00:00:35.000It came about a funny way, but I like it.
00:00:38.000The mantra that it brings to the fight game and to who I am is perfect.
00:00:43.000Well, it's finesse, and you fight with a lot of finesse.
00:00:47.000So we should start from your UFC debut because that was when you really burst onto the scene.
00:00:53.000You fought this guy, Malcolm Wellmaker, who's a killer, vicious knockout puncher, and had a ton of hype behind him because of his performance.
00:01:02.000Was it the contender series where we had the big performance?
00:02:09.000Maybe it's because I've delved into more of a boxing realm with perfecting the striking and really focusing on that technical aspect, that style.
00:02:20.000But yeah, to me, to watch guys go in there and just brawl it out and say, you know, let's see who can take more punches before the other guy drops is just silly to me.
00:02:32.000It's like you said, I like to fight with finesse, I like to hit and not get hit, and champions don't take return fire.
00:02:38.000So, I hope to have a lot of longevity with this game, and yeah, that's why I fight that way.
00:02:46.000I was having a conversation with Fedor, the guy who's sitting next to us, who's one of the best pool players in the world, and he's getting.
00:02:53.000We just got back from Ways to Well, so shout out to Brigham and all the people at Ways to Well for taking care of us.
00:02:58.000But he and I were talking about fighters, and it's very similar to, I think, everything, whether it's pool or golf, and there's the people that really focus on technology.
00:03:11.000And fundamentals and really objectively look at what they're doing and refine it.
00:03:18.000And we were talking about guys who just stand in front of each other and blast each other.
00:04:22.000Like, people just really enjoy the chaos of all that and all the movement and the energy that goes into it.
00:04:27.000But, Yeah, you're foregoing that whole technical aspect, like the perfection of controlling the dance from the beginning to the end and everything in between.
00:04:39.000And it's almost just like an educated street brawl.
00:04:41.000You're getting in there and just swinging and going crazy.
00:04:44.000And to me, that's not what martial arts is.
00:04:45.000I mean, it literally is the chase of perfection to it, of the hit and don't get hit.
00:04:54.000That is the art of boxing, but the art of striking and martial arts.
00:05:00.000Yeah, near perfect in the way you engage in this is land the damage and be able to cut those angles, move your head, pull out the distance, and not take any of that in return.
00:05:12.000And, yeah, a lot of guys get cheered on initially.
00:05:17.000And so it's unfortunate that maybe it's not unfortunate, but you just see it a lot that, yeah, those guys get hyped up off the beginning, and then all the other things happen, like you said.
00:05:26.000Well, I mean, look, they are exciting.
00:05:28.000I love when guys fight like that because it's just crazy to watch.
00:05:31.000But, I have to set aside the rational part of my brain that says this is not smart.
00:05:42.000I mean, if I watch these guys, you know, get after it, like Roman Puga versus his opponent on the Dana White Continue Series this last Tuesday, I believe it was.
00:07:21.000And I think you have to be to have that kind of a style because it does take a lot of thinking.
00:07:26.000It takes a lot of, like, what you're doing in there by constantly overloading your opponent's nervous system with movement and constant counters and being, like, right out of range, but then right in range and then right out of range.
00:07:41.000It's a lot of intelligence involved in that.
00:07:43.000And for someone like me who really loves the art of it, I love watching a guy like you fight because I really wish young fighters would emulate people like you.
00:07:51.000Young fighters would see a guy like that, like, that's what I want to fight like.
00:07:55.000I don't want to be this guy who goes in there and the end of my career, my face is just a roadmap of scars and I got CTE.
00:08:01.000But boy, people remember back in the day when I knocked that guy out or when we had this fight of the night.
00:08:09.000And it's taken a lot of experience, a lot of growth, a lot of seeing different things because when I was a wrestler, it was the Iowa style of wrestling that I emulated and that I hope to emulate, which is just get in your face, break you down, break your spirit.
00:08:26.000Break you physically, just completely wipe you out with just outstanding pressure, you know?
00:08:31.000And I think I suffered with the finesse, with a little bit of the technicality of setting things up and being smooth because I was just clubbing on your head, snapping people down, going, going, going.
00:08:44.000I've pulled back from that almost too much, I would say, to where if I'm striking with someone, I don't even want to engage in like a battle of physicality.
00:08:53.000These guys try to push and move and get up, and I'm like, you know, I'll sit and I'll dance and I'll roll up and I'll, I'll, Shut them down real quick and I'm steering them off and I'm throwing really quick and they try to get physical where they're really trying to make it, you know, a high pace and just more physical.
00:09:10.000I don't want to engage with that at all.
00:09:12.000I want to steer from beginning to the end.
00:09:14.000I want to keep my heart rate as low as possible.
00:09:17.000I want to land shots and then I want to be back to sitting and, like you said, covering a distance, controlling everything where I can sit, I can take my breath and I can see what's coming next and then I can move accordingly.
00:09:29.000And so, you know, after being out for a little bit of time, I'm now even elevated to another greater extent in my own mind that I'm now starting to combine the two things.
00:09:42.000To where before I wouldn't say I shied away from it.
00:09:51.000But I'm finding that middle ground where I was too much of that Iowa style without the finesse.
00:10:03.000Trying to be all skillful, all finesse, dance around the Muhammad Ali shuffle, throw that flicker jab, be out of range, you know, and not want to engage in the physicality too much.
00:10:13.000And now I've elevated once again to where I'm finding that perfect middle ground that, you know, I'm letting my ego go in the gym to where if we do get into that physicality or someone gets me with something, if it doesn't look perfect, I'm not sitting there thinking, oh, I need to look perfect and avoid these things.
00:10:28.000Now I'm just sending it and getting after it.
00:10:36.000So you'll never see me go in there and brawl anybody, but you'll see less hesitation.
00:10:41.000You'll see more precise shots, and then all the other finesse will always be there.
00:10:46.000Well, it is a constant work in progress, right?
00:10:48.000And I think that's one of the more interesting things about MMA is that you see a fighter when they first start fighting in the UFC, and then you see as fights go on, they get more fights, they get more confidence, they get more experience, and they also get significantly better.
00:11:03.000You know, it's kind of rare that you see athletes in a sport, generally speaking, When they get to a certain professional level, they're kind of already at their peak.
00:11:13.000And they might get a little better, but in MMA in particular, you see dramatic improvement in fighters over the course of four or five years, especially if they have good management and good training.
00:11:24.000And one of the things that you're talking about is like letting your ego go in the gym.
00:13:12.000I think I'm gonna say it was Ty when he ran and he bounced off the cage or the ropes.
00:13:17.000He runs back in and double legs, like they do, like it's like a WWE match, you know, like they're like thriving off of that chaotic energy.
00:13:23.000Scrambles, yeah, they're so good in scrambles, you know, and it's really interesting watching it.
00:13:29.000Is it Ty that's doing one FC that is doing MMA fights now?
00:13:33.000They're both fighting, they're both fighting, huh?
00:13:35.000And that's it's going to be exciting to have those guys enter into the UFC someday.
00:14:02.000They understand distances from the jiu jitsu world of setting up takedowns and, you know, closing that distance.
00:14:08.000So, um, But, yeah, what I was saying is like going with that kind of a guy, it's like the last thing I want to do is engage in like a grappling position with them in the jiu jitsu or in the MMA.
00:14:21.000And, but it's like, yeah, the more I do that, I'm only going to get better at doing that kind of stuff, you know?
00:15:14.000Why would not be on performance enhancing drugs?
00:15:16.000My goal is to be the absolute best that I could be, period.
00:15:20.000And the idea that the only reason why he's so good is because of steroids is also equally ridiculous because when he was younger and when he was much smaller, he was winning tournaments left and right and beating world champions.
00:15:59.000Obviously, there's maybe some strength skill or strength deficit there, but that's why, again, going back to my style and what I like to do, like the technicality and having that ability, there's just so many aspects to everything.
00:16:16.000But if you're that much more technical than someone, then that can negate size to some extent.
00:19:21.000This ad and the products being advertised are intended for a United States audience.
00:19:26.000Yeah, if he could move like Usic, I mean, it's a tall fucking order because no one can move like Usic other than Usic, but imagine if he could move like Usic.
00:19:56.000I mean, I think it was for us, I was talking about Connor, and he was talking about how the muscles connect to the muscle head differently.
00:20:26.000And so then you can kind of equalize on that playing field, I suppose, to some extent, if you're getting people guessing, you're getting people fainting, you're hitting them with shots that they're not seeing, then you're going to get similar knockout finishes like that.
00:20:43.000There's a lot of guys that knock a lot of people out that don't have one punch power, for sure.
00:20:47.000Max Holloway is a great example of that.
00:20:48.000Like, Max is never, even though he has knocked guys out with one shot, it's generally like after a bunch of damage.
00:22:58.000There's, there's, to me, there's just, I haven't pinpointed exactly what's the right and wrong way to do everything just because there's so many variables, especially in MMA.
00:23:07.000I mean, we were kind of discussing a little bit earlier, it's not just solely that you have like good cardio that allows you to continue to perform in that fight.
00:23:18.000There's another aspect of how calm, cool, and collected you can be because, you know, like we were talking, hitting the mitts and something, if you're real tense and you're just trying to kill them, Yeah, you're going to burn yourself out.
00:23:28.000But if you're fast and snappy, you're producing just as much, if not more power, and now you're being more efficient with it, you know?
00:24:21.000Like, there were very few moments in a fight where someone had really started overwhelming him.
00:24:26.000And one of the things that Max has always been so good at is knowing when to hit the gas and knowing when to just slowly ramp up the pressure.
00:24:57.000So it's the experience of knowing what your body can do, when you can hit the gas, when you need to back off, when to move, when not to, and when you feel your opponent start to fade a little bit.
00:25:06.000You see the mouth being open a little bit more.
00:25:08.000You see the movement looks a little sloppier.
00:25:23.000You know, you might maybe hit the straightaway on the track and then you jog and maintain because in a fight, you're never completely resting.
00:25:31.000So, yeah, I mean, that's a huge thing.
00:25:33.000The experience, I think his style and just what he's created, like you said, in his camp is a high output, high volume individual.
00:25:42.000So, you know, his body's probably become used to that and that's how he performs normally.
00:25:51.000Yeah, I was shocked that Connor wanted to fight him.
00:25:54.000In his first fight back after years off.
00:25:56.000I mean, five years is a long time to not fight.
00:26:00.000And then to come back and fight a guy like Max, who's been constantly fighting the best guys in the world, and knowing that Max is a guy who never fades.
00:26:21.000He got so big to get up to 55 to fight Justin.
00:26:24.000And he did it over a long period of time, put a lot of mass on, and then you essentially, you're starving yourself to get down to 45 again.
00:26:31.000Your body's going to be weak no matter what you do.
00:26:33.000It's not like when he was fighting at 45, he maintained a lower weight class, knew exactly when to cut, and would make it no problem each time.
00:27:21.000Like, Justin's bigger than me and Illy is smaller than me.
00:27:23.000When I stand next to two of them, I'm like, this is crazy that Illy has the kind of power that he's just wrecking guys even that are way bigger than him.
00:27:53.000I mean, I do a lot of comparison from Muay Thai boxing to the MMA world because, you know, I'm in MMA, so I understand that there's so many different aspects to it where, like, someone could take you down and that's going to affect your striking skill set.
00:28:10.000You know, if you got someone who's a real Dell wrestler and you're a way better striker, If you're sitting there and worried about them taking you down and smothering you, your striking goes out the window a little bit because now you have a whole different set of weapons that you're worrying about.
00:28:37.000I forgot where we even started this train of thought.
00:28:39.000But yeah, I mean, I think it's his collectiveness too.
00:28:45.000But I was saying there's comparisons to all these.
00:28:47.000And that's what, like boxing, you see these guys, they might have a couple more rounds, but they come out in like the first round, maybe the second round is a feeling out round.
00:28:55.000You know, it's a slow buildup where they're collecting data, they're setting traps, they're doing a lot of that.
00:29:04.000And you see that in MMA, it's just not at the same level.
00:29:06.000Obviously, there's a greater skill set, there's more weapons to worry about.
00:29:14.000Obviously, I'm reaching for peak perfection with everything.
00:29:17.000If we're coming and we're looking at distance control, I think the boxers do it better.
00:29:22.000If we're looking at setting up feints and working off a jab, especially, I think that's the most frustrating thing when I watch MMA or UFC fights and watch the majority of the guys never, ever use a jab.
00:29:36.000And it's always just this big overhand right.
00:30:27.000Extra time of him really letting all his injuries heal and be fully recovered before he even thinks about sparring again, you know, ever getting touched in the face again.
00:30:36.000Yeah, I don't know where he's at now, you know, but I know that he's still recovering and it'll be a while.
00:30:55.000Yeah, I mean, it's going to take some time.
00:30:58.000And the thing that I really hate to see is when you have undefeated individuals like that who have gone undefeated their whole career, feel invincible, and then sometimes that one takes them off their pedestal.
00:31:20.000You know, there's probably many people that I can touch back on, but yeah, I think hopefully that's the main thing that he's going to need is that.
00:31:31.000That mental indestructibility and to come back and just be like, I'm the same person.
00:31:36.000That one fight doesn't change anything and I'm ready to go do it again.
00:31:39.000Well, he's a very mentally strong guy.
00:31:42.000I think he will bounce back in that regard.
00:31:45.000It's just, there's also the reality of how much damage, and only he knows how much damage he actually took in that fight.
00:32:46.000You know, you have your legacy behind you.
00:32:48.000Well, he shouldn't have even taken that fight with Islam.
00:32:51.000There's no way you should take a world championship fight when you're hanging out with your buddies, drinking beer, you know, eating fish and chips or whatever the fuck he was doing.
00:34:16.000Now, still, even that one week difference of.
00:34:20.000Go and be in a fight camp, and then I have a couple drinks at the casino.
00:34:24.000I'm eating food, and I thought to myself because January was a similar thing where they said, February, Australia, get ready, get your passport, let's look into this.
00:34:38.000You know, I had a nice knockout finish there.
00:34:42.000Um, but then, yeah, just that one week of being off of eating whatever I wanted to and just kind of doing whatever I ran once, I showed up to sparring and light touch sparred.
00:34:53.000I had gone to one other practice because in my mind, I was like, I need to be somewhat ready for this.
00:35:26.000So it was, to me, it's just the stars aligned.
00:35:29.000I mean, don't you think it's also good that you just had the experience like seven days prior to the whole thing getting in the cage, cage shots?
00:36:39.000When he was a champion, he defended his title a lot.
00:36:42.000Man, he was the guy that they can go, Hey, we need someone to headline this card, and Izzy would step in.
00:36:48.000I think he fought three times, he defended the world title three times in one year, which is crazy because I don't think the middleweight title since he's gone has even been content.
00:37:00.000Like, how many middleweight fights have there even been for the title since he's been gone?
00:37:31.000And then you have this huge span of time in between defenses.
00:37:35.000But then there's the question of like, what is this?
00:37:39.000When does it become a benefit and when does it become a detriment?
00:37:42.000Like, when you're fighting too many times a year, like the Mirab Dovish Willie fight, one of the things that a lot of people. Talked about after Piotr Jan beat him in the rematch was what about the strength of schedule?
00:37:55.000I mean, Mirab was fighting constantly.
00:37:58.000He was fighting, he fought so often and for so many years that you got to think that at a certain point in time, maybe he's doing himself a disservice by being so active.
00:38:16.000You know, it's something that you have to know in your heart of hearts, and nobody else can tell you that.
00:38:21.000Your coach can't be like, nah, you're training really well.
00:38:23.000These days, you're super sharp, this and that.
00:38:25.000Like, if something's off, realistically, you should be perfect going into your fight, especially at a world championship caliber.
00:38:34.000Um, it's just, I mean, I keep making these comparisons, but it's another thing that I go back to with the boxing world these guys look at it as a business.
00:38:43.000Like, look at Floyd Mayweather, like, everything was like he made sure that the cage was his side, he picked the gloves, it was certain people at certain times.
00:38:51.000And there's some things to be said about that, but it's a business mindset, it's a very smart approach to it.
00:38:56.000You know, I'm fighting when I'm ready.
00:38:57.000I'm not fighting injured, which is more of the main thing.
00:39:00.000It's like people go in there with injuries and get hurt or lose even.
00:39:06.000It's like that could be detrimental on your record.
00:39:09.000I think the MMA guys are a little bit more on the tough side instead of the business side of things where they'll fight anyone, anytime, which, I mean, that's how you got to be, but that's how you build your team around you.
00:39:20.000You have a team that tells you, hey, this time isn't necessarily the best to go into it and this and that, and just being a little bit smarter about your schedule.
00:40:11.000I mean, you know, I was before this April fight, the first round of the day of sparring, I was just going light with Callum Bisping for literally one second.
00:40:23.000And we moved around, and he's a heavyweight.
00:40:28.000He took me down, and I kind of just sat with it because I didn't want to get caught in any, you know, knee tweaking positions or anything because he's just so much heavier than I am.
00:40:35.000And I sat into a butterfly, which is, Typically, how I would do that, elevate the hips immediately and try to make a scramble, and my meniscus just popped instantly right then and there.
00:40:45.000First round of the day, barely had done anything, barely started, and it wasn't even like a crazy position, but yeah, now I sustained injury.
00:40:55.000Now I don't go against heavyweights anymore because it's stupid.
00:42:02.000So, yeah, it's very difficult to avoid everything.
00:42:07.000There's a lot of different things that won't even seem like a detrimental position, but yeah, you got grappling, which can tweak all sorts of different parts of the body.
00:42:53.000And the really elite trainers, the really elite coaches, they know how to prepare their fighters and they know what fights to take and when to take them.
00:43:02.000And unfortunately, with the UFC, sometimes you get a call like the Malcolm Wellmaker fight.
00:43:09.000And you're like, oh shit, it would be nice to get two months to prepare for Malcolm, but I have two days.
00:43:17.000And I just fought, fuck it, roll the dice.
00:43:34.000Rastaval Estevan, he was also undefeated and super skillful.
00:43:40.000He was a really good fighter and still is.
00:43:42.000But to have those two performances in a row, the way you looked, you looked like a guy like if you were 20 years ago, you would have been a fucking alien.
00:43:53.000Like no one had seen anybody like you before.
00:43:55.000That's how much this sport has grown just in 20 years.
00:43:58.000If you go back to like Ultimate Fighter Season 1, there was fucking nobody like you.
00:44:05.000You know, it really wasn't until Anderson burst onto the scene shortly after that that we really got to see that kind of elite level of striking.
00:49:19.000I like that side kick to the body, to the liver, throwing that heel in the liver.
00:49:22.000I think that's more of a natural motion, but I have been working with the front kicks.
00:49:27.000I like them a lot, especially with the weight on the back leg a little bit, and especially with these calf kicks, people are really trying to bear down and throw the calf kick hard.
00:49:37.000That's what was going to be my technique in my last one when that calf kick comes off the very beginning.
00:49:44.000Because that's what Faria does, he comes out, he looks for his distance, and he bases down, and he throws that calf kick almost every single time against every opponent.
00:49:53.000And I was like, you know, especially because I was planning on going there one handed, and I was like, I'm just going to pull this front leg up, front kick to the face, and it's going to land.
00:50:09.000And with the one I like better, especially with the boxing, as I come down here, is kind of getting that lean forward, and you're stepping back.
00:50:16.000And then, when people think your face is in range forward, you just pull back and throw that one straight up the middle.
00:50:21.000And you're talking about off the front leg?
00:52:26.000So, this is what I love about the artistic aspect of it and the technical aspect when people figure out, okay, what do you do when you're fighting a guy like this?
00:52:33.000Well, Jonathan Haggerty figured it out.
00:52:36.000It's constant switch stances, constant knees to the body, moving, jabbing, constant movement.
00:52:42.000You never let him get set up for those.
00:52:44.000You know, and he took a lot of leg kicks and that, but he landed way more than he took and he won the decision against Yozos.
00:52:50.000It was a big win, but it was also like a blueprint.
00:52:53.000Like, if people got to see that fight, they see it.
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00:54:14.000Yeah, so look how Jonathan is never stationary, constantly switching stances.
00:54:19.000Look, I mean, literally, constantly and constant movement.
00:54:22.000And then when you're thinking about the legs, the jab, the step forward knee, everything is constant movement.
00:54:28.000There's never a chance for Yoza to set up and nice.
00:57:53.000My whole style is all the way out or all the way in.
00:57:55.000I got to get in and get to work in there, you know?
00:57:58.000And there's something to be said about that, too, because those two styles cancel each other out.
00:58:03.000If you have a long guy, He's not going to fight as well on the inside.
00:58:06.000It's not saying that he can't, especially with the Muay Thai.
00:58:09.000The way they clinch is actually very efficient.
00:58:13.000And with the boxing stuff, opening stuff up and being able to get your longer limbs in there is perfectly viable as well.
00:58:20.000It's just you've got to play off of your God-given talents and your assets.
00:58:26.000And so the shorter guy is going to negate the long guy by getting inside.
00:58:30.000And if the long guy can maintain the distance and keep him there, then he's going to win that.
00:58:34.000Yeah, there's benefits to all body types.
00:58:36.000It's just knowing what to do with that body type.
00:58:39.000Like, look, Mike Tyson is arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time.
00:58:43.000He's in the conversation with Ali and Joe Lewis, and there's a few guys that you could put into that category as the greatest heavyweight of all time.
00:58:55.000And I think Mike Tyson, certainly in his prime, was right there.
01:00:05.000Everybody looks at it like it's checkers, but there's so many more moves that could be made and that need to be made to be the best at this.
01:00:12.000And you really want to be appreciated by the people that understand that.
01:00:16.000You don't want to be the guy that gives into the howls and the cheers of the casuals.
01:00:22.000The real feeling, the good feeling that fighters get is when someone is a true student of the game who really understands what they like.
01:01:26.000You don't know injuries you're going into with it.
01:01:28.000You don't know what you practice leading up to it that you even have the capacity to think about and to act on.
01:01:35.000It's like there's just so many things.
01:01:36.000So, like, I watch stuff now and I'm so much better at that because I'm sitting there going, he could do that, but I don't know what he's seeing.
01:01:44.000You know, I don't know what's going on in his mind.
01:01:45.000So, yeah, there's different levels to it.
01:01:54.000Do you think that it was a benefit for you to lose your first two fights?
01:01:59.000Do you think there's maybe something to that?
01:02:01.000Because we were talking about your first two opponents in the UFC being undefeated until they fought you.
01:02:06.000They had never experienced loss as a professional before.
01:02:10.000And then they get on this crazy big hype thing.
01:02:13.000And there's something about being undefeated as well, especially when you're a guy like Wellmaker who's not just undefeated but a knockout artist.
01:02:20.000Like people get really, really jazzed up and excited about that.
01:02:24.000Do you think that maybe having that bad feeling of loss earlier in your career maybe grounded you more?
01:02:34.000I went 6 0 undefeated as an amateur, but I can tell you at that time, I was not living a fighter's lifestyle to the fullest.
01:02:43.000At that time, I would literally go to practice in the morning, and then I had to go to work at night or whatever, but I was like, man, fighting is the best.
01:02:51.000You just go wake up, practice once, you get to kick it the whole rest of the day, you get to go fight and make all this money and live your dream.
01:03:05.000But, yeah, it really showed me that there was change that needed to be made in what I did with fighting and what I did outside of fighting.
01:03:18.000And outside of fighting was arguably more important.
01:03:22.000There was a lot that I needed to change, a lot that I needed to refocus on and make right by.
01:03:28.000And it wasn't until I did those things that I saw this drastic change.
01:03:36.000That I erased all the negatives and then filled it with all the positives that I'm able to be on a 10 fight win streak doing what I'm doing now because who knows?
01:03:46.000I mean, maybe, maybe I would have changed that, but I don't think it would have been as drastic if I hadn't experienced those two losses the way I did.
01:03:55.000So before those two losses, your first two professional fights, were you kind of off?
01:05:11.000And it wasn't until I. From that course, and I started finding fun or enjoyment, or just maybe just trying to fill time and numb some of the things that I was thinking about or worrying about, or like that wrestling thing.
01:05:28.000It might not have been the biggest thing to people, but for me, that was my first time experiencing where I had just placed eighth in California State.
01:05:36.000I was fifth at the national tournament.
01:05:40.000I had won the U.S. Open for my age division.
01:05:43.000And then I go to this, and I'm on my own for the first time, and I have all this adversity, and it's just like, I don't know, I just felt like, why is this happening to me?
01:05:52.000You know, I felt like I had been abandoned at that point.
01:05:56.000And maybe other people would have recovered from it better, but that was a first time experience for me.
01:06:00.000So, but yeah, I was barely 19 years old around that time.
01:06:03.000I think I probably started fighting around in the amateurs around 20.
01:06:44.000It was, like, that all the way up until.
01:06:48.000Yeah, uh, it was after that second loss.
01:06:52.000I was probably still not doing what I needed to be doing to be a disciplined athlete, um, a respectable, just like, you know, good person, really.
01:07:04.000And yeah, there was a lot of change, a lot of growth.
01:07:09.000I had a lot of people guide me back into that.
01:07:12.000And as soon as I made those changes, yeah, now I'm here, haven't been able to live and experience it because that's the best teacher out of all of them.
01:07:23.000You can go and watch a YouTube video on how to do something, right?
01:07:43.000If I hadn't gone through that, who knows where I'd be and what I'd be doing right now.
01:07:49.000When you hurt your knee in college, was that the first time you'd ever done where you had an injury where it completely compromised your ability to perform?
01:07:58.000Or you realized, like, oh, my body's very vulnerable?
01:09:12.000That's why I said I clouded my mind with a bunch of other things and instead of focusing on it and thinking about it clearly, I just moved farther away from the issue.
01:09:20.000So, like at that time, that's what I thought.
01:09:22.000Now, being a mature man, having grown my relationship with God, having read and studied and understanding that, like I said, those hardships are what build us.
01:09:33.000That's what tests our faith and what really brings us closer to God.
01:09:37.000Now I see that it wasn't as big as I had made it, you know, but I learned and maybe fallen farther down the path.
01:09:54.000And especially when you're a young person, you have this idea of who you are.
01:09:58.000Having that get knocked down where you have to rebuild is very important because once you rebuild and you realize, like, okay, now I know what I'm capable of, now I know that there's going to be ups and downs, but I must maintain the path.
01:10:51.000I got, I think it was like an outside reap, and I went to sit up to grab it, and he had the position locked, and my knee just went like eight times in my ear, real bad.
01:11:02.000And it was in the same exact spot that lateral meniscus, that outer, which I don't know what other ligament is on the outside there, but to me, it was like exactly where the meniscus on the right leg had happened.
01:11:16.000But I grabbed up or sat up, I grabbed his arms, I kept trying to fight through it, and then he switched it over to the heel hook on the other side.
01:11:23.000My ankle popped twice as I rolled, and I finally tapped then.
01:11:27.000But I didn't even get an MRI on that one.
01:11:30.000It took so long that I was doing the knees over toes and strengthening, and I was starting to move on it that by the time they're like, okay, we can get your MRI in a week, I'm like, dude, I'm already moving and exercising and doing stuff on this.
01:12:13.000It's like there's missing padding on one side of it, it's missing.
01:12:16.000But I had a bucket handle tear and in jujitsu it would lock and my leg would be stuffed, like stiff, and I could, like, push it back into place.
01:12:31.000But it would take, sometimes it would take a day before, and it would swell up, you know.
01:12:36.000But if I knew, first of all, this is a long time ago.
01:12:39.000Unfortunately, there was no stem cells available back then.
01:12:41.000I would have 100% just done stem cells, and now I would have done the knees over toes stuff and a lot of cycling, like stationary bike cycling at not high resistance, is a fairly low resistance, is just repetitive motion.
01:12:54.000It's really good for getting the blood flow to the knees and really good for strengthening up the tendons and the ligaments and everything, but without load.
01:13:12.000Like, I think even like leg extensions would probably be like a good little exercise for the knees.
01:13:17.000I mean, it's a pretty deliberate spot.
01:13:19.000I think, you know, like backpacking, I think like a controlled version of that because there's a lot of times you're, you know, you're dropping down like pretty heavily, this and that, which is probably not the best impact on the knee.
01:13:30.000But if you were doing it like, because that's kind of the knees over toes, is he's doing some similar motions.
01:13:35.000If you had some, maybe not as much weight.
01:13:38.000Some weight on your back, you could slowly kind of find that and then have a soft landing.
01:13:42.000Like, I don't know, I was backpacking recently and I was just thinking about this.
01:13:45.000Like, in a controlled setting, like in a gym, like on a machine that I'm like maybe not as much as like a steep incline or decline, like something like that would be really good.
01:13:53.000And then the range of motion stuff is I've had, you know, with my injury and stuff and time to step away, I've had like a lot of opportunity to think and I feel like I've grown tremendously.
01:14:05.000And it's like, yeah, all the little tiny things like the knees, like they're fine.
01:14:10.000I really don't have an issue too much.
01:14:12.000Like, maybe if I get into that position, it'll do it.
01:14:15.000But it's like, you know, what happens when I do get into like a position, let's say a leg lock position, for example, or like a straight knee bar?
01:14:23.000And, you know, what if my flexibility is an issue there?
01:14:27.000Or just simply like a wizard position where the knee is getting popped up.
01:14:44.000Charles Poliquin, see if you can find Poliquin, very simple.
01:14:47.000You're essentially doing it either you're doing it from an incline board with like a little bit of elevation, or you're just doing it from a straight up step.
01:14:56.000And what you're doing is you're just lowering yourself down.
01:15:00.000So one foot is above on the step, and the other foot you're lowering like that, like there.
01:15:31.000I'm not doing really any exercises, weight, and I mean, I do little things for strength and conditioning after boxing, but I stay away from the weights.
01:16:32.000You're essentially like leaned over and then straightening the leg.
01:16:36.000You're like in a lunge, I guess, actually.
01:16:38.000You're in a lunge, the knee goes over the toes, you have the resistance on the back, and then you're pushing and essentially doing the same thing as probably walking back with the sled.
01:16:47.000The band is attached in the front or behind you?
01:16:53.000And you're lunged over the knee, the knee over the toe.
01:16:56.000And then you're extending that leg and it's just hitting that knee perfectly.
01:17:01.000It's very similar to the one you're talking about, I'm sure.
01:17:03.000Yeah, because so much time you spend pushing forward, and not a lot of people spend much time pushing backwards, but pushing backwards is really important.
01:17:11.000It's really important to just overall knee strength.
01:18:48.000And that's the interesting thing about conditioning in general we have these ideas of what the threshold is, like what a human body's capable of doing for five minutes, for three rounds, or five rounds, like in terms of what kind of pace that you could put up.
01:19:03.000And then you have certain guys that come along that sort of redefine what the threshold is, like Mirab.
01:19:09.000Mirab comes along, and here you got some guy whose gas tank is fucking superhuman, and he makes the best fighters in the world just wilt under this constant pressure of being taken down.
01:19:21.000And his strength and his skill as a wrestler is just this constant attack, constant, constant, constant, constant.
01:19:29.000And you wonder, like, okay, how long did it take to build up that reserve?
01:19:33.000How long did it take to build up that gas tank?
01:19:35.000That's not something you can achieve in just one camp.
01:19:39.000That's something that takes literally years to develop.
01:19:43.000That's why, I mean, like I said, going back to wrestling, what I would say is my superpower, my most utilized skill set was my cardio, my gas tank, you know?
01:20:29.000It's the mental toughness that comes from wrestling.
01:20:33.000When a guy has an elite wrestling background and he enters into the UFC, I always say they have an advantage.
01:20:38.000They have an advantage over everybody else because whether or not you choose to put yourself or you get coached by someone who puts you through hell in camp, with wrestling, you don't have a choice.
01:21:14.000And then you go and you do live wrestling and then finish it up with sprints.
01:21:17.000Yeah, to me, there's nothing that beats that.
01:21:21.000And I think the style of it is like go, go, go.
01:21:26.000Like even jiu jitsu, you're finding places to rest.
01:21:28.000You know, you can throw in the guard and, and, You can rest in certain entanglements.
01:21:34.000Striking is all about being able to have an explosive motion and then find your way to be defensive, to slow down what they're doing.
01:21:42.000You're either getting in and stuffing it, you're at a distance where you can be a little bit relaxed because they can't reach you, or you're moving off, making the miss where there's no resistance there.
01:21:53.000Just with wrestling, you don't have any of that.
01:21:55.000There's no chance for a break, especially if you've got someone like Mirab who's just on you 24 7.
01:22:11.000You'd be able to do the jiu jitsu entanglements.
01:22:14.000Like, you can hang for that duration of time with great cardio.
01:22:18.000It's also, if you could figure out how to be a great wrestler, you can kind of figure out anything.
01:22:23.000It's just a matter of taking that same focus that turned you into a great wrestler and applying it to whatever it is MMA, whatever else you're trying to do.
01:22:31.000It's just if you're willing to go through what it took to become a great wrestler, that's an extraordinary human.
01:23:27.000Because if you could learn how to move the way those guys move, the things that those guys, when you see like Michael Venn and Page just stump people, they're just stumped.
01:23:35.000Like I don't have any, like Kevin Holland, who fights everybody.
01:23:39.000He's fucking competitive with everybody he fights.
01:23:50.000And I always said before MVP came onto the scene, I'm like, one of these guys, one of these really elite point fighter guys, is going to come in and start fucking everybody up because you can't hit them.
01:24:09.000So, you know, they can utilize that a little bit to their advantage with that lungy in and out.
01:24:14.000But to be honest, yeah, that's something that, like, I've.
01:24:17.000Wanted to delve into a little bit more with myself because I like I can throw kicks really well, honestly.
01:24:23.000I have good flexibility, I have the ability to throw them with speed and power.
01:24:29.000But having something like that where you can throw it nice and fast and snappy, those little side kicks and the way that they throw the kicks is great.
01:24:36.000Yes, I mean, the only other relation I would have to that is the Savat style.
01:24:41.000I like the way the Savat style guys throw their kicks.
01:25:20.000That's why we were talking about the front kick.
01:25:22.000To the body is good if you do it like a traditional Muay Thai where you're going up and out, which is fantastic.
01:25:28.000You can produce a lot of speed and power, but I think everybody does this kind of shovel up toes into the body kick nowadays in the MMA world.
01:25:38.000I mean, Connor utilized the heck out of that.
01:25:42.000Most guys bring the toes up, and you better be very precise with that because all it takes is one elbow blocking down and your toes in half.
01:25:50.000Did you see Rodriguez's toes after he fought Fluffy?
01:26:27.000One of my wrestling camps, I was chasing my brother in the front yard the day before, and his heel came back, and my pinky toe was like this, straight sideways.
01:28:00.000I think that's why I've started seeing people try to comment the whole weight bully thing.
01:28:07.000They've said it to me on Instagram, this and that.
01:28:10.000They saw one of my training pictures where I was a little loose and they're like, the funniest comment was someone was like, Like, hire a nutritionist ASAP.
01:28:18.000Like, and I was just cracking up at that.
01:29:53.000Like this last time, I was taking all my gear off, putting ice on the body, cooling the body temperature back down, which is arguably the most important aspect of the whole weight cut the body temperature versus the dehydration.
01:30:05.000Because the body gets dehydrated and it has more of a capacity to deal with that than it does to overheat.
01:30:31.000So, you've got to think if you're doing multiple ones of those, if you're trying to make weight and then you have to fight the next day, you went through a lot physically.
01:30:49.000And you're throwing a sauna suit on as well.
01:30:51.000You know, the sweet sweat, the sauna suit, and then you get in that portable sauna.
01:30:55.000But it's like before I was doing that with a pair of, I don't know, like, spandex, you know, like top and bottom, and then a jacket, and then sweats, and then a big jacket, and then I'm getting in the 180, 190 degree, 24 hour sauna and sitting there for 15 minutes.
01:31:12.000It's like, dude, yeah, I felt, there's been weight cuts where I just feel like terrible, atrocious.
01:32:14.000He's only 21 years old, and people were talking about him being able to break Mike Tyson's record of being the youngest ever heavyweight champion.
01:32:22.000So he missed that mark, and then he finally got a title fight this weekend.
01:32:27.000Looked phenomenal for the first few rounds.
01:32:46.000Yeah, in the beginning, he was tuning this guy up.
01:32:48.000I mean, he's so fast and so leap, but he had never been into deep water before.
01:32:54.000Every one of his fights, he'd been able to stop people.
01:32:56.000And he hadn't had any real good decision wins where he fought a bit.
01:33:01.000And he's not the biggest heavyweight, but he's wicked fast.
01:33:04.000I mean, just wicked fast and beautiful technique, but.
01:33:08.000As the fight went on, he started to fade.
01:33:11.000And in the eighth, you could see him like really slowing down and just really trying to take this dude out, but couldn't and thought he could and was emptying the gas tank.
01:33:21.000Instead of boxing him and just outpointing him and being skillful, he just was inexperienced and he emptied the gas tank.
01:34:49.000Because if you look at his highlight reel, you're like, this guy's the second coming.
01:34:52.000Like, this guy is something really special, man.
01:34:56.000When you watch how he fights, I mean, his hand speed, his knockout power.
01:35:01.000And for a young guy, you know, this fight, I think he was 20, and you look at his highlight reel, you're like, oh my God, the sky's the limit for this kid.
01:35:31.000And he kind of thought that he could put it on everybody and knock everybody out.
01:35:37.000But, you know, this is like one of the things about any combat sport you have to know when to hit the gas, when not to, and you have to have those experiences of these long, grueling fights.
01:36:33.000And Jermaine Franklin was right after that.
01:36:34.000So every Fight has been TKO, I mean, if you watch his fights, I mean, they're fucking stunning performances, but wasn't really being tested in that way with a really big, durable heavyweight who could take a shot, who, you know, has a ton of experience.
01:36:56.000And, you know, now he's got his first loss, but he'll be back.
01:37:40.000But in the UFC, if you're a pretty good fighter and you're doing well and you win a bunch of championships and other organizations, and all of a sudden this opportunity arises, we've had guys with their first fight in the UFC fight for the world title.
01:37:56.000I mean, that's what you get when you have a melting pot of things, though, because those guys are well established in their own personal careers.
01:38:59.000They have all sorts of different promotions and different people you can fight for in boxing, but UFC is the pinnacle.
01:39:05.000It's, yeah, if you get the call from the UFC, that's where you want to go.
01:39:08.000So, there's a whole lot of differences to it.
01:39:11.000I just think whatever it is that, yeah, the MMA guys are more willing to step in on the short notice and put their careers at risk and put their, you know, opportunities to continue fight streaks or whatever at a risk.
01:40:03.000Well, you've got a lot of very smart people involved in boxing that are like managers and trainers that are like really working to build a guy and turn him into a prospect, turn him into a contender, and then turn him into a champion.
01:40:15.000And the UFC, you only have the one organization doing that.
01:41:42.000He wanted to commit seppuku because he was of that mentality, that warrior mentality, but his leader had commanded that no one was allowed to do that.
01:41:52.000This and that, but he's taken a lot of storylines, inspirations from all these samurai because it's going into a time period where the samurai weren't a necessity anymore.
01:42:02.000And so the ideology, the lifestyle, what it meant to.
01:42:06.000To live that Bushido lifestyle had changed a little bit and their purpose was different.
01:42:12.000And my boxing coach gave it to me actually when I was kind of in this limbo state of like, it's essentially saying, how should a warrior live outside of the fight?
01:42:21.000You know, like, what does he need to be doing on a daily basis?
01:42:23.000And, but then it's, it's, I like the real life, like, storyline because now you're getting a bunch of different perspectives from all these people that were samurai, all were warriors who lived that, who, you know, fought in battle.
01:42:37.000And now you get to see like a lot of different things.
01:42:39.000Like, someone says, you should do this, and someone says, no, don't do that.
01:42:42.000And to me, I like that because I get to kind of, Delve through all the mindsets and then apply what works best to me, you know.
01:42:52.000I've not been so good at staying off the phone, and you know, I watch a lot of YouTube, which is it's always fighting or some kind of gun channel or hiking or camping or hunting or spearfishing or something.
01:43:04.000But yeah, I'm trying to get way better at that.
01:43:09.000Like, I want to be more interactive with the world around me, learning things constantly.
01:43:14.000And so, picking up a book and reading it is.
01:43:19.000Along that set of goals that I have is continuously be doing that.
01:43:23.000Yeah, I think there's benefits to a lot of stuff on YouTube.
01:43:26.000I think YouTube is not social media, and I think I learn a lot on YouTube.
01:43:31.000And I just get it's for me, I like to wind down on YouTube, just watch some ancient history thing or watch a professional pool match or something like that.
01:43:39.000It's just a wind down time, but it doesn't feel like I'm wasting time.
01:43:43.000Whereas if I'm looking at Instagram or Twitter or whatever, it feels like I'm doing something I shouldn't be doing.
01:44:34.000That's where I love the YouTube, but I almost have to recognize that just because I'm watching a spearfishing video doesn't mean I'm getting in the water and going and spearfishing.
01:44:41.000Because sometimes I feel like I get my fix a little bit by doing that, but then I have to remind myself it's like life is lived in your actions and in your experiences.
01:44:52.000So sitting and watching the TV screen, somebody else experienced that.
01:45:10.000It's certainly not a part of the warrior lifestyle, as you were talking about.
01:45:14.000I mean, because then you want to think about your meditative aspects of how often are you delving deep into your own brain and just figuring out things about yourself and asking those questions and pushing beyond.
01:45:52.000Like, there's a Cronodalmar beach, and then there's a smaller kind of hidden beach that you walk down, and it's got plenty of structure and all sorts of fish out there.
01:46:05.000I've just been going shore diving and going over there, grabbing lobster when it's lobster season, grabbing down to the honey holes and just grabbing them with our hands.
01:46:13.000So it's all the shore stuff right now.
01:46:40.000I like it because I like the primitive aspects.
01:46:42.000Like, we talked about a little bit of bow hunting before.
01:46:46.000I'm really enthralled with the bow hunting stuff over the rifle hunt because, dude, you can sit at like three, four.
01:46:50.000Sometimes guys are shooting about like 500 yards with this big old rifle and you're just smacking something.
01:46:56.000It's like that thing didn't even ever know you were there.
01:46:59.000You know, you're just like propped up and there's a place for it, I suppose.
01:47:02.000But having a bow and have to get up 30 ish yards, give or take, and having to make sure they're not catching your scent and having to perform the stock.
01:47:22.000I don't think there's anything wrong with rifle hunting, and it's definitely the best way to acquire meat.
01:47:26.000If you're just going on a meat hunt and you just want to get your meat for the next few months, a rifle is the way to go.
01:47:33.000But if you want a real challenge, there's something that's way more special about a bow hunt.
01:47:40.000It's more difficult, it requires more practice, it requires more of you.
01:47:44.000Like, uh, I went out a pig hunt about a year or so ago with a friend of mine in California where we had had a successful elk hunt and then we went pig hunting.
01:47:54.000I hadn't shot a rifle in two years, a year and a half, two years.
01:48:08.000All you have to do is get the crosshairs on him, don't flinch, squeeze the trigger slowly, make sure you're in a good position, and know how to shoot a rifle.
01:48:18.000And once you know how to shoot a rifle, I mean, I'm not taking thousand yard shots, but you know how to shoot a rifle, it's pretty easy.
01:48:25.000If I was bow hunting, I wouldn't even imagine if I hadn't shot a bow in a year and a half of even thinking about shooting something with a bow.
01:49:09.000But at least, you know, we're out here getting after it and trying, and you succeed or you fail, but at least you're in nature and the experience of it is still really fun, even if you're totally unsuccessful.
01:49:24.000I mean, that's why with the spearfishing stuff, like these free divers that can hold their breath up to four or five minutes, you know, and they're diving 40, 50, 60, 70 feet.
01:49:33.000Some of these guys out there in the middle of the blue water and they're going down to shipwrecks or whatever structure is down there and they're shooting these big old fish.
01:49:41.000It's like, yeah, there's like, there has to be a skill set to that.
01:49:45.000It's something you had to work for to achieve, you know?
01:50:05.000I just did Mount Whitney last year in August, and I just love being out there in nature.
01:50:12.000So, you know, being able to engage in it that way, too, is like you said the excitement, the buildup, the work you have to put into it, the knowledge you have to acquire, the people you have to bump into.
01:50:40.000Yeah, because they're invasive species.
01:50:41.000Like, that's one that I'll get in the helicopter with a rifle and just take those guys out because I know they're just destroying animal, like, you know, like habitat and eating all the food and destroying the geography of how diverse they are.
01:52:07.000They're saying, listen, other than like declaring war on the pigs and bringing in the military and literally going through every state and trying to kill them.
01:52:16.000Like, we've got an economic war where these pigs are destroying people's crops.
01:55:21.000I don't know if there's any other animal that does that.
01:55:23.000Domestic kid becomes feral in behavior within weeks to months of escaping, becoming wary of people, nocturnal, mobile, and able to forage and survive without care.
01:55:32.000But it does not literally turn into a wild boar in one lifetime.
01:55:46.000Radically different skull is overstated.
01:55:49.000Adult pigs can become tougher, leaner, hairier, and more elusive as conditions change, but major inherited traits become more common when the animals survive and breed, pass on advantageous variants over successive litters.
01:56:02.000Evidence on fertilization emphasizes that these changes are shaped by both environments and multi generational selection.
02:01:00.000But it's one of the best shops in the country.
02:01:02.000If you want to get a compound bow and want to get someone to really make sure that it's sized correctly, that the draw length is correct, and everything like that.
02:01:49.000To your size, and everyone's different, so it's yeah, you'd have to really make sure that your bow is set up for you correctly.
02:01:56.000And it's just like martial arts in that you want to learn correctly first, you don't want to unlearn it and try to learn something the right way because you're always going to fall back on the way you got comfortable with doing it the first time, right?
02:02:53.000Directly related to fighting, but more of the self reliance and the self perseverance.
02:02:59.000Like, to me, like, I'm at home making my own, like, kydex holsters and my leather holsters and doing all that kind of stuff is a good start.
02:03:08.000I have this old truck that I want to tear apart and learn how to work on it from the ground up.
02:03:13.000Being able to hunt and provide, like, just, I'm always thinking, like, when shit hits the fan, I better be ready for it, you know?
02:03:20.000And so, being a martial artist, being a warrior encompasses a lot of aspects, you know?
02:03:25.000Hand to hand combat is only one of those things.
02:03:27.000There's a lot of different aspects to self perseverance.
02:03:30.000So I think about it a little bit that way.
02:03:34.000I do it because it's fun and it's just exciting to learn a new skill and then have an end product, something that you've made yourself.
02:03:58.000The end goal for me is to have probably would not be the only property because my wife just loves Southern California so much.
02:04:05.000But Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, go get a couple acres up there, move the family, maybe some close friends, and just have our own little self reliant thing up there with some crop, some wildlife, the ability to hunt up there on our land.
02:04:21.000A lot of the stuff I'm seeing up there, they have stocked lakes and the rivers have fish as well.
02:07:47.000Well, I think back then in the early days of fighting, there was a lot of promoters that were trying a bunch of different tactics to try to make the fights more interesting.
02:08:26.000And all you have to do is like land a few knees and a few punches occasionally, and they'll let you stay in that position.
02:08:30.000I feel like they're breaking that up even more and more.
02:08:32.000I don't think you should break up anything.
02:08:34.000I think it should be reserved for fouls.
02:08:37.000I think if someone commits a foul, then you stand them up and then you assess whether or not someone gets a point taken away or whether or not that person needs time.
02:08:43.000But if it's a place where you don't want to be and the guy's putting you in a place where you don't want to be, he's winning that exchange.
02:08:51.000If a guy can hold you down and you can't get up, if you don't like it and you can't get up, then he's winning.
02:10:21.000After he just elbowed the shit out of him.
02:10:23.000See, you know what's funny is like the 12 to 6 rule, everybody fantasizes about like how much better that is.
02:10:31.000And sure, you got some cutting, but your force that you can deliver, in my perspective, straight down with an elbow like that is so much more tremendous than you doing this.
02:10:45.000Big John McCarthy has got a great story about this.
02:10:48.000When the ESPN people, or the Athletic Commission people, rather, were first deciding whether or not they were going to sanction MMA, they had seen these ESPN karate breaking demonstrations at like 2 in the morning.
02:12:23.000They're doing something like that again where it's like, Striking only MMA, where I don't know if you go back to the ground, they stand you back up or something.
02:13:24.000I think it's the most, it has the most, In terms of like a sport that is not being taken advantage of, like that, it has the most potential by far.
02:13:35.000I mean, like you said, you look at the one championship guys that are over there kickboxing Muay Thai, and they're even doing hybrid fights for that DJ versus Raw Tang one.
02:14:23.000Just for me, when you see a guy like that cat that I was telling you about, Mega Medoff, who fought for PFL, more people need to know about these guys.
02:14:31.000There's so many guys out there that are fucking killers, man.
02:15:55.000And then you do a co promotion for like a gigantic super fight, like, you know, the UFC's version of Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao.
02:18:12.000If he can reach that height, as long as his body holds up, but here's the problem both of his ACLs have been torn, both of his meniscus have been blown out.
02:18:22.000You know, now with this, the crazy one, with that crazy jumping roundhouse kick, like, who knows, man?
02:18:34.000Will he put that time and effort to recollect and to be.
02:18:39.000Of that Zen, of that Bushido, like he used to be.
02:18:41.000Because, like, the way he used to talk and be philosophical and stoic about training, the way he explained it and delved into it, that's what drew people to Connor before anything.
02:18:50.000The way he talked about the warrior lifestyle and he didn't care about anything else and he lost his mind to it, those are the things that intrigued the people, this real, true warrior persona.
02:19:01.000And that was the biggest question with this last one.
02:19:06.000Everybody's like, oh, do you think Connor's going to do it?
02:24:43.000That's another, like, individual that you look at it like a work of art, you know, someone who really understands what it means to be a striker.
02:27:33.000You know, Benoit is obviously a very elite grappler.
02:27:36.000So it'd be interesting to see if he can avoid Armand.
02:27:41.000That's the big question right there, for sure.
02:27:44.000I would think that that's what his camp is surrounded around is take down defense, getting up off the bottom, blocking some chokes, and being able to get back to the feet.
02:28:07.000And you do need to have one, two, three escapes off the bottom, a sweep, some kind of ability to stand up, you know, and then, yeah, get back to your feet and make this a close fight.
02:28:20.000If you get stuck on the bottom, then you're done for.
02:28:23.000And I think for a lot of these guys that are elite strikers, it takes that one fight where you do get dominated on the ground to really have a wake up call.
02:28:31.000And I think a good example of that might be Cyril Gahn.
02:28:35.000When Cyril Gahn fought John Jones, Yeah.
02:28:40.000But the John Jones one was, I think, a real humbling wake up call because John essentially avoided getting hit completely, took him down, and strangled him real quick.
02:28:56.000I mean, and you see how he performed on the White House lawn against, you know, what we thought is arguably one of the greatest strikers that's ever fought in the UFC, Alex Pereira.
02:29:07.000And he certainly was at middleweight and light heavyweight, but.
02:29:10.000Cyril Gaunt at heavyweight is something special, man.
02:29:13.000There's a good example of a guy that you were talking about who hits and doesn't get hit.
02:32:13.000It's like, dude, when you fight angry, then you had all this skill, and your emotion could take it right out of you.
02:32:19.000See, that's another aspect of this striking game, of this MMA game.
02:32:23.000Do you think that that should be taught more, the mental aspect of the game, of just being able to stay in your own head?
02:32:31.000Not get affected by these outside influences, not get affected by, and understand what these things are.
02:32:37.000So when you encounter them, you know, like you have a coach, I think, that could teach you not just how to fight, but also how to maintain your peace of mind and how to maintain your focus and not get distracted.
02:32:53.000Like everybody's individual, you know?
02:32:54.000It's hard to have a program because you have guys that go to like athletic therapists or whatever, like performance therapists, and they sit and they do all that stuff.
02:33:05.000I think a little bit is you're born with it.
02:33:07.000You have the ability to control emotions better than others.
02:33:10.000Some people go through, again, back to just hard life experiences is the best teacher.
02:33:53.000And so we just sit and talk about what it means to be a warrior, the philosophy and the psychology behind that, what it means to control your emotions.
02:34:00.000When you're engaged with certain aspects in life, how do you come out on the other side of it?
02:34:05.000Like every day, I mean, oftentimes we just stop and we're just sitting and talking about things.
02:34:09.000And, you know, my wife's always like, You're just sitting there talking, hanging out with them.
02:35:13.000But it's interpersonal, you know, and you got to delve into that.
02:35:19.000And it's got to be its own practice, its own training for the day.
02:35:22.000I mean, yeah, if you get riled up by the littlest thing and then you go out there and you try to go crazy, you're just like a kindergartner in this fight game.
02:35:30.000You've lost everything, and emotion can do that to you.
02:35:33.000So, yeah, I mean, you have to be on top of that.
02:35:35.000It's, you know, I say there's so many levels to this there's the cardio, there's skill set, there's being relaxed, there's an emotional aspect that you have to think about.
02:35:45.000Like, you know, because everybody gets hit and, like, what's the natural reaction?