In this episode, we have a special guest on the show. We talk about his career in kickboxing, MMA, and Muay Thai, and what it takes to be a champion in any of them. We also talk about the UFC 246 win over Joe Namajunas, and the crazy things he does to prepare for a fight, as well as some of the things he has to deal with on a daily basis in order to be the best he can be. We also get into some of his favorite memories in the UFC, and how he has been able to compete at the highest level in all three sports at the same time. Finally, we talk about how he deals with the pressure of being the highest ranked MMA fighter in the world, and his thoughts on the recent UFC 246 victory over Joe and his upcoming fight with T.J. Dillashaw. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Fight Junkie Podcast, and stay tuned for the next one! -The Fight Junkies Subscribe, Rate, and Review and spread the word to your friends and family about the Fight Club Podcast! If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and share it on your social media so we can spread the love and spread it around the world! Cheers, Cheers Cheers! -Jon & Cody <3 -Jon Sorrentino - The Fight Club Crew - Jon & Cody - The Fighting Club Podcast & Cheers. Jon and Cody - The Fighting Crew Mike & Jon & Mikey . Jon & Jake Don't Tell a Friend of the Fighting Club Thanks Jon and Mikey talk about their love and appreciation for your support and support of the fight game and support the fight club! Mikey & support the Fight Game Podcast. - Thank you so much for all the support! -Jon and Jake, Jake & Jake's efforts to make it so much better than the fight room at UFC 246! Jake talks about his experience in Rome, Italy! & his love for the fight night at UFC Fight Night at UFC 244, UFC 246 & UFC 246 and UFC 246, and we're looking forward to the upcoming UFC 246 at UFC HQ in Las Vegas, and so much more! Love you all for supporting the Fight Night in the next episode of The Fight Room at UFC Hall of Fight Night, UFC HQ!
00:01:10.000It's still, I don't know, it's still something that, you know, when I first started fighting kickboxing, he was like, I don't know, man, like, be careful with it, because I would, like, kind of catch, like, the middle of my arm.
00:03:22.000You know, and I was hoping, like, he would shake it off, get in the rhythm, like, land a couple jabs, just like, you know, we were working on when...
00:03:29.000I sparred with him a couple times leading up to the TJ fight.
00:03:32.000I go up to Alpha Male to do my wrestling and a lot of my grappling.
00:03:36.000You know, they have so many 135, 145-pounders up there that, you know...
00:05:33.000But that would be hard to sell, right?
00:05:36.000Unless Henry was the champion and DJ took the crown from him.
00:05:39.000This was the whole idea was that, you know, Cody had beat Dom, Cody was the champ, and that Cody was defending the honor of Alpha Male, and TJ was this...
00:05:50.000Snake in the grass, they were going to put away.
00:05:52.000That was the whole idea behind the Ultimate Fighter.
00:05:56.000I don't think there's ever been a fight, other than maybe Ronda and Misha, that had more emotion.
00:06:54.000Because Gaston was a rising star in Lion Fight at the time, and the family, the Earlys, the Chastains, and everything's cool now, but at the time...
00:07:04.000The parents were very aggressive online towards Gaston.
00:11:02.000So he gets caught, he gets dropped and literally Eddie's camp was just swarmed the ring screaming and yelling Gaston's And I remember clearly seeing Eddie in that guy's corner, like, you know, just like, yeah!
00:11:18.000And like, he was just part of the camp, doing what all his friends were doing.
00:11:23.000And since then, I was like, I hate that guy.
00:11:53.000It's definitely bad for the fighters because it creates this added element.
00:11:58.000Fighting is hard enough, as it is, but when you add all this hate and disdain, the only thing you could potentially do is if you don't have a good work ethic, which obviously you do, it'll get you up.
00:12:10.000Do you remember when Buster Douglas fought Mike Tyson?
00:12:14.000Buster Douglas was a 42-to-1 underdog, but everybody knew Buster had talent.
00:14:42.000And I went back and I told him, I said, listen, this probably doesn't mean much to you.
00:14:46.000I said, but I want to tell you that I am more impressed with you in losing this fight and what I saw from you Then in any time else that you showboated, you won, you destroyed people, the heart you displayed, you are one of the best fighters I've ever seen in my life.
00:15:00.000Three months later, he hit me up, brought ice cream, came to CSA, and he said, hey, can I train here?
00:15:51.000When he threatened to leave, the first question out of my mouth was, are you going to leave the gym or are you going to leave my house because you live there too?
00:16:06.000When Eddie came, I was maybe 18. No, about 18. His parents moved back to Peru and I became his legal guardian so he could finish school here in the U.S. and he came to live with me.
00:16:17.000And I put him into college and all that.
00:18:54.000At that time, 2008, 2009, it's kind of the dark era of international Muay Thai here in America.
00:18:59.000The United States Muay Thai Federation, which is kind of like the Olympic, the U.S. Olympic Committee, because it's not an Olympic sport yet.
00:19:05.000It was literally, who can afford to go?
00:21:28.000because he heard i was that was only like my third fight or like my amateur debut right he was like and you know americans were in the really so he beat him in front of you like how so beat like just slapped the out of him like one of the worst things i've ever seen yeah yeah it's very very different over there and in the fight the crowd got behind gaston because he was doing very dynamic things he was and that was really small too i was only like what five five five four at the time this guy was like five eleven And in between rounds,
00:21:57.000my light switch went off with him because literally I go in between rounds and I go, look over there.
00:22:01.000I said, look, this is the previous world champion.
00:22:04.000I said, you are going toe-to-toe with him.
00:22:19.000And from that moment on, this kid has literally been my son.
00:22:24.000And what sealed it for me is while we were backstage, this kid was getting beat within an inch of his life by his coach.
00:22:32.000Gaston takes off his jersey, walks over and interrupts the beating and gives his jersey because that's kind of customary to exchange jerseys.
00:23:20.000Yeah, the crazy thing about that is, you know, in America, people don't even understand that Muay Thai could be that big somewhere else, that it could be that important to people.
00:23:35.000Muay Thai is a mystery to me, in the sense that I just don't understand why it never caught on.
00:24:31.000How come no one can figure out a way to make it exciting or put it on television and let people know, like, hey, this is probably one of the most dynamic combat sports in the world next to MMA? A lot of it has to do with money.
00:24:51.000Promoters will come in and they will be the next best thing.
00:24:55.000Lion Fight got it right the most and then they lost the AXS TV deal.
00:25:31.000It's, again, much like MMA. I mean, it was the right place, right time, right recipe, ultimate fighter on the right night, and great fight at the end, and all of a sudden everybody's talking about it.
00:25:39.000You know the story better than anybody.
00:25:41.000That hasn't happened for Muay Thai yet, and it's a shame.
00:28:56.000They announced Collision 2 and they didn't even put his image up and all of a sudden people are excited just because of him and Rico's first fight.
00:32:23.000At the same time, as they're trying to get away from my right hand, I'll switch stances and aggressively switch into the left hand and make it a power hand.
00:32:33.000And they think they're getting away from my power hand, but really they're walking into it and I make them switch into it.
00:34:00.000I mean, TJ's just blocking and looking, and Cody is just going for broke in everything he's throwing.
00:34:06.000Yeah, and when we were watching the replays, you could clearly see that Cody's path was wider, and there was more strain, and then TJ was more loose, and he got there quicker.
00:34:17.000And the knockdown, the first knockdown, when he tagged him with the right hand, that was really where it came from.
00:34:23.000They were both throwing at the same time, but TJ was also doing a better job of getting his head offline.
00:34:27.000And the thing is, TJ's relationship with Dwayne Ludwig is very unusual.
00:34:45.000And when we coached against each other at The Ultimate Fighter, he literally in the parking lot reminded me that he had the fastest knockout in UFC history.
00:36:12.000He's a rise to the occasion kind of guy, TJ is.
00:36:16.000And that's one of the reasons why I think he really thrived off this rivalry with Cody.
00:36:21.000Whereas with Cody, especially because TJ won the first fight and won it by knockout, Cody had all this inner tension, whereas TJ had this inner smile through the entire process.
00:36:35.000And I think Cody was definitely, it seemed like he was a little more emotional of the two.
00:36:39.000And one thing that I, and we were talking about emotions and fights and everything, and One thing that I always remember when I get emotional, and it happens in the sparring sessions, and it might happen in fights and stuff, and I always remember Kieran telling me, you want to be...
00:37:25.000I always remember Kieran telling me, because I would get emotional at times, and I would let my Peruvian machismo get in the way, and I was like, ah!
00:37:34.000You know, especially, it would happen a lot with Kevin, you know?
00:37:37.000Like, when Kevin first came to CSA... Kevin Ross.
00:40:47.000Now, what I was getting to was that relationship between coach and athlete.
00:40:53.000When it works out great, it's so important.
00:40:56.000And when you don't have that, like, I mean, there's no disrespect to Danny Castillo and Chris Holdsworth, who are both very good fighters and I'm sure are dedicated, but...
00:42:09.000But I can just see that he's getting nervous for me.
00:42:13.000Like I said, that just makes me want to do better and go in there and listen to him.
00:42:17.000Well, you also got to realize how fortunate you are to have found him.
00:42:22.000There's not a lot of great Muay Thai coaches in America.
00:42:27.000I mean, where I live out here, good luck finding a gym to even train at.
00:42:31.000I mean, you can go to some guy who's going to hold pads for you, but as far as legit Muay Thai coaching in the valley, you've got Saxon and Julio out in Van Nuys.
00:42:44.000But that's a half hour, 45 minutes away from here.
00:43:54.000I'm doing it with the alpha male guys because Alex Munoz is coaching wrestling for us, and I felt for me that was one area that, as a gym, we needed to grow.
00:44:05.000Alex comes in and coaches, so I coach his stand-up.
00:44:07.000It's been a good, beneficial relationship for both gyms, but I don't go there and coach.
00:45:10.000I feel like I'm getting so much better in completing my journey as a martial artist that MMA is definitely where I want to end up at just alone.
00:45:22.000And then we had the opportunity with Belter to do kickboxing and MMA and then maybe do a few Muay Thai fights on the side if it didn't interrupt anything with them.
00:45:30.000So that's pretty much how it happened.
00:45:35.000And he fought kickboxing, MMA, and Muay Thai.
00:45:39.000And if he was just like with the UFC, he couldn't do that.
00:45:42.000I think Muay Thai prepares you better for MMA than kickboxing does, not just because of the fact you have elbows, but also because of the fact of the clinch.
00:45:51.000People don't understand how much grappling there is in Muay Thai.
00:45:56.000Like, when you go to Thailand, and I went to Siksong Pinong, one of the best camps in Bangkok, and one of the best camps in the world.
00:46:03.000They have Siddha Chai was, like, right now the glory champion at 155. But they clinch twice a day for at least 30 minutes to an hour every day.
00:47:47.000So they give you an opponent and then you have to decide how to prepare.
00:47:52.000Like if it's a stand-up fighter, we just ramp up the stand-up more.
00:47:57.000Well, most of these guys, even the very MMA fighters and their stand-up guys, I feel like they're going to try to take me down regardless if they find the opportunity.
00:48:05.000Once they get cracked, they're going to want to go on the ground regardless.
00:48:10.000So we're always trying to work on getting right back up, working on keeping control if we're in their guard so we don't get submitted with anything like it happened last year on September 23rd.
00:48:22.000So we're always trying to work all areas regardless.
00:48:25.000As a martial artist, I always want to be ready for anything that could possibly happen.
00:48:36.000As a fighter, I've learned that I can evolve so much in just six to eight weeks, which is what people have as camps.
00:48:44.000And so you never know who you're going to get when you're in front of them in the cage.
00:48:49.000So I'm always trying to be ready for anything.
00:48:51.000Do you think there's ever going to come a time where you get into a championship level where you just stop fighting Muay Thai and stop fighting kickboxing and just concentrate on MMA? Yeah, probably.
00:49:01.000I think there's definitely going to be a time that I'm only going to be an MMA fighter.
00:49:07.000I would also like to be one of the first guys to hold a kickboxing belt, like a belt or kickboxing world championship, and be a top contender.
00:49:17.000I want to be definitely that kind of guy that can prove that they can do both at a super high level.
00:51:16.000What I was saying is people had this idea of who he was, and then he came on and did my podcast, and people were like, oh, he's fucking normal.
00:52:20.000It's one thing to fight Conor at 170, but Rory's giant at 170. And he's also training with GSP, TriStar, and I'm a giant fan of Farras Ahabi and what he's managed to put together up there in Montreal.
00:52:34.000They just have a camp that's such an elite camp.
00:52:38.000It's just a different level of just well-rounded fighters.
00:54:44.000How much does he walk around at, and how much is he depleting his body to get down to that 100?
00:54:49.000That's one thing I don't think some people...
00:54:52.000Realize, like, yeah, okay, you made the weight, you only cut in, like, seven, eight pounds, like, the night before, but when you're depleting your body throughout, like, that camp, I think, I can definitely, you know, people ask me all the time, hey, are you gonna go to Bantam?
00:55:05.000I'm like, fuck no, man, I like, I like feeling good throughout my camp.
00:59:21.000And he had three different shake bottles, and each one had different ingredients to be taken at different times, and it was just really hard for Dustin to keep track of all that.
00:59:32.000I don't know enough about what George is doing.
00:59:35.000Yeah, I mean, I get that it would be hard to keep track of it, but if there's a tangible benefit to keeping track of those three different things.
00:59:43.000Yeah, for me, the natural method that Dolce uses is what I'll use if a fighter's not paying somebody else to do it.
00:59:49.000So you have this rehydration drink, and you make so much of it, like a gallon.
00:59:53.000And you're only absorbing chia seeds, pink Himalayan salt, lemon.
01:01:45.000As far as like crealkaline and all I said, but creatine monohydrate is one of the only proven supplements legally that can make you stronger.
01:01:55.000But again, whether or not it's good for you, science says whatever, but at the time...
01:02:03.000I think it's actually been proven to actually have a...
01:02:05.000Jamie, Google creatine nootropic benefits, because I feel like I remember reading that they're actually finding that there's some cognitive benefit to taking creatine.
01:02:51.000I see these guys show up at the weigh-in, and I see their sunken eyes, their sunken cheek, and it makes me sick, man, which is why I constantly harp on this fucking 1FC thing.
01:03:01.000You know, when I talked to the UFC guys, I talked to them a couple times.
01:03:04.000I was like, look, you guys have implemented this unbelievable, innovative, and really just fantastic strategy for cutting out all the steroid use.
01:04:59.000Google exosomes so we can explain it in a technical way.
01:05:03.000But I had some of that shot into my shoulder with miraculous results.
01:05:08.000I mean, I've had a bunch of different things done to my shoulder, and then I always wind up re-injuring it partially, and then I'll get more stem cells.
01:05:15.000This had, by far, the greatest benefit of anything I've ever done.
01:09:58.000And she was in the gym the next day rowing with her legs straight.
01:10:02.000I mean, there's a level of just dedication and commitment to rehab that she had.
01:10:09.000When I tore my ACL, I have a steam room in my house, and I would just get in there every day and do deep squats in the steam room and just move through the pain.
01:10:17.000But because of that, I never had an issue with any range of motion whatsoever, where I've had two friends that have had ACL operations within the past year that had to go back and go under and get manipulated because they didn't have range of motion.
01:10:31.000So they take you, put you out, and just take your knee and like, crack!
01:10:35.000Because you just can't handle the pain.
01:10:49.000Well, I was, like I said, I tore my MCL completely gone off the top of the bone last year, five weeks before my MMA fight, my MMA debut, five weeks.
01:11:00.000It was like, I go in and the doctor's like, listen man, I don't want to scare you, but this is probably the worst MCL injury I've ever seen.
01:13:00.000Man, but did you think that for long-term stability, for your long-term career, it would probably be a good idea to have an MCL? I don't know.
01:16:12.000Is there a benefit to using infrared as opposed to a regular sauna?
01:16:16.000Again, I mean, there are 10,000 people that were probably screaming that we gave creatine a shot out.
01:16:22.000And I'm sure there are people that are going to say infrared is benefit and infrared kills you.
01:16:26.000But I do believe that, you know, again, hot cold therapy works.
01:16:31.000And getting your body hot and, you know, getting your body cool and manipulating your metabolism is something that needs to be done and should be done.
01:16:40.000Yeah, well, it's heat shock proteins and cold shock proteins that reduce inflammation.
01:16:44.000There's a lot of studies on that, but one of the more interesting studies is on sauna use and the fact that this reduction of inflammation has led to a 40% reduction in overall cause mortality.
01:16:59.000Meaning, an all-cause mortality means strokes, heart attacks, cancer, 40% reduction over a long study that they did.
01:17:08.000And I think they were doing it four times a week for 20 minutes a day.
01:17:42.000Well, I mean, the ones that are talking good about it, the ones that are selling it, they're talking about how much fat you lose and all this different stuff.
01:18:00.000The more that you can do and do it in all these different ways with diet and exercise and sleep and all these different, they all compound.
01:18:09.000For me, my philosophy with the gym has always been, and again, it's very basic, and of course there's something like overtraining, but no such thing as overtraining just on recovery.
01:19:15.000I think there's nobody that holds pat, like literally my day can be Kevin Ross, Gaston, Gina Carano, Zoe LaFrasto, Eddie Abasolo, Diego Yamas, little Stephanie, who fucking hits harder as hard as Jenna, my giant kiwi, you know, and that's four hours of my life every night.
01:24:53.000My son's 21. I think I made 500 bucks, the most ever one I fought.
01:24:58.000And, you know, I had to get a real job.
01:25:00.000So I was going to school, and I was going to be a cop.
01:25:03.000And then I met a guy, Tony Scotti, the godfather of defensive tactics driving.
01:25:07.000He let me in on a course with the State Department.
01:25:09.000I impressed him, and he made some introductions.
01:25:11.000And I became a State Department subcontractor and traveled the world.
01:25:15.000You know, ran a company, one of the largest private security companies in the world, Steel Foundation.
01:25:20.000I don't think they're around anymore, retired.
01:25:23.000That's so interesting, because whenever I see a gym as big as yours, and I know how hard it is to run a gym, I always go, how did that happen?
01:27:27.000And this is why I feel that our gym model is successful, is because tonight at 530 during a boxing class, My professional fighters are going to be in class with everyone else.
01:28:50.000Right, but I'm saying, like, if you're Ernesto Hoost and you open up a gym, everybody's going to go, hey, I want to go train with Mr. Perfect.
01:28:56.000You know, for a guy like you to have such a massive, massive gym and become one of the most respected gyms in the world, like, it's a crazy path.
01:29:08.000So, for me, I think part of it was just...
01:29:11.000I'm going to use a generic term, hustle.
01:29:15.000You look at tie boxing coaches, like you said, they just aren't very...
01:29:18.000The ties here in America, they don't take it seriously.
01:32:21.000You know, I guarantee you, dude, listen to this podcast, there's going to be a bunch of pro fighters that, this motherfucker just said he doesn't charge?
01:35:51.000And that's what I do every single fight.
01:35:54.000When you're watching fights and you're at home and you see, like, a guy...
01:35:59.000One of the things that drives me nuts when I'm doing commentary, like see a guy start to soften some dude up with leg kicks, starts to get that leg buckling a little bit, and then inexplicably they stop.
01:36:23.000But most of the time when I see people stop kicking on a leg kick that works, it's because they're feeling it in their leg too because they don't condition their shins properly.
01:38:59.000That's why I'm not a big fan of the rolling and the hitting, because all you're doing is you're creating these little micro breaks and fractures in variable spots.
01:46:59.000I've always felt like the best people that transition from kickboxing to MMA are the really explosive ones, which is one of the reasons why Crow Cop...
01:47:08.000He did so well in MMA, not just because he dedicated himself to it, which was a huge factor, but also because when you watch Krokop in K1, he was an exploder.
01:48:39.000And, you know, he might not have Gaston's look, he might not have some of what Gaston brings to the table, and he hasn't really caught on since.
01:49:49.000So as coaches, it's our job to change that.
01:49:52.000I struggle with that a lot with my Thai guys, because again, I'll make like Zoila, I'll make Gaston.
01:49:59.000I have these guys fight Muay Thai fights as well, because it's definitely going to help your striking, but if you fixate on that rhythm, that footwork, that timing in MMA, that's where you're going to have the most trouble.
01:50:11.000So those karate stylists are going to give you trouble, and the wrestlers are going to give you trouble, because you're never going to be able to sit down on anything.
01:50:16.000Well, Michael Venom Page is probably one of the most exciting guys in Bellator today.
01:51:47.000But the benefit to it is much like the benefit of learning Taekwondo early.
01:51:53.000You learn Taekwondo early because you develop leg dexterity that you would never develop if you threw in leg kicks and punches and takedowns and all those other things.
01:52:02.000It's very rare that someone goes through just a traditional martial arts or a traditional MMA background where you're just learning everything, takedowns, leg kicks, all those things.
01:52:11.000And you ever develop kicks the way someone who's like a real high-level Taekwondo practitioner does.
01:52:17.000But those Taekwondo guys, they have so many holes in their games because of that.
01:52:20.000And it's the same thing with karate guys.
01:52:22.000But that skill that these guys have of being able to touch each other first.
01:52:26.000I mean, if you add all that other stuff like Venom Page has, add submissions, add leg kicks, then you've got a crazy combination.
01:52:36.000Yeah, that's part of what we've had a lot of success with in our striking is that, yeah, Muay Thai, but at the end of the day, our boxing is, we'll box.
01:52:48.000But we'll also adapt our striking for MMA. And most Muay Thai coaches aren't really thinking how, you know, the MMA, like, you don't throw leg kicks when somebody's coming forward in an MMA fight.
01:53:36.000That's an MMA coach with a solid Muay Thai background who's understanding striking for MMA versus someone like Gogan who, again, One of the best strikers to ever be in the UFC who hasn't really adapted, unlike a Crow Cop, to MMA yet.
01:53:52.000Well, it's also Gokhan came into the UFC with how many fights?
01:53:56.000I mean, how many fights has that guy had in kickboxing?
01:57:42.000She weighs a buck 85 if she weighs a pound.
01:57:45.000I mean, she's walking around very, very heavy and thick.
01:57:49.000And so she obviously diets down, gets in the 170-pound range, diets down a little bit more, gets in the 165-pound range, and then begins the dehydration process.
01:58:00.000But she is fucking enormous when she gets into that cage.
01:59:00.000No, Andy has been great for the sport in California.
01:59:05.000And when people talk about, oh, Dana's going to change the weigh-in times and this and this and this, I don't believe that Andy Foster would let that happen in his lifetime.
01:59:15.000If you're going to have this weigh-in thing early in the morning, let them weigh in all day till the fucking limit.
01:59:21.000If it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon where they're supposed to weigh in, cut it off at 3.30 so you know for sure whether or not someone's going to make it.
01:59:27.000But the problem is you wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning, you only have two hours.
01:59:32.000That's not the same as being able to do it all throughout the day where your body would normally just lose a little bit of weight anyway.
01:59:41.000And that's where, you know, you look at the numbers, it's like, oh, you know, two-year span before they change the timing, X amount of people missed weight, two-year span since, this many people missed weight.
02:00:18.000I was talking to my girlfriend about it, and she was like, wait, wait.
02:00:22.000She didn't know much about fighting at the time, obviously, but she was like, you guys make this weight, but the next day you're not the same weight, so why not just not weigh in?
02:00:39.000It's sanctioned cheating, and it's cheating at a much higher scale even than PEDs.
02:00:44.000If you get two people, and they both weigh 135, but they're both totally hydrated, and one of them has been doing steroids, and one of them hasn't been doing steroids, the difference will be far less than if one person weighs in at 135, but then balloons up to 160. And then gets into that octagon at 160, but there's no PEDs involved.
02:01:08.000Well, that's a much greater advantage than someone who's doing some sort of a testosterone thing or something.
02:01:14.000Especially with more time now to rehydrate.
02:01:58.000I just throw my hands up sometimes now.
02:02:00.000I can't even say anything anymore because I've had so many rants about it and they've gone nowhere and nothing gets done and you still have people that literally have never applied an arm bar in their life.
02:02:10.000They've never taken a punch in the face in their life.
02:02:13.000They've never thrown a kick in competition in their life and they're judging these fights.
02:02:28.000It is crazy when you have unlimited supply of people who are martial arts experts who would make fantastic judges all throughout the world.
02:02:42.000I mean, how many fucking people are giant martial arts fans that are on, whether it's SureDog or MixMartialArts.com or, you know, fill in the name of the website.
02:02:51.000There's so many people that are engrossed in martial arts all day long.
02:02:58.000And they still debate whether or not Cejudo should have won round two or Mighty Mouse should have won it with effective striking.
02:03:05.000And it's like this real comprehensive conversation going on.
02:03:08.000These people that are judging the fights can't even have that conversation.
02:03:11.000If you had a conversation with half the fucking UFC judges, if I had them here and I sat them down and I said, you know, let's watch a fight and you tell me what you think is going on here.
02:05:04.000Now, in Thailand, they're starting to just kind of score things evenly.
02:05:08.000They're starting to do just three three-minute rounds.
02:05:10.000Yeah, they want Muay Thai in the Olympics, right?
02:05:14.000So you can't score the body kick more than a leg kick in the Olympics, right?
02:05:19.000The weapons have to be equal is what they want from the International Olympic Committee.
02:05:24.000Because it used to be like, you know, I've been to Thailand three times, and I'll go to Limpini or Raja, and These guys were like, and sometimes it would be foreigners fighting against ties, and they would punch and do all these low kicks and stuff like that, and then the tie will throw two body kicks, and they'll win the round, because the body kick scores more.
02:06:35.000And literally, my opinion is that she gave the fight to Yamato because I guarantee you she didn't know that elbows were supposed to mean more just because Kevin was bleeding.
02:08:18.000Miriam's fight at IFMA, she ended up getting her fight, she was the gold medal fight, she ended up getting it moved to the King's Cup, because it was happening at the same time as the World Championships, just because she was landing so many 12-6 flying elbows on girls.
02:08:34.000They'd never seen it from a woman before.
02:09:27.000Yeah, Cro Cop broke Bob Sapp's eyeball.
02:09:30.000Like, he punched his eyeball through the back of his head, where the orbital, you know, there's a hole...
02:09:36.000right where the eyeball sits like you see that thing yeah he was fractured behind it and so now bob's got one eye that's big and one eye that's little yeah from getting tagged by crow cop the the 12 to 6 elbow that has no more effect than any other and that was a straight left hand with kickboxing gloves on that's how hard crow cop hits yeah think about that yeah i was a bad dude man yeah he was a bad motherfucker and still is yeah And the thing,
02:10:04.000though, is that it just doesn't make any sense to me that, like, here's one that people are trying to say that should be banned, the side kick to the knee, or the oblique kick to the knee.
02:10:15.000How is that, why would you ban that when you don't ban heel hooks?
02:10:20.000Why would you ban that when you don't ban wheel kicks?
02:10:23.000It's okay to literally bounce your heel off someone's head when you're spinning your body around like a top and you have unbelievable power.
02:16:12.000Well, you come from a boxing background, you spar like three days a week, at least two, right?
02:16:16.000And you're going, you know, you're going as hard as you can.
02:16:18.000And then, you know, kickboxing, you know, ties, they don't spar that hard.
02:16:23.000You go, oh, well, you know, they're done fighting or whatever.
02:16:25.000But the truth of the matter is, is that with all of the weapons that you have in MMA and all the weapons that you have in tie boxing, you're sparring hard with those weapons.
02:16:33.000The chance of injury is through the roof.
02:16:36.000If you're throwing spinning elbows in training, it's a full clip.
02:18:04.000Yeah, well, it's certainly a debate, and your opinion is very well respected, and I am on your side.
02:18:09.000I like the idea of, I think you know how to fight, and what you're really doing is sharpening up your reaction times and your techniques and ingraining those paths.
02:18:21.000You're ingrating those reaction paths and I don't necessarily think that the way to do that is to go full clip but I think oftentimes when you do that it actually makes you have less options inside the cage because you're so like wound up and tight and when you're sparring that way you're fighting.
02:18:38.000Didn't Robbie Lawler stop sparring for a while?
02:18:40.000He stopped sparring for like seven years.
02:18:44.000I have people that come to the gym, and again, when it comes to stand-up only, I'll put our record and our people against anybody in North America, and we don't spar hard.
02:18:55.000And I get people that come to the gym all the time coming from a hard sparring background and they are missing weapons.
02:20:34.000I'll work with anybody that has a good attitude and is willing to embrace my way of doing things.
02:20:43.000Because I think he's a very talented guy and I think he can really benefit from training with someone like you.
02:20:48.000Yeah, again, and I think that the relationship that we're developing with Alpha Male, they've got a ton of great guys there, is a good one.
02:20:56.000But I'm careful not to overstep my bounds.
02:22:32.000The learning curve for a striker, they're two different languages, right?
02:22:35.000That's why the grapplers have trouble striking, the strikers have trouble grappling.
02:22:38.000Someone like Darren, who can do both, that can take a kid like Gaston and can walk him through the positions, the right choices, the wrong choices, in the moment while he's doing it, is very rare that I have found.
02:22:49.000Um, and Darren, you know, again, he's half Gracie Black belt, uh, feel a world champion, but he started out working the front desk at Fairtex.
02:22:59.000You know, that's his brother from another, you know, I mean, so, um, you know, we checked off bucket list for Darren and he's done two Muay Thai fights at a pro level now.
02:23:06.000Um, you know, just pro Muay Thai and he's done well.
02:24:22.000And again, that's why we talk about people switching.
02:24:25.000When we talk about Mateus, his opponent, I don't remember his last name, we knew what a great boxer he was, but whenever he went southpaw, he didn't do anything southpaw.
02:24:35.000Didn't Dustin do some work with that sand dune stepper thing?