On this episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, we talk about Gage's new addiction to golf, UFC's new deal with the UFC, and the new UFC gloves. We also talk about the UFC buying back the UFC gloves and how they should be sold.
00:00:34.000So Fanatics Fest is, I was just at it on Sunday, but it's just like kind of like Comic-Con, but for athletes.
00:00:41.000And Gage got to do like the Fanatics game, which is like a celebrity thing where it's like 50 pro athletes do it, 50 normal people, and they compete in a bunch of sports or whatever.
00:00:50.000He said he won because he was good at golf, so the fucking guy won a Ferrari because he got second place.
00:02:54.000But he'd be when I would go into Onyx, he'd just be in the back like with this smile, like working on the gloves like every single morning that he's there.
00:03:02.000And the style that they have is real cool.
00:03:04.000People keep asking me when they're going to come out with them.
00:03:06.000And I think he's getting pretty close.
00:03:09.000I just really wish that him and the UFC could make a deal.
00:03:12.000Because they spent so much time and money to develop those new gloves.
00:04:19.000But I mean, honestly, I don't think it was like significant enough to be like, oh, no one's going to poke me in the eyes when they're wearing these things.
00:04:26.000Well, I think the Whitman gloves would cover that because they're much more curved.
00:04:38.000You only do that when you're blocking things or, you know, maybe, you know, when you're sliding an arm under, like you get a choke or something like that.
00:04:46.000But I don't think they're specific, significantly bulkier.
00:05:11.000They probably ran a number that was from like all of the years of the UFC, and then maybe just when they started using the new ones instead of like just last year, how many knockouts?
00:05:40.000Like, you can actually feel like you could hit the person and not be like, sorry.
00:05:45.000You know, because that's a pain in the ass when you always have to, when you get like a stiff pair of gloves and then you have to hit someone and you're just like, sorry, man, I know that.
00:05:53.000But with these ones, you can fire away.
00:06:47.000I love watching you fight because it's like, it's so, you can see that the fighter, if they don't, and by the way, they're probably not used to training with somebody like you because there's not a lot of guys like you.
00:06:59.000You could see how there's all these adjustments that they have to make on the fly that makes you think.
00:07:05.000I mean, I always really looked up to all of the defensive guys that I would watch.
00:07:10.000Like, I know that in boxing, defensive, just winning the defensive battle is a big piece in boxing.
00:07:17.000And the judges almost even score a little bit for it.
00:07:20.000But in MMA, it's just only offense scores.
00:07:24.000So that's not really the way that I grew up thinking was good martial arts, really.
00:07:28.000Because some of my favorite guys were Mayweather, Purnell Whitaker, Nanito Dinair, like all of these really awesome movers that did a phenomenal job at protecting themselves.
00:07:40.000But now, man, people, I feel like even more so now people want more blood and more offense.
00:08:47.000But it's hard to appreciate unless you really understand it.
00:08:49.000Well, it's hard to judge too, which is a real problem because there's judges that don't train and never have trained, which is to me fucking crazy.
00:10:06.000I mean, if you want to take, for example, too, like even like a me and a TJ fight, like TJ was limping out of that cage.
00:10:13.000And I was kind of, you know, like, oh, cool.
00:10:15.000You know, and I don't think that that should count for everything.
00:10:18.000But like you're saying, like, the reason that he was limping out of that cage is because I popped his knee really bad.
00:10:23.000You know, like he had to spend the next 18 months making his knee better so that he could fight again.
00:10:28.000And I was able to fight, you know, pretty shortly afterwards.
00:10:31.000So yeah, there's got to be something to that.
00:10:33.000Like if you pop someone's shit really bad, it should count just as much as a knockdown or something like that.
00:10:38.000What do you think about the idea of like 10-8 rounds for like things that are known, not just like, okay, this person won by a mile, but like in kickboxing, they do if you get knocked down in a round, it's automatically a 10-8 round.
00:10:55.000I do, but if a guy is tuning you up for like the entire round and you clip him and drop him and he gets back up and he's still okay, I don't think that's a 10-8 round.
00:11:07.000I think MMA should be a completely different scoring system than a 10-point must system.
00:11:11.000Because I think the 10, we just stole this boxing system, which is a great system for boxing because you only have two weapons and you only have your hands.
00:11:45.000And I think there should be more than three judges.
00:11:47.000You know, when you have a split decision and some of them are so crazy, you see like a five-round split decision and they gave like four judges or two out of the three judges rather give like three out of five rounds and the other person gives them the whole five rounds.
00:12:11.000And if you're a fighter, especially in MMA because of the win bonus, which also drives me crazy, I think if you had three more judges, so if you have sick judges, six judges would balance it out, six good judges.
00:12:24.000So the ones that fuck up and make mistakes, they'll be canceled out by the better judges.
00:12:29.000We could do like a submission or knockout only league.
00:13:14.000But again, the casuals would have a hard time with it because it would probably be a much more moderate pace unless someone just tries to go for it right off the bat.
00:14:21.000Like, a fight like that where two guys just fuck, and Mota, like, basically emptied out the tank, but Sadikov had fantastic defense, just kept covering and moving, and just getting bombed onto the body and to the head.
00:14:31.000But he looked like it was getting close to stop.
00:14:34.000And all of a sudden he comes back and you see, Mota's taking these big, deep breaths.
00:14:48.000You know, we were talking about Gai Chi and golf, and I was saying that I'm scared of golf.
00:14:52.000And, you know, you were like, I don't have time for golf.
00:14:55.000The thing that happens with golf is it takes so much time and it's so addictive.
00:15:00.000That it's going to take away time from other stuff, no matter what you do.
00:15:04.000And when you look at a guy, like I always point to Murab because the day after he beat Sean the first fight, DC went to his house to go talk to him and he was out running the day after.
00:15:52.000I always saw guys do that when I was in my 20s and like I would watch these really big fighters just not train unless it was a training camp time.
00:16:17.000Like, I want it to make sense in my head that like the harder you work, the more shit you'll get from it, you know, which is like true to an extent.
00:16:23.000But then you have like these weird outlier guys that maybe have something more figured out than me that I don't have figured out or whatever.
00:16:30.000But I mean, that to me is like completely unacceptable in my head.
00:16:35.000Like I think that I really hate when people say that they want to be something and then they don't do any of the actions to like actually do that thing that they're saying that they want to be.
00:16:45.000So I don't get to walk around being like, yeah, I'm going to be a world champion.
00:16:48.000I want to be a world champ real bad and then not do any of the fucking actions.
00:16:52.000Then I'm just a stupid person, you know?
00:16:55.000Well, I think John is just so fucking talented that he could pull that off.
00:17:19.000This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.
00:17:22.000Sometimes it can feel like you're carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders.
00:17:25.000And for guys, especially, it can feel like you have to carry that burden on your own.
00:17:29.000There's a lot of stigma around men being the provider to keep it all together by themselves.
00:17:35.000But that's not good for you, your family, or anyone.
00:17:39.000Did you know that 6 million men suffer from depression every year in the U.S.?
00:17:44.000And it often goes undiagnosed because of these stigmas.
00:17:47.000Real strength isn't bottling things up inside, though.
00:17:49.000It's admitting to your faults and doing something to better yourself.
00:17:54.000So go talk to someone, a friend, your partner, family, a therapist.
00:17:58.000Therapy is an excellent tool everyone should utilize.
00:18:01.000It's a great way to learn more positive coping skills like how to manage stress and help you live a more balanced and fulfilling life.
00:18:09.000BetterHelp is a great place to start that conversation.
00:18:12.000Judging by the millions of reviews and the 4.9 rating in the App Store, it's helped many people across the globe.
00:18:21.000As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.
00:18:46.000When guys are that talented, they're playing with their food, essentially, until, you know, like I always point to with John the first Gustafson fight, which by all accounts, he didn't train.
00:19:48.000I spent a lot of time thinking about it.
00:19:49.000I don't, yeah, I'm more on the other end where it's like, I'm going to give every inch of myself to this thing, you know, in hopes that I get it one day.
00:19:58.000But then I know a lot of guys, man, a lot of guys that are really successful that are just like, nah, man, I need my off time.
00:20:05.000But that to me is really uncomfortable.
00:20:07.000But I kind of got a little bit, I don't like chilling, you know, like me and my wife were just in Maui a couple of weeks ago.
00:20:13.000It's like the first vacation for seven days I've ever taken like since I was a kid, probably.
00:21:48.000You're in the process, you know, and you're feeling that.
00:21:51.000And when that gets disrupted, when guys get injured and they have to come back or they get sick and they have to come back, there's like, you got to like rebuild that momentum.
00:22:10.000I'm pretty familiar with like the process of like having to kick back into camp, you know?
00:22:15.000And I do realize that it takes me about two weeks to get like, all right, this is my normal life again, you know, which is why I really like training camp and I really like fighting more than real life is what I say, just because it's like organized.
00:23:10.000Unless I have like a two-week rule where if I'm like dragging really bad, I'll make myself go for another week and a half, two weeks until I'm like, okay, I do actually need a rest, you know?
00:24:15.000I do that because I think that if I'm too competitive, I won't work on stuff.
00:24:21.000Like, a lot of camp for me is getting better at stuff.
00:24:25.000And then the last four weeks is figuring out how to win.
00:24:29.000It's not like, I think that practicing winning is just as important as being able to practice a certain skill.
00:24:34.000So a lot of my camps will be developing those skills, but then like the last four or five weeks, it's just, I need to focus on winning each round, regardless of who it's against or whatever.
00:24:46.000I'm not like practicing a certain technique or doing anything like that.
00:24:54.000Because that's an important skill to build.
00:24:56.000And when you're less competitive, when you're just training and you're not in camp, you'll try things, you'll be a little more playful, try to like sort stuff, try new skills.
00:25:05.000And I'm definitely not sparring hard as fuck like I do in camp too.
00:25:08.000Like I won't do that outside of camp unless I got a guy that's been giving me a bunch of rounds in my camps and he has a fight coming up and then I'll like gear up to give him a good one, you know.
00:25:18.000But no, outside camp, like just less competitive.
00:25:22.000I don't show up as early and get my mind right before.
00:25:25.000When I'm in camp, every single sparring session that I do, I try to put myself in the locker room while I'm warming up.
00:25:31.000I think that that's like, I've had a lot of success doing that.
00:25:36.000Just making my body make good decisions when I'm in a super elevated, high-intensity state is something you've got to practice too.
00:25:43.000I definitely won't do that outside of camp because that's a lot of energy.
00:25:46.000So you visualize the walkout, you visualize like stepping into the octagon, all that?
00:26:07.000Or I'll be like, okay, this day, for whatever reason, I'm really distracted.
00:26:11.000I'll do a little bit more visualization or mindful stuff, or whatever, because every day is different and sparring.
00:26:16.000As you know, where some days you're good to go right off of the bat, and then other days you're dragging.
00:26:20.000It's those days that you're dragging that I make sure that I'm like, those ones I'll be like, okay, fucking visualize because your body doesn't want to do this right now.
00:26:28.000And I'll put myself in that state twice a week, which is has helped a lot, a lot, a lot.
00:26:33.000I know for a while you were organizing your whole camp, right?
00:26:40.000That has actually been like a super significant piece in, one, my life getting a lot better.
00:26:45.000And then, two, I think that like it, I think it's going to transfer over really well into my next few fights.
00:26:52.000For a really long time, for a lot of reasons, I was like really micromanage-y over my stuff.
00:27:00.000I don't like when people do things for me.
00:27:02.000Like, I kind of like live in a way where everything is my responsibility.
00:27:05.000And if I fuck up, it was like on me regardless of what happens, which is like a fine way to be, but also it's not like crazy realistic either.
00:27:13.000But that's just kind of the way that I am, just the way that I grew up.
00:27:16.000Like, it was kind of like take care of me type of thing, you know, and if I'm messing stuff up, it's on me.
00:27:22.000So, I was like that for a really long time.
00:27:25.000It was actually after the Umar fight where I realized how in the way I got of myself in that fight.
00:27:48.000There's no like, there's no reason to doubt any of what he has going on or my other coach, Carrington Banks, or anyone, really.
00:27:56.000But because I kind of have this mindset on life, or did used to have this mindset on life, where it was, hey, man, like manage everything, like make sure everyone's doing their work, like blah, blah, blah.
00:28:06.000Like after that Umar fight, I really got into, I was like, all right, fuck it, guys.
00:28:13.000Like, I messed that one up, I felt like, because I was trying to be too micromanagey over this thing.
00:28:21.000And the reason that I did that wasn't necessarily because I lost.
00:28:24.000It's because I'm coaching a couple professionals now.
00:28:27.000And coaching a professional is different than coaching an amateur.
00:28:31.000It feels like a lot more responsibility.
00:28:33.000And I realized what was happening when I would try to help these couple guys that I was trying to help is that they are too close to it.
00:28:42.000The same way that I'm sure you get too close to your art as well, like in comedy, you're too close to it sometimes where you don't really, you can't see things from a perspective that is like true and real because you're so locked into what it is that you're doing.
00:28:55.000I really big time realized that that was a thing in my other guys.
00:28:59.000So when I would try to help them and they'd be like, hey, man, like, I don't know, like they'd kind of get a little bit argumentative.
00:29:05.000I'd be like, you could keep doing that, but I'm a thousand percent sure that I'm right about this, you know, but do your own thing.
00:29:11.000And I started to realize like, oh, fuck, that's what I do all the time.
00:29:14.000Like, I gotta, I was like, fuck, dude, I gotta stop being argumentative and just shut the fuck up and listen if I really trust these guys.
00:29:20.000And so I started doing that big time, man.
00:29:41.000And so you're putting him in a position where if he doesn't know what you're doing and he tries to get out of it, he's going to blow his knee.
00:29:48.000I like 50-50 a lot because, one, I get to learn it from the guy who essentially invented it and is the best at it in the world.
00:29:56.000The only guys that I feel like can beat me at 50-50 are guys that train at 50-50.
00:30:01.000And so it's kind of like what it feels like 50-50, the position, and just kind of leg locks in general, if you really know how to do them in MMA, are a spot that you can pull people into and have them be completely lost.
00:30:16.000Because they have to think, what do I do now?
00:30:40.000It's kind of like what Jiu-Jitsu used to be a little bit before people have started to understand Jiu-Jitsu.
00:30:45.000But now people fully understand Jiu-Jitsu.
00:30:48.000So you don't really get to catch people in guillotines or whatever.
00:30:52.000But 50-50 and a lot of the leg locks and a lot of stuff that Ryan teaches me and does is so niche that you would need an absolute expert to understand it.
00:31:28.000I think it's just one of those things where you let one thing go and then another thing breaks and then another thing breaks and you kind of like are taping yourself back together and then one day you wake up and you're like, shit, I got to like take care of this.
00:31:42.000How many, what are the surgeries that he had?
00:33:28.000Hotels in Vegas may be booked solid this weekend, but there's one vacancy left to be filled at UFC 317, a new lightweight champ, will be crowned.
00:33:39.000Grab your own crown at DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the UFC.
00:33:45.000Toporia takes on Oliveira to fill the vacant men's lightweight title, and Alishandre Pantoja defends his flyweight belt against Kai Kara France in the co-main event.
00:36:10.000Yeah, he had, I think they call it necrotic pneumonia.
00:36:15.000So essentially, it was rotting holes in his lung tissue.
00:36:19.000So they had to put him on a ventilator, and apparently one of his lungs is just gone, and they have to replace it, which is that's so crazy because then you have to be on medication for your entire life because your body wants to reject the lung because it's not your lung.
00:36:34.000So you have to take these immunosuppressant.
00:36:36.000So now your immune system is severely suppressed because you have to take immunosuppressant drugs in order to have this.
00:36:42.000Like I have a friend who had a heart transplant and he's all fucked up because of it.
00:36:46.000You know, it's just like you're always worried about getting sick because your immune system is very compromised.
00:36:51.000Damn, that's going to change his life.
00:37:39.000Murab, like when Murab fought Umar, apparently he had staph on his shin and he was on antibiotics when he fought.
00:37:46.000So did the type of antibiotic that I was on, I forget the name of it, unfortunately, but the reason I tore my tricep was because that antibiotic made my ligaments super shitty, pretty much.
00:37:58.000Because dude, like I should never tear my tricep.
00:38:00.000I'm pretty sure it happened when he was Kimura in me.
00:38:15.000And then when I read into it a little bit, they told me that that specific antibiotic, it doesn't mess with your respiratory stuff, like your conditioning as much, but it makes your ligaments just really not good.
00:39:04.000I'm not a crazy anxious person, dude, but I finally got to like experience what it was like to have a panic attack because I was in Virginia training, got it.
00:39:13.000I was like, something's up with my knee.
00:39:27.000I started taking the antibiotics, but they told me like, hey, man, if this doesn't get better, like if you start taking these antibiotics and tomorrow it's not better, we need you to cut it.
00:39:35.000Come in, we're going to cut your knee open and clean it because that's how they take care of it.
00:40:04.000Staff gets systemic, gets in your bloodstream, and you can die.
00:40:08.000Dude, that's why I think I freaked out really bad with my knee is because I remember laying in bed and being like, I called my wife and just set the phone next.
00:40:17.000I was like, hey, like, until you get home, like, can you just be on the phone?
00:40:21.000Because I'm kind of afraid I'm about to die a little bit.
00:40:24.000Yeah, it was really, it got like really scary there.
00:40:38.000But I remember every time I've taken antibiotics with the staph infection, my experience has been that it gets really painful and a lot worse for like the first few hours when the antibiotics kick in and start killing it.
00:43:29.000The one thing that I'm really big on is I like won't fucking like I'm really in touch with what's going on usually with like my body and stuff.
00:43:39.000I'm really big on, I don't know why it doesn't get talked about more, but like digestive, like things that mess up my digestive system, I don't mess around with at all.
00:44:57.000I actually don't get like that anymore.
00:44:59.000I have like a weird relationship with food now where that shit is just fuel to me, kind of.
00:45:03.000When I'm like low in weight, I get cravings.
00:45:06.000But right now, when I'm like just kind of good, not hungry, not like overdoing it and stuff, I don't really feel like I get too many cravings.
00:45:12.000Do you have a nutritionist or anything like that?
00:45:14.000I use a nutritionist inside my camps, yeah.
00:46:02.000What I will say, though, that I would big time recommend to fighters and stuff is after hard workouts, drinking dextrose or Gatorade with like some electrolytes.
00:46:12.000If you have multiple workouts in a day, that's a giant game changer.
00:46:17.000Like, because there's a little bit of a window from my understanding, I don't really know how this shit works, but there's a little bit of a window where it's like 45, like 20 to 45 minutes after you're done working where your body will just take sugar and put it back into your muscles.
00:46:32.000And so I'll drink a shitload of sugar after like really hard workouts, like really hard sparring sessions, like 50, 60 grams of sugar, which is insane.
00:46:41.000But not when you're training that hard.
00:46:42.000Yeah, not when you're training that hard.
00:46:52.000When you're training that hard, like it's not like, you know, people are, oh, soda's bad for you.
00:46:56.000Well, sure, if you're just drinking soda.
00:46:59.000But if you're fucking running marathons or something crazy like that, or you're doing something like really exhausting, it's really good for you right after a workout.
00:47:52.000If I take something, I almost immediately know if it's going to mess with my digestive system, and I can't be having that while I'm rolling around with dudes and chilling.
00:48:00.000I know, there's certain protein bars, like Peter Attia has this great protein bar called David.
00:49:12.000It's like a decent amount of garlic stuff, like turmeric stuff.
00:49:16.000Garlic, apparently, there was a study that was done with garlic with like external staph infections, and it's as effective or more effective than antibiotics.
00:51:39.000Their findings were presented at a national microbiology conference.
00:51:42.000The remedy was found in Ball's Leech Book, an old English manuscript containing instructions on various treatments held in the British Library.
00:52:33.000Yeah, that might be why, because they have these little things that the UFC gives us, too, called hot shots, where if you're cutting weight, you're supposed to drink it, and it's pretty much just cinnamon and cayenne and like some other stuff.
00:52:45.000Yeah, and it's supposed to stop you from cramping.
00:54:03.000A week before, I try to be like 16 to 18 pounds heavy over.
00:54:08.000And then I'll lose that last bit that week.
00:54:10.000But I'll walk around if I'm really fat, like on vacation and shit, not giving a, just not caring, I'll be about 162.
00:54:18.000When I'm training good and like all of that, I'll be about 157, 158, and then I just got to lose until I'm about 52, 51 the week before, and then that week I lose.
00:54:29.000The week is a calorie restriction in the beginning and then water restriction?
00:55:01.000But yeah, 10 days away, I start loading up on the water.
00:55:04.000And then on the Tuesday, so we weigh in Friday, so however many days before that is, on Tuesday, you'll do the cut the sodium.
00:55:12.000And then that pretty much, you lose a lot when you're chugging that much water and cut sodium.
00:55:16.000So I would say on Tuesday, a lot of it is water.
00:55:20.000And then it's kind of up to me how crazy I want to go with food.
00:55:22.000I'm obviously not eating like super huge meals that week, but I don't let myself get too hungry.
00:55:28.000I'm pretty good about a lot of stuff where now I can kind of be like, if I go to bed like at like an eight amount of hunger instead of like a seven, I'll know almost exactly how much I'll lose the next day, which is like kind of cool.
00:55:43.000How much of a performance hit do you think you have?
00:55:46.000I mean, obviously you're in phenomenal condition, but how much of a hit do you think you have in dehydrating yourself 24 hours before a fight?
00:55:54.000Yeah, I think it depends on how much water you lose, too.
00:55:59.000I think, just off the top of my head, maybe 15 or 20?
00:56:27.000I think that the way to solve that, because one's tried doing that with like the rehydration test, then everyone that I talked to that's like been involved with that has been like, dude, I could cheat that easy.
00:56:42.000I mean, there's just like, if you know that you're going to get like hydrate tested at a certain time, I'm sure that they probably just drink most of their water during that time or something like that.
00:56:51.000But then your weight would be higher, right?
00:56:54.000Yeah, your weight would have to be higher, but I don't know that they like test you.
00:59:04.000And apparently it's easier to cut weight like Yoel Romero style, like when you're that muscular because most of the muscles water, which is kind of counterintuitive.
00:59:13.000You think like a fat guy would you could be able to lose more weight, but no, it's actually to dry out.
00:59:18.000The big muscular guys can lose more weight.
01:00:00.000But I don't think that there would be a problem with doing multiple weight classes because then you would just have like what you do in boxing where you just have like a ton of, you have like one dude with like eight belts.
01:00:12.000He just keeps going up in weight classes.
01:00:14.000Yeah, I think that it'd just be better for the athletes and I think it'd be better for the sport in general.
01:00:19.000You're still going to have like incredible fights because the level of competition, particularly at the lowest weight classes, is so high right now.
01:00:27.000Like I think your weight class, feather weight, and lightweight are the most competitive weight classes in the sport.
01:00:34.000And there's almost too many top contenders where guys are forced to take fights that maybe you really shouldn't take that fight because you're kind of in title contention.
01:00:44.000And then, oh, you lose a close decision.
01:00:45.000Fuck, now you're back to the drawing board.
01:01:09.000I was like, watch, like, if I go out and finish Figgy, which not a lot of people are able to do, the timing of everything is going to be perfect for me because there will be no one else.
01:01:19.000And that's me also, you know, coming off of a loss from Umar just a year ago, which anytime you lose is kind of devastating.
01:01:25.000You're like, oh, it'll never happen for me, you know?
01:01:28.000But then it's like, oh, wait, no, if I just, if this thing gets timed out right, you know, like it could work out.
01:01:43.000It was, it was like a, it's never just one thing.
01:01:46.000It's always like things get compiled and then they exponentially get worse.
01:01:49.000One big thing was I knew I was fighting in the Middle East and I wasn't going to get like a nod if it was a close fight.
01:01:56.000And Umar's a defensive guy and I'm a defensive guy.
01:01:58.000And I knew that it would be, there was potential for rounds to be really close.
01:02:04.000My game plan wasn't going to be to take him down.
01:02:07.000So anytime you're going to be like, hey, like I'm committing to striking, there is a little bit of a level of rolling the dice because one striking matches in a five minute round are really hard to like hammer down and be like, I won this round against really high level guys.
01:02:25.000I thought that I would be able to stuff most of the shots.
01:02:28.000I was like, okay, most of this thing is going to be done striking.
01:02:31.000I need to have like big moments in order for me to feel like I'm really winning these rounds so that there can be no argument that I'm losing.
01:02:38.000And if we just are point scoring each other, which Umar's good at and I'm good at, I'm kind of rolling the dice a little bit and kind of leaving it into the hands of God knows who the judges are.
01:02:48.000So a piece of it was I didn't want to lose another close split decision.
01:02:51.000Like a lot of my losses or a couple of my losses are just close split decisions.
01:02:55.000And I'm like, fucking man, I'm not, I'd rather just go for it than lose.
01:03:00.000But that pulled me out of my game plan and just the way that I typically fight.
01:03:05.000Like I'm not the guy that hunts for knockouts.
01:03:09.000And so I just got pulled out of my strategy.
01:03:12.000I got really frustrated in the fight by it not working, like me not being able to have really big moments.
01:03:18.000And now looking back, I'm just like, man, what were you thinking?
01:03:21.000Like, just go out, fight like how you do, and you'll do awesome.
01:03:25.000What do you think specifically you would have done different in exchanges?
01:03:29.000I would have fought him the exact same way that I would have fought the first round.
01:03:32.000Like that entire fight, I was being really defensive and just looking for one big shot.
01:03:38.000In the first round, I didn't fight like that.
01:03:40.000The first round, I was cool with point scoring.
01:03:42.000I was like, okay, this guy's going to wrestle me.
01:03:44.000Let's see how good he is at wrestling.
01:03:45.000And if I can hang, once I was like, oh, okay, cool, like I can hang.
01:03:49.000Then I just started going for big shots, which is just like not a good way to beat a really high-level guy.
01:03:54.000It's kind of a lazy game plan, honestly.
01:03:56.000Like if the plan isn't to completely outclass the person and win in every area and be good enough to do so, in my opinion, that's just like not an expression of the highest level of martial arts.
01:04:10.000And I was a little bit lazy in maybe my approach to that, which maybe lazy isn't the right word, but I could have done a lot better at just trusting myself more, being more confident in my ability to just be like, no, like I'll beat him everywhere.
01:04:26.000Looking for the big shots is always such a trap.
01:05:04.000And I was like, I don't know if you guys are setting me up for Marlon to knock me the fuck out or how this is like what the thinking behind me fighting the number one contender is.
01:07:38.000I had won national tournaments and I had beaten guys that had been in high ranking.
01:07:44.000And I had a very close decision that I thought I should have won the year that Taekwondo made it into the Olympics against the national champion.
01:08:17.000But then when I started boxing and kickboxing, I was like, this is like that piece that's missing in Taekwondo without the face punching, it nullifies so much of what Taekwondo is good at.
01:08:29.000But then when I learned that stuff, I realized like, oh, but I have a massive advantage with my legs because they have to close the distance with me and I can do things they can't do.
01:08:39.000Like regular kickboxers, I was amazed at how many of them were just kind of boxers who learned a few shitty kicks.
01:08:45.000And they would stand on the outside and they would take a step forward and I just blast them and they just had no idea what to do, like a really hard kicker.
01:08:53.000And then I started doing Muay Thai and I was like, fuck, leg kicks.
01:08:58.000And so I went from American kickboxing above the waist to Muay Thai.
01:09:02.000I was like, there's too much to learn.
01:09:03.000And then I was doing comedy at the same time, so I just quit fighting.
01:09:06.000I was like, I got to get out before I get hurt.
01:10:15.000And so then I was like, fuck, I got to learn how to do jiu-jitsu.
01:10:17.000But it was this thing where, you know, I feel real fortunate to have grown up in a time where no one knew what was the best style and then see the UFC emerge in 93 and then watch this incredible transformation of martial arts where martial arts advances more in 10, 20 years than it had the last 30,000 years.
01:11:54.000So many of those guys, like you see them later in their career, they got like one small arm because their fucking nerves are all shut off in their neck and then fused discs and they're just like, I did a good job.
01:12:19.000That's one thing that I really admire about your style because I think that there's going to be a time where that is just ubiquitous, where everybody switches.
01:12:26.000Because there's so many guys that are just like, oh, he's a South Paw.
01:12:48.000We're grappling, we get to interact with each other and feel each other and move each other that way.
01:12:53.000And I can pretty much sometimes do it with my eyes closed.
01:12:56.000Striking is done mostly with our eyes, so we have to do like these dance dance revolution-y, like, okay, react to everything that we're seeing.
01:13:03.000So if I'm just switching my stance and now you have to like read the sentence backwards, it gets really hard.
01:13:10.000You know, and especially if you're just as good with both sides.
01:13:15.000And I would say that if you're starting, you don't need to be like super stellar at both, but just have a couple good attacks to do from your other stance and then just like build off of there or whatever.
01:13:24.000I started switching stances, one, because I really liked watching Nanito Da Nair, who wouldn't like fully switch, but he would have like kind of steps like that where I was like, oh, cool.
01:13:34.000And then also I dislocated my elbow really bad about like a week and a half into training, just landed on it, posted, dislocated it.
01:13:42.000And so I could only, or that was my left arm, so I could only use my right arm.
01:13:46.000So for like six months, I just went lefty and only used my right arm as like my lead hand.
01:13:52.000And that's how I got really good at it.
01:13:54.000Yeah, just forcing yourself to just constantly be in that position because everybody wants to be in the position where they're the most strong, especially if you're trying to be competitive at sparring, right?
01:14:03.000That's like what's so important about like the Gracies always talk about keeping things playful.
01:14:07.000Like learning how to like not, don't try to win.
01:14:10.000You're trying to develop your skills and to be able to switch.
01:14:13.000I think like TJ in his prime, like when TJ fought Hennan Burrow, that fight to me was one of the best championship performances that I ever saw.
01:14:49.000Dwayne flew me out for that fight because that's when they were training an alpha male to be TJ's sparring partner for one of those fights.
01:14:56.000And I remember the whole time I was like, this isn't going to go good for TJ, you know, because Burrow was just that guy at the time that everyone was afraid of.
01:15:04.000And then when I watched it, I was like, oh, shit, that shit really works good.
01:15:09.000I used to train in the Netherlands a little bit, too, with Andy Sauer and those guys.
01:16:58.000He rolls with stuff, like the Josh Schmidt fight.
01:17:00.000You know, he like takes, he like slides away from stuff and these big bombs are coming his way.
01:17:05.000He's doing like the highest form, like intellectually, he's doing that style at its highest expression with the strategy of I'm about to knock you the fuck out.
01:17:14.000Which shouldn't be everyone's strategy.
01:17:37.000So squared and bladed stances, when you're in a squared stance, you can move really good left to right.
01:17:43.000That was most of my career was being like, I came from a basketball background.
01:17:47.000I know that I'm very quick and agile, and I can move left, right really good.
01:17:52.000If I just keep my hands up, whatever, it'll be fine, probably, you know?
01:17:56.000So a lot of squared stance stuff is I'm just going to cut left, right, overwhelm This person with all of my weapons and angles, and always constantly make them move off of the things I'm doing and not the other way around.
01:18:08.000That's good, but it's really hard to get a ton of leverage in anything that you're doing when you're standing square.
01:18:16.000Like, I can't, like, if I'm gonna throw a ball, I don't throw a ball like this, right?
01:18:22.000Right, you have your shoulder behind the other shoulder.
01:18:24.000So, squared stance is super good for being agile, moving left-right, and overwhelming people with the amount of attacks that you could throw at them.
01:18:31.000Because also, if I'm standing square, all of my weapons are really available for me to throw.
01:18:36.000Like, it doesn't take like this is faster than this, just because it's like six inches closer or whatever.
01:18:43.000In a bladed stance, you get a fuckload of leverage because if you watch Ilya, he's always standing like he's about to throw a javelin.
01:18:51.000And that's pretty much what he's doing is just like, and this is kind of like the science of boxing a little bit, like I said, that Trevor helped me with.
01:18:58.000So I'm a lot more bladed now than I was because now we're trying to get like some serious leverage on stuff because five-round fights, moving the entire time, fighting these really good wrestlers, it can get to the point where it's like, it just gets quirky and just like a little bitchy looking, you know?
01:19:14.000And like, I don't really want to like tap people to victory, you know.
01:19:18.000For a long time, I would compensate and being like, all right, but I'll have wheel kicks, knees, and elbows.
01:19:23.000And that like took me a decent amount of ways to where it's like, cool, now I can finish guys like that also.
01:19:29.000But these bladed stances where you can make a shitload of leverage with them are really cool.
01:19:35.000I think finding a balance between the two is really awesome.
01:19:38.000Ilya is like only, and that's just my expression of my martial arts.
01:19:42.000I want to be like the jack of all trades guys and be able to be like, oh, you're that style.
01:19:46.000I'll just archetype you in this style.
01:19:48.000But Ilya is like always ready to throw a javelin and he's really good at closing space with his lead leg.
01:19:55.000Like he'll like jab, hook, and really creep his lead leg near and then just bomb a right hand.
01:20:01.000Because he is a shorter guy, but he never seems like he's having that much of an issue getting super inside.
01:20:07.000Well, it's going to be interesting seeing him at 55.
01:21:12.000And when he gets a hold of guys, it's like he's just got this leverage, this grappling squeeze that it's, I remember when he fought Drew Dober.
01:21:21.000And like, when he got Dober down to the ground, I was like, that's a wrap.
01:21:34.000Yeah, a lot of those really good grappler guys, they're strong, definitely, but they're really strong at closing up all of the space.
01:21:41.000Like I can, if you let me get an underhook, like I could feel pretty strong.
01:21:45.000Like even if you're much bigger than me, I'll like make you take a couple steps back, which really shouldn't happen.
01:21:49.000But if I just close up all of the space, which I think is a big component of being a really good grappler, is being able to be like, nope, that's my space.
01:22:04.000And yeah, those types of guys, they're just so used to being so compact and never letting anyone get inside their arms or wherever it is that they need to get that it's just, it's like impossible to feel like you can move them.
01:22:16.000I feel like there's two types of being strong in grappling.
01:22:19.000There's being strong in like, I don't let you move me.
01:22:23.000And then there's strong in, I get to move you really good.
01:22:26.000And the good, good guys get to do both.
01:22:28.000Like if I can grab you and move you really easy, I'll feel really strong.
01:22:32.000If you grab me and I feel like a rock, I'll feel really strong.
01:22:37.000And I think that some people do both of those really well, and then some people do one or the other really well.
01:22:42.000But those types of guys, like the Islams, they do both really good.
01:27:14.000It was I take an iron supplement in the morning usually because I have a little bit of low iron.
01:27:20.000And when I stop drinking coffee, one of the signs that you're taking too much iron is that you'll get like an iron metallic taste in your mouth.
01:27:28.000And so about two weeks afterwards or whenever, I started tasting that taste in my mouth and I looked it up and that's what it was.
01:27:35.000So I stopped taking the iron supplement because I was actually absorbing the iron from my food and shit.
01:28:23.000There's a lot of ways to get hurt, and we have to watch what we actually eat.
01:28:26.000most sports, you don't really have to do that.
01:28:30.000Like, we're super con, like, food, the relationship with food for a fighter is way, way different than I think almost everyone else on the planet.
01:28:37.000I know when you, like, Adesanya never cared about his nutrition, never took care of him.
01:30:13.000I bet you got drunk as shit off of one glass of wine, which is probably pretty awesome.
01:30:17.000And it probably tastes so good, too, being that dehydrated.
01:30:21.000And then you're dehydrating yourself more because of the wine, so it probably aids a little bit in the water cut because it does dehydrate you.
01:30:37.000I stopped drinking, I guess it's like close to four months ago.
01:30:40.000And I used to have days where I would get up, you know, I'd work at the club, do stand-up, have a couple of drinks, and the next day I'd be working out going, oh, what did I feel bad?
01:33:29.000I know there's a lot of questions, never been out of the first round, a lot of questions, but never been out of the first round because he fucks everybody up in the first round.
01:33:38.000Yeah, I really wanted to see that fight, but also at the same time, I kind of, I appreciated.
01:33:42.000I forget which interview it was recently, but John was pretty honest in it.
01:33:46.000He was like, look, man, like, I don't want to fight up-and-coming tough guys.
01:33:50.000He was like, I want to fight guys with seasoned champions that have names.
01:33:55.000And I was like, that could also be interpreted as you don't really want to fight kind of the best guys that there are right now.
01:34:03.000You want to fight like a certain category of fighter who you're comfortable fighting, but you don't want to fight the guys that are tough and that are saying that you're going to win.
01:34:13.000And that's okay, but that's essentially how I interpreted what he was saying in different words, which I appreciated the honesty.
01:35:18.000Like, that's the heavyweight champion.
01:35:20.000And for that guy to walk away from the belt and then almost beat Tyson Fury and then get knocked out by Anthony Joshua and then to come back and destroy that dude in PFL.
01:36:06.000I see it happen all of the time, and I can't help but think a lot of it is like, hopefully it's just maybe money business stuff, but I really, I think that some of it is ego, and that's kind of what I try to just drift away from.
01:36:20.000My philosophy on winning the belt has always been, if I can't beat whoever it is, if it's like a number 10 ranked Umar, if it's a number 2 ranked whoever, if I can't beat that person, then I don't deserve the belt, and I don't think that I should get it.
01:36:35.000It clearly doesn't represent what it represents if it doesn't mean that I beat all the best guys on the way to doing so.
01:36:42.000Not everyone really has that philosophy, and I get it because once you start involving money, and then money is taking care of your family, which is what is kind of an excuse to be greedy sometimes for people, it just kind of, it's just never really been my philosophy, and I think that it's kind of a shame when that stuff happens because in my head, we're doing two things.
01:37:04.000We're seeing who the best fighter in the world is, and we're getting people to watch so that the fans can appreciate something that I find to be the most loved thing in my life next to my wife, you know?
01:37:20.000I think it's a shame when that shit happens, especially when it's like an ego thing.
01:37:23.000But also at the same time, I don't really think that that's too much of what John Jones is doing.
01:37:29.000I'm more speaking In terms of what I kind of see in other people, I think John Jones also has to have some level of awareness around Tom's a young guy, and we age, you know, we age, and that's okay.
01:37:43.000John's not a natural heavyweight either.
01:39:10.000Like when they score, they smile and cheer for a half of a second, and then they're all just like stone cold killers back again, which I really appreciate about sports because I feel like a lot of sports have become like all of this top players are like really super starry, like flamboyant-y.
01:39:29.000The thing about hockey is it's never been as popular as football.
01:39:37.000It's like not quite the same, not in the same, like they don't, they don't reach the same.
01:39:43.000You have a few Gretzkys, you know, Bobby Orr, you have a few guys that become national celebrities, but for the most part, there's not like a whole ton of them that everybody, the general public, knows about.
01:39:54.000So because of that, they're probably a little more dedicated, a little more humble, a little more on the grind.
01:41:13.000They're fucking sprinting seven to nine miles.
01:41:16.000When I did that time in the Netherlands that I was talking about, I grew up playing soccer a little bit too, but I only did it until people stopped thinking it was cool.
01:41:37.000Dude, just your entire existence as a kid is to not be made fun of and called gay.
01:41:41.000Yeah, you were a dork if you played soccer.
01:41:43.000Yeah, but, oh, dude, when I went to the Netherlands and I watched some of those kids play, I was like, oh, this is soccer in Europe because they were like 10, 11, 12-year-old kids, just freaks, dude, and like crazy athletic.
01:42:00.000You could just tell that that's like what they do with their entire lives.
01:42:02.000And I was like, thank God I didn't choose that sport because I just wouldn't be anywhere.
01:43:21.000Which is really interesting to see this influx of guys from Russia, Dagestan, Chechnya, like some of these guys that are making their way into the UFC now.
01:44:09.000And when I was out there, a lot of the competitors were from all over the world.
01:44:13.000And there was a place called Azerbaijan that I didn't know how to pronounce at all.
01:44:18.000And they were whooping guys asses, dude, like bad, like spinning hook kicks, like all kinds of crazy shit.
01:44:25.000And I was like, damn, I hope I don't fight one of those guys.
01:44:27.000But the entire time, I was like, the second these guys start getting into the UFC and stuff, they're going to wreck a lot of Americans, you know?
01:44:41.000Like just the UFC in general has done a good job, in my opinion, because they're really the only globalized or one of the only super globalized where people from all over the world are fighting each other.
01:44:54.000It kind of feels like it brings everyone together, or at least for me, like I could feel like I could walk into another country and have something super in common with someone, which is just like a cool feeling, you know.
01:45:04.000I think another thing that's really cool about it is when someone is elite, no one cares what country they're from.
01:47:50.000That's what I was really scared about in this last election because because I'm friends with Elon, I knew what was going on in Twitter behind the scenes.
01:47:59.000I knew how the government was stepping in and silencing posts.
01:48:02.000I'm like, this is fucking dangerous, man.
01:48:05.000Because if they get a real grip on social media and you no longer can protest about things and express yourself about things, including a lot of things that happen to be true, like during the COVID crisis, people were getting their accounts banned for posting factual information.
01:48:23.000That was scary to me because that's very, very un-American.
01:48:27.000You have to be okay with that for all the good and the bad that comes with it.
01:48:31.000You have to be okay with people saying things you don't like.
01:48:34.000It's going to come with a lot of good and a lot of bad, but you have to be okay with it because when it's your turn at plate, like you're going to want to be, you're going to want to have your opinion respected too.
01:49:27.000I think that a lot of people, I know you've talked about it a lot, they get really attached to the egos and the identities that exist inside them and then they see the world from only that perspective.
01:49:36.000That's why I think that like a lot of the old religions and the old like echoed through time ways of being are to destroy your ego, eliminate yourself, be like this watcher of your thoughts and all of that stuff.
01:49:49.000And then start to identify with the watcher of what you think that you really are.
01:49:54.000And then once you spend enough time doing that, you'll spend enough time realizing that everyone else has that watcher inside them and that maybe they don't realize it yet, but they're still really connected to their egos that are really just a bunch of ideas that were indoctrinated to them based off of our environment or who we grew up with and all of that stuff.
01:50:12.000And then you can start to love people a little bit more.
01:50:14.000And it's kind of a shame that I just know that that's not super big in the West, that idea.
01:50:24.000It's kind of an Eastern philosophy, you know, like we just meditate here.
01:50:29.000Like that's just such a bitch ass way to think about doing it.
01:50:32.000Like, that's what you're doing is you're settling into being able to watch what you think you really are and be like, hey, if I don't want to be that anymore, I don't have to be that.
01:50:41.000Or if I, if that doesn't serve me anymore, I don't have to be that.
01:50:44.000This is one thing that I walk through a lot of my guys within fighting: it's like, you want to not be scared of something, don't desire anything.
01:50:52.000And don't be anything if you don't want to be scared.
01:50:54.000Because fighting fearless is a really big thing.
01:50:56.000I think that I do a really good job of performing really well because I'm not scared of a lot of things because I don't have a ton of egos inside of my brain as much anymore.
01:51:05.000I, of course, do because we all have to.
01:51:09.000But yeah, once you start spending a lot of time with that watcher, I think that that's kind of why it always ends on the idea of love being the answer is because once you spend time disconnecting from what we think we are, you always end up in the spot where it's like, oh, that person's that.
01:51:25.000They just haven't figured it out yet either.
01:52:06.000Yeah, there's a lot of energies in life that will serve you, I think, up to a certain point that just will stop serving you because it's not a fuel that you can sustain for long enough.
01:52:19.000Did you develop this philosophy from reading?
01:52:43.000It's a lot of like, I've been fascinated by religion my entire life.
01:52:47.000I was raised pretty, not like crazy, not like religious in like a dogmatic way, but religious in like a, hey, think about these things type of way by my parents, which I'm really grateful because I developed a super healthy understanding of those types of ideas where they didn't feel like they were something I was latched onto as much as they were things to be explored.
01:53:09.000And so it kind of started when I was really young.
01:53:12.000I've just been fascinated by the idea of God, like in church when they're like, hey, you're going to burn in hell forever if you don't agree with this.
01:53:21.000That became number one priority from that day on, dude.
01:53:25.000I was like, hell, once I could understand hell and forever, I was like, oh, okay.
01:53:31.000I was like, oh, okay, so nothing else matters in life.
01:53:33.000Like, we got to figure this out right now.
01:53:36.000So that kind of took me on like a really religious thing.
01:53:38.000And then after I lost my first fight, that was my big first experience with facing an ego that I didn't have control over.
01:53:49.000It was against a guy named Jamal Emmers, who's actually in the UFC now.
01:53:52.000But it was pretty much just I shit the bed and choked.
01:53:55.000I would have got signed to the UFC and I just choked and lost.
01:53:59.000And I was supposed to, in my head, and based off of what everyone around me was telling me, I was supposed to be this like super big prospect guy, blah, blah, blah.
01:54:09.000After I lost, I had to face that maybe that's not what I am.
01:54:13.000When you say choked, like what about your performance do you think went wrong?
01:54:32.000It was back to when you didn't have to get signed by the contender or anything.
01:54:36.000They just would call you up on a day, but you kind of had to have a little bit of it in or be doing really well or something.
01:54:41.000So yeah, so that was like my first big experience with that.
01:54:44.000I spent about that entire summer as much as I could in the mountains.
01:54:50.000I didn't even really train because I didn't even know if that's something that I wanted to continue doing just because losing hurt my heart so bad.
01:55:00.000It was just like afterwards I was like, but I was supposed to win.
01:55:06.000It's like someone fucked up here, man.
01:55:08.000It's like, I was supposed to win that.
01:55:10.000And so it was just like, oh, so maybe this universe doesn't revolve around me and like my ideas and who I think I am and all of that stuff.
01:55:19.000And then so spent a lot of time in nature, read a lot of books like Power and Now, a lot of Buddhist stuff, a lot of Thiknan Han stuff, a lot of just spirituality books, but just the overarching idea of separating yourself from your thoughts and your body and all of that stuff.
01:55:36.000And just whether it's in our imagination or not, because I'm still not fully bought into any of that stuff.
01:55:41.000Like I don't have any beliefs is what I say now.
01:55:44.000But I'm willing to entertain a lot of stuff and I want to believe something really bad because it would make life a lot easier to navigate through.
01:57:11.000I think it's super fun, just me hanging out with me inside my head all day.
01:57:16.000So, I came up with this really cool idea, which is essentially like a bunch of ideas from a bunch of religions that I really like, and then putting them into a story.
01:57:27.000And the story is, okay, we got some time for me to explain this.
01:58:02.000So I like know what a good sentence is.
01:58:04.000And I was like, oh, no, that's going to take way too long.
01:58:06.000We're doing only dialogue and pictures.
01:58:09.000And so that's why I started doing comic books.
01:58:12.000Although I do really like comic books too.
01:58:15.000But yeah, so it's kind of this, it's like a compilation of a lot of ideas that I like about religion inside of this world that exists today.
01:58:24.000I actually put a conversation between you and Duncan Trussell in it.
01:58:29.000I'm not going to do anything with the comic book, so it's really fun to know that.
01:58:58.000But pretty much it takes place where this guy goes to the Garden of Eden that's being protected by these tribespeople.
01:59:07.000And inside of the Garden of Eden are these trees called Khalis, where when you eat the fruit of them or you eat the crystals of them, you get teleported to a place where the sixth lives.
01:59:19.000And the sixth is like the god of our universe.
01:59:23.000The world takes place in densities, which are pretty much our chakras.
02:00:16.000So you go through each density, our souls do, for billions and trillions and whatever's past trillions of lifetimes.
02:00:27.000And you spend time in those densities learning what it is to learn in those densities.
02:00:32.000So right now, in the third density, because it's the power chakra of life, what we're trying to do is discover that the positive path of love is what we're really shooting for instead of the negative one.
02:00:45.000And what that means is the positive path is in, we're doing things in service of others instead of in service of self.
02:00:56.000So we're choosing love of others over love of self because love isn't like an emotion in the book.
02:01:02.000It's like a structural building of the world where everything is love.
02:01:08.000It's like a structural way of building the universe.
02:01:12.000So choosing to be in love of others is what we're doing.
02:01:16.000But Earth is in its late third density, getting ready to move into its fourth density.
02:01:22.000And this scientist who interacts with this tribe takes a seed from the Kali and grows them and makes it so that the entire world can take this fruit and then interact with God.
02:01:36.000And then what it would be like in this world today if we were actually able to sit in front of God and ask God questions.
02:01:44.000And that's kind of the basis of the book.
02:02:37.000The AI in this story is the way that we get moved into the fourth density.
02:02:44.000And the way that we get moved into the fourth density is when we merge with the nanotechnology that merges with like the AI supercomputer called Oblivion, which is pretty much just a hive mind.
02:02:56.000Once we all get merged with that, we either based off of our polarity or our frequency or whatever, that tells us if we're positive or negative.
02:03:07.000If we go negative, then we pretty much just extinguish each other because all we care about is love for self and we like kill each other.
02:03:13.000It doesn't say exactly how, but you can use your imagination.
02:03:17.000And in the positive way, we move together in this hive mind into being aliens, essentially, where we live millions and trillions of lifetimes as aliens until we can enter into the fifth, which then we become psychedelic creatures and all of that stuff or angels or whatever.
02:03:36.000And that's like a non-physical realm at that point.
02:03:39.000But yeah, that's pretty much the idea behind the whole book.
02:03:41.000It might be actually what really will happen.
02:03:44.000It's kind of like a positive spin-off of it.
02:03:47.000Well, the best case scenario is we evolve and we merge with AI and we evolve and it's better for everybody.
02:03:55.000And we become something superior to what we are now.
02:03:59.000Worst case scenario is we become irrelevant because they don't need us anymore.
02:04:04.000I still think it will still have to be partly us because it was created by us.
02:04:09.000Like in like a parallel universe where we are not, like say we're fucking lizard people in another universe, we see things differently.
02:04:17.000Our priorities and values are different.
02:04:20.000We would make a completely different set of AI.
02:04:22.000Like there's no way that AI is just this thing that isn't connected to humans in some way.
02:04:28.000So hopefully it's connected to the good parts of us as humans, which is like compassion, love, caring for each other, and not like a lizard reptilian.
02:04:39.000Like, hey, let's just, we got to maximize capitalism and all of that stuff.
02:04:44.000So that's a lot of what the book is about too, is it's just about like, hey, maybe it won't be so bad.
02:04:50.000Like maybe this thing will have more human traits than, or maybe we're more awesome than what we actually think, you know?
02:04:57.000I think the hived mind thing is promising because, and I have a feeling that that's where we're headed.
02:05:02.000I have a feeling that if with either some wearable or some sort of technology with an implant where we no longer require language to communicate with each other and we essentially have instantaneous access to everyone all the time, and the thing that people are going to have to deal with is that there's going to be no more secrets.
02:05:38.000Either we become obsolete and AI becomes a new digital form of life that's far more intelligent, far more capable than we are, and then it makes better and better versions of itself until it makes God.
02:05:50.000Or we merge and we just transcend whatever this state of being these primitive territorial apes with very sophisticated weapons.
02:06:04.000If I did have beliefs, I would like to believe that it is going towards a God or something, or there is like some point to all of the hard times that we have in life and we're actually progressing, whether it be through many lifetimes or in other universes or dimensions or whatever.
02:06:22.000And something inside of us that isn't human, but is maybe a watcher or something, is progressing towards something great and loving and more beautiful than what we got going on here on Earth.
02:06:33.000And if that is true, then AI will probably be pretty awesome.
02:06:41.000Well, that's best case scenario, right?
02:06:43.000I think it's also very strange that we are in this position.
02:06:47.000It's very strange that we are living our lives at this unbelievable, unique moment in history where things are going to change in this undeniably radical way.
02:06:57.000Unless something happens, unless we blow ourselves up or we get hit by an asteroid, it's going to happen.
02:07:02.000And it's going to happen probably within the next 10 years.
02:07:06.000Like 10 years from now, we're going to be looking back.
02:07:08.000Remember the old days of 2025 when you didn't know what was coming?
02:07:24.000We're all like bunkered down in our house and shit five years ago.
02:07:27.000Even the UFC five years ago was crazy.
02:07:30.000Like life, like I only get to view life through the lens of my job and my love, which is through fighting, which is cool because it like helps me understand the macro picture a little bit better.
02:07:40.000But yeah, man, I mean, like, even just five years ago, how different the UFC was.
02:07:45.000Like, life is going to be really weird in 10 years.
02:07:49.000Yeah, the whole world is going to be really weird.
02:07:52.000And, you know, one of the things that always freaks me out about Elon and Neuralink is one of the statements that he said, you're going to be able to talk without using words.
02:08:13.000If I don't have like a filter of feeling something, my brain making it into words and then spitting it out, and it was just, I have this feeling and you feel that thing, that might be a really great thing.
02:08:24.000I've often thought about the parallels of religion with what's currently going on.
02:08:30.000And one of them being like Christ was born of a virgin mother, right?
02:08:35.000So Christ was born without sex and emerged.
02:08:38.000Like, what else is born without a mother?
02:09:04.000So if we all have a universal language and we are working on this fucking tower to get closer to God, the stairway to God.
02:09:14.000And do it right and you make it there.
02:09:17.000Do it wrong and it becomes completely chaotic and divided and you're scattered across the world with a thousand different fucking languages and nobody can communicate with each other, so nobody understands each other, and it's just chaos, which is what happened to the human race.
02:09:31.000If we develop a universal language, and if this universal language is transmitted through whether it's this implant or wearable, some sort of interface with technology, then we bypass.
02:09:43.000We bypass this primitive state of chaotic tribal monkeys and we become something superior.
02:09:51.000Yeah, the Tower of Babel was initially in my story because I've loved that idea for a really long time, which is essentially it's just like a symbol for like, hey, if we all work together, we can actually Do this thing, which is kind of the main idea that I got from it.
02:10:04.000Yeah, dude, that's a cool ass idea about AI.
02:10:11.000Because if you think about it, what is AI going to be?
02:10:16.000Well, if super intelligence gets achieved and then you're attaching that to quantum computing, right?
02:10:23.000Quantum computing right now is only able to just do integers and do equations.
02:10:30.000But what if quantum computing and AI merge?
02:10:33.000Then you've got some insane amount of computational power attached to an insane intelligence that is going to make better and better versions of itself.
02:10:44.000Well, if you scale that up exponentially, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100, 1,000 years, if you keep going, you get a God.
02:10:52.000I mean, imagine, I mean, quantum, imagine too.
02:10:56.000I mean, who knows, like, if we want to go real sci-fi with the idea, like quantum particles communicate to each other, so maybe they'll be able to communicate with the ones that are in other dimensions, and that's how we're able to communicate with other dimensions or whatever.
02:11:09.000Well, that's the freakiest concept about quantum computing when they said that the way it works is so confusing and it's so powerful that they think it might be evidence of the multiverse.
02:11:21.000Now, I talked to Roman Yampolsky, who's a scientist who talks about the dangers of AI, and he thought that that was all nonsense.
02:11:28.000He might be right, but there's a lot of scientists that believe that it's correct and that this is why quantum computing is so powerful.
02:11:35.000Because Mark Andreessen said this, and it's the fucking craziest quote ever, that quantum computing, it can solve an equation that if you converted the entire universe, like every molecule, every atom of the universe into a supercomputer, it would take so long for the universe as a supercomputer to solve this problem that the universe would die of heat death before it solved it.
02:12:01.000And quantum computing can solve it in minutes.
02:12:08.000Essentially, what we would be doing, I bet you when they were trying to invent electricity, they didn't know that it would be this.
02:12:15.000And maybe that's what we're in the middle of.
02:12:17.000Except like times a thousand billion where it's like, oh, because I always think I'm like, we're only looking through the lens of the future through all of the inventions that we have now.
02:12:29.000What if we invented something that was like electricity or quantum computing or quantum communication?
02:12:35.000Or like if you can change things at a quantum level, like maybe I can turn this thing into the hardest steel metal in the entire world.
02:12:45.000And then that just completely changes the board game that we're even playing.
02:12:50.000Like we're not even playing the same board game anymore.
02:12:55.000Anytime anyone says nothing's possible, I'm like, you sure?
02:12:59.000Because if we just change the board game, shit can get pretty crazy.
02:13:02.000You can't say nothing's possible because everything that we have today is impossible 200 years ago.
02:13:06.000You're a sorcerer if you go back to the 1400s and show them an iPhone.
02:13:11.000You know, like this, none of it makes any sense.
02:13:13.000The fact that you could FaceTime someone in New Zealand right now, that's bananas.
02:13:17.000All that stuff is fucking completely insane and it's real and it's happening right now.
02:13:21.000And the other thing about AI being if artificial super intelligence creates something that we can't even imagine.
02:13:30.000Like we're just dealing with this framework, this structure that's so antiquated because it's all been created by humans.
02:13:36.000If you get something that's a thousand, ten thousand times more intelligent than us, and it's going to have solutions to things that we can't even comprehend.
02:13:47.000You know, one of the things that always weirded me out about these stories about UFO encounters and in particular the Bob Lazar story is that when he was working on back engineering these crafts that were supposedly from somewhere else, one of the things that he said is there's no controls.
02:14:06.000Like they don't know what is happening between these beings and this craft that they power it.
02:14:13.000But they're probably completely connected to this thing.
02:14:18.000What you're seeing with those little grays is probably us in the future.
02:14:23.000That's probably what every primate eventually becomes once it integrates with technology.
02:14:29.000It would be really cool if that's, like you said, what the religions were talking about too.
02:14:34.000Like to me, the science shit is all cool and stuff, but I also like the idea of like intertwining like science modern ideas with really traditional ideas.
02:14:42.000It would be super cool if it was something where it's like, hey, like once we reach this certain of technological advancement, there is a spiritual religious side to the thing that we also make discoveries in too.
02:15:00.000Well, you know, if artificial superintelligence does become live, all belief systems are going to get thrown into the wood chip or we're not going to know what the fuck is what.
02:15:12.000But I have a feeling that a lot of these stories, like these ancient religious stories, they're based on truth.
02:15:17.000It's just truth that was a spoken word thing by people who really couldn't even read because they were illiterate and that they had these tales that were told for a thousand years before anybody wrote them down.
02:15:28.000They're writing them down in these ancient languages that even when you take those ancient languages and you try to translate into like modern English, a lot is lost in the translation.
02:15:38.000But I think there's something to all of it.
02:16:13.000I got super into Joseph Campbell around that time when I was kind of, you know, doing the whole figuring myself out part after losing.
02:16:22.000But, I mean, the idea that there's pretty much a blueprint to all of the stories that are Across civilization is crazy.
02:16:32.000It's like the pyramids being everywhere.
02:16:34.000Like, it's just naturally ingrained to us for stories to be like: superhero gets called to action, finds a guy, beats monster, beats mega big monster, returns back home.
02:16:46.000Like, that's like the blueprint to a lot of stories.
02:16:48.000And I think it just goes underneath the rug because we're just so used to all of the stories being like that.
02:16:54.000I've messed around, like I said, like I spend a lot of time in my head.
02:17:12.000I just come up with stories and shit in my head.
02:17:14.000But anyway, so I did my own hero's journey during that time when I was trying to eliminate all of the egos inside of me.
02:17:21.000And the easiest way to identify one of your egos is to ask yourself, what is it that you feel like you desire?
02:17:28.000You know, that's why I think in Buddhist philosophy and all of that stuff, it's always like, let go of attachments, let go of your desires, and that will lead, like, just good shit will happen if you do that.
02:17:38.000And I was like, okay, cool, I'll buy into that a little bit.
02:17:40.000So I tried to identify all of these egos that were inside of me.
02:17:45.000I even went as far as naming all of them and giving them characteristics and personalities.
02:17:50.000Like when I would notice an angry person inside of me, I would just name it Samson, give it a tiger's face, and like just treat it as a completely separate imaginative piece of my psyche that I no longer wanted to be attached with anymore.
02:18:06.000Which is an idea that I came up with myself at the time, but it's an old idea.
02:18:10.000There's a really good book called Taming Your Gremlins.
02:18:13.000If anyone wants to look into that idea more, that guy does a really good job of doing that.
02:18:18.000So anyways, I started going through like my hero's journey.
02:18:22.000And I spend a lot of time meditating a decent amount, but not just like normal meditating, like fucking around in my own head type of meditating and just seeing what type of unconscious things are kind of below the surface of my everyday like Corey me.
02:18:38.000And so I'm walking myself through like, okay, what is this?
02:18:42.000What are all of these things inside me or what are these desires that are inside me?
02:20:01.000And I was like, push you off the cliff.
02:20:03.000He was like, you have to let go of me the same way that you let go of all of your other desires and fears and things inside of you, too, if you really want to do it.
02:20:11.000And so I'm like bawling, crying because that was a big thing.
02:22:22.000And a big piece of me going through that whole thing and what I learned a lot about it was love of fighting isn't really love of anything, I don't think is like Disney shit.
02:22:35.000It's like a mega commitment to something that you want to achieve.
02:23:30.000You know, I don't really get too scared going into fights hardly ever.
02:23:33.000I get scared leading up to things, but in the actual fight itself, like I'm the goddamn incredible Hulk.
02:23:40.000You can't convince me otherwise in those moments.
02:23:43.000Well, I remember one time we talked and you said that you'd made this adjustment in your head from trying to fight and win to really trying to hurt people.
02:24:12.000I also found too that being that way got distracting to me being able to do what I was trying to do.
02:24:18.000So any thought can be distracting when you're fighting, as you know.
02:24:22.000Like even like silly ones or whatever.
02:24:24.000But if I'm being too aggro and too, I got to hurt this guy, I got to hurt this guy, that was good for me to learn because I got to learn all of the different aspects of what it means to be a fighter.
02:24:35.000Before that, I was really Zen, peaceful, like whatever happens, happens.
02:24:40.000And then I went way on the other side of the spectrum where it's like, I'm fucking killing people and that's what I'm doing now.
02:24:46.000To now kind of somewhere a little bit in between where for me now, all of it is about focus and doing the correct thing at the correct time.
02:24:56.000I think that where I am today as a fighter is very focused on just exactly what I said, where what do I need to do right now in order to win?
02:27:47.000So even though there's 16,000 people, the people on this side are seeing the people laugh on this side, and everyone's seeing everyone laugh, and you're just walking around in a circle.
02:28:02.000I was always really curious because I've seen stand-ups like that, and I was like, I wonder if that's distracting for them to have to is the most fun.
02:28:09.000I thought it would be distracting too, because I've done arenas where you're on stage facing the crowd, and it feels oddly impersonal.
02:28:16.000It's like you're just doing a show for this massive amount of people.
02:28:19.000It's fun, but I kind of preferred clubs.
02:28:24.000But a giant arena in the round seems like a giant club.
02:28:30.000But there's something, there's a lot of, like, doing it in Boston was huge because I did the TD Garden because that was like where I grew up.
02:28:37.000And that's where I started doing stand-up.
02:28:39.000But there's something about Madison Square Garden for fights where when you go there, it's like there's an extra tingle in the air.
02:28:48.000Like, whoo, boys, we're at the garden.
02:29:01.000I think he has some obviously really good physical traits that make him like his conditioning is a superpower that other people don't get to have.
02:29:11.000And that's unique to him, and he's made a way to weaponize that in a really smart way.
02:29:18.000Every time I like kind of too technically break down things, I feel like I'm trying to be really convincing instead of, you know, just believing in it, which has always kind of been a big problem of Mine in the past has always been: I need evidence in order to believe in something, which kind of just and like with that in like fighting for a world champion, what am I going to just walk in and be like, Well, I've been a world champion before, so I could do it now.
02:29:42.000Like, I don't get that luxury of doing that to be a world champion.
02:29:45.000So, recently, I've had this realization of belief in self that Trevor and Carrington Banks have both helped instill in me big time.
02:29:55.000Um, where I feel like approaching Marab is going to be unique in its own, but I don't need to tailor what it is that I'm doing too much to Marab.
02:30:09.000I've really bought into this idea where if I can go out and be the best martial artist that there is in all areas, be able to wrestle with him, be able to strike with him, be able to grapple with him, if I can go out and trust and be that, I can do it.
02:30:26.000Against Umar, I did not as good of a job with that.
02:30:29.000I treated him like I had to change in order for me to be able to beat him.
02:30:34.000Against Marab, I'm not going to do that.
02:30:36.000I think Marab also has this narrative buzz around him where he's an unbeatable force, a freak of nature who has conditioning out of whatever.
02:30:48.000And while that is true to an extent, that doesn't mean anything to the fact that the guy can't be beaten.
02:30:55.000If I look at myself as a fighter and break myself down technically, I would say I'm somewhere between Umar and Sean in the task that he'll have in front of him.
02:31:06.000I think I know that I wrestle a lot better than Sean does.
02:31:10.000Although Sean does have really good takedown defense, his process of getting up is just like a little dated and pretty slow.
02:31:17.000Like you're going to lose some minutes doing it the way that O'Malley does it.
02:31:23.000Being tall and lanky, it's really hard to not let short little guys get underneath you.
02:31:27.000Like that shit's going to happen, especially if they're springy and fast in our weight class, like they're going to.
02:31:32.000You just have to be able to pop right back up immediately, which I know that I can do because I fought Umar, who's easily one of the best wrestlers in the UFC, and I was able to do that whenever I wanted.
02:31:44.000So that brings me a lot of confidence about that.
02:31:46.000So I get to fight Murab with a lot of confidence going into it about that.
02:31:50.000On the striking end of things, I'm obviously, I think, a way better striker than Murab is, even though he does make his shit work the way that he makes his shit work.
02:32:01.000But I'm honestly not going to read too much into it, man.
02:32:03.000I'm going to keep worrying about getting better every single day all the way leading up to the fight, and I'm going to make Murab deal with me instead of me having to deal with Murab.
02:32:13.000Do you have to do anything different to deal with that endurance?
02:32:16.000I mean, man, I feel like I try to go in as...
02:32:41.000So I already do that kind of, so I'm not going to kind of overthink that piece.