JRE MMA Show #77 with Cedric Doumbe
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 22 minutes
Words per minute
167.3263
Harmful content
Misogyny
21
sentences flagged
Toxicity
196
sentences flagged
Hate speech
11
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, I sit down with former UFC fighter and current UFC Welterweight title holder BGG. We talk about his life in the UFC, how he got into the sport, and what he wants to do with his life after the UFC. I hope you enjoy this episode and tweet me if you have any questions, suggestions, suggestions or suggestions! Timestamps: 3:00 - BGG's background in kickboxing 9:30 - How he became a kickboxer 12:15 - What motivated him to go to the UFC 19:40 - Why he chose the UFC 27:20 - What it's like being a UFC fighter 30:00 What he's looking forward to in the future and what his plans are for the future of kickboxing and MMA 31:10 - What are his goals and dreams after UFC 246? 36:00 -- What is his biggest takeaway from the UFC? 39:30 -- How he plans on making it to UFC 246 41:40 -- What do you think of Conor McGregor? 45:30 -- What are your thoughts on the UFC vs. The UFC? 47:10 -- What would you like to see Conor McGregor do in MMA? Theme song by Ian Dorsch Get the show: Download MP3" Subscribe to the podcast (RSS) Subscribe on iTunes Learn more about your ad choices. Subscribe on Podchaser.fm or become a supporter of our sponsorships! Rate/subscribe to our new podcast, review, review and subscribe to our podcast! Download the podcast on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review on iTunes Music by searching for us in iTunes or wherever else you get your podcast is listening to us Subscribe and review our podcast on your favorite podcasting app? Thank you! Subscribe to our Podcasts! Subscribe & Share the podcast! Subscribe? Subscribe? Leave us a star rating and review on your thoughts about what s good? or share it on iTunes? Subscribe & review on a podcast review? & more! Share our podcast review on social media and review it on your podcasting experience! v=a_tweeted in a podcast & subscribe to us on Insta v_t=a&t=1p=1_a&q=3f_a_a=5_m_t_t&t_aQQQ&a=3q&ref=aQ&t
Transcript
00:00:23.000
And Icey invited me at the UFC. Did you enjoy it?
00:00:29.000
That's my first time at the US. That's the first time, really?
00:00:40.000
And you can't hit a guy when he's on the floor.
00:00:44.000
So that's why it used to be boring in France, because they fight, like striking, and then when a guy takes you down, and then he's just BGG. It's just submissions.
00:00:57.000
So the MMA rules, when they would go to the ground, no striking at all?
00:01:08.000
That's why I've never been in MMA, even in France.
00:01:21.000
Now, as a kickboxing champion, and when you watch MMA, I know that you've been training, and I know that you spent some time while you were out here at AKA. Are you thinking of eventually making your way to the UFC? I'm not thinking.
00:01:43.000
You know, as you said, I'm the Glory champ now.
00:01:49.000
My first dream before Glory was to become the greatest kickboxer in the world.
00:02:03.000
Nicky Holsken was the champ champ and defeated since six years.
00:02:10.000
And I was like, damn, how do I going to beat him?
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00:02:20.000
Before people was asking me, do you think to go to MMA? Because I think you should do something great in MMA. I was like, no, I don't like MMA. I don't like, like, wrestling, BGG. I don't like this kind of sport.
00:02:36.000
And yeah, two years ago I was like, damn, I think I like it.
00:02:40.000
Because I trained once and I really like it.
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00:02:45.000
Do you like MMA training or did you like Jiu Jitsu?
00:02:50.000
And I was watching Jiu Jitsu all the time on TV. And more I watched jujitsu, I was like, oh, it's so complicated.
00:02:57.000
It's not only two guys who are rolling and making string stuff on the ground.
00:03:15.000
And yeah, I was thinking about MMA. Now I really want to do it.
00:03:18.000
I want to do, you know, what Conor McGregor couldn't do.
00:03:22.000
You know, he was the best in MMA, in one combat sport.
00:03:27.000
And he wanted to beat Floyd Mayweather in another combat sport.
00:03:33.000
He wanted to be the greatest in two different combat sports.
00:03:42.000
I'm the best in kickboxing, and I want to be the best in MMA. And I think I really...
00:03:47.000
If kickboxing was as popular as MMA, do you think you'd still have the same desire to do it?
00:04:12.000
And one of the things I was really interested in is that you sort of changed your style.
00:04:18.000
And you were more movement-oriented, and you would win on points, but then you started fucking people up.
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00:04:23.000
You started, like people, like Nikki Holtzkin had said that about you, that you're a mover.
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00:04:38.000
Because, yeah, my first big, big fight in Glory was against Nicky Oluskin, and that was only my third fight in Glory.
00:04:49.000
As I beat the rank number two, who was Myrtle Grunald, as I beat him, they put me a tighter shot right after.
00:05:00.000
And I was like, Nicky Oluskin is really, really complicated.
00:05:14.000
And I'm still impressed by him because for me he's a very, very great champ.
00:05:38.000
And when I saw Niki, I was like, okay, I will not go for the KO. So I trained myself to do all five rounds, to make points, and to...
00:05:47.000
And to stay myself, like funny in the ring and make a lot of movement, hit, jokes, play with the audience, share, you know, and that's what I did.
00:06:03.000
After Nicky, I kept the same style, the same style, the same style.
00:06:06.000
And once I failed, you know, I lost a fight because of that my diet wasn't very good, you know.
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00:06:15.000
I make a good first round and then I was tired as fuck so I couldn't do the job what I wanted to do.
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00:06:31.000
Before I was like, okay, to prepare a fight, I start two months before the fight, the D-Day.
00:06:39.000
And then before I was like, okay, still two months.
00:06:48.000
And then we are two weeks before the fight.
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00:06:55.000
And then I come in a fight week and I never started the diet.
00:06:58.000
And I started in the hotel like three days before the fight.
00:07:02.000
I had five kilos to lose, six kilos to lose in three days.
00:07:07.000
And I was like, okay, I don't eat anything, no more.
00:07:20.000
It's so hard for people to believe that world champions do things like that.
00:07:26.000
And sometimes you need a bad fight to sort of snap you out of it and realize, hey, I have to be disciplined for many, many months out in advance.
00:07:34.000
You know what the first thing Glory said to my manager before when I won the first title?
00:07:38.000
They said, hey, Cedric is very lucky because we don't even know how.
00:07:44.000
How does he arrive at this level with no diet, no team, no trainer, nothing?
00:07:56.000
I think a lot about this and that's why now I'm very professional.
00:08:01.000
And after that diet, I start to knock everybody out.
00:08:08.000
Now, it's like, you know, my diet in France, she's very famous, you know.
00:08:23.000
And yeah, and she takes care of many champions in France.
1.00
00:08:27.000
And yeah, I cannot tell you exactly what is inside my diet because it's so complicated, but I told her, hey, I don't want you to tell me how many grams and this and this and this.
00:08:41.000
Just tell me right what I need to eat Monday, Tuesday, morning, evening.
00:08:58.000
There are some in France, in Paris especially, but I didn't choose yet.
00:09:05.000
I love African food, but African food is really, really not good for my diet.
00:09:29.000
Asiatic food is very healthy, so I like Japanese food, Korean food also.
00:09:35.000
That's what I used to eat when I go out, restaurant.
00:09:52.000
But starting September, then I'm going to start a new diet.
00:10:03.000
My normal weight in kilograms is 85. 85, what is that?
00:10:20.000
188. 188. And you have to get down to 170. 170. Yeah.
00:10:24.000
So, when I say that in AKA, they was like, oh, you're good.
00:10:30.000
Oh, yeah, because MMA fighters lose a lot of weight.
00:10:36.000
Oh, the biggest thing I did is in seven weeks, I lost 15. No, 17. 17 kilos.
00:10:47.000
Yeah, last time I came to AKA, I was 95. 95 is 200?
00:11:01.000
Yeah, and seven weeks later, I lost 17 kilograms because of Cecile.
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00:11:13.000
But your energy level is okay while you're doing all this?
00:11:16.000
I was just training twice a day and diet, diet, every day, every day.
00:11:26.000
I mean, I had Rico Verhoeven on, and we discussed this, like how enormous kickboxing is in Holland and in Europe.
00:11:35.000
And in America, for whatever reason, it never caught on.
00:11:40.000
I've been a fan of Glory, and I've been trying to tell people about them for a long time.
00:11:46.000
I cannot blame USA for that because they legalize MMA. MMA is just more attractive for people.
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00:11:56.000
People who don't know shit about fighting, they just watch MMA like, oh, two people are fighting.
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00:12:05.000
Kickboxing and things like sports like Muay Thai, kickboxing...
00:12:11.000
If you don't know the rules, you just fight and you don't understand.
00:12:24.000
I really don't know why kickboxing is not at the same level as MMA in the USA. Well, what's crazy to me is boxing is very respected in the United States, and MMA is very respected, but one of the things that people like about MMA is stand-up.
00:12:48.000
The best elite kickboxers are the best strikers.
00:12:52.000
That's right, but I think people love the cage, people love the blood, so small gloves, you know, that's what people like.
00:13:01.000
People don't like you to, don't like, how do you say that, knockdown, they like KO or nothing, yeah.
00:13:09.000
They don't like the break and one, two, three, no.
00:13:12.000
They like, yeah, they like to see, to watch KO, so I think that's why they prefer MMA. Yeah.
00:13:18.000
Well, is there a movement at all to try to get MMA, full MMA legalized in France?
00:13:28.000
So they're going to have to allow strikes on the ground in France?
00:13:46.000
The more guys like you get involved in MMA, though, the more it complicates kickboxing, though, because when elite fighters, world champions like yourself make a jump to MMA, then people might look at kickboxing as a stepping stone instead of as a valid individual sport.
00:14:05.000
But you mean when a guy steps from kickboxing to MMA? Yeah, maybe people won't care as much about kickboxing because they'll look at it as a stepping stone to MMA. Yeah, yeah, of course.
00:14:19.000
That's what I want to do also because I think...
00:14:23.000
For a guy from kickboxing to go in MMA, it's not really difficult for him if you learn the ground game.
00:14:36.000
If you learn that, it's going to be more simple than a guy who comes from Muay Thai.
00:14:47.000
Kickboxing, when you fight in kickboxing, you move a lot already.
00:14:54.000
Instead of Muay Thai, if you watch Muay Thai fights, they don't move a lot.
00:14:59.000
They stay still, and the fight is all about power kicks, power punches.
00:15:09.000
Because of the clinch, because of elbows and knees?
00:15:12.000
Because of the movement, the movement in MMA, they stay still.
00:15:16.000
And in kickboxing, there is no, you know, there is no break, you know, they just keep fighting one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.
00:15:23.000
And in Muay Thai, it's more like one, one, one, elbow, knees.
00:15:28.000
And yeah, also, but the clinch is good for MMA because then, you know, in MMA, yeah, the Thai clinch.
00:15:34.000
Yeah, of course, this is good for MMA. Now, in France, is it easy to get wrestling?
00:15:45.000
I think here in the USA, you call that BGG no-gi.
00:15:54.000
What about takedowns or takedown defense, wrestling?
00:15:57.000
But, you know, this style of no-gi training I get is a little bit different, like, as BGG, because we start on our feet, and we used to wrestle, and then after the takedown, we continue.
00:16:15.000
So it's not like an Olympic wrestling, but they call that luta libre.
00:16:23.000
No, Luta Libre is what they call it in Brazil, but I know what you're saying.
00:16:29.000
In America, most Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, they start on the ground already.
00:16:33.000
They'll start on the knees or something like that to avoid accidents.
00:16:36.000
Because, you know, you've got a class full of 40 people rolling around together and they're trying to tackle each other and collide and people blow their knees out and things like that.
00:16:59.000
Now, at 26, how much time do you think you need between now and when you have your first MMA fight?
00:17:11.000
Now I beat everybody, so I'm getting bored in kickboxing.
00:17:16.000
I'm still defending my title because I like it, because of the cash price also.
00:17:23.000
My dream is I'm still in contract for one year and a half.
00:17:33.000
My dream is to prepare myself to MMA. During one year, so I still got time.
00:17:41.000
And after the end of the contract, directly go to UFC and take the champ for a direct title shot or a top 5 ranked guy.
00:17:56.000
I really, really would like to fight Nate Diaz or Anthony Perez for my first fight MMA. Why?
00:18:11.000
To show everybody that a guy who comes from kickboxing, directly his first fight is against a top guy in MMA and he fucks him up.
00:18:25.000
And I really, really believe in me, and I know I can and I will do it.
00:18:30.000
Now, have you been in talks with the UFC? Does the UFC know about your plans?
00:18:40.000
But I think after this show, there we have already.
00:18:44.000
So you're training at AKA. Was that the first time you ever trained up there?
00:18:59.000
So I took a little bit of vacation in Thailand, and then after that, yeah, I just fly to AKA San Jose, and yeah, I met everybody, DC, Khabib wasn't there, but I met there a lot of great, great teammates.
00:19:16.000
The Western level is just amazing there, so I met Javier Mendez.
00:19:24.000
So that's a great camp for a guy like you too because it's very wrestling heavy.
00:19:31.000
I want to train, you know, what did I say to Mehdi in France?
00:19:35.000
I say I want to train wrestling like I want to be a world champion of wrestling, you know?
00:19:42.000
So I just want to train wrestling like a wrestler.
00:19:44.000
I don't just want to train my takedown defense or shit like that.
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00:19:50.000
I want people to be afraid of me on the ground, you know?
00:19:53.000
As I learn fast, as I really like it, I think that's the level I want to get.
00:20:00.000
And how is it going when you train at AKA? Are you hanging in there?
00:20:07.000
Of course, as a striker, in striking, yeah, my level is higher than anybody else in AKA, but in the ground, yeah, they are fucking, fucking strong.
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00:20:45.000
I feel very confident for the future in MMA. I think I will do it.
00:20:53.000
It's always exciting to see world champions, particularly kickboxing, make that way to MMA and to the UFC. And for a guy like you, it's a perfect thing because you're so young, because you're 26 and you're already a very accomplished world champion.
00:21:21.000
Israel, the way he planned it, he really worked on his takedown defense and made sure that by the time he made it to the UFC, he was already at an elite level.
00:21:29.000
Yeah, he was an elite, but he got a tighter shot in glory and he lost.
00:21:41.000
I want to be the only one to be able to do that.
00:22:16.000
And I was very excited when it was on Spike TV in America.
00:22:21.000
It looked like they were going to You know, try to promote it as much as possible, and they tried it for a little while, and then they stopped.
00:22:27.000
And now it's on ESPN a little bit, and it's on UFC Fight Pass, which is great.
00:22:32.000
I think the country where Glory is very, very most popular is in Holland, I think.
00:22:40.000
Some people recognize me in the street when I walk in France, yeah, because of Glory.
00:22:49.000
Well, Mertel Groenhart, is he the guy that you're fighting next?
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00:22:53.000
He's the guy who wants me to beat his ass next, but I don't know if I will fight him next.
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00:23:03.000
Because Growing Heart's been talking a lot of shit.
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00:23:07.000
He knows I'm the money fighter, so that's why he's talking against me.
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00:23:13.000
I would like to fight Myrtle next, because when we fight each other, people really, really like it.
1.00
00:23:22.000
He's very entertaining, and yeah, people like it.
00:23:34.000
I won by point, but it wasn't a good fight for me, you know?
00:23:41.000
When I look at that fight today, yeah, for sure, I'm saying that it wasn't...
00:23:48.000
Yeah, four years ago, yeah, before the belt, yeah, four or five years ago.
00:23:57.000
And yeah, for me, it's going to be interesting if I fight him, because I fought everybody in that division.
00:24:03.000
So I don't know who they're going to be, who's going to be my next opponent, but yeah, it sounds good for Myrtle.
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00:24:10.000
And then, yeah, it's going to be only rematch, you know, only rematch, rematch, rematch for them.
00:24:16.000
So, from then out, one year plus, then you make your way into the world of the UFC, no matter what?
00:24:24.000
Even if Glory comes with more money, if Glory's like, listen, Dumbe, we love you!
00:24:33.000
You know, Glory is my first great experience as a real champ.
00:25:20.000
I want to be, I hope, the first French UFC champion.
00:25:40.000
Even if Glory comes with big, big, big money, no.
00:25:48.000
And I know I will get more after that, so I will not fail.
00:25:53.000
So you've been out here now, you went to the UFC event, and then you did some training at AKA. Like, when you are outside of camp, say, like, whenever your fight is scheduled, how much, what kind of training are you doing when you're not in camp?
00:26:09.000
Are you mixing it up now and trying to do a lot of jiu-jitsu, a lot of BJJ? When I'm not in camp, what I do, so my conditioning trainer, Valentino Gargiulo, he follow me everywhere.
00:26:23.000
And we just train strange conditioning because before that was my weakness, the condition.
00:26:31.000
I used to knock everybody out at the first round.
00:26:37.000
I never took it very serious because I used to knock people out at the first round.
00:26:43.000
When I did my first five rounds, I was like, wow, damn, the conditioning is so important.
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00:26:49.000
So that's why I'm training a lot, you know, strength, for sure, conditioning.
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00:26:54.000
And also, yeah, when I don't have a kickboxing fight plan, I train BGG, I train wrestling, MMA. It's a completely different condition.
00:27:08.000
When you wrestle with a guy and then you get up and you're trying to strike.
00:27:19.000
Now, what kind of strength and conditioning are you doing?
00:27:24.000
Say, if you're preparing for a fight, how many days a week do you do strength and conditioning?
00:27:34.000
It's not, of course, it's not the same training, but every day I see Valentino and we train together, yeah.
00:27:41.000
I train more conditioning and strength, more than kickboxing.
00:27:52.000
People don't believe, doesn't believe when I say that, but I don't know.
00:27:58.000
I have, of course, my friend in France who holds meat for me.
00:28:06.000
He holds meat for me and we just talk together.
00:28:25.000
After that, he couldn't teach me anymore because of his job, you know, when I was young.
00:28:31.000
And then I just moved to country and countries and countries to learn, to learn, to learn, and then came back in France, Paris, and I just trained myself.
00:28:41.000
How many world champions just trained themselves?
00:28:48.000
That sounds crazy, but why didn't you get another coach?
00:28:51.000
I don't know because I didn't find a coach who can just teach me.
00:29:05.000
Have you thought about making any trips to Holland or to Thailand?
00:29:24.000
His brother, Duke, is one of the big coaches in MMA today.
00:29:38.000
So when I started Full Contact, I was watching all the fight of Rick Rufus.
00:29:44.000
Especially Rick Rufus against Rob Cameron, who was fucked.
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00:29:47.000
The first and the second was crazy, crazy, crazy.
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00:29:50.000
Recruits against Ernesto Oost for a contact fight.
00:29:55.000
So after my first coach couldn't teach me anymore, I just flew to Amsterdam.
00:30:05.000
Because of, yeah, because of Kaman, you know, in my mind, I was thinking about, okay, where is the best kickboxer on the planet?
00:30:13.000
So I went to Holland with Jero Jim, was famous, because of Rob Kaman, because of Remy Bozhansky.
00:30:20.000
I went to Medjugorje, I trained there maybe two years.
00:30:24.000
I was flying Bordeaux, Amsterdam during two years.
00:30:36.000
And when I figured out that I couldn't learn any more else in Madrid, I just went to Belgium because I met Samir Majoubi.
00:30:51.000
Well, why wouldn't you spend your camps with him then?
00:30:55.000
Because we met each other at an event in France and then I saw one of his fighters.
00:31:04.000
And then when I saw his technique, his condition, his first round...
00:31:28.000
I went to Belgium in Brussels and I trained with him.
00:31:31.000
Also, two years, I was driving Paris-Brussels, Paris-Brussels, two years.
00:31:40.000
And that's with Samir that I won my first belt against Nicky Horskan.
00:31:46.000
If you watch my fight before Nicky Horskan and the fight against Nicky Horskan, he's completely two different fighters.
00:32:07.000
He just come, you know, but I don't train anymore with Samir.
00:32:16.000
For me, the best, the best, the best trainer, the best school is in Brussels, the Queensberry gym.
00:32:22.000
And I never found another team with that kind of level.
00:32:27.000
So I cannot train with any coach, you know, and I just train myself.
00:32:33.000
I train with Valentino, the conditioning training.
00:32:37.000
For me, it was more important than the kickboxing.
00:32:42.000
We know how to kickbox, but the difference we make with the condition for me.
00:32:49.000
You know, there's a thought process that follows those lines in MMA. And it's Marv Marinovich and this guy Nick Curzon, and they've only trained a few fighters, but they've had very high levels of success because of their conditioning.
00:33:05.000
And what they say is that you already know how to fight.
00:33:09.000
It gets your conditioning to a super high level, and that when you're fighting, you can just go.
00:33:17.000
That's what I say every time when I give advices to people.
00:33:27.000
Between two fighters in the same level, the same experience, what's going to make the difference, the condition in the fight?
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00:33:36.000
If you fight one, two, three rounds and then you're fucked up, you're going to lose the fight.
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00:33:41.000
But if you fight five rounds, even if you're not good enough technically, you're going to win the fight for sure.
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00:33:53.000
Now, another crazy thing about you that people might not know is that you're a comedian.
00:34:04.000
But for you to be a world champion kickboxer and a stand-up comedian, that is a very unusual combination.
00:34:12.000
Because first, my first dream, and that's still my dream today, is to become an actor, a comedian.
00:34:20.000
Before I started combat sport, I was doing stand-up.
00:34:37.000
And then I started to improve myself to become, yeah, more to fight, to fight, to fight.
00:34:42.000
And then I stopped a little bit, yeah, stand-up acting.
00:34:47.000
But three months ago, I was, I played in a small movie, short movie in France.
00:34:53.000
Yeah, I played, it's gonna, it's gonna go out in a few, in a few, few weeks.
00:34:58.000
Now, when you do stand-up in Paris, are you working at comedy clubs?
00:35:14.000
But I was, yeah, 18, 19. And so Bordeaux has comedy clubs?
00:35:31.000
I was teaching people how to cook a great chicken.
00:35:42.000
I was promoting my second fight against Nika Olskun, and I was training in Belgium, Brussels, and I did it with Glory.
00:35:53.000
So, is that something you would think of doing once you retire from fighting?
00:36:01.000
My first way, that's what I really, really want to do in front, yeah, in the top of my bottom, in the top of my heart, that's what I want to become.
00:36:10.000
Yeah, because I read that if you had to choose between being a famous comedian or a famous fighter, you would choose to be a famous comedian.
00:36:18.000
But that's so crazy when you see how good you are at fighting.
00:36:20.000
Yeah, you know, people, people doesn't believe when I say that, but if, if I didn't find a, if kickboxing didn't found me, because I think I didn't find, I didn't found kickboxing, kickboxing found me.
00:36:36.000
If kickboxing never found me, I would follow my way in comedy stuff.
00:36:45.000
Now I'm good in kickboxing, so I just follow myself.
00:36:55.000
Because I was 16, so 10 years ago I was 16 and I was playing soccer and I wasn't that good.
00:37:08.000
I was just fast, you know, fast and in front of the goal I was falling.
00:37:16.000
And one day my cousin just called me and he said, hey, in front of the house, in the neighborhood, there is a gym.
00:37:30.000
I thought there was boxing like Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson.
00:37:39.000
It's going to be, maybe it's going to be funny.
00:37:41.000
You know, I saw, I saw people who goes out from there.
00:37:50.000
I said, okay, once we're going to, we're going to go there.
00:37:53.000
So after my soccer training, I went there once, I tried, and I discovered that it was full contact with legs, with high kick, middle kick.
00:38:05.000
It was a little bit strange, but I just follow, I just train, getting better and better, and yes, I like it.
00:38:21.000
She said, no, no, no, I don't want you to fight.
00:38:29.000
I cried when she said that because I really like full contact combat sports.
00:38:46.000
How old were you when you had your first fight?
00:38:54.000
I did maybe three years full contact and then I had to kick back.
00:39:20.000
So you just can't kick the legs, which is interesting because that's very effective and you're very good at that.
00:39:28.000
But I'm better in boxing because I start with full contact.
00:39:35.000
It's a little bit similar to boxing, the way you move, the way you fight because no low kicks, no leg kicks.
00:39:46.000
When I was training Full Contact, I was watching a lot of Muhammad Ali.
00:40:02.000
After one year, after my first fight, she was like, where was you?
00:40:17.000
And she said, I told you, I don't want you to watch and to fight.
00:40:27.000
And every day I just went to train, to train, to train.
00:40:31.000
And she doesn't see me with any black eye or things like that.
00:40:39.000
And I said, yeah, mom, listen, I went to the boxing training.
00:40:46.000
And then the day after I went to the boxing training, she was like, okay.
00:40:51.000
I think because she didn't see me with any black eyes, that's why she was scared first.
00:40:59.000
Yeah, and then she just accepted the thing because I make, in French we call that forcing.
0.99
00:41:05.000
I just went to the training like, fuck it, I like it, so I do it.
0.94
00:41:17.000
You don't care if someone say don't do that.
1.00
00:41:27.000
So it's very funny because sometimes I send her this video.
00:41:35.000
You didn't want me to fight first, and now look at you.
00:41:41.000
Well, I mean, she must be happy that you're doing it now, now that you're a world champion.
00:42:27.000
And then you watch that child become a world champion.
00:42:37.000
And she's like, and when I, when I, sometime when I talk with my mother, I say, listen, I really, I do my best in the gym.
0.99
00:42:46.000
I train every day harder and harder to, um, uh, to, to knock people out.
00:42:54.000
And I really hope that I will never get Knockout.
00:43:18.000
And you know, the woman she's hugging, she doesn't even know her.
00:43:25.000
Your last fight against, how do you say his name, Nabiev?
00:43:32.000
And for you to knock him out like that, the way you did.
00:43:42.000
But I was so focused, you know, on that fight because...
00:43:48.000
Robin Black is a friend of mine and he breaks down fights.
00:43:53.000
He talks about, like, what someone did that worked so well.
00:43:56.000
The guy who said, enjoy the hostility, my friends.
00:44:10.000
But he did a breakdown of your fight, the way you set up that right hand, the way you knocked him out.
00:44:16.000
It's very cool to see that getting more and more attention.
00:44:24.000
The second round, as I say before the fight, I say I will knock him out at the second round.
00:44:29.000
Because the second round, the first one for me is just warming up.
00:44:32.000
And then the second round, I feel very, very good.
00:44:35.000
That is the most dangerous round when you fight against me.
00:45:06.000
The KO came before that knee because I touched him with the left hook and the right hook.
1.00
00:45:12.000
He was wobbly on his legs and then he just threw a knee and boom.
00:45:24.000
So, as you're looking at your career now, and you're saying that there's no one else to beat, after you knock out a guy like Nabiyev, does that make it harder for you to get motivated?
00:45:35.000
No, because for me, the more I win fights, the more I'm getting to the top of the world, like UFC champ.
00:45:42.000
And maybe after the UFC belt, I will have another, I don't know, maybe an Olympic champ.
00:45:56.000
Because if I... Now I'm glory champ, so if I lose my title defense now, I will go down.
00:46:10.000
So when you were telling me that you do strength and conditioning every day, what kind of stuff are you doing?
00:46:14.000
Today, we talked today and you said that you were running on the beach.
00:46:24.000
I don't know how to call that in English, but it's like conditioning training we want to do.
00:46:53.000
I have to feel the same thing I feel inside the cage, inside the ring.
00:47:03.000
And yeah, tonight is going to be harder, you know.
00:47:08.000
Tonight, I think I will train right after the show in your gym.
00:47:17.000
So I think I will train there because your gym is so full, it's so complete, so exhaustive.
00:47:36.000
Sometimes I ask questions like, when I'm in the cage, in the ring, why do I need to do that?
00:47:42.000
And then he explained to me, and then I, okay, let's go.
00:47:46.000
But no, I can talk about exactly the training, what does that mean?
00:47:52.000
So he has you do a lot of cardio exercises, but...
00:47:56.000
I just want him to, yeah, that's what I say before we start a training camp.
00:47:59.000
I say, hey, I want my cardio better than ever, and I want to keep my power, even improve my power.
00:48:22.000
And then what kind of weightlifting are you talking about?
00:48:37.000
Not presses, but we do it unilateral, like one leg, one leg.
00:48:55.000
And I have big hands, so both of my hands inside the kettlebells, yeah, I feel like...
00:49:03.000
Well, as you say, if you learn how to do it correctly, it doesn't hurt as much.
00:49:07.000
Yeah, you just got to learn how to swing it through.
00:49:15.000
But you gotta learn how to just rotate it through.
00:49:22.000
Did you ever get a good kettlebell instructor to show you?
00:49:29.000
I can show you a little bit, but I'm not qualified to really show you.
00:49:33.000
But a really good kettlebell instructor, it's a technique.
00:49:38.000
As you come to clean, as you're doing it, you're just sort of punching through.
00:49:42.000
A lot of people, they lift it up, and it just falls.
00:49:56.000
Yeah, but obviously you see all the machines out there.
00:50:33.000
The great thing about kettlebells is they make you use your whole body.
00:50:49.000
The most that I like is the things where you run, but it's not electric.
00:51:13.000
That's what I said, Valentino, because he wrote me a program, like 400 meters, you do this, 400 meters, 800. I was like, it's fucking difficult in this machine.
0.97
00:51:45.000
Yeah, it's amazing how many different machines there are that you could get your cardio on.
00:51:49.000
So the beautiful thing about it is I like it because it's variety.
00:51:57.000
My best training, what I like to do is to run but on stage.
00:52:10.000
That's the training I prefer because I have big legs and yeah, I... It's also not pounding too, right?
00:52:47.000
That's a great way to run, too, though, if you can run on sand.
00:52:50.000
Yeah, on sand is very good for the cardio and also for legs, you know.
00:53:01.000
Now, when you're training and you're doing strength and conditioning, are you using a heart rate monitor?
00:53:14.000
And it's especially for the trainer because I don't care.
00:53:25.000
Do you monitor your heart rate in terms of like when you wake up to make sure that you're not over-trained?
00:53:50.000
I like also new school things, like polo things.
00:54:04.000
Don't get too much, how do you say that, too much electronic, technical, yeah.
00:54:09.000
You just, hey, you have to train twice a day, every morning, every evening, let's go.
00:54:15.000
You know, when I'm sick, like when I get a cold, I just go running training, you know.
00:54:21.000
And instead of people saying, no, I'm tired, I don't want to train, I go training because I think the sport is the best medication in the world.
00:54:33.000
But when you say training, you're not sparring.
00:54:47.000
Yeah, so when you say mental, do you use a mental coach?
00:54:54.000
No, because I think some people need a mental coach and some doesn't need.
00:55:01.000
For me, like, my story is, I think I have my...
00:55:06.000
Of course I need a mental coach, but I think I am my own mental coach.
00:55:16.000
It's fucking long, but I can tell a short story.
0.97
00:55:21.000
When I think about everything I went through...
0.98
00:55:26.000
I'm talking like I'm 55, but I'm 26. But you've had a lot of things happen.
00:55:37.000
And then my mom moved to Paris when I was eight.
00:55:41.000
And then one hour later, we went, my sister and I, we went to Paris to follow my mom.
00:55:50.000
And yeah, we were living in a small apartment, you know, a very small apartment.
00:56:01.000
We went to the restaurant to ask water with a big bottle of water, empty.
00:56:09.000
We went to the restaurant to ask water, you know.
00:56:16.000
When I think about everything we went through, when I'm inside the locker room, I'm stressed, you know, I'm nervous.
00:56:25.000
I just think about it and I say, hey, listen, look where you are now.
00:56:45.000
Overcoming hardship, a lot of times, is the best teacher.
00:56:49.000
So you know where you came from, so you know the hardships.
00:56:52.000
And I know where I want to go, where I want to land.
00:56:56.000
So for me, before I fight Nicky Oskar, I used to get nervous in the locker room.
00:57:03.000
And I said, hey, you want to fight Nicky Oskar?
00:57:13.000
But while you're coming up, you're like, oh, I want to fuck that guy up.
0.99
00:57:16.000
Then all of a sudden, you're like, oh, shit, he's right here.
1.00
00:57:24.000
I talk a lot of shit on the internet before the fight.
0.99
00:57:28.000
And when I'm in the locker room, I'm like, damn, it's time.
1.00
00:57:45.000
And I was like, that's what's going to happen during the fight.
00:57:49.000
And he was like, no, I don't care about the internet.
00:58:01.000
And during the fight, he was in front of me and the referee was like, check hands if you like.
0.99
00:58:07.000
He was like, he went back to his corner like, let's go, I want to fuck him up.
0.99
00:58:13.000
And yeah, I was like, oh, you talk shit, but now you have to back it up.
1.00
00:58:19.000
It was very interesting because I'm a big Nicky Holtzkin fan as well.
00:58:25.000
Yes, I remember that fight and I was watching and I was like, wow, this guy, he's got his number.
00:58:31.000
By the time the fourth round came around, I was like, you're ahead on points and it looked like you had his style figured out.
00:58:44.000
I think for me this is one of my best fights ever.
00:59:04.000
I said I would knock him out, but that was fake.
00:59:10.000
So, I know I would not knock him out because he's so strong.
00:59:22.000
And then, yeah, after three fights after Nicky, yeah, people were calling me a runner because I was making a lot of points.
00:59:32.000
And then now, they're calling me the number one powerful power in glory.
00:59:41.000
I fought Niki, and then I fought Kongolo, and then I fought Niki again.
00:59:48.000
And after the fight, I remember I say, you run too much.
01:00:02.000
Yeah, I think if I fight Niki, like tomorrow I will fight different.
01:00:17.000
Which is interesting, because they fight in a cage.
01:00:24.000
Muay Thai, Muay Thai, sometimes you fight little gloves.
01:00:31.000
When he knocked out Cosmo Alexander, though, I was like...
01:00:44.000
And then you see how bad Nicky beat up Cosmo.
0.98
01:00:50.000
You know, before I fight Nicky, he was one of my best fighters I ever liked.
01:00:58.000
Because when I was watching him against Karim Gaji, the French fighter...
0.99
01:01:03.000
When I watched him against Joseph Valtellini, I was like, damn, this dude is fucking, fucking strong.
0.99
01:01:10.000
Or Raymond Daniels, when he beat Raymond Daniels.
0.99
01:01:13.000
Because for me, Joseph Valtellini is not an easy fighter.
01:01:21.000
Yeah, with a right hook or maybe a left hook.
1.00
01:01:24.000
Well, Valtellini, who's a really good fighter, he got a little carried away.
01:01:28.000
He was trying to trade with him at the end of the fight.
01:01:36.000
And then when I received that email that I will face Niki Oskar, I was like...
01:01:46.000
Yeah, only 24. So you're thinking at the time, like, holy shit, it's here.
0.99
01:01:49.000
Yeah, and I didn't even have a strength and conditioning coach.
0.98
01:01:57.000
And I was doing my shit alone, running in the morning and just training by myself.
0.97
01:02:03.000
What kind of strength and conditioning were you doing other than running?
0.99
01:02:13.000
I was doing things I was watching on YouTube, you know, so...
01:02:18.000
World champion watching stuff on YouTube and learning.
01:02:21.000
A little bit like Jon Jones before when he started.
01:02:27.000
He was saying that he started MMA watching fights on YouTube.
01:02:42.000
Now, when you think about those fights and how important those fights were to you, especially the Nikki Holtzkin fight, when you look back, it's got to be kind of a crazy feeling that that sort of That made your career, that Nikki Hoskin fight, particularly the first one.
01:03:00.000
Because, you know, my fight was a little bit hilarious because the story of that fight, I was the co-main event.
01:03:08.000
And I think that fight was made for Nikki Hoskin, you know, because I had only three fights in glory and they put me a title shot.
01:03:19.000
As I was a little bit entertaining and I made posters and things like that, they say, okay, it's going to be a good show, but that's going to be a fight for Niki, you know, for sure.
01:03:31.000
I think they say to themselves, Niki is going to win the fight.
01:03:34.000
Niki is undefeated, you know, nobody could beat him.
01:03:40.000
It's the fight just before Badrari and Rico fights.
01:03:56.000
Because they was waiting for Badrari fight and they saw me.
01:04:01.000
So it was like I received a lot of message from Morocco like, oh my brother, I really like your style, you're funny.
01:04:23.000
Do you think you'll be fighting on the next Rico-Badahari fight?
01:04:34.000
Before December, there is two events in October, and they are almost booked.
01:04:44.000
So I think, yeah, for me, it's going to be December.
01:04:47.000
It's going to be a good thing, because I like Badahari.
01:04:53.000
This is my third time I will fight in the same court as him.
01:04:57.000
I'm very interested to see how he fights Rico in the second fight.
01:05:11.000
So when he fights, he fights like a welterweight.
01:05:19.000
He told me that when he was training, when he was coming up, he was training with light guys.
01:05:26.000
So he developed that cardio and that ability from training with guys like 180 pounds.
01:05:34.000
That's why for me, and the fight, the way he fought against Jamal Ben Sadiq.
01:05:46.000
And then the way he knocked him out back in the last or the fourth round, it was crazy.
01:05:58.000
But, you know, I like, I really, I think people like Badrari because of everything.
01:06:13.000
And when Bader comes, when the speaker calls Bader Ali and he comes in, damn, the mood is just, you know, everybody is, you can see the flash of many phones in the audience.
0.96
01:06:29.000
It's a very crazy feeling when Bader Ali fights.
0.88
01:06:36.000
He's a legend, and he's not just a legend because of his fighting, which means he's been an incredible fighter, but also just because he's so crazy.
0.99
01:06:48.000
People love Bad Larry because of the fighter, but also because of the bad boy.
01:06:56.000
Conor McGregor's been in a bunch of trouble lately.
01:06:59.000
Some people are upset at him, and some people are not.
01:07:09.000
Not good to smack that guy at the bar, though.
1.00
01:07:14.000
Last time I talked about it, I thought he just sort of touched him in the head with his hand.
01:07:26.000
I basically thought he just touched him in the face.
01:07:29.000
Because I watched it on my phone, and it just wasn't that clear.
01:07:37.000
Maybe the guy said something really bad to him, but either way...
0.99
01:07:49.000
But all that wild shit, like grabbing that guy's phone and stomping on it.
1.00
01:08:16.000
If you offer a man at a bar a drink and he doesn't want it and you punch him in the head, you're definitely fucking up.
0.99
01:08:35.000
Early on in his career, before he was a champion.
01:08:40.000
Of course, when you slap guys, your name keeps building up.
01:08:45.000
But the problem with him is going to be guys like Khabib.
1.00
01:08:52.000
I don't think Khabib is going to fight him.
0.99
01:09:02.000
But Nate, they're talking about Nate fighting Masvidal.
01:09:05.000
If he fights Jorge Masvidal, I think that fight is a huge fight as well.
01:09:19.000
Yeah, maybe, but Poirier's gotta fight Khabib.
0.94
01:09:28.000
I mean, Khabib's the only one undefeated in the division.
0.97
01:09:32.000
He gets people on the ground, just beats the shit out of them.
0.99
01:09:40.000
Yeah, he started a combo spot when he was a kid, you know?
01:09:56.000
He filmed these guys playing basketball over there.
01:10:00.000
And then after that video, I just went to YouTube to watch the video you was talking about.
01:10:14.000
And then he gets a guy in a rear naked choke and gets an arm bar on the ground.
1.00
01:10:17.000
Yeah, and the guy tapped and he doesn't give a fuck.
0.99
01:10:28.000
He was talking about he went there to film Khabib and...
01:10:36.000
Will Harris, he does a great job of capturing these guys' stories.
01:10:39.000
And he's a nice guy, so people like him, so they're loose and relaxed around him.
01:10:44.000
And he's very talented as a filmmaker, so when he puts these pieces together, they're very impactful.
01:10:55.000
Conor McGregor to face Floyd Mayweather in Japan.
01:11:01.000
There's a game show they supposedly have signed to be on where they're going to compete against each other.
01:11:05.000
And this says he's going to sign for a reported $10 million to do it.
01:11:16.000
So if he's going to get that much money for that...
01:11:19.000
Well, they paid Floyd nine million dollars to fight that Japanese guy.
0.92
01:11:28.000
Yeah, Nazukawa, who's a bad motherfucker, but he's tiny.
1.00
01:11:33.000
And a lot of people thought that that fight was fixed with him and Floyd.
01:11:38.000
Like, even good fight commentators thought that was fake.
01:11:55.000
He just walked in and just clubbed him in the head.
0.99
01:11:59.000
When you fight Floyd Merida, you must train like you ever did.
01:12:08.000
Well, he didn't have to get in shape for that guy.
01:12:19.000
But against those other 120-pound guys, he fucks those guys up.
0.68
01:12:34.000
like Masake Nori also sure it's one of my favorite fighters in Japan yes and the twins brother also Urabe Koya Urabe and the other guy I don't know it's it was damaging to Tenshin's legacy because everybody thought he was a joke after Floyd V That's what I thought first.
01:12:53.000
If Floyd let him kick, it would be a different fight.
01:12:59.000
When they were talking about a fight, I was like, is this going to Maybe a kickboxing fight?
01:13:03.000
Maybe Floyd would be so crazy that he said, go ahead and kick.
01:13:57.000
I mean, he really should have fought with shoes on.
01:14:06.000
Did he train like a kickboxer or he just went to the fight?
0.99
01:14:15.000
Shannon the Cannon, he went over there and he...
01:14:22.000
I mean, they basically just set it up so Masato just fucks his legs up and kicked into his arms and everything.
01:14:42.000
It's like a master class in how to fuck up a world-class boxer with kicks.
0.99
01:14:47.000
See, look, Masato's already, he's getting him to bite those feints.
0.97
01:15:14.000
They don't know what it feels like to be leg kicked.
0.96
01:15:23.000
Even the first round in the ring, because you're in the locker room, you're just roaming up, you know.
01:15:31.000
But when you're inside the ring, punches and kickers, you feel, I don't know, maybe twice, ten times more than in the gym.
01:15:40.000
Like, a sparring and a fight, it's not really the same.
01:15:45.000
Because of the pressure, the light, everything is different inside the ring.
01:15:51.000
Everything, even the smell of your opening body, everything is different.
01:16:08.000
And then, like, when guys would fight him, they'd be like, what the fuck, man?
1.00
01:16:11.000
One of my last openings, he was thinking as fuck.
1.00
01:16:31.000
It would fuck with your head a little bit.
1.00
01:16:38.000
I would think that would be a good move to smell really bad.
0.97
01:16:42.000
Guys wouldn't want to have anything to do with you because I don't think they test for that.
01:16:48.000
I had this one time when I fought in France, the final of the tournament.
01:17:07.000
And after the fight, my coach told me, you know, that team used to do that.
01:17:12.000
They put oil on their gloves for the first round, and then they just punch you on the face, on your eyes.
0.99
01:17:18.000
They just clinch you, and after the first round, you fucked up.
1.00
01:17:58.000
As I said, before I used to KO people in the first round, I didn't care about it.
01:18:02.000
I just go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, KO, KO, KO before Glory because now Glory is a high level fighter.
01:18:12.000
Who do you think are the best fighters in Glory outside of you?
01:18:20.000
If Nicky was still there, I would say Nicky, but as Nicky is not there anymore, which fight I'd like to watch?
01:19:00.000
So we can look forward to you fighting again sometime around December, hopefully.
01:19:07.000
And then when you do decide to come to the UFC, please come back and we'll talk about it and we'll make an announcement and we'll make a big deal out of it.
01:19:17.000
When you do fight in the UFC, when you leave glory, I want you to come back in here so we can let everybody know.
01:19:24.000
Because that's a big deal to have a guy like you, a world champion kickboxer, make it to the UFC. That would be gigantic.
01:19:33.000
If I had Dana White in front of me right now...
01:19:43.000
You trust Kamaru Usman or you trust your fighter, right?
01:20:00.000
I'm 26. All those people in welterweight division are old or boring to watch.
01:20:10.000
And I really think I'm going to beat anybody in that division.
01:20:15.000
Well, there's guys that you're going to have to fight first.
01:20:20.000
They're not going to give you a title shot.
0.78
01:20:22.000
They're going to want to see you fight against a good fighter, but they could give you a fight against a top 10 contender.
01:20:29.000
Because guys like Kamaru Usman, they earned their way to be the champion.
01:20:39.000
But a guy like Anthony Pettis, who's still an elite fighter, but who just lost to Nate Diaz, that is possible.
01:20:48.000
If you came in with a lot of hype, and obviously Glory is on UFC Fight Pass, so they have an agreement with Glory, so they could use your highlight reel and watch all those knockouts.
01:21:00.000
Even Glory can talk with UFC, and we can make something.
0.98
01:21:14.000
But first, yeah, as a confidant, first I was thinking about Diaz because I really like the way he fights.
0.79
01:21:25.000
And I think, yeah, I think if I fight, and because also nobody could knock him out.
01:21:35.000
Yeah, in the UFC. He caught him in the head kick.
01:21:37.000
I thought nobody could knock him out, so that's why I wanted to be the first.
01:21:41.000
No, Josh Thompson, who's probably one of the most underrated fighters ever, who was one of the very best in the world, but then he left the UFC when the UFC dropped the 155-pound division many, many years back, and he went over to Strikeforce and became one of the best.
01:21:56.000
He's absolutely one of the most unheralded professional fighters ever.
01:22:03.000
But he knocked out Nate Diaz with a head kick.
0.99
01:22:08.000
He dropped him with a head kick and then finished him off.
0.97
01:22:13.000
Well, maybe you'd be the first guy to submit him.
01:22:26.000
And we're going to take some pictures of you working out here.