Corey Anderson is a professional bowhunter and mixed martial arts fighter. He is a 25-8 UFC fighter and has been in the UFC for 7 years. In this episode Corey talks about how he got to where he is now and how he is able to compete at such a high level. He also talks about the importance of having a balance in your life and how important it is to take care of your body and mind. He talks about what it takes to be the best at what you do and what he does to keep himself in peak physical condition to be able to do so. I hope you enjoy this episode and can't wait to do it again! Thank you Corey for being a part of this podcast and I appreciate you for coming on the pod! Cheers, Joe and Brycen. Love ya! - The Jerks. -Jon & Joe -The Jerks Podcast and the Jerks Jerks Crew Don't Tell Mom: e-mail us what you think of this episode! We'll get back to you guys with more episodes in the next episode. Thanks for listening and supporting the podcast! Peace, Love, Blessings, Cheers. Jon & Joe & The Jerkens Crew -Your Jerks, Brett & Brett xoxo - EJ & the Jerkens XOXOXOXO Thanks for supporting the Jerkers! -Jon and The Jerkers Podcast - Jon & Brett Love, EJ& the Jercks Podcast <3:00:00-Jon & Brett, Joe & Brett and Brett & EJ - Thank you EJ and Brett and EJ + EJoby E-RJG & E-AJB & EK -Sue -E-R -Bryan and E-MAYO -RJ & RJ & J-P -AJ & AJP -J-A.J. & JB & A.A. & AYO & A&A -PJ & KJ & M.B. & R.M. & S.J& A. -R.J & C. & P. -S. & D. & K.J . -D. & B.A& R. & E. & T. & L. & G. & F.
00:02:20.000I was always in the gym, and that's why the name 25-8 came, because Corey never, at the time, I didn't do anything else but train.
00:02:26.000You know, I would train to go to the gym and train, to go to therapy, go back to the gym and train, go home, run, go to the garage, hit the heavy back, go to Mark Henry's hip pads, and go train again.
00:02:35.000So, like, I was selling a wheel on the way here when I first went to UFC, and I'd say, oh, Corey's grew, he's gotten bigger.
00:02:44.000But when I got down to 205, I always told myself, I don't want to get heavier than, like, 210, 212. So, every day I had, like, a goal.
00:02:51.000I wanted to end the day off no heavier than 212. So, if I was, like, 215 from eating too much, and it's 10 o'clock at night, I got to lace up and go for a run.
00:02:58.000So, I was all, every morning I wake up at 210. So, that's why I took the fights, like, Jan Black, which was on two, three weeks notice.
00:03:05.000Fabio Maldonado in Brazil on a week notice, because I didn't have to cut weight.
00:04:22.000I had that same mentality when it came to fighting because you got to think, now we're taking blows to the head.
00:04:26.000So I got to keep water, keep that brain hydrated because if I'm dehydrated, that one shot is lights out.
00:04:32.000You don't have anything to help take it.
00:04:33.000So it's like, like I said, after OSP fighting and hunting and everything, I just went back and did a lot of figuring things out before that Pat Cummins fight and I just knew what I had to do to be the best me.
00:04:43.000And like I said, getting bigger, stronger, not worrying about keeping my weight low.
00:07:26.000And then you're probably draining yourself too much by all that weight cutting and all that getting it down before the actual fight itself, all the extra running and everything.
00:07:35.000Like, even on the show, like, we were finished eating, and this is when I found out you can cut weight in the hot tub.
00:07:50.000Like, even one day, Frankie and the coaches brought In-N-Out burgers over.
00:07:54.000We ate and watched the fights, and I sat in this hot tub for like 40 minutes and got all the weight off down to 210. Like, I don't know where I'm going to be.
00:08:06.000I don't want to have to worry about that.
00:08:08.000I was always scared of the weight cut.
00:08:09.000But if you're getting in the sauna or getting in the hot tub and losing all that weight, that's just water weight though, right?
00:08:15.000Even if you're down where you want to be, you're still going to have to cut more water to get to where you need to be, to 205. Yeah, but you asked my wife, I have the worst, not now, but before I didn't know anything about nutrition.
00:08:27.000Because I wrestled heavyweight from freshman year in high school to my senior year in college.
00:08:30.000And I fought heavyweight until the Ultimate Fighter.
00:08:32.000So I never had to worry about the diet.
00:08:34.000You know, I used to eat ramen noodles.
00:08:36.000I remember moving in my first time fighting.
00:08:38.000Ben Astro took me up to Rufus Sport, and I moved in the fighter house, and everybody eating like chicken fillets and salmon.
00:08:43.000I came in with a big old box of ramen and a thing of chunky noodle soup.
00:10:26.000I don't know how to say his last name, but they put the meat in the same place, and we said, some of this goes to Corey, and the other part goes to Justin.
00:10:32.000But they sent all of it down to Justin and his camp.
00:13:41.000If you're doing something you don't want to do, a guy like you who burns off so much energy in the day, your body's probably like, this is boring as fuck.
00:14:17.000Yeah, well, if you're a guy who trains as much as you, I mean, every chance your body gets to actually rest, your body's probably like, right about now, it's a good time.
00:17:32.000There's a switch in your mind that you have to figure out where it is.
00:17:37.000You've got to go find it, and a song can find it for you.
00:17:41.000But for you just to be able to pull it out, especially in a fight or something like that, when you're battling doubt and this and that, and you're wondering how he's doing.
00:18:16.000And every day he said, I'm running like I'm sprinting.
00:18:19.000I watched all his movies, the movies on him, how his mindset, even that one race when he was full out sprint, and he said, his heart's going to give, and he gave out right before the finish line.
00:18:27.000I'm like, I'd rather go out that way than pacing the whole time and then try to sprint in and fail because I wasn't ready.
00:18:34.000So that's like in my fight, I started off so fast.
00:20:47.000Excuse me, Tuesday night or Monday night, I'm going to do mitts for marking.
00:20:50.000Saturday after sparring, I do another mitt.
00:20:52.000Try to do two of everything, and I go up to Rutgers and Wrestle, because in Jersey, everything is such a commute, so you have to time everything perfect, because if practice goes 15 minutes past or whatever, or somebody's late, that's messing me up, because I've got to drive an hour to 45 minutes to get to the next place.
00:21:07.000And I'm running late for that practice.
00:21:08.000Or if it's three practices in a row, and I get there just a little bit, right on time, I don't have time to get ready to do my full warm-up to make sure my body's warm.
00:21:16.000Then get to the next spot and do the same thing.
00:23:17.000Sometimes it's like, oh, don't be here to go through the motions, but sometimes it ain't bad to go through the motions as long as you focus on one thing to master this takedown, master this sweep, master that jiu-jitsu submission or a sweep or whatever it is.
00:24:15.000So in between that 30 to a minute break, if I'm still right there at 180, 170, so I'm going to hit the next one, I know my heart is still racing.
00:24:22.000So I'm stretching my lungs out and take a little short break.
00:24:25.000And I never do a full minute break, even in sparring.
00:24:27.000So in fighting, that's why in that minute you see me talking to Mark Henry and everything, Is everybody, oh, of course, having a conversation.
00:25:11.000You know, if I feel like today's going to be a hard day, if we ain't got the clock, sometimes I have it on my phone.
00:25:16.000If the coaches aren't there, and my wife's doing it, and I stand up, and I feel like I'm recovering in like 20 minutes or 20 seconds, start, go.
00:25:23.000I just got to keep rotating my partner, because I know they can't recover all the time.
00:25:26.000But it's just like, I'm a little different.
00:25:29.000You know, it's like I was thinking outside the box.
00:25:31.000I'm I'm trying to do what the other people aren't.
00:25:34.000You know, everybody going off like the Dolce diet or the Keto diet or such and such training or Westside Barbell or this and that.
00:25:40.000It's kind of like I take the different stuff I learned from this guy and I saw from this guy and I learned in wrestling.
00:25:44.000I seen on YouTube and I heard somebody say this.
00:25:47.000Like, I wonder if I can just take away and take a little bit of this.
00:25:49.000Put it with the West Side Barbell, put it with the Keto Diet, along with my own Venison Diet, and this, this, and this, and just try it out.
00:25:57.000And if I don't feel good, if I feel low energy, it's like, all right, that doesn't work.
00:26:00.000We're going to try something different.
00:26:01.000It seems like a lot of people would want to listen to you, though.
00:26:04.000I would imagine if I was in camp with a guy like you, and I saw the kind of cardio that you have for a big guy and the amount of effort that you put in, I would imagine there's other dudes that are following you now.
00:28:15.000If one week I get the best of Rex, like there's been times like I've had Carl with OSP because he's southpaw and he's super good.
00:28:22.000So I went with Carl three rounds hard.
00:28:24.000So his main focus was take down, don't let him up.
00:28:26.000So I take him down and just beat him on the ground, beat him on the ground, take him down, beat him on the ground because he didn't have wrestling at the time.
00:28:31.000And then he would go with like somebody else like, ah, I need one more round.
00:29:08.000But nothing is thrown with the intention of hurting anybody.
00:29:11.000Well, you have a fantastic camp, too, man.
00:29:13.000It's one of the most unheralded camps, if you want to talk about who's training out there.
00:29:17.000Zabit, you guys have Marlon, you know, of course, Frankie Edgar.
00:29:22.000I mean, so many guys come from that area.
00:29:25.000Eddie Alvarez, you, and, I mean, it's just, Mark Henry's one of the most underappreciated guys in MMA, I think, because he's so quiet and unassuming, doesn't toot his own horn, but when you talk to that guy, you see the wheels spinning, and you're like, wow.
00:29:46.000I remember the first time I went, he broke it down.
00:29:47.000I remember he was telling me, movement.
00:29:49.000On the show, he broke me down a little bit.
00:29:50.000Like, we're going to work like throw a punch, slide out, slide back, slide left, clinch, different stuff, staying out of punching range.
00:29:56.000He broke it down very lightly for six weeks.
00:29:59.000And like, I fell in love with it there.
00:30:00.000Is that the first time you worked with him?
00:30:02.000You ask him to this day, and we was in the back, the first fight to get in the house, and that was the last fight, and I told him, like, coach, I like to warm up early.
00:32:32.000She had a gym out there, and she's been at our gym working.
00:32:35.000And when Mark was helping him after sparring last Thursday, and he called me in the cage, like, Corey, Corey's really good to show him how we do the one, two, blah, blah, blah.
00:32:42.000And when I look back at him, they both had that look at each other like...
00:35:45.000It's very interesting how he does it too, because he does it with, he overloads you not just with his attack, but also with all the variables that you see.
00:35:54.000The combinations, the switching, the putting pressure on you.
00:35:58.000There's so much going on that you're always thinking about it, and that on top of it makes you more tired.
00:36:03.000Yeah, he's good at smelling the blood.
00:39:28.000But just like Anthony Smith and all those guys, and they get in front of somebody like John Jones, and you can't hit them with that one punch.
00:41:42.000When it's come time to fight, When that light's come on Saturday night and Bruce Buffer in there and you sit at the side, it's a whole different game plan.
00:43:23.000And I actually open it up later on And somebody's saying something bad And it's just like Like my wife just said She's like I see it Just don't pay no attention to it You're allowing negativity Into your life You think about your camp, you got all these positive people, all these motivated people, all these professionals.
00:43:42.000You know, exceptional human beings, right?
00:43:44.000Everybody training and grinding together.
00:43:46.000And then you got schmoes that are contacting you on Twitter or Instagram or whatever and just saying a bunch of nonsense and that could fuck with your head.
00:43:54.000You know, and these are not people that would ever say that if they were in front of your face.
00:45:16.000Because what you're saying right now, all the things you were saying about beating Glover, about beating Aaliyah Latifah, yeah, but you're saying it like you're arguing with somebody.
00:45:25.000You're saying like someone told you you can't do it, but who gives a fuck what they said?
00:47:26.000You know, I didn't always have this mindset.
00:47:28.000So when it came to a point when I wanted to do good, and I was trying, I took my first injury, my very first injury, sophomore year in high school, before conference, I snapped my ankle, cleaned through.
00:47:36.000And I remember everybody, when I was sitting there hurt, first time I was actually hurt, but I had faked so many injuries, even a coach came up and was like, tell him, get up, Corey, I was faking.
00:47:44.000Everybody's going to run a sprint, so you get up.
00:47:46.000Because they all thought I was faking, but I was actually hurt.
00:47:49.000And my buddy stopped, he grabbed me and took me to the trainer.
00:47:51.000Even the trainer was like, I was probably a sprint, he'll be fine.
00:48:55.000My dad pushed on at such a young age, my brother got it.
00:48:59.000He was a star athlete, but he didn't get the openings and the opportunities I had, you know, because he was always working for my father and working here and working there.
00:49:06.000He didn't have the time to do camps and all that.
00:49:08.000Me being the youngest, it was a little easier for me.
00:49:10.000I seen what he did, what he told me, what my brothers, my sisters and teammates and all the different people around me had done.
00:49:16.000I knew the way I needed to go to get somewhere.
00:49:19.000But being a star athlete, a professional athlete, was never a goal of mine.
00:53:13.000I think when I get back, if I actually start trying and drilling and actually practicing and getting that extra workout in, I could cut up.
00:53:22.000And sure enough, that's what happened.
00:53:57.000And then, like right now, I got the plate and the screws in there, but I broke some of the screws because I was like trying to move in a wrestling stance in my boot and I slipped.
00:54:05.000My dad had the tile of the cement and he had the little gloss over it and I was washing the cars one day and I was like, I'm just going to, in my shadows, I don't know what.
00:54:12.000I slipped on the wet spot and I slipped.
00:56:29.000So you get out of the injury, you have the cast on you for five or six months, you realize how blessed you were to be able to move around, and that feeling once you get your leg back under you and start moving again, what is the changes you make?
00:56:42.000How do you start to move your life in this positive way?
00:56:45.000Well, after I made that first jog and I realized I'm good.
00:56:49.000I first doubted myself, but I made it because I told myself I can do it.
00:59:44.000They let me meet Dave Clem, who was my junior college coach, who led me to Russ Davey, who led me to Ben Askren, who Tim Fader, and everything.
00:59:52.000And I've been blessed with the people in my life that bring me to Frankie and Mark and Ricardo.
00:59:55.000And now I got, like, the awesome people around me.
00:59:57.000Like my mom says, you've always been blessed to have a good circle of people.
01:00:00.000And the one year I had a bad coach in college, It's like my mom said, we didn't have so much good.
01:01:33.000I got teammates now, and guys are still fighting and everything.
01:01:37.000They're like, bro, you got out of there.
01:01:38.000And a lot of guys, he had them there academically.
01:01:42.000He was like, oh, we're going to short-term, short credits, you bliss this, and then you're going to do half credits, but you're going to be able to wrestle.
01:01:46.000So he was just a dick to a lot of guys.
01:03:02.000He was like, I know your story, but the thing is, I can't give you a full ride because of D3. We can't give money, but I want you to wrestle for me.
01:04:44.000Like, I'm just going to chill and think about it.
01:04:46.000When that coach came and the fact that he came to my house, reached out to me, he told me, I can't get you money, but I want you for you and as a leader.
01:04:54.000When I first got there, even though he told me he wasn't going to let me wrestle, he let me run practice for the first month because he couldn't teach it before the season got there.
01:05:00.000I want you to run practice, this, this, and this, because you got that mentality.
01:05:04.000You can help these guys show what you did in D2. Number one school, you can show us stuff here.
01:05:08.000I ended up being the first NCAA All-American or NCAA finalist the school had in 22 years.
01:05:13.000I led the team in takedowns all the way up until the regional tournament.
01:05:17.000My roommate beat me when we had a competition going.
01:05:25.000I was doing strength and conditioning before practice.
01:05:28.000And before the morning, like 6 o'clock, we had strength and conditioning.
01:05:31.000And I got a class at 1. And I'd be in the gym lifting or doing circuit training until 3. And it went from just me to me and my roommate to other teammates.
01:05:39.000And like you said, people would see how you're doing it.
01:05:47.000And we just Motivating each other And the bond We had there As a team Like I remember Getting there And everybody was like Oh what's our goal One thing I thought about Was nationals Everybody was like We want to win nationals Or win conference I was like Why the fuck Y'all talking about conference That's like the first step You got conference Regionals All this national What about the big picture Like oh we never won Conference before And I'm like, we should still want to get nationals.
01:06:10.000And by the end of the year, everybody was feeding off each other.
01:06:13.000We had three guys from the same high school.
01:06:15.000Me, the 97, or 87, or 84 pounds, excuse me.
01:06:19.000And they called us a high nigga death row.
01:06:20.000Because that was our school and like death row sugar night and all that.
01:06:23.000So one guy printed up shirts and it was us three.
01:06:25.000And it was so cool to have three guys that was from the same school.
01:06:29.000We grew up right down the street from each other.
01:07:02.000Like, you went from being a guy who was kind of lazy and under-motivated to a guy who was very disciplined, that it was like night and day.
01:07:10.000But was there ever a time where you fell back to your old ways?
01:07:13.000I mean, there was times like it took...
01:07:16.000A lot of motivation and pep talk to myself to get out and do something.
01:07:20.000It'll be times like I wanted to, instead of go work out, go play video games.
01:07:23.000So I was big in a dirt bike and a four-wheeler.
01:07:25.000And like when I get off the bus, you can hear the dirt bikes come to my house.
01:07:28.000I had the motocross track in my backyard.
01:07:29.000Me and the neighbor, he had a freestyle track, I got a dirt bike track.
01:07:31.000And I'll get off the bus and be thinking like, all right, I'm about to go do my homework.
01:07:34.000I need to go do a little workout lift or something.
01:09:57.000I go to the hospital that day, and I remember the guy that snatches it back, pulls it around and snatches it and lines all the bones up, and they put it.
01:10:03.000Like, we'll put it in the castle now, but you got to get plates and pins to set this straight.
01:10:08.000And that one, I was out for, again, that was October 27th.
01:10:11.000And I came back, got the release back January 13th or 14th.
01:10:17.000It was like a little bit before regional.
01:10:19.000And we didn't have a heavyweight all year because I got hurt, and the other guys got kicked out of school, whatever.
01:12:58.000But then we went to team state and I pinned the guy that took fourth in state.
01:13:01.000So I knew I could do it, but I just didn't make it there.
01:13:04.000So when I got hurt my freshman year, that was the year I was going to show people, Corey Anderson, what y'all used to know, what you think, this, this, and this.
01:13:11.000Then I got hurt and it kind of set me back.
01:13:52.000It was I borrow somebody's homework or take somebody's notes and try to fill in answers just to get something to say it was a completion credit.
01:13:58.000But when I had nothing to do, I couldn't wrestle.
01:15:05.000I used to, and I lived next door to the middle school, so I was bad.
01:15:08.000The eighth grade year, they opened a new high, or middle school, up the street from my house, so I would mess up from school and don't do homework.
01:15:13.000I don't know why, I think I would get away with it.
01:15:15.000I'm getting out of class, my mom's sitting in the principal's office.
01:16:44.000So from that point on, from that injury, then you get your academic work in order and you start being disciplined in all areas of your life.
01:16:53.000And you feel like that carried over to your athletics as well?
01:17:01.000First thing we learn at orientation, the College coach comes as we go in the room like, guys, we got your athletic scholarship, but you're here as a student-athlete.
01:17:08.000And I remember going back and coaching at the same college and him giving the same speech, and he write it on the board, student-athlete.
01:17:28.000Then, it's making sure you stand out of trouble and that the last thing, the very most important thing to come to college is just social life.
01:17:34.000The rest of that, everything else comes first.
01:17:36.000And at the end, then you worry about your friends and trying to be cool and all that extra stuff.
01:17:41.000You know, I'm 17 when I went to college.
01:17:42.000I graduated high school at 17, so I'm young.
01:17:45.000I'm not even an adult, but in my mind, I'm on my own.
01:17:47.000I'm doing what I want, blah, blah, blah.
01:20:30.000And then one day he sent me an address like, oh, I'm not making it here today, but meet me here at this address and we'll work, blah, blah, blah, bring your gear.
01:20:36.000I get up there and it's Rufus Sport, but it's outside of a bank.
01:20:40.000It's still like, it's only for bank downstairs.
01:20:42.000So I'm looking like, where the fuck is, where am I going?
01:20:44.000And I text him like, oh, go to the side, it's downstairs.
01:20:46.000You're going to see a sign, Rufus Sport, this and this.
01:20:48.000And I walk down the stairs like, what is, he must have mats in here or something.
01:20:52.000I go in there, and you got UFC there doing Anthony Pettis doing a jump-off kick, making some photo for the magazine or whatever.
01:20:59.000And you got, like, Pascal Cruess and Sergio Pettis.
01:24:02.000In three fights, so what you got and your mentality from what I've seen in wrestling, if you put it into this, you could be in the UFC in three fights.
01:24:19.000I didn't debut until 2013. You're a top-level MMA fighter in one of the most talent-rich divisions, in the light heavyweight division, and you've only been doing it for seven years.
01:24:28.000I was in the UFC with seven months fighting.
01:28:35.000And Mark tells people all the time, you hear him say it, I hear him tell other people all the time, you guys want to see hard work and what happened?
01:31:53.000I was looking for something like that.
01:31:55.000Mark Fiore had that, but when he left, had nowhere else to go.
01:31:58.000And I was thinking, and my mom said, if that's what the best is, you need to go be the best.
01:32:02.000You know, my brother's like, yo, let's go.
01:32:04.000Mark Henry's such a unique guy that when people start training with him and realizing what he is and then comparing him to other people, it makes them think like, wow, this guy's got something very unique.
01:32:18.000All the way you're talking about his systems and all the stuff that he writes and the notes and like Brendan Schaub was telling me that he trained with him for one fight and he said when he went down there he said like it was like like an eye-opening experience.
01:32:30.000Like he didn't know that a coach could be that good.
01:33:13.000Like when it's practice over, we just start at 9.30 because I need to be at my shop by 11. And I got to work with this guy at 4.30 or 5. So he just mitts twice a day.
01:33:23.000You got 7 o'clock in the morning or 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
01:33:26.000But through the day, he's at the pizzeria.
01:36:09.000Like I said, when I say he's a mad scientist, you don't know any other coaches that take the time to learn the stuff that he does to make his fighters the best.
01:36:24.000That's why the Glover fight, you hear Dan Hardy, one of them say, there's no point in tuning in Corey's Corner because we don't know what they're saying.
01:42:00.000You know, I remember when I was in Wisconsin, like, we hung out with Anthony Pettis and Duke Rubens and all those UFC guys that are in the gym.
01:42:08.000But I don't ever remember seeing them outside.
01:42:10.000Like we say in the fight house, but I've never seen them outside the gym.
01:43:15.000He was one of those guys, when he was fighting for World Series of Fighting, I was very interested in him coming over to the UFC. I was like, this guy's got legit skills.
01:44:24.000Like, now, if I went home right now, I'm sure him and his wife might be able to go with my wife and the baby, just hanging out with the puppy.
01:44:30.000We're just a tight-knit family like that.
01:48:56.000You know, in your division, you have one of the best guys of all time, if not the best guy of all time as a champion.
01:49:01.000So when you see a guy like John at the top of the heap, is that...
01:49:07.000Is that motivating to you to just ramp up it even harder because you realize that the guy who's a champion in your division is not just the best light heavyweight of all time, maybe the best martial artist of all time?
01:50:00.000I had my words after the California stuff.
01:50:03.000We went to 226 or whatever the fight it was in Vegas and got moved here because of his lifestyle, the drug tests, and all that extra stuff.
01:50:10.000However you want to code it up, it's past.
01:54:54.000Like I said, I don't know if it's John or his camp that was doing that or UFC's doing or security or what, but it rubbed me wrong that We aren't equal anymore.
01:55:04.000No, that's understandable, but that's also got to give you some motivation, right?
01:55:08.000Like, I told him in the area, I was sitting on the plane, and I was literally directly behind John Jones, and I see his head bobbing, and I was just looking.
01:55:14.000I looked at my wife, and she's, like, struggling, like, falling asleep, but struggling to fall asleep, and I looked at the top of his head, the back of his head, and I was just like, it's time for a change of the torch.
01:55:22.000Like my brother always said, like, you're good.
01:55:25.000But I feel like when I come to those top guys, like John Jones and Gus, you doubt yourself just a little bit.
01:55:30.000You ain't sure that you can get them yet.
01:55:32.000You know you're good, but you feel like, this is before, like before the leader fight, you get there and you feel like you don't think you're ready for that.
01:55:39.000But I'm telling you, I watched you, bro.
01:57:47.000Like, all these guys, they talk about how good these guys, and I done beat them all.
01:57:50.000Like, I'm that guy coming underneath the radar, and they don't expect me to do nothing because I lost to Gian Vellante, my third or fourth fight in the UFC, two years of my career.
01:57:59.000Jimmy Manuel, Jimmy Manuel, I told Will on the way here, too, Jimmy Manuel was the only fight I would say, the guy beat me.
01:58:06.000He didn't manhandle me, but in my head from his highlights, like you said, on Instagram, reading comments, and I let what people were saying and reading and seeing get in my head to think, if this guy touches me, he's going to put me out.
01:58:20.000And when you go into a fight thinking that, I literally got touched, and my mind was already set.
01:58:50.000It was like, I can take it to anybody.
01:58:53.000And I think OSP was more dangerous than Jimmy because he can kick, he was explosive, and this is the hand punch.
01:58:59.000I did everything right and just slipped into the punch the wrong way.
01:59:01.000But I was manhandling them for three rounds.
01:59:04.000It's simple mistakes because I didn't have the discipline yet.
01:59:07.000In three years of my career, I hadn't learned the discipline and focus that it's a 15-minute fight.
01:59:12.000I can win 12 minutes of it all, but one mistake and it's all gone.
01:59:15.000Well, the experience of making those mistakes and realizing what they are, and then when those moments come up again, and you deviate from the game plan, and you do go to your right, and you do move the wrong direction, you'll catch yourself.
02:00:45.000Like we were saying before, it's just not a healthy way to consume things.
02:00:51.000Because there's too many people out there that are bored, or maybe they're not healthy mentally, and they would like to fuck with your head.
02:00:59.000And they see a guy like you, especially a guy who's an elite athlete, fighting in the UFC. There's so much jealousy and pettiness.
02:01:17.000But their words, although they mean nothing, if you see them in print and it's about you, it can get you to go, hey, hmm, and that might fuck with you while you're running.
02:01:28.000You know, and there might be 30 of those guys.
02:01:30.000And if you go down a spiral, if you have a weak mind and you don't understand how to compartmentalize and how to look at things objectively, if you don't see what that is and you start...
02:01:42.000If I saw him, I'd say this, or come say that shit to my face, and you start getting involved in that stuff.
02:01:48.000This is just a giant waste of resources, a giant waste of energy.
02:01:52.000It doesn't do you any good at all, especially when...
02:01:55.000Look at what you're surrounded with, man.
02:01:58.000You're telling me it's all family, elite fighters, some of the best guys in the world.
02:02:02.000You have one of the best coaches on the planet Earth.
02:02:05.000Ricardo Almeida, one of the best jiu-jitsu coaches on the planet Earth.
02:02:08.000You're with some elite, world-class fighters.
02:03:01.000Like they say, you listen to Rosetta Stone or something before you go to bed, and when you wake up, it's in your mind because you heard it.
02:04:29.000I used to feel like in going into fights, if I had one of them dreams, I remember before the Gian Vellante fight, it was after I fought Justin Jones.
02:04:49.000Somehow, in my dream, I was fighting Gian Vellante next, and I lost split decision.
02:04:53.000And I think that's why in the third round, even though everybody was saying, like you were saying, the leg kicks and everything, and when it came out, they showed a scorecard.
02:04:59.000It was like, I guess I was winning on the scorecards, but in my mind, I thought I was getting defeated.
02:05:03.000And I had to go harder and go harder, and I was getting beat up, because in my dream, It's that vivid in my mind.
02:05:08.000So I got greedy, and coaches just kept saying, like, just move!
02:06:52.000That last three times of work at home was all positive thinking.
02:06:57.000And with the brain tap, like my doc used to let me take you to the fight with me.
02:07:00.000So I'm resting between training, put it on.
02:07:02.000He gave me his little travel iPhone, whatever, put it on.
02:07:04.000How does it make you feel, the brain tap?
02:07:06.000The brain tap, you just wake up, like I said, relax.
02:07:09.000I get down to practice, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, but that little 15 or 20 minute nap, whichever one I use, when my brain come back too, I feel like I just slept for hours.
02:07:19.000I don't understand why it does so much for you.
02:07:21.000I've been the type, I never believe any of that stuff.
02:07:23.000Hypnosis, I never believed it, but after he let me try, he's like, just try it once.
02:07:27.000And I tried it, and I actually let my body relax.
02:07:32.000I noticed the next day in training, I'm like, dang.
02:08:00.000It's not putting me to sleep or putting me out hypnotized, but the way it made me feel, I didn't want to say, oh, hypnosis-wise, I got hypnotized.
02:08:47.000You drink too much water, it backfires.
02:08:49.000So I don't want to do the same thing with float tank because float tank is also great for the injuries in the body.
02:08:53.000yeah you know that's how i found it at first my shoulders real messed up going to the pat cummins fight and i kept getting a stinger i couldn't figure it out and my physical therapist she was like you need to go try floating i think it'd be really good help you with your other bumps and bruises and pull off a couple ounces at the same time because all epsom salt just sit there and try i reached out to the guy and brick and uh he gave me a little deal i hook you up you know you advertise for me and i let you float yeah so i did it and i liked it and like i said the negative thoughts going to the pat cummins fight that's where i got the dream i got take down took down like 10 times.
02:11:07.000So this brain tap thing, float tank one week before the fight, the last week, do you have any other rituals that you do that you make sure you keep your head and your body in check?
02:11:18.000I mean, like I said, I'm always doing physical therapy because, like I said, my body is so beat up.
02:11:22.000I've been competing since third grade.
02:13:44.000She's like, well, I guess it's a good thing you did that because if you wouldn't, it would have hardened up in here and this joint would have been immobilized.
02:15:35.000And they called me a couple weeks later about Gus, because he tweeted me and had them ask me on Ariel, and I said the same thing, like, I'm waiting until my baby's done.
02:19:16.000And that's why I answer back to tweets and shit, because in my head, things like that that I've been through, even though I should have learned by now, it doesn't matter.
02:19:23.000But in my mind, I voiced my opinions to that coach, and when I proved it wrong, I ran into his assistant coach later on in life, and he said, he doesn't really like you anymore.
02:19:30.000Because the guy actually I fought in the Ultimate Fighter was his best friend, Kelly Knudson, one of his All-Americans.
02:19:34.000He used to call him back when I was in college trying to discipline me.
02:19:37.000If I did some shit to piss him off, he would have Kelly come in and try to beat me up.
02:19:46.000So the fact that he thought he had a hold on me with this transcript and I got out.
02:19:50.000And then I end up fighting Kelly on the show, and he said to him probably one time, he'd kill you in MMA. He'd kill you in MMA. Well, the opportunity came, and I beat him.
02:19:58.000And somebody told me, like, yeah, he wasn't happy about that.
02:20:01.000He didn't like the fact that you beat Kelly.
02:20:45.000I watched this interview, excuse me, with Ariel Hawane, and they said the day after he fought John Jones, they called him about Anthony Smith, or about Gus.
02:20:53.000So that was about the same time they was calling me.
02:20:55.000So it's kind of like they were just throwing it out there, and then Ali said...
02:20:59.000I guess they offered it to Johnny Walker.
02:21:36.000I would do the same sort of hydration testing that one FC does, let people fight at their natural weight, so you don't have these ridiculous 40-pound weight cuts.
02:21:44.000Did you see Brandon Davis in his last fight?
02:21:47.000He fought at 135. I saw his fight, but I didn't see the weight cut.
02:23:33.000If the PI said he can make it, that's good because when I went there, at one point, coming off the OSP or Jimmy, I can't remember, Mark and I was like, oh, you're always thinking about 85. 85?
02:24:21.000Yeah, I mean, I think that it's a bad environment when there's 20-pound weight gaps between like 85 and 205, or even 15 between 55 and 70. These are giant weight gaps.
02:25:27.000Like, Sunday, hit me up, like, you ready to go to the park?
02:25:30.000Yeah, we go bike 15 miles, and I leave, and he go run the thing in a five-mile loop, and I'm like, bro, that's fucking good, because I have to if I want to make weight.
02:25:36.000But now he's got it down pat, so he doesn't have to do that anymore.
02:25:39.000He had to get his body to where he's supposed to be, walk around like 205, the 210 max, lean.
02:25:44.000So when he get into camp, a good two, three-mile run, get him down 201. Now it's just, like, eat right and train.
02:25:50.000And then suck that last few pounds off.
02:26:22.000That's a little smaller, faster, but they don't hit as hard as they do in 205. In heavyweight, they hit hard, but they're a lot slower and faster than 205. You can go up, and I think you still do great.
02:26:32.000And if you go down, I think if you rehydrate it right back up, you just go through everybody.
02:26:38.000I like 205. Like I said, I haven't been dominated.
02:26:40.000Until somebody showed me I don't need to be here, I'm not going anywhere.
02:26:44.000Well, especially when you're walking around at 235, that's really the weight class for you is 205. If you feel great and healthy at that weight, why fuck around?
02:26:52.000The heavyweight division is so strange, too, because it's got a weight limit.
02:28:59.000But if everything starts going great for you and growing the right way, do you think you'd be like, well, what the fuck am I fighting against now?
02:29:30.000I can't worry about fighting people that's in charge of the rankings and my opponent.
02:29:33.000Because if I worry about both of them, I'm not focused on something.
02:29:36.000So I'm just worried about the opponent.
02:29:37.000I'm just going to keep beating whoever they put in front of me.
02:29:39.000and eventually if they keep trying to put these guys up to fight John, like off knockouts, like you said, Anthony Smith, he knocked out Rashad Shogun and then choked out Vulcan.
02:29:48.000He went up to John and he had none on the ground, all that extra stuff.
02:29:52.000It's good when you're knocking guys out.
02:29:54.000I think it's going to be the same thing with Santo.
02:29:55.000He knows if we're knocking guys out, but his losses in 85, other than Branch, he lost Eric Spicely on the ground.
02:32:40.000But I think when it comes to a guy like Gus, he didn't do all that stuff, but he knew he had to stay long and evade punches and get a takedown and hit him where you can.
02:32:47.000Yeah, in the Gus fight, he showed his mettle, right?
02:32:50.000He showed that he could take it and then win in the championship rounds, even in a fight that he wasn't even really properly prepared for.
02:32:55.000He showed that in the Vitor Belfort fight, too, when he got caught with that armbar.
02:34:23.000I'm going to connect you to John Dudley.
02:34:24.000I know you've already talked to him, but I want to get you guys together.
02:34:27.000Next time you're anywhere near here, or if you're in Vegas and he's in Vegas, I'm going to get you guys together and have him coach you and help you.
02:34:34.000Because I already see that you're very accurate.
02:34:37.000When we're playing Techno Hunt, you're scoring in the vitals every single time, except for one body shot.
02:34:46.000But even that's a dead elk where you hit it.
02:35:16.000He posts videos shooting through kettlebells and lessons like that.
02:35:19.000No, he posts some crazy videos too, but I mean, it's just that level of commitment where they're just constantly training, constantly doing.
02:35:26.000And John is also just such a fantastic coach.
02:35:29.000You know, he's so good at understanding archery fundamentals and explaining it to you, positioning, and it's very much like martial arts in that you make a few little changes and it does the world of difference.
02:38:52.000They use the magnetic pole in electromagnetic fields.
02:38:57.000It's been proven that birds can register.
02:38:59.000And they sense electromagnetic fields.
02:39:03.000And they think that birds in particular, and sea creatures too, like they use it with scuba divers and spear fishermen and people like that.
02:39:12.000There's a suit that blocks the electromagnetic signal that your body gives off.
02:39:19.000And it's supposedly particularly effective with turkeys, who you know are very, they see very well.
02:39:26.000And they see things, movement, and they're very, very skittish.
02:39:30.000And they see any weird shit, they just get the fuck out of there.
02:39:33.000But this guy Mike Slinkard, who's one of the guys who created the hex suit, he hunts turkeys with no blind.
02:39:39.000He just sits out in the field with this hex suit on that blocks the electromagnetic signal, and then he puts camo on over the hex suit.
02:39:47.000There's videos of him doing this, man.
02:39:54.000So he's sitting with this hex suit on right in front of these turkeys.
02:39:58.000Now you know, as well as I know, that most of the time, if you were right in front of a turkey like that, they would get the fuck out of Dodge.
02:40:05.000Unless you got your little decoy, the feather thing they put over.
02:41:08.000I mean, it's the perfect type of leaves, the perfect angle, the perfect lighting.
02:41:12.000You know, it's probably fucked with a little.
02:41:14.000But, you know, the hex suit is a very controversial thing.
02:41:17.000But people smarter than me say it works.
02:41:20.000It really works with sea creatures for some reason.
02:41:24.000With things in the water, because, you know, animals, they have that lateral line, or fish, rather, have that lateral line, and they sense electrical signals that are coming off of creatures that are in the water.
02:41:37.000And so, scuba divers swear by this fucking suit.
02:42:37.000He's got a re-warming drill that he put online explaining to people what you do if you're in cold conditions and you fall into the water, like how to re-warm yourself.
02:42:46.000He's got a whole video where he did it.
02:42:47.000They jumped into this icy river and then climbed out.
02:42:54.000The suits are designed and a lot of the clothing is designed to allow you to survive in that sort of a situation.
02:43:00.000But, you know, you have to know how to do it, how to go about it.
02:43:03.000See, here's John and this guy that he's with.
02:43:43.000And he's one of the reasons why Sitka's gear is so well engineered and designed, because they've got a guy like him that's telling them how to design things.
02:45:13.000You see something you tell me and I put the spot scope scope on it and see if it's a sow or a bear we can get You know have something off a sow is cut her curves.
02:45:22.000We're not shooting us We only want old males and it's crazy because it's a 30 minute drive to the top of the mountain So after we see them it might look like it's right there It's like like an hour to get down there Then we got a park and we still got a walk 20 30 minutes and and hope he's still in that area.
02:45:43.000And we hopped, and we said, all right, back to the truck, back to the top.
02:45:45.000And we did it all day till, like, it got dark, and it take us till midnight or whatever to get home because it was so far into the mountains.
02:46:27.000It's different walking up those hills and those guys that get used to it, those very specific muscles that you use when you're constantly hiking up hills.
02:46:34.000You said you did a blackbird hunt before, right?
02:47:52.000There's fucking animals chasing deer and things are trying to survive and it just puts everything in perspective for me.
02:47:58.000When I'm sneaking up on an elk and I'm tiptoeing, tiptoeing through the grass and I'm just trying to get inside like 60, 70 yards just to get a good shot off and I'm trying to Make sure the wind is right.
02:48:11.000I'm not thinking about anything else, man.
02:48:14.000When I draw back and I center my pin and I'm looking through the peep site and everything's right and the housing's level and I've got my anchor point and I'm pulling with my back muscles and I'm just concentrating on that spot.
02:49:38.000Like, people wonder why I'm so proud of my kill.
02:49:40.000Like, do you know what it's like being 235 pounds, 6'3", in a tree, not being spotted, hold the bow, And you've got to control your breathing.
02:49:49.000One wrong move in my head, if I go to itch something, he see my hat move, the silhouette, he's gone.
02:49:53.000It's like literally, like I post a video and it looked like a picture.
02:51:22.000Like, I posted a picture of killing a coyote once.
02:51:24.000And everybody's like, oh, why'd you kill a coyote?
02:51:26.000He didn't do anything to you, but the thing they didn't see, I posted a video a week later, I killed a coyote as he was chasing down a doe.
02:51:32.000He was trying to get him, and I saw him, I swung through him, right when he came out, pow, flipped him, and it was over.
02:51:46.000You can't make anybody happy that doesn't understand hunting, that's for sure.
02:51:50.000They have this perception of it from movies and from a lot of those redneck stupid TV shows where they don't portray hunting in a positive way.
02:52:00.000And so people get this negative impression about it, but I think with more people like you...
02:52:06.000Elite athletes that are getting into it.
02:52:10.000You know, there's a lot of bow hunters now that are, you know, that were just athletes and they realize like, wow, this is thrilling and exciting and then it's the best meat in the world.
02:52:20.000So you have so many pros and it's the most, I think it's the most ethical way to eat meat because you're going out and getting it yourself.
02:52:27.000You're not hiring some supermarket hitman.
02:53:36.000Especially when you see me, like I told my wife, I'm going to be the first person on Joe Rogan shooting a techno thing with Jordan's a do-rag or with a bow.
02:54:50.000The positive people like you that are elite athletes and just for people to get a chance to see like, hey, this is...
02:54:56.000I mean, I'm not encouraging everyone to do it, but I think there's a lot of people that would love it that have never tried it because they maybe don't have an understanding of what it actually is.
02:55:04.000So if they see you or they see the videos of you doing, like Chad Mendes is deep.
02:57:56.000And now it's just one of their biggest things.
02:57:58.000But it's one more way where guys can make a living and also spread a really positive message and be a great ambassador for hunting, for the hunting community.
02:58:10.000I posted on Frankie's, he did the Butcher Box.
02:58:13.000Is that the new thing this fighter was doing?
03:02:14.000And he like, at one point, heard a helicopter coming over.
03:02:16.000he took all his clothes all his gear dug a hole and set it all on fire hoping they would see him as the fire went up the wind blew it out so he didn't get see so he's out there with no gear no nothing in the middle of nowhere he survived he ended up getting back and his mind was like I have to finish he said everybody left he said when he got there the checkpoint was gone but his friend had flew back to Oh my god.
03:05:00.000Two days in, he stumbled into an abandoned Muslim shrine where he noticed some bats huddled together.
03:05:07.000Prosperi grabbed a handful of them, cut off their heads with a knife, and then sucked out their insides to drink their blood and quench his thirst.
03:05:14.000Eventually, he did his vampire act on 20 bats.
03:05:17.000When another three days passed with no signs of rescue, he slit his wrists and waited to die, but his blood had thickened due to dehydration so it wouldn't drain out.
03:05:42.000I think those kind of people, those ultramarathon people, it's a different breed of human.
03:05:48.000It's like everything has – there's levels, right, to everything.
03:05:54.000There's levels – You've experienced it in your own life where you toughened up, you became a stronger person, a harder person, and then there's levels past that, and then there's levels past that.
03:06:03.000And especially for people that have one solitary thing, they do like ultra marathons.
03:06:07.000They're all skinny dudes who can just keep going.
03:06:14.000Pulling it off, the crossing the line, and knowing that you did something that seemed almost impossible, so titanically, epically difficult to do, that so few people can ever do it.
03:06:27.000They're talking about running a 500-mile race now, because they did the Moab 230, and they had the Bigfoot 200. All these people that are putting on these races, they're like, okay, we could do 240. Let's see if we could do 500. So now they're talking about doing a 500-mile race.