Justin Gaethje is a martial arts coach who has coached some of the most elite athletes in the world. He is also the co-owner of the world's largest martial arts training facility in the United States. Justin talks about how he got started in martial arts and how he went from being an amateur wrestler to becoming a full-time MMA coach. He also talks about the importance of having a good relationship with your athletes and how important it is to have a stable stable of athletes in order to be able to give them the best possible chance at success. Justin also shares some of his favorite memories from his time as a coach and talks about what it takes to run a successful martial arts gym and what it means to be a good father and husband. He also shares what he looks forward to in the future and what he has in store for the future of his athletes. Thank you for listening to this episode and we hope you enjoy it! -Trevor Whitman and Dwayne "The Rockin' Bulldog" Johnson and we look forward to seeing you back in the next episode! -Jon Rocha and the next one. -Dwayne Johnson and the rest of the guys at UFC 246. We appreciate you guys for being here and supporting us. We can't wait for you guys to come back next week! XOXO, Justin Gaethj j.J. Johnson & the boys at UFC 232. . . . . , & the guys who have helped us make it this far. , and we appreciate you. Thank you so much! -Tristan Mcgregor and the support you've given us the chance to make it all the way through the process and all the hard work that we've put in. and the love you've shown us the opportunity to make this podcast. Thanks for the support we've gotten so far! -Jon & the love we've received so far, thank you for all the love and support you're giving us the support and support we're getting through this journey so far. We're looking forward to the next few weeks! -AJ & we appreciate all the support. -BONUS: -J. & the support that you're showing us through the way we can make it through this process. -ROSCO, RYAN AND THE SUPPORTING us through our training and the work we're making it through the journey.
00:00:07.000I got not that many athletes, so that's where, you know, when I won it two years ago, that was unique to me because I went in there like, man, I don't deserve this.
00:00:16.000I remember having 40 athletes, and the guys who have all these athletes, it's put in so much time.
00:00:21.000I had three athletes at the time, so that was cool.
00:00:28.000Performing and doing good as a coach is one thing, but also putting in that full time.
00:00:31.000When you're running a gym and having 40 athletes, it's a non-stop 60 hours.
00:00:36.000You're not doing anything with your children.
00:00:39.000But then when I seen the athletes talking on the screen and talking about Rose, talking about changing the world and just being good people, then I was like, oh yeah.
00:00:47.000And I remember repeating to myself, when I went through a tough time and lost all my athletes, we kind of had to split.
00:00:53.000And it all happened through when Nate Marquardt had that issue with the TRT. And I had talked about the gray area.
00:01:01.000If you're going to allow someone to do that, you have that space.
00:01:43.000There's something to be said for having a small stable of athletes versus, like, there's some of these super gyms where a lot of guys wind up complaining.
00:01:52.000A lot of guys wind up saying they don't get the attention they deserve.
00:01:55.000They feel like they're staggering or they're stagnant there.
00:02:06.000I only had three or four athletes at the most, and I was running with them and had them at my house, and I was feeding them, and they were at my house for camp.
00:03:38.000I've got to tell you when he came into my gym.
00:03:40.000So I met him at one of the fights and I thought he was a Japanese guy because I was traveling to Tokyo a lot with Dwayne and his name, Gaethje, for some reason I pictured a Japanese guy.
00:03:50.000Yeah, it kind of sounds like he could be Japanese.
00:03:52.000And I was like, oh my god, it was spectacular.
00:03:54.000The way he was throwing people and putting them on their head, I was just amazed.
00:03:57.000And I talked to him in the locker room and I was like, dude, I'm a huge fan.
00:06:50.000Literally, with him, you know his entire fighting process.
00:06:55.000From the beginning, the first time he was there, that's invaluable, man.
00:06:59.000These guys that are jumping into these super camps and the person is just sort of giving you random general motivation in between the corner, telling you to keep your hands up, work the jab.
00:07:40.000The hard part with that is most of the guys train jiu-jitsu somewhere else.
00:07:44.000They go somewhere else for their conditioning.
00:07:46.000They go to all these different places, and all the coaches, they mean well.
00:07:49.000They're all like, oh man, you're six weeks out, we've got to train hard, and you're going from one hard session to the next hard session to the next hard session.
00:07:56.000And when you're with them all the time...
00:15:56.000So the second fight, let me jump in here.
00:15:58.000The second fight I thought was a way better place to be from a conditioning standpoint because he was already in shape prior to the first one.
00:16:08.000We were trying to get his body in shape quick and that's a hard thing to do.
00:16:12.000Then he went and gained 12 pounds, which we are four weeks out of that point, which is perfect because the fourth week out, I always pull back on and let the body recover because your third and your second week are our peak weeks.
00:16:22.000Those are the weeks that we need to really hit prime and really push hard.
00:17:47.00012 weeks because you take 3 or 4 weeks.
00:17:49.000If you don't lift weights for a little bit and then you come back and lift weights and you can't lift for 6 months or 3 months, You're going to get real sore.
00:20:20.000I had no idea because I've never tried it.
00:20:23.000But I had done better between fights since I fought Cowboy than I had ever done between fights in the fact that I was staying in shape, running.
00:20:48.000You made a crazy shift in your career in that you started off as this wrestler, but when I first started watching you fight in World Series of Fighting, I was like, look at how this motherfucker throws leg kicks.
00:21:23.000Because you don't take anybody down now, which is kind of nuts.
00:21:27.000If you really think about the fact that you were an All-American wrestler and your base is in wrestling, you have not had a single fucking takedown attempt in the UFC. No, but I got taken down for two seconds when Michael Johnson rocked me.
00:21:43.000I don't know how they count takedowns in this sport, but it's certainly not like wrestling.
00:22:55.000Wrestlers, they like to separate wrestling from fighting.
00:22:57.000I'm just doing it both in the same thing.
00:23:00.000In the clinch, the clinch is where I'm the most dangerous.
00:23:02.000With those kicks that you're talking about, if your hands are on them, you can feel where their weight is shifting, which way they're moving, which way they want to move.
00:23:10.000And it's just constantly getting them to put all their pressure on a foot and fire a kick from that range.
00:23:30.000But that's interesting that your wrestling allows you to do that from the clinch because you have a better understanding about where they're putting their weight because you're manipulating them around.
00:23:38.000And then when they have the weight on that leg, you're chopping at it.
00:26:34.000Not having the crowd there, I think it helped me so much.
00:26:40.000Whether there's crowd or no crowd in the future, I think it's going to benefit me so much because I was able to understand that the crowd does influence my emotions.
00:26:49.000My only rule is never allow someone or something to affect or control your emotions.
00:26:54.000I wasn't aware that the crowd was having that effect on my emotions in the fact that I would have engaged more.
00:27:00.000I would have taken more chances in that fight with Tony.
00:27:02.000And I didn't do that because I think I was able to be in control of my emotions for the whole time, for every second.
00:27:10.000That's interesting because that fight was so wild.
00:27:12.000If there was a crowd there for that fight, holy shit!
00:27:24.000It would have been crazy, but it was super unique to be able to be a part of something like that with no crowd, so it was super cool.
00:27:31.000He's going on and saying that he would have.
00:27:34.000I don't know if he would have, because if you look at the three fights prior to that, There's a huge difference in your range and your balanced shoulders.
00:29:27.000So you're looking at those two guys like maybe when you get to that point, maybe he's not ready for this or maybe he doesn't have the style.
00:32:35.000Chance didn't fall in their favor when it comes to a knockout, however you want to put it.
00:32:40.000Take away all the criticisms that we all have for judging and just the idea that somehow or another you can make this decision to go knock this guy out who's a world-class fighter who's trying to knock you out.
00:32:49.000That's a great way to get knocked out.
00:32:51.000When you're fighting, you have to fight correctly.
00:32:54.000And I think me watching as an observer, what shifted with you is you just seem to be more calculated in your aggression.
00:33:59.000And the issue was, when you're fighting at a high heart rate, You get your lazy spots where you start to get on your heels a little bit, and you lose your accuracy, you lose your sharpness, you lose your power.
00:34:12.000You're maxed out in your heart rate, and that's why his finishes, I feel like you're way sharper now, and you still fight.
00:34:18.000You're always going to fight the way you do.
00:35:27.000But when you can control things and control and control and then find one mistake and then you build on that mistake, you're like a wave.
00:35:34.000You slowly get a little bigger and you slowly get a little bigger and now you start to capitalize because once they make a mistake, that pattern is starting to create.
00:35:41.000And then once you've got someone making a mistake after mistake after mistake, That's when you crumble on him.
00:35:45.000And I feel like that's what he's done really well.
00:35:47.000The three fights prior to that, he was just able to capitalize on the big mistake.
00:36:03.000It is one of the coolest things to experience as a coach to sit there and watch his mental not change.
00:36:10.000I was calling for the ref to stop the fight about halfway through the fifth round.
00:36:15.000When he got hit with that last jab and shook his head, I don't think it was a point like, I don't want to go on no more.
00:36:23.000I don't know if it was the orbital, because I know he had an orbital issue, but there was something going on where his body is telling him not to do it, but his mental's like, no, don't stop.
00:36:31.000Keep going, because he's still kicking and punching.
00:36:32.000Even with the big old gash on his shin from the check, he was still kicking.
00:36:38.000He was getting cracked and He'd get knocked backwards and then he would go from backwards to right back to forward.
00:36:44.000It was super unique to watch, but again, it was great to see someone who can listen and understand that if you stay in control yourself, that's the key to everything in this world.
00:36:56.000If you listen to anything else on the outside and you start to adapt to other things, You're never gonna live the way you want to live.
00:37:04.000And to be a fighter, you have to be in control of yourself all the time.
00:37:07.000I always say the best fighters are the best actors.
00:46:49.000There's something to that because I think guys who don't have the burden of guilt, like laying on their head that they're an asshole.
00:46:55.000Like, even if you, unless you're a sociopath, if you act like a piece of shit, no matter how much you justify, like, I'm the fucking man, who gives a shit?
00:47:03.000In the back of your head, you gotta know you're a piece of shit.
00:47:35.000Everybody's like, no, you're the piece of shit.
00:47:37.000I've thought about that with a lot of fighters that they get into trouble.
00:47:40.000I wonder how much that fucks with them.
00:47:42.000And also, in today's day and age with social media, if you're an asshole, if you do mean things, people find out about it and they're like, that guy's a piece of shit, fuck him.
00:49:02.000Like when they're not fighting, they don't know who they are.
00:49:05.000Because, first of all, fighting is so much more exciting than anything else you're ever going to do.
00:49:09.000So if you get used to these gigantic highs and then preparing and then the nerves of preparing and all the anticipation of these big events, fighters have the riskiest job in the world outside of first responders, soldiers.
00:49:25.000I mean, you're literally playing a game called, I'm trying to throw my bones and separate you from your consciousness, and you're going to try to do that to me, and you're doing it publicly in front of everybody.
00:49:37.000So there's emotions, there's physical, you know about, everybody knows about the damage that it does to your body.
00:49:43.000It's so, there's so much riding on it, that for fighters, when they leave that, and then they go to a regular life, like a lot of times it's very difficult.
00:49:52.000Very difficult to make that adjustment.
00:51:10.000That feeling after being in that octagon and winning is the highest of high.
00:51:16.000You know, I've never, ever experienced anything like it.
00:51:20.000But I focus, as soon as I leave, I really focus on bringing myself down and not being too high for too long because with the highs come the lows.
00:51:32.000And I don't, I try to, I'm constantly in the middle.
00:51:39.000You know, you're going through the whole process, but that whole time through the process, it's like, you know, for one, you ain't special.
00:53:22.000One of the things you said when you first entered the UFC, you said, I'm going to put on some incredible fights, and I'm going to lose, and I'm probably going to get knocked out.
00:54:25.000Well, there was a great moment after the second round, after you got hit with that uppercut, where you came back to the corner and you told him, take something off your punches.
00:54:40.000That was really interesting because a lot of times coaches will tell stuff to fighters, and the fighters probably know somewhere in their head, but it's fucking with them that they're starting to get tired, it's fucking with them that they got hit, and then they lose some composure, they get emotional, and they go out there and they wind up making mistakes.
00:54:56.000You immediately adjusted, and you went out there, and you would see by the end of that second round when Tony hit you with that shot, people were like, well, maybe this is a shift in the direction of the fight.
00:57:10.000But the responses is why you have a co-pilot.
00:57:13.000To help you see what you can't see and start noticing that.
00:57:17.000Or how are you playing defense and using a jab to find openings where you're still working, but you're thinking and going, oh, every time he does this, he's dropping his hand.
00:57:38.000That's my response is like, continue to do this and they're going to fall.
00:57:42.000And again, that is a very important point is a coach and the athlete understanding I am there to help you with your responses.
00:57:49.000In the gym, I'm going to create your reactions.
00:57:51.000I'm going to create your patterns, your basic fundamental patterns that's going to help you win positions and slightly win rounds where you're controlling the fight.
00:57:59.000The other piece is how am I slowly creating momentum to get finishes.
00:58:04.000It was pretty stunning how well you adapted and then also how your endurance leveled off.
00:58:11.000Because you did seem like you were slowing down a little bit at the second round, but it was because you were sprinting, because you were throwing these full power fucking haymakers.
00:58:21.000But then when you leveled off in that third round, then it was like you had an endless gas tank.
00:59:03.000But yeah, when I was hitting him with some of those shots, especially the one when I came through and he was throwing an uppercut, I couldn't believe he didn't go to sleep with that.
00:59:11.000But I go back to the Michael Johnson fight when he hit me with that left hand.
00:59:14.000There's no reason I shouldn't have went to sleep then.
01:01:56.000Dana told me this, and I was talking to Dana about it, and I was talking to my friends who know the whole Cuban program over there, the Cuban athletic program.
01:02:05.000Of course, he was on the Cuban Olympic team.
01:02:07.000I said, they did some fucking experiments down there, son.
01:02:46.000I wonder if there's any doctor out there that's ever talked about me and said, man, you have never seen a specimen that's just all ligaments and bones.
01:04:26.000How do you make someone a one-handed fighter or only able to use one side of their body?
01:04:31.000Because they can only put weight on one side.
01:04:33.000And timing the foot, when there's a foot off the ground, they can't base, they can't block until that foot hits the ground, so it's those in-between beats.
01:04:38.000But those are the spots that I can just geek out about and just have so much fun.
01:04:45.000People who are born with gifts and going back to how people just punch differently.
01:04:49.000Some people just, whether it's heavy bones, some people you look at them and their technique is nothing and you're like, holy cow, they can hit.
01:04:56.000Yeah, some people just have crazy power.
01:04:57.000Like we were talking earlier about Alex Pereira, the guy who fights in glory.
01:06:38.000It might shift early, you know, back and forth, but it's going to be established within the first minute.
01:06:44.000That is the most important thing of any fight that will ever happen in a fight, I believe.
01:06:47.000Because once that's established, the person who establishes it is going to be able to control, you know, the rhythm.
01:06:55.000And then once you can control the rhythm, now you can make them dance to your tune.
01:06:58.000Once they're dancing to your tune, you're fucking smoking them.
01:07:03.000As a coach, when Tony Ferguson decided to make weight even though the fight was off, And then wound up fighting just a few weeks later, for real.
01:07:12.000Like, the April 18th fight, the Tai Chi Palace fight, he just decided to make weight.
01:07:16.000And, you know, a lot of people were pretty impressed by it, me included.
01:07:19.000But then a lot of people were saying afterwards, like, hey, what if he has to fight again in four weeks?
01:07:58.000Like if they fight at a lower weight and it's cool for them and they need to hold that weight better and you're going in a five-round fight compared to a three-round, there's so many different variables that go into it.
01:09:45.000People make fun of me when I say I've been doing it since four, but my dad caught me sneaking tamales into the bathroom when I was like six.
01:13:49.000I'll tell you, there was one time in a fight where he was on top of the guy, and he was dropping these shots on him, and he hit him one time, and the way the guy's body moved, it looked really weird.
01:14:02.000He hit him so weird, and the way the guy's body bent and went numb...
01:14:06.000I was like, oh my god, you could feel it through the cage, like underneath, the echo underneath when he was hitting the dude and his head is pinned against the canvas.
01:14:58.000And then when he went on a strict diet, he's like, I'm a beaten damn rabbit food coach.
01:15:02.000And he got all set and he was eating this great diet.
01:15:05.000Mentally, he wasn't there like when we fought Dos Santos.
01:15:08.000Dos Santos, and again, that was a tough fight because after the Brock Lesnar fight, every question was about his conditioning.
01:15:14.000So Shane Carwin, if he goes out there and fights the first round, like you're fighting a one-round fight.
01:15:19.000We're stopping the fight after the first round.
01:15:21.000I don't think anybody gets through a first round with him.
01:15:23.000But when he pulled back and he started going, hey, I need to see if I can go five rounds, oh man, because he went with Brock and he gassed out.
01:15:30.000I remember with Amal, we're sitting there screaming.
01:15:32.000We're screaming at the top of the lungs and we're counting to three and screaming because the crowd was so loud.
01:15:36.000He couldn't hear us and he's on top of him just pounding Brock out.
01:15:41.000We were like, you need to stand back up.
01:15:42.000We wanted to get back up because the ref was just letting it go, letting it go.
01:15:47.000And if he stood back up, he's going to drop them again and fight over.
01:17:59.000Yeah, nobody could stop it in Tony's corner.
01:18:00.000That's the other thing is Tony's kind of, I mean, he has a jujitsu coach, he has a striking coach, but Tony marches to the beat of his own drummer.
01:18:25.000Like, that was one of the hardest fights.
01:18:26.000That's when I let the gym go and said, hey, man, I need to do this and do it with passion and really take this serious because I was so bothered by that.
01:18:36.000I almost was a cheerleader prior to that fight.
01:18:38.000Watching her on the Ultimate Fighter perform with no coaches and her just do her thing, she's so damn talented.
01:18:43.000She finished everybody on the Ultimate Fighter.
01:18:45.000Then she came in for that title fight and I was so upset with myself that I didn't have the conversation.
01:18:51.000I asked the coaches a lot, who's that corner?
01:19:39.000So when the Nate Marquardt situation happened, and for people who don't know what happened, Nate was on...
01:19:45.000There was a time in the UFC, in combat sports, where you were allowed to take TRT. Testosterone, replacement therapy, and we always talk about TRT Vitor, because he was the best example of what could happen when you take an older fighter and you juice him to the gills and then throw him out there like...
01:21:12.000Yeah, from what I understand, the doctor gave him way more than he was supposed to get.
01:21:17.000Yeah, and again, that's a shitty fucking thing.
01:21:22.000I couldn't believe how all that shit went down.
01:21:23.000A lot of these doctors, especially TRT doctors, in those days, they probably wanted to prove the effectiveness of TRT. They're like, more is better.
01:21:43.000And when you see those guys get off of everything and their bodies deflate, like Vitor when he fought Chris Weidman was like, Jesus Christ, this is weird to see.
01:22:23.000This guy worked as an engineer, would drive an hour to the gym at nighttime, train at nighttime, drive all the way back home, grab like a cheeseburger on the way home because he ain't got time to get anything else.
01:23:48.000Well, we had a manager come in and I had a dispute with the managers and they started managing all the guys.
01:23:53.000And they wanted to be a part of Grudge.
01:23:55.000And I didn't want to settle for what they were talking about.
01:23:58.000And they started training in a different gym.
01:24:00.000And when me and Nate kind of didn't see eye to eye on it because the way their publicist put something out so I don't do interviews no more.
01:24:07.000Because I was like, oh, you put my words the wrong way.
01:24:09.000Like me and Nate talked it out and became friends again.
01:24:24.000Yeah, the gray area meaning the TRT, where I was pissed.
01:24:27.000I was like, you guys are going to cut him out and shun him like this and say that he's doing this when you allowed him to take TRT, but there's no way you can tell how much he's taking?
01:24:37.000They can only tell the levels that you have.
01:24:39.000But you said it's okay again, and then you took them off of suspension for this and then said, all right, cool, everything's back to normal.
01:24:45.000He's like, oh, doctor, I've got a fight coming up.
01:25:42.000After my lease was up, I let the gym go and started an equipment company and started focusing on how can I... Because I respect every fighter who fights.
01:25:51.000I have so much respect for you getting in there.
01:25:54.000And as I get older, I get a little softer side to me.
01:25:56.000Even when we win, I see the other person lose.
01:27:04.000When you're drinking a beer with a straw, you're at the bar and you're drinking with a straw and you can't pick it up because you've got the mashed potato head and what is good for mixing.
01:28:22.000I said, can I borrow your sewing machine?
01:28:23.000And I tried to make a mitt that had a left and a right that I wouldn't have to squeeze my hands to hold on to because my hands are so weak.
01:28:28.000And after two sessions, I was like, dude, I can't even hold the mitts.
01:29:04.000I need to release something for the fighters.
01:29:07.000And the hand issues and the training issues that I was always dealing with, almost all the time my fighters were going into fights, they were injured.
01:29:18.000They're going into fights injured, and they have to because they're not going to get paid if they're not fighting.
01:29:22.000And they're like, instantly, I could name a guy who's had how many surgeries, and he continues to fight with bad injuries, and he's like, well, I'll get a surgery afterwards.
01:29:31.000And he's fighting off adrenaline, but how many times?
01:30:55.000Shane Carwin, I remember, we had to cut into his gloves one time, and that's why that was changed.
01:30:59.000Shane's Carwin hand was so big that they had to change the glove size because Brock was a 4X. Then we had to make a 5X, but they actually opened up the skirt because of that.
01:31:08.000Because Shane Carwin, we actually allowed the commission, allowed us to cut it open.
01:31:12.000But when it comes to the glove, I can't even say it's the worst glove.
01:33:14.000So I actually made space back here for the hand wrap.
01:33:25.000Now there's a strapping system that goes down inside this.
01:33:28.000So when I pull on this, you'll notice this piece right here actually pulls on this.
01:33:32.000There's no fingers, so it's easy to grab onto.
01:33:35.000There's space for the hand wrap, but this strap is actually connected here with a seat belt type of material that pulls on the back of the metacarpals.
01:38:59.000You need to be able to spar to know that you can make the right decisions in that hurricane to be able to know that you're conditioned to fight.
01:39:04.000So again, you have to be able to train like that.
01:39:07.000Some of the biggest injuries I've seen in training are like someone getting hit with a knee when they don't have a knee pad on.
01:39:13.000If you want to kick someone shooting down, they hit the knee.
01:39:15.000Josh Copeland ended up getting 17 stitches in my gym because the other guy didn't have a knee pad on.
01:39:21.000Like, where are the standards when it comes to training?
01:39:24.000That's a huge thing, too, is you got guys coming in and going, oh man, I've just got hand-me-down equipment.
01:41:57.000I don't know what kind of pad is under where we fight, but if something was there to absorb the energy when we got knocked out and our head hit the back, I would assume it would be better for us.
01:42:33.000So it's foamed back behind where you actually zip in.
01:42:36.000So that's all protected on the soft spot.
01:42:38.000And I have not found a shin guard out there.
01:42:42.00090% of shin guards aren't left or right either.
01:42:43.000You kind of just get foam into your body.
01:42:45.000You look at the straps and say, which way do they go?
01:42:47.000And another pet peeve of mine, when I'm a coach and I've got a world-class athlete and they're stopping every time they throw a kick to say, hey, man, let me fix my shin guard.
01:46:06.000So they wanted to own the technology, and that technology that I have, the internal strapping system, is actually a technology that can go into any sport and is used in all my equipment.
01:46:14.000So I was like, dude, I can't just do that for the fight glove.
01:46:17.000And again, I want this in all organizations.
01:49:16.000And with this patent, it came into the gloves.
01:49:18.000I was like, well, fuck, if I can make gloves that have support system in it, because you think about what do you need a hand wrap for?
01:49:23.000And I'm not talking a professional hand wrap that you fight in.
01:49:26.000I'm talking about the 120-inch wrap that gets tangled up in your laundry and stinks up your gloves when you put them on.
01:49:33.000This wrap that I was doing, I was able to put inside the glove.
01:49:36.000And if I'm able to make a glove fit in a size so the strapping pulls the glove down to shrink against your hand, if I have a glove that's too big, I've always had small hands, and when I have this extra space, I go to hit him, he bobs it and weaves his head, and my hand does this, And tweaks because the glove is this much longer on this side, I start to cause hand problems.
01:49:54.000Okay, when I'm wrapping my hands, all I'm doing is adding more material in the ball of my hand here.
01:49:59.000So if I were grabbing onto something, the more material I have in between my hand, let me see that foam real quick, yellow foam.
01:50:22.000And that causes my leverage points to start causing injuries.
01:50:25.000If you have ligament injuries, it's because you don't have any flex behind, so I can't pack my fist, so I'm stretching my fingers.
01:50:32.000If I'm not lining my strong bones up, meaning my metacarpals down with my strong bone, I'm not getting the correct alignment in my fist.
01:50:39.000If I start going to my door knocking knuckles, I'm not lining my wrist up.
01:50:43.000For people who are just listening to this too, Trevor has a whole series of x-rays of a person's hand inside regular gloves and then inside his gloves.
01:50:52.000And it shows you that with the Onyx gloves, you're getting a flat knuckle at the top.
01:50:57.000So it would be just like balling your fist with nothing in your hand and punching someone with the knuckles as opposed to, like you said, hitting them with that door knock.
01:51:06.000We have a tiny, tiny, because again, this is not good, but any kind of flex here is going to cause ligament damage.
01:51:43.000But when you start packing too much material, like the hand wrap's 120 inches, that's where the issue is.
01:51:49.000If I don't know how to wrap my hand, I'm causing more damage because I'm putting too much material.
01:51:52.000Right, and you're stressing out the ligaments.
01:51:54.000And again, that's what's causing the damage in the hands.
01:51:57.000And again, hand injuries, that's your money makers.
01:51:59.000So one more time, what do we have to do to get this into the UFC? I think we either wait for the Diaco deal to get up, or we continue to do what we're doing.
01:52:08.000Is Diaco the company that makes these?
01:53:18.000Now I've got access to great manufacturing.
01:53:21.000Our issues right now is we keep selling out, because I'm dealing with a manufacturer that makes snowboard boots because they have the best strapping system.
01:53:28.000They have the best materials because it's waterproof.
01:53:32.000It doesn't start to get the bacterias.
01:53:34.000I've used so many different manufacturing companies that make gloves already, and they can't make what I make because they're stuck in their old patterns.
01:53:42.000There are old ways of making gloves that way.
01:54:17.000It's hard for people to listen to this and try to put it in their head because half the people are watching, half the people are listening.
01:54:23.000But for the people listening, I mean, if you're a martial artist and you need to get some MMA gloves, this is by far the best glove I've ever put on my hand.
01:54:32.000You know what needs to happen in the NFL? What needs to happen?
01:54:34.000In the NFL, when you're training, you're using high-level equipment.
01:54:38.000And it's provided by the NFL. That's your athletes.
01:54:43.000They need to be wearing equipment that's going to protect them, help them get to the fight, and when they're in the fight, be able to perform.
01:54:50.000And not deal with what I've been dealing my whole life as being a psychologist and getting people to the fight and worrying about these issues of them fading out and being like thinking about your hand.
01:54:59.000I had tied my boxing boot too tight one time.
01:55:01.000I had these high Adidas, you know those real tall ones back in the day, Hearns used to wear.
01:58:31.000But he was in there with the plastic piece and I was making headgears at the point and I was like, dude, let me take that and see what I can do with it.
01:58:36.000And I came back and he's like, what the fuck?
02:01:44.000I mean, it's really unfortunate when you're dealing with the very best fighters on the planet Earth and they're forced to fight with inferior gear.
02:04:26.000Horse hair is cool, though, because that's for the fight.
02:04:28.000It packs a punch, it protects your knuckles, and it gives you a good feeling in the hit.
02:04:32.000See, in a fight glove, I still think it's about the fight, but if we can help with finger pokes and bring it back down to 10%, that's a cool thing.
02:04:38.000Yeah, I don't think it can be eliminated, because it's natural human instinct.
02:04:42.000If your fingers are exposed, someone's going to get a finger in the eye at a certain point.
02:04:46.000Yeah, but this, I think, will eliminate a lot of those.
02:04:48.000I think it'll eliminate a lot of those.
02:05:02.000With the strapping against the metacarpals, 100%, it's going to make it a lot easier for the hand wrappers to be able to make a wrap that's going to fit in the glove and then be able to do what they're good at.
02:05:11.000And less hand injuries will make for better fights.
02:05:13.000We fight last longer in their career, too.
02:05:15.000We fight like four inches farther than boxers.
02:07:16.000Sometimes two, I'll pull him back, pull him out.
02:07:17.000If I start seeing him get lazy, or he might make a stupid mistake, or he's just tired through the week.
02:07:22.000And we gauge the training regimens like hard in the beginning, slow down at the end of the week because you start to make lazy mistakes because your body's tired.
02:07:29.000That's where I've seen a lot of injuries happen.
02:07:31.000Do you work with the strength coach to have like a coordinated schedule so you say, hey, he's going to be sparring today.
02:07:40.000For each fighter that we're fighting, different stuff, we'll change it for that.
02:07:44.000If he needs to be stronger, if he needs to be faster, it's on the game plan that I put together prior to the fight and then with what he's doing.
02:07:51.000And where we get the most use out of him, too, he makes the biggest gains is off of training camps.
02:07:55.000That's where he makes the biggest gains.
02:08:13.000It's early in the week so he can go and spike the heart rate right after he's got dead legs from sparring.
02:08:18.000And then Saturday on a fresh day, so he spars on Friday, then Saturday we go and do a long distance run, which is only like two miles, and it's very inclined, just so it's not hard on his joints, and it keeps him...
02:12:06.000Because it was totally flat, and it was a part where I'm really pushing, a part in the run, and I turned the corner, and the dogs ran right the fuck over it, too.
02:13:30.000I didn't know your name at the time, and I'll never forget it, bro.
02:13:32.000I put him in a tie clinch, and I was trying to figure out, I didn't want to choke him, because if I choke him, then I'm doing something to him.
02:13:39.000Yeah, and I didn't want to knee his brains out, but I was like, I'm like, I have him.
02:13:43.000If he does something to me, then I can do it, but I'm like, let me just hold this dude in the plum, and just also let him know how weak he is.
02:13:50.000When you hold someone by their neck that's never grappled before, and then you rag them around, they're like, uh, uh.
02:17:49.000They're going to get fucked up if they catch this disease.
02:17:52.000When you see the numbers drop drastically for the flu, heart disease, heart attacks, it's going to be proof that something was fucking wrong.
02:18:01.000Well, they thought it was going to be way worse than it was.
02:18:05.000But the problem is, when everybody's fucking tested, and we're here, there's 1,100 tests the UFC did.
02:25:36.000When you stop and think about the fact that he retired from wrestling at 21, not even at the peak of his powers, after he wins a gold medal, and then the fact that he came back from that first round stoppage to DJ and then beats him in the rematch, what was it, two years later?
02:25:51.000And with his knee and his ankle always looking like it goes out, like that with the Morris fight and in that DJ fight.
02:25:58.000Just so crazy, overcoming that and just getting...
02:27:02.000They will, but you can't make anybody fight, and I'm ready in September, he's ready in September, so it's perfect.
02:27:08.000Now, I know Vegas is going to at least allow some audiences in July, supposedly, because I'm at that Park Theater, the one that's right across the street from T-Mobile.
02:27:18.000I'm there in July doing a comedy show.
02:27:21.000It's supposedly going to actually happen.
02:28:20.000And again, no one's got to see his wrestling and I met this guy watching him wrestle and what he does was so unique.
02:28:28.000A total different style of wrestling than that's hard to train for and it's kind of like a hidden weapon so I feel like we're bringing something unique into this.
02:28:35.000I think it's a very unique fight and it's also Tony was thought to be the biggest threat to that title because Tony is such a good grappler and he's so good on his feet and he fucks people up on his feet so him fighting you and you stopping him like you take that spot now and also your style in my opinion is better.
02:28:53.000I mean, the thing about Tony's style is that Tony can fight off of his back, he's not worried about takedowns, and he submits a lot of guys.
02:28:58.000He was going to fight that fight with the mindset of being okay on his back.
02:31:27.000Yeah, it might be just saying it just so he can get another day set for his little spot in Vegas and just be like, oh man, we don't need it anymore.
02:31:33.000For international fights, it seems like the only option.
02:34:22.000Honestly, I've been in some fights like that where you've got a promoter, promotes for the first time, and they're like, cool, have your fighters, and you're just hoping your fighter gets paid because you look at a crowd, there's like 12 people.
02:35:39.000So I get in there, you know, I looked him in the eyes, and then, you know, he broke for a second, and I was like, alright, give me some water, I got to smoke fire.
02:36:24.000The difference between your fights where you said you were having too much fun, like the Poirier fight or the Eddie Alvarez fight, and now, what is the difference?
02:36:34.000So once the tunnel closed in those fights, it was like over, over.
02:36:39.000Now I have like three pieces from this fight that I can remember.
02:37:12.000My dad has honed these certain skills.
02:37:15.000Right now, I'm seeing him doing it with my nephew, but he'll be watching TV and he'll throw a ball to you and you have to catch it as many times as you can.
02:37:23.000He'll start throwing it sideways and you try to get to 100. First you get to 50, then you try to beat 50. Then he's going outside and he's throwing a ball onto the roof and it's rolling down and you have to kind of listen to it.
02:37:31.000And as it's falling, you've got to try to react.
02:37:33.000As it's falling to the ground, these small little things that my dad has done since I was a baby.
02:37:40.000And my weird OCD when I'm driving in cars as a kid, anytime there was a shadow cast on the road, I always had to blink as the shadow was in between the tires.
02:37:49.000So it's just my ability to react and not hesitate is, I believe, what's allowing me to do that inside the octagon in those situations.
02:41:01.000And so you winning the way you did and doing it in such spectacular fashion against a hugely respected guy like Tony Ferguson, that makes you undeniable.
02:41:12.000And when you're undeniable, weird things happen, you know?
02:41:28.000But, you know, timing is everything and it feels like that was part of my destiny to have the opportunity at that time under these circumstances.
02:41:35.000Well, it certainly is a magical storyline.
02:41:38.000If you were writing a movie, that would be the best way to...
02:41:41.000When I go beat Habib and then I beat Conor, what run in the history of this sport has been better?
02:41:47.000Coming off two losses, getting counted out.