Yoel Romero talks about his humble beginnings in Cuba and how he went to school from Monday to Friday at a "pyramid school" and only went home on the weekends at the weekends. He also talks about how he got into boxing, wrestling, and what it takes to be a professional athlete in Cuba. He talks about what it's like to grow up in Cuba as a kid and how the education system is run in Cuba, the pyramid system, and how to get into the top level of sports like boxing and wrestling. Yoel also gives some insight into how he became a professional boxer and what he did to get to where he is now in the UFC and the other sports he's involved in. He gives some great insight into his upbringing and how it all led him to become one of the best boxers in the world. He also explains how he was able to make it to the top of the boxing pyramid and why he chose to go to the highest level of sport in Cuba...and how he did it all while being a student at a very young age. I hope you enjoy this episode! -Joey Coco Diaz and Yoel Romero Thank you so much for coming on the pod! -P.S. Thank you for being my guest and supporting me in this podcast! Cheers, Cheers. -Manny Paco and Cheers! . -Jorge Vazquez and Chey xoxo, Cheyenne XO (Joey C. Diaz "The Realest Man in the House" & Cheyene Cheyen ( ) . . (Chacho (Yoel ) (Jorge) ( Chacho ( ) ( ) & Chacho , (Sergio ) (Chavo (Manny ) . Chavo ( ) and Chavos ( ) ? (Vazquez (Cecil ( ) , / Chavio (P. (A. & Chavie ) & much more! ( ), and much more. . ) - (Thank you for coming out here! ) -Josie (?) (Bravo ) and how much he's going to give us a chance to have a good time with you guys in this episode.
00:07:04.000Ahora mismo, ahora mismo, I think Yo no puedo ir a un centro olÃmpico AsÃ, tengo que ir suave porque He thinks he can't even go back there to that center now Now they would spank him at his age.
00:07:29.000When you were there, one of the things that Matt was saying, and Matt Brown had tremendous respect for the Cuban athletes, and he said it was an amazing, amazing system that produced great, great talent.
00:07:40.000But he's saying that as you get higher and higher levels, your accommodations are better, where you sleep is better, your food, you get more food.
00:07:48.000So a lot of incentive to improve. - Let's move.
00:11:33.000The more that the guy that trains the most, the system is the best.
00:11:40.000Every time, every time you see, look at this, you stay for, because I stay in the national team for almost 15 years, 15 years, staying in the Olympic Center.
00:12:00.000You can't imagine staying with the 10 guys for 15 years and the 15 years, 10 guys, I want to kill you.
00:12:23.000Listen, los cuartos son, it's a building, you know, it's a building with a lot of rooms.
00:12:34.000But there are times that the rooms stay in front of, it's like a hotel, you know, the rooms stay in front of, that's my room, that's the room for the...
00:12:41.000I'm not a guy but this guy is the same division.
00:16:36.000Well, they put them there and they say, "Okay, they give you the key and they say, "You're going to sleep in this room." You understand?
00:16:44.000They put you in that room, and they'll see, let's say, a room of five people. - In each room there will be five people. - You are from Pinatrio.
00:19:41.000right the office sanctuary they're gonna pay him with his arms open he was broke right his Even though he wrestled, he wanted the MMA. He was telling me last night that he would watch those videos.
00:20:05.000People would smuggle UFC fights into Cuba.
00:20:09.000And it wasn't known it wasn't going to happen for him in Cuba.
00:25:02.000They didn't care about the anger management classes.
00:25:05.000Just give me the 10 G's and we'll rip up the warrant Fucking America fucking America so you you get to Germany in 2007 And did you find an MMA gym to start training once you had your first fight?
00:25:18.000I was in a gym gym but there was no you know...
00:25:23.000He went to a gym, but there was nothing.
00:32:48.000Yeah Yeah He knocked out King Mo Yeah Maybe he knocked out King Mo after I think Yeah But he had that same level Like he was A lot of people forgot about Faye Zhao Faye Zhao at one point in time Was one of the best in the world Yeah Yeah Yeah Yo pelea con Faye Zhao He had lost the belt with Henderson for two months.
00:33:33.000And that was your first loss as a fighter?
00:33:35.000What was that like No, no man normal normal because because I say When you finish the fight But coming on the board He said he went up to the hotel and he went for a walk.
00:34:04.000This man's just like, why are you smiling?
00:34:06.000And I say, because I see the I see the on a leo on a un grand campeon He was just close from fighting the beating a grand champion Sin entrenar Without training, right?
00:36:16.000It's almost like they're encouraging Cubans to leave.
00:36:18.000Well, yeah, and then remember, didn't Obama, before he left, he put the no tap rule.
00:36:24.000Remember, as a punishment for fucking Clinton not winning, he fucking Obama, that's why Cubans got pissed off at Obama, because he signed the rule again that you don't have to touch the beach.
00:38:11.000We're talking about the different exoduses that you talk about like the pain that all the races had the Chinese and all that but one of the big struggles is that Cuban one that they they leave and like he left the Sun in Cuba his parents are in Cuba But then again, that's the story of the immigrant.
00:38:31.000Your grandfather left his brother in Cuba, in Sicily, to make it better, to send checks.
00:41:43.000When you have an exodus in your family, when you have an exodus in your country, it's very hard and it's very You have emotion every day when you see the exodus and your country and your people.
00:42:08.000You have the possibilities of getting here.
00:43:10.000He was lucky that he didn't have to do that raft to go like the pitcher from the Yankees that had to go to the Dominican Republic and had to smuggle them out to some other, like Colombia, and then the Yankees had to sign them and that's the only way Steinbrenner showed up with an envelope and nobody knows nothing.
00:43:28.000He's happy that he went to Germany and he had a plan, you know.
00:45:53.000he's coming to me he's coming to me he's coming to me and the guy got out of the car and started telling the story of what had happened resumidas cuentas He had been here for a year in the States.
00:46:13.000He wanted to tell him what happened to him.
00:46:18.000He came from Colombia and the guy had to keep him down to come to the United States.
00:46:26.000He saw two weeks earlier he had seen one of his friends.
00:46:30.000that he had been in the journey with him from Cuba to Colombia and the whole thing.
00:46:37.000So he was telling me that that same guy got separated from his wife.
00:48:20.000When they crossed the border in the desert, it's horrible.
00:48:25.000The belongings and the corpse of their family had been out of the past.
00:48:33.000That the brothers have found on the journey through the jungles of Colombia, they found their brothers Caucasus, like eaten by a lion or whatever.
00:52:53.000You know, that's where they bought them.
00:52:54.000That's where the white people went and saw a sex show while they were there and took a couple of slaves back to them to Alabama or wherever the fuck they were from.
00:54:18.000And then this motherfucker goes up to New York and tears him up in New York like fucking one World Series.
00:54:26.000And then at the end, he fucking wins in San Diego, but he can't get his daughters and his wife up here.
00:54:33.000So they got some reporter in Washington to call a fucking cardinal and fly to Cuba that night.
00:54:40.000And they flew to Cuba that night, and Fidel was watching the fucking Yankee game, Jack.
00:54:45.000And the Cardinal gave them a note, and there was a note from El Duque saying, please let my wife and daughter go.
00:54:52.000Put them on a fucking plane, fucking ticket-tape parade.
00:54:55.000The wife at the end goes, listen, I'm in New York on a fucking float.
00:55:00.000They just won, and I see all these people throwing toilet paper.
00:55:03.000I started grabbing it, because in Cuba, you had to fight for a fucking roll of toilet paper.
00:55:09.000She goes, "Here they are throwing toilet paper at the parade." And her natural instinct was to grab the toilet paper.
00:55:15.000Because the woman of Le'Vean Fernandez, when I was a Yankee, she said that they were in Nueva York and they were trying to get the toilet paper.
00:55:23.000And I said, "Oye!" And then she started to "javam" because they said that in Cuba, there was no toilet paper.
00:55:34.000But I feel like no one appreciates America more than someone who was born somewhere else, where they're suppressed, where it's hard, and then they come over here.
00:55:45.000I think too many of us take this for granted.
00:55:48.000Every fucking day I see it and it drives me fucking crazy, man.
00:56:23.000Now, when you were in Cuba, the work ethic, with the wrestling and being on the, I mean, that, the intense amount of work, that must translate very well into MMA training.
00:56:36.000Do you think that MMA training is as hard as wrestling training?
00:56:40.000Like when you were back in Cuba Discipline Discipline Discipline
00:58:15.000You could do the training from MMA to wrestle.
00:58:23.000And you could do the training from wrestling for MMA. The value is how you use your energy and the two different sets of activity, whatever.
00:58:50.000So it's different energy for wrestling, how you impose your energy in wrestling and the energy that you have to have for MMA. Now, when you were in Cuba and you were training wrestling, how much time do they spend working on strength and conditioning and how much time on skill?
00:59:06.000When I was in Cuba, how many hours I was lifting weights and doing exercises and how many hours I was fighting?
00:59:17.000The training is dependent on where you are...
01:05:38.000but these trainers that they have are fucking top notch you know they have a idea more or less of how many they lift the heavy weights understand they have a idea of how many when a complete weight is good in force and when it is bad in force so they know when you're up in weight when you're down in weight they know everything about you because they've been doing it So they base you off that weight.
01:06:08.000You do that thing 100 pounds, now they base you off that weight if you're heavyweight.
01:06:12.000Do you still follow that system now when you train for MMA? Like how do you decide you do?
01:06:18.000Because you still obviously have a lot of muscle.
01:06:21.000You're obviously still doing some strength and conditioning work.
01:07:21.000Let's work this way. - You know, the guy had already been known for working with older elite athletes, We've always joked around about Teofilo Stevenson.
01:07:50.000Could have been one of the best professional boxers ever.
01:07:56.000He was fucking 50. They don't have fucking birth certificates.
01:11:15.000He can't do this podcast without telling him that the reason why he looks so good and he's healthy is the hand that God got him That's because Because You're gonna be my summer Yo, I'm being my sombrough the come look that he's even in shock that how he looks and How he feels.
01:12:41.000Listen, por eso te digo, por eso que tú no me pudiste ver a mà haciendo la lucha.
01:12:46.000That's why I couldn't, he didn't want me to see him, you, wrestling.
01:12:51.000You know, estuve en Cuba y hice lucha con el subcampeón olÃmpico de ahora, So he went back to Cuba to train with the guy that's the world champion now from Cuba.
01:19:41.000You need to win the championship, national championship, to pass to the SPA. So you have to win the national championships to go to the higher level, the ESPA. The coaches are taking you right from the schools.
01:25:23.00016 going on 17. That's the history when my coaches say, every time when I go to the fight, when I training, once he became the best in Cuba.
01:25:35.000He looked me in the eyes like this, you remember when you coming here, And now you know.
01:30:22.000Do you think that in America, particularly today in the UFC, this is common because it gets guys' attention and they see, like, Conor McGregor.
01:30:34.000He makes a lot of money because not just of his ability, because he can fight really well, but also because he talks shit really well, too.
01:33:32.000Right, so the pressure is just intense.
01:33:34.000For 15 years I've seen many people coming, go, sometimes the people, this year is good, another year is here, and in 3 years this guy is coming again, because he's beaten, he's better.
01:34:55.000Anderson Silva was always respectful, and people went to see him and bought his pay-per-view just because he was a bad motherfucker, and they wanted to see him fight.
01:36:13.000But no No imites a Conor No don't imitate Conor You know There's definitely a lot of people That are doing that Doing a bad job of it So what was it What did you say to Luke Rocko?
01:36:26.000I say, hey Luke, and now you sing, and now you remember, When you take me and you say you are going to hang out, go out, go to the party, and when you stay with me, you say to me, hey, you want to fight me?
01:38:57.000Well, it's very common, and a lot of times what happens is the suppliers, when you, say if you're a supplement company, and you have someone make some stuff for you, and then you package it and sell it, the people that are putting it together for you, they're selling a bunch of other things, too, and oftentimes things get into your supplement that aren't supposed to be there.
01:40:22.000When you go to these places and buy these things, there's a lot of stuff at a regular vitamin store that'll make you test positive by USADA. You'll test for banned substances from stuff you just buy in a store.
01:42:10.000Yeah, a lot of it is genetics, and a lot of it is also, you've got to think, from the time you were little, you were involved in this intense athletic program.
01:42:53.000I wanted after when I train, when I beat the barrel, Because you can't put everything you're doing in the video where the people say, I do this, I do this, and now I can't beat him.
01:54:59.000Grabbing gloves, is it legal or not legal?
01:55:02.000If he punches you with your gloves, with me holding on to your gloves, if I'm punching you and I'm holding on to your gloves, is that legal or illegal?
01:55:15.000How much time should I have taken off?
01:55:21.000What you're saying is you sat down for extra time in between the rounds because he committed a foul right before that.
01:55:47.000If the judge would have seen that, that he would have seen him ripping off his glove, and he would have seen him punching him like that, how much time would he have taken?
02:02:29.000So when you were sitting there, what was going through your mind when you were sitting there and Tim Kennedy was telling you to stand up and you knew that the round was over?
02:03:25.000Let me dry me off and then we'll fucking fight.
02:03:29.000Right, but you only get one minute rest.
02:03:33.000You were hurt at the end of the round.
02:03:35.000There's only one minute rest, but you took a minute and 30 seconds.
02:03:38.000that extra 30 seconds had to help que dice que tu te tan supuestro da un minuto pero tu cogiste un minuto y 30 segundos que esos 30 segundos te ayudaron bueno claro que si yeah fuck yeah But it's not his fault.
02:04:27.000So the only other fight, well, that was a controversial moment.
02:04:32.000You said that in the Robert Whittaker fight, that was a learning experience for you, because you went five rounds, came very close to winning the interim title, but came short.
02:04:44.000Like, what did you get out of that fight?
02:04:46.000that you said that was a big learning experience for you that was a big learning experience because going five rounds while for those Last night his manager said that after the fight when he saw him, that he had a big smile on his face.
02:09:51.000I think if you win, you will be the oldest guy to ever, well, maybe Randy Couture when he won the heavyweight title, but for sure middleweight.
02:10:00.000You'll definitely be the oldest middleweight.
02:10:01.000I think Randy was older when he won the heavyweight title when he fought with Tim Sylvia. - - - I think Randy was 46?
02:14:00.000the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people the people who know him especially now that watch him train they know how he fights how is he fighting with percentages of his in the gym
02:14:27.000and I do thank you He thanks God for everything.
02:16:16.000If it's as easy to get that rhythm going.
02:16:26.000There's one thing to be out of the fight and there's one thing to be in the fight Let's just wait till June 9th That's when it's going to be?