puts it on him and like, fuck.

01:31:05.000 This is a big, high-profile fight, and he got caught.

01:31:09.000 Anybody can get caught.

01:31:11.000 That's what's crazy about the sport.

01:31:12.000 That's why it's so exciting.

01:31:13.000 Anybody can get caught.

01:31:15.000 But it's like, how can you bounce back?

01:31:18.000 Can you bounce back and be the same guy after you got caught?

01:31:21.000 Yeah, and that's the hardest part, too, because you get caught, and you don't really feel anything afterward.

01:31:26.000 It's not like you went through a war or injury, so you want to hop right back into it.

01:31:29.000 You're like, let me get that up, taste it in my mouth, let me fight again.

01:31:32.000 But you need the coaches around you that tell you, you still got a concussion, chill out, don't fight, take a couple months off.

01:31:38.000 Gaethje's taking a year off, and it's like, you need those guys to hold you back, because...

01:31:44.000 I've been knocked out before and it's like, I'm alright.

01:31:47.000 I feel good.

01:31:48.000 My body feels good.

01:31:49.000 I don't have no scratches or anything.

01:31:50.000 I didn't go through a 15 minute war.

01:31:53.000 So I'm like, let me get another fight.

01:31:54.000 Let me get another fight.

01:31:56.000 But you don't know what's going on in your brain.

01:31:58.000 You don't know what your brain's dealing with.

01:32:00.000 And that's going to be your future right there.

01:32:03.000 Yep, exactly.

01:32:04.000 And so many fighters, they're so tough.

01:32:06.000 They feel fine.

01:32:07.000 Their mind is, you know, their determination is strong.

01:32:10.000 Like, I want to get back in there.

01:32:11.000 Like, that was the case with Jamal Hill.

01:32:13.000 He was going to get right back in after the Pajera fight, and he was going to fight Roundtree.

01:32:18.000 Which is, whoo, that's a bad fight if you just got knocked out just a few months ago.

01:32:22.000 That's a scary dude.

01:32:24.000 And even taking the Pajeta fight, he had a torn Achilles.

01:32:28.000 And I think he just got cleared to come back from that Achilles.

01:32:30.000 And it's like, right now you've got to fight Alex in six weeks.

01:32:34.000 And I'm like, bro, that's a short camp and you're switching up right away.

01:32:38.000 But he's like, it's 300, it's such a big opportunity, you can't say no to that.

01:32:42.000 And then, yeah, you get knocked out by Pajeta and you're like...

01:32:45.000 I want to get right back in there, but your right back in there is going to be against a monster-like roundtree.

01:32:50.000 I know.

01:32:51.000 I know.

01:32:51.000 It's not an easy fight.

01:32:53.000 It's funny because he was on your show and I'm listening to him and he's like, I may do a jiu-jitsu tournament.

01:32:57.000 And then I'm like, a week later he gets a title fight.

01:32:59.000 Yeah, I know.

01:33:00.000 You're telling him, no.

01:33:01.000 No!

01:33:01.000 No fucking way.

01:33:02.000 Don't do that.

01:33:03.000 You do all that shit when it's over.

01:33:05.000 Because I remember Cub Swanson did a jiu-jitsu tournament and tore his ACL. Yeah, once you tear some shit doing something stupid and you miss a title shot, you're never going to forgive yourself.

01:33:16.000 Yeah.

01:33:16.000 Pesh Khalil's like 35. He's up in that age range, too, where it's like, now's the time, man.

01:33:22.000 Yeah.

01:33:23.000 So it was perfect timing.

01:33:24.000 And a lot of people are like, Uncle I should have got the title shot, but the problem is they already set up that fight with Rakic, which doesn't really totally make sense, right?

01:33:32.000 Yeah.

01:33:32.000 Has Rakic fought since Yuri beat him up?

01:33:36.000 No.

01:33:37.000 Okay, so that kind of doesn't make sense a little bit.

01:33:40.000 Yeah.

01:33:41.000 It'd make more sense if Jamal fought Rackage, right?

01:33:44.000 But Jamal wants something a little more high-profile.

01:33:48.000 I understand that.

01:33:51.000 Ankolyev, man.

01:33:52.000 No one's beating him.

01:33:55.000 Ankolyev had that one draw with Jan Bochowicz, and no one's beating him.

01:33:59.000 There's another guy everybody forgets about.

01:34:01.000 Jan Bochowicz.

01:34:02.000 What the fuck?

01:34:03.000 That guy almost beat Pejeta.

01:34:05.000 That was such a close fight.

01:34:07.000 Super close.

01:34:08.000 Down to the wire.

01:34:09.000 Everybody's like, yeah, we already saw that.

01:34:11.000 What?

01:34:12.000 What?

01:34:13.000 You gotta give Jan his due.

01:34:14.000 He was a light heavyweight champion of the fucking world and a destroyer.

01:34:18.000 Yeah.

01:34:19.000 But for whatever reason, I think they look at that number.

01:34:21.000 They say, oh, he's 40 years old.

01:34:23.000 Yeah.

01:34:23.000 He's 41 years old, whatever he is now.

01:34:25.000 So what?

01:34:27.000 So what?

01:34:27.000 He still fucked up Dominic Reyes.

01:34:30.000 He still fucks up everybody.

01:34:31.000 Jan Bohovic is a murderer.

01:34:32.000 He's a scary dude, man.

01:34:34.000 That's a good fight.

01:34:35.000 Man, he's Polish, bro.

01:34:36.000 They don't age.

01:34:38.000 He's a killer.

01:34:39.000 That dude's made out of rocks.

01:34:41.000 I remember when Ankalayev and him were going leg kick to leg kick.

01:34:45.000 He was kicking his shins and fucking Ankalayev.

01:34:48.000 I'm like, this guy is nuts.

01:34:49.000 So I went to my coach and I'm like, what kind of low kick was he doing?

01:34:52.000 I think he was just going shin to shin.

01:34:54.000 He was.

01:34:55.000 I'm not going to teach that.

01:34:56.000 He was just saying, feel Polish bone density.

01:35:01.000 Slamming those fucking shins into the shins.

01:35:03.000 What if I'm peheaded?

01:35:05.000 I'm gonna pick all the strikers.

01:35:06.000 Like, him and Rountree's gonna be a crazy one.

01:35:08.000 This is his only loss.

01:35:09.000 Against Paul Craig, his first fight in the UFC. Oh yeah, Uncle I've got caught in a triangle.

01:35:13.000 That's right.

01:35:14.000 Last second of the fight.

01:35:14.000 Yeah, last second of the fight where Paul Craig has the nastiest triangle in the division, for sure.

01:35:19.000 One of the nastiest triangles in the sport.

01:35:21.000 Look at this.

01:35:21.000 Look how quick he snatches that shit up.

01:35:23.000 Boom!

01:35:24.000 Snap!

01:35:24.000 And too late.

01:35:25.000 So here we got, I think there was like five seconds to go when he locks this up.

01:35:29.000 And he tapped it.

01:35:32.000 Unbelievable, man.

01:35:34.000 That is wild.

01:35:35.000 So Uncle Ives had this long-ass win streak.

01:35:37.000 He looked real good in his last fight.

01:35:39.000 And then they give him a guy who...

01:35:42.000 So he beat Johnny Walker twice.

01:35:44.000 One of them was...

01:35:45.000 Johnny Walker, it was like a...

01:35:46.000 It was an injury, right?

01:35:47.000 The desert.

01:35:48.000 What happened?

01:35:49.000 I remember he was in Abu Dhabi and...

01:35:51.000 He got a need while he was down and then the doctor came in and he said, who are you?

01:35:55.000 And he said, desert.

01:35:56.000 And the doctor stopped it.

01:35:57.000 Oh, that's right.

01:35:58.000 And he got mad.

01:35:58.000 Like, why are you stopping it?

01:36:00.000 Yeah.

01:36:00.000 That's right.

01:36:01.000 That's right.

01:36:02.000 But so he has the draw with Jan Blachowicz.

01:36:05.000 He KOs Anthony Smith, beats Tiago Sanchez, beats Volkan, beats all these guys.

01:36:10.000 I mean, he's beating a lot of guys.

01:36:13.000 I mean, he's got a really good skill set where you think about with a guy like Pajeda because he can wrestle.

01:36:19.000 He can strike and he can wrestle.

01:36:22.000 And he has a knockout, a huge knockout against Johnny Walker last, so that's...

01:36:26.000 Yeah, so I guess for him, he fights Rokic.

01:36:30.000 I favor him in that fight, but Rokic is fucking dangerous as shit, man.

01:36:34.000 You know, Rokic's had a long time off of the Prochaska fight, and Rokic looked real good in that fight.

01:36:39.000 He was eating Yuri up, but Yuri was just walking through everything.

01:36:43.000 Yuri's like the new age Tony Ferguson, where you hit me, I'm going to hit you with five other punches, and it's going to make you tired of just hitting me, and I'm going to catch you.

01:36:50.000 It just doesn't work with Powhatan.

01:36:52.000 Yeah.

01:36:52.000 You can't be getting hit by that guy.

01:36:55.000 I want to feel his low kick just because I'm like, bro, what does he do?

01:36:59.000 It feels like he just touches you with his foot.

01:37:03.000 You can't walk afterward.

01:37:04.000 He's targeting it, too.

01:37:06.000 He doesn't ever go shin to shin.

01:37:08.000 And even when he checks, he doesn't go shin to shin.

01:37:10.000 He lifts his leg up like he's playing hacky sack.

01:37:12.000 He just lifts his leg up.

01:37:13.000 He just goes ankle.

01:37:16.000 He just lifts his ankle so his foot comes all the way up to his other knee and then he drops it back down and he comes in with a right hand.

01:37:21.000 He's got it down where if you try to ankle kick him, he's got so many counters for that calf kick.

01:37:28.000 I feel like he's on every pay-per-view now.

01:37:30.000 Yeah, man.

01:37:31.000 Hey, we need somebody.

01:37:32.000 They put the bat symbol out there, and he's like, alright, I'm ready.

01:37:34.000 He'll fight anybody.

01:37:36.000 Yeah.

01:37:36.000 Yeah, he's fighting in Salt Lake City against Roundtree, and that's a wild-ass fight, man.

01:37:41.000 That's a wild fight.

01:37:43.000 A lot of people say, oh, Roundtree doesn't deserve it.

01:37:44.000 Let me tell you something.

01:37:46.000 Roundtree fights like you just killed his family and lit his house on fire.

01:37:49.000 That dude's coming for you.

01:37:51.000 Yeah.

01:37:51.000 He's coming for everybody.

01:37:52.000 And stylistically, it's just...

01:37:54.000 He's not going to shoot a takedown.

01:37:56.000 There'll be no takedowns.

01:37:57.000 He's fucking dangerous, man.

01:37:59.000 But if you think about the...

01:38:02.000 Pajeras striking...

01:38:06.000 His overall accomplishments are second to none in an MMA. Two-division glory world champion.

01:38:12.000 I mean, and the thing about him is that that fucking power is just freakish.

01:38:18.000 And he just like touches it though.

01:38:19.000 It feels like, bro, what is that?

01:38:21.000 You see him hit the power cube and he got 191 on the power cube with a right hand.

01:38:25.000 That's not even his left hook.

01:38:27.000 Hit it.

01:38:28.000 He probably doesn't want anybody to know.

01:38:30.000 Hit it with the left hook.

01:38:32.000 That's the sleeper.

01:38:33.000 That left hook is the sleeper.

01:38:35.000 It'd be like 5,000.

01:38:37.000 It's crazy.

01:38:38.000 He just touches people.

01:38:39.000 And it's, when you're starting to see his personality come out now more, it's so fun.

01:38:43.000 Because Glover's like the nicest guy in the world.

01:38:45.000 And at first, Alex was like so quiet.

01:38:48.000 And now you're starting to see Glover pull it out of him.

01:38:50.000 Even when he wins.

01:38:51.000 He's never like, yeah!

01:38:53.000 And so he's like, yep.

01:38:55.000 Another day.

01:38:55.000 Yep, another day.

01:38:56.000 Another day, another dude I put to sleep.

01:38:58.000 Like even after he beat Izzy, he just walked away from him.

01:39:01.000 The referee stopped the fight and he just walked away.

01:39:03.000 Yeah.

01:39:04.000 But there's something exciting about that, too.

01:39:06.000 Like, that guy's one of the biggest pay-per-view stars in the country, in the world, and most people don't even understand what he's saying.

01:39:14.000 And he's a star, right?

01:39:15.000 He's a huge star.

01:39:16.000 All he has to do is make facial expressions.

01:39:18.000 But also, it's scary.

01:39:19.000 When he comes out with the bow and arrow, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

01:39:25.000 If you're sitting there watching that guy walk to the cage, you're like, oh, shit.

01:39:32.000 I've been thinking to myself, I've got to come up with some sort of shtick like that.

01:39:35.000 I've got to figure out something.

01:39:36.000 I can't think of anything.

01:39:38.000 Nah, you've got to just look fake.

01:39:40.000 Yeah, you've got to be yourself.

01:39:41.000 That's either you or that's not you.

01:39:43.000 But that's the coolest thing in the world.

01:39:44.000 Whenever I'm in one of his fights, to see that walk out.

01:39:47.000 That face, dude.

01:39:51.000 And the music.

01:39:54.000 That is the most terrifying face.

01:39:58.000 Him walking towards the cage and you're standing there, you've been prepping for this dude for 12 weeks, and you're like, oh, Jesus, here it comes.

01:40:05.000 Damn.

01:40:19.000 And...

01:40:22.000 Bro, I hate seeing that one just because Jamal's my boy.

01:40:25.000 Obviously, I'm a fan of Peta, but man, to see him just catch my boy, I'm like, ah, come on, Jamal.

01:40:30.000 Get one back just to get that taste out of our mouth.

01:40:33.000 Well, there was a weird moment in that fight, and we've talked about it before, where Jamal accidentally low-kicked him, and the referee moves in to stop, and Jamal stands up straight and relaxes like, you okay?

01:40:43.000 And...

01:40:44.000 When Poeton puts his hand on Herb Dean, he advances.

01:40:47.000 He makes a little hop step, and then he goes right back to fighting, and then he catches him with the left hook.

01:40:51.000 So he'd close some distance.

01:40:53.000 And it's a game of inches.

01:40:54.000 Oh, especially with that guy.

01:40:56.000 Yeah, he does everything for a reason.

01:40:58.000 And then when you see somebody break it down like that, like you said, everything changes.

01:41:01.000 Imagine if he didn't.

01:41:02.000 Imagine if the ref said, all right, you back up, you back up.

01:41:05.000 Yep.

01:41:05.000 Yep, everything changes.

01:41:07.000 Yeah.

01:41:07.000 Yeah, everything changes.

01:41:08.000 But that's moments and fights, you know, and maybe that will define Jamal's career.

01:41:13.000 Maybe Jamal will learn from that and never take his eye off the prize again.

01:41:18.000 Yeah.

01:41:18.000 Never relax.

01:41:19.000 And I guarantee you he won't relax now.

01:41:21.000 Yeah.

01:41:22.000 Protect yourself at all times.

01:41:23.000 And I guess...

01:41:25.000 You know, I see it from Pajeda's point of view too.

01:41:26.000 The referee said, okay, keep going, and he caught him, but he did close that distance because of that low kick.

01:41:33.000 So, it is a...

01:41:34.000 And I think it opens up a lot of fighters' eyes too, right?

01:41:37.000 Because you're starting to see these little things.

01:41:38.000 Except for me now, I'm like, no, if the ref tells me something, I'm either taking one step back myself, or I'm going to take that step forward and catch that Pajeda distance myself.

01:41:46.000 You just can't relax.

01:41:47.000 You can never relax.

01:41:48.000 Because it's such a game of impossible things happening at any moment.

01:41:54.000 So many guys have pulled out impossible things.

01:41:57.000 Head kicks, spinning elbows out of nowhere.

01:41:59.000 You know, things happen.

01:42:00.000 And if you're relaxed even for a second.

01:42:02.000 Yeah.

01:42:03.000 The Korean zombie Yair.

01:42:05.000 Oh my god.

01:42:06.000 Uppercut elbow.

01:42:07.000 Oh my god.

01:42:07.000 What was this?

01:42:08.000 Running away, uppercut elbow.

01:42:10.000 With like two seconds left.

01:42:11.000 Yeah.

01:42:11.000 Crazy.

01:42:12.000 And you're like, how?

01:42:12.000 How did this just happen right now?

01:42:14.000 When Yair landed that jumping roundhouse kick on Andre Feely.

01:42:18.000 Oh.

01:42:19.000 The scissor kick.

01:42:20.000 Wow.

01:42:21.000 My God.

01:42:22.000 His kicks are so nasty.

01:42:24.000 Yeah, it's so interesting to see all these different ways to get elite.

01:42:28.000 There's so many different ways.

01:42:30.000 You know, some guys are specialists like Pajeda, and some guys just dominate all aspects like Islam.

01:42:35.000 You know, there's like all these different ways that guys achieve to becoming the best.

01:42:40.000 Yeah, that's my mindset.

01:42:42.000 I always tell myself, I'm behind.

01:42:44.000 Because I started late, so I'm like, I didn't do martial arts since I was a kid, so I always got to tell myself, oh, we got to do everything.

01:42:50.000 There's not one thing that I'm amazing at.

01:42:53.000 Right.

01:42:54.000 But people see the fight and they're like, oh, all you are is a wrestler, or all you are is this and that.

01:42:58.000 I'm just like, bro, I do everything.

01:42:59.000 And I train everything more than everybody else.

01:43:02.000 And I don't take any days off.

01:43:04.000 How old were you when you first started training?

01:43:06.000 I was 23. Wow.

01:43:08.000 Yeah.

01:43:08.000 That's crazy.

01:43:09.000 Yeah.

01:43:09.000 That's way behind the curve.

01:43:11.000 Way behind.

01:43:12.000 Way behind.

01:43:13.000 And I did like two years of high school wrestling.

01:43:15.000 Wow.

01:43:16.000 Yeah.

01:43:16.000 At least you had that.

01:43:17.000 Yeah.

01:43:18.000 That's definitely something.

01:43:19.000 Oh, no.

01:43:20.000 I mean, for me, it changed my life.

01:43:22.000 Also, when you're in high school, because you're in high school, your body's developing.

01:43:24.000 Yeah.

01:43:24.000 You know, your body's developing where you learn how to take people down.

01:43:27.000 Like, yeah, that helps for sure.

01:43:30.000 But if nothing by 23 is crazy.

01:43:32.000 Yeah.

01:43:33.000 I mean, yeah, I always played sports in general.

01:43:34.000 I love basketball.

01:43:35.000 No striking at all?

01:43:36.000 Nothing?

01:43:36.000 No, I mean, I would always get in street fights in Chicago just because I'm a trash talker when I play basketball.

01:43:42.000 So we would always sit there and go to the park and then people would see, like, who are these Arabs coming to play basketball?

01:43:47.000 And then we'll be winning and I'm talking trash.

01:43:49.000 And then it'd be like, they want to start a fight afterward.

01:43:51.000 So it was always the best, but...

01:43:53.000 What made you start training?

01:43:55.000 My high school wrestling coach, Lewis Taylor, he was like the PFL middleweight champion.

01:44:00.000 He was in my high school wrestling coach for two years.

01:44:02.000 And then he like left.

01:44:03.000 And so I'm like, whatever happened to him?

01:44:05.000 He was like that cool coach, that young coach.

01:44:07.000 And he was like gone.

01:44:08.000 So I stopped wrestling.

01:44:09.000 And then I was at school for just, I was trying to be like a lawyer.

01:44:12.000 And I ended up seeing him in a newspaper.

01:44:14.000 He was fighting in Strikeforce.

01:44:15.000 So then I just messaged him on Facebook, and I was like, bro, you're a fighter?

01:44:20.000 And he's like, yeah.

01:44:21.000 I was like, whatever happened to you?

01:44:22.000 He said, oh, I was still young.

01:44:23.000 I still had something left in me, so I wanted to start training.

01:44:26.000 And he used to be Rampage's roommate in college, so he already had that mindset of like, oh, these guys are fighting.

01:44:33.000 I can fight too.

01:44:34.000 So then his gym ended up being probably like 10 minutes away from my mom's house.

01:44:39.000 So when I come home from school on the weekends, I'll just start training with him.

01:44:42.000 And then it was just like a snowball effect.

01:44:44.000 I started like falling in love with it.

01:44:46.000 And after my first amateur fight, after like two months, I was like, could I get a fight?

01:44:50.000 Two months?

01:44:51.000 Yeah.

01:44:51.000 Because I was just like excited about the whole thing.

01:44:53.000 And for us two, it was like, we were only training partners.

01:44:56.000 So I'm training with him and...

01:44:58.000 Like, I'm learning the hard way.

01:44:59.000 Like, we're just going straight sparring or straight wrestling.

01:45:02.000 And he was like a Division I wrestler.

01:45:03.000 He had crazy power, crazy jiu-jitsu.

01:45:05.000 So like, I'm getting good just because he's beating me up the whole time.

01:45:09.000 So then I'm like, oh, I can fight amateur.

01:45:11.000 And he's like, yeah, let's go.

01:45:12.000 Get you one.

01:45:12.000 Wow.

01:45:13.000 Yeah.

01:45:13.000 So then I got it.

01:45:14.000 It was like the biggest street fight in the world.

01:45:16.000 The amateur fight.

01:45:17.000 It was like nothing good about my technique or anything.

01:45:19.000 But it's funny because Mark Coleman was a commentator for it.

01:45:22.000 Oh, wow.

01:45:23.000 Yeah, it was like the whole scenario was crazy.

01:45:25.000 And it was like I had a bar and it was just like, cool.

01:45:29.000 So then after that, I was like, bro, all right, I transferred to like a closer school near the gym.

01:45:34.000 I started training more with him.

01:45:35.000 And then, you know, my parents are telling me like, stay in school, stay in school.

01:45:39.000 So then once I started just like getting more wins, more wins, and I decided to go pro, I said, I'll go back to school after I lose.

01:45:44.000 And then we just kept going until we got to the UFC. Wow.

01:45:49.000 Yeah, it was wild.

01:45:50.000 He's still with me now to this day, but even with him, he was 41 years old and they never gave him a UFC shot.

01:45:55.000 But he ended up going to PFL and he was like a 1200 underdog and he won the million dollars in 30 seconds with a knockout.

01:46:02.000 Wow.

01:46:03.000 Yeah, he was fighting Abus, the one that's in the UFC now.

01:46:07.000 They were in the finals.

01:46:09.000 He beat Abus?

01:46:09.000 He beat Abus, 30 second knockout.

01:46:12.000 Abus is good.

01:46:13.000 Yeah, and he was 41 years old.

01:46:15.000 Never got a shot.

01:46:16.000 And it's crazy how his career ended like that.

01:46:19.000 Middleweight champion, retired on top now.

01:46:21.000 Million dollars.

01:46:22.000 And there's a lot of guys that go to the UFC that don't hit a million dollars.

01:46:24.000 That's true.

01:46:25.000 So he's like, my path was that way.

01:46:27.000 So even with me, when I was doing all this waiting for this title fight, he was like, patience.

01:46:31.000 It's going to come.

01:46:32.000 You saw what I had to go through.

01:46:34.000 Your title fight's going to come.

01:46:35.000 It's going to come at the right moment.

01:46:36.000 So just enjoy the journey.

01:46:38.000 Can you find that fight?

01:46:39.000 See if you can find that fight, Jamie.

01:46:41.000 Lewis Taylor.

01:46:42.000 And Abus Magomedov.

01:46:44.000 Abus had a great first round with Sean Strickland.

01:46:47.000 A great first round.

01:46:49.000 But that was like, Sean Strickland is just a zombie.

01:46:51.000 He just marches towards you, and you can't hit him.

01:46:54.000 He's hard to hit.

01:46:55.000 But he was fucking his legs up.

01:46:56.000 I was hoping Abus would knock him out.

01:46:58.000 I was like, come on, Abus, please!

01:47:00.000 Bro, he was putting it on him in that first round, but he started getting tired.

01:47:02.000 By the end of the first round, he was tired.

01:47:03.000 He threw everything at him.

01:47:04.000 Yeah.

01:47:05.000 Everything was full clip, too.

01:47:06.000 Full speed, full clip.

01:47:08.000 And I was like...

01:47:09.000 Because even at PFL, the way he was killing everybody, he was like...

01:47:12.000 So he was 41 in this fight?

01:47:13.000 Yeah.

01:47:14.000 That's so crazy.

01:47:15.000 So this is the PFL Championships in 2018?

01:47:18.000 Yeah.

01:47:19.000 And it's crazy because they got rid of the middleweight division after this.

01:47:22.000 So now they don't have middleweight there anymore.

01:47:24.000 How is that possible?

01:47:25.000 Because they wanted to put the women's division, the 55ers.

01:47:28.000 So they got rid of the middleweight guys.

01:47:30.000 Can I talk to somebody over there?

01:47:33.000 Abus.

01:47:33.000 See, there's a low kick.

01:47:34.000 His low kicks are nasty.

01:47:36.000 He just, for whatever reason, Abus has a hard time sustaining it.

01:47:39.000 I mean, I think he's getting better in the UFC. And I think the Sean Strickland fight was just too quick.

01:47:45.000 Oh, left hook!

01:47:46.000 Oh my goodness!

01:47:48.000 Oh my goodness, back that up again.

01:47:53.000 Look at this.

01:47:58.000 They go shin.

01:47:59.000 Boom!

01:48:00.000 Oh my god, the distance he covered with that left hook.

01:48:02.000 And it's like a boost was even blocking it too.

01:48:04.000 He just has crazy power.

01:48:06.000 There's another thing about guys who are really good at shooting.

01:48:09.000 That same ability to cover distance when you make a double leg is the same kind of drive that you need to move forward to punch.

01:48:17.000 That's one of the reasons why Randleman was so dangerous.

01:48:20.000 Yeah.

01:48:21.000 Because Randleman had that crazy shot, so he could explode forward and punch you from a distance.

01:48:25.000 You really can't punch him.

01:48:26.000 That's incredible.

01:48:27.000 Look how much distance he covers.

01:48:29.000 Jamie just broke it down.

01:48:30.000 Look at this.

01:48:31.000 Yeah, he hopped in there.

01:48:32.000 Go back a little bit further, please.

01:48:35.000 Just a little bit further before he throws the punch.

01:48:37.000 He's way back there, dude.

01:48:39.000 Watch this.

01:48:40.000 Look how far away he is.

01:48:42.000 Oh my goodness.

01:48:43.000 Abus made a mistake that he tried to counter.

01:48:45.000 He was thinking about countering before the punch got to him, and he just wasn't quick enough.

01:48:50.000 That's incredible.

01:48:51.000 Good for him, man.

01:48:53.000 Good for him.

01:48:54.000 And that guy's legit, man.

01:48:55.000 To knock out a guy like that, Abus is legit.

01:48:57.000 Yeah.

01:48:58.000 When people go back and look at his record, he had like 10 first round finishes on his come up.

01:49:03.000 But like the UFC just said, he was too old.

01:49:05.000 They never gave him a shot.

01:49:06.000 Oh, that's crazy.

01:49:07.000 Yeah.

01:49:07.000 And I was like, bro, if people just saw him.

01:49:09.000 And even when he started his career, like I said, I was like one of his main training partners from the beginning.

01:49:14.000 If he was like an American top team or like a real gym, because he had kids early, so he didn't want to like leave them.

01:49:19.000 So he always trained in Chicago and he's like, I'm going to build up my own guys.

01:49:23.000 So we had like a small gym, like three or four guys that he just used as the main training partners.

01:49:28.000 There's some dudes that can compete at a world-class level deep into their 40s.

01:49:33.000 And I always point to Bernard Hopkins.

01:49:35.000 Everybody wrote Bernard Hopkins off before he fought Kelly Pavlik.

01:49:40.000 And he beat the shit out of Kelly Pavlik.

01:49:42.000 And they just boxed him.

01:49:44.000 He just did everything perfect.

01:49:46.000 It was a masterclass in boxing, a masterclass in world championship caliber boxing against a guy in Kelly Pavlik, which was fucking dangerous, man.

01:49:54.000 Wicked puncher, tough as shit.

01:49:56.000 The Jermaine Taylor fight was crazy.

01:49:58.000 He was out in that fight and came back to stop Taylor.

01:50:01.000 Just a warrior, a real dog.

01:50:03.000 So Bernard was like, how old was Bernard when he fought Kelly Pavlik?

01:50:08.000 When he fought Felix Trinidad, everybody wrote him off.

01:50:10.000 He was like 36 or something by the time he fought Trinidad.

01:50:13.000 Oh, yeah?

01:50:14.000 Yeah, man.

01:50:15.000 Everybody wrote him off.

01:50:16.000 Wow.

01:50:17.000 Bernard was wild, too.

01:50:19.000 He threw the Puerto Rican flag down on the ground in Puerto Rico.

01:50:21.000 He had to run.

01:50:23.000 People were chasing him.

01:50:24.000 He ran?

01:50:25.000 He had to run.

01:50:26.000 They were trying to kill him.

01:50:28.000 Yeah, you can't do that.

01:50:29.000 Yeah, he told me the whole story.

01:50:30.000 It was hilarious.

01:50:32.000 Yeah, he's a, I mean, but how old was Bernard?

01:50:35.000 43 years old when he fought Kelly Pavlik.

01:50:38.000 Come on, son!

01:50:39.000 43 years old!

01:50:41.000 That's so crazy!

01:50:43.000 He beat Roy Jones Jr. when he was 45!

01:50:47.000 Unbelievable.

01:50:48.000 Unbelievable.

01:50:49.000 The Chad Dawson fight, bro.

01:50:51.000 He was 46 years old and Chad Dawson was a killer.

01:50:55.000 Chad Dawson was a vicious knockout artist.

01:50:58.000 And he knocked him out in the second round.

01:51:00.000 And then he lost against him in the next fight.

01:51:04.000 That's how good Chad was.

01:51:05.000 Chad was a fucking good fighter.

01:51:06.000 Then he lost to Kovalev.

01:51:09.000 He lost to Joe Smith Jr., which was a bad one.

01:51:11.000 But he was 51 years old when he fought Joe Smith.

01:51:14.000 And Joe Smith is another one who's a fucking killer, man.

01:51:17.000 He's a dangerous puncher.

01:51:19.000 Joe Smith is a mauler.

01:51:21.000 Dangerous guy.

01:51:22.000 51 years old?

01:51:23.000 That's wild.

01:51:24.000 Natural?

01:51:25.000 51 years old?

01:51:27.000 What do you think of Tyson and Jake?

01:51:32.000 I wish he didn't do it.

01:51:33.000 I wish it wasn't a thing.

01:51:35.000 I wish it wasn't a thing where a 58 year old guy was gonna fight a 28 year old guy.

01:51:39.000 That said, that out the window.

01:51:41.000 I fully support his desire to do it.

01:51:44.000 What is he gonna live forever?

01:51:45.000 He's not gonna live forever.

01:51:46.000 Maybe he wants one more shot at it.

01:51:48.000 Maybe his body can do one more fight.

01:51:50.000 I don't know.

01:51:51.000 He looks great on the mitts, but that doesn't mean that you know as much as I know.

01:51:54.000 I could look good on the mitts.

01:51:57.000 I tell people that, like, bro, mitts doesn't show anything.

01:51:59.000 Especially if you're watching 30-second clips.

01:52:01.000 What you want to see is him sparring.

01:52:03.000 You want to see him hitting the bag for multiple rounds.

01:52:07.000 You'd want to see, like, let's see three rounds hard on the bag.

01:52:10.000 Let me see what you could do.

01:52:11.000 I want to see how your feet move.

01:52:13.000 I want to see what it looks like if you're off balance when you're throwing combinations.

01:52:17.000 Do you look like Tyson?

01:52:18.000 Yeah.

01:52:19.000 Remember, there's some videos of Tyson hitting the bag when he was, like, 19 years old?

01:52:23.000 And it's like...

01:52:26.000 It's crazy.

01:52:27.000 Watch the speed and the power.

01:52:29.000 See if you find that.

01:52:30.000 Mike Tyson hitting the heavy bag when he's young.

01:52:34.000 Terrifying.

01:52:35.000 That, to me, a bag is different than mitts.

01:52:38.000 Mitts guys are meeting you halfway.

01:52:41.000 You've got a combination worked out.

01:52:43.000 Okay, I want you to go left, right, left to the body, right overhand.

01:52:47.000 Pop, pop, pop, pop!

01:52:48.000 Okay, do it again.

01:52:48.000 Pop, pop, pop, pop!

01:52:49.000 It kind of can look real good.

01:52:51.000 Yeah.

01:52:52.000 But...

01:52:52.000 Can you do that with a guy who's moving?

01:52:54.000 Can you spar?

01:52:56.000 Would they bring in a world-class heavyweight?

01:52:58.000 Can you do that?

01:52:59.000 How do you move?

01:53:01.000 How are your knees?

01:53:02.000 How's your back?

01:53:03.000 Can you sustain that?

01:53:05.000 Can you sustain those kind of explosions?

01:53:07.000 Or is this just a gimmick?

01:53:09.000 I mean, I don't know.

01:53:11.000 I know he used to be able to, but we won't really know.

01:53:13.000 So here's him when he's young.

01:53:17.000 Yeah, kill the sound.

01:53:18.000 You don't have to see the sound.

01:53:19.000 Just look at this.

01:53:20.000 And he's young here, man.

01:53:21.000 young so that's him hitting the bag later in life *sniff* I would want to see rounds, you know?

01:53:33.000 I want to see rounds.

01:53:33.000 I want to see what it looks like when he's tired.

01:53:35.000 How quick does he get tired?

01:53:37.000 I want to see him sparring.

01:53:38.000 I wonder if he's going to spar.

01:53:40.000 Look at that when he's young, man.

01:53:41.000 Dude, terrifying.

01:53:42.000 Those combinations.

01:53:44.000 Show that again.

01:53:48.000 Bro, he was so fast.

01:53:49.000 So fast and always moving.

01:53:51.000 Always moving.

01:53:52.000 Bobbing and weaving.

01:53:53.000 He was a target that you couldn't find.

01:53:55.000 Just moving at you.

01:53:57.000 Constantly advancing.

01:53:58.000 Just a mindset.

01:54:00.000 Just craziness.

01:54:01.000 Madness.

01:54:02.000 Just controlled madness in there.

01:54:04.000 With perfect technique and ferocious power and awesome genetics.

01:54:09.000 You know, they said that Teddy Atlas told me that when he was 13 years old, he would bring him to Smokers, and they would go, how old is that kid?

01:54:14.000 He's 13. He's 16. He's like, fine, he's 16. And he was 190 at 13 years old.

01:54:20.000 What?

01:54:20.000 Yeah, 190. Wow.

01:54:22.000 190. That's wild.

01:54:24.000 What?

01:54:26.000 That's God.

01:54:28.000 He got a gift.

01:54:29.000 He got a...

01:54:29.000 God kissed his physique.

01:54:32.000 Imagine you're at a smoke.

01:54:33.000 You're a 13-year-old and you see that guy.

01:54:35.000 What the fuck?

01:54:35.000 Oh, you gotta fight him.

01:54:36.000 You're like, wait, what?

01:54:37.000 What the fuck?

01:54:37.000 What are you talking about?

01:54:39.000 That's a man.

01:54:40.000 What?

01:54:41.000 I'm gonna pull guard.

01:54:43.000 Fuck this!

01:54:45.000 Yeah, and he scared a lot of guys before they even threw their first punch.

01:54:48.000 You'd see the look, like, I remember Bruce Seldon.

01:54:50.000 He missed a left hook of Bruce Seldon, and Bruce Seldon went down.

01:54:53.000 He's like, fuck all this.

01:54:56.000 Fuck all this.

01:54:57.000 Fuck all this.

01:54:59.000 Yeah, but he's 58. I support him.

01:55:05.000 I love that guy.

01:55:06.000 I fully support him.

01:55:07.000 I'm a gigantic fan of his.

01:55:10.000 Me meeting him the first time I met him at the UFC, there's some starstruck moments where you meet people and be like, oh shit.

01:55:18.000 That's Sugar Ray Leonard, you know?

01:55:19.000 Oh shit, that's Mike Tyson.

01:55:21.000 I was even one of the most starstruck moments I ever had.

01:55:24.000 Really?

01:55:24.000 Couldn't believe I was meeting Mike Tyson.

01:55:25.000 It's wild, yeah.

01:55:26.000 When I did a podcast with him, I was like, I can't believe I'm talking to Mike Tyson.

01:55:29.000 He was such a huge part of my childhood.

01:55:32.000 When I was a kid, was when he was coming up.

01:55:35.000 I have in my office framed the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was 19. Wow, really?

01:55:41.000 Yeah, it says Kid Dynamite.

01:55:43.000 See if you can find that.

01:55:46.000 You had it from back then?

01:55:48.000 Oh, no, no, no.

01:55:48.000 Someone gave it to me recently.

01:55:50.000 It might have been Sports Illustrated sent it to me.

01:55:52.000 I don't know who sent it to me.

01:55:53.000 Do you know who sent it?

01:55:55.000 Somebody sent it to me.

01:55:56.000 Thank you, whoever did it.

01:55:56.000 I forgot.

01:55:57.000 I'm sorry.

01:55:58.000 But that's the cover.

01:55:59.000 That's framed in my office.

01:56:01.000 At 19 years old on the cover of the Sports Illustrated.

01:56:03.000 I think that was 1985. Is that what year that was?

01:56:09.000 Does it say what year that was?

01:56:10.000 See if you can find.

01:56:11.000 What does it say?

01:56:12.000 86?

01:56:13.000 Okay.

01:56:14.000 So that was right before he won the title.

01:56:15.000 He won the title when he was 20. So I was just out of high school, and he was the guy.

01:56:22.000 Heavyweight boxing had gotten boring.

01:56:23.000 Nobody cared.

01:56:24.000 After Larry Holmes, people were bored with heavyweight boxing.

01:56:27.000 There was a bunch of champions that nobody heard of.

01:56:29.000 No disrespect to any of those guys, but they didn't excite the public the way Muhammad Ali did, the way George Foreman did.

01:56:37.000 Heavyweight boxing was kind of dead, and then all of a sudden this dude comes along.

01:56:41.000 You're like, oh my god.

01:56:43.000 And he was doing everything you wanted a heavyweight to do.

01:56:45.000 Just starching people.

01:56:46.000 Just sending them flying.

01:56:48.000 He'd hit them with left hooks.

01:56:49.000 They'd go flying.

01:56:50.000 You're like, look at this guy.

01:56:51.000 He's going to become the youngest heavyweight champion of all time.

01:56:54.000 And then he fights Trevor Burbick and knocks him out quick.

01:56:57.000 How much were pay-per-views back then?

01:56:58.000 I don't remember.

01:57:00.000 But I remember a lot of times people wouldn't want to buy Mike Tyson pay-per-views because they knew the fights would be over so quick.

01:57:06.000 Yeah.

01:57:09.000 It was nuts, man.

01:57:10.000 So this is, uh, is this a documentary?

01:57:14.000 It says Kid Dynamite, 1985. Oh, so this is him in 1985. Yeah, this is him when people were just starting to hear about him.

01:57:23.000 And he came through the ranks quick.

01:57:25.000 Just was fucking everybody up.

01:57:27.000 He was having a hard time getting fights.

01:57:29.000 And everybody thought, this is the guy.

01:57:31.000 This is the next destroyer.

01:57:34.000 I mean, he was just killing people, man.

01:57:36.000 Everybody he fought was getting fucked up.

01:57:39.000 Just the head moving on the inside is just wild.

01:57:42.000 Everything.

01:57:42.000 And the power.

01:57:44.000 That's what you wanted to see from a heavyweight.

01:57:46.000 So that guy is still alive.

01:57:48.000 And he still remembers all these moments.

01:57:51.000 It's not like he doesn't know how to put his knuckles on your face.

01:57:54.000 The question is, how much does he have left in his body?

01:58:00.000 58 today is not 58 when I was 21. It's a different 58, especially if they're not testing him.

01:58:07.000 If they're letting him take hormones and peptides and do all the things that I would recommend 100%, I don't know how you could do it if you're 58 if you're not doing that.

01:58:16.000 If they're allowing him to do all that stuff and get his body to the optimum level that's known to science.

01:58:24.000 You're dealing with a different kind of human being.

01:58:26.000 You're dealing with one of the greatest fighters that's ever lived.

01:58:29.000 It's just, how much does he want to do it?

01:58:32.000 Is he doing it for money?

01:58:34.000 You know, how much does he have left in the tank?

01:58:36.000 Those are all questions that'll make me buy the pay-per-view.

01:58:40.000 It's on Netflix, though.

01:58:41.000 It's free.

01:58:41.000 Yeah, that's right.

01:58:42.000 It's free.

01:58:43.000 Yeah, I'm gonna watch it.

01:58:44.000 100% I'm gonna watch it.

01:58:45.000 I'm gonna feel bad if he gets knocked out.

01:58:47.000 Ah, yeah.

01:58:48.000 But, you know...

01:58:49.000 Those are his most recent comments about the fight.

01:58:51.000 Tyson addressed the meeting with his usual boldness during a press conference to show his readiness for battle.

01:58:55.000 He said, I'm just ready.

01:58:57.000 I'm ready.

01:58:57.000 I'm going to talk my talk and do my shit, but I'm ready to fight.

01:59:00.000 Is he really a young killer?

01:59:02.000 Tyson said, discounting any questions on his readiness.

01:59:05.000 Reacting to Paul's taunting Tyson's need to postpone the fight because of an ulcer flare-up earlier in the summer.

01:59:10.000 Former champion made a strong statement about his unmatched abilities.

01:59:14.000 He said, I feel a lot better now.

01:59:15.000 Who else can do it but me?

01:59:17.000 Who else is going to fight to make this happen?

01:59:19.000 You got a YouTuber fighting the greatest fighter that ever lived.

01:59:23.000 Ooh.

01:59:24.000 I want to hear him say that.

01:59:25.000 That sounds...

01:59:26.000 Coming out of his voice would be like...

01:59:28.000 We also have to remember about Mike Tyson is that Mike Tyson knows how to mentally prepare.

01:59:32.000 He was trained by Customato, who was a hypnotist.

01:59:35.000 And Customato started hypnotizing him when he was 13 years old.

01:59:39.000 Really?

01:59:39.000 Yeah.

01:59:40.000 That was part of the reason why he was so terrifying.

01:59:43.000 His mindset was just unstoppable.

01:59:45.000 He really thought that he could not be stopped.

01:59:47.000 He thought he was going to murder everybody.

01:59:48.000 And Cuss was his hero.

01:59:50.000 Cuss raised him.

01:59:51.000 Cuss took him in when he was 13 years old.

01:59:53.000 He had this terrible childhood.

01:59:55.000 No love.

01:59:56.000 Just...

01:59:56.000 In and out of trouble, terrible, bad situation, horrible poverty and crime, and then all of a sudden he's being taken care of by this dude who's a master boxer, master boxing coach, trained world champions like Jose Torres and Floyd Patterson, and now he's got this young pupil.

02:00:14.000 This is his last hurrah and the greatest shot he's ever had at having a real all-time great.

02:00:21.000 I mean, this guy's an all-time great and he's 13. Wow.

02:00:24.000 Yeah.

02:00:25.000 He's a 13-year-old, 190-pound kid.

02:00:27.000 Like, what in the fuck?

02:00:29.000 And he's got this kid, and he's hypnotizing him.

02:00:32.000 And he's telling him you're the greatest.

02:00:33.000 And he's getting into his head.

02:00:35.000 So from the time he was really young, he was learning mental preparation.

02:00:39.000 He was learning how to put himself into a mindset of just an unstoppable juggernaut that had one goal, one task.

02:00:47.000 And Cuss would tell him, you don't exist.

02:00:50.000 Only the task exists.

02:00:52.000 Mm-hmm.

02:00:52.000 Like, you don't exist.

02:00:54.000 What you have to do exists.

02:00:57.000 That's what you are.

02:00:59.000 Wow, that's...

02:01:00.000 Yeah, that's powerful.

02:01:02.000 I'm gonna write that down.

02:01:03.000 Yeah, so the question is how much does that guy have left?

02:01:06.000 You know, conventional wisdom would say this is a terrible fight.

02:01:09.000 Conventional wisdom would say there's a 28-year-old with knockout power just knocked out Mike Perry.

02:01:13.000 He's real fast.

02:01:14.000 He's young.

02:01:15.000 He's fuckin' athletic.

02:01:17.000 He's bold as shit.

02:01:18.000 He's a good boxer.

02:01:19.000 He's a very good boxer.

02:01:21.000 People don't want to give him his credit because he's a YouTuber and all that shit.

02:01:24.000 Anybody who knocks out Tyron Woodley with one punch can fucking crack.

02:01:28.000 Anybody that can move the way that dude moves and have a fight with Tommy Fury, who's a world-class boxer, and he lost that fight, but it was a very good fight.

02:01:37.000 He's a good fighter.

02:01:38.000 A real good fighter.

02:01:41.000 And he's actually training.

02:01:42.000 He's getting better.

02:01:43.000 People are just sleeping on him just because he's a YouTuber.

02:01:47.000 But I'm like, he just beat Mike Perry, who was killing it in bare-knuckle boxing.

02:01:52.000 He was on top, but I don't want to give credit.

02:01:56.000 It would have been interesting to see him fight Mike Perry bare-knuckle, though.

02:01:59.000 That changes everything.

02:02:02.000 Mike Perry is the best at that shit.

02:02:04.000 It's interesting how that's a different sport.

02:02:06.000 Because it really is a different sport.

02:02:08.000 It's a whole different thing when your hands aren't covered and you feel those bones piercing your skin.

02:02:13.000 It's a mindset too.

02:02:14.000 Yeah.

02:02:15.000 It's like...

02:02:16.000 He's a 100% human pit bull.

02:02:18.000 That's a 100% human pit bull.

02:02:20.000 That guy has no quit in him.

02:02:22.000 No quit.

02:02:23.000 You know, he fucking throws caution to the wind at every possible occasion.

02:02:27.000 You can hit him.

02:02:28.000 He's gonna hit you back.

02:02:29.000 He knows how to take punishment.

02:02:31.000 He likes it.

02:02:31.000 He likes getting hit.

02:02:33.000 He broke Rockhold's teeth?

02:02:35.000 Yeah.

02:02:37.000 Broke Luke Rockhold's teeth?

02:02:38.000 He's way bigger too, Rockhold, yeah.

02:02:41.000 Well imagine, okay, how about him and MVP? Him and MVP with the gloves on in an MMA fight, you favor MVP, right?

02:02:48.000 I favor MVP. MVP is super hard to hit.

02:02:51.000 He's got crazy distance management, those kicks and that distance and the long length.

02:02:57.000 But he decided to take a challenge and fight Mike Perry bare knuckle because he thought, look, I can move better than anybody.

02:03:02.000 I am the most elite mover in all of MMA. And I'm going to fight this flat-footed, meathead psychopath.

02:03:11.000 And that flat-footed meathead psychopath just walked him down.

02:03:15.000 And dropped him a couple times in there.

02:03:17.000 Yeah, man.

02:03:17.000 Crazy.

02:03:18.000 Crazy.

02:03:18.000 It changes everything.

02:03:20.000 Changes everything.

02:03:21.000 And just the scarring on your knuckles and your faces after that.

02:03:25.000 Yeah.

02:03:26.000 Your face is getting sliced open.

02:03:27.000 But they're starting to pay these guys.

02:03:29.000 When you see guys like Eddie Alvarez and Chad Mendes go over there, you're like...

02:03:32.000 Yeah.

02:03:33.000 Ain't McGregor an owner part of it now, too?

02:03:36.000 Yeah.

02:03:37.000 McGregor's grimy, though.

02:03:38.000 After Mike Perry lost, he said, yeah, I've got to turn out.

02:03:40.000 Like, bro, who just tweeted?

02:03:42.000 I wonder if this guy tweeted for himself.

02:03:43.000 He's tweeting for fun.

02:03:45.000 Apparently, Mike Perry has a piece of bare knuckle, too.

02:03:48.000 Oh, does he?

02:03:48.000 Yeah.

02:03:48.000 I think that's what he said.

02:03:49.000 He's like, I'm one of the owners, too, motherfucker.

02:03:52.000 He's the face of it.

02:03:53.000 I wouldn't even be watching it if Mike Perry wasn't on there.

02:03:56.000 I think regular boxing is just very different.

02:03:59.000 It's very different.

02:04:00.000 What you can get away with, you know, the fact that you can't really clinch and punch the way those guys do.

02:04:05.000 In bare-knuckle boxing, those guys are getting grimy.

02:04:07.000 There's a lot of dirty boxing in there.

02:04:10.000 It's just so different when those bare knuckles touch you.

02:04:13.000 It's just so different.

02:04:15.000 You can't guard as much.

02:04:17.000 Your still stuff's getting through.

02:04:19.000 You don't have the big cushions in front of you.

02:04:21.000 Those big cushions mean a lot, man.

02:04:23.000 They stop a lot of shit.

02:04:24.000 It's wild, the differences.

02:04:26.000 Even when we're sparring with big gloves or sparring with smaller gloves that we have, it's like, it changes everything.

02:04:31.000 Changes everything.

02:04:32.000 Yeah.

02:04:32.000 But even no patting on your knuckles, you don't even want to throw as hard.

02:04:36.000 Right.

02:04:36.000 Yeah.

02:04:37.000 Right.

02:04:37.000 And your wrist will break easily, so you have to punch a specific way.

02:04:42.000 I think they all have a different format of the way they punch.

02:04:46.000 They just hold their wrist in a...

02:04:48.000 A different way like this or something like that.

02:04:50.000 Yeah.

02:04:50.000 Remember them old-timey boxing guys?

02:04:52.000 Yeah.

02:04:52.000 They all were holding their punches like this.

02:04:55.000 Yeah.

02:04:55.000 Those bare knuckle guys, they all fought like this.

02:04:57.000 They jabbed each other like this.

02:04:58.000 They were just trying to only hit with these two knuckles.

02:05:01.000 Yeah.

02:05:01.000 When we were younger, we would do that.

02:05:03.000 Like, we're going to punch somebody in the knee or something like that.

02:05:05.000 We'd put that knuckle out there.

02:05:07.000 Just think how stupid it was.

02:05:08.000 But, I mean, you could use that bare knuckle.

02:05:10.000 Well, you could definitely use it in an eyeball.

02:05:12.000 If you punch something like that on purpose to the eyeball, that's real.

02:05:16.000 Has there been a lot of eye pokes in their fighting?

02:05:20.000 That's a good question.

02:05:21.000 I don't remember any.

02:05:23.000 Yeah, I haven't really even thought about that, but I don't feel like there has.

02:05:27.000 I think in MMA a lot of them come from this.

02:05:29.000 A lot of them come from that distance management.

02:05:32.000 And I think that's...

02:05:34.000 I think one point every time.

02:05:37.000 Poke someone's eye one point, and no one will ever do that again.

02:05:39.000 Everybody will keep their hands closed.

02:05:41.000 Yeah.

02:05:41.000 You poke someone with the fingers one time, one point.

02:05:45.000 It should be trained.

02:05:46.000 Like even at our practice, if somebody's putting their fingers out, I tell them like, yo, close your fist.

02:05:49.000 That should be like a natural, it shouldn't be even thought.

02:05:52.000 It shouldn't even be a habit.

02:05:53.000 Well, it's just such a natural instinct to try to push a guy away from you.

02:05:57.000 Yeah.

02:05:57.000 And if a guy's coming at you and you're trying to push him away, those fingers go right in there, man.

02:06:02.000 You see the Weidman fight?

02:06:03.000 Oh my God, yeah.

02:06:04.000 Oh my God.

02:06:05.000 Oh my God.

02:06:06.000 And that's one of those, too, where you're like...

02:06:08.000 Same thing.

02:06:09.000 Bro.

02:06:09.000 Right.

02:06:10.000 But then I'm, like, annoyed by Weidman because I'm like, bro, you did poke him in the eye, but he's saying, like, oh, he shouldn't have felt like that.

02:06:15.000 I'm like, bro, when you get poked in the eye that bad...

02:06:18.000 Yeah.

02:06:18.000 That was the referee's problem.

02:06:20.000 Yeah.

02:06:20.000 The referee should have stopped that.

02:06:21.000 Should have stopped that on that last eye poke, for sure.

02:06:23.000 But maybe he didn't see it.

02:06:24.000 Maybe he wasn't in a position to see it.

02:06:26.000 Yeah.

02:06:27.000 It's just...

02:06:27.000 It's hard.

02:06:28.000 I mean, I understand how hard it is for a ref.

02:06:30.000 Even with stopping fights.

02:06:31.000 Sure.

02:06:32.000 Looking at somebody...

02:06:33.000 Who was this weekend?

02:06:34.000 Gerald Mirchard where he was getting beat up and then all of a sudden he caught him in submission after that you're like some refs would have stopped the fight in that round so it's like the good refs that give you a longer leash and then the shorter refs that dominate Cruz you and dominate Cruz you hate you for the rest of your life because you stop a fight too early.

02:06:50.000 Who did Jared Cannoneer get stopped by?

02:06:54.000 Not the last fight, but the fight before that.

02:06:57.000 It was a bad stoppage.

02:07:00.000 Yes, that's right.

02:07:01.000 And that was another one of those situations, the same kind of situation where you're like, that's not a stoppage.

02:07:06.000 He's standing up.

02:07:07.000 He's up.

02:07:08.000 The last one, he got hurt harder by Bohaglio.

02:07:12.000 When he got dropped, that looked worse than the fight where he got stopped previously.

02:07:18.000 And if you beat Imabov, you're in title contention again because he was on a streak, but now you're on a two-fight losing streak.

02:07:24.000 Yeah, and he's 40. Because a ref stopped it.

02:07:27.000 Yeah.

02:07:28.000 It's crazy how those little moments in a fight can change the entire career of a fighter.

02:07:34.000 You never know.

02:07:35.000 Like, at any moment, something screwy can happen, you know?

02:07:40.000 So is this it?

02:07:41.000 So here it is.

02:07:44.000 Imovov is hitting him with some good shots, for sure.

02:07:46.000 Jared's definitely getting hit.

02:07:48.000 But he's firing back.

02:07:49.000 And the referee stops it.

02:07:52.000 And he's like, what the fuck are you doing?

02:07:53.000 And Herzog's a good ref.

02:07:54.000 He's a very good ref.

02:07:55.000 And he faced some serious criticism after that fight, and I think, you know, he made a mistake.

02:08:01.000 Yeah.

02:08:01.000 You know, he was probably trying to save Jared from further punishment.

02:08:05.000 He thought it was over, but Jared was like, I got a lot left.

02:08:07.000 I was not as badly hurt as he thought.

02:08:09.000 You know, the thing is, the problem is when a guy is teeing off on you, even if you're not getting hurt, it looks bad.

02:08:14.000 Even if you're moving away and covering up, and you're getting out of the range, you're stumbling around, you...

02:08:21.000 Yeah.

02:08:21.000 It looks bad, but you could still come back, and you've got to give the guy the opportunity to still come back.

02:08:27.000 You don't let him take shots when he's out, but you've got to give him the opportunity to be able to come back, and when a guy's standing and still throwing back, you've got to give him a chance, because fights are fights.

02:08:37.000 Things change.

02:08:38.000 Guys, he might have got burned out from that, because he emptied the gas tank.

02:08:41.000 We've seen that happen many times.

02:08:43.000 And there's some fighters that just look bad, And they make it look, just because their body movement's weird.

02:08:49.000 I mean, Driskus always looks like he's dead tired and dead in there, and all of a sudden he comes back and wins a fight.

02:08:54.000 But there's just guys that just don't have that good look all the time, even when they're taking punches.

02:08:59.000 Everybody's baffled by Driskus.

02:09:01.000 They're like, what is going on?

02:09:03.000 How's he beating everybody?

02:09:04.000 What is going on?

02:09:05.000 It's wild.

02:09:06.000 He's a bulldog.

02:09:08.000 That dude, I was stunned.

02:09:10.000 I was stunned by the Adesanya fight.

02:09:12.000 I was stunned.

02:09:13.000 Because Adesanya was looking good.

02:09:14.000 He was looking good.

02:09:15.000 But Drikas was looking good too.

02:09:18.000 Drikas was laying a lot of leg kicks.

02:09:20.000 He's got that real sneaky left high kick too.

02:09:22.000 That left high kick comes out of nowhere.

02:09:24.000 It's just awkward.

02:09:25.000 He moves so awkwardly.

02:09:27.000 Awkward.

02:09:28.000 But game.

02:09:29.000 Yeah.

02:09:30.000 So game.

02:09:30.000 He has so much heart.

02:09:31.000 Even when he started taking those bad shots, when he was shooting, he was on his knees, and I was like, oh, he's about to break.

02:09:36.000 And then all of a sudden, you see him still have a lot left in the tank.

02:09:39.000 He's a tank.

02:09:40.000 He is a tank.

02:09:41.000 He marches forward, man.

02:09:43.000 And the way he capitalized, he hurt Izzy with a couple good punches.

02:09:47.000 One good left hook, he hurt Izzy, and Izzy moved away, and then they got into another exchange.

02:09:52.000 He hit him with those two right hands from the clinch, and then got his back.

02:09:56.000 And once he got his back, it was like that.

02:09:58.000 Yeah, it was quick.

02:09:59.000 He went right to the choke, right to the choke, and cinched it up.

02:10:02.000 I mean, between the time he hit Izzy to the time where Izzy was tapping was just a few seconds.

02:10:06.000 Yeah.

02:10:06.000 For me, I thought, Izzy looked like he got a lot tired faster than he normally does.

02:10:11.000 And I was like, he looked like he put a lot more muscle on.

02:10:13.000 Yeah.

02:10:14.000 So that could have been a key in it where his body wasn't used to moving like that.

02:10:18.000 Maybe.

02:10:18.000 With the extra muscle.

02:10:19.000 But I was like, bro, he's moving a lot slower than usual in his third round.

02:10:22.000 I always wonder, and I wanted to talk to him about this, is if he's ever considered doing like one of those Marv Marinovich type camps.

02:10:30.000 So Marv Marinovich, they had this philosophy that the most important thing was your gas tank.

02:10:36.000 You already know how to fight.

02:10:37.000 You already know how to fight.

02:10:38.000 All you're getting better has already been done.

02:10:41.000 And in the six weeks or eight weeks, whatever your camp is, you should be only concentrating on cardio.

02:10:46.000 And they would do these explosive plyometric things.

02:10:49.000 And BJ hated it.

02:10:50.000 He hated it.

02:10:52.000 But if you look at his gas tank from those fights, it was unstoppable.

02:10:56.000 And when a fighter's not tired, and the other fighter is tired, and you realize all that work has paid off, and you start putting it on them, and you've got this unlimited gas tank, and you also haven't been beat up in training for six to eight weeks.

02:11:10.000 Because you're really not sparring, you're really not doing much of anything other than your cardio.

02:11:14.000 They're just doing plyometrics.

02:11:16.000 It's all just jumping around and shit.

02:11:18.000 It's all...

02:11:18.000 Have you ever seen Marber Innovate?

02:11:20.000 See if you can find...

02:11:22.000 Marv Marinovich trains BJ Penn.

02:11:24.000 They had BJ doing all kinds of wild shit.

02:11:27.000 That's all they would do, man.

02:11:28.000 Wow.

02:11:28.000 That's all they would do.

02:11:30.000 Nick Kurson came on the podcast.

02:11:31.000 He was a protege of those guys.

02:11:33.000 And that's his philosophy as well.

02:11:34.000 He was telling me that it's really an elite fighter that's fighting a world championship fight.

02:11:40.000 They already know how to fight.

02:11:41.000 You just got to give them the unstoppable gas tank.

02:11:44.000 And if you concentrate only on that, it's the most important thing.

02:11:47.000 Because when a fighter gets tired, like when Izzy got tired in that fourth round with Drickus, you could see he's not the same Izzy in the first round that's like lightning fast and moving and countering and controlling distance and getting out of the range of shots.

02:12:00.000 This is an Izzy that's experiencing fatigue.

02:12:02.000 Yeah.

02:12:03.000 But he already knows how to fight.

02:12:04.000 Like, the fighting is in his DNA at this point.

02:12:07.000 He knows how to fuck people up.

02:12:09.000 Yeah.

02:12:09.000 And if he had, like, here's BJ training with the Marinovichs.

02:12:13.000 So it's all these plyometrics, even with the arms.

02:12:15.000 It's all this explosive shit.

02:12:17.000 Everything is done for time and distance, and they measure everything.

02:12:23.000 And he just breaks guys down physically to the point where when they get into that octagon, they just have the craziest fucking gas tank of all time.

02:12:33.000 It's an interesting philosophy.

02:12:35.000 Yeah, my mindset.

02:12:36.000 This going around.

02:12:37.000 Eagle-eyed Alex Pereira spots Israel Adesanya injury, draws partial confession from Stylebender.

02:12:42.000 He said, this guy knows me.

02:12:44.000 He said, Izzy was injured.

02:12:45.000 He said he was noticing that he wasn't throwing kicks like he might have been injured, and Izzy was like, it's almost like this guy knows me or something.

02:12:51.000 So he's sort of admitting to being injured, but not directly.

02:12:54.000 Well, they clash in a bunch of times.

02:12:55.000 I mean, it could have happened in the fight, but the problem is he was still tired.

02:12:59.000 Yeah.

02:13:00.000 He's still tired.

02:13:00.000 I mean, I'm sure he was injured.

02:13:02.000 It's a crazy fight.

02:13:03.000 You get injured.

02:13:04.000 In general, camps, you get so injured in camps.

02:13:07.000 It's like the hardest thing.

02:13:08.000 Even if a fight's quick, people don't realize that I just had an eight-week camp of non-stop training.

02:13:14.000 You get more injuries in training camp than you do in the fight.

02:13:16.000 What is the worst injury you ever went into a fight with?

02:13:20.000 It's funny.

02:13:20.000 I was in Australia, and I was fighting Tim Beans.

02:13:24.000 And then me and my coach were in the back warming up.

02:13:27.000 And then we ended up going knee-to-knee in the back during the warm-up.

02:13:31.000 And, like, I could have put my knee down to the ground after that.

02:13:34.000 And it was, like, before the fight.

02:13:36.000 So I was like, what the heck?

02:13:37.000 I thought we just clashed knee, so it was, like, sore.

02:13:39.000 So, like, even in the fight, it just felt weird.

02:13:40.000 So then after the fight, we went, and I still could have put my knee down to the floor for, like, two or three weeks.

02:13:46.000 And then I ended up tearing my—it was a torn meniscus.

02:13:48.000 Oh, wow.

02:13:49.000 Yeah, but, like— Right before the fight.

02:13:51.000 Right before the fight, we just, like, clashed knee to knee.

02:13:53.000 And it's—like you said, it's so much just random stuff that could happen to you.

02:13:57.000 Yeah.

02:13:57.000 Because I like to spar in the back before my fights.

02:13:59.000 I like to feel it.

02:14:01.000 So I'll have them put the shin guards on, headgear, and I'm throwing a lot harder than them.

02:14:05.000 But I want to feel that so I can feel the distance.

02:14:08.000 So I want to go out to the fight like it's my third or fourth round.

02:14:11.000 Because I usually start slow when I'm at practice, but in the fight I want it to be going right away.

02:14:17.000 And I have cardio for it, so I want to feel like it's the third round already when I go out there.

02:14:21.000 Well, they always say that you should do that anyway, like really elevate your heart rate and then cool down and then compete.

02:14:27.000 Yeah.

02:14:27.000 Some guys like to hit mitts, but for me, I like to spar.

02:14:30.000 So I have my training partner come down there with me, and then you got to have a controlled guy.

02:14:34.000 It's not going to hurt you.

02:14:35.000 But yeah, we just go in the back.

02:14:36.000 We throw.

02:14:37.000 Wow.

02:14:38.000 Yeah, we're throwing.

02:14:38.000 So he'll have big gloves on, and I get to the point where it hit me because I want to feel it.

02:14:43.000 Even in this fight with Leon, he threw like...

02:14:46.000 50 kicks at me hard at the back.

02:14:48.000 Wow.

02:14:49.000 So I wanted to go out there like, alright, my arms feel it, my legs feel it, and my body's already gonna adjust to it.

02:14:54.000 Yeah.

02:14:55.000 That's so risky.

02:14:56.000 It's risky, but I'm about to go in a fight anyway.

02:14:59.000 Right, right, right.

02:15:00.000 And once you get that adrenaline, Yeah.

02:15:02.000 Like, you don't really feel nothing.

02:15:03.000 And I'll feel it afterward.

02:15:05.000 But, like, the biggest risk is just a headbutter, like, catching your blood or something like that.

02:15:10.000 Right.

02:15:10.000 So that's why I make him wear a headgear.

02:15:11.000 Right.

02:15:12.000 And, you know, like I said, you have to have the perfect training partner for it.

02:15:16.000 Right.

02:15:16.000 Where he's going to throw the right stuff at you.

02:15:18.000 He's there for you.

02:15:19.000 Yeah.

02:15:19.000 He's not going to...

02:15:20.000 He's not really sparring.

02:15:21.000 He's there for you.

02:15:22.000 Yeah.

02:15:23.000 If I tell you, all right, hit me right here hard, he'll hit me here hard.

02:15:25.000 Yeah.

02:15:25.000 But it's not like, we're not going to just sit there and bang in the back.

02:15:27.000 Right.

02:15:28.000 Right.

02:15:28.000 Wow.

02:15:29.000 Who else does it that way?

02:15:31.000 I don't know.

02:15:32.000 For us, we caught ourselves doing it.

02:15:34.000 I feel like I'm one of the first guys to start doing it that I know.

02:15:38.000 And then I'll start telling my other teammates when I go corner them, like, let's do the same thing.

02:15:42.000 And they'll like it, too.

02:15:44.000 But, yeah, there's not a lot of guys that just—I know a lot of guys that just like hitting mitts.

02:15:49.000 And then you go out there and then you start a lot slower.

02:15:51.000 But for me, I'm like, bro, we're going to fight.

02:15:53.000 I don't need to hit-miss right now.

02:15:54.000 I'd rather feel you throwing punches at me so I catch distance.

02:15:58.000 So I look at the punches coming at me.

02:16:00.000 And then I know where I'm backing up, where I'm not backing up.

02:16:02.000 You're already loose, for real loose.

02:16:04.000 Yeah, because even when I spar, I'm sparring like five or six rounds regardless.

02:16:09.000 So I know I can go five rounds easy in the cage.

02:16:13.000 Especially with that extra adrenaline.

02:16:14.000 So if I do those extra two rounds in the back, it's not going to affect me.

02:16:18.000 And you're going into the fight completely warmed up.

02:16:21.000 Yeah.

02:16:22.000 Psychologically too.

02:16:23.000 Yeah.

02:16:23.000 Like you're much closer psychologically to a fight than just hitting mitts and then all of a sudden someone's throwing back.

02:16:28.000 Yeah.

02:16:28.000 The mindset is the hardest thing, right?

02:16:30.000 To get locked in.

02:16:32.000 Because when I first started fighting, I was like, I'm another guy.

02:16:34.000 I don't like to curse.

02:16:35.000 But then I was like, I was telling myself, I got to listen to rap music.

02:16:38.000 I got to curse as I'm in the back.

02:16:40.000 And I'm like trying to hit myself to hide myself up.

02:16:42.000 But because I feel like I'm too calm.

02:16:44.000 But my coach is like, bro, that's a good thing.

02:16:46.000 Like you being calm is good for you.

02:16:48.000 You don't have to sit there and be something you're not.

02:16:50.000 So then I was like, all right, well, let's stay calm.

02:16:52.000 But then let's Start adding in sparring.

02:16:55.000 So then I feel that.

02:16:56.000 So I'll just get it through that.

02:16:57.000 So it was your idea?

02:16:58.000 Yeah.

02:16:58.000 Wow.

02:16:59.000 Yeah.

02:17:00.000 Because you try different things at practices, and I'll be like, all right, when did I feel good at sparring?

02:17:05.000 I'll take notes of everything.

02:17:06.000 I felt good on this sparring day, and I did this type of drilling beforehand.

02:17:09.000 Or I did this type of warm-up beforehand.

02:17:12.000 Because my coach, he's like, he tries to mimic the fight with everything.

02:17:14.000 So he'll tell us, all right, warm-up on your own.

02:17:17.000 Do your own thing, then we're going to get your five sparring rounds in a cage.

02:17:20.000 So, for me, I'm trying to adjust to make my style alright.

02:17:23.000 This helped me better today.

02:17:24.000 What did I eat today?

02:17:25.000 Let me write that down.

02:17:26.000 This is when I felt the best.

02:17:27.000 I had the most energy doing this.

02:17:29.000 I had the most energy eating this.

02:17:30.000 So, like, now I got it down to, like, a system that I like more than anything.

02:17:34.000 What is the food you take before you train?

02:17:37.000 Before I train?

02:17:37.000 Yeah, what's the stuff that makes you feel the best?

02:17:40.000 Like white rice.

02:17:41.000 Usually my guy will make me white rice, eggs, and turkey bacon.

02:17:44.000 So it's protein with good carbs.

02:17:47.000 Not heavy?

02:17:48.000 Not heavy, yeah.

02:17:49.000 Something that's going to digest, fight.

02:17:51.000 Fast, yeah.

02:17:52.000 Like I said before, I would just think I have to starve myself.

02:17:55.000 And then he came in and he was like, oh, what are you doing?

02:17:58.000 You're not going to have good practices this way.

02:18:00.000 But my mind said, I don't really care because I know how to push myself no matter what.

02:18:04.000 Well, you've gone through camps with Ramadan, and that's where it gets...

02:18:09.000 And you, we should tell people, there's ways to kind of make that a little easier on yourself, where you sleep during the day, and then you get up, and then at nighttime, once you can eat and drink, then you do that.

02:18:23.000 But you don't do that.

02:18:24.000 Yeah, I've had multiple times, multiple camps during it, where I would still stick to my normal schedule of training, where I'll train at 10.30 a.m., and I can't eat or drink in the morning.

02:18:34.000 So I wake up at 5 a.m.

02:18:37.000 for a morning prayer.

02:18:38.000 You get your last sip of water before the sun rises, and then I'll have a protein shake, dates or something like that, that'll give me some energy for the morning.

02:18:47.000 And then at 10 a.m., I have my morning practice, and then I'll have another practice.

02:18:50.000 And you can't drink water in between rounds?

02:18:53.000 No.

02:18:53.000 Nothing?

02:18:53.000 No.

02:18:53.000 After the first...

02:18:54.000 So you're training with no water?

02:18:55.000 No water or food.

02:18:56.000 Yeah.

02:18:57.000 So after like the first three or four days, your body just adjusts.

02:19:01.000 It feels good, honestly, because it makes you feel like mentally you're in a different place.

02:19:07.000 Like spiritually you're in a different place in general because it's Ramadan and that's where like for any Muslim that's like the best time because you're not stressing out about other things and you know that you're doing it for God and you know God's gonna give you the strength to push through no matter what.

02:19:21.000 So for myself, For the reasons I'm doing it, I know I can push through.

02:19:24.000 And I know that whoever I'm training for is not doing what I'm doing.

02:19:28.000 So I can push myself harder than them when it gets into the cage, when I can't drink, when I can't eat.

02:19:32.000 So I think mentally it just puts me in a different place.

02:19:35.000 But for fight camps, like after it's time to break my fast, when the sun sets, that's when I have to be the smartest.

02:19:42.000 That's where I got to put the carbs in, a lot of protein in, and then I got to make sure I'm getting my electrolytes, my salts, and just getting all those fluids back in like I just finished cutting weight.

02:19:52.000 Right.

02:19:53.000 Because if I don't do it the right way, then the next morning I'll be screwed.

02:19:56.000 Right.

02:19:56.000 Because I'll feel super drained.

02:19:58.000 That's interesting.

02:19:58.000 So you got to treat it like you're cutting weight almost.

02:20:00.000 Yeah.

02:20:01.000 So like every night I'm treating it like a weight cut.

02:20:03.000 I have my shakes.

02:20:03.000 I have my protein that I'm getting in the right way.

02:20:06.000 And I try to hit a certain, at least a gallon and a half of water before bedtime.

02:20:10.000 Mmm.

02:20:11.000 Yeah.

02:20:11.000 Okay.

02:20:12.000 Yeah.

02:20:12.000 So that it carries you on at least a little bit in the morning.

02:20:15.000 Yeah, and like I said, your body honestly just figures it out.

02:20:20.000 But you wouldn't want to defend the title that way.

02:20:23.000 No, no.

02:20:24.000 Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

02:20:27.000 Before I was trying to chase everything, right?

02:20:29.000 I was trying to chase the next ranked guy.

02:20:31.000 I was trying to chase this, and I felt like I couldn't say no to anything.

02:20:35.000 Because I was always looking for these guys to say yes, and I can't waste an opportunity.

02:20:39.000 But now, I am the opportunity.

02:20:42.000 Now I am the champion.

02:20:43.000 So now I feel like it gives me more leeway to be like, no, I want to wait a little bit longer.

02:20:48.000 This one feels better for me.

02:20:49.000 My body's healthy now because it took me so long to get here.

02:20:53.000 So now I don't have to go through a camp during Ramadan for it.

02:20:55.000 Well, now it's about your legacy as a champion.

02:20:58.000 Yeah.

02:20:59.000 And exactly all the things we were talking about before.

02:21:02.000 The little thing can change your life.

02:21:03.000 Little loss here, little loss there.

02:21:06.000 Fuck all taking those fights on 10 days notice.

02:21:08.000 Yeah.

02:21:09.000 If the UFC calls you 10 days before an event, change your number.

02:21:12.000 Change your fucking number, man.

02:21:14.000 Don't let them talk you into it.

02:21:16.000 Come on, you can beat them.

02:21:18.000 I know you work out all the time and you start thinking, yeah, I do work out all the time.

02:21:21.000 And they're like, we're going to offer you X amount of money.

02:21:24.000 You're like, oh shit, that's a lot of money.

02:21:26.000 And you start spending that money.

02:21:29.000 That's the hard part right now, is because, like you said, for me, I hate saying no in general, just because I have the fighter mentality.

02:21:37.000 Like, I ain't scared.

02:21:38.000 I'll say yes to anything.

02:21:39.000 Like, the Gilbert Burns fight, it was three weeks' notice.

02:21:41.000 It was during Ramadan, and they were like, you win, you know, do it for the fans that just bought their ticket to their first event.

02:21:48.000 And I was like, yeah, I do want to do it for those fans.

02:21:51.000 I'm not afraid of Gilbert.

02:21:52.000 And Gilbert started chirping on Twitter like, oh, he's afraid.

02:21:55.000 He doesn't want to fight.

02:21:55.000 So then I'm like, I do want to fight.

02:21:57.000 I'm not afraid of you.

02:21:58.000 So then I say, yeah, no matter what.

02:22:00.000 Then it's like...

02:22:01.000 I'm thinking to myself, bro, I'm on a nine fight winning streak.

02:22:03.000 I'm taking this fight on three weeks notice.

02:22:05.000 Why did I do this?

02:22:06.000 I'm stupid.

02:22:07.000 If I lose, I'm back in the line again.

02:22:10.000 I was one fight away.

02:22:11.000 Now if I lose this fight, I'm done.

02:22:13.000 It changes your mindset, but fighters are dumb.

02:22:17.000 We just want the glory no matter what.

02:22:20.000 For me, I want to prove everybody wrong.

02:22:23.000 It's like you have to temper that mindset.

02:22:25.000 Yeah.

02:22:25.000 You know, you have to think about the overall big picture because what got you to the dance is that mindset.

02:22:31.000 Like, anybody, anytime, let's go, who am I fighting?

02:22:34.000 I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready.

02:22:36.000 But once you got the title, it's like you gotta keep the dog, but you also gotta be intelligent about what fights you take and when you take them.

02:22:44.000 Yeah.

02:22:45.000 And no one, don't fight injured.

02:22:46.000 You know, there's so many guys that take fights.

02:22:49.000 I had a broken foot coming into this fight.

02:22:51.000 Like, what?

02:22:52.000 Yeah, afterward, right?

02:22:53.000 Yeah, what?

02:22:54.000 And those are the guys that, like, for me as a fighter, if I lose, I lost.

02:22:59.000 That's it.

02:23:00.000 Like, I hate guys who come up with a million excuses afterward.

02:23:03.000 Right.

02:23:03.000 Because then, like, for the guy that won, it's like people are not going to give them credit for that win.

02:23:09.000 Right.

02:23:09.000 And then, for me, like, when I lost my fight, it was like, alright, I got to change this.

02:23:13.000 I lost.

02:23:14.000 That's it.

02:23:14.000 Like, that was always my mindset.

02:23:16.000 Don't give excuses.

02:23:17.000 If we're going into a fight injured, we accepted it injured.

02:23:20.000 That's it.

02:23:21.000 That's it.

02:23:21.000 Put it out of your head.

02:23:22.000 Because if you go in there overthinking about it, like, oh, I got an injured ankle or I got an injured rib.

02:23:27.000 No, I should have never took this fight in between rounds.

02:23:29.000 You never want to second guess yourself in the fight.

02:23:31.000 And for me, I just try to clear my head of anything.

02:23:34.000 Once we said yes, our name's on the contract.

02:23:36.000 That's it.

02:23:37.000 We're all in.

02:23:38.000 So who do you think is next?

02:23:41.000 There's talk of Shavka and there's talk of Kamaru Usman.

02:23:45.000 Those are the ones that I hear mostly.

02:23:47.000 I think, like you said, for legacy-wise, Usman is obviously the bigger name.

02:23:51.000 And he was the guy that Dana said was the best welterweight behind GSP or in front of GSP. But for boogeyman-wise, and to shut up the naysayers, I think it's Shafkot.

02:24:03.000 Because he is undefeated.

02:24:04.000 He is the guy that everybody thinks is this killer.

02:24:07.000 And then, for myself, it's like...

02:24:10.000 Either one of them does a lot for me.

02:24:12.000 Usman, obviously, will probably be bigger pay-per-view numbers, and then beating him, my resume's up there with GSP, because then I have Usman on my resume, Leon, Maya, Wonderboy, all these big-name guys, Gilbert Burns, Brady, and it's like, look at that resume.

02:24:29.000 It's neck-and-neck with his.

02:24:31.000 But Shotgun's also that.

02:24:33.000 Oh, this young guy's going to come out here and beat you.

02:24:35.000 Right after being Leon.

02:24:37.000 Everybody's comments.

02:24:38.000 Oh, you can't do the shot guy, though.

02:24:39.000 Shot guy will kill you.

02:24:41.000 And my chip on my shoulder is like, all right, let's go.

02:24:44.000 I'm going to prove you guys wrong.

02:24:45.000 Now I'm going to show you guys what I can do.

02:24:47.000 Because for me...

02:24:49.000 Like you said with B.J. Penn where it was like the strength conditioning was his whole camp that I went.

02:24:53.000 For us, we strategize everything.

02:24:55.000 My coach is so good at breaking down stuff.

02:24:57.000 We're so good at breaking down fighters that I have a game plan for everybody and a strategy for every single one of these fighters.

02:25:03.000 And I already have a strategy for Shavka.

02:25:05.000 I already have a strategy for Usman because I was chasing him so long.

02:25:08.000 And I've been watching tape on these guys for so long.

02:25:11.000 So I don't see anything from either one of them too where I'm looking at him like, I'm afraid of this guy because of this.

02:25:18.000 I'm afraid of this guy because of that.

02:25:19.000 I think Usman's a tougher fight than Shavka, if I'm being honest.

02:25:22.000 But I do see many ways where I can beat them both.

02:25:26.000 Because there's a lot of guys in the division that have to fight a certain way.

02:25:29.000 They're specialists.

02:25:30.000 Where they're either grapplers or strikers.

02:25:32.000 I can strike with you.

02:25:33.000 I can grapple with you.

02:25:35.000 I can wrestle with you.

02:25:37.000 I can move laterally.

02:25:38.000 I can move forward.

02:25:39.000 Every time you see me in the cage, it's something different.

02:25:41.000 And I think that that comes from my team and the strategy that we bring to fighting.

02:25:46.000 We look at it like a real sport instead of, I'm in shape.

02:25:49.000 Let's go fight.

02:25:50.000 We look at it like, what's this guy's weakest point?

02:25:52.000 Oh, Leon can't move backwards?

02:25:53.000 Let's move him backwards.

02:25:55.000 Gilbert Burns, he can't take you down.

02:25:57.000 He's going to gas out.

02:25:59.000 He's not going to take me down.

02:26:00.000 Let's beat him up on the feet a little bit.

02:26:02.000 Brady, he's only good on the ground.

02:26:04.000 Alright, let's strike with him.

02:26:05.000 I look at guys and I look at fights in a different way than a lot of these other fighters where some of these guys, let's go in there.

02:26:12.000 I see red.

02:26:12.000 I don't care what happens.

02:26:14.000 I think for legacy, Usman's an important name.

02:26:20.000 Also because Usman probably won't be fighting that much longer.

02:26:24.000 You know, he's kind of at the end of his career, and I feel like the UFC owes him a little bit something for the Hamzat fight.

02:26:30.000 Takes Hamzat on short notice.

02:26:32.000 That was like 11 days notice too, right?

02:26:34.000 Yeah, and Abu Dhabi.

02:26:35.000 That's crazy.

02:26:37.000 And it was close.

02:26:38.000 Very close, and he was winning the third round.

02:26:40.000 But I was gonna say earlier about Oliveira and Sayukian.

02:26:43.000 Like, that's another fight where I felt like that is a five-round fight.

02:26:47.000 That should be a five-round fight.

02:26:48.000 And Charles almost caught him a couple times.

02:26:51.000 In that fight.

02:26:51.000 I'm like, that's a wild close fight between two top of the Fuji guys.

02:26:56.000 It seems wrong to have that fight three rounds.

02:26:59.000 Especially for number one contender status.

02:27:01.000 Yeah.

02:27:03.000 Especially Charles, who's been in there for so long, was a champion.

02:27:07.000 And he's like a different type of champion, right?

02:27:09.000 He comes balls to the wall no matter what.

02:27:11.000 So even if it's five rounds, you're not expecting it to go five rounds.

02:27:14.000 But in general, I felt like it should have been there.

02:27:16.000 And he almost caught him a couple of times.

02:27:18.000 Yeah.

02:27:18.000 He got real close a couple of times.

02:27:20.000 And Charles is...

02:27:21.000 I think he's the most successful finisher with submissions in the history of the sport.

02:27:25.000 Yeah.

02:27:26.000 And now he's two-fight losing streak himself.

02:27:28.000 Yeah.

02:27:28.000 But the last one was so fucking close.

02:27:30.000 And it's against Sarukian, who's the top of the food chain.

02:27:33.000 Yeah.

02:27:33.000 That 155-pound division.

02:27:35.000 Woof!

02:27:37.000 It's...

02:27:37.000 What happens if Islam decides to go to 170?

02:27:41.000 I mean, for me, I would never fight Islam, but...

02:27:45.000 I mean, if I get two more...

02:27:46.000 So how do you do that, though?

02:27:47.000 So what if you...

02:27:48.000 You're gonna...

02:27:49.000 Okay, let's assume you beat Usman.

02:27:52.000 Let's assume you beat Chavka.

02:27:54.000 I'm calling out Druskas.

02:27:56.000 Is that what you do?

02:27:57.000 You go to 85?

02:27:58.000 100%.

02:27:58.000 Really?

02:27:59.000 Yeah.

02:28:00.000 Wow.

02:28:01.000 Yeah, I feel...

02:28:02.000 If there's anybody that can and be willing, who deserves it, it would be me.

02:28:06.000 Because I had to fight five top five guys to get to where I am now.

02:28:09.000 So I think at least two more, then I can start talking about one middleweight.

02:28:13.000 So that's what you would do?

02:28:14.000 Yeah.

02:28:15.000 Islam would go to 70 and you'd go to 85?

02:28:17.000 Yeah, for sure.

02:28:17.000 Wow.

02:28:18.000 Would you pack on size to go to 85?

02:28:20.000 Yeah, I mean, I would put on muscle, but, like, in general, I've trained with a lot of 85ers, and I think I have good size for 85. Well, Drickus is talking about going up to 205 and fighting Alex, which is crazy.

02:28:34.000 So maybe he vacates the middleweight title, or, you know, who knows, maybe he goes double champ status.

02:28:39.000 But I feel like there's so many guys at 85 for him still to fight.

02:28:41.000 Oh, yeah.

02:28:42.000 He's fought Izzy, he's fought Strickland.

02:28:45.000 Whitaker, he fought Whitaker.

02:28:46.000 Yeah, you got Whitaker, but now you still got the young guns, right?

02:28:49.000 Brennan Allen, who's a dog, came against Imavov, the winner, I feel like, should be there.

02:28:53.000 Hamzat's still there that people aren't even really talking about anymore.

02:28:56.000 If Hamzat wants to fight, and, you know, I think Hamzat's at 70s, the scariest Hamzat.

02:29:02.000 But that weight cut's crazy for him, though.

02:29:04.000 Is it?

02:29:05.000 What does he walk around at?

02:29:06.000 I've seen him out, and he looks like over like 215. Michael Morales, he just fought.

02:29:15.000 He just beat Neil Magny.

02:29:16.000 Yes.

02:29:16.000 He came to train with us.

02:29:18.000 I brought him in for Leon fight, and he was like, I was like, bro, you're huge.

02:29:23.000 He's like, no, yeah, I'm like 190. And then my coach put him on the scale.

02:29:27.000 He's like, 218. I was like, bro...

02:29:30.000 I was like, bro, what do you mean?

02:29:32.000 What are you talking about?

02:29:33.000 He said, oh no, I just had a bad breakfast.

02:29:35.000 I was like, bro.

02:29:36.000 What did you eat?

02:29:37.000 You eat a whole ostrich?

02:29:39.000 What the fuck did you eat?

02:29:40.000 But he's young and he's huge.

02:29:42.000 I was like, bro, it's not going to last long, bro.

02:29:44.000 You can't cut this much weight.

02:29:46.000 No, he's big.

02:29:47.000 He's good, too.

02:29:48.000 He's a dog.

02:29:49.000 He's good.

02:29:50.000 He's real good.

02:29:51.000 Just training with him.

02:29:52.000 He was like another one of those guys we brought in and it was like...

02:29:54.000 He was a perfect training partner where he didn't have ego, where I'm finding somebody in my weight class, he's undefeated, he'd come in and say, oh, he's fighting for the belt, let me go crazy with him.

02:30:02.000 Nah, he was such a good kid.

02:30:03.000 Oh, that's nice.

02:30:04.000 Yeah, he trained really well with us, and then to see him get out there and finish Neil Magny, who he thinks is the perfect gatekeeper for any up-and-comer, right?

02:30:12.000 Yeah.

02:30:12.000 He's that test, where you go past them, it's like, you're a real deal.

02:30:15.000 Yeah, that's the real deal.

02:30:17.000 And he looked great in that fight.

02:30:18.000 Yeah, he's a real contender.

02:30:20.000 There's so many real contenders.

02:30:21.000 Yeah.

02:30:22.000 And your division is just so filled.

02:30:25.000 Yeah, people forget, man.

02:30:27.000 Even Gary, JDM, all these guys.

02:30:30.000 People forget about Jeff Neal.

02:30:32.000 Jeff Neal's a fucking killer.

02:30:34.000 He's going against RDA now.

02:30:36.000 Yeah.

02:30:36.000 That's funny.

02:30:37.000 That's funny.

02:30:37.000 That's a wild fight.

02:30:39.000 RDA was another guy I trained with Nick Kurson.

02:30:41.000 Oh, yeah?

02:30:41.000 Yeah, he was using that when RDA was in his prime.

02:30:45.000 Yeah.

02:30:46.000 Him and his cardio days where he could just go non-stop punching, striking, wrestling.

02:30:51.000 That's what we're talking about, though.

02:30:52.000 That's what it was.

02:30:53.000 Wow.

02:30:53.000 He was doing that same kind of workout with Nick Curzon.

02:30:56.000 That's wild.

02:30:56.000 Does he still train people?

02:30:58.000 Curzon?

02:30:59.000 I'd have to reach out.

02:31:00.000 I bet he still does.

02:31:01.000 I know he was training a bunch of other athletes in a bunch of different sports as well.

02:31:04.000 You know, but his whole thing is plyometrics and foot strength and your ability to move and continue to move.

02:31:12.000 It's interesting because I see both ways.

02:31:15.000 I see like, look, Sean Strickland is the craziest fucking cardio of anybody, right?

02:31:19.000 Because all that guy does is spar.

02:31:21.000 He's fighting every day.

02:31:23.000 He spars more than anybody in the UFC and he gets hit less.

02:31:28.000 That's nuts.

02:31:28.000 Yeah.

02:31:29.000 That's nuts.

02:31:30.000 So his cardio is from his being completely comfortable with fighting all the time.

02:31:36.000 And I'm sure he does other things too, but most of which, if you talk to, like, Nick Sick and all those guys that train with him, most of the stuff, what he does is spar.

02:31:43.000 Yeah.

02:31:44.000 He just loves sparring.

02:31:45.000 He loves getting in there and sparring.

02:31:47.000 And he spars stupidly.

02:31:49.000 Stupidly?

02:31:49.000 Yeah.

02:31:50.000 Stupidly.

02:31:50.000 There's guys that will, like, spar light and spar for, like, distance and managing and stuff, and there's guys that, like...

02:31:56.000 He's going to war.

02:31:56.000 Just want to throw it on.

02:31:57.000 I'm like, look at these guys, like...

02:31:58.000 But he doesn't get hit much.

02:32:00.000 The reason why he's so good at that, first of all, that style is so weird.

02:32:04.000 Stands straight up.

02:32:05.000 Has the Philly shell and throws punches in weird angles and he's just peppering you, peppering you, peppering you, keeping them on you, keep to the body, front kick to the body, peppering you, keeping on you.

02:32:16.000 It's a weird style, man.

02:32:17.000 Yeah.

02:32:18.000 It's a weird style.

02:32:19.000 It's like agitating, especially if you're a guy like Adesanya who wants that distance and wants you to look pretty.

02:32:25.000 To have somebody who's like striking look so ugly just in front of you just non-stop.

02:32:29.000 Yeah.

02:32:29.000 Or like against...

02:32:32.000 Which is Bochina where he just threw like 55 teeps at him every round.

02:32:36.000 Yeah.

02:32:36.000 I was shocked at that fight.

02:32:38.000 But that was a good example of how hard he is to hit.

02:32:41.000 He's fucking hard.

02:32:42.000 Because I think you know for some reason I Don't know what happened, but I think That I think some fighters they just have like when when he loved when Stylebender beat Bohemia like he was kind of a different guy after that fight, you know and There's some guys, they have a fight, and for whatever reason, they never are the same guy again.

02:33:12.000 And it's not even a bad beating.

02:33:14.000 It might be, like, a psychological thing.

02:33:16.000 Yeah.

02:33:16.000 I think it's the undefeated thing.

02:33:18.000 He was undefeated in that fight.

02:33:20.000 Then you get your first loss, and you don't have that same mindset anymore.

02:33:24.000 Because...

02:33:26.000 You were killing everybody, then all of a sudden you lose, and you lose by finish.

02:33:29.000 You're like, was I not as good as I thought I was?

02:33:32.000 And you get dry humped.

02:33:33.000 Yeah.

02:33:34.000 When Izzy dry humped him.

02:33:36.000 Izzy has the best celebrations after any fight.

02:33:39.000 The fight with Pereira, when he knocks Pereira out and he shoots the three arrows into him, that's the greatest.

02:33:43.000 To be thinking about that beforehand is just wild.

02:33:46.000 And then to put it out there, it was so beautiful.

02:33:49.000 I don't think he said he did think about that.

02:33:50.000 I think he just did that in the moment.

02:33:52.000 In the moment?

02:33:52.000 Yeah.

02:33:53.000 Yeah, that's wild.

02:33:54.000 Well, you know, Alex always shoots arrows at you in the beginning.

02:33:57.000 I don't think there's a better, there can't be a better celebration than that one.

02:34:01.000 No, it's the best.

02:34:02.000 Nothing's gonna come close.

02:34:03.000 It's the best.

02:34:03.000 And then the speech afterwards makes it even better.

02:34:05.000 Yeah.

02:34:06.000 You know, the speech was incredible.

02:34:07.000 That was really good.

02:34:08.000 Yeah.

02:34:08.000 Do you think we ever see the third one?

02:34:12.000 Who knows, man?

02:34:13.000 I don't know if Izzy wants to fight that dude again.

02:34:16.000 I don't think he wants to fight him at 205. I think 205, you don't get a drained Alex Pejeda, you get a destroyer.

02:34:22.000 What he just did to Prochaska, everybody's got to be nervous.

02:34:25.000 All he has to do is one shot.

02:34:27.000 Just touch you once.

02:34:28.000 And I think at 185, he doesn't take a shot as well either.

02:34:31.000 Yeah.

02:34:31.000 I think that draining of your body, you know, your brain dehydrates the whole deal.

02:34:36.000 Yeah.

02:34:36.000 And Dricka said if he fights him again, he doesn't want any excuses.

02:34:39.000 So he doesn't want Alex to come down to 85. He wants to go up to 205. But if you're fighting him, if your first move is not shooting a single leg, I don't know what kind of coaching you have.

02:34:49.000 Because that should be your first goal.

02:34:51.000 At least in the first round, try to grapple him.

02:34:53.000 Something.

02:34:54.000 You gotta do something.

02:34:56.000 I never want to sit there and go toe-to-toe with him.

02:34:59.000 It's just too dangerous.

02:35:00.000 It's weird.

02:35:01.000 It's like some guys just have weird power.

02:35:03.000 Yeah.

02:35:04.000 It's weird.

02:35:05.000 It's different than everybody else's by a magnitude.

02:35:07.000 So a large gap between his power and everybody else's.

02:35:10.000 And with everything.

02:35:11.000 With kicks, with punches, anything he hits you.

02:35:13.000 That scissor knee that he hit Michelinus with.

02:35:15.000 Oh, yeah.

02:35:17.000 And I feel like he's always sparring to himself.

02:35:20.000 He's always posting videos of sparring with the normal classes.

02:35:23.000 It's not like he's even had crazy training partners.

02:35:25.000 No, he spars light.

02:35:26.000 He'll spar light.

02:35:27.000 He even spar light with Strickland.

02:35:28.000 That's the only time Strickland spars light.

02:35:31.000 Strickland goes in there and spars with him.

02:35:33.000 He's like, let's just touch each other.

02:35:35.000 Yeah, I don't even want to feel him with big gloves on.

02:35:38.000 Yeah, fuck all that.

02:35:40.000 And he's talking about going to heavyweight, which is even crazier.

02:35:43.000 Him against Aspinall would be wild, though.

02:35:45.000 Wild.

02:35:46.000 But you've got to think Aspinall can take him down.

02:35:49.000 But would his ego want him to take him down?

02:35:51.000 Or are you like, all right, let me show you how I can strike with you?

02:35:53.000 I think Aspinall, if he can hit him on his feet, he'll try, but if he can't, the takedown's always there.

02:36:01.000 And he's so much bigger.

02:36:03.000 I mean, Aspinall's a solid 255. And I think he's a blackout as well, right?

02:36:08.000 Yeah.

02:36:08.000 Wicked on the ground.

02:36:10.000 And he's had nothing but success.

02:36:11.000 Other than that one time where he fought Curtis and his knee blew apart.

02:36:15.000 But that, you know, that's just a freak accident.

02:36:17.000 Yeah, it's crazy, right?

02:36:18.000 Like I tell people, so many random things could happen in a fight.

02:36:22.000 That could happen.

02:36:23.000 And then you look at guys that are undefeated for so long and people don't respect how hard it is to get there.

02:36:28.000 Yeah.

02:36:29.000 It's a crazy sport, man.

02:36:31.000 It really is.

02:36:31.000 And for you, what a journey.

02:36:33.000 To be 23 years old and step into a gym for funsies.

02:36:37.000 You know, just Learn a little martial arts.

02:36:41.000 What the hell?

02:36:42.000 Next thing you know, you're the champion of the world.

02:36:45.000 It's wild, man.

02:36:46.000 Yeah, it's a blessing, right?

02:36:49.000 Just thinking about the whole journey, man.

02:36:54.000 Spiritually, it puts you into a different mindset, too, because you just thank God for everything, no matter what.

02:36:59.000 And for myself, like I said, I was going to school to try to be a lawyer, and I always tell my mom, yeah, I'll quit when I lose.

02:37:05.000 And it's like, now I could have went from that to being able to do something like this every single day, being able to train every day.

02:37:12.000 And being able to do that kind of a fight, a world title fight, your first world title fight, at 5 in the morning in another country.

02:37:19.000 Yeah.

02:37:21.000 Bananas.

02:37:22.000 Yeah.

02:37:22.000 Just a crazy accomplishment.

02:37:24.000 Enemy territory.

02:37:25.000 Enemy territory.

02:37:26.000 People die.

02:37:27.000 Tired enemy.

02:37:28.000 Sleepy.

02:37:31.000 But it's wild because the fans out there were crazy.

02:37:34.000 There were still so many fans.

02:37:35.000 We ended up having a parade.

02:37:37.000 That same night, because we got out of the fight, it was like at 7am, and then we had people out there that set up a parade for us in Manchester.

02:37:45.000 Oh wow.

02:37:46.000 Yeah, and the streets were like crazy packed.

02:37:49.000 It was full.

02:37:50.000 Wow, so you just stayed up.

02:37:53.000 Yeah, because it was like 7am, so I went back to the house, and everybody wants to come see you now, so we're just chilling, and then all of a sudden it gets to like...

02:38:00.000 Noon.

02:38:00.000 And you try to say everybody's taking a power nap now because we were up from the night before at midnight.

02:38:05.000 So it came up to like 2, 3 o'clock and then everybody started falling asleep.

02:38:10.000 So for myself, I'm still wide awake.

02:38:11.000 I mean, we watched the fight.

02:38:12.000 And then they were like, let's go eat some food.

02:38:14.000 And they surprised me with a huge parade at one of their busiest streets in Manchester.

02:38:19.000 Oh, wow.

02:38:19.000 And the streets got shut down.

02:38:22.000 But they have a huge Muslim population over there.

02:38:24.000 In the England area.

02:38:27.000 Even before the fight, I was getting a lot of messages from people like, you're not in enemy territory.

02:38:31.000 This is your home.

02:38:32.000 And we were blessed out there because people took care of us the whole time.

02:38:36.000 My team had food, everything, every single day.

02:38:38.000 Even the gym, when I was first looking for myself.

02:38:41.000 A lot of the gyms I was messing out there were like, no, you can't.

02:38:46.000 You're fighting Leon, we can't open the doors for you.

02:38:49.000 But then we met some guys that opened up their gym for us, and they were like lawyers driving us around at 4 a.m.

02:38:54.000 They had other jobs, but they were driving us around, staying up with us at 4 a.m.

02:38:58.000 and then having to go to work at like 9 a.m.

02:39:01.000 Wow.

02:39:02.000 Yeah.

02:39:02.000 Well, they're probably excited to be a part of it.

02:39:04.000 Yeah, that's what a lot of them said.

02:39:05.000 They're like, you know, we're just happy to be here.

02:39:06.000 We don't want nothing from you.

02:39:08.000 And it was just, yeah, it was such a cool thing.

02:39:11.000 That's amazing.

02:39:11.000 You meet just like new friends, right?

02:39:13.000 New people.

02:39:14.000 And it was for my team, for my family, like to have that journey, all of us together.

02:39:20.000 My dad went, my mom didn't go.

02:39:22.000 What did it feel like when they put that belt around your waist?

02:39:27.000 It was wild because I got to try to think back to it.

02:39:30.000 And for me, at first, it was like, I told you I could beat Leon.

02:39:37.000 That was my mindset the whole time.

02:39:38.000 I didn't want to even think about the belt.

02:39:40.000 It was more so to be like, I beat Leon.

02:39:43.000 You guys thought I was going to lose to him.

02:39:45.000 I had to live with him for three years.

02:39:47.000 If everybody telling me I'm going to lose to this guy, he would have beat you the last four rounds.

02:39:50.000 He would have killed you.

02:39:52.000 And for myself...

02:39:54.000 For that, it was just like, I told you I could do it.

02:39:56.000 I told you I was better than him.

02:39:58.000 And his coach and his team were all talking trash to me before the fight.

02:40:00.000 So just to rub it in their face.

02:40:02.000 But then for me to be able to wear the title, right?

02:40:06.000 And to be able to carry my flag with the title and to show people what's possible.

02:40:13.000 Because, I mean, obviously you know what's going on right now in the world.

02:40:17.000 For Palestine, for them to have a champion right now, for them to have a win from that fight...

02:40:23.000 That meant more than anything.

02:40:25.000 Because I was getting so many messages from them.

02:40:27.000 We had people in Gaza that were watching video of it.

02:40:30.000 Wow.

02:40:31.000 And it was kids at a refugee camp.

02:40:32.000 They were watching videos of the fight.

02:40:33.000 And it was such an amazing thing.

02:40:35.000 There's you.

02:40:35.000 Yeah.

02:40:35.000 There's you.

02:40:36.000 And even for my coach right there, Mike Valli.

02:40:38.000 He's a small gym.

02:40:39.000 He doesn't talk big.

02:40:40.000 Right?

02:40:41.000 And for me to stick with them and for us to do it together from the start...

02:40:47.000 Now he has another world champion.

02:40:48.000 We're literally a tiny gentleman in there, and he does so much for a lot of his fighters.

02:40:52.000 He brings a lot of guys in from Chile, Mexico, and he puts them in like apartments, doesn't charge them rent, just like helps them grow from their start.

02:41:00.000 He tells them, you just have to work hard.

02:41:01.000 That's amazing, man.

02:41:02.000 Yeah.

02:41:03.000 So, yeah, a lot of it just comes back down for my people in general.

02:41:08.000 Me, it was just to prove everybody that I could beat them.

02:41:11.000 I could beat Leon.

02:41:12.000 I told you so.

02:41:13.000 But, now we got a real title.

02:41:17.000 And just attention.

02:41:19.000 So for me, it's like using that now.

02:41:22.000 You're calling the shots.

02:41:23.000 Congratulations, brother.

02:41:24.000 Thank you, my brother.

02:41:25.000 Very impressive.

02:41:26.000 Amazing.

02:41:27.000 It's a blessing, man.

02:41:29.000 I'm blessed to be here to talk to you.

02:41:31.000 I'm blessed to be able to, like, for people now to know my story, hear my story, and in general, if I get to have conversations like this and carry this belt around, people will look at me and look at themselves with a dream.

02:41:47.000 That's the parade.

02:41:48.000 Yeah.

02:41:49.000 What a picture.

02:41:52.000 God damn, what a great picture.

02:41:54.000 That picture's incredible.

02:41:56.000 That looks like a fake picture.

02:41:57.000 It looks like AI. It's so perfect.

02:41:59.000 They literally had smoke and everything.

02:42:01.000 It was wild.

02:42:02.000 That's amazing.

02:42:03.000 Yeah, I was so surprised by the whole thing.

02:42:05.000 That's amazing.

02:42:06.000 Well, I can't wait to see you fight again, man.

02:42:08.000 I can't wait to see you defend your title, whoever it's gonna be.

02:42:11.000 I hope I'm there.

02:42:12.000 I can't wait to see it.

02:42:13.000 My brother, I appreciate it.

02:42:14.000 Hopefully it's in the US so you can come and commentate it.

02:42:17.000 Yeah, hopefully.

02:42:18.000 Alright, well congratulations.

02:42:19.000 Thank you, brother.

The Joe Rogan Experience - November 29, 2011

JRE MMA Show #162 with Belal Muhammad

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