The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #45 with Justin Wren & Rafael Lovato Jr.

00:00:01.000 Five, four, three, two, one.

00:00:07.000 Boom. 0.99

00:00:08.000 And we're live with my friend Justin Wren in the house and one of the baddest motherfuckers on the planet, Rafael Lovato. 0.99

00:00:14.000 Absolutely. 0.98

00:00:14.000 Dude, I'm happy that you're doing well, but I'm bummed you're fighting for Bellator. 0.98

00:00:19.000 Oh.

00:00:20.000 I really am, man.

00:00:21.000 I want to commentate your fights.

00:00:22.000 I know for a fact that Bellator right now is a higher level than it's ever been before.

00:00:29.000 Right.

00:00:29.000 I mean, you look at, they've got Mousasi, you, Rory McDonald, Lima, you know, Paul Daly, Machida.

00:00:39.000 I mean, it's fucking high level now, man. 0.82

00:00:41.000 It's like, Bellator is very close to comparable. 0.95

00:00:45.000 Still, I would love to see you over the UFC. Yeah, well, we'll see what happens.

00:00:50.000 But right now, I'm really happy where I'm at.

00:00:52.000 How old are you now?

00:00:53.000 I'm 35. And you didn't start MMA until you were like 31, 32?

00:00:58.000 Yes, 31. Four years ago.

00:01:00.000 2014 was my first fight.

00:01:02.000 Were you doing a lot of MMA training before that?

00:01:06.000 For people that don't know, you're one of the most accomplished Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts in the world.

00:01:11.000 And when you were competing as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu martial artist, were you training striking?

00:01:17.000 Were you training other things as well?

00:01:19.000 Well, you know, that's kind of my life story, I guess.

00:01:23.000 You know, my father is a lifetime martial artist.

00:01:26.000 And so I had a whole...

00:01:29.000 Martial arts upbringing well before I ever found out about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

00:01:34.000 My father was a Jeet Kune Do instructor.

00:01:37.000 And so growing up, you know, the main thing that we were training when I was a child was the Jeet Kune Do system.

00:01:44.000 Which was basically mixed martial arts before mixed martial arts.

00:01:47.000 You know, Bruce Lee's philosophy was way ahead of his time.

00:01:50.000 He believed in, you know, learning from all the arts and creating your own personal system of self-defense that involves, you know, each range of combat.

00:02:02.000 And so, you know, I grew up doing several different forms of martial arts, boxing, Muay Thai, Escrima, Wing Chun, Pinjak Silat.

00:02:12.000 I mean, you name it, I've probably done it.

00:02:14.000 And when my father discovered Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, I was an early teenager, like around 12 years old.

00:02:21.000 He learned about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in one of the Jeet Kune Do instructor conferences that takes place in California.

00:02:27.000 They brought in the Gracies. 1.00

00:02:29.000 They had They did shoot fighting and different sort of martial arts that included grappling, but it was very rough and not near the technique that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has.

00:02:45.000 So whenever he first started learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he fell in love with it.

00:02:49.000 My dad's a smaller guy.

00:02:50.000 At that time, he was probably like 145, 150 pounds.

00:02:54.000 So it was perfect for him.

00:02:56.000 And he fell in love with it and he comes home and he starts telling me about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and teaching me what he learned.

00:03:02.000 And we lived in Oklahoma and the instructor conference was in California.

00:03:06.000 At that time basically the only Jiu Jitsu was in California, maybe a little bit in Florida and then Henzo was in New York.

00:03:12.000 So everything was as far as possible from us because we were right there in the middle of the country.

00:03:18.000 And, you know, he fell in love with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

00:03:20.000 And so he started making trips to California to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

00:03:24.000 And I was just a teenager.

00:03:26.000 I'm a young kid.

00:03:26.000 So, you know, I was already doing some boxing at the time.

00:03:30.000 I was competing in amateur boxing.

00:03:33.000 And I'm used to training with adults.

00:03:35.000 And once I started learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I fell in love with it right away because that gave me something that I could do where I could be competitive with the adults right away.

00:03:45.000 I was a long, lanky kid, and the guard just felt natural to me.

00:03:50.000 And just being on the ground, I really loved it.

00:03:52.000 And I loved it.

00:03:53.000 The technique of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, how technical it was and the science of it.

00:03:58.000 So I fell in love with it right away.

00:04:02.000 We sacrificed a lot to learn Jiu Jitsu.

00:04:05.000 Being in Oklahoma, always traveled to learn.

00:04:10.000 The first time I went to Brazil, I was 16 years old.

00:04:12.000 It was in 1999 to train and compete in the world championships.

00:04:18.000 And, you know, we just never stopped and we became the first American father and son Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts.

00:04:24.000 But, you know, going back to your question...

00:04:27.000 The full spectrum of martial arts was always in my blood.

00:04:31.000 You know, even as a jujitsu competitor, you know, someone that found his passion in jujitsu, I still considered myself a martial artist first and foremost, not just a jujitsu practitioner.

00:04:43.000 And so it was always in the plans to one day do MMA. But I really wanted to go as far as I could in Brazilian jujitsu.

00:04:50.000 You know, I was there when BJ Penn won the world championships in 2000. And I watched him win and I said, you know, man, I really want to be the next American to win the Worlds.

00:04:59.000 That immediately became my big life goal, my first life goal.

00:05:03.000 And I achieved that in 2007. But we all saw BJ go straight to MMA after he won.

00:05:11.000 He never even did another tournament.

00:05:12.000 That was the only tournament he ever did as a black belt was the Worlds.

00:05:16.000 And he won and then switched to MMA. And so I really wanted to be an American, you know, just kind of representing for us in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, competing at that high level and winning as much as possible.

00:05:29.000 And kind of, you know, at that time, it wasn't like today.

00:05:33.000 The worlds were still in Brazil. 0.58

00:05:35.000 The sport was just dominated by Brazilians and pretty much still is today.

00:05:39.000 But, you know, now we've come a long way.

00:05:41.000 And I just wanted to be that force to...

00:05:44.000 Show everyone like, hey, we can do it.

00:05:46.000 You know what I mean?

00:05:48.000 It's possible.

00:05:49.000 Because at that time, it was a whole other scene.

00:05:53.000 The world's in Brazil. 0.76

00:05:55.000 At the end of the tournament, you're lucky if you had a handful of non-Brazilians on the podium at all the belts, including blue, purple, brown, all the belts, let alone black belt. 1.00

00:06:05.000 And so I stayed in the sport to really try to get a second gold.

00:06:09.000 That was the main thing that was keeping me in it, to win a second gold at the Worlds as a black belt.

00:06:14.000 I ended up medaling eight times, never got that second gold.

00:06:18.000 But towards the end, I was just like, you know, it's time to switch.

00:06:22.000 You know, I really felt like MMA was calling me.

00:06:26.000 Jiu-Jitsu was getting a little too comfortable, you know, and I had been fighting.

00:06:31.000 A little too comfortable?

00:06:32.000 Yeah, it wasn't motivating me and inspiring me the same way that it was in the beginning.

00:06:37.000 I kind of lost a little bit of that hunger just because I'd been at that level for so long.

00:06:43.000 I've already competed against the best guys of my generation so many times.

00:06:49.000 It didn't take a lot for me to get ready.

00:06:52.000 I was kind of...

00:06:54.000 Just used to it.

00:06:55.000 It's the same tournaments, the same season, year after year.

00:06:58.000 Same guys.

00:06:59.000 Yeah, same guys.

00:07:01.000 It just stopped bringing out the fire.

00:07:03.000 Every now and then I felt it, especially when I went back to compete in Brazil.

00:07:08.000 The world switched to the US in 2007, the year that I won it.

00:07:13.000 So I stopped having that thing to push me to go to Brazil to compete.

00:07:18.000 And so I went back a couple of times to compete in the Brazilian Nationals and I had really good performances there.

00:07:23.000 I ended up winning the absolute in 2013 in Brazil.

00:07:27.000 The all weight class division became the first non-Brazilian to ever win a major absolute title.

00:07:34.000 I did it in Brazil.

00:07:35.000 That was a day I was extremely inspired.

00:07:38.000 Competing in Brazil brought that out of me.

00:07:40.000 I just didn't feel that way all the time.

00:07:43.000 I just got too used to it.

00:07:45.000 I just felt like it was calling me.

00:07:47.000 I knew one day I was going to do it.

00:07:49.000 I had to have one fight, just as a martial artist.

00:07:51.000 I had to do at least one before it was all said and done.

00:07:54.000 And I really just kind of took it as a one-fight basis.

00:07:58.000 I knew I needed to do it once, and the time felt right.

00:08:03.000 Like, okay, let's go.

00:08:04.000 Let's switch back in to kind of tapping into who I was as a martial artist, the training that I had as a kid, as a child, under my father, under the Jeet Kune Do system.

00:08:17.000 And I did one fight, and I enjoyed it, and I said I gotta do more, and I gotta do at least one more.

00:08:25.000 So were you, the whole time you were doing Jiu Jitsu, were you training kickboxing at all?

00:08:29.000 Were you doing any wrestling?

00:08:30.000 Well, I always did wrestling, you know, it's a supplement.

00:08:34.000 That's a part of your training?

00:08:34.000 Yeah, supplement Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the no-gi competitions, ADCC, things like that.

00:08:39.000 You know, and I just believed in training everything.

00:08:41.000 I did Judo as well.

00:08:43.000 Like what about practicing ground and pound and all the other things in MMA? Well, whenever I was younger, my father, he had some fighters that he was training.

00:08:52.000 And so I trained a lot with them.

00:08:54.000 And then whenever I took over the academy, we had a couple guys that were fighting then as well, one of which went to the UFC. And so I was sparring with these guys, helping them get ready.

00:09:05.000 And in 2008, I met who is now my main MMA coach.

00:09:12.000 He's my Muay Thai instructor.

00:09:14.000 His name is Maricio Amado.

00:09:16.000 His nickname is Veo.

00:09:17.000 He is brothers of Andre Dita.

00:09:20.000 And they are both shoot box.

00:09:23.000 Is that why you were in Curitiba?

00:09:24.000 You've done camps out there.

00:09:25.000 Yes, exactly.

00:09:26.000 That's where Dita lives, his brother.

00:09:29.000 Dita used to fight in pride.

00:09:31.000 K1, I think he did...

00:09:33.000 Oh, was it K1? Yeah, K1. He did a...

00:09:36.000 Fight Japan. 0.63

00:09:36.000 Dream, I believe. 0.63

00:09:37.000 He did some MMA as well.

00:09:39.000 But he's more of a...

00:09:41.000 Kickboxer.

00:09:42.000 Yeah, striker.

00:09:44.000 And I met Mauricio, and I really fell in love with his style of Muay Thai.

00:09:51.000 And I had some guys fighting at that time.

00:09:54.000 What's the difference in his style?

00:09:57.000 Well, it's totally designed for MMA. You know, it's not Muay Thai for Muay Thai, you know.

00:10:05.000 They call their system Evolusantai, basically means evolution, you know.

00:10:10.000 And it's evolved into this system that is designed for MMA. You know, you're not just training striking for striking, you're doing striking to set up takedowns or defend takedowns.

00:10:23.000 It was just an incredible system.

00:10:25.000 Justin, whenever we fought last year, he got to train with Mighty UCO and experience it for himself.

00:10:31.000 Something special.

00:10:32.000 Yeah, and Mauricio himself is just an amazing martial artist.

00:10:38.000 You know, the passion that he has is...

00:10:40.000 You can't get him to stop.

00:10:42.000 You've trained with a lot of guys.

00:10:43.000 What was different for you?

00:10:45.000 Man, I think the way that they move and see the punches coming and the blocks are different and the movement.

00:10:53.000 I mean, just so much movement, movement, movement.

00:10:56.000 When you say blocks are different, do you mean to compensate for the fact that you're using smaller gloves, like a different way of...

00:11:03.000 Yes.

00:11:04.000 How would you explain that?

00:11:07.000 The offense and defense is so intertwined.

00:11:12.000 You do everything on both sides.

00:11:16.000 It's all very powerful as well.

00:11:19.000 It's designed for...

00:11:21.000 You know, inflicting as much damage as possible.

00:11:24.000 And for me, it was so good because they can work with me as a jujitsu guy much different because they don't have to worry about someone trying to take me down.

00:11:32.000 You know, I can pretty much throw whatever, whatever is possible, everything in the kitchen sink.

00:11:37.000 And for the most part, You're happy if someone takes you down.

00:11:40.000 Yeah, it's okay.

00:11:41.000 It's okay.

00:11:42.000 And then also I have the threat, being able to threaten someone with a takedown, which opens up a lot of striking as well.

00:11:48.000 And so the way they have this system designed is just perfect for me.

00:11:54.000 And Mauricio as a person is just an incredible guy that I really fell in love with.

00:11:59.000 Honestly, if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be doing MMA. He just made me feel like I had the right person in place, the family, to go into MMA confidently and enjoy it.

00:12:11.000 In the beginning, I wasn't sure how much I was going to How much I was going to like the whole process.

00:12:16.000 But you've been working with him for, what, 10 years?

00:12:18.000 Yeah, we've been training together for 10 years.

00:12:19.000 And you've been fighting for four years.

00:12:20.000 Yes.

00:12:20.000 And so I was bringing him out to help my guys get ready, the guys that were fighting MMA. And at the same time, always training with him.

00:12:27.000 It wasn't my focus then, but I love to cross-train, you know, and just the movement.

00:12:33.000 You know, I love the movement and keeping my body guessing, doing different things.

00:12:38.000 Yeah.

00:12:39.000 And so when I decided, okay, let's go all in on MMA, he was the obvious person to call.

00:12:44.000 And since then, he basically spends half the year in Oklahoma with me and lives with me.

00:12:49.000 And I go to Brazil to train with Dita and his team there.

00:12:52.000 What made you decide to do that?

00:12:54.000 I mean, that's a big commitment to try to go all the way to Brazil for your camps.

00:12:59.000 How many camps have you done down there?

00:13:02.000 Nine.

00:13:02.000 Yeah, I've had nine fights.

00:13:04.000 Basically every fight.

00:13:05.000 Wow.

00:13:06.000 How much time do you spend on that?

00:13:08.000 At least two weeks.

00:13:10.000 Sometimes a little more.

00:13:11.000 There's been a couple times a little less, but right around two weeks.

00:13:14.000 This next time if you fight Gegard Mousasi, you might spend three or four weeks?

00:13:18.000 Yeah, I'm thinking probably a month.

00:13:20.000 A month?

00:13:21.000 You know, it's just kind of full circle for me.

00:13:24.000 You know, like I said, I went to Brazil first time, 16 years old, going to Rio to train jiu-jitsu, compete in the world championships.

00:13:30.000 Did your dad go down there with you whenever you were 16?

00:13:32.000 Actually, my dad has never gone to Brazil.

00:13:35.000 Whoa! 0.71

00:13:35.000 You know, he's not a flyer. 0.71

00:13:37.000 He doesn't fly.

00:13:38.000 He does not like to fly.

00:13:39.000 When he was going to California, he was driving.

00:13:42.000 What?!

00:13:42.000 From Oklahoma?

00:13:43.000 Yep.

00:13:44.000 Over 20 hours.

00:13:45.000 Drove to your last fight in Boise, Idaho.

00:13:47.000 Does he know that a flight is like three hours?

00:13:50.000 He knows.

00:13:52.000 And he used to be in the Air Force, and that's kind of why.

00:13:54.000 He had a bad experience flying.

00:13:55.000 Oh, okay.

00:13:56.000 That makes sense.

00:13:57.000 He lived in Spain.

00:13:58.000 He was stationed there when he was in the Air Force.

00:14:01.000 But you can get him to fly.

00:14:03.000 It's a bit of work.

00:14:04.000 It's going to take a little bit of some drugs and maybe a drink or two to calm him down.

00:14:10.000 But...

00:14:12.000 Yeah, we did road trips on my spring break, Christmas break from Oklahoma all the way to California to train.

00:14:19.000 So he has not made a trip to Brazil yet, but I think it's coming soon.

00:14:23.000 He took a long break from flying, and in 2009 he had a heart attack.

00:14:31.000 Unfortunately, but he bounced back.

00:14:33.000 And since then, he's kind of reformatted his life a little bit.

00:14:38.000 And one of the things that he put his mind to do coming back was the famous walk in Spain.

00:14:47.000 God, it left my mind right now.

00:14:49.000 They made a movie about it before.

00:14:51.000 And that pushed him to...

00:14:53.000 Famous walk?

00:14:54.000 Yeah.

00:14:54.000 Why?

00:14:55.000 I can't remember it right now.

00:14:57.000 Yeah, you know where you walk?

00:14:58.000 It's a hike?

00:15:00.000 Yes.

00:15:00.000 Yes, it's a long walk.

00:15:01.000 I feel so bad that I can't remember the name.

00:15:05.000 Yeah, it's like a six-week walk.

00:15:07.000 And you end at a special cathedral.

00:15:11.000 There it is.

00:15:12.000 Yeah, the Camino.

00:15:13.000 El Camino de Santiago.

00:15:15.000 Yes.

00:15:16.000 And the Santiago is the cathedral.

00:15:18.000 There it is, the picture there.

00:15:19.000 So he did that.

00:15:20.000 And so he had, of course, he had to fly to Spain to do it.

00:15:23.000 And so he...

00:15:25.000 Fly to Spain to walk six weeks?

00:15:26.000 Yes.

00:15:27.000 That's...

00:15:27.000 Yes.

00:15:28.000 He trained for it and, you know, that was one of the major...

00:15:32.000 How do you train to walk six weeks?

00:15:34.000 Well, you were in a backpack, and so every day he would...

00:15:38.000 So you would backpack and camp out for six weeks?

00:15:39.000 Yeah, you'd just backpack through.

00:15:41.000 They have special hostels that you would stay in on the walk.

00:15:44.000 I mean, there's a lot of people that do it.

00:15:46.000 You're not going to be by yourself.

00:15:48.000 There's people doing it all year round.

00:15:49.000 So it's like that trail in Georgia.

00:15:50.000 What is that called again?

00:15:52.000 Appalachian Trail?

00:15:52.000 Yeah.

00:15:53.000 The one that goes all the way up to Maine.

00:15:54.000 I had a friend that just did that.

00:15:55.000 Six months, right?

00:15:56.000 Yeah, I know.

00:15:57.000 Six-month walk.

00:15:58.000 It's wild.

00:15:58.000 Yeah.

00:15:58.000 I was so proud of him for doing that.

00:16:00.000 And so he started flying again, and I think he'll be going to Brazil soon.

00:16:04.000 But you and your dad, to me, are something really special.

00:16:06.000 You embody the heart of a true martial artist.

00:16:09.000 You live it as a lifestyle.

00:16:10.000 And for you, even, and for him to be supporting you, you coming out of the womb, basically starting martial arts.

00:16:16.000 And then how he's supporting you as a 16-year-old going down to Brazil.

00:16:20.000 And how long did you stay there whenever you're 16?

00:16:23.000 Two weeks, a little over.

00:16:24.000 I mean, yeah.

00:16:26.000 My parents, both my parents, just have given me incredible support.

00:16:30.000 My mom, I mean...

00:16:32.000 My dad is a full-on martial artist.

00:16:36.000 He follows his passion.

00:16:38.000 He's a martial artist, musician.

00:16:39.000 He plays the organ.

00:16:40.000 Just a very unique individual.

00:16:44.000 He opened a martial arts school.

00:16:46.000 My mom gave us incredible support.

00:16:49.000 I just basically followed his footsteps.

00:16:51.000 Whenever I started to commit myself to going all-in, they've always been behind me.

00:16:58.000 And, I mean, the timing of it is just very special because he was inspired by Bruce Lee and that's what pushed him to, you know, follow the Jeet Kune Do system.

00:17:08.000 And so I got to come in in that, which is a very, you know, unique style.

00:17:13.000 When I was a child, I was training with Danny Nusano, Richard Bastille, some of the most incredible martial artists that have ever lived.

00:17:19.000 That's very fortunate.

00:17:20.000 And then I was at this special age of a teenager, you know, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu first started making its way to the U.S. And I had the support of them saying, yeah, you're going to go to Brazil, you're going to compete in the Worlds.

00:17:31.000 And I got to see Jiu-Jitsu, you know, very early on.

00:17:34.000 The first World Championships was in 96. And I competed in 99. And so I got to experience Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in almost its roots in Brazil and see what it's become today, you know, worldwide, such a big sport.

00:17:51.000 And now I'm also fighting MMA. So it's really cool, my whole martial arts.

00:17:55.000 Shoot-a-Box is known for some of the roughest sparring ever.

00:18:00.000 It was old school, the way they used to do it.

00:18:02.000 Do they still spar like that?

00:18:03.000 Because it used to be just gym wars.

00:18:06.000 I mean, and the criticism was that a lot of these guys were damaging themselves so badly in training that they were limiting their careers.

00:18:15.000 Yeah, I would say they learned from that a little bit.

00:18:19.000 A little bit.

00:18:20.000 But it's definitely hardcore down in Kudachiba.

00:18:25.000 And that's one of the reasons that I like it so much.

00:18:27.000 It gets me out of my comfort zone.

00:18:30.000 And you feel that energy every day.

00:18:32.000 You wake up and you kind of have to process what you're about to go to in the professional training every morning.

00:18:41.000 How often do you spar down there?

00:18:43.000 There's some version of sparring almost every day, basically every day.

00:18:47.000 But it's a different aspect.

00:18:49.000 You might be boxing only.

00:18:51.000 There's a Muay Thai only day.

00:18:53.000 There's MMA sparring.

00:18:55.000 There's grappling with ground and pound and wall work.

00:19:00.000 It's interesting because there's so many different philosophies when it comes to how often you should spar.

00:19:05.000 There is.

00:19:07.000 And there are definitely days where I have to kind of speak up and say, you know what, I'm going to pull back just a little bit today, just depending on what my body feels.

00:19:15.000 I try to listen to that as much as possible.

00:19:18.000 Aren't you sparring partners with like Vanderlei down there still?

00:19:21.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:19:22.000 Fuck all that. 1.00

00:19:25.000 Talk to people about that and they're like, you don't spar Vanderlei, you just fight him. 1.00

00:19:29.000 Right.

00:19:30.000 This scar right here is happening.

00:19:33.000 Could achieve a sparring with Vanderlei.

00:19:36.000 You know, you get more comfortable with it.

00:19:39.000 And the guys are awesome.

00:19:40.000 I mean, they are definitely my MMA family down there.

00:19:43.000 That's just the way they do it.

00:19:45.000 It's not a personal thing.

00:19:46.000 It's not like they're trying to hurt you.

00:19:47.000 No, not at all.

00:19:48.000 They try to hurt each other.

00:19:49.000 They sing and dance and, you know, hug.

00:19:51.000 And, you know, I mean, afterwards, everyone's so happy.

00:19:54.000 You make it through it and you celebrate it.

00:19:56.000 There's a crazy story I heard was Shogun and Vanderlei were arguing over the price of a pit bull puppy.

00:20:03.000 And so they decided to fight.

00:20:06.000 And if Vanderlei won, then he would get the puppy for free.

00:20:11.000 And if Shogun won, then Vanderlei would have to pay him what he wanted.

00:20:15.000 And Vanderlei knocked Shogun out in training.

00:20:17.000 And was laughing when he woke him up holding the puppy. 1.00

00:20:20.000 I'm like, what the fuck? 0.99

00:20:22.000 And they're really good friends. 1.00

00:20:24.000 It's a little different.

00:20:25.000 Yeah, somebody needs to talk to them about traumatic brain injuries.

00:20:29.000 Yeah, I think one of the things that they, the worst things they were doing, they were sparring full on, like two days, a day before the fight.

00:20:39.000 You see what I was saying, sometimes they were sparring right the day before.

00:20:42.000 Day of weigh-ins, they're sparring.

00:20:43.000 Yeah, there's some really funny, cool stories that they have.

00:20:48.000 Well, I guess you get used to it, so there's that.

00:20:51.000 But you also, you leave a lot of your chin in the gym.

00:20:55.000 I mean, there's just only so much punishment a body can take.

00:20:59.000 Yeah, don't take it wrong.

00:21:01.000 I mean, it's controlled.

00:21:03.000 Now?

00:21:03.000 Yes.

00:21:04.000 More so.

00:21:04.000 But I would say it's still more hardcore than the average place, for sure.

00:21:09.000 I mean, it is so open in terms of how people decide to structure their camps.

00:21:17.000 Some people have very little sparring.

00:21:19.000 Like Cowboy was telling me, he hardly spars at all.

00:21:22.000 I mean, he does just technical work and pad work.

00:21:24.000 He's like, I already know how to fight.

00:21:26.000 It used to be completely opposite, though, right?

00:21:28.000 He used to spar, spar, spar, spar, and now he switched it up.

00:21:30.000 But that's when he started doing much better, he said.

00:21:33.000 He said it really made a big difference because he was going into fights damaged.

00:21:37.000 Because, you know, he's so hardcore himself that sparring with him ultimately must become more hardcore. 0.97

00:21:44.000 Because he's just such a fucking wild man. 0.85

00:21:46.000 Robbie Lawler did something similar as well. 1.00

00:21:48.000 Same thing.

00:21:49.000 I think Tony Ferguson was just digging about that as well.

00:21:52.000 No sparring.

00:21:53.000 Tony had no sparring in preparation for his last fight?

00:21:56.000 That's what I saw in the post-fight interview.

00:21:58.000 What makes sense about that with him, though, is that he was coming off a catastrophic knee injury.

00:22:03.000 I mean, he literally tore his ligament off the bone and had to have it put back on.

00:22:08.000 And then six months later, he was fighting.

00:22:11.000 That's incredible.

00:22:11.000 There's not a whole lot of human beings like that guy.

00:22:14.000 He's a real freak.

00:22:15.000 That level of grit, determination to come back from that injury and to perform like he did with Anthony Pettis.

00:22:21.000 That was my favorite fight of the night.

00:22:22.000 Yeah, I really enjoyed it.

00:22:24.000 I was bummed out that Pettis hurt his hand.

00:22:26.000 He does not stop going forward.

00:22:28.000 No, he doesn't, man.

00:22:28.000 He never gets tired.

00:22:30.000 That's the crazy thing about Tony.

00:22:32.000 You know, when Eddie Bravo does his camps with him up in Big Bear, and he says, it's nuts, man.

00:22:36.000 They do hill sprints.

00:22:37.000 Everybody else is exhausted, and Tony's just lapping them.

00:22:40.000 Just running back up.

00:22:41.000 I mean, he's just never out of gas.

00:22:44.000 He'll work out six hours hard a day.

00:22:47.000 And on top of that, what he does is he gets there, they rent a house, and then he builds his own gym.

00:22:54.000 So they'll have like a house that they rent, he'll mat up the living room, and then he'll go outside, he'll put up a Wing Chun dummy, he'll hang heavy bags, He does it all himself.

00:23:04.000 I used to do the Wing Chun dummy, too.

00:23:05.000 Yeah, man.

00:23:05.000 I mean, he actually used Wing Chun in the fight with Pettis.

00:23:09.000 He trapped his hand and hit him with an elbow once. 0.91

00:23:12.000 And I remember watching it going, like, holy shit, he just used Wing Chun inside the cage. 0.96

00:23:17.000 Like, it works. 1.00

00:23:18.000 Like, if you really know your shit, he trapped his hand and then came right over the top with an elbow. 1.00

00:23:23.000 And I went, look at that shit. 1.00

00:23:25.000 Because he's always practicing it. 1.00

00:23:27.000 He's always practicing kung fu, but he's a very, very unusual guy.

00:23:31.000 There's all this talk about a Conor rematch, because financially that would be a fantastic fight, right?

00:23:36.000 Financially.

00:23:37.000 But when you look at what happened, that was a dominant victory.

00:23:40.000 I mean, there was one round where Conor did pretty good, the third round.

00:23:44.000 Other than that, Khabib just sort of dominated him. 0.93

00:23:46.000 I mean, dropped him in the second, beat the fucking shit out of him in the fourth, and the third was a round where Conor did pretty good because most of it was standing up. 0.65

00:23:54.000 I think he won that round, right? 0.98

00:23:56.000 Was that the first round Khabib ever lost?

00:23:58.000 Yeah, I think that was.

00:23:59.000 But it wasn't he won it running away.

00:24:02.000 It wasn't like that he blasted him in the body, had him hurt.

00:24:04.000 There was nothing like that.

00:24:06.000 It was just he edged him.

00:24:08.000 It's hard to make...

00:24:09.000 I mean, I guess you could say that's the same thing that sort of happened in the Nate Diaz fight, and then Conor came back and won the rematch.

00:24:15.000 So this is the argument.

00:24:16.000 The argument is Conor was rusty.

00:24:18.000 He's out of the cage for two years.

00:24:20.000 He gets back in.

00:24:21.000 Let's do a...

00:24:22.000 And then financially, Jesus Christ, I mean, it was the biggest fight of all time. 0.96

00:24:25.000 They're saying it was above 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, which is fucking bananas. 0.97

00:24:31.000 That's huge.

00:24:33.000 So if it's bigger than that, and then they...

00:24:35.000 If they could talk people into a rematch, I get it.

00:24:39.000 But I don't want to see that.

00:24:40.000 I want to see Tony.

00:24:41.000 I want to see Tony and Khabib.

00:24:43.000 Yeah.

00:24:43.000 He's more than earned it.

00:24:44.000 And the Khabib, the suspension, let him give a little money to somebody. 0.87

00:24:49.000 Come on.

00:24:50.000 What's the...

00:24:51.000 My take on it would keep...

00:24:54.000 You know, this... 1.00

00:24:56.000 The whole thing is fucked. 1.00

00:24:57.000 It's not professional. 1.00

00:24:58.000 It shouldn't happen. 0.99

00:24:59.000 But neither should people be fucking screaming shit at him while he's fighting. 0.99

00:25:03.000 And I guess that was going on the entire time. 0.99

00:25:07.000 He was apparently having... 0.99

00:25:08.000 Dylan Dennis in Connor's corner was screaming shit at Khabib while the fight was going on. 0.98

00:25:14.000 Which I guess gets annoying. 0.99

00:25:15.000 Yeah.

00:25:16.000 Did you see the new angle?

00:25:17.000 There's a new angle of video where Khabib's Russian manager, as Connor is tapping, he comes right behind Dennis and slaps him on the back like three or four times.

00:25:29.000 I did see that.

00:25:30.000 Yeah.

00:25:31.000 Kind of instigating something a little bit.

00:25:32.000 Yeah, there's that.

00:25:32.000 And then someone said Khabib that Connor swung first, which is true, but Khabib had already gone over the cage.

00:25:39.000 Yeah.

00:25:40.000 And then the guy was coming at him and Connor swung at him, but I think it was already chaos at that point.

00:25:46.000 It's all very unfortunate, but...

00:25:50.000 What happened really?

00:25:51.000 No one got hurt.

00:25:54.000 Connor got hurt more than anybody.

00:25:56.000 What was your point of view down there?

00:25:57.000 Did you feel at all like, oh man, this riot's coming towards me or anything like that?

00:26:01.000 Did it spread around through the audience? 0.97

00:26:03.000 I am so fucking numb. 0.99

00:26:05.000 I'm so used to beating the shit out of each other. 0.99

00:26:07.000 It's like, oh, now they're beating the shit out of each other over here. 0.99

00:26:10.000 Yeah. 0.98

00:26:12.000 It didn't feel any more dangerous.

00:26:15.000 I was hoping the chairs wouldn't start flying and then it wouldn't get too crazy. 0.85

00:26:19.000 And I was really, really, really hoping that someone wouldn't do something stupid and hurt someone to the point where they would get kicked out of the UFC or suspended. 0.94

00:26:28.000 But that might be the case with that one gentleman. 0.92

00:26:30.000 What is his name?

00:26:30.000 Zuba?

00:26:31.000 What is his name?

00:26:32.000 I should check my Instagram because it's filled with free Zuba.

00:26:37.000 I don't know how to say the gentleman's name.

00:26:39.000 I think I just saw that.

00:26:41.000 Khabib's like a training partner.

00:26:43.000 That's the guy that got fired?

00:26:44.000 Yeah.

00:26:45.000 I don't know if he got fired.

00:26:47.000 His fight with Artem was moved.

00:26:49.000 It's supposed to be with Artem and not a bad idea to cancel that fight because it's so close to this and obviously it's going to be so charged up.

00:27:00.000 Let me find homeboys.

00:27:01.000 Yeah, they just moved Artem in to fight Michael Johnson, I think.

00:27:05.000 That'll be a good fight.

00:27:06.000 Yeah, that'll be a real good fight.

00:27:09.000 Zubaria? 0.99

00:27:09.000 Yes, Zubaria. 0.99

00:27:12.000 Save Zuba. 1.00

00:27:13.000 This shit's all over my Instagram. 1.00

00:27:15.000 You crazy Russians. 1.00

00:27:17.000 I see what you're doing. 1.00

00:27:18.000 That's like all my mentions.

00:27:21.000 Zubaria... 0.94

00:27:21.000 I can't pronounce his last name. 0.94

00:27:25.000 T-U-K-H-U-G-O-V. Good luck. 1.00

00:27:30.000 Good luck with that one.

00:27:32.000 John Anik can pronounce it.

00:27:33.000 He pronounces it flawlessly.

00:27:35.000 Zabari is a very good fighter, too.

00:27:36.000 It's very unfortunate.

00:27:37.000 I hope they can work everything out.

00:27:39.000 He was supporting his brother.

00:27:41.000 He felt like there was a fight going on.

00:27:44.000 He was showing his loyalty.

00:27:45.000 I get it.

00:27:46.000 There should have been more security.

00:27:48.000 They should have been better.

00:27:49.000 They should have talked to these guys beforehand. 0.99

00:27:52.000 They should have stopped all this fucking nonsense beforehand. 0.99

00:27:56.000 It's... 1.00

00:27:57.000 It's bad for the sport.

00:27:58.000 It's bad for the image.

00:27:59.000 It's bad for them.

00:28:02.000 It's just, you know, there's nothing good about it.

00:28:04.000 But, to Khabib's point, there's nothing good about Conor throwing that dolly at the bus.

00:28:09.000 That was worse.

00:28:10.000 That was worse. 0.99

00:28:11.000 I mean, someone could have got really fucked up. 0.99

00:28:13.000 Fights got canceled because people got cut. 0.98

00:28:15.000 Yeah, I mean, you know, I mean, Kiesa got pulled from his fight. 0.50

00:28:20.000 He had a big cut on his head.

00:28:22.000 He's still dealing with...

00:28:24.000 Injuries, I think, from that.

00:28:25.000 Really?

00:28:26.000 Yeah.

00:28:27.000 I saw him at one of the Bellator's in Chicago there, and he was like, man, I'm still dealing with flash concussions or something like that.

00:28:39.000 I don't know.

00:28:40.000 It was really serious for him.

00:28:41.000 I think he took the worst of it.

00:28:43.000 How did he get a concussion from it?

00:28:46.000 Don't quote me 100%.

00:28:47.000 I know he had glass in his eye.

00:28:50.000 I just know that he was still dealing with...

00:28:53.000 Residual effects?

00:28:54.000 Yeah, residual effects.

00:28:55.000 For me, I'm torn because I was at a conference.

00:28:58.000 It was called the Summit of Greatness.

00:29:00.000 And we had a bunch of people that came over.

00:29:02.000 There was like 13 different people that came over to our Airbnb.

00:29:05.000 Had a blast.

00:29:06.000 There were some incredible people there.

00:29:09.000 There's a guy that I think you need to know of.

00:29:11.000 His name is Nick Santanastasso.

00:29:13.000 And he's a guy that is incredibly inspirational to me.

00:29:17.000 I've gotten to know him.

00:29:18.000 And he's got only one arm, no legs.

00:29:22.000 He's got one finger on one hand.

00:29:23.000 But the way that he's overcome adversity in his life, incredible dude.

00:29:29.000 He first started with skateboarding with one arm and doing handstands on the skateboard.

00:29:33.000 After that, he started doing bowling.

00:29:36.000 And then from there, he had a little bit of an arm on his left arm.

00:29:41.000 Sorry, yeah, his right arm.

00:29:43.000 And he wanted to wrestle, but his parents said that he had this, his bone was growing faster than his skin.

00:29:51.000 And so on one of his arms, it has like a problem with it.

00:29:56.000 And so he wanted to wrestle, but they said if he landed on that part of his arm, that the bone would stick through.

00:30:01.000 It would stick through and like stab into the mat and that there's no way he could wrestle.

00:30:06.000 And he looked at his mom and dad and he thought about it for months and he said, mom and dad, what if we just cut it off?

00:30:12.000 Oh, Jesus.

00:30:13.000 And they're like, what?

00:30:14.000 And Nick says, what if you just cut off my arm?

00:30:16.000 Can I wrestle then?

00:30:18.000 You know, my other arm's good.

00:30:19.000 And they said, Nick, you're being pretty extreme here.

00:30:22.000 Let's not call it cutting it off.

00:30:24.000 Let's call it amputation.

00:30:25.000 And no, you can't do that.

00:30:27.000 Well, he just kept pushing the issue.

00:30:29.000 There he is right there.

00:30:30.000 And his Instagram is...

00:30:33.000 Yep.

00:30:33.000 So right there, it used to be five or six inches longer than that.

00:30:36.000 And he went and got it lasered off.

00:30:38.000 And what he says is that he wants...

00:30:40.000 So yeah, buddies with The Rock.

00:30:42.000 He's a bodybuilder too.

00:30:44.000 He just wrote a book that's available on Amazon.

00:30:47.000 I think it's called like... 0.99

00:30:48.000 Holy shit. 0.99

00:30:48.000 From Victim to Victor. 0.99

00:30:50.000 Yeah, I mean, that tire flip, on his Instagram, it's wild if you want to pull that up.

00:30:55.000 But he's a really inspirational guy to me.

00:30:59.000 And he, literally, so on that top left picture, he calls that on his other arm, he calls that his potato.

00:31:07.000 That's what he calls it.

00:31:08.000 But he had to have five or six inches cut off so that he could wrestle.

00:31:13.000 And really inspirational guy to me.

00:31:15.000 He's been on like Ed Milet's podcast and Lewis Howes and his stories there are incredibly inspirational.

00:31:21.000 I thought the Neil Melanson story was crazy.

00:31:24.000 What's that?

00:31:24.000 Neil Melanson.

00:31:25.000 Yeah.

00:31:26.000 He broke his toe real bad.

00:31:29.000 Yeah.

00:31:29.000 And they were saying you couldn't roll for six months.

00:31:32.000 He had to put in a splint.

00:31:33.000 He said, how about you just cut it off?

00:31:35.000 Wow.

00:31:35.000 And they said, okay.

00:31:37.000 So they did it.

00:31:38.000 You know, you've seen Neil Melanson.

00:31:40.000 He's a giant gorilla.

00:31:41.000 Yeah, for sure.

00:31:41.000 I didn't know he did that, though.

00:31:42.000 If he says, cut my toe off, you just go, okay. 0.93

00:31:45.000 We'll just cut your toe off, man. 0.92

00:31:46.000 I've got to train tomorrow. 1.00

00:31:47.000 Don't kill me. 1.00

00:31:48.000 He fucking had his toe cut off so he could keep training. 1.00

00:31:51.000 Wow. 0.99

00:31:52.000 So Nick and him, they've got some screws loose, but they're committed.

00:31:54.000 How committed are you that you want to...

00:31:56.000 That's pretty committed.

00:31:57.000 This goal, this dream.

00:31:58.000 His dream, he grew up in New Jersey.

00:32:01.000 He's like, I want to be a wrestler.

00:32:02.000 Wow.

00:32:02.000 And so I'm going to do this.

00:32:05.000 Incredibly inspirational guy.

00:32:06.000 So him and 12 other guys came over to our Airbnb and we watched the fights and it was Conor vs.

00:32:11.000 Khabib and we loved watching everything that night.

00:32:14.000 And then whenever that happened, so I'm torn on it because I love those guys as fighters.

00:32:19.000 I absolutely love them as fighters.

00:32:21.000 And then whenever that happened, it was just something that In me, I don't know if I was embarrassed or if I was disappointed, but we were introducing some guys.

00:32:29.000 Steve Weatherford, who played for the New York Giants, he came over for like...

00:32:33.000 He played for the Giants for like 10 or 12 years.

00:32:36.000 Lives in San Diego.

00:32:37.000 Great guy, but he's not a big MMA fan.

00:32:39.000 So I was explaining everything to him.

00:32:41.000 And when that happened, it was just pretty disappointing.

00:32:43.000 Then I spoke at...

00:32:45.000 At Anti-Bullying Coalition in Tulsa.

00:32:49.000 And I went there and there was this girl there that she looked real sweet, real quiet, introverted. 1.00

00:32:55.000 And she worked with mental health.

00:32:57.000 And her name was Allie.

00:32:59.000 All of a sudden, she found out I was an MMA fighter.

00:33:01.000 And she said, Oh my gosh.

00:33:02.000 You know, my husband's a huge MMA fan.

00:33:04.000 I'm not at all.

00:33:05.000 I never really even sat down and watched it with him.

00:33:07.000 But then he decided to take me to the T-Mobile Arena for her first fight was Conor Khabib. 0.81

00:33:14.000 And she was in there, and she said she loved it.

00:33:17.000 Before that, Michelle Waterson was an incredible inspiration to her, her saying that she wants to be the first mom to be a UFC champion.

00:33:24.000 She said that the night was going great.

00:33:25.000 And then whenever that happened, she said, It literally scared her because fights started popping off to the right of her, left of her, behind her.

00:33:33.000 She just kind of poured out into the arena. 0.99

00:33:35.000 And so that was her first introduction to MMA. So that was a little tough to see, but at the same time, I get it.

00:33:40.000 Like, those emotions are flaring.

00:33:42.000 And you were talking about it, too.

00:33:45.000 And kind of your perspective of martial artist.

00:33:48.000 Yeah, I mean, same thing that you were feeling, just, you know, that little bit of kind of sadness and disappointment of, you know, the biggest event, the most views, the most people watching, and that's the last thing that they see.

00:34:01.000 That's what they, you know, go to bed thinking about and feeling about.

00:34:07.000 I don't think...

00:34:08.000 Even Conor and Khabib, that's not who they are as martial artists.

00:34:13.000 Sure, all the motions are flying, and they have a history, and it's hard to let that go.

00:34:21.000 But I just don't feel like that's even who they really are.

00:34:26.000 You see in all their other fights, they respect their opponents.

00:34:30.000 I'm going to disagree with you.

00:34:32.000 I mean, look...

00:34:34.000 Conor, that's what he does. 1.00

00:34:36.000 He talks shit to people and fucks with their head. 1.00

00:34:38.000 I mean, it's a giant part of his game. 1.00

00:34:41.000 And I know that that was part of the strategy of him throwing that dolly at the bus. 1.00

00:34:46.000 That shit's way out of line. 0.99

00:34:48.000 I mean, throwing a dolly at the bus, that's not what a martial artist does. 1.00

00:34:52.000 If you stop and think about...

00:34:54.000 What we value about martial arts in terms of teaching children honor and respect and discipline and the things when we think of as a classical martial artist like Liotta Machida or someone like that bowing to their opponent.

00:35:08.000 That is not.

00:35:10.000 This is theatrics.

00:35:12.000 This is hype.

00:35:13.000 But in all fairness, the UFC used that to sell that fight.

00:35:17.000 I mean, that was a big part of their promotional campaign was seeing Conor throw the dolly at the bus and the screaming and the yelling.

00:35:23.000 You know, you're setting an example.

00:35:27.000 There's something going on outside of the actual contest itself.

00:35:31.000 There's all this extracurricular violence.

00:35:33.000 There's throwing a dolly at a bus, shattering in the window, all these guys running and screaming, get off the bus, and then they're promoting this.

00:35:41.000 They're showing this.

00:35:42.000 And then everyone's shocked that it escalates after the fight itself.

00:35:47.000 You know, one of the In some ways, one of the more interesting moments of the fight was Khabib on top of Conor, beating the shit out of him, going, let's talk now.

00:35:58.000 Have you seen that video?

00:35:59.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:35:59.000 That's fucking terrifying. 0.99

00:36:00.000 Yeah, it is. 0.99

00:36:00.000 It's like, come on, let's talk. 0.99

00:36:01.000 Bam! 0.98

00:36:02.000 And he's just slamming him.

00:36:03.000 Bam! 0.98

00:36:03.000 He told him he was going to do that before the fight, too. 0.98

00:36:05.000 Yeah, we're going to talk.

00:36:06.000 We're going to talk. 0.98

00:36:07.000 When I'm on top of you and you're tired and I'm beating the fuck out of you, that's when we're going to talk. 0.98

00:36:11.000 And that's what he did. 0.95

00:36:12.000 You know, this is all not what Khabib does.

00:36:16.000 Right.

00:36:16.000 This is outside of his...

00:36:20.000 If you look at his standard behavior, he's very respectful.

00:36:23.000 I mean, he's never had an incident like this ever in a fight.

00:36:26.000 All of his fights before that are him shaking his opponent's hand, doing the standard stare-down, standard stuff, talking about his skill set and what he's going to do.

00:36:36.000 And there's no disrespect.

00:36:38.000 There's no insults.

00:36:39.000 There's none of this.

00:36:40.000 That's what I mean about Khabib.

00:36:41.000 Yeah, but not Conor.

00:36:43.000 But here's the other thing.

00:36:45.000 On the other side, it makes it fun. 0.98

00:36:48.000 I'm very torn because all the shit that he talked to Jose Aldo, look, that was a big factor in Jose Aldo charging at him, losing his composure, face first, and getting clipped with that left hand. 0.97

00:37:00.000 That's a big factor, is the emotional angst that he had gone through for months and months on the road with this guy. 0.99

00:37:06.000 Yeah, I mean, that mental warfare is a real thing.

00:37:09.000 It just didn't work with Khabib.

00:37:11.000 It had the opposite effect. 0.99

00:37:12.000 With Khabib, he's like, I can't wait to get my fucking hands on you. 0.99

00:37:17.000 It wasn't, I can't believe this guy's saying these things to me. 0.98

00:37:21.000 With Khabib, but it ramped up the violence to the point where he was letting you know, like, hey, this is real to me.

00:37:27.000 If you want to act thuggish, we'll just keep going.

00:37:31.000 I'll keep taking this.

00:37:33.000 He didn't want to stop after Connor had tapped.

00:37:35.000 He was holding on to him. 1.00

00:37:37.000 And he's letting him know, hey, motherfucker, this is real. 1.00

00:37:40.000 This is not just shit talking. 1.00

00:37:42.000 Connor was saying to him, this is just business. 0.99

00:37:44.000 It's just business.

00:37:45.000 And he's like, let's talk now.

00:37:46.000 Let's talk now.

00:37:48.000 He's like, this is not business to him.

00:37:50.000 So to him...

00:37:52.000 Fights, I mean, this is what he said in the press conference.

00:37:54.000 It should be, this is a respect sport.

00:37:57.000 And this sport should be about two men expressing themselves to the best of their physical ability inside the cage.

00:38:04.000 Just doing their best against the best fighters in the world.

00:38:08.000 And that should speak for itself.

00:38:10.000 And that they should have respect and honor outside of it.

00:38:14.000 I wish you would have had the chance to say that.

00:38:16.000 The sad part was him letting the emotions take over what he felt and instead of just getting the belt tied on and kind of killing them with kindness at the end and saying that and having that chance to put that in everyone's minds and ears.

00:38:31.000 He did in the post-fight interview, or the post-fight press conference, but how many people got a chance to see that?

00:38:38.000 I mean, just a few thousand, I'm sure, in comparison to the 2.4 million that downloaded the pay-per-view and the many, many, many, many more that saw YouTube clips and Instagram clips.

00:38:49.000 Yeah, I mean, everybody saw it.

00:38:51.000 It's unfortunate, but it's also a financial windfall. 0.98

00:38:56.000 The whole thing, it's weird because part of what makes Conor so interesting is that he's so good at talking shit, he's hilarious, and he knows how to back it up. 0.97

00:39:07.000 But when we saw him fight Khabib, he just fell short. 0.98

00:39:12.000 It's really that simple.

00:39:13.000 When skill versus skill, he fell short. 0.99

00:39:16.000 And the shit-talking led to Khabib taking it very personal, and very personal at the end, and then pointing at Dylan Dennis and jumping off the top of the cage. 0.99

00:39:30.000 The whole thing was just... 1.00

00:39:31.000 It's so fucking crazy. 0.95

00:39:32.000 But the idea that people should be surprised after Connor throws a dolly at the bus and then still winds up able to fight. 0.98

00:39:41.000 I mean, what did he do?

00:39:42.000 Paid some money?

00:39:43.000 Did some...

00:39:43.000 I mean, he's got to do some service.

00:39:47.000 What is it?

00:39:47.000 Is it community service?

00:39:48.000 I don't even know what he has to do.

00:39:49.000 I don't either.

00:39:50.000 That's where it's not.

00:39:51.000 Yeah, it's kind of crazy. 0.97

00:39:53.000 Throwing a dolly is fucking way worse than punching a guy who punches people for a living, which is Dylan Dennis is a professional fighter. 0.97

00:40:01.000 He's a professional fighter. 0.99

00:40:02.000 He jumps out, he takes a swing at him. 1.00

00:40:04.000 They're screaming, and Dylan's like, fuck you, and he's like, fuck you, and there's a bunch of people get involved, and then a bunch of other people jump in. 1.00

00:40:10.000 The whole thing was nuts, but the idea that we should be shocked after him throwing a dolly at a bus because Khabib's on the bus, those Russians don't fucking play like that, man. 1.00

00:40:22.000 Did you see the videos afterwards in Dagestan where they're shooting off the Uzis and AK-47s? 0.98

00:40:26.000 So I wrestled there when I was like 18.

00:40:29.000 Wrestled there and it was crazy.

00:40:31.000 They were taking us around everywhere in G-wagons.

00:40:33.000 And the ones in front of us had like armed, I don't know, machine guns on top of them.

00:40:38.000 The one behind us armed machine guns on top of them.

00:40:40.000 And then what was it?

00:40:42.000 We were walking through one of the streets.

00:40:44.000 And there's these big chains that are in between the road and the sidewalk.

00:40:49.000 And we're walking down the sidewalk.

00:40:50.000 And all of a sudden there's like a laser that comes over.

00:40:54.000 And our guys are like, we got to go.

00:40:57.000 All of a sudden, a car came up onto the sidewalk, started driving like they were gonna plow us down.

00:41:01.000 We had to jump into the road to not get hit.

00:41:03.000 And I don't know why that happened, but after that, we weren't allowed our...

00:41:08.000 The hotel we were in, we had, like, balconies to where we could look out.

00:41:12.000 Well, they had to move our rooms to where we're inside, to where we couldn't have a balcony and everything else, to where, just because of that threat, because of the laser that came, because of the truck that came up onto the sidewalk and tried to run us over.

00:41:25.000 There was some crazy rumor that someone got arrested outside of the T-Mobile Arena.

00:41:31.000 See if that's true.

00:41:31.000 If someone got arrested with a gun outside the T-Mobile Arena...

00:41:36.000 After the fight or during the fight.

00:41:39.000 Because there was some sort of crazy talk about threats. 0.99

00:41:43.000 The problem is you don't know how much of that's bullshit. 0.98

00:41:45.000 I probably should have researched that before we talked about it. 0.99

00:41:49.000 You see anything? 0.99

00:41:51.000 Bullshit? 1.00

00:41:52.000 Do they post that? 1.00

00:41:56.000 I heard the same thing, though.

00:41:57.000 You heard it, too.

00:41:57.000 I heard it.

00:41:58.000 Yeah, I think I heard it on Instagram.

00:42:01.000 Yeah, they don't play around. 0.91

00:42:02.000 The Russians, it's a different world, man. 1.00

00:42:05.000 Especially Dagestan.

00:42:06.000 That's a hard part of the country.

00:42:08.000 Not that Dublin isn't hard, but... 0.99

00:42:11.000 It's like that they're not known for their humor and shit talking. 0.99

00:42:17.000 Yeah, well, I went into a store. 0.99

00:42:22.000 I went into a store, like a little market, and I was whistling in Dagestan.

00:42:25.000 And I didn't know that that was something disrespectful.

00:42:28.000 But someone came right up behind me and just slapped me on the back of the head.

00:42:30.000 Like an older man, probably like a Khabib's dad, came up. 0.76

00:42:33.000 And I knew that he was a bad dude, so I wasn't going to do anything.

00:42:35.000 I just didn't know.

00:42:36.000 Translator had to come up and say, you don't whistle in public.

00:42:39.000 Oh, you're having a good day?

00:42:40.000 Yeah.

00:42:41.000 Don't have a good day.

00:42:43.000 Whistling's disrespectful?

00:42:44.000 And I can't even whistle that good.

00:42:45.000 But I was just kind of whistling to myself.

00:42:47.000 I didn't even know I was doing it.

00:42:49.000 What do they think about air guitar?

00:42:50.000 Yeah, that's probably bad.

00:42:51.000 That's probably bad.

00:42:52.000 And they don't show the bottom of your feet.

00:42:53.000 What?

00:42:55.000 That's for sure.

00:42:56.000 You can Google that.

00:42:57.000 But if you are sitting there and you cross your legs and you show the bottom of your foot, that's culturally really disrespectful to show the bottoms of your shoes or the bottom of your feet.

00:43:06.000 So they just don't play around there.

00:43:09.000 So if you have your foot on top of your thigh like this?

00:43:13.000 Yep.

00:43:14.000 Don't do that.

00:43:14.000 You can't do that?

00:43:15.000 Don't do that.

00:43:15.000 Someone will come and slap your leg and make sure your feet are both on the ground.

00:43:20.000 It's a hard part of the world, man.

00:43:22.000 It's a hard part of the world.

00:43:23.000 They're always climbing up those mountains.

00:43:25.000 I mean, it's just jagged mountains.

00:43:28.000 I remember it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

00:43:30.000 Just stunning.

00:43:32.000 But just the hard life.

00:43:33.000 Did you see that Nike, or sorry, not Nike, but Reebok video that Khabib did?

00:43:37.000 Yes.

00:43:38.000 It was awesome.

00:43:39.000 Yeah, it was awesome.

00:43:40.000 But just seeing that, that's the real life there.

00:43:42.000 There's a photo of him that he posted on his Instagram with his father, him and his father standing right after the fight he did it, like, to explain, like, that this...

00:43:53.000 What this is about to him is honor.

00:43:55.000 It's not about money.

00:43:56.000 It's about honor and respect.

00:43:58.000 And it's a photo of him standing with his father with this incredible mountain range behind him.

00:44:03.000 It's a different part of the world.

00:44:06.000 So that strategy with Conor backfired.

00:44:10.000 Do you think there's a point where...

00:44:12.000 There it is.

00:44:13.000 Look how gorgeous that is.

00:44:14.000 That's incredible.

00:44:16.000 What a photo.

00:44:18.000 That they should say, hey, let's turn the talking down a little bit.

00:44:22.000 How can you?

00:44:23.000 That's what got Conor to the dance.

00:44:26.000 I mean, it's one of the reasons why he's...

00:44:27.000 It has escalated.

00:44:28.000 It has escalated since Aldo to then Mayweather bringing in his dad and the assaults and different stuff like that.

00:44:34.000 And then Khabib going after his family religion.

00:44:37.000 Right, yeah.

00:44:39.000 It's almost like he has to, I think you were saying this about how to perform.

00:44:42.000 Yeah, he's got a one-up of himself.

00:44:44.000 For me, it just kind of felt like, it wasn't a surprise.

00:44:47.000 It was kind of like the karma for the UFC promoting the bus and letting it just keep getting deeper and deeper.

00:44:56.000 But they say it's the story, and it is the story, but at a certain point, if it's something that was illegal, hurt somebody, maybe don't use that for the promotion.

00:45:04.000 I was honestly shocked that they were using it in promotion.

00:45:06.000 I was like, well, I shouldn't be shocked.

00:45:08.000 I thought that when I saw the promo, and I saw the dolly flying at the bus, and then the video from the inside with the glass shattering, I was like, okay, I guess I shouldn't be shocked, because it did happen.

00:45:19.000 You know, it is a part of the story, but I mean, is this encouraging this?

00:45:22.000 Like, what is...

00:45:23.000 I mean, they're using it to sell the biggest fight in the history of the sport.

00:45:27.000 Turned out to be true. 0.87

00:45:29.000 It is the biggest fight in the history of the sport.

00:45:31.000 Is that good?

00:45:33.000 That doesn't seem good.

00:45:35.000 It seems...

00:45:37.000 Not from my perspective.

00:45:38.000 But it's entertainment versus sport.

00:45:44.000 When it comes to sport, you'd never use that to advertise the Olympics.

00:45:50.000 They would never have an assault to advertise the Olympics.

00:45:53.000 But this is something different.

00:45:54.000 It's commerce.

00:45:55.000 There's a lot of money involved.

00:45:57.000 It's a huge cultural spectacle.

00:46:00.000 It's Conor McGregor, who transcends sport.

00:46:04.000 He's this superstar in just the world of just show business.

00:46:10.000 So it's different.

00:46:12.000 It's different, but at the same time, this might be more for the purist or hardcore MMA fan or martial artist that competes, but what originally drew you to the martial arts?

00:46:22.000 I mean, I haven't heard that firsthand from you, but what drew you to the sport initially?

00:46:26.000 Well, I mean...

00:46:29.000 Like Raphael, I found out about Bruce Lee when I was a kid.

00:46:32.000 I mean, Bruce Lee was the first.

00:46:33.000 I saw those Bruce Lee movies.

00:46:35.000 I lived in New Jersey in an apartment complex, and my superintendent in the apartment complex, his son was my age, and I went over his house, we watched a Bruce Lee movie. 0.99

00:46:43.000 I was like, holy shit, look at this. 0.99

00:46:47.000 And the kid had nunchucks and shit, I whacked myself in the back of the head trying to practice nunchucks. 1.00

00:46:51.000 But I remember watching that guy throw kicks and, you know, jumping off of tables and beating the fuck out of all these dudes that are coming out. 0.99

00:46:58.000 And every kid wanted to be Bruce Lee.

00:47:00.000 Every kid wanted to be Bruce Lee.

00:47:03.000 And then I took a Kung Fu class, and then I took karate, and then I got into Taekwondo, and then I got into Muay Thai, and all these other different things.

00:47:10.000 But to me, it was just, martial arts was, you know, it was...

00:47:15.000 It was a way to learn how to fight, first of all, for sure.

00:47:19.000 But then it was also a way to test yourself. 0.97

00:47:22.000 But it was always, there was no shit-talking back then in martial arts tournaments. 0.98

00:47:26.000 There was no trash-talking. 0.99

00:47:28.000 Even if, you know, there was like little subtle things that people would say to each other at the weigh-in, under each other's breath, like, I'm gonna fuck you up, or something like that. 0.98

00:47:35.000 It was very quiet. 0.94

00:47:37.000 It was very little of that.

00:47:39.000 Most of it was bowing, shaking hands, and then there was just the fight.

00:47:45.000 But there was also no money involved.

00:47:47.000 It was just fighting.

00:47:49.000 And I think that when you're dealing with money and you're dealing with promotion, let's just be completely honest. 0.92

00:47:56.000 Conor throwing that dolly at the bus and Conor talking all that shit probably made that fight twice as big.

00:48:03.000 Maybe he would have gotten one million pay-per-view buys and wound up getting two and a half million. 1.00

00:48:08.000 It's worth a lot of fucking money. 0.99

00:48:10.000 Think about two and a half million versus one extra million people buying it at whatever the fuck it costs. 1.00

00:48:18.000 What does it cost? 0.95

00:48:18.000 70 bucks or something? 0.95

00:48:19.000 Ours was $64.99.

00:48:20.000 It's a lot of money, man.

00:48:21.000 You're talking about a lot of money, you know?

00:48:25.000 And then...

00:48:27.000 It's worth more for other fights because the whole card was so amazing.

00:48:33.000 It's gonna get more people to watch the next card.

00:48:35.000 What was your favorite moment of the night?

00:48:36.000 Was it Derrick Lewis?

00:48:37.000 Derrick Lewis.

00:48:38.000 Or Tony?

00:48:39.000 Derrick Lewis.

00:48:40.000 Yeah, Derrick Lewis winning by knockout.

00:48:42.000 Yeah.

00:48:43.000 And in a fight where he said the thing about Derrick Lewis is he can always just land one punch. 0.99

00:48:49.000 We had just got done saying that like 10 seconds before he lands this fucking howitzer. 0.99

00:48:55.000 On the top of that dude's head. 0.99

00:48:56.000 And then the post-fight interview, we say, he takes his shorts off?

00:48:59.000 And I'm standing there like, what are you doing, man? 0.99

00:49:01.000 He goes, my balls is hot. 0.99

00:49:03.000 I'm like, oh my god. 0.99

00:49:04.000 But I mean, Derek's hilarious.

00:49:07.000 He's always hilarious.

00:49:08.000 So I always look forward to talking to him.

00:49:10.000 But his Instagram, if you want to know what Derek Lewis is about, you've got to see his Instagram.

00:49:15.000 And I brought that up.

00:49:16.000 And now he's got like more than a million.

00:49:19.000 What is he at now?

00:49:20.000 500-some thousand in just a couple days after that fight.

00:49:24.000 That's so awesome.

00:49:25.000 But it's true. 0.99

00:49:26.000 It's fucking... 0.99

00:49:27.000 Instagram's all motorcycle accidents, dudes jumping off roofs and landing on their heads. 1.00

00:49:31.000 It's the most fucked up Instagram of all time. 0.97

00:49:33.000 But he's just a funny dude, man. 0.99

00:49:36.000 He's really funny.

00:49:37.000 And him and Daniel Cormier, like them promoting a fight...

00:49:42.000 Is gonna be a breath of fresh air.

00:49:44.000 Yeah.

00:49:44.000 Because, like, did you see the thing where, you know, like, Daniel was joking around.

00:49:48.000 He said, he said he's gonna knock me out.

00:49:49.000 He said, yeah, man, you was disrespecting Popeye's.

00:49:52.000 That's right.

00:49:54.000 Let's play this, because it's so funny.

00:49:56.000 Derrick Lewis told me that he was gonna knock me out right before we walked out of here.

00:50:00.000 Derrick, what's your issue with Daniel?

00:50:05.000 I wanna know, too!

00:50:09.000 He disrespected that Popeye's chicken on a commercial for you.

00:50:15.000 See, the two of them together.

00:50:17.000 This is a bad version of it. 1.00

00:50:19.000 This is all music and stupid editing. 0.99

00:50:22.000 But he's just a funny guy, man. 0.99

00:50:25.000 He's just a funny guy.

00:50:26.000 And he's, look, I mean, and he joked around about it with DC. He's got 1.3 million followers now.

00:50:32.000 That is hilarious.

00:50:33.000 I think it's like he's gained a million followers.

00:50:35.000 Yeah.

00:50:35.000 Because I've been following him for years now.

00:50:36.000 Yeah, I think he gained a million followers.

00:50:38.000 And he, you know, they were talking about it, and he said to Daniel, you know, Daniel said, he goes, you don't really want to hit me. 0.99

00:50:46.000 He goes, motherfucker, I'll fight anybody for money. 1.00

00:50:51.000 It's just classic. 1.00

00:50:52.000 He's just a funny guy.

00:50:53.000 And there won't be any of that, there won't be any nonsense.

00:50:58.000 But it'll still sell a lot, because it's fun.

00:51:01.000 It's going to sell a lot of Popeyes, too.

00:51:02.000 It's going to sell a lot of everything.

00:51:03.000 It's going to sell a lot of everything.

00:51:04.000 But it'll definitely sell a lot of pay-per-views.

00:51:06.000 The real question is, is he going to be able to deal with Cormier's wrestling, Cormier's experience?

00:51:11.000 I mean, the level of fighting that Cormier's experience is just significantly higher.

00:51:17.000 But...

00:51:18.000 Derek Lewis has unbelievable power. 0.99

00:51:20.000 I mean, his power is fucking no joke, man. 0.96

00:51:23.000 If you look at some of his KO victories, he's a brutal puncher. 0.99

00:51:27.000 Brutal.

00:51:27.000 He is, but I think if he, and I'm a big Derek Lewis fan, but I think if he fights DC like he fought Volkov, it's going to be a tough night for him.

00:51:36.000 I know that it could go anyway and that one shot from Derek Lewis can put DC out or anyone in the world out.

00:51:43.000 But I just see DC's wrestling, his dirty boxing, I mean, everything.

00:51:48.000 If Derek Lewis is turning his back to DC like he was with Volkov, he's going to close the distance.

00:51:54.000 He's going to take his back.

00:51:55.000 He's going to exploit that.

00:51:56.000 He's going to take him down.

00:51:57.000 Sure, there's a difference between 6'7 and 5'10, though.

00:52:02.000 There's a giant difference in size between Volkov and DC. DC is a real light heavyweight who, in my opinion, could fight in Raphael's weight class.

00:52:10.000 I think DC really got his diet in order.

00:52:12.000 He could be a 185-er.

00:52:14.000 It's true, but he can flip over Josh Barnett over his head and all sorts of guys.

00:52:17.000 There's something about that round body type, though.

00:52:21.000 I mean, there really is.

00:52:22.000 The barrel.

00:52:23.000 The ability to kind of be un-grabbable, you know?

00:52:28.000 And, of course, he has the power and he has the wrestling.

00:52:31.000 So, I mean, he's like a version of Fedor, you know?

00:52:35.000 Very similar.

00:52:36.000 Very similar.

00:52:37.000 Seeing him knock out Stipe with one shot like that was stunning.

00:52:40.000 Like, wow.

00:52:41.000 And he was saying that he was doing that in training.

00:52:42.000 He said he hits way harder as a heavyweight.

00:52:44.000 I think just the way he likes to live his life and how he likes to eat, he just has more energy as a heavyweight.

00:52:51.000 You know, he might be a better heavyweight.

00:52:52.000 He's gone through a whole life of cutting weight.

00:52:55.000 I mean, an entire life of it.

00:52:57.000 Well, and he had to withdraw from the Olympics because of kidney failure.

00:53:00.000 Right.

00:53:00.000 From weight cutting.

00:53:01.000 And I think his life should be a movie for sure.

00:53:04.000 I mean, the way, the stuff that he's overcome, the stuff that has happened to him, the missed opportunities in wrestling.

00:53:09.000 Not missed opportunities, he's one of the, I mean, he's so great.

00:53:12.000 Yeah.

00:53:12.000 But not being the champion, not being the world champion, not being the Olympic champion.

00:53:16.000 Yeah.

00:53:16.000 And then coming to end the life stuff that he's gone through.

00:53:19.000 I'm just happy that people like him now.

00:53:21.000 Yeah, for sure.

00:53:22.000 Because remember he was getting booed for so long. 0.54

00:53:24.000 Yeah, which was ridiculous.

00:53:24.000 Every time he got booed, it broke my heart.

00:53:26.000 It took a while for people to understand him. 0.99

00:53:29.000 And now I think that people, you know, after people seeing him choke out Rumble Johnson and then seeing him knock out Stipe, people are like, oh, he's a bad motherfucker and he's a really nice guy. 0.98

00:53:40.000 He's a great dude, one of the best commentators now. 0.97

00:53:42.000 Oh, he's hilarious!

00:53:43.000 That's also what made him grow on people as well.

00:53:46.000 You hear him in commentary and you realize he's not an egomaniac.

00:53:50.000 He's a really good guy who knows a lot about fighting, knows a lot about wrestling.

00:53:55.000 And, man, I'm so looking forward to Jon Jones coming back, too.

00:53:59.000 Jon Jones fighting Gustafson.

00:54:00.000 That is very fascinating.

00:54:02.000 Is that going to...

00:54:03.000 I know they're going to strip DC, so is that fight for a title?

00:54:07.000 Yeah, I guess.

00:54:08.000 Interim or the real deal?

00:54:09.000 I think that's the real deal.

00:54:11.000 Yeah, which is weird, right?

00:54:13.000 Yeah.

00:54:13.000 Like, why let the guy be champ champ if you're not going to let him...

00:54:16.000 I mean, I don't know.

00:54:18.000 It's like...

00:54:20.000 I don't know.

00:54:20.000 I mean, I'm so torn on all this.

00:54:23.000 Well, he's probably going to fight the winner anyways, and then it'll be for the belt, so maybe let him keep the belt.

00:54:27.000 I mean, look, I love the UFC, obviously.

00:54:30.000 I've been working for the UFC forever.

00:54:31.000 But I think there's an obvious conflict of interest when the promoter is also responsible for who holds titles and who gets to fight for titles.

00:54:42.000 It's weird.

00:54:44.000 I mean, in every other sport, there's like a sanctioning body that decides, this is, you know, Rafael Lovato won five fights in a row.

00:54:53.000 He's the undisputed number one contender.

00:54:55.000 He will be next in line for the title.

00:54:57.000 You know, not...

00:54:59.000 Oh, Logan Paul sold 5 million YouTube buys.

00:55:02.000 He's next.

00:55:03.000 You know what I mean?

00:55:04.000 It's weird.

00:55:07.000 It's weird that commerce, I mean, it plays a giant part in any sport, right?

00:55:13.000 But should it be the ultimate decider in what happens and what doesn't happen?

00:55:18.000 Would you ever support the Muhammad Ali Act coming over to MMA? I don't know exactly how that act is structured.

00:55:23.000 What does it say?

00:55:25.000 I don't know a lot about it, but I know that...

00:55:27.000 I believe the Muhammad Ali act...

00:55:29.000 Let's pull it up so we can talk about it from an educated perspective.

00:55:32.000 For sure.

00:55:32.000 I think that the promoters have to split 50% of the revenue with the fighters, I think.

00:55:37.000 Is that what it says?

00:55:38.000 I think so.

00:55:39.000 I think that is part of it.

00:55:41.000 They would start doing that Hollywood arithmetic.

00:55:45.000 You know that Hollywood arithmetic, like when a movie comes out?

00:55:48.000 Do you know how that works?

00:55:49.000 Dude, it's hilarious. 0.99

00:55:52.000 People who have written movies and produced movies and dealt with studios, they factor in all this other shit. 0.97

00:56:01.000 Like, this is how much my car costs. 0.98

00:56:03.000 This is how much it costs for gas.

00:56:05.000 This is how much it costs to rent this building.

00:56:07.000 This is electricity.

00:56:08.000 Oh, there's no more money left over.

00:56:10.000 Okay, here it says, the Ali Act...

00:56:12.000 Amending Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996 specifies that a sanctioning organization may not receive any compensation from a boxing match unless it files its bylaws and a complete description of its ratings, criteria, policies, and general sanctioning fee Scheduled with the FTC. The act further directs the FTC to make this information available to the public.

00:56:38.000 A sanctioning organization does not have to submit this information to the FTC. However, it makes the information accessible through a public website.

00:56:46.000 Alright, if you can translate that, I don't know what the fuck that means.

00:56:48.000 I don't know.

00:56:49.000 I've heard that part, which I'm not sure that that's specific, the splitting the revenue.

00:56:54.000 But then I also think it takes out of the promoter's hands.

00:56:57.000 What does that say?

00:56:58.000 Look at that where it says law. 1.00

00:56:59.000 15 U.S. And what is that fucking double squiggle shit? 1.00

00:57:02.000 What is that? 0.99

00:57:03.000 I've never seen that thing before.

00:57:05.000 You ever seen that thing before?

00:57:06.000 Have you seen it?

00:57:08.000 For law.

00:57:09.000 You've seen it?

00:57:09.000 I mean, in this context, yeah.

00:57:11.000 I've never seen that thing before.

00:57:12.000 That's what a law is?

00:57:14.000 So like a dollar bill thing?

00:57:15.000 Oh, yeah.

00:57:17.000 Like a law?

00:57:18.000 That's like a symbol for a law?

00:57:19.000 Have you seen that before?

00:57:20.000 I think so.

00:57:21.000 There's a law that Fight for the Forgotten has been looking into for bullying prevention.

00:57:27.000 It's called David's Law out of Texas.

00:57:29.000 And that same squiggly thing.

00:57:31.000 That didn't even show up on Google.

00:57:33.000 Yeah.

00:57:33.000 You just Googled it and it didn't show up.

00:57:35.000 Look at that.

00:57:36.000 Did not match any documents.

00:57:37.000 Huh.

00:57:38.000 So, okay.

00:57:40.000 Whatever that is.

00:57:41.000 I mean, I guess that's a law thing.

00:57:43.000 Look, I always favor the fighters.

00:57:48.000 Always.

00:57:48.000 Because they have a very short amount of time to do it.

00:57:50.000 They put the most on the line.

00:57:51.000 They have the most at risk.

00:57:53.000 The consequences of their actions are, you know, in terms of losing...

00:57:58.000 In terms of just the possibility they get horribly injured in training and not get compensated.

00:58:06.000 There's a bunch of factors that I don't feel are fair or just.

00:58:12.000 Look, I was very upset when Tony Ferguson got stripped.

00:58:16.000 Stripped, yeah.

00:58:16.000 I mean, he fell, he ripped his knee apart, and they stripped him.

00:58:20.000 I mean...

00:58:22.000 Look, I get that they'd be upset that the fight would happen, or that the fight would not happen, and that he would, you know, someone else would have to take his place.

00:58:30.000 I understand that.

00:58:31.000 But stripping him doesn't make any sense.

00:58:33.000 Like, how could he get stripped for an injury?

00:58:36.000 It's one thing if he did something to someone, like the Jon Jones situation, crashed into that lady's car, took off in the scene.

00:58:43.000 That makes sense.

00:58:44.000 It's an ethics violation, right?

00:58:46.000 This is not an ethics thing.

00:58:47.000 He fell.

00:58:48.000 You know, it's unfortunate.

00:58:49.000 Helping to promote the fight.

00:58:51.000 Yeah, I mean, he just tripped over some wires.

00:58:53.000 And it was erroneously stated by many people, me included, because I read it somewhere, that he was wearing sunglasses.

00:58:58.000 He was not wearing sunglasses inside.

00:59:00.000 He was just wearing glasses.

00:59:01.000 He just stepped over.

00:59:02.000 It was just a freak thing, man.

00:59:04.000 Just a freak thing.

00:59:04.000 Stepped over some wires.

00:59:06.000 And especially a guy as coordinated as him.

00:59:07.000 What a way to get injured, too. 1.00

00:59:09.000 Fucking crazy. 1.00

00:59:10.000 Didn't make any sense. 1.00

00:59:11.000 Crazy.

00:59:12.000 I mean, it's horrible.

00:59:13.000 But...

00:59:15.000 There's no one to say no to that, right?

00:59:17.000 It's like, how does that work?

00:59:18.000 How do you decide?

00:59:19.000 Like, how do you decide who gets stripped and who doesn't?

00:59:22.000 Who's got an interim title?

00:59:24.000 I mean, how many interim titles can you have?

00:59:28.000 It's just weird.

00:59:29.000 Just for the rankings and the ability to get your shot, you know, just that by itself, I think, deserves a sanctioning body 100%, let alone the ability for them to get paid more and be more, you know, fair across the board and everything.

00:59:44.000 Well, you see how USADA has completely taken away The UFC has nothing to say about USADA testing and about the punishment that it implements.

00:59:57.000 It's completely independent.

00:59:59.000 So what they do is they come in, they randomly drug test fighters, they make sure the fighters give their whereabouts at all times, they have to register and log in and let everybody know wherever they are, and if they violate that, USADA hands out the punishment.

01:00:15.000 And we've seen these punishments and they're strict.

01:00:17.000 They're very severe.

01:00:18.000 And they take away a fighter's ability to make a living if they violate any of their policies or if they test positive for any supplements.

01:00:26.000 They've since made what I think is a welcome amendment where if a fighter has If it's possible that it's a tainted supplement or they have a trace amount of something, they don't say anything until after it's resolved.

01:00:41.000 So instead of putting the fighter on blast and putting it out there to the whole world, hey, this guy tested positive, instead of doing that, they resolve it.

01:00:51.000 Which is smart.

01:00:52.000 Yeah, which is the way they should do it.

01:00:53.000 But still...

01:00:55.000 Look at a guy like Josh Barnett, okay?

01:00:57.000 Josh Barnett was ultimately exonerated, but he had to go like two years where he couldn't make a living.

01:01:03.000 And when you're...

01:01:04.000 Josh is 40 years old.

01:01:06.000 You don't have two years to spare.

01:01:08.000 You don't have two years to spare. 1.00

01:01:09.000 Right, that's fucking crazy. 0.93

01:01:11.000 But my point is, that is a completely independent entity. 0.97

01:01:16.000 It's outside of the UFC's ability to- they don't control that.

01:01:20.000 They step back, they take care of- it kind of should be that way when it comes to who gets to fight for the title.

01:01:28.000 If a title is a title, like if it's- if it's the world championship and you look at a guy like Tony Ferguson, I think- I believe he's 11-1 in the UFC, right?

01:01:38.000 He's on this crazy win streak.

01:01:41.000 He's fucking beaten- you look at his- His, like, who's who, of who he's beaten. 0.99

01:01:47.000 Barboza, Kevin Lee. 0.99

01:01:49.000 There's really no one else for him to fight.

01:01:50.000 He has to fight for himself.

01:01:51.000 He's beaten the elites.

01:01:52.000 The only person he hasn't beaten is Conor and Khabib.

01:01:55.000 Those are the two guys. 1.00

01:01:56.000 Fuck, man. 1.00

01:01:57.000 Give him to him. 1.00

01:01:58.000 Let him prove himself.

01:01:59.000 Slick, if you looked at it that way, you would say he's next.

01:02:03.000 But...

01:02:04.000 If you were Mr. Moneybags and you're like, oh, Conor wants a rematch.

01:02:07.000 Oh, Conor, let's give you a rematch.

01:02:09.000 Come on, baby. 0.97

01:02:10.000 It's another area where the sport and entertainment crosses.

01:02:13.000 Right.

01:02:13.000 What do you think about tournaments coming back to the UFC? I mean, they haven't done that, but what do you think about them doing that for finding out who's going to fight for the title?

01:02:20.000 Bellator's doing it now.

01:02:22.000 PFL's been doing it.

01:02:23.000 My buddy Josh Copeland just made it.

01:02:25.000 He was ranked eighth seed.

01:02:27.000 Came in, fought two times one night.

01:02:30.000 And Vinny Magalhães as well, right?

01:02:32.000 Yeah, and that was an awesome triangle.

01:02:33.000 Dude, he's like one of the most underappreciated guys in MMA. One of the few that can jump guard.

01:02:41.000 And you're fucked, man. 1.00

01:02:42.000 That guy wraps his legs around you. 1.00

01:02:43.000 He just had a rocky start because his striking wasn't there.

01:02:48.000 But now it is.

01:02:49.000 He's head-kicking people and knocking them out.

01:02:51.000 Did you see Josh Copeland's knockout at heavyweight?

01:02:54.000 It was one of the best knockouts at heavyweight in a long time.

01:02:57.000 No, I didn't see it.

01:02:58.000 In a long time.

01:02:58.000 It's on my Instagram if you're able to pull that up, Jamie.

01:03:01.000 Please.

01:03:02.000 It's on my Instagram, and it was awesome.

01:03:04.000 He got the deepest cut, one of the deepest cuts I've ever seen in my life.

01:03:08.000 He could see his skull.

01:03:09.000 And it went farther than his eyebrow.

01:03:11.000 And he got cut probably five seconds before.

01:03:15.000 Before he gets the knockout punch.

01:03:17.000 And if he wouldn't have got that, they would have stopped it.

01:03:19.000 Came in ranked eighth seed.

01:03:20.000 Now he's going into New York City, Madison Square Gardens, New Year's Eve, and fighting for a million dollars.

01:03:28.000 How does this work?

01:03:29.000 What does the million dollars, what does that mean?

01:03:32.000 Like, does every weight class win a million?

01:03:34.000 I believe they're giving away 10 million, so at least 10 weight classes, I think, for the women to... 1.00

01:03:40.000 What do they air on, NBC? NBC Sports.

01:03:42.000 NBC Sports.

01:03:43.000 So it's like one of the cable channels, right?

01:03:46.000 And then for Josh, they just fought in New Orleans, and he had to fight a two-round fight first, and then he fought a three-round.

01:03:55.000 Two rounds?

01:03:56.000 In the night?

01:03:56.000 Because the state commission wouldn't allow you to fight more than five rounds in one night.

01:04:02.000 And so the first round, or first fight, first part of the tournament was a two-round fight, and he had to fight the number one seed.

01:04:09.000 He beat him, and then an hour later, he had to fight again.

01:04:15.000 Here's Josh.

01:04:16.000 It was just a brutal knockout, but he got cut right over the eye, and then right here, he just...

01:04:20.000 Boom! 1.00

01:04:21.000 Oh, damn. 1.00

01:04:22.000 Oof. 1.00

01:04:23.000 Damn. 0.99

01:04:23.000 One of the best knockouts I've seen in a while, but it's... 0.99

01:04:27.000 Dude, he looks way thicker than when he was fighting in the UFC. Yeah, he's really gotten his nutrition under.

01:04:32.000 But if you can see that cut or his...

01:04:35.000 I mean, it was brutal.

01:04:37.000 Boss Rutten was interviewing afterwards.

01:04:38.000 He's like, Josh, I can see your skull right now.

01:04:40.000 Boom! 0.99

01:04:40.000 That's a haymaker of a right hand. 0.99

01:04:42.000 Holy shit. 1.00

01:04:43.000 Alex Nicholson was chasing him. 0.98

01:04:45.000 I mean, yeah, he looks much better physically than he did when he was fighting in the UFC. Yeah.

01:04:50.000 He's been working his butt off.

01:04:51.000 He's earned it.

01:04:52.000 And now he gets to fight for a million dollars, which is awesome.

01:04:54.000 Is he training down with you guys in Oklahoma?

01:04:56.000 Yeah.

01:04:56.000 He isn't.

01:04:57.000 Whenever I am in camp, he'll come down for like two weeks before my fight.

01:05:01.000 He's a super nice guy.

01:05:02.000 Yeah, super fun guy.

01:05:03.000 Yeah, he really seems like a really nice guy.

01:05:05.000 I've met him before, but...

01:05:06.000 Which I don't know if you know, he's a nine-time competitive Rocky Mountain Oyster-eating champion in Colorado. 0.99

01:05:14.000 Which, by the way, is bull testicles. 0.98

01:05:17.000 People that don't know. 0.99

01:05:18.000 He's the only guy I've been with that we go to.

01:05:20.000 So have you ever heard of the big Texan?

01:05:22.000 The 72 ounce steak, the large.

01:05:24.000 This is an Amarillo.

01:05:25.000 72 ounce steak.

01:05:26.000 You have to eat in an hour.

01:05:26.000 You have to pay for it.

01:05:27.000 72 ounce steak, huge, large baked potato loaded, a dinner salad, a shrimp cocktail, huge dinner roll.

01:05:35.000 You have to drink a 72 ounce soda with it.

01:05:37.000 Can you have a diet soda or does it have to be a regular soda?

01:05:40.000 I don't know.

01:05:40.000 Look at the size of that.

01:05:41.000 Yeah.

01:05:42.000 That's preposterous.

01:05:43.000 The man versus food guy barely finished it.

01:05:46.000 He did finish it?

01:05:47.000 Barely finished it.

01:05:48.000 Man versus food.

01:05:49.000 I think it was like 58, 59 minutes, something like that.

01:05:52.000 Josh did it in 32 minutes.

01:05:54.000 I think it was the fastest that's ever been done. 1.00

01:05:55.000 Jesus fucking Christ! 1.00

01:05:57.000 That's so insane. 1.00

01:05:58.000 And then get this.

01:05:59.000 So have y'all ever seen the endless shrimp at Red Lobster?

01:06:02.000 So Josh went to Red Lobster, endless shrimp, and he asked them what was the most someone's ever eaten in shrimp.

01:06:10.000 And he had already eaten a bunch.

01:06:11.000 He always says, you don't go to Red Lobster and not start off with the cheddar biscuits.

01:06:16.000 You have to eat those.

01:06:17.000 He had like three or four of those or a whole basket of them.

01:06:19.000 And then the lady said, I think the most anyone's ever eaten was, I think it was 226. 226 shrimp.

01:06:27.000 And Josh, 226, like coconut or fried shrimp, whatever it is.

01:06:33.000 And Josh is like, there's my mark.

01:06:35.000 That's what I'm going to do.

01:06:36.000 Or that's my goal.

01:06:38.000 What kind of calories are we talking there?

01:06:40.000 Man, the guy told us food stories all night.

01:06:42.000 He's got like four or five restaurants he's literally not allowed into.

01:06:47.000 No, literally.

01:06:48.000 It's not a joke.

01:06:50.000 So Josh gets to like 250 and they're like, okay, you broke the record.

01:06:54.000 And he's like, no, I'm still hungry.

01:06:56.000 And so he gets to 300. He gets to 300 shrimp.

01:07:00.000 He ends at 400 and calls it good.

01:07:03.000 400 shrimp and calls it good.

01:07:04.000 What does that look like if you put it on like a cube?

01:07:07.000 If you had like a box, 400 fried shrimp in it.

01:07:11.000 I don't know.

01:07:12.000 He smelled like garlic for three days afterwards.

01:07:14.000 Did he?

01:07:14.000 Yeah.

01:07:15.000 Then we went to a...

01:07:16.000 I don't know why I'm going into all the stories.

01:07:18.000 Imagine what a toilet looked like. 0.99

01:07:19.000 We went into an all-you-can-eat crab restaurant.

01:07:21.000 Sorry, he did.

01:07:22.000 And it was all-you-can-eat crab legs.

01:07:24.000 And he's just ordering bucket after bucket after bucket of crab legs.

01:07:28.000 And they come over and finally said this.

01:07:30.000 Sir, there's got to be a limit somewhere.

01:07:32.000 Wow.

01:07:33.000 They have to ask you to leave.

01:07:34.000 They have to ask you to leave.

01:07:35.000 So he can eat, but now he's gotten his diet under control and everything else.

01:07:39.000 Whenever he came to grudge, whenever I got off the Ultimate Fighter, he came in at over 350 pounds.

01:07:43.000 I think it was 356 or maybe it was 346, something like that.

01:07:46.000 What is he down to now?

01:07:47.000 I think he walks around at like 245, 250. He looks a lot slimmer, but he also looks thicker, like in his shoulders and the chest.

01:07:53.000 Yeah.

01:07:53.000 He's been working with Loren Landau, who was a great guy that Brendan worked with.

01:07:57.000 So he's in Colorado as well?

01:07:58.000 He's in Colorado.

01:07:58.000 Okay.

01:07:59.000 So he's training with Elevation and, man, why am I forgetting the main place that he trains at?

01:08:08.000 But Ryan, anyways, Trials MMA in Fort Collins is where he's training mainly.

01:08:15.000 But I'm just so stoked for him.

01:08:17.000 Million Dollar Tournament.

01:08:18.000 Bellator's doing the Million Dollar Tournament now.

01:08:20.000 I think it'd be something.

01:08:21.000 I don't know.

01:08:21.000 What does 50 Cent have to do with Bellator?

01:08:24.000 He's like offering all this people money.

01:08:26.000 Champagne.

01:08:27.000 Yeah, he's talking to Khabib now.

01:08:29.000 What does he do with Bellator?

01:08:31.000 Does he have...

01:08:31.000 I think he's helping promote it.

01:08:33.000 I actually...

01:08:34.000 I'm still...

01:08:35.000 I'm where you are.

01:08:36.000 I'm like, what does he have to do with this?

01:08:38.000 But he's promoting his champagne.

01:08:39.000 Offering people money and...

01:08:41.000 His champagne's on the canvas and on one of the...

01:08:45.000 He has his own champagne?

01:08:46.000 Yep.

01:08:47.000 Oh! 0.60

01:08:47.000 And so he's giving everyone the champagne after they win their fights and stuff like that. 0.60

01:08:50.000 It's such a strange combination.

01:08:52.000 Him, 50 Cent and...

01:08:54.000 And he keeps saying he wants to fight people, too?

01:08:57.000 Yeah.

01:08:58.000 What is going on with that?

01:09:00.000 I don't know.

01:09:00.000 But if you support Bellator, I don't know.

01:09:02.000 There we go.

01:09:03.000 I'm not necessarily against it, but I don't know what's going on.

01:09:05.000 Do you think he's actually going to fight someone, or it seems like it's all just a lot of fun?

01:09:09.000 Yeah, I think it's fun.

01:09:10.000 I think it's for promotion of his new champagne.

01:09:13.000 Do you enjoy working for them?

01:09:14.000 Yes, I do.

01:09:15.000 Very much.

01:09:16.000 It seems like a great organization.

01:09:17.000 Everybody that I know that went over there really enjoys it.

01:09:20.000 Yeah, super professional.

01:09:22.000 Everyone's really friendly.

01:09:23.000 Scott Coker is a great guy.

01:09:25.000 A lot of jiu-jitsu guys on the staff, too.

01:09:27.000 Oh, yeah?

01:09:28.000 I like to feel that love.

01:09:29.000 That's nice.

01:09:30.000 It was funny, the last time, you know, Shanji, he's always in my corner, and, you know, one was at Chicago, Rich, Rich Chow, who's also, I hope I said his last name right.

01:09:44.000 Chow. 0.95

01:09:45.000 Chow. 0.95

01:09:47.000 I think it might be Chow.

01:09:48.000 Okay.

01:09:49.000 He trains jiu-jitsu, and Shanji was like, hey.

01:09:52.000 He's a matchmaker for Bellator.

01:09:53.000 Yes.

01:09:54.000 Really great guy.

01:09:55.000 Taking us to Hawaii next.

01:09:56.000 Yeah, and they've met before, and Shonji's like, hey, did you bring your gi?

01:09:59.000 Let's roll.

01:10:00.000 You know, let's go train.

01:10:01.000 And Rich, oh, no, I don't have my gi.

01:10:03.000 I'm too busy.

01:10:03.000 He's got a lot of things going on.

01:10:05.000 Well, in Idaho, for the last one, Rich had his gi, and he was totally ready for Shonji this time.

01:10:12.000 And, man, they ended up training, like, probably...

01:10:15.000 I think they did...

01:10:17.000 At least two, maybe three sessions.

01:10:18.000 And each time was like an hour or over an hour straight.

01:10:22.000 And, you know, they had a lot of fun and Rich was like ready for it.

01:10:27.000 He's like, I have my gi.

01:10:28.000 Next day, he's texting Chanji, I'm ready, let's go again, you know?

01:10:31.000 That's awesome.

01:10:32.000 Yeah, it was so cool to see.

01:10:32.000 How did you get hooked up with him and Salo?

01:10:35.000 So tell everybody that Salo Ribeiro and Shanji are just two elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belts.

01:10:43.000 They're down in San Diego.

01:10:44.000 Yeah, they're from the Amazon, from Manaus.

01:10:48.000 Salo's a six-time world champion.

01:10:50.000 He's the older brother.

01:10:52.000 Shanji's seven-time world champion, two-time absolute world champion.

01:10:55.000 He's the greatest heavyweight that there's ever been in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

01:10:59.000 It's a really cool story.

01:11:01.000 I was 19 years old.

01:11:03.000 I was a brown belt, and I competed in my first professional event.

01:11:08.000 It was a no-gi pro tournament in Ohio.

01:11:12.000 It was part of the Arnold Classic event that goes on with the bodybuilding and all that.

01:11:18.000 They had a jiu-jitsu competition, and they had a pro no-gi tournament.

01:11:24.000 It was only three-weight classes, like a lightweight, a middleweight, and a heavyweight.

01:11:28.000 And at that time it was...

01:11:30.000 Like the biggest Nogi tournament that there was besides for ADCC. And a lot of the ADCC champions would do that event to win the money, of course, and then also just kind of prepare for ADCC later in the year.

01:11:44.000 And I knew Saul, he had his home base, his affiliations, association schools were in the beginning in that area of the country, in Ohio.

01:11:56.000 And he always competed at that tournament.

01:11:58.000 So did Shanji.

01:12:00.000 And so I knew there was a great chance that I would get a chance to face Salo going into that event.

01:12:06.000 I had to send my resume in to get accepted into the pro tournament.

01:12:11.000 And I'll never forget the email they sent me where it was like, you've been accepted.

01:12:15.000 Congratulations.

01:12:16.000 Sal Hubero is in your division.

01:12:17.000 Good luck.

01:12:19.000 And I'm like, okay.

01:12:21.000 I'm already thinking, how awesome would it be to have a match with Salo?

01:12:24.000 I'm 19 years old.

01:12:25.000 Salo was already a six-time world champion, a legend already.

01:12:30.000 And so, you know, I go to the tournament, and sure enough, it was Destiny Man.

01:12:34.000 We're on opposite sides of the bracket, and, you know, he clears out his side, gets to the finals, no problem.

01:12:41.000 And I fight my way to the finals.

01:12:43.000 I had four matches, and actually in the semifinals, I ended up going against one of his black belts.

01:12:48.000 And it was the first time I ever faced a black belt.

01:12:51.000 At that time, there wasn't a whole bunch of no-gi opportunities where you could be a non-black belt and fight a black belt. 0.53

01:12:58.000 And I was losing on points, and at the end I started coming back, and I was able to submit his black belt and go to the finals.

01:13:07.000 And his black belt kind of threw a fit and was pretty disappointed.

01:13:12.000 I wouldn't shake my hand, wasn't there when the referee raised her hand.

01:13:15.000 And I could feel all this energy because it was kind of – I think everyone thought they were going to close it out together.

01:13:22.000 How would they do that, though?

01:13:24.000 Would they fight it out?

01:13:26.000 Every tournament's different.

01:13:27.000 Would he bow out?

01:13:28.000 Yeah, they'd probably bow out.

01:13:30.000 And then they would share the prize money.

01:13:32.000 There was a substantial prize money for first place.

01:13:34.000 I think it was like $5,000.

01:13:35.000 And second place was like $1,500, something like that.

01:13:40.000 It was the first time I got paid to compete.

01:13:42.000 Like, I ever won money.

01:13:43.000 I was super pumped.

01:13:45.000 But, yeah, so, you know, I'm going into the finals against Saul, and I just beat one of his black belts, and I was just like, oof.

01:13:52.000 I was so nervous, so scared, you know?

01:13:55.000 Well, you're facing an absolute legend.

01:13:56.000 Yeah, and I'm 19. I'm a brown—and, you know, it wasn't like today where you see all these— You know legends and these world champions all the time like at that time they were all in Brazil You know and so it was hard to see these guys like the only time you saw him is if you were in Brazil and they were still very like they had this mystique about them and You know it it was just a different vibe.

01:14:18.000 They were way more scary I guess you could say way more intimidating Back then so I was definitely super intimidated, but you know at the same time I was fired up, you know, I want to be a world champion I get to face, you know a legend and Let's go.

01:14:32.000 We had a good match.

01:14:34.000 I was able to last for a good amount of time.

01:14:39.000 He eventually passed my guard, mounted me, and submitted me at the very end.

01:14:44.000 I wasn't disappointed.

01:14:45.000 I was happy.

01:14:47.000 This was the first time I got to face someone like that.

01:14:50.000 I did my best.

01:14:52.000 I was able to keep my guard for a while, so I was proud of that.

01:14:56.000 But at the same time, he mounted me, tapped me, and that's what he was supposed to do.

01:15:02.000 But he was so nice to me afterwards, gave me a big hug, and we talked, and that was kind of that at that moment.

01:15:11.000 But I felt like I had earned his respect.

01:15:14.000 Fast forward a few months later, I'm in Brazil and at that time there was two world tournaments.

01:15:20.000 There was a second organization called the CBJJO. So there was a CBJJ and then there was a CBJJO and they were paying.

01:15:29.000 There was a world championships that were paying.

01:15:32.000 Novo and Yao kind of created that event.

01:15:34.000 They separated, didn't want to support the original World Championships.

01:15:39.000 And they made their own World Championships.

01:15:42.000 And they were paying.

01:15:44.000 And that was the way they could get a lot of guys to come over and support that tournament.

01:15:47.000 And it was big.

01:15:48.000 It was pretty much the same.

01:15:49.000 It was basically the same thing.

01:15:51.000 There was only a couple teams that didn't support that tournament.

01:15:53.000 And at the same time, there was a couple teams that competed at that tournament that didn't support the original Worlds.

01:15:58.000 So depending on what division you were fought in, it was either exactly the same or it was tougher, you know, especially in the lightweights because Novo Niel had all the best lightweights at that time.

01:16:08.000 And so I'm at that event.

01:16:10.000 I competed, uh, there and Salo wasn't competing that year.

01:16:15.000 And so he was very approachable.

01:16:17.000 He wasn't fighting.

01:16:18.000 He was just coaching.

01:16:19.000 And, um, and I competed.

01:16:21.000 I was a brown belt still.

01:16:22.000 And I come over and I say, what's up to Salo?

01:16:25.000 And, uh, Oh, he's like, hey, my brother, good to see you.

01:16:28.000 How are you doing?

01:16:30.000 And he's like, where are you training?

01:16:31.000 And I tell him where I'm training.

01:16:33.000 He's like, well, you want to come train with me?

01:16:35.000 I said, yeah, I would love to.

01:16:37.000 And he was like, here's my card.

01:16:38.000 Give me a call on Monday.

01:16:39.000 I'll come pick you up.

01:16:41.000 Sure enough, I call him.

01:16:42.000 He comes to my hotel, him and Shanji.

01:16:45.000 They pick me and a couple of my friends up.

01:16:47.000 They drive me all the way to Copacabana.

01:16:49.000 We were staying in Baja.

01:16:50.000 And we go and train.

01:16:52.000 And man, just seeing the way he interacted with his guys, the energy, the way I felt there.

01:17:00.000 At this time, there was a lot of the...

01:17:04.000 How do I put it?

01:17:06.000 There was Brazilians and then you were a gringo. 1.00

01:17:10.000 It was hard to go to Brazil and learn a lot and have someone really open up and help you and show you and teach you a lot.

01:17:20.000 Eddie would know.

01:17:21.000 I'm sure you've heard the stories.

01:17:22.000 I remember being in Brazil with Eddie a long time ago back in the day.

01:17:27.000 You know, you just, especially if they felt like you were a threat, you know, they wouldn't show you a lot because what if you ended up fighting one of their buddies, you know what I mean?

01:17:35.000 And so this was the first time that I wasn't treated that way.

01:17:40.000 And, you know, Salo and Shanji really opened up and was like, you know, bringing me sort of into their family right away.

01:17:50.000 Do you speak Portuguese?

01:17:51.000 I'm not 100% fluent, but I'm pretty good.

01:17:54.000 I can go to Brazil and do whatever I need to do and be on my own and be fine.

01:18:00.000 At that time, my Portuguese wasn't as good as what it is today.

01:18:03.000 Did you take classes?

01:18:05.000 The next year, actually the year after this, in 2004, I lived in Brazil for four months.

01:18:11.000 And that's when I really got pretty good at Portuguese.

01:18:15.000 But, you know, anyways, he was open to answering my questions.

01:18:19.000 He was teaching me stuff.

01:18:21.000 And I trained there all week in between the time from the first worlds into the main worlds.

01:18:28.000 And I just kind of knew immediately, like, man, this is what I want.

01:18:33.000 And it was the first time I ever had someone of that level Be open to helping me and taking me under his wing.

01:18:41.000 And so we stayed in touch.

01:18:44.000 Shortly after that trip to Brazil, he came out to Oklahoma and taught a seminar at my dad's school.

01:18:50.000 At that time my dad was running the academy.

01:18:53.000 My dad loved him right away as well.

01:18:55.000 He stayed with my dad.

01:18:59.000 Once again, we spent a whole week on the mat together.

01:19:01.000 He's helped me.

01:19:02.000 He did an amazing seminar.

01:19:04.000 Sal is just an amazing guy, too.

01:19:08.000 He's like an encyclopedia of jiu-jitsu and just one of the most amazing martial artists I've ever met.

01:19:14.000 And, I mean, we just never stopped.

01:19:18.000 Well, you have his style in a way.

01:19:21.000 Him and Chanji have that smashing, just pressure game.

01:19:26.000 It's just such a hard style.

01:19:28.000 I love that style.

01:19:29.000 Me too.

01:19:29.000 I love watching it.

01:19:31.000 I love that.

01:19:32.000 It's just...

01:19:34.000 Total control, you know, and it's just pressure and, you know, I mean, everybody that I've talked to that's rolled with him or Shanji says it feels like you have a building on top of you and these guys are on you.

01:19:44.000 Exactly.

01:19:44.000 Two of the greatest guard passers that have ever existed and they're mounters.

01:19:48.000 They smothered.

01:19:49.000 They make people tap just from their mount, you know?

01:19:52.000 So do you, brother.

01:19:54.000 It's suffocating.

01:19:55.000 But I didn't have that then.

01:19:56.000 I was a guard guy.

01:19:58.000 I didn't really...

01:19:59.000 It's a great combination of those two things.

01:20:01.000 Yeah, it all came together for me.

01:20:03.000 But, I mean, this was a time I'm a brown belt transitioning into becoming a black belt.

01:20:08.000 The next year I get my black belt.

01:20:09.000 When we really started training day-to-day that year, I spent four months there.

01:20:14.000 I trained with Shonda every day.

01:20:17.000 I become a black belt.

01:20:19.000 And they're literally just...

01:20:21.000 I mean, destroying me.

01:20:23.000 Their home base at that time in the U.S. was Toledo, Ohio, in the middle of nowhere.

01:20:29.000 Really?

01:20:30.000 How did they wind up in Toledo?

01:20:31.000 That's where their affiliates were in that area.

01:20:35.000 Michigan, Ohio, down into Virginia.

01:20:38.000 They had Philadelphia.

01:20:40.000 When did they go to San Diego?

01:20:42.000 It was 2007. When was Diego Sanchez training with them down there?

01:20:47.000 Because he was down there with them for the BJ Penn fight, which I feel like was before that.

01:20:52.000 It was around the same time, 07-08.

01:20:54.000 Really?

01:20:54.000 BJ versus Diego was 07-08?

01:20:57.000 Yeah.

01:20:57.000 Wow, man.

01:20:58.000 I'm confused.

01:20:59.000 I felt like it was 2003 or something like that.

01:21:02.000 Too many fights.

01:21:03.000 I'm kind of scrambled.

01:21:04.000 Diego Sanchez was in the Ultimate Fighter in 2005, right?

01:21:07.000 Well, he was in the first season, which is 2005. December 11th, 2009. Oh, okay.

01:21:14.000 Yeah.

01:21:15.000 So, I said 07-08.

01:21:17.000 It was probably 08-09.

01:21:19.000 But...

01:21:20.000 Yeah.

01:21:21.000 I mean, they would just destroy me with that pressure.

01:21:23.000 And it was like the exact answer to my guard because, you know, you fight your way inside.

01:21:28.000 So I couldn't use my length.

01:21:29.000 And I didn't understand how to frame, how to protect myself.

01:21:32.000 And I just literally got smothered and, you know, just destroyed on a daily basis.

01:21:38.000 And in Toledo, Ohio, it would just be the three of us.

01:21:40.000 You know, they didn't have like a big team.

01:21:42.000 And so I would go there and stay with them, and we would just train for hours every day, and the bike, the Airdyne bike, would be the evening training partner.

01:21:52.000 You know, so when two guys were out, the other guy was on the bike. 0.99

01:21:54.000 Don't you hate that fucking thing? 0.99

01:21:56.000 I got one of those Rogue Echo bikes out there. 1.00

01:21:59.000 That's the beatier version of the Airdyne. 1.00

01:22:02.000 Holy shit is that thing death. 1.00

01:22:04.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:22:04.000 It's a lot harder to when you have solos screaming in your ear. 1.00

01:22:09.000 How would you do it?

01:22:10.000 Would you do it sprints?

01:22:12.000 What do you do on that thing?

01:22:13.000 You had to keep a certain pace.

01:22:15.000 And whenever they were in a scramble and going hard, you had to sprint at the same time on the bike.

01:22:21.000 Oh, wow.

01:22:22.000 Yeah.

01:22:22.000 And so you didn't want to be the one like going too slow and in the middle of the training, Sal looks over and he's like, you know, yelling at you to pick it up.

01:22:29.000 You know what I mean?

01:22:29.000 So you had to push it.

01:22:32.000 And then it was your turn to go in.

01:22:34.000 And, you know, so I'm going back to back between Salo and Shanji.

01:22:38.000 And the Airdyne.

01:22:39.000 And the Airdyne.

01:22:40.000 Those were some good times.

01:22:42.000 Did you guys have, like, mats in the living room or something like that?

01:22:43.000 Or was that Mark Lehman and stuff?

01:22:45.000 That was Lehman.

01:22:46.000 Okay.

01:22:47.000 Yeah.

01:22:47.000 Just mats in the living room at the house.

01:22:48.000 There's another underappreciated guy.

01:22:50.000 Very much. 0.98

01:22:51.000 Mark Lehman's goddamn encyclopedia of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 0.96

01:22:54.000 I remember he had everything sort of written out, like, way back in the day. 0.99

01:22:59.000 Like...

01:22:59.000 Most people just had moves in their head.

01:23:01.000 But Lehman had things written.

01:23:03.000 I think he might have done it on his computer.

01:23:04.000 Yeah, it was on his computer.

01:23:05.000 Yeah.

01:23:07.000 Another guy that had a big influence on me.

01:23:09.000 Where is he these days?

01:23:10.000 He went back home to Wisconsin.

01:23:12.000 And I think he might have a school there now.

01:23:14.000 Is he teaching there?

01:23:14.000 I think he is.

01:23:14.000 Because I know he was doing team takedown, right?

01:23:16.000 Yeah.

01:23:17.000 He was with Hendricks when Hendricks was at his best.

01:23:20.000 Yeah.

01:23:21.000 That's right, you were there as well.

01:23:22.000 And then I haven't heard from him.

01:23:24.000 I was wondering, like...

01:23:26.000 Yeah, he went back home.

01:23:26.000 He's had some back issues, you know, that kept him from training.

01:23:29.000 But I think, I want to say I heard he is teaching now.

01:23:32.000 He is back to teaching.

01:23:32.000 I think he's teaching and I think he's also some of his family, either it's a bait and tackle shop or maybe it's like the standing paddle boards or something like that on a lake.

01:23:43.000 And I think he's helping with that business as well, too.

01:23:45.000 So his back from jujitsu, right?

01:23:48.000 I think that's, yeah.

01:23:50.000 If there is a number one injury that fucks people up in jujitsu, it is the back, right?

01:23:56.000 Yeah, back and neck.

01:23:58.000 Have you had any of those problems?

01:23:59.000 I used to have some neck issues.

01:24:04.000 It wasn't anything too serious, but if there was something that kept me from training for a week or two, it would be because my neck would flare up.

01:24:12.000 But fortunately, my strength conditioning coach that I've been with now for about nine years, he really changed the way I trained.

01:24:21.000 I used to think that the supplementary strength conditioning type stuff, I had to just destroy myself and lift hard and do all this crazy stuff.

01:24:30.000 I didn't feel like it was productive unless I couldn't walk at the end.

01:24:33.000 And then I would go train and get hurt.

01:24:36.000 I couldn't move.

01:24:37.000 I was too tight, too sore.

01:24:39.000 And so my strength and conditioning coach, Luke Tyree, he really kind of put me on a different path and made it a lot more back to the basics.

01:24:50.000 Pure, clean movement and everything just about health and awareness.

01:24:55.000 So what kind of stuff do you do now?

01:24:58.000 Well, you'd be surprised how little I do.

01:25:02.000 There are times where we push it, but I don't ever leave feeling like I'm not going to be able to train later.

01:25:09.000 Actually, a lot of people do strength and conditioning type training later in the day after they've already done their martial arts training, so they don't feel tired when they do their martial arts training.

01:25:21.000 The strength conditioning training that I do actually makes me feel healthier.

01:25:25.000 It makes me feel, kind of awakens my body.

01:25:28.000 I feel looser.

01:25:29.000 And so I always do in the morning.

01:25:31.000 That's the way I like to start all my days.

01:25:35.000 But, you know, we do a lot of kettlebells.

01:25:38.000 I've been playing a lot with the mace lately as well.

01:25:41.000 I do a lot of airdyne bike.

01:25:43.000 I'm on the bike a lot.

01:25:45.000 Sledge rags.

01:25:46.000 You know, we just pick heavy things up and move it around, you know.

01:25:50.000 The only lift I really do on a regular basis somewhat is deadlifts with a trap bar so it's safer.

01:25:59.000 And there's just also a lot of movement, a lot of mobility involved.

01:26:04.000 Why is deadlifts safer with a trap bar?

01:26:07.000 Because you're not carrying the weight in front of you, so it's not as much pressure on your back.

01:26:12.000 You're kind of inside of it, so it's a little more natural to bring it up.

01:26:16.000 What's that other machine that Luke has that you also love?

01:26:19.000 It's the...

01:26:20.000 The Reverse Hyper.

01:26:21.000 Reverse Hyper.

01:26:21.000 That thing's amazing for your back, isn't it?

01:26:23.000 Mm-hmm.

01:26:24.000 It's so critical for decompressing, decompressing your spine and then strengthening up all that area in a real weird way that's very difficult to do outside of that machine.

01:26:34.000 And here's the first one to just say, crawl.

01:26:37.000 Why don't you, you know, he taught me how to crawl and, you know, just start crawling for five minutes, ten minutes.

01:26:43.000 Hang, you know, get on the pull bar, hang. 0.98

01:26:46.000 He would incorporate all these recovery techniques and exercises into my training and a lot of movement and would be the first one to say, I know you want to go this hard today, but no.

01:26:56.000 You're going to tone it down.

01:26:57.000 How are you feeling?

01:26:59.000 What's on your schedule?

01:27:00.000 And really just put it to where it fits nicely into my routine and isn't something that is everything, that takes it all out of me.

01:27:10.000 And he kind of opened my eyes to the movement area of his training.

01:27:16.000 And that kind of led me into another person I'm training with now these days.

01:27:20.000 His name is Cameron Shane, who's an innovator when it comes to movement.

01:27:25.000 He has a system, the Budokan movement system.

01:27:29.000 And he's an incredible guy.

01:27:31.000 He's in Florida and Miami.

01:27:33.000 And he is a yoga, you know, he's a yogi.

01:27:37.000 He's a martial artist first.

01:27:39.000 Fell in love with yoga and then created this free-form mobility and movement that you see guys like Ido Portal preaching and doing now.

01:27:48.000 He's really well known for his work with Connor.

01:27:51.000 And I'm really into that as well.

01:27:53.000 And so I've been working with him now for a year and I love that movement.

01:27:59.000 I just love it.

01:28:00.000 And Salo and Shanji are also, they spend a lot of time with Alvaro Humano from Genesca Natural.

01:28:05.000 And Hickson was a big part of that as well, right?

01:28:07.000 Exactly, exactly.

01:28:09.000 So I love yoga, I love movement, and that's a big part of my recovery and training without impact, you know, and it's kind of implemented into my strength conditioning program as well.

01:28:22.000 So your conditioning program used to be just, was it you on your own or was it someone else that was like brutalizing you?

01:28:31.000 A little bit of both.

01:28:33.000 And it was just hardcore, just go full blast and try to build your strength up and break your body down.

01:28:41.000 Yes.

01:28:42.000 While you're doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it's not really the best way to do it.

01:28:45.000 Yeah, I was 100% going for all the major tournaments in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at that time, and I would kill myself in strength and conditioning, go to train, neck would get jacked up. 0.99

01:28:57.000 Do you ever fuck around with that iron neck? 0.97

01:28:58.000 Have you used that before? 1.00

01:28:59.000 Is that like a...

01:29:00.000 The halo?

01:29:01.000 Yeah, I've seen it, but I have it.

01:29:02.000 I've got one here.

01:29:03.000 You've got to try it.

01:29:04.000 Yeah, I'd love to.

01:29:04.000 It's crazy.

01:29:05.000 I'd love to.

01:29:05.000 It's one of the best things ever for strengthening your neck.

01:29:08.000 I've heard you talk about it.

01:29:10.000 I love it.

01:29:10.000 The decompressing on the hangs.

01:29:12.000 Yeah, those are great as well.

01:29:13.000 Yeah.

01:29:14.000 More people should be doing that.

01:29:16.000 Right.

01:29:16.000 Yeah, it hangs from a chin-up bar too with your shoulders.

01:29:20.000 It's just great too.

01:29:22.000 So what you're basically following is just like a protocol where you're not going to failure.

01:29:28.000 You're just strengthening things up and you're probably doing like more workouts but less time.

01:29:33.000 Yes, exactly.

01:29:34.000 A lot of people are leaning towards that now.

01:29:36.000 Yeah, I do something every day, Monday through Friday.

01:29:39.000 And then Saturday is like a long, hard training day in the mornings.

01:29:44.000 And then Sundays is like a yoga recovery day.

01:29:46.000 That's the other thing Luke taught me about is active recovery.

01:29:49.000 You know, I used to think, well, I need to take a day off.

01:29:51.000 I need a rest.

01:29:52.000 And I would basically lay around, you know, and I thought that was helping.

01:29:55.000 And it wasn't.

01:29:56.000 He was the first one to really get me to active recovery, like go take an hour long walk, you know, stretch, move, breathe, do yoga, you know, something like that.

01:30:07.000 And that helps tremendously, too.

01:30:09.000 I don't get to a level of soreness anymore where I feel like I can't do anything.

01:30:14.000 You know, whereas that used to happen to me.

01:30:16.000 But I was younger, and I had this, you know, stubborn mindset, and I just thought, well, no, I gotta go, go, go, go.

01:30:23.000 Well, you think you're doing well.

01:30:25.000 You know, you're pushing hard, and you think that that's really the way to do it.

01:30:28.000 Yeah.

01:30:28.000 It's just the harder you push, the stronger you'll get.

01:30:30.000 It's just all about overcoming weakness in your mind.

01:30:34.000 Right.

01:30:34.000 Yeah.

01:30:34.000 Exactly.

01:30:35.000 You had that thing in the back of your mind, like, what if the other guy's doing more?

01:30:38.000 Yes.

01:30:38.000 You know, and it's like, I've got to go hard today.

01:30:41.000 I've always wondered how many fighters ruin themselves before they get to the fight because they just overtrain.

01:30:47.000 I think it's real common.

01:30:49.000 And I think you can get to a level of spectacular strength and conditioning.

01:30:55.000 You can get there.

01:30:56.000 But it's not something you're going to get to in a two-month camp. 0.87

01:31:00.000 And I wonder how many guys are coming into camp where they're not in the best shape and they're just pushing it so hard during camp that by the time those eight weeks are done, they're fucking worn out, man.

01:31:10.000 And they taper off the last week or so, but it probably isn't enough.

01:31:15.000 Yeah, it's got to be a lifestyle, 100%.

01:31:17.000 It has to be a lifestyle.

01:31:18.000 The way you eat, you move, you breathe, the way you view your training.

01:31:23.000 Are you saying sled drags?

01:31:25.000 So you're putting a harness on and dragging the sled behind you, or are you pushing the sled?

01:31:29.000 Yeah, I mean both.

01:31:31.000 Harness that's maybe around your waist, or you can hold some handles and push it, pull it.

01:31:40.000 Are you doing any running at all?

01:31:42.000 Hill sprints.

01:31:43.000 I don't do a lot of long distance, extended period of time running.

01:31:47.000 Just hill sprints.

01:31:48.000 I feel like that's the easiest on my body and also translates the most into what I need.

01:31:53.000 And you decided, Justin, to go down to Oklahoma to train with him.

01:31:58.000 Oh, yeah.

01:31:58.000 And you moved there.

01:32:00.000 What caused that move?

01:32:01.000 Like, what was the motivation behind it?

01:32:03.000 Honestly, it was a couple things.

01:32:05.000 There's some really great people.

01:32:07.000 My sports agent's out of Oklahoma City.

01:32:09.000 My business manager is out of Oklahoma City.

01:32:12.000 An organization we partner with is out of Oklahoma City.

01:32:14.000 And then...

01:32:15.000 Is that Water4?

01:32:16.000 Yeah.

01:32:17.000 They're out of there?

01:32:17.000 Yeah, they're out of there.

01:32:19.000 And then JASCO's out of there, a company that I'm a spokesperson for.

01:32:22.000 But then...

01:32:23.000 The thing that was the deciding factor, my wife and I, we watched, if anyone's got a Flow Grappling subscription, or you need to go get one, because they did a documentary on Raphael, and it's called The American.

01:32:36.000 And it's his life story, his life journey, and you get to see how hard he works.

01:32:40.000 You get to hear all the history.

01:32:42.000 But then, to me, it was like, this guy's like a modern-day samurai.

01:32:46.000 And then whenever I went down and trained with them, it was suffocating.

01:32:50.000 And I've trained with Shane Carwin and Frank Mir and Randy Couture and all sorts of big heavyweights that are known for being so much pressure.

01:32:58.000 I've never been claustrophobic under any person in my entire life except Raphael.

01:33:03.000 And it just feels like, like you said, a building or like this building of melted hot, I don't know, cheese or blanket that's going over your face.

01:33:11.000 I don't know.

01:33:12.000 It sounds cheesy to me saying that, but it's just like it's melted all over you and you can't get them off and you take inch by inch by inch.

01:33:20.000 And I have a good wrestling game, but I wanted to get my jujitsu there where every time I take someone down, I'm going to finish them.

01:33:26.000 And I've done that in fighting statistically.

01:33:28.000 Every fight I've taken to the ground to finish, but I wanted to get even more proficient at that.

01:33:32.000 And just seeing the way that he coaches, he teaches.

01:33:36.000 Honestly, I've been coached by Kale Sanderson and Kendall Cross and Kenny Munday, Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.

01:33:44.000 Fantastic people.

01:33:46.000 Amazing coaches.

01:33:47.000 What is it about it?

01:33:57.000 inch by inch.

01:33:58.000 I mean, the way that he will, because he's an active competitor too, and he's a great teacher.

01:34:05.000 I mean, when did you start teaching, Raphael?

01:34:07.000 I mean, you were in high school probably, right?

01:34:09.000 Yeah.

01:34:10.000 Because it was just my dad and I in Oklahoma.

01:34:13.000 I was the most advanced student there.

01:34:16.000 And so I started helping my dad teach when I was like 16. If he wanted to go travel and train, I would help teach.

01:34:23.000 If he needed a night off or whatever, I was sort of the next one.

01:34:27.000 And I started teaching adults right off the bat.

01:34:30.000 I'm 16 years old and I'm teaching grown men.

01:34:34.000 But I've been teaching now for almost 20 years.

01:34:36.000 Yeah, and then there's things that I'm doing, and he'll say, turn an inch this way.

01:34:40.000 I'm just an inch.

01:34:41.000 And I turn an inch, and I hear the guy I'm training with, and it's just a small little inch of an adjustment.

01:34:50.000 Get your chest up higher.

01:34:52.000 Finish this way.

01:34:53.000 Get your chest down low.

01:34:54.000 I mean, the...

01:34:55.000 And I can hear him very distinctly whenever I'm training, whenever I'm competing, whenever I was in my last fight.

01:35:01.000 I can hear everything he's saying, too.

01:35:03.000 And I trust it.

01:35:05.000 So there's this level of trust that, I don't know why it's there, but you're just a fantastic human being.

01:35:11.000 This guy blew me away.

01:35:13.000 He's been such a blessing in my life.

01:35:16.000 I was very skeptical of him at first just because he's a big guy, heavyweight, MMA fighter.

01:35:23.000 I was like, man, how is this going to work?

01:35:25.000 Is he going to be open to putting on the gi?

01:35:28.000 What is his mindset?

01:35:29.000 Is he a fighter?

01:35:30.000 Is he a martial artist?

01:35:33.000 I just didn't know how it was going to work.

01:35:36.000 I'm not a...

01:35:37.000 We don't have a fight team.

01:35:39.000 You know what I mean?

01:35:40.000 We have a martial arts school.

01:35:43.000 And so you're always just a little, you know, when a fighter wants to come and, you know, how's this going to work?

01:35:49.000 Yeah, some of them are a little rough around the edges.

01:35:51.000 Yeah, that's saying it lightly.

01:35:53.000 And especially when you have kids and classes.

01:35:55.000 Right, right.

01:35:56.000 And people that don't have anything to do with fighting, they just want to learn.

01:35:59.000 Right.

01:36:00.000 And that's the most important thing.

01:36:01.000 Just learning.

01:36:03.000 And becoming part of the team, part of the family.

01:36:07.000 Of course, I did my research on Justin and I knew he was an amazing person, but I just didn't know what he trained like, what his energy was like inside the academy.

01:36:16.000 But he was open to putting on the gi.

01:36:18.000 The first conversation we had, I said, hey man, I'm going to want to put a gi on you. 0.55

01:36:23.000 Are you okay with that?

01:36:24.000 What's so critical for you about the gi?

01:36:27.000 For me, I can't pass on what I really have to offer, you know, my passion, my love.

01:36:36.000 There's no way I'm going to be able to pass that on to you if you don't put on the gi, if you don't get inside my head and learn what I have to say and how I feel about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

01:36:46.000 But what is specifically why the gi?

01:36:49.000 It's just, for me, that's jiu-jitsu.

01:36:52.000 Like, for me, that is jiu-jitsu.

01:36:54.000 No gi is, jiu-jitsu is a part of it, but it's submission wrestling, submission grappling, you know.

01:37:01.000 The beauty of jiu-jitsu for me is with the gi.

01:37:05.000 The inches, the details, the way you can make a mistake here, and that's your downfall 10, 12 moves later, you know, minutes later.

01:37:15.000 The way it feels, you know, the tightness of it, everything.

01:37:19.000 Jiu-jitsu is, you know, I mean, jiu-jitsu is my passion.

01:37:24.000 For me, I feel like whenever I put on the gi, it was tough.

01:37:28.000 I didn't want to put it on.

01:37:29.000 But then whenever I did, and it was just tough because I couldn't power out of stuff.

01:37:33.000 I couldn't slip out of things.

01:37:35.000 That's the big factor.

01:37:35.000 Yeah, and so for me, it's helped expand my knowledge of every position.

01:37:42.000 You have to be, for me, in learning from him, both are technical.

01:37:48.000 But there's one that seems a little bit like maybe you expand your knowledge and then whenever you...

01:37:56.000 Take it off.

01:37:57.000 I feel like I understand the no-gi positions a little bit better, a little bit more. 0.92

01:38:03.000 More refined.

01:38:05.000 That's the word.

01:38:06.000 Because of the friction, because of the fact that people can grab you, you have to be in the perfect place.

01:38:13.000 You have to slow it down and truly understand it.

01:38:15.000 I feel like before I was able to muscle out of things.

01:38:17.000 I was able to slip out of things.

01:38:18.000 I was able to use my weight a lot more.

01:38:21.000 And I still get to use that whenever I take the gi off.

01:38:23.000 Whenever I'm in the gi, it's to learn and it's to really expand my knowledge base, the depth of it.

01:38:29.000 That's what it was too.

01:38:29.000 It's like, you know, you're not going to fully become part of the team and the family if you're not in the classes.

01:38:38.000 You know, and like I was saying, you know, I'm going to want you to do the classes and 98% of my classes are all in the gi.

01:38:45.000 You know, we take it off.

01:38:46.000 We do no gi afterwards.

01:38:48.000 You know, we have our sparring, our MMA training, everything else.

01:38:51.000 But I want you to come to class.

01:38:53.000 You know, I'm not going to do like a lot of special treatment just for one individual.

01:38:58.000 You need to, you know...

01:38:59.000 Be a part of this family, and that is to put the gi on and come to jiu-jitsu class.

01:39:05.000 Have you had a lot of other guys who are professional fighters come and specifically come down to train with you like this?

01:39:12.000 No.

01:39:12.000 No?

01:39:12.000 No, Oklahoma's not like that sort of hot spot.

01:39:15.000 You know what I mean?

01:39:15.000 It's rare for people to come to.

01:39:17.000 He told me it made sense that he was going down there.

01:39:20.000 And then when I saw the results, as soon as I saw that one fight where you mounted that guy and got an arm triangle, I go, well, there you go.

01:39:27.000 I mean, now you're finishing from the top.

01:39:29.000 It's not just punching a guy when you're on top of him.

01:39:31.000 Now you're strangling people.

01:39:33.000 And he learns like a sponge.

01:39:35.000 I mean, because of that attitude that he has and our connection that we made so quickly, it made it really easy for me.

01:39:43.000 And I mean, obviously, he's a great athlete, great wrestler.

01:39:46.000 And the fact that he was open to it, you know, I mean, I was telling him like, Justin, you've got to play guard.

01:39:53.000 You know, you're going to start on your back.

01:39:54.000 Like all these things, he was accepting of it.

01:39:56.000 And then he just made it so easy to absorb all the knowledge.

01:39:59.000 And it's just like, you know, playing a video game with him.

01:40:02.000 It's like, here's what you're going to do.

01:40:03.000 And boom, he did it.

01:40:04.000 When a wrestler falls in love with jiu-jitsu, I mean, you already have this ability to manipulate bodies that it's at such a high level and the strength that wrestlers have.

01:40:11.000 But so many of them, for whatever reason, never make that leap.

01:40:15.000 It's uncomfortable.

01:40:17.000 It's uncomfortable.

01:40:18.000 Going to your back is not...

01:40:20.000 I mean, you've been trained your whole life not to go to your back.

01:40:23.000 Right.

01:40:23.000 And so to do that, go to guard, to have someone put you in a...

01:40:28.000 You're not supposed to be getting pinned.

01:40:29.000 You're supposed to be turning your back and getting up, but getting comfortable with your back just flat on the mat, but then getting to your side because you understand that you're just going to get smashed and smashed and smashed if your shoulders are flat against the back.

01:40:41.000 Are you catching triangles and doing things like that?

01:40:43.000 He's got a good omoplata.

01:40:44.000 Yeah, man.

01:40:46.000 Don't let people know that.

01:40:47.000 You got good flexibility?

01:40:50.000 I think I do for a heavyweight.

01:40:51.000 He's been working with the strength and conditioning coach, too.

01:40:53.000 I mean, he's kind of gone all in with everything.

01:40:57.000 His regimen is kind of becoming mine.

01:41:00.000 I'm inspired by it.

01:41:01.000 But yeah, I've got an omoplata.

01:41:03.000 The triangle's a little harder.

01:41:04.000 I got small legs for a heavyweight.

01:41:06.000 Short.

01:41:07.000 Short legs.

01:41:07.000 They're thick.

01:41:08.000 They're not short.

01:41:09.000 They're just so wide.

01:41:10.000 They're looking short.

01:41:11.000 Okay.

01:41:12.000 Okay.

01:41:13.000 I only wear like a 30 inch inseam or whatever.

01:41:15.000 30 inches long or 32. Really?

01:41:17.000 It's either 30 or 32. So instead of, I think most heavyweights are like 34, 36. Yeah.

01:41:21.000 Different things like that.

01:41:23.000 Is your torso long?

01:41:24.000 Torso is really long.

01:41:25.000 The doctor told me that if I didn't have short legs, I'd be like 6'7".

01:41:30.000 Bizarre.

01:41:30.000 Wow.

01:41:31.000 But yeah, I got short little legs.

01:41:33.000 And just coming in the academy, it's been really great.

01:41:36.000 I came in and really wanted to be coached.

01:41:40.000 And I wanted to have a mindset of being coachable and just absorbing everything he teaches.

01:41:44.000 But then on the flip side, last year we had like this.

01:41:49.000 Holiday break, Christmas party, and Rafael said, you know, what if we could, like, transform a community with clean water, and so what if we, like, set a goal at raising, and what does that cost?

01:42:00.000 And I was like, man, it's like $4,200.

01:42:02.000 And he's like, man, let's set a crowdfunding campaign, and let's do it.

01:42:07.000 And hosted a party, and we were able to raise $14,400.

01:42:13.000 Through the academy and the team just came around it and said, hey, this is your passion.

01:42:19.000 You're sharing in our passion.

01:42:20.000 We're going to do something great in the community and in the world.

01:42:24.000 And so that's been great.

01:42:26.000 Raphael and I are partnering again.

01:42:28.000 We are getting ready to launch a nationwide, through Fight for the Forgotten, a nationwide bullying prevention campaign and curriculum.

01:42:36.000 I grew up getting very heavily bullied.

01:42:39.000 Yeah, we talked about that really extensively in the podcast.

01:42:42.000 Terrible stories.

01:42:43.000 Yeah, man.

01:42:44.000 And it made me...

01:42:45.000 And so this last year, I got injured.

01:42:48.000 I had a shoulder surgery.

01:42:49.000 I got mesenchymal stem cells in there, MSC stem cells.

01:42:53.000 I'm getting better.

01:42:54.000 Hopefully I'll fight first quarter.

01:42:56.000 When did you get the shoulder surgery?

01:42:58.000 So I got it in like late March.

01:43:00.000 What was it?

01:43:01.000 Labrum.

01:43:02.000 That's the most common, right?

01:43:03.000 Yeah.

01:43:04.000 Labrum and rotator cuff, I think.

01:43:06.000 But my rotator cuff was just fine.

01:43:09.000 And it's kept me out for a while, but the whole time I've been, and it was actually after being on the podcast last time talking about bullying, it's like, how can we make a difference?

01:43:17.000 And there was such a response from the JRE community saying, let's do something here also.

01:43:23.000 Let's make a difference here in the United States with bullying.

01:43:26.000 How can you prevent bullying?

01:43:28.000 What do you think?

01:43:28.000 I've always said that one of the best ways is teach people to actually fight.

01:43:32.000 I think that a lot of bullies are hugely insecure, and if they just learned how to fight, they wouldn't act like that.

01:43:37.000 Right.

01:43:37.000 I think martial arts is going to be a tool.

01:43:39.000 So what we want to do this year is to get into 100 martial arts academies with a bullying prevention curriculum.

01:43:48.000 A lot of people don't know that 160,000 Kids in the United States alone, 160,000 kids every day skip school.

01:43:56.000 Skip school because of bullying.

01:43:58.000 That's 3 million school days lost a month.

01:44:02.000 And then I started digging into it because Oklahoma's become home now.

01:44:08.000 And 28.9% of the students deal with depression that's debilitating, that affects them for two weeks or more.

01:44:15.000 I mean, depression, addiction, suicides, and school shootings are all through the roof.

01:44:20.000 What's the suicide rate that you said?

01:44:23.000 It's insane.

01:44:24.000 In Oklahoma, this is the at-risk youth behavior survey, and they say that 15.4, no, 15.1% of the students are dealing with suicidal ideation, like seriously considering suicide.

01:44:38.000 And then 7.4, 7.4% of the students have attempted suicide.

01:44:43.000 Attempted it.

01:44:44.000 I was one of those kids.

01:44:45.000 I was one of those kids.

01:44:47.000 Seven out of 100 kids have attempted suicide just in Oklahoma schools.

01:44:51.000 And that goes around the country, too, around that 6%, 8%.

01:44:54.000 I was on a bullying prevention summit in San Antonio with Congressman or U.S. Representative Will Hurd.

01:45:02.000 He brought me in to speak with Maureen Molak.

01:45:05.000 And Maureen, she has a foundation called David's Legacy.

01:45:09.000 She started it because her son in San Antonio was getting...

01:45:13.000 Ridiculed and cyberbullied relentlessly.

01:45:15.000 You know, whenever we were growing up, bullying would end at 3 p.m.

01:45:17.000 because you're out of school.

01:45:18.000 But now it just increases because kids aren't in school.

01:45:22.000 They aren't in class.

01:45:23.000 And so that's whenever they can really take off and start bullying.

01:45:26.000 Well, David had over 300 comments of people that were just brutally cyberbullying.

01:45:33.000 A ton of them were calling for a suicide.

01:45:36.000 It went on for weeks and weeks.

01:45:37.000 They moved him from schools.

01:45:38.000 He attempted suicide not once or twice, but his third time he was successful.

01:45:45.000 And I'm very proud of Maureen, very proud of her, because she got a law passed called David's Law.

01:45:53.000 David's Law is about cyber bullying.

01:45:55.000 We want to see if we can get that into Oklahoma.

01:45:57.000 What is the law?

01:45:58.000 So the law basically, Maureen's family was told basically at school, the school was good to them.

01:46:05.000 They were trying to make a difference, but they were basically saying their hands were tied.

01:46:08.000 Their hands were tied from doing anything about it because it was an overwhelming response to students.

01:46:13.000 I mean 300 students.

01:46:14.000 And then it was off-school property and it was online.

01:46:17.000 So they said their hands were tied.

01:46:19.000 Well, now the law basically brings into effect that law enforcement and the schools can get involved off a school campus and they can look into the cyberbullying and they can take action against it.

01:46:30.000 So it basically just means, hey, this is serious and it's not okay.

01:46:36.000 And we're going to stand up and do something about it.

01:46:38.000 Texas, I'm proud of Texas.

01:46:39.000 That's my home state.

01:46:41.000 They passed it 33-0.

01:46:43.000 No one voted against it.

01:46:45.000 And it's really great.

01:46:46.000 We're working with a state representative named Colin Walkie in Oklahoma and a judge, Trevor Pemberton.

01:46:54.000 And then there's this principal named, it's kind of sound like a joke.

01:46:57.000 Last week, it was a MMA fighter with a politician.

01:47:00.000 We went to dinner with a politician, a judge and a high school principal.

01:47:04.000 You know, MMA fighter, what brought us all together, you know, it was bullying prevention.

01:47:09.000 But Debreon Davis, she's the high school principal of Edmond North.

01:47:13.000 It's one of the biggest and one of the best public schools in Oklahoma.

01:47:17.000 And in the last nine years of her working in public schools, she's been to nine funerals of kids that have all committed suicide.

01:47:25.000 And it's just on the rise in such a brutal way.

01:47:32.000 And one of the things that really touched my heart and wanted me to get into this, like, hey, we've...

01:47:36.000 Fight for the forgotten.

01:47:38.000 We're always going to be focused on the pygmies. 1.00

01:47:40.000 We're working with even expanding in Uganda.

01:47:42.000 We're working with the pygmy king of the Batwa pygmies in Uganda. 1.00

01:47:47.000 We're looking to do land, water, and food initiatives among them.

01:47:51.000 But there's kids in our own community right here that feel forgotten. 0.99

01:47:55.000 And whenever I was a kid, sitting at the lunch table by myself, getting pelted in the back of the head with chocolate spit wads, food, fist, when kids were pulling up my shirt and slapping my belly and twisting my nipples in front of the girls and acting like they're hitting me with a harpoon, you know, because I'm the size of a whale and all this stuff, you know, and telling me, you should just kill yourself. 0.99

01:48:15.000 Telling me, you should just kill yourself. 1.00

01:48:17.000 You're worthless. 1.00

01:48:17.000 You're nothing. 1.00

01:48:18.000 I mean, I felt forgotten and thought... 0.99

01:48:21.000 You know, I am worthless and I should just kill myself and dealt with that over and over and over.

01:48:26.000 And now the kids are taking action on that in such an incredible way that we've got to stand up and do something. 0.69

01:48:34.000 And so we're partnering and I'm really excited.

01:48:39.000 We are hopefully getting into 100 martial arts academies this year to equip them with bullying prevention curriculum.

01:48:47.000 It's called Heroes in Waiting.

01:48:48.000 And you know, a real inspiration to me, there's two things.

01:48:53.000 There's a TED Talk called The Psychology of Evil.

01:48:56.000 I'll text you that link.

01:48:57.000 It's incredible.

01:48:58.000 But it's The Psychology of Evil.

01:49:00.000 And it's by the name of Philip Gombardo or something.

01:49:04.000 And in there, he kind of coins a term called Heroes in Waiting.

01:49:07.000 Philip Zimbardo?

01:49:08.000 Yeah.

01:49:09.000 And then you, with the Onnit video that you did, be the hero of your own movie.

01:49:16.000 You know, be the hero of your own movie.

01:49:19.000 I love that.

01:49:20.000 I love that you've spoken out and said that about people.

01:49:24.000 You can be the hero of your own movie.

01:49:26.000 Well, Heroes in Waiting, the curriculum that we developed with Century and Maya, which is the Martial Arts Industry Association, It's all about teaching kids.

01:49:35.000 It's bullying prevention, but it's also character development.

01:49:39.000 And that is what prevents bullying.

01:49:41.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:49:42.000 The only people that bully are people with weak characters.

01:49:45.000 And kids that are...

01:49:47.000 Usually, there's something wrong at home. 0.99

01:49:49.000 A lot of these kids that are bullies, they're usually getting abused at home or either by an older brother or by their dad or cousins or whoever the fuck it is. 0.98

01:49:59.000 And then they're taking it out on someone who they feel is weaker than them. 0.96

01:50:03.000 This is one of the reasons why I think martial arts is so important for young men. 0.95

01:50:07.000 Because, I mean, we know from our experience in gyms, when you're dealing with high-level martial artists on a regular basis, they're some of the nicest, friendliest fucking people you're ever going to meet. 0.88

01:50:19.000 Because they don't have any insecurities. 0.87

01:50:20.000 And whatever insecurities they have, they get out in the gym.

01:50:23.000 They get out through training.

01:50:24.000 They get out of their frustrations. 0.96

01:50:26.000 They don't have all this pent-up, fucked-up energy that a lot of kids have. 0.88

01:50:30.000 Kids are always dealing with existential angst. 0.95

01:50:34.000 Their whole life is just this weird...

01:50:38.000 Ball of confusion and hormones.

01:50:42.000 The whole idea of life itself is so confusing that anytime they have any sort of control over anything, they exercise it.

01:50:50.000 Whether it's control over another kid or control over throwing a rock through a window. 0.99

01:50:55.000 They don't know what the fuck they're doing. 1.00

01:50:57.000 They have all this pent-up, fucked-up energy and pain. 1.00

01:51:02.000 And I think that so many of them are just...

01:51:06.000 Severely lacking in guidance and discipline and just those things alone guidance and discipline and also the lessons that you learn from martial arts that you can overcome things that you can get better at things and that when you feel like quitting and you don't you actually grow and learn like your experiences like training with Shanji and Salu just like that it's just one of the things that made you such a champion I mean training with people that are like It all started with my dad and having that when I was a kid.

01:51:36.000 You're so fortunate because of that.

01:51:38.000 And those experiences are what shaped you into the person that you are today.

01:51:42.000 And a lot of people don't get those experiences.

01:51:44.000 And unfortunately, they act in disgraceful ways.

01:51:47.000 And this is what we were talking about earlier, to bring it all back to...

01:51:50.000 What is martial arts? 0.98

01:51:52.000 Is martial arts shit-talking and throwing dollies? 0.97

01:51:56.000 Or is martial arts really competing in one of the most difficult endeavors in all of the world of sports? 0.99

01:52:07.000 Well, so I came from a wrestling background.

01:52:08.000 I believe that is without a doubt a martial art.

01:52:11.000 Yes, it is.

01:52:11.000 For sure.

01:52:12.000 Without a martial art.

01:52:13.000 100%.

01:52:13.000 And then my coach is...

01:52:15.000 Probably one of the most important martial arts.

01:52:16.000 Yeah, absolutely.

01:52:17.000 Absolutely.

01:52:18.000 And one of the toughest to do.

01:52:19.000 Yeah, one of the toughest.

01:52:20.000 Without a doubt.

01:52:23.000 But then coming into Raphael's gym, I mean academy in school...

01:52:27.000 It started teaching me the martial arts principles.

01:52:30.000 We didn't really talk about that so much in wrestling.

01:52:34.000 It teaches you that naturally, the hard work, because it thins the flock pretty quick if you can't cut it.

01:52:41.000 But then what are the six blades?

01:52:44.000 So Salo, his logo, it's this star, and he considers the middle the spirit of the samurai.

01:52:52.000 And then there's six blades to the star.

01:52:54.000 And they stand for six different values.

01:52:58.000 Loyalty, respect, honor, discipline, attitude, and family.

01:53:04.000 And those are the core principles inside the children's program at my academy.

01:53:10.000 There it is right there.

01:53:12.000 It's a very famous logo.

01:53:14.000 Yes, it is.

01:53:14.000 I have right here.

01:53:16.000 I carry it with me everywhere.

01:53:18.000 Bam! 0.98

01:53:18.000 Yeah, that's it. 0.98

01:53:20.000 But, you know, besides for, you know, those are the core values and then, you know, being a forever student and dedicating your life to learning and bettering yourself.

01:53:33.000 I mean, these things that martial arts gives you, I just...

01:53:36.000 You know, there are certain areas and other sports that give you a piece of that, but nothing is like martial arts.

01:53:42.000 You know, for me, everything I know of life, I've learned through martial arts.

01:53:47.000 Yeah, I think what you're saying, that there's other sports that teach you discipline.

01:53:51.000 Like, just, I mean, if you become a long-distance runner, there's discipline involved in that that's going to build up your character, but it's not specifically emphasized the way it is in martial arts.

01:53:59.000 Yes, yeah.

01:54:00.000 And so I've been looking into it and researching, and we're partnering with Century, we're partnering with Zebra.

01:54:05.000 We're partnering with Gameness. 0.76

01:54:06.000 We're partnering with Suplesse.

01:54:08.000 I don't know if you've seen the Bulgarian bags and the throwing dummies. 1.00

01:54:12.000 And the Gladiator Wall.

01:54:13.000 We're partnering with them because...

01:54:15.000 With the Gladiator Wall.

01:54:15.000 The Gladiator Wall is the wood that is...

01:54:18.000 You can hang on it and you can do all sorts of stretching.

01:54:20.000 The different bars.

01:54:21.000 Almost looks like a ladder.

01:54:23.000 Actually, Jamie, if you could pull up fightfortheforgotten.org, I've actually got something to show, and there's suples on there.

01:54:28.000 We should give a shout-out to the Cash App, too.

01:54:30.000 Oh, my gosh.

01:54:31.000 The Cash App is one of my favorite sponsors has done an incredible thing in donating $5 to Fight for the Forgotten every time someone signs up and uses the code word Joe Rogan, which is pretty amazing.

01:54:43.000 We've gotten thousands of dollars from that.

01:54:44.000 Yeah, they've built two wells, more of them are being built.

01:54:47.000 More are coming.

01:54:48.000 In January, we're starting to implement, but Cash App Came to me and we were trying to do a $50,000 fundraiser to drill a deep, deep well in Tanzania for the Maasai Warriors.

01:55:00.000 And we're going to do that with Water Boys, which is Chris Long's foundation.

01:55:03.000 Chris Long plays for the Philadelphia Eagles.

01:55:05.000 He won the Super Bowl doing it his entire salary.

01:55:07.000 Really great guy.

01:55:08.000 Climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with him.

01:55:10.000 And we were partnering together to help this village to get 7,500 people clean water.

01:55:13.000 So it's about $6 per person.

01:55:15.000 I started posting about that and Garrett McManus from Cash App hit me up and was just like, hey, we want to do something big with you guys.

01:55:22.000 And we already had another $50,000 donor that was being anonymous and Cash App came in and said, hey, we're going to match that $50,000 match you have.

01:55:30.000 So Cash App gives $50,000 if we could raise $50,000.

01:55:34.000 And so we ended up raising $52,625, and then it was tripled.

01:55:40.000 So it came out to being $152,625, and Cash App gave us $50,000 because they believe in the mission and vision of Fight for the Forgotten.

01:55:51.000 They believe in you.

01:55:52.000 They believe in this community.

01:55:54.000 And, man, I absolutely love Cash App.

01:55:57.000 In fact, on this crowdfunding tournament we're doing, on the website fightfortheforgotten.org slash heroes, we're doing a Heroes in Waiting crowdfunding tournament.

01:56:08.000 And so we're inviting in 100 martial arts academies and 100 individuals.

01:56:13.000 To help us raise $4,200.

01:56:16.000 There it is.

01:56:17.000 So, yeah, we're doing it through December 31st.

01:56:19.000 So we're giving us quite a bit of time.

01:56:21.000 But what we're going to be doing is the crowdfunding tournament is going to fund Wells.

01:56:26.000 So it'll transform a community with $4,200 and it will equip their martial arts academy with a bullying prevention curriculum.

01:56:33.000 Which is amazing, by the way.

01:56:34.000 Yeah.

01:56:35.000 Everything that you could ever ask for to help pass that knowledge along and increase your program, help your school bring more kids in, make a bigger impact.

01:56:47.000 So not only are you helping the kids, but then you're also raising money inside the academy to help towards the fight for the forgotten.

01:56:55.000 Yeah, and it's going to be a thing where – so there's 12 weeks of Matt Chat topics, and I love it because Heroes in Waiting talks about, hey, everyone is a hero in waiting.

01:57:05.000 And what is a hero?

01:57:07.000 A hero is someone who sees a need and takes action immediately.

01:57:11.000 And so we're teaching the kids that, hey, guess what?

01:57:14.000 87% of the time, whenever you see bullying and you say something, it can be as easy as, hey, that's not kind.

01:57:20.000 Or you include the person that's being bullied into your group.

01:57:23.000 Hey, come over here.

01:57:24.000 Within five seconds, the bullying stops 87% of the time.

01:57:28.000 All you have to do is say one thing.

01:57:30.000 87% of the time, almost 9 out of 10 times, you can shut down bullying whenever you see it happening.

01:57:34.000 Because here's the problem.

01:57:36.000 Whenever people think you're...

01:57:38.000 When you see bullying happening, a lot of times you might think you're an innocent bystander.

01:57:42.000 But your body language and you being around and involved and the bully seeing that, he takes you being that you're a silent supporter.

01:57:49.000 So you're not an innocent bystander.

01:57:51.000 You're now involved when you see it.

01:57:52.000 And so you're being a silent supporter if you're not standing up and doing something about it.

01:57:56.000 And so we're doing this competition and whoever is the top crowdfunding team is going to get their gym renovated by Zebra.

01:58:04.000 They're going to get $10,000 worth of Zebra mats.

01:58:07.000 Sentry is going to come in and do $10,000 worth of gear.

01:58:11.000 They're going to do gloves, headgear, sparring equipment, shields, the Bob the dummy. 0.99

01:58:18.000 Suplesse is going to do the Bulgarian bag, the throwing dummy. 1.00

01:58:22.000 And then the top individual fundraiser is going to get a free home gym from Zebra and Sentry gear.

01:58:29.000 Bellator just let me know last night that whoever is the top fundraising individual It's going to get flown out all-inclusive to January 26th, the Heavyweight Grand Prix finale between Fedor and Ryan Bader.

01:58:45.000 At the Forum.

01:58:45.000 Yep, at the Forum in L.A. So they're going to get three nights of hotel rooms.

01:58:49.000 They're going to get their airfare paid for.

01:58:51.000 And so basically what Fight for the Forgotten is trying to do is raise $420,000 throughout the rest of the year.

01:58:57.000 And what we'll be able to do with that is hopefully drill equivalent to 100 water wells or serve 30,000 people minimum.

01:59:03.000 Hopefully it'll be around 45,000 people with clean water.

01:59:06.000 And then it's pretty easy.

01:59:09.000 If people go and hit sign up, Jamie, if you could just hit the link, it's sign up.

01:59:15.000 We're trying to make it really fun and competitive.

01:59:17.000 Well, let's just tell people how to get to it.

01:59:18.000 It's fightfortheforgotten.org forward slash heroes.

01:59:22.000 Yep, forward slash heroes.

01:59:23.000 And then here, whenever they go down, you can hit become a fundraiser.

01:59:28.000 And whenever you hit become a fundraiser, you can either create a team, which we did with Lovato's a couple nights ago.

01:59:34.000 You can hit join a team.

01:59:36.000 So if a team's already created, you can join that team.

01:59:38.000 Or if you're an individual martial artist or just someone that's passionate about the cause, you can hit start fundraising as an individual.

01:59:44.000 Awesome.

01:59:45.000 And then we're going to have a top 10 prizes, basically like prize packs.

01:59:49.000 The top crowdfunding team is going to get a championship belt, a fight for the forgotten championship belt.

01:59:54.000 Two through 10 are going to get championship trophies.

01:59:56.000 And then anyone that hits the goal of $4,200 is going to get a fight for the forgotten gold medal for hitting the goal.

02:00:03.000 But if you actually click out of that and then scroll down, Jamie, you can actually see how it's kind of started a little bit more.

02:00:10.000 But there's already a few teams.

02:00:12.000 Wow, there's four teams now that have signed up.

02:00:15.000 We haven't announced it yet.

02:00:16.000 So there's Team Lovato down there.

02:00:19.000 And what it will do is it'll show the top team so you can track it and make it competitive.

02:00:23.000 So you can go on there and make a comment whenever you donate.

02:00:26.000 But basically, I guess martial arts and more, I do know them.

02:00:30.000 If you click on their page, it's a guy out of North Carolina, Jacksonville, and he just got hit by the hurricane brutally.

02:00:39.000 He can't go back into his home for another year.

02:00:42.000 A year?

02:00:42.000 A year he can't go back into his home.

02:00:44.000 He's living in the academy.

02:00:45.000 Why a year?

02:00:46.000 His homeowners association said it's going to be like a year of cleanup.

02:00:50.000 To fix everything?

02:00:50.000 Jesus Christ.

02:00:52.000 That's what it's predicted to be.

02:00:53.000 But he set the goal at $4,200.

02:00:56.000 He wants to teach his community.

02:00:58.000 This is James Wright.

02:01:00.000 And he's wanting to teach the kids, hey, we are still heroes in waiting.

02:01:05.000 We can still make a difference in our community with bullying prevention and globally with a community that needs clean water.

02:01:11.000 And so that's what we're trying to do is make a difference in both places.

02:01:15.000 Awesome.

02:01:15.000 Drill the wells and equip the Martial Arts Academy with bullying prevention.

02:01:19.000 Beautiful.

02:01:21.000 Let's wrap this up.

02:01:22.000 Do you want to say one more thing?

02:01:23.000 Yeah, I just wanted to back it up one more time.

02:01:25.000 You know, Justin has inspired me so much to, you know, get involved in these sort of things.

02:01:32.000 You know, I'm happy to have my school involved and I'm just kind of out there calling out for all the other jiu-jitsu schools, you know, in the country.

02:01:41.000 Like, I mean, if we just get two schools per state, that's 100. And if each one, you know, reaches the goal of 4,200, then we've done it.

02:01:52.000 It's a great cause.

02:01:54.000 It helps the school.

02:01:56.000 The material that they get is very helpful to implement into their children's programs.

02:02:03.000 It even comes with marketing material to help get those kids in the doors.

02:02:07.000 So it's totally worth it.

02:02:09.000 And then, you know, it's always great, like he said, you know, when we had the school Christmas party last year.

02:02:15.000 And it's always great to get everybody behind something, behind a cause.

02:02:19.000 And, you know, to get your whole school to rally together, you know, for this cause would be, you know, a great thing for your teams and your jujitsu families.

02:02:29.000 And it's not that hard to do.

02:02:31.000 You know, it's not that hard to hit 4,200.

02:02:35.000 And if we get 100 schools to do it, then we've done it.

02:02:37.000 So I'm here to support Justin in that.

02:02:41.000 Beautiful.

02:02:42.000 It's always great to have you, brother.

02:02:43.000 Thank you, brother.

02:02:43.000 I appreciate it.

02:02:45.000 So happy for what you've been able to accomplish.

02:02:47.000 So happy to know you and to be a part of this and just to spread the word.

02:02:51.000 It's beautiful.

02:02:52.000 Thank you, man.

02:02:53.000 It couldn't be done without you and your help.

02:02:55.000 I mean, honestly, it's skyrocketed us to be able to make the difference we want, to knock out the water crisis and to stand up and speak out against bullying here.

02:03:03.000 Well, it's my honor.

02:03:04.000 And thank you for being here, Raphael.

02:03:06.000 Thank you.

02:03:06.000 And best of luck to you.

02:03:07.000 I know you're supposedly next in line for a shot at the title in Bellator.

02:03:10.000 Gegard Mousasi.

02:03:11.000 Everything looks good.

02:03:12.000 I can't wait to see it.

02:03:13.000 I can't wait to see it.

02:03:13.000 Thank you.

02:03:13.000 Appreciate it.

02:03:14.000 Thanks for being here.

02:03:14.000 It was awesome.

02:03:15.000 Thank you.

02:03:15.000 It was an honor.

02:03:16.000 All right.

The Joe Rogan Experience - September 29, 2010

JRE MMA Show #45 with Justin Wren & Rafael Lovato Jr.

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Transcript