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
00:00:40.000And you can't hit a guy when he's on the floor.
00:00:44.000So 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.
00:01:16.000The Diaz fight and the main event was...
00:01:21.000Now, 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.
00:02:20.000Before 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.
00:05:34.000I used to knock people out at the first round.
00:05:38.000And 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...
00:05:47.000And 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.
00:07:26.000And 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.
00:08:23.000And yeah, and she takes care of many champions in France.
00:08:27.000And 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.
00:08:41.000Just tell me right what I need to eat Monday, Tuesday, morning, evening.
00:12:24.000I 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.
00:13:46.000The 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.
00:14:05.000But 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.
00:15:09.000Because of the clinch, because of elbows and knees?
00:15:12.000Because of the movement, the movement in MMA, they stay still.
00:15:16.000And 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.
00:15:23.000And in Muay Thai, it's more like one, one, one, elbow, knees.
00:15:28.000And yeah, also, but the clinch is good for MMA because then, you know, in MMA, yeah, the Thai clinch.
00:15:34.000Yeah, of course, this is good for MMA. Now, in France, is it easy to get wrestling?
00:15:54.000What about takedowns or takedown defense, wrestling?
00:15:57.000But, 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.
00:16:15.000So it's not like an Olympic wrestling, but they call that luta libre.
00:16:29.000In America, most Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, they start on the ground already.
00:16:33.000They'll start on the knees or something like that to avoid accidents.
00:16:36.000Because, 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.
00:18:59.000So 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.
00:19:16.000The Western level is just amazing there, so I met Javier Mendez.
00:20:07.000Of 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.
00:20:53.000It'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.
00:21:21.000Israel, 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.
00:21:29.000Yeah, he was an elite, but he got a tighter shot in glory and he lost.
00:21:35.000And after that, he went to UFC, you know?
00:22:10.000It's one of my favorite things to watch.
00:22:13.000It drives me crazy that it's not popular.
00:22:16.000And I was very excited when it was on Spike TV in America.
00:22:19.000They were making a big deal out of it.
00:22:21.000It 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.
00:22:27.000And now it's on ESPN a little bit, and it's on UFC Fight Pass, which is great.
00:22:32.000I think the country where Glory is very, very most popular is in Holland, I think.
00:25:53.000So 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?
00:26:09.000Are 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.
00:28:25.000After that, he couldn't teach me anymore because of his job, you know, when I was young.
00:28:31.000And 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.
00:32:49.000You 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.
00:33:05.000And what they say is that you already know how to fight.
00:33:07.000So just let's concentrate on the conditioning.
00:33:09.000It gets your conditioning to a super high level, and that when you're fighting, you can just go.
00:36:01.000My 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.
00:36:10.000Yeah, 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.
00:36:18.000But that's so crazy when you see how good you are at fighting.
00:36:20.000Yeah, 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.
00:36:36.000If kickboxing never found me, I would follow my way in comedy stuff.
00:45:24.000So, 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?
00:45:35.000No, because for me, the more I win fights, the more I'm getting to the top of the world, like UFC champ.
00:45:42.000And maybe after the UFC belt, I will have another, I don't know, maybe an Olympic champ.
00:51:10.000Yeah, because you're forcing your footsteps.
00:51:13.000That'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.
00:54:15.000You know, when I'm sick, like when I get a cold, I just go running training, you know.
00:54:21.000And 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.
01:02:42.000Now, 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.
01:03:00.000Because, you know, my fight was a little bit hilarious because the story of that fight, I was the co-main event.
01:03:08.000And 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.
01:03:19.000As 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.
01:03:31.000I think they say to themselves, Niki is going to win the fight.
01:03:34.000Niki is undefeated, you know, nobody could beat him.
01:06:13.000And 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.
01:06:36.000He'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.
01:12:34.000like 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.
01:12:53.000If Floyd let him kick, it would be a different fight.
01:19:07.000And 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.
01:20:48.000If 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.
01:21:35.000Yeah, in the UFC. He caught him in the head kick.
01:21:37.000I thought nobody could knock him out, so that's why I wanted to be the first.
01:21:41.000No, 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.
01:21:56.000He's absolutely one of the most unheralded professional fighters ever.