This Past Weekend with Theo Von - E523 Georges St-Pierre

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00:00:30.000 Sitting down today to talk about dinosaurs and fears

00:00:33.760 with one of the greatest mixed martial artists of our time, of any time.

00:00:40.160 He won UFC belts in two different weight classes,

00:00:43.800 and you can't even talk about the sport without mentioning him.

00:00:47.880 I'm really honored to be in his presence today, and I mean that.

00:00:51.280 Today's guest is Mr. Georges St-Pierre.

00:00:54.660 Shine that light on me

00:00:58.720 I'll sit and tell you my stories

00:01:04.480 Shine on me

00:01:09.280 And I will find a song

00:01:13.520 I've been singing

00:01:14.720 I love you, sir.

00:01:16.480 This is your country, man.

00:01:23.480 Yes, sir.

00:01:24.280 And so it's

00:01:25.720 Yeah, because it's French-Canadian.

00:01:28.440 So which one is the real one?

00:01:31.240 Or which, you know what I'm saying?

00:01:33.080 Like who's really the boss or whatever?

00:01:35.160 Well, there's no really, I mean, who's the boss?

00:01:40.520 I don't know if there's really a boss.

00:01:42.200 Like if you had to pick one, do you get to pick one or every day it's the same?

00:01:46.520 Yeah. You mean the boss? Talk about the leader?

00:01:52.280 Yeah.

00:01:52.840 Most people will tend to say, oh, it's the, you know, the political leader, the

00:01:58.040 Of Canada or of France?

00:01:59.000 The prime minister or the president, but I'm, I'm, I think, I mean, you can call me conspirationist

00:02:06.280 thinking that, but I don't think he's the one that really control everything.

00:02:09.960 I think he's the, there's people behind that.

00:02:13.720 Maybe, I mean, that's what I believe.

00:02:16.360 I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

00:02:18.040 That's what I think too.

00:02:19.240 Yeah. I think that the president is the face.

00:02:21.160 It's a face. It's the puppet.

00:02:22.520 But, but, but like our prime minister is the face, but I think there's people behind that.

00:02:27.080 There are certain things that he, he cannot do that. That's what I, I believe.

00:02:30.920 Did you always believe that you think, or that you think that's grown over the years kind of?

00:02:35.320 It's a good question.

00:02:37.480 I think it grown over the years, especially because there's a lot of sometimes,

00:02:41.720 sometimes there's a lot of conspiracy that turns out to be true.

00:02:44.360 Yeah.

00:02:44.920 And, and there's so much stuff on, on internet nowadays that you can try to search every any,

00:02:54.200 anything and they will give you something to read about a certain subject, even if it's completely

00:03:00.120 preposterous.

00:03:00.920 Yeah.

00:03:01.320 Yeah.

00:03:01.560 So it's hard to, to, to know what is real and what is not, but maybe that's the reason why,

00:03:08.360 because of that, it makes me realize that, oh, what I'm seeing is maybe not really what it is.

00:03:15.240 Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, I think it's fascinating because yeah. Say if like a lot of media was like

00:03:21.720 kind of all controlled, right. Then of course they're going to not want you to know something.

00:03:26.440 Yeah.

00:03:27.160 And eventually people are going to kind of figure those things out. People figure things out.

00:03:31.560 I think it's, it's always about money and power.

00:03:35.000 I know people that has money and power. What they want is they want more money and more power.

00:03:39.000 I tend to believe that most of people are mostly in the middle. And like, if you look at politics,

00:03:49.240 you have the extreme right, extreme left. And, and, but most people are, I think mostly in the

00:03:54.280 middle, you know, that they're not to one side or the other. And, and then the way it's portrayed

00:03:59.720 is that you have to pick one side or the other side and you're like, shit, I don't know what to do.

00:04:03.720 You know what I mean? Because I'm, you know, I'm stuck in the middle.

00:04:06.280 Yeah. I think stuck in the middle is probably the best spot, you know? And I think most people

00:04:10.040 are probably pretty logical. You would think, but then maybe sometimes I start to wonder,

00:04:14.600 do I give people too much credit? You know, like, or a lot of people just bat shit crazy,

00:04:19.880 you know? And then I wonder sometimes, am I just bat shit crazy? You know?

00:04:23.320 Yeah, it's true. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror sometimes.

00:04:26.920 I know. It's hard. Yeah. But I've wondered sometimes like, yeah, I'm amazed, I guess,

00:04:32.760 that power and money drive so many people. Like I get it being like an influence, you know?

00:04:38.680 But I think there's a part of me, I guess I'm shocked that it has that much control.

00:04:44.600 What do you think? I mean, you, you're kind of one-on-one, George, you've had such a,

00:04:50.520 I mean, you got to almost have kind of a perfect career in a lot of ways, you know?

00:04:53.480 I made tons of mistakes looking at it and I wish I could do better because I'm very critics,

00:05:02.760 critics about myself, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm happy, whatever I have accomplished. Yeah.

00:05:08.040 And do you think, uh, was it power, success driving you? Like, what do you,

00:05:11.880 what was kind of your driving force? Do you feel like?

00:05:14.440 I'll be honest with you, 100%. I, I never liked to fight. I love the sport.

00:05:21.400 I love the science of it. I like the camaraderie that I have with my friend,

00:05:27.240 you know, before like a training camp, you know, it's like you're going to war.

00:05:31.880 Uh, I despise fight day. It's unbearable for me. I'm extremely uncomfortable and not knowing if I will

00:05:43.560 be hurt, uh, humiliated or winning the ultimate price is unbearable for me. It's, it's, it's very

00:05:53.880 hard to deal with, but it's the price that you have to pay if you want to achieve freedom. Like for me,

00:06:02.680 I first started doing it because I had, uh, a certain, uh, natural talent. I would say, you know,

00:06:09.400 if I would be born with an anticap, I wouldn't probably not be able to do what I did. So I was

00:06:15.000 a gifted athlete and, uh, I work, I also work really hard, but I also, I consider myself extremely

00:06:24.680 lucky. The stars were all aligned because there was guys that I've met through my journey that

00:06:32.440 were probably more talented than I was. Uh, there's guys that I met that probably worked

00:06:38.920 harder than I, than I did. But I think what made the difference is the fact that I met the right

00:06:46.760 people at the right time at the sometime life gave me certain opportunity that I did not shy away.

00:06:53.880 I was always willing to get out of my comfort zone in order to improve, which is not the case from

00:07:01.160 a lot of athletes and not only athletes, like entrepreneur, humans, for a human, for, for all of us,

00:07:07.880 it's hard to get out of our comfort zone, but sometimes it's necessary. It's a necessary evil

00:07:12.680 in order to, to improve. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think like what you said, like, cause you can

00:07:18.120 control how much you, how hard you work. You can control, those are a lot of control factors, but that

00:07:23.000 is, that's a risk when you get out there and you get on a fight day. Yeah. Some of it's out of your

00:07:28.760 control. I remember that. Did it feel like that? Is that what it felt like kind of? It's, it's, it's

00:07:34.360 always a question of risk and reward. You know, it's calculated risk. Um, I remember if, if I go

00:07:41.960 back, uh, more than like almost 30 years ago, uh, I couldn't really speak English very well. I

00:07:49.240 learned it at school, but I grew up in a French environment. So my English was really bad.

00:07:53.480 It's hard. Yeah. And the first time I, I, I remember I was already a black belt in karate and

00:07:59.800 I wanted to go to the Gracie Academy in New York because that's where the best jujitsu athlete

00:08:04.680 were, were training at the time. So I knew that I needed to go there in order to train with the

00:08:11.720 best to learn from the best. So I'm about at that time, I'm about like 16, 17 years old. And, uh,

00:08:17.960 I'm planning to go there with two of my friends, two of professional that are professional athletes

00:08:22.920 at the time. And, um, one of them, only one of them speak perfect English. So he's, he's,

00:08:30.040 yeah. And it was not like it is today. There were, there were not like ways. So we had to go on map

00:08:34.600 quest and it was a pain in a, in a butt to find your way. So, so I'm driving, I got a shitty Ford

00:08:40.600 temple with a hole in, in, in, I remember where I used to put the brake pedal. So people used to make

00:08:46.920 fun of me. It was like the Flintstone, you know, I could almost put my foot on the floor, you know?

00:08:52.600 So the plan was to go in New York to, to go, to go there. And we share, uh, we shared the hotel

00:09:00.520 together. So we save money and we, we, we share with the gas and everything. But the day before

00:09:07.400 the day before the trip, they get one of them called me and he's the one, it's the one that speak

00:09:10.920 English. He's like, Hey George, I cannot make it. I'm like, are you kidding me? And I'm talking to the

00:09:15.400 other one who's supposed to come with me. He's like, Oh, if he's not going, I'm not going either.

00:09:18.760 I'm like, man, well, you know what? I said, I said to myself, I F it. I'm going by myself and

00:09:24.520 that's it. So I went there and I remember, man, I got my ass whooped by a guy who weighs

00:09:36.040 maybe 30 pounds lighter than me. Wow. I, I got, I got tapped out like in Jitsu when you're stuck in an

00:09:42.360 arm bar or a choke, you have to tap. Otherwise your arm break or, or you get choked out.

00:09:47.320 So, and I remember at the time I was like, man, I was, I was getting mold. I was a black belt in

00:09:53.000 car ride. I was good, a good striker, but in grappling, I didn't have a lot of knowledge

00:09:57.720 and I knew I needed to learn it in order to become a mixed martial art fighter. But man,

00:10:03.480 I got beat up so bad. And I, and I remember driving back. I was, I was that close to,

00:10:09.000 to, to, to give up. And I told myself, I said, you know what? I need to go back out there and

00:10:14.520 learn. And every time I was going back there, it was tough for me because guys, a lot of them were

00:10:19.000 trying to bully me. A few of them were very nice to me, but it was a constant grind. And I remember

00:10:24.920 the two guys that were supposed to come with me, they asked me, Hey, how was it? I'm like, man,

00:10:29.000 I got my ass kicked so bad, man. They never came back with me. They were like, they wanted to stay in

00:10:33.960 their comfort zone. So that's the difference. You know, if you want to succeed sometime,

00:10:37.560 it's a necessary evil. You're going to go through pain. You're going to, it might be humiliated.

00:10:41.880 You're going to, you're going to fail, but then I have to go through that man in order to improve,

00:10:46.760 you know? And that's, that's what I was ready to do, which is probably the case of other guys.

00:10:52.360 So that the reason why I was successful is not because I think I was more gifted or,

00:10:57.880 you know, I work harder. It's just because I was ready to do that sacrifice, you know?

00:11:02.600 Yeah. What do you think kind of made you in that space to take that sacrifice? Cause I guess it's

00:11:06.920 like, yeah, I mean, it's well, giving up is easy. Yeah. You know, I think saying something is better,

00:11:15.800 saying something's too hard. It's kind of easy. You know, I think unless you're different,

00:11:20.120 I think some people look at that as a challenge and some people look at it as an, uh, just a reality.

00:11:26.880 Yeah. I think, I think, I think if you want to be the best at something,

00:11:30.680 I'm not talking about being good. I'm talking about, you want to be the best at something.

00:11:35.480 And in, in every field, I think you need to be a little bit obsessed. I, I was never diagnosed.

00:11:42.760 I never saw a psychologist for it, but I think I'm, I, I'm obsessive compulsive. And I think,

00:11:49.800 did you notice it when you were young? Like what kind of things did you see that you would do?

00:11:53.240 Well, one thing I would do, um, that is completely crazy. Uh, uh, it's, it's very stupid, but I,

00:12:02.200 I used to do like when I, when I walk on the sidewalk, for example, I remember in New York,

00:12:08.600 going to train, I walk on the sidewalk and there is line on the sidewalk. And I noticed that I step

00:12:13.880 over one line with my right foot, but I have to step over with the left to make it an equal number.

00:12:21.640 And it, sometimes these things are so stupid, but it drive you nuts. When I drill techniques in

00:12:27.640 jujitsu, I have to do this in, or wrestling or any combat sport. I have to do the same amount

00:12:33.080 on each side, even though in a fight, I will most likely do one side, my best side, but I have to do

00:12:38.520 the other side. And I think these things as crazy as it sounds are probably some of the,

00:12:45.640 the things that made me perform well, you know?

00:12:48.200 Right. Cause you need things to be even, you need things to be calculated maybe,

00:12:52.120 or even the fact that you're even calculating things is kind of, it sounds crazy. It sounds

00:12:57.800 obsessive, but it also is kind of magnificent in a way, because to be great at something,

00:13:02.120 you're going to have to be someone who's calculating things, even when you're not, uh,

00:13:06.760 even in your subconscious. Also, I think it's good for an athlete for performance,

00:13:13.000 but you need to learn how to let go. Yeah. You need to learn to punch, punch in and punch out.

00:13:19.880 And sometimes it's hard. I see in the news, sometimes some fighters, they can't do it.

00:13:23.800 You know, they, they, they go crazy. They keep going. Yeah. Like Tony Ferguson,

00:13:27.880 he keeps going. Do you think it's a tough space that he's in? Like, cause it's weird. People love

00:13:32.840 watching him fight. Right. And it feels like he loves like giving himself to the people.

00:13:37.400 He like, it almost like he shows up just because he knows we're going to love him so much. Yeah.

00:13:43.000 But you start to think that it's painful for him. I mean, he's had a tough run recently.

00:13:47.640 Yeah. I, I, I love to, to, to see him fight. It's, uh, it's just unfortunate because the Tony

00:13:53.080 Ferguson that you see nowadays is it's not the, the Tony Ferguson that he was when he was in his prime.

00:13:59.720 And, uh, it depends what he's trying to accomplish. Right. You know, I, I prioritize my health,

00:14:09.000 you know, first, and that's my priority, but some guys, they, they have a kick of it. They, they,

00:14:15.320 they don't care. They, they prioritize having, I don't know, some of them, they love to fight,

00:14:19.640 you know, for them, it's, it's, it's a, it's an adrenaline. They love it. I never liked it. I mean,

00:14:24.440 I did it because I wanted to have the freedom, you know, the, the life that I have. So I used

00:14:30.440 that to propel myself where I wanted to be in life, but some guys, they, they just love to fight.

00:14:35.800 And I, and it's funny because when I was young, I was looking around and I never felt I was at the

00:14:45.160 right place. I, I, I remember I, I seek the help of sport psychologists and a lot of them,

00:14:51.160 they told me, uh, you know, like they were trying to brainwash me. They were like, ah,

00:14:54.920 George, stop saying you're afraid. You're not afraid. You're excited. I'm like, I'm like, bro,

00:14:59.800 I'm excited. If I, I don't know if I say a beautiful woman or, you know, like, like,

00:15:03.640 or, you know what I mean? I'm not, I'm not excited to go fight in a, in a, in a cage. You know what I

00:15:09.640 mean? So I'm afraid. Then I realized that you should not be afraid. I should not be afraid to admit

00:15:16.760 that I'm afraid, you know, there's no courage without fear. And when I'm made peace with it,

00:15:21.720 I knew it was a normal thing and I learned how to control it, but it's, uh, that's why there's

00:15:26.440 some guys, I think they fake it so hard and they don't make peace with it. And when the light is on,

00:15:32.840 is on and it's time to perform, they crumble. You see that very often in combat sport, guys that are

00:15:37.880 very good in the gym, but then when it's time to go, they, they don't perform as well. You're like,

00:15:41.640 how, what's going on? You know, that's why, because they don't know how to deal with,

00:15:45.640 they don't know how to domesticate their fear. They don't know how to, they don't know how to

00:15:51.240 manage their fear. They don't know how to manage it. They don't know how to control their stress.

00:15:55.400 Um, I remember, I think it's Kossomoto, the Mike Tyson coach, he says, fear is like fire.

00:16:01.240 It can help you cook your food, but it can also burn you if you don't know how to control it.

00:16:06.200 You know? And, and one of my psych psychologists used to, the sports psychologist used to say to me,

00:16:11.000 he's like, you have butterflies, you have to make them fly in formation. That's one thing he used to

00:16:15.720 tell me all the time. I'm like, that was a good analogy.

00:16:18.440 That's crazy. And I'm sure for you, the same thing. I mean, when you do a show,

00:16:25.480 I mean, I don't know. Are you afraid to, to, to mess up and be being humiliated? Did it ever

00:16:30.920 happen to you that? Oh, for sure. Like you, you're, you, you screwed up. You're like,

00:16:34.360 oh shit, this thing doesn't work the way I want. And I mean, I'm sure it happened. Like it happened

00:16:38.280 to me. I get hit or, you know what I mean? I lose a fight. Yeah. It wasn't my plan and my strat. Yeah.

00:16:43.000 I didn't, I ran out of bullets. I ran out of like moves. I tried some jokes. It didn't work. Oh,

00:16:47.640 the beginning, you almost go out there cause you, you just want, I think, you know, it's

00:16:54.280 going to fucking hurt, you know? And you just want to, I think a lot of comics kind of hate

00:16:58.600 themselves a little bit, to be honest. And so they go out there cause they know the feeling that

00:17:03.720 the embarrassment and pain they're going to feel finally, it'll match how they feel on the inside.

00:17:10.600 So there's a little weirdness in that, that like some things are going to feel a little even in a way.

00:17:17.000 And also a lot of comedians hate themselves so much that the people could never hate

00:17:22.840 them as much as they fucking hate themselves. So, or they've talked so badly about themselves,

00:17:28.760 like in their own head, you know, you need, you mean you need to be willing to make fun of yourself

00:17:33.720 if you want to do that.

00:17:34.840 Yeah. I think that helps because then it's certainly at that point, it's like you're using all the tools.

00:17:39.640 You already, you make fun of others, but you make fun of, you need to be ready to make fun of

00:17:43.720 yourself as well. Right? Yeah.

00:17:45.000 Yeah. And in your head, like, I think a lot of comedians are like, um, you know,

00:17:49.080 they have a lot of fear. They have a lot of, uh, inferiority. And so when they're, when they're

00:17:53.240 growing up, they probably talk badly to themselves in their head. And so then when they're able to

00:17:58.360 joke about themselves, it's almost a way of releasing some of that. It's like, they're making

00:18:02.120 fun of themselves, but it's in a way that is making, bringing joy to people. Yeah. So it almost

00:18:07.960 kind of like alleviate some of that, if that makes any sense.

00:18:11.160 Over the year that, that feeling of...

00:18:14.440 It goes away.

00:18:15.000 It goes away for you. Yeah.

00:18:16.840 Yeah. That was my...

00:18:17.720 It goes away because you...

00:18:18.600 It didn't go away from me.

00:18:19.720 Really?

00:18:20.280 Yeah. It got worse because every fight is bigger than that.

00:18:23.080 But just the fight. So the fight itself. So the training and all of that,

00:18:26.040 you're digging.

00:18:27.000 No, training makes me nervous. No, I'm nervous before training because when you train for a fight,

00:18:30.840 you want to perform. When you're in between fight off season, now you want to have fun.

00:18:34.920 Yeah.

00:18:35.320 That's when training is fun. But when you're training for a

00:18:37.800 fight, it's about performance. It's not that fun. It's not fun. Winning is fun, but you know,

00:18:44.120 like...

00:18:45.080 Like the fight day would be tough?

00:18:46.520 I'm sorry?

00:18:47.320 The fight day would be the toughest?

00:18:49.080 It's terrible. I... Well, to give you an example, fight day, it's... Every fight day is the worst day

00:18:56.360 of my life. You wake up after a shitty night of sleep. And when you wake up, you're like,

00:19:02.680 because you don't sleep well because you make... So I make so much scenario in my mind.

00:19:07.480 If you do this, I'm going to do this and try to cover every possible scenario that can happen.

00:19:12.520 And sometimes you close your eyes, you try to see, you try to be positive, but sometimes

00:19:17.800 you don't see yourself winning. Sometimes there's certain imagery that pops up in your head

00:19:22.600 that you see yourself losing.

00:19:25.480 But I develop a trick. I'm a firm believer of the power of, of thinking, you know, of the power of

00:19:32.680 the mind.

00:19:33.000 Visualization?

00:19:33.640 Yes. So when you have a negative imagery that pops up in your head, it's a sign of intelligence. You

00:19:39.800 know, it's, it's normal. It will happen because you're smart. You can, you can, uh, you can

00:19:45.800 foresee certain bad outcomes. So you need to be prepared. So, so it forces you to, you don't want to

00:19:51.960 finish your visualization on a negative note because it would leave a scar up here. So I always

00:19:57.800 force myself when I see myself getting dropped by a punch, then I, I don't let go.

00:20:04.280 I just force myself. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna scramble back up and get back in control of the

00:20:09.320 fight. And then I can go on with my life, do whatever I need, I need to do. So I think if you

00:20:15.560 only finish on the negative, it could leave a scar. That's one of the things that over the year I,

00:20:22.200 I, I tried to do and it helped me a lot.

00:20:24.840 It's powerful. It reminds me of the fight, the first Sarah fight, I think, you know,

00:20:28.360 and I know you didn't get the outcome that you wanted, but you stayed alive. I mean,

00:20:32.520 you, you know, that was, uh, yeah, I, I, I got hit so many times. I, I was like, geez,

00:20:37.080 I felt like we were getting hit at home. I remember. I, and, and Matt Sarah really surprised

00:20:41.880 me because going into that fight was my first title defense. Matt Sarah was known for his, uh,

00:20:47.640 grappling prowess. You know, he was, uh, uh, uh, very, one of the most decorated, uh, jiu-jitsu

00:20:55.560 athletes at the time. And I was more, more worried about his ground game than his stand up,

00:21:01.800 but he worked a lot on his stand up game. And he caught me with a punch that I never saw coming

00:21:05.800 on behind the here. And when he caught me, I remember I got emotional because I wanted to

00:21:13.320 give it back to him right away. You know, like I, this was not supposed to happen. The odds were,

00:21:17.480 were favoring me, like I, something like 10 to one or something crazy. So I wanted to give it back

00:21:22.840 to him right away. And like an idiot, I fall into a slugfest. And when you're stunned,

00:21:28.920 you're not accurate because you're dizzy. He was accurate and he hits very hard. So I got like a,

00:21:34.600 I don't, I can't remember how many punches I, I, I got hit with.

00:21:38.360 You stayed alive though.

00:21:39.080 Oh, I, I, but you know what I did? So, because I, I didn't know where I was. I was so dizzy.

00:21:43.960 I tapped out and I got, I got a lot of critics because, oh, he's a quitter. He tapped out on

00:21:51.400 strike and everything. And it affected me at the time because I was like, man, you know,

00:21:56.920 like maybe I'm not as good as I think. And a lot of people were like, oh, he's maybe not,

00:22:01.160 not, not as good as, as people think. And, um, I needed to build myself mentally from that.

00:22:08.520 And it was very, very hard because I lost the confidence and confidence for fire is the most

00:22:12.360 important thing because you can have all the skills in the world. But if you don't have the

00:22:16.360 confidence, if I can make an analogy, it's a, it's like someone who has a lot of money in his bank

00:22:20.920 account, but no way of accessing it. So I needed to build myself back up. And it was, it was a tough

00:22:27.000 time. I remember. I, it's funny. You see it that way. Cause I saw it as wow. I cannot believe how

00:22:32.760 I think it, for me, it goes back to what you were saying that like to envision, like if you visualize

00:22:37.480 yourself getting hit to then finish on a visualization of yourself, you know, returning back to form and

00:22:43.560 like still being in the bout. Cause that's what it seemed like to me. I mean, I know we got the

00:22:47.080 victory on that one, but, um, I, I, I, I tapped out on strike and I'm not ashamed to say it. A lot of

00:22:53.320 guys that will say, because there's this thing in our sport that, Oh, he tapped out on strike.

00:22:58.200 You, you quit, but man, it's a sport. We're not in a war and I rather save myself for another day.

00:23:05.000 All right. Well, you always seem like that guy. You always seem like this. You always

00:23:08.520 a perfect strategist. I'm never going to give up until it's finished, but that fight was finished.

00:23:12.520 I was gone. I, it was a matter of time that I was probably going to fall unconscious.

00:23:18.200 So I decided to tap and to save some of my brain cells and come back another day.

00:23:25.000 And you did. And I, yeah. And, and I think there's no shame about it. That when, when that

00:23:29.320 happened at the time, I was ashamed a little bit and then I didn't want to talk about it,

00:23:33.000 but you know, I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I did it. Yeah.

00:23:35.560 Well, I think it's easier probably to look in back in the past and see the long,

00:23:39.960 you know, to see the whole, like all the work, you know, to see it as a whole,

00:23:45.080 as like a whole piece there. Um, yeah. What was it? What was kind of one of the toughest

00:23:49.720 times you felt like in your career? Was that probably it you think? Cause you had just gotten

00:23:53.560 the title. It's your first title defense. That was, that was bad mentally. Uh, the first loss

00:24:01.560 before that I lost to Matt Hughes. Yeah. It was more of a learn learning experience. This was different

00:24:07.400 because it really brought my confidence down. And I remember at the time I want to add a sports

00:24:16.840 psychologist. He's awesome. I shout out to a Brian Kane and Brian or Ryan, Brian, Brian Kane. He was

00:24:23.160 amazing. And he, he, and he's deceased. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's still, he's still around.

00:24:28.120 Good, good, good. He works, he works with pro athletes. And he says to me, he says to me,

00:24:34.680 because after the fight, I immediately, the only thing I was thinking about is to, to get back out

00:24:39.880 there and get my, get my, my, my revenge, you know, because I was not proud of my performance.

00:24:44.280 I was like, man, I'm better than this. I'm better than this guy. I want to, I want to go back out

00:24:47.640 there and show the world. And you know, my ego wanted to show the world that I am better in this,

00:24:52.360 but the, the fight that I had were, was not against Sarah. My, my other, I needed to build,

00:24:59.560 like to win, I have a few more wins before I, to, to return for a title shot. So I was not focusing

00:25:05.240 on the right thing. I was focusing on Matt Sarah instead of focusing on my next opponent. And that

00:25:10.840 could have been very bad. So what my sport psychologist did to me, he said, said, George,

00:25:17.320 you're carrying a lot of brick. And I didn't know what mean at the time. So he made me carry a

00:25:22.200 brick and he made me write the name of Sarah with clay on it. And he made me carry that brick in

00:25:28.920 my training bag. And every day I was going to train with that fricking brick. And in TriStar,

00:25:33.960 you have to go up the stairs and it's a, it's not a pleasant walk to go to the gym. It's,

00:25:39.080 it's kind of a training of itself. And at one point, like after a week, I call him, I'm like,

00:25:44.760 hey, can I get rid of that brick? He's like, no, you keep it. You keep it. I'm like, man,

00:25:48.520 this guy is completely insane. You know, like he's, he was, you know, I thought that he was

00:25:52.440 crazy. He probably needed a psychologist himself. So I kept carrying, carrying the brick, carrying

00:25:57.800 and right the, like the week before my, my fight with, with, I think it was Josh Koscheck

00:26:04.200 that I was trying to get back to a title shot. I was like, man, I can't deal with this

00:26:09.080 anymore. Can I throw, throw that brick out? He's like, okay, I'm coming. Wait.

00:26:13.320 So I went to where the St. Laurent river is. I throw it, I grab it and I throw it in the water.

00:26:20.440 And I know it sounds cuckoo to say, but it was something physical that I did that had a profound

00:26:28.920 uh, change on my mental. It kind of free me from that, uh, that, that needs to prove to the world

00:26:38.360 that I want to beat him again. You know? So I was able to focus on the immediate task ahead.

00:26:44.680 Right. Yeah. Because sometimes that desire, I just, it's a blind desire, almost like I need to prove

00:26:49.960 and it's not, uh, it's powerful, but it's not effective because it's not calculated.

00:26:55.800 Yeah. You know, and it can be even more dangerous sometimes than anything.

00:26:58.840 Yeah. So, so, so I was not, I was going in a dangerous path because I was not focusing on the,

00:27:03.640 uh, on the, on the most important thing that was my, that, that, the fight, like I was focusing

00:27:09.640 on the other fight be after, but yeah, I was about to, to, to screw it up bad.

00:27:15.240 I know whenever you retired Hendrick, what was your, oh no, the last fight was Bisping.

00:27:19.560 Bisping was my last fight.

00:27:20.680 That was awesome.

00:27:21.480 Hendricks is after I took a, I took a break after Hendricks. Yeah.

00:27:25.240 First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Dan Morgan and everyone over at Morgan and Morgan.

00:27:30.840 Um, we had an issue with Kai, the hitchhiker, and he filed a lawsuit against us and he made

00:27:37.880 quite a hullabaloo, but Morgan and Morgan stuck with it until finally our case was dismissed.

00:27:45.480 Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide and

00:27:51.880 more than 800 lawyers with over $15 billion covering over 300,000 clients. Morgan and Morgan has a proven

00:28:00.360 track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. Submitting an injury claim with

00:28:06.280 Morgan and Morgan is so easy. If you've ever been injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan.

00:28:13.400 Their fee is free unless they win. For more information, go to for the people.com

00:28:19.640 slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound five, two, nine from your cell phone.

00:28:27.640 That's F O R the people.com slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound five, two, nine from your

00:28:37.160 cell. This is a paid advertisement. Um, yeah, whenever you took a break after Hendricks, you talked about

00:28:44.120 like you were going through a tough time or something. What was that about? It was, was it

00:28:48.040 stuff you couldn't talk about before? Yeah, it was, I had a lot of issues. I had a lot of family

00:28:52.840 issue and problem. And, and, and the thing is, when you're, uh, I was a very active fighter and, and

00:28:59.880 when you say active, what do you mean fighting often? Yeah. Fighting often. And, and also

00:29:04.040 you have to consider that you do a lot of promotion tours and stuff. It takes, it takes a lot out of you.

00:29:11.000 And also the stress on, on always, you always have someone that, that is threatening you.

00:29:17.240 Because when you're the contender, you don't have as much stress because you have one target.

00:29:21.480 You want to be champion. You want to go there. That's the benchmark, you know?

00:29:24.760 That's the best, isn't it? Yes. It's hard to be, to become champion, but it's even harder to stay

00:29:30.120 champion. It is not a lot of guys that stay champion for a long time. It's very hard because when you're

00:29:35.720 champion, you're the target. When you're the contender, you have, you have, you know, one,

00:29:42.760 one guy is starting. It's nobody really targets you. But if you get to the title shot is you have

00:29:47.400 only one guy that targets you. When you're the champion, everyone targets you. So you're the

00:29:52.120 target and you don't have much time to prepare for your, your opponent. And your opponent has been

00:30:00.520 looking at you for years because he's climbing the rank and he's studying you. He's trying to find

00:30:05.560 a chic in your armor. And every time they interview any of those guys, they all call your name because

00:30:10.360 you're the guy. Of course. So that's why it is much different. It's much more difficult to stay

00:30:17.160 champion than, than becoming champion. And, and when you're a champion, it's hard because your life

00:30:23.160 changed. You have more responsibility and more, uh, there's a lot of more requests and stuff.

00:30:31.240 And, and man, it's, and that's what happened to me at the time. I was, you know, I was doing it for

00:30:37.400 so long and I had so much pressure for so long. And I remember at the time I was, I didn't want,

00:30:42.200 I was shy to talk about it because I was like, if I talk about it before the fight and I was fighting

00:30:48.360 against, they had, they used to have big problem with performance enhancing drug in, in mixed martial

00:30:53.560 art. It was, it was a big, big problem. Oh, they got big problems with those at a damn

00:30:58.840 7-Eleven dude. Those people are shooting up everywhere now. I, I, I, I never wanted to like,

00:31:05.720 to accuse one individual, but I wanted to change the system. And the UFC at the time didn't really

00:31:12.040 add my back. They didn't really help me on that. And I was, I was fighting against that, uh,

00:31:18.040 behind closed door. And it was, you were saying some of these guys could be using,

00:31:21.480 we have to test strong. Oh, a hundred percent. That's why I did the test when I, when I fought

00:31:24.920 Hendrix, when I fought also BJ Penn, we did the test, uh, because I was, I wanted to implement

00:31:31.160 this. It's crazy because you play basketball, you play soccer, play football, but you don't play

00:31:35.800 fighting can lose your, your brain cells out there. It's different. And it makes some people like,

00:31:41.480 yeah, but it doesn't make that's my bullshit. It makes you such a, it's a tons of difference,

00:31:46.760 man. I I've trained with guys that are openly like, they're saying to me, like when they are on,

00:31:50.920 on, on cycle, it's not even the same person. No. Yeah. Guys, like it, it, it changes you,

00:31:55.960 not only stamina, strength, recovery, but also your, your, your brain, your, your reaction time,

00:32:01.640 you're more creative. There, there's things that you would do when you're on it that,

00:32:04.840 that you would not maybe do when you're not, you know? So, so. Oh, you'll start fucking the air when

00:32:09.880 you're on, you're on test 700 or whatever, dude. I saw a guy one time just,

00:32:13.720 just, yeah, he just, he had so, you know, he just, he turned into an animal.

00:32:17.880 Yeah. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. So, so in fighting. So that's a risk then,

00:32:22.440 because you're at the top, obviously everybody's focused on you. And if you don't know if some of

00:32:27.160 the, if you're staying clean and you don't know if some of the, some of the, um, testing is up to

00:32:33.640 your, what you believe is a fair code, then fuck, that would be really scary. Well, the, the,

00:32:38.360 martial art, I think that one of the thing in martial arts is the respect and, and being

00:32:42.840 just being fair. And, and I mean, the, the, these are the tragic, traditional value of,

00:32:47.960 of martial art. And I, I always try to carry that with me. And, um, I felt like I was

00:32:56.120 in some way, you know, not betrayed, but I, I felt a little bit let go and I was just fed up. I was just,

00:33:03.800 I just needed to take a time off. You know, I was, that's why I left for more than four years,

00:33:08.920 you know? And I'm, I'm glad I did it because, uh, maybe I should have done it. Maybe a fight,

00:33:14.360 be one, one fight before, you know, it would, uh, you can burn out, man. Yeah. It's so much,

00:33:18.840 people don't, I don't think realize that I can't even imagine the responsibilities. And then,

00:33:22.680 yeah, especially while the sport is still building so much at that time, like that was a huge building

00:33:27.400 period for UFC. And so like, um, to have some, just to have like interview requests, I want you

00:33:33.880 to be here and you want to do all the things you can do, you know, cause you feel like you're

00:33:37.720 physically capable, but yeah, part of you starts to get burned down. It's like a, I don't know.

00:33:42.760 It's almost like when you light a candle and there's nothing left in it. Yeah. That's how I

00:33:45.880 feel sometimes. I, I remember you, you just finish a fight and immediately after there's another guy

00:33:51.160 calling you out and being myself, I'm, I'm sort of a obsessive compulsive guy. So as soon as another

00:33:58.520 guy calling me out, I'm starting to make scenario in my mind. I'm like, okay, I'm like, it drive you

00:34:04.520 nuts. It drive you. And when you're the contender, you come in, you're on your way up. You don't have

00:34:08.920 that problem. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Of course. When maybe you get to the top five, you know, but, but

00:34:14.680 before that, nobody noticed you, nobody care about you. You care about them, but they don't care about you.

00:34:19.560 It's so funny. So when you're on top, now you're the target. Everybody talks about you. They, they,

00:34:24.440 they disrespect you. And if you want, you want it or not, it touches you. Yeah. You know, because you

00:34:29.080 say, oh, you don't bother watching this thing, but you know, it, it touches you and, and you see

00:34:34.600 sometimes things get bad. You see that people, they, they insult each other and, and people always ask me

00:34:40.440 sometimes, oh, do you think they went too far? I mean, this is the fight game, man. They, you can die

00:34:46.600 out there or you can have certain damage that will make you die in the near future.

00:34:51.480 Oh yeah. So they will chair or whatever, anything, the art of war, man. They're going to try

00:34:55.320 everything to try to make you lose your mind. And we saw many, many fights that guys lose their

00:35:00.600 mind. And that's one of the reason why, like everybody knows Conor McGregor. Yeah.

00:35:05.880 He, his first title fight against Jose Aldo, he knocked, knock him out in like something like seven

00:35:12.200 seconds. He pissed off Jose Aldo so much. Jose Aldo lost his mind. He went out of his game plan and

00:35:19.960 tried to rush to him, to give it to him. Conor McGregor is an incredible counter puncher. He just

00:35:25.880 slipped. Boom. That was it. That was a, I mean, it was very smart from his part to, he taunt Jose

00:35:33.320 Aldo. It was, it was emotional. It was, I believe it was prepared. I believe he, he put Jose Aldo

00:35:43.160 exactly where he wanted to be. He set it up by all the interview, all the things he said, all the

00:35:48.600 things he'd done. Right. He started the fight months before in a way. Yeah. So when you're in

00:35:53.160 that fight game, fight game, another thing that people don't talk about, you'd never want to show

00:35:59.560 your, your private life. Right. Because people will talk, will use that against you. Talk about

00:36:05.320 people. Me, I can put a shield. If you can insult me, you can say whatever you want. I'm very good at

00:36:10.520 putting a shield and it's not going to bother me, but talk about someone I love, someone I care about.

00:36:16.440 Now it's going to get me, you know? Yeah. So, and we saw that another time with, with Conor and,

00:36:22.680 and Khabib Nurmagomedov, the, the, the, the famous fight. Oh yeah, that was crazy.

00:36:27.400 Yes. So that's the reason why it, it went crazy after because they were, they, they crossed the line,

00:36:33.320 but it's the fight game. That's a fight game. I don't think it's right, but a lot of guys will do

00:36:37.800 that to make you the real. Do you respect guys just as much to do that? I mean, it's just,

00:36:41.400 it's another facet to war in a way, right? It's the art of war, man. They, they, it's combat sport,

00:36:48.440 man. It's, it's kill or be killed, man. They, they're going to do it. You think it's evolved

00:36:52.280 more as since like in the past, like 15 years, have you noticed it evolved more over time? Like

00:36:56.920 that it's more of a strategy now, or do you think more people see it coming now? Like,

00:37:01.000 what do you think the evolution of that's been of trash talking? It's a good question. I think

00:37:05.000 what changes is the fact that now we have social media and we're in touch with the world. I can be

00:37:12.120 at home in Montreal and insulting you when you're in Tennessee in two seconds, and you will notice

00:37:18.920 it in real time. Boom. Before that, that was not really the case. We didn't have that, that, that

00:37:24.520 power, you know? Yeah. Now you can say something, the whole world sees it and oh, did you heard what

00:37:29.400 he said? Oh, blah, blah, blah. So that's, I think what made, makes the difference, you know?

00:37:34.280 It's different now. Yes. Um, do you feel like the testing has gotten better over time in the sport?

00:37:39.640 Well, now I think it got a little bit worse because they, one company quit, right? Are they,

00:37:44.360 one company got laid off? USADA. Right.

00:37:49.960 And I interrupted you. I interrupted you. Sorry, George. No, no, no, no, please, please. It's true. Uh,

00:37:54.040 what happened is they didn't have any testing first. Then they hire, I think you, uh,

00:37:58.760 USADA. So it got much better. But they test beef and stuff, don't they? Is it the same group?

00:38:04.440 They, they, actually, yeah, USADA, I don't think. Oh my God. Bro, if the same person

00:38:13.400 testing my pork chops is testing Mike Perry, then I think we got, we got to fucking figure something

00:38:19.320 out. I mean, I think both of them are clean, but I'm just saying. But, well, you saw when I, when,

00:38:24.120 when USADA just, just arrived on the scene, a lot of the champion I fall, I felt, you know,

00:38:29.240 and, and, and they made a, they lost a lot of money, but I give them props because they,

00:38:33.640 they took the lead. They had to do it. They had to clear, they had to make sure the sport was clean.

00:38:37.160 And I'm happy to do it. And that's one of the reasons I came back and I, and I fought Bisping

00:38:40.120 because they, if they would not have made drug test, I would never have come back.

00:38:43.720 Wow.

00:38:44.200 I was like, no way. I'm like this. I don't, I don't like that. But now I think it was too,

00:38:48.440 it just wasn't fair. It just wasn't, it's not fair.

00:38:50.840 It was insane. It was like too much. I'm never going to say, Hey, this guy, this guy, but when

00:38:56.840 you're in, you're in the, the industry, you know, who's who, you know, who do what it's a small world.

00:39:02.200 We all know. And, uh,

00:39:04.600 Oh, it's like when you're in ninth grade and some kid shows up like that with pimples everywhere,

00:39:08.280 you know, what's going on, but you know what Ricky's been doing. You know what I'm saying?

00:39:12.040 You just know.

00:39:12.600 Yeah. But sometimes it's not even, you cannot even notice it physically because certain drugs,

00:39:18.200 like, like for example, like EPO will give you a crazy stamina, but might not really changes you.

00:39:24.280 Uh, physically there is stuff that, that people talks, you know, who's who.

00:39:29.240 And I mean, it was just at the time it was in, it was insane. And I'm glad that UFC did this.

00:39:34.680 I didn't want to bring UFC down. That was not my intent when I did this.

00:39:38.680 I wanted to elevate the sport and I'm glad they did it. I think it elevate the sport.

00:39:42.760 And now, yeah, they're not with USADA anymore, but I think they hire another organization to,

00:39:48.040 to do the tests. Uh, but I do believe that if you want to avoid corruption,

00:39:54.840 it needs to be a separated entity that do the test than the, the organization itself.

00:40:00.920 And is that what they have now, right now?

00:40:02.360 I am not sure, but if the organization has power in order, like in, in, in the testing,

00:40:08.360 it's corrupted. It cannot be corrupted. It needs to be at a different entity

00:40:15.000 where the, the organization does not have any power.

00:40:18.120 Right. Right. Because they can't be able to control and say,

00:40:20.680 Hey, let's make this okay.

00:40:21.720 And this is not okay.

00:40:22.280 Of course, imagine you have a big fight coming up and the two,

00:40:24.680 the two guys that outlined the cards, like one of them test positive,

00:40:27.880 you just screwed up the card, you know, and they lose a lot of money.

00:40:30.600 So they have a, uh, they have an interest in this.

00:40:34.520 Yeah. This says drug-free sport international will be in charge of the collection process

00:40:37.960 under the new program that begins in January when UFC's deal with USADA ends.

00:40:41.240 This was last year, former FBI special agent, George Pirro, best known for interrogating

00:40:46.360 former Iraqi dictator, some Saddam Hussein will be in charge of the new program. Huh?

00:40:52.120 That's interesting. You identify people and entities in the space that can make something

00:40:55.640 that is already working well and you make them better. UFC vice president, Jeff Nowitzki said,

00:41:01.240 um, you learn that USADA is not the only player in the space. And then a combination of

00:41:05.080 of other entities and individuals can actually make your program stronger and better. And that's

00:41:09.880 exactly what's happening right now with our program. It's unfortunate. I believe they want

00:41:14.600 clean guys fighting in there. No doubt. I believe they want money. I think that's what they believe.

00:41:20.840 I think that their number one interest is the money, which is normal. They, they, they run a business.

00:41:25.000 They're a business. And after, after, yeah, the security of the factor, but I, I, I, it's,

00:41:29.800 it's not to, to bash them. And I, and I think it's every company want to make money. That's the goal.

00:41:35.400 Right. Like that's the number one priority. And after, if we can make it fair and clean. Okay.

00:41:40.520 But money, I think is always a number one, I think. And I, well, that's business. And you know,

00:41:45.000 business and business, sometimes business is inherently has some evil edges to it or not evil,

00:41:49.800 but it's like business gets kind of dirty sometimes. I'm not saying this, but I remember like,

00:41:54.920 I went and saw Poirier's last fight and I remember waiting outside the people came and took him in

00:42:00.840 there to test him. But are, are those tests, are they able to keep those tests like legitimate? Are

00:42:07.160 they like, well, the, the, the problem I believe is, well, just to give you an example, when I was

00:42:15.000 training to fight Michael Bisping, you had to fill the, a whereabout to tell, to, to let them know,

00:42:22.920 okay, I have training at this time, uh, this time to this time at this place. Okay. Oh, uh,

00:42:27.960 next week I'm in, uh, I'm in Florida, but let's say you really want to cheat, for example. Okay.

00:42:34.520 You just tell them you're going to, I don't know, freaking Antarctica or somewhere where they're not

00:42:39.560 going to spend money to send an investigator to test you. Oh yeah. But you go there, you, you,

00:42:44.360 you get your stuff and then you know how long it stays in your system. And then after you got the,

00:42:49.080 you surf on, on, on the, uh, on, on it for, for weeks, you know what I mean? So, so, so. Oh,

00:42:55.000 I see. So you could use it to enhance you and then be clean when it's time for showtime.

00:42:58.680 Or another thing that guys do, they have a, a sponsors. Okay. So they prepare their,

00:43:04.360 their, their excuse. So let's say I'm sponsored by a certain, uh, food supplement company. Okay.

00:43:10.040 And, um, I'm, I'm taking, for example, a certain substance that is illegal. I know that my,

00:43:18.120 the, the food supplement that the protein company that sponsored me is tainted by that certain

00:43:23.400 substance. So I'm, I'm sponsored by them. So when I get cutters, oh, it's not my fault. It's the

00:43:29.000 company that sponsors me. So that's another way. So you prepare your, your, your, your, you know,

00:43:35.480 that, that's, that's one of the way I would think they would do. Yeah. No, I, I think that makes

00:43:40.760 sense. Did you feel like most of the fights you fought people, your opponent was clean?

00:43:45.640 I, I don't have the evidence. And, and it's, um, it's, uh, it's wrong to accuse someone if you

00:43:50.840 don't have the evidence, but, uh, I know for a fact that there was a lot of guys, a lot,

00:43:56.920 a lot of guys that were, uh, using performance enhancing drug and it was, it was a big problem.

00:44:01.320 Yeah. And the same thing in the Olympic where you have money, you will always have corruption.

00:44:07.480 It's impossible to, to, to catch everyone because the, the technology to cheat will always be one

00:44:14.120 step ahead of the technology to catch the game. I know it's crazy. That's like a cat and a mouse.

00:44:19.000 Yeah. Well, you were fortunate, man. You got in and you kind of got out at the time where you

00:44:23.240 wanted, I mean, you, you'd achieved everything you want. I mean, you're one of the rare people that

00:44:27.320 it's like, it's almost like if you look at your career and stuff, you're like, dang, man,

00:44:30.920 he made all the right moves, you know, um, you were strategic about it.

00:44:36.600 I was strategic, but I have the chance to have real friends. A lot of the people I, I, I hang out

00:44:43.160 with that I'm, that I'm from with, they were friends with me in the beginning. And for me,

00:44:47.800 it's very important because they don't tell me what I want to hear. They tell me the truth.

00:44:52.040 What you need. And even when I wanted to come back and fight Michael Bisping, they,

00:44:56.600 a lot of my good friends that were like, George, you're 36 years old, man,

00:44:59.800 your best years are maybe behind you. What, what are you trying to prove? And my, uh, my,

00:45:05.400 my, my, my argument was like, man, I, I don't want to live with regret. I just want to do one more

00:45:11.400 or, you know, depend on how it's going to go, you know, and if I fail, I fail and I, and I leave.

00:45:16.760 And if I keep going, I keep going, but at least give me one, one shot. And if I succeed, we'll,

00:45:22.840 we'll see after, you know what I mean? And, um, I didn't want to leave with regret, you know,

00:45:27.800 because let's say, let's say I would not have done it. I always, I will have grew up. Now I'm,

00:45:32.040 I'm 43. It's too late. You know, I passed my prime. I would, I would live with regrets. Oh,

00:45:36.520 I should have done it. And now I would regret it. So I, I always believe that you never want

00:45:41.640 to live with regrets. That's the worst thing. Is there, has there been moments since then where

00:45:46.360 like, you're just on the couch or something, you've had a couple of beers and you're like,

00:45:49.080 I'm fucking getting back in there tomorrow. And it's just like, you're just kind of fired up.

00:45:53.320 So after, after, when I retired, I, I retired because I had, um, when I, I won the title,

00:46:01.080 but people don't know this, but I, I was very ill. Like I, I had, uh, ulcer colitis

00:46:06.120 because I, I was trying to, to gain weight. Colitis. Yes. I was trying to gain weight because

00:46:11.800 I was fighting in a, swelling of the large intestine. Yes. Okay. I was trying to put on weight.

00:46:17.080 It's Crohn disease. You have Crohn disease. No, no, it's, uh, it's ulcer colitis. It's not Crohn.

00:46:21.240 Crohn is different, but very often ulcer colitis transform into Crohn and Crohn transform into

00:46:27.960 cancer. Oh, a lot of time, you know, you see that progression. So when that, like when I,

00:46:34.200 when I had those crazy cramp, it was during my training camp with Bisping. And I didn't know

00:46:38.280 what it was because it was blood when I was going to bathroom. And I told myself, I said,

00:46:43.320 whatever it is, I'm going to do the fight and I'm going to have, because no, no, but to,

00:46:48.040 to, to know what it is, you need to do what they call a colonoscopy. So they go with a camera.

00:46:52.040 Right. They got to go in there. Yeah.

00:46:53.000 But you need to take, yeah, you need to take laxative and all that. Like it, it empty you.

00:46:57.080 And I was trying to put on the weight. So you know what I mean? I couldn't do it. It was,

00:47:01.480 it was a few weeks before. And I said, you know what, whatever it is, I'll do the fight and

00:47:05.480 I'll deal with it after. And after the fight, I went to do the test and I got diagnosed with, uh,

00:47:11.640 uh, ulcer colitis and I was on heavy, heavy medication like to, for, for anti-inflammatory.

00:47:18.280 And I relinquished the title. I could have kept the title for one year and like parade

00:47:25.000 with the sponsorship. And, but I didn't want to do that because of the, for the respect,

00:47:28.680 you know? So I relinquished it because I didn't know what was going to happen. I, I said, man,

00:47:33.400 I don't know what's going to happen, you know? So I tried to get better. And after a few,

00:47:37.320 a few weeks, it didn't really work. And I discovered fasting and what happened is pretty

00:47:45.480 incredible. I met a doctor, Dr. Jason Fung in, in, uh, Toronto. Jason Fung, F-U-N-G. Yes. He's, uh,

00:47:52.840 he's a Japanese, huh? Yeah. Uh, nephrologist is, uh, I think it's Chinese or the Canadian Chinese.

00:47:58.680 Yeah. Okay. That's him. Exactly. He gave me a fasting program. He treat a patient that has

00:48:05.160 certain type of diabetes and he gave me certain program of fasting. And what happened after the

00:48:11.640 next few weeks, I, all my symptoms disappeared and I, I diminished the dose of my medication

00:48:19.320 until I no longer need it. And what type of fasting, what exactly were you doing?

00:48:23.560 I did two types. I did a, what we call a time-restricted eating where you eat in a certain,

00:48:30.200 you eat all your calorie in a certain window. Okay. Like intermittent fasting.

00:48:33.400 Yeah. Like you eat your calorie in, in eight hours and you, you fast on like you only drink

00:48:39.080 water in the 16 hour. And I do also prolonged fasting. So what I do when I do prolonged fasting,

00:48:44.520 I do four days only water. And when I train, I take salt in my, in my hand, I put a little bit

00:48:50.120 and I lick. Like a pervert. It's okay. Or pervert.

00:48:54.920 But, but you take salt because you don't want to deplete your mineral when you, and this over

00:49:00.760 time, because ulcer colitis, you're supposed to be stuck with that for life. It's a condition you

00:49:05.240 have for life. When you got it, you finish, you know, you got it. And all my symptoms are gone.

00:49:09.800 Now I can drink, I can eat whatever I want. And I'm, I mean, I, I realized that, you know,

00:49:16.200 we talk about conspiracy and stuff. The reason why you don't hear about fasting is because nobody

00:49:20.840 makes money with it. It's not no pills. Yeah. But it's really worth investigating. Of course,

00:49:27.000 ask your doctor, but man, it changes my life. And I just wish I would have known this before.

00:49:32.120 Really? It really did.

00:49:33.080 So you've used it in other facets too to, you know, when you need it.

00:49:35.720 It works for everything. Like sometime you have an injury, like say tendonitis and tendonitis,

00:49:41.960 often it's related to inflammation. You know, all inflammation disease, when you fast, it take

00:49:47.960 away the inflammation. And, and, and if all the stuff that I, that I had regarding inflammation,

00:49:53.800 like a toe, one of my toes, I had a problem with one of my toes. It was hurting me for years.

00:49:58.680 When I started doing my fasting, it kind of disappeared. Yeah. Yeah.

00:50:02.280 Yeah. We don't think about that. We always think more, more, more like a more medicine,

00:50:06.440 more anything, more, more of this diet.

00:50:09.160 I thought the same thing before I was like, Oh, protein shake this, because I was trying to gain

00:50:13.320 weight when I fought this thing. And, and I realized, man, I was doing everything wrong.

00:50:17.560 And, and we always think about the punch in. We don't think about the punch out. Like you were

00:50:20.600 saying, we don't think about the inverse of it. It's insane. And, and I remember I, I had a chance

00:50:26.120 to go to, uh, Kenya, uh, Tanzania, Kenya, Maasai Mara. I met the tribe of, uh, of, uh, hunter gather.

00:50:36.760 Oh yeah. Those brothers can jump, huh? Yeah. But these guys, man, sometimes they, they spend

00:50:42.520 three, four days without eating and it's normal. They're used to it. And if you see

00:50:47.960 their old people compared to our old people, they're much more healthier. They look much more,

00:50:54.760 much better. And the reason why people, people will tell me now, Oh yeah, but they have a shorter

00:50:58.840 life expects expectancy than us. Yes. It's because of the, um, a lot of the child, uh,

00:51:04.760 die before the age of adulthood. Oh, I see. So the numbers are young. Yeah. Child, child,

00:51:09.880 child, uh, how do you say in English, the, um, uh, starvation or neglect. No, no, no,

00:51:14.120 no. They get, they got like disease or then the hospital is too far away. You have to,

00:51:17.480 you have to drive like five hours, you know, that right there. But once they pass a certain

00:51:22.040 point, if you look at their, their old people and our old people, they, they much,

00:51:26.760 they look much better. Oh, our old people look like shit. A lot of them to be honest,

00:51:30.360 no offense, but a lot of them, you know, I've had a couple of grandparents and they were mid,

00:51:34.360 I thought, but, uh, but what makes us live that long? It's not because of our healthy

00:51:39.480 lifestyles because of our technology or most of us. Right. That's true. That's what's saving

00:51:44.520 us most of the time. It's not us doing anything. Yeah. When I was a kid, for example, I had like,

00:51:48.840 uh, uh, it's called in French convulsion febrile. It's a, when you're a baby, you're,

00:51:55.160 you have a rise of temperature. So what your body does, it shut, shut itself down and it go in,

00:52:00.360 into a coma like this. And it happened to me when I was young. My mom told me if I would not have

00:52:05.960 technology, I was brought back, brought to the hospital and they put me on a artificial coma

00:52:11.640 and everything on plugs. And, and if I would not have, have that technology, I would have not been

00:52:16.600 here with you today. So I'm, I'm, I'm alive today because of our technology.

00:52:20.760 Technology. But what do you hate? But how you treat the life you have is up to you as well.

00:52:24.600 And if we, if we don't have technology, maybe 50% of us would not be there.

00:52:28.200 Oh, we'd be fucking cooked, dude. I'd be out probably. A lot of my family would be gone.

00:52:32.120 Um, oh yeah. Like infant mortality rates that you're talking about.

00:52:35.800 Infant mortality, because they have, uh, hunter-gathered tribe in, in, uh, in Africa,

00:52:40.840 they have a much higher infant mortality rate than, than us. Yeah.

00:52:45.480 That's what lowered their, their life expectancy, you know? Um, when you look at some of the fights,

00:52:50.680 did you watch the Balal fight the other night? Do you watch the fights?

00:52:53.080 I did. Yeah. Man.

00:52:54.760 You think it was fair to make them fight at that hour in the morning over there?

00:52:57.720 Or is that just fighting?

00:52:58.680 Well, it's fair. It's, it's, it's, it's fair or unfair for both of them equally.

00:53:02.680 Good point.

00:53:03.240 If it's equal, it's equal, you know, like, like, I don't care, you know,

00:53:06.600 if you have to make them cross the desert before or swim, uh, or doing a triathlon.

00:53:11.720 If they both do it, they have to do it. It's fair.

00:53:13.560 Uh, it's not the best condition in terms of performance, but, uh,

00:53:19.000 if both guys do it, it's a fair.

00:53:20.920 It was 6 AM there when they, when they started that main event.

00:53:23.720 Yeah. But man, I was, I was surprised. He, he, he performed very well.

00:53:27.160 I'm friend with, uh, Leon Edwards and he's such a nice guy.

00:53:32.040 I, when I went to England, uh, a few, like a, like a year and a half ago,

00:53:37.880 I remember I went, I went out with him and, uh, Usain Bolt, we had a great time.

00:53:41.240 Yeah. He's such an, he's such a nice guy. I really like him. He's, he's, he's great athlete,

00:53:48.120 but he's got a great, great personality too. And man, I'm sure he's going to come back.

00:53:52.760 And it'd be interesting to see. I think it's, it really sets up for a nice surprise. Like

00:53:57.160 you didn't, I don't think a lot of people expected it. What were the odds on it, Nick?

00:54:01.960 Leon was minus 300.

00:54:03.320 Yeah. So I think a lot of people didn't expect it. So I think it adds just, yeah,

00:54:07.240 it adds to the sport, you know, it makes it exciting.

00:54:10.040 I was very surprised by Belal, like, like his transition the way, because he doesn't fight

00:54:15.320 like that all the time. Sometimes he just, he's mostly a striker or, you know what I mean?

00:54:19.960 It was a great mix.

00:54:21.240 Man, he was on point. Like for that fight, he was like really on point. It was like, wow.

00:54:27.000 It was. Yeah. I thought it was super impressive. It was really cool to watch.

00:54:30.200 Um, it made me just kind of realize even, yeah, I didn't expect that much diversity from him.

00:54:35.160 Um, is this what he said, Belal wants to be greater than GSP for his legacy?

00:54:41.160 I definitely, he definitely can. If he, you know, if you keep working hard and, uh, you know,

00:54:49.080 all records are made to be broken, you know? And, uh,

00:54:52.760 Do you look back at the times when you'd like the era or it's not really an era. I mean,

00:54:56.280 it wasn't long that long ago, but when you look at the time when you were fighting,

00:54:59.240 right, would you rather be fighting in this era? Do you like, love the area you were fighting in?

00:55:04.120 Do you ever think about it in spaces like that?

00:55:07.960 I think I was extremely lucky to fight in my era. It could have been better. If I would have fought

00:55:15.480 today, I would have made maybe more money because of the social media and all that, but it could have

00:55:20.600 been way worse. If I look at, uh, like in the time of, uh, Hoyce Gracie, Dan Severn, Mark Coleman,

00:55:27.480 Don Frye, these guys were the real guys, man. They were fighting two, three times a night,

00:55:34.840 no rules, no weight class, man. That was insane. Ken Shamrock. Um, for me, I, I, I, I respect these

00:55:43.640 guys a lot because they, they paved the way for all of us and they, they didn't make money, man.

00:55:48.520 It's sad. They didn't make money, man. Is there a, um, like a union or something that pays for stuff

00:55:57.800 for the pioneers of it? No, there's not. Wow. I think it's a question of time. I mean,

00:56:02.200 Yeah. Cause when you say that a question of time, some, some guys, they, they trying to,

00:56:07.560 to do it, it got close, but then they always fighting for power. They want to be in control.

00:56:12.520 Certain group want to be in control and others are wants to take more power than, I mean,

00:56:18.200 we all wants the same thing. We all want the same thing, you know, at the end of the day. And I think

00:56:22.120 it's like every sport and hockey, baseball, it's, it's a matter of time. Things were the same. If you

00:56:27.240 look at other sports, they were the same guys were underpaid. They, their condition were not good.

00:56:32.040 They didn't have any assurance, nothing like that. And you know, over time it got better.

00:56:36.120 I think it's only a matter of time. The only difference is in, um, in mixed martial art,

00:56:40.360 UFC has the monop, the monopoly. It's a, it's a monopoly there. It's right. There's one show,

00:56:45.320 really. Well, they have PBR. Well, yeah, but it's the most, the most, uh, PFL. Yeah. PFL is there.

00:56:52.280 It's growing. Which is very good. PFL is good because it's a competition to UFC, but

00:56:56.920 UFC is the most prestigious organization. And, and PFL start to gain a lot of momentum,

00:57:03.720 but which is good for fighters because it gives them the ability to negotiate. But when you have

00:57:09.480 only one organization that has the, all the monopoly, the, all the control, it's hard for

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01:00:43.240 so early on. Um, was there ever another fight? That's so great that you and Bisping got to fight.

01:00:48.520 I must admit, Bisping's a fun dude, huh?

01:00:50.280 Yeah, he's crazy.

01:00:51.160 He's crazy, dude. He's such a good villain. It's insane.

01:00:54.200 Yes, he is. Because he knows what he's doing. It's like, he's really kind of, uh, he seems to be

01:00:59.960 a guy that's enjoyed, enjoyed it along the way.

01:01:03.640 Yeah. He's got a, he's got a mouth that can decimate all, all his opponent.

01:01:09.720 Yeah. That's a lot of fun.

01:01:10.680 I was like, man, I'm not going to get into a trash talk battle with this guy.

01:01:14.280 He's an English man. We speak English perfectly. I'm like, my English suck. I'm like,

01:01:18.360 what am I going to do with this? I'm just not also not good at, at, you know, like insulting.

01:01:23.240 But also knowing that that's not your strength, I think was one of your strengths, you know,

01:01:27.320 knowing where to like, I don't know. You always really had kind of a precision. It seemed like

01:01:33.000 for the choices you made. Um, did you, you looked at it as a business. I've heard you talk about it

01:01:38.520 before. You know, you looked at it really as a business, especially if it wasn't something that

01:01:42.520 you even enjoyed on the fight nights. Um, were you able to pull any like

01:01:48.200 real joy out of it over time? Like, or was it all when, when you finally got done,

01:01:53.080 was it just like, Oh, thank God. Like it was a release when I got done, but, but, but I,

01:02:00.280 I had great moment, a great memory of it. Like I, I, it, it was a lot of fun when you win,

01:02:06.120 when you win a fight, man, you look back at it and you're thinking like, man, everything is worth it.

01:02:10.760 You know, it was all worth it. But when you lose, man, Oh God, it's, uh, it's a crazy downfall.

01:02:18.920 It's that's what makes it so early loss. So, so hard. It's the risk, bigger, the risk, bigger,

01:02:25.560 the reward. Right. Were you a perfectionist? Do you think then kind of, yeah, I, I, I was crazy. I,

01:02:32.120 I was obsessed. Everything I did was always oriented to try to make me the best fighter,

01:02:39.560 everything, everything I did. It was the best fighter or the best person or the best,

01:02:43.800 best fighter, best fighter person. I, I just, you know, like I was not trying to make, make a,

01:02:50.680 be being a character. I was like some guy, they tried to be sort of some sort of a character,

01:02:54.920 you know, like some, some good guy tried to be bad guy. You see that very often or some,

01:03:00.360 you know, some bad guy sort of tried to be nice in front of the camera, but when the camera doesn't

01:03:05.560 roll, they, they, they, they become some douchebag. You see that a lot. And when you meet celebrities,

01:03:11.000 but, but, uh, I always try to be true to, to myself and focus on, on performance, you know,

01:03:17.560 because at the end of the day, I never hate, I never had any personal beef with any of my opponent.

01:03:22.120 He's not a human being. And when I, when I look at across the octagon before I fight,

01:03:29.000 I sort of feel like I look to myself in a mirror because that guy maybe did the similar sacrifice that

01:03:35.720 I did. So if I disrespect him, it's sort of in the, in the same, in a way, it's like,

01:03:40.040 I'm disrespecting myself. So for me, it was just, I was just extremely lucky. Even the guy was talking

01:03:46.680 a lot of trash and stuff. I was lucky to have sort of that moment to shine and, you know, to, to,

01:03:54.840 to that people were aware and I make money with it. And, and, you know, for me after when it's finished,

01:03:59.000 it's finished, it's not personal. And there's none of the guy, the guy that I fought that if

01:04:04.280 they would be in trouble today, I would not hesitate one second to help them. Yeah. Like if,

01:04:09.320 if I, if they are at my reach, I would not hesitate one second to help any of them. And I,

01:04:15.000 this, I, I mean it. Yeah. That's fascinating to look at your opponent and think,

01:04:18.280 what if they made the same sacrifices as I did, then what, what else can I even do? That's a,

01:04:24.040 dude, that's such an intense way to look at, at the other side of the per at the other person

01:04:29.240 across from you. Well, but it's only like they make the same sacrifice, but maybe they didn't

01:04:34.760 have the same opportunities that opens to them. Maybe they were not as lucky as I was. Yeah.

01:04:40.360 I think the stars need to be aligned. I think some life sometimes opens certain opportunities to you

01:04:46.840 that if you wait too much, the door will close and it's gone forever. And, uh,

01:04:53.080 yeah, I think it's something that's true. I mean, you look at the Diaz brothers. I mean,

01:04:55.400 if you look, you know, Nick took a time off of fighting for years. Well, they made him

01:05:00.600 quit though. Didn't they make him? Yeah. He got suspended for and he refused to pay the fine

01:05:06.600 and couldn't fight for five years. Exactly. Yeah. That's one of the, that's what a waste.

01:05:11.400 He was in his prime. I think he could have maybe be champion. Like when I retire, I was telling

01:05:17.400 people, I was like, man, if he doesn't, he should push, push on the gas right now and go, man.

01:05:22.360 Man, that's his time. You should, you should do it. Was there a time where, is there been a,

01:05:26.760 like a fighter or something since then you look and you're like, man, it would have been fun to

01:05:29.960 fight them. Or do you have like moments like that? There's a lot of guys that I wish we would have

01:05:35.160 fight, you know, and, and, and that would be big fight. It would have made a story, but, but,

01:05:41.720 you know, like it takes three entities to make a fight. It takes one fighter, the other fighter,

01:05:46.440 it takes the, the promoter as well. And, um, uh, very often the, the, the promoter didn't reach

01:05:53.880 our demands, you know what I mean? And, uh, it, everything needs to be aligned for, for the,

01:05:59.880 the three, the three entities. Yeah. I know people always talk about you and Khabib fighting,

01:06:04.440 you know, did that interest you kind of? So it was the fight that I would have come back for,

01:06:10.200 uh, at the time, not now, now time has passed, but, but, uh, after I retired, there was one fight I

01:06:15.960 would have, you know, I would have had to go. I would have been Khabib. And what was the most,

01:06:20.840 what challenge, what excited you about that the most? I mean, obviously he was undefeated.

01:06:23.880 He's undefeated. He's got a perfect career. He's the, the competitor, the competitor inside of me

01:06:29.480 would have done, would have taken the, the fight, you know? Yeah. Uh,

01:06:34.440 you know, and that's one of the fight I would have, I would have done it, you know? Like, like,

01:06:38.440 but, but it needed to be at the right time. And, and when it was time to do it, UFC didn't want to

01:06:46.600 do it. Yeah. So they wait a few years after when we were both retired and the train was, was passed.

01:06:55.880 Yeah. The moment was gone. And when they asked, when Dana called me, I said, I thought it was weird.

01:07:03.320 I was like, are you like, is Khabib want to fight? Want to fight? He said, because he said no,

01:07:09.800 in all interviews, he said, no, no, he's, he's, he's down. He's down. I'm like, okay,

01:07:13.640 let me think about it. I'll get back to you. And I thought it was weird. So I called his manager,

01:07:17.960 Ali Abdelaziz and Ali said, Hey man, the timing is not good. It's bullshit. It's not true.

01:07:22.600 True. And after I, I, I've said, I've told the media what happened. And then I went,

01:07:29.000 I don't do three, three, three people calls when I, and I thought it was hilarious,

01:07:34.680 but because he's right, you know, he's not going to call a guy and say, Hey, no,

01:07:38.200 the other guy doesn't want. No, that's not business.

01:07:40.120 He's exactly. He's a promoter. He's going to say, this guy said this, this, this about you.

01:07:44.840 Do you want to fight him? And you want to take, you want to use the emotions to, to make you tune

01:07:50.520 in. It's like, it's like playing your mom against your dad. It's like, Hey dad, mom said I can do

01:07:55.160 this. And then you go to, Hey mom, dad said I can do this. Neither one of them said they could,

01:07:59.960 but now you're outside. Exactly. It's all a game. It's all a freaking game. And it's a lot of pressure,

01:08:04.840 I think on Dana, probably. I bet it's a lot of pressure because not only is he the promoter,

01:08:08.760 but he's also, you have to answer all the questions. And he's in, he's in a business. He's in control

01:08:14.280 of a business. Yeah. It's not up to him. If someone signed a contract that suck, he's not

01:08:19.400 going to say, Hey, uh, you worth more money. You should have, you know what I mean? I mean,

01:08:23.000 man, he's a businessman. He's going to take it and take advantage of you. So it's not, it's not

01:08:27.800 because what I'm saying is it's not easy. And then he's a good guy. I've met him. And when you,

01:08:34.520 you met him, of course, met him many times, but I met him while I was competing. So I, when I was

01:08:42.680 competing and Dana called me, I always, uh, before I hang up the phone, I was like,

01:08:46.760 shit, take a inhale, try to think of what is the possible thing that he's going to ask me because

01:08:53.880 you need to be quick when he called you. You don't want to say something or you just say,

01:08:58.120 you don't, you don't answer or you, you, you're like, you're always like, because this is a game.

01:09:01.960 It's a chess game, man. With a fight game, everything you say, everything you do is going to have a,

01:09:06.760 an outcome. So you're like, okay, what is he going to say? This is it. Then you prepare. If you're

01:09:11.800 ready, you take the call. If you're not ready, you let, okay, I'm going to prepare myself.

01:09:15.560 Let me take a breather. Let me call Mike Brown. Let me get somebody to massage me during the,

01:09:20.760 during the off rounds. But the thing, the thing with Dana is my relation has changed over the

01:09:26.040 year because now it's more friendly. He calls me. I'm not even going to hesitate to say,

01:09:29.560 Hey, Dana, what's up? Like, whatever. I'm ready for anything. But when I was fighting,

01:09:34.600 it's normal to have that reaction be like, because he's the boss and you know, whatever you,

01:09:39.080 he's going to ask you, whatever you say, right. It's going to be the whole world going to know.

01:09:43.400 So you cannot retract what you said. So when he calls you, when I was fighting, I was like,

01:09:49.560 get some, I saw a certain instance. I was like, man, I'm not taking the call right now,

01:09:54.200 or I'm going to call him back. Think about what it could have a little strategy. Yeah.

01:09:57.640 Yes. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. It's almost like when your boss says, what are you up to this weekend?

01:10:01.960 Right. You now, if your boss, but your boss, they want you to work at four 30 on Saturday,

01:10:08.680 right. And you do not want to, but if you tell them that you're, oh, nothing much,

01:10:13.400 then you're halfway to working. Right. Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting when you're the owner,

01:10:18.280 it's also hard to be, I bet at times it's probably, maybe it not, I'm not putting words in his mouth or

01:10:23.880 anything, but I bet it's tough for him to also be a person, you know, and maybe it's easier after the

01:10:28.360 fact, because running a business is totally different than, um, being a human being.

01:10:33.400 Sometimes he takes a lot of eat sometime and he does a lot of stuff that he needs to do for the

01:10:39.960 best of, of the business of best of the UFC interests. And it's normal that he's running a

01:10:45.640 business and it's worked out because look at the UFC is created opportunity opportunities for so many

01:10:50.840 guys. I had a lot of clash with Dana when I was, I didn't even know that. No, no, we, we did.

01:10:56.520 We did, we did add a lot of clash clashes when, when I was fighting, because I, I attained a

01:11:03.400 certain level of, of power that he couldn't control me as much. All the other, some of the guys,

01:11:10.520 you could say, you do this. Oh yeah, yes, sir. Like me, I was like, no, it's not going to work

01:11:14.200 because I was, I was making him a lot of profit, a lot of, uh, a lot of money. So when you, you know,

01:11:20.440 there's a lot of things that they asked me and I, and I said, hell no, I'm not doing because it's not

01:11:24.440 for the best of my interests. Right. So when the same thing, when you get negotiate for a fight,

01:11:29.800 my, my thing was like, if I'm negotiate for a big fight, why am I going to do all the interviews,

01:11:36.080 all the promotion, if I don't touch a piece of the pie? Right. Know what I mean? So give me a piece

01:11:41.280 of the pie. So it will encourage me to do more promotion because if you don't touch any piece,

01:11:48.160 a piece of the pie, if you don't have nothing, why am I going to do this? It's going to,

01:11:51.160 I'm just going to waste my time while I'm supposed to train and rest. I'm going to do

01:11:55.000 interview. Like, it's not worth it. And your time has become more valuable because, uh, you're the

01:11:59.040 champion, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There's, I think there's, it's interesting when you get to a certain

01:12:02.580 level, how, um, the negotiations kind of change. It has to. It's pretty fascinating. You have to be,

01:12:07.800 uh, to, to, to, to look at it in that way. And were you able to get like pay-per-view points

01:12:13.620 and stuff back then in your fights? Yeah. I'm, I'm very lucky. Oh, congratulations, man. Yeah. Thank you.

01:12:18.400 But the thing is, there's a lot of guys in the business that in this industry that are not

01:12:24.040 well, uh, managed, you know, they, they, they, they, they don't ask for what they're worth and,

01:12:29.020 and they, they're kind of afraid or, or, you know, they don't take right decision. And it's not

01:12:34.800 Dana's job to say, Hey, I think you should ask for a raise or it's normal. He's not going to do

01:12:41.860 that. He's the boss. He's, he's, he's on the other side of the, so that the fight game, you're

01:12:46.260 fighting for a contract. This should be your manager's fight. You have someone that look for

01:12:50.760 the best of your interests and that's one, one fight. And the fight, the other fight is in the

01:12:55.640 octagon. Yeah. Well, it's fascinating. You know, I think that a lot of that happens with art, when art

01:13:00.360 or talent turns into business, there's this other element that comes on, you know, and sometimes you

01:13:05.720 have to trust your instincts and sometimes they're right. And sometimes they're wrong, but that's how you

01:13:09.480 hone your instincts to be sharper too, is by using them, you know? And, and yeah, I bet it's tricky

01:13:14.780 probably for Dana because I bet there's a lot of guys that he super cares about and, and, but he

01:13:19.660 also has to run a business, you know? So I can't imagine that's gotta be, it's gotta be tricky, you

01:13:25.380 know? And I think also you hear the nicest stuff, like you'll hear like all the stuff he does from

01:13:30.440 his employees or places that he tries to help out. During COVID, he didn't, he didn't lay off from

01:13:35.360 nobody. It's amazing. Oh, he's hell. I called him the other day, asking him for some help with

01:13:38.840 something, you know, I know that, um, so, you know, he's a great guy. I think he's also

01:13:43.340 a great business. A hundred percent. It's a great guy. And, and fighters, like, I mean,

01:13:49.660 guys that are listening to us now, they get, when they're, they're in middle of a competition,

01:13:53.520 you know, like, like when they're, they're competing, they might be, they might not have

01:13:57.360 that relationship with Dana because they, Dana is on the other side. So it's always like a fight

01:14:02.660 relationship, but once they're going to retire, they're going to see a total different person,

01:14:07.380 you know, like, same thing with the first step brother, like, uh, these guys, they're all great

01:14:12.360 guys, you know, and, and, and, um, every time I meet them, you know, it's a, Hey, what's up?

01:14:17.140 Big hug. Dana, the first step brother. Oh yeah. Yeah. We're all friends here. Everything we did,

01:14:22.940 the clashes that we had, it was because we were fighting for the best of our interests and it's

01:14:27.560 normal. It's just business. And I think if you want to be successful in, in, especially as an

01:14:32.000 athlete in mixed martial art, you need to build a team. Yeah. You can't do all that by yourself

01:14:36.140 because you don't, you don't have all the, the, the, the, the, the, the credential to do all the

01:14:42.700 jobs. You need to, to have lawyers, you need to find a team of people that you can trust and people

01:14:49.020 that have competence because sometimes people, they hire people who trust, but they turned out to be

01:14:55.980 incompetent. It's bad because it's going to make you buy, it's going to make you do like, uh, uh,

01:15:02.140 how do you say like air, air bike, you know, they're not going to, you're going to be, you're

01:15:06.180 not going to go forward. You're going to extra work, spin, spin. Yeah. And if you have someone

01:15:11.300 who's competent, but someone that you cannot trust, maybe he's gonna, he's gonna, he's

01:15:16.380 gonna screw you down the road, you know? It's tough, man. Running, starting to run a business

01:15:20.740 or work with people. It's, it's hard. But then you also like, I mean, I, one thing is like

01:15:25.460 people criticize Dana and the UFC, but no other promotion has been able to sustain itself

01:15:30.700 and establish itself and make it go that, you know, and flourish. Um, so I think it's,

01:15:37.580 um, it's fascinating. And I think it is probably, I think he'll be studied one day in the sense

01:15:42.240 by business people. I mean, I can't even imagine because you have so many guys that are really

01:15:47.160 putting their lives on the line and then you have, you know, I just can't imagine it.

01:15:51.580 It's gotta be a lot, you know? Um, what, what keeps you busy these days, dude? Do you still

01:15:56.140 get those dinosaur updates? Remember you were always, uh. Yeah. I love, uh, paleontology.

01:16:00.580 Yeah. What is it about it? You think that you love? I was thinking about this the other

01:16:03.520 day. I, um, when I was young, I was always fascinated by, uh, by dinosaurs. And actually

01:16:11.620 when I took my, my time off after my fight with my, uh, Johnny Hendricks, I spent four

01:16:17.800 years, like, uh, I was always training, but I spent time, I went on different, uh, sites.

01:16:24.080 No way. Yeah. I, I, I, you know, I, I, I'm very lucky because a lot of the, it turns out

01:16:28.900 that a lot of the big paleontologists that I've met, they're a fan of mixed martial art.

01:16:33.280 Really? Yeah. So I was able to have special access on different, different.

01:16:37.320 Mostly of John Bones Jones though, you would think, you know, I'm just guessing.

01:16:41.680 No, it was incredible. I, I traveled across the world. I went on different sites, but I

01:16:48.120 realized also something as much as I love paleontology, I realized that I would never

01:16:54.140 be in a, I would never be able to do this because I thought that if I would not be a

01:16:57.860 fighter, I would have maybe be a paleontologist. And no, that's not true. I would not never be

01:17:01.720 able to be on a big site for hours. Like, like meticulous. It ain't me. No, I can't.

01:17:07.900 I love to acquire the knowledge, but I would not have the patience to, to go out there.

01:17:12.780 I saw some incredible sites. I went in, man, I went in a, in a, in a place, in an area in,

01:17:18.500 in Argentina, in Patagonia. It was in the morning, the sun rises and I could see, I'm not kidding

01:17:26.060 you, like thousands of dinosaurs, eggshelled. There were eggshelled of titanosaurs, the long

01:17:33.440 neck dinosaurs. Oh yeah. Man, it was insane. And you had to watch to not step on it.

01:17:37.880 Like fossilized eggshells. Some of them were broken. So that means the, the animal was

01:17:43.200 about to, to, to get out. It was insane. Like I saw some of the craziest sites.

01:17:49.280 And that was a dig that they were doing?

01:17:51.160 Yeah. Yeah. They were digging, they were excavating like eggshells. I saw, like I, I went on a

01:17:57.460 place and I think it was in, in Dakota. It was, it was with a professor. I think it was

01:18:02.900 professor Pearson. It was a, they, they don't know what it was, but they found a, a sort

01:18:08.740 of a graveyard of triceratops.

01:18:10.680 In South Dakota?

01:18:12.080 I think it was South Dakota or Wyoming. Yeah. Triceratops. It was from the late Cretaceous.

01:18:18.200 And you could see that the, some of the leg bone of triceratops, they were sliced because

01:18:24.280 of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yeah. So they found Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth there. It was just

01:18:30.360 insane.

01:18:30.740 So you're a promoter really. When he goes back to the, to the paleontological ages, dude,

01:18:35.680 you were a damn promoter, bro. You to put some of those things in the ring, bro. I think.

01:18:40.100 Oh man. Maybe one day we'll be able to, I think they want to resurrect the mammoth now,

01:18:45.160 I think, to put it back in Siberia.

01:18:46.720 Bring that bitch back, dude. Yeah. Didn't they say they can recreate a willy mammoth? Did

01:18:50.160 I read that somewhere? I think they're going to use Asian elephant. And just do a wig

01:18:55.120 or whatever? Put a mammoth inside and yeah, try to recreate it. Yeah. Put it in Siberia.

01:19:01.220 What weight class is that going to be?

01:19:03.140 Well, there's different species of mammoth. There's willy mammoth, colombian mammoth. So

01:19:08.820 it depends which, which species they want to, I think it's the willy mammoth they want

01:19:12.480 to bring back. Let me see. A biotech company that hopes to resurrect extinct species said

01:19:16.560 Wednesday that it has reached an important milestone. The creations of a long sought kind

01:19:20.740 of stem cell for the closest living relative of the woolly mammoth. Um, and now the company

01:19:26.560 says scientists have for the first time created induced pluripotent stem cells for the mammoth's

01:19:33.200 closest living relative Asian elephants. Oh damn. Um, it says scientists can now use,

01:19:40.940 try to use cloning techniques and gene editing to manipulate, manipulate the cells in hopes of

01:19:44.880 someday creating elephants with key traits of mammoths. Wow. So kind of like a, uh, a bit

01:19:50.060 of a remix kind of, such as their heavy coats and their layers of fat that enabled them to

01:19:54.540 survive in cold climates. Dude, that's what the zoo needs. Cause honestly, dude, the zoo,

01:19:59.500 some of the animals are fucking not even in America, some of the animals that are smoking,

01:20:03.780 they don't even care. You know, they're not even, it's sad when you, you don't see them

01:20:08.160 in their natural environment. Yeah. In a way they do it, of course, because it's not accessible to

01:20:14.540 everyone. For example, if you want to see a lion, you go to Africa, it costs a lot of money,

01:20:18.820 but to see, you know, I, you know, I've been in zoos before and I like to see animals in their

01:20:24.900 natural environment. You know, I think you got to take any, take any animals. Are there any animals

01:20:29.480 you think you could take? Man, we're so weak, man. And nature is crazy. Apparently they say

01:20:35.400 that even a chimp would, would kill you. Yeah. That's what they say. I can just pull your

01:20:39.600 fucking balls off. Yeah. Pull your ball, break, break your fingers and, and, and, uh, rip your

01:20:44.460 face. You know that when they go on crime scenes, uh, where chimps turns, turns against the human,

01:20:51.000 that's what happened. It's crazy, man. I would hate that. Because you cannot reproduce,

01:20:54.420 you cannot climb away and they take away your identity. I went in, uh, Rwanda. I had the chance

01:21:01.940 to do a gorilla trekking and you see them like I'm seeing you. So this close. Yeah. Yeah. That

01:21:08.960 close. So when you go there, it's like, uh, Rwanda, yeah. In Rwanda, in Africa, it's in East

01:21:13.840 Africa. And you take a, you take a car. It's about two hours away from Kigali, which is, I think

01:21:20.740 the capital, you go there and they give you a course. They tell you, don't eat. Don't, don't.

01:21:25.340 If the gorilla look at you, don't look him in the eyes. If he, if he comes towards you, don't run

01:21:30.080 away. Just get out of the way and put your knee on the floor in a submissive pause. Uh, don't talk

01:21:35.060 loud. Don't ever touch the, the female and the, the, the, the kid. And when I went there, it was

01:21:42.380 amazing. I, oh yeah. Is this it, Nick? Yeah. Yeah. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah.

01:21:48.680 Yeah. That's okay. So this guy, let me tell you about this one. Why'd you dress for a funeral

01:21:53.480 too? Listen to guys, guys, this is very interesting. So you see what happened. Okay. So at during

01:21:59.300 one instant, during my, my, my, my adventure there, I was with, I was with, I was with,

01:22:08.160 with different people that were older than me. And I don't know what happened at one point

01:22:12.600 the gorilla, because what happened is you hang out with the, the kids and the, the

01:22:17.720 female and you know, the young. And once, once every 20 or 15 minutes, the, the big

01:22:25.300 silverback comes and he make a noise and the, the, the guy that is with you every day, he

01:22:30.980 sees the same, the same family. So he's used to see the same guide, but the, the tourists

01:22:35.980 change. So the, the guide always answer back to tell, Hey, we're here. So he comes and

01:22:41.600 sometimes he look around to see if everything is okay. And then he goes back in the forest

01:22:45.200 every 10 minutes approximately. But once, once he came and he look at me,

01:22:50.900 Did you have your belt with you?

01:22:52.520 No, no, man. He look at me. And when he look at me, I look, I look at him just very fast.

01:22:59.080 And he started walking towards me. Like he was pissed, man. I got out of the way and I put my

01:23:04.340 knees down and I'm not a religious guy at all, but I became religious at that time. So I was like,

01:23:09.220 please, please, please, please. And then I opened my eyes. He's not in front of me.

01:23:14.860 I look behind. I see his back. He put his backs against me. He explained to me the, the reason

01:23:20.280 why the gorilla, he turned his back to me is because he wanted to show me how much I'm not

01:23:24.740 of a threat for him. Wow. To show you, like he turned his back and he looked underneath his arm.

01:23:29.140 So when I look back, I was like, man, I saw his back. It was just a threat, a test. I was like,

01:23:34.360 man, he would have, even with all my years of training, he would have ripped me apart, man.

01:23:39.080 Did you feel like you stood any chance? Like even, you think he could have got it to two rounds or no?

01:23:43.060 I read a document. Apparently it's a report in, I think it's in Uganda. I read, there's a military

01:23:51.280 guy that a gorilla grabbed and he, he pulled, he ripped his head off like this, like it straight up

01:23:58.660 from an horror movie. You grab him and it's that strong. So there's nothing you can do, man.

01:24:03.520 But what would you have done, you think? I was, I think I would have tried to play

01:24:06.980 that. There's nothing you can do if he wants to, to kill you. The guy, the guy has two guys with him

01:24:12.720 with AK 47. So they help. No, no. But you know, he told me it's not because of the gorilla. It's

01:24:19.660 in case we, we see an elephant or a Cape Buffalo. Apparently there is, it's so dense. I don't

01:24:24.520 understand. Apparently sometime you could run, run through a Cape Buffalo and they're extremely

01:24:30.560 territorial. Was that scarier than beating the cage? Well, it, it happens so fast. It's very

01:24:34.940 different because it happens so fast that you don't have time to prepare. So you just go with

01:24:41.180 the flow. So I didn't even have time to be scared that much. I was just, I was trying, I was like,

01:24:47.620 man, please, please, please. Then I look, shit, he's in the back and I see his back and I could see

01:24:53.660 the muscle through the fur. I was like, man, it's so massive. It's insane.

01:24:58.240 Peterson's just standing there. That'd be crazy, man. It was one of the most incredible adventure

01:25:03.880 of my life. Uh, I recommend it to everyone. And the money that you pay for that, that adventure

01:25:09.260 is given to the gorilla. And now the gorilla in, in Rwanda, in that part of the world are,

01:25:14.840 are flourishing again. Oh, it's beautiful. So it's, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah.

01:25:18.160 It is awesome to take care of our planet and to give back to it, you know, cause it's funny

01:25:21.460 cause somebody probably saw a gorilla one day and even thought about getting in shape

01:25:24.660 for the first time. You know what I'm saying? You just don't know what we learn from animals,

01:25:27.440 you know? Um, what, what keeps you busy these days, man?

01:25:31.040 Well, I'm in, I'm involved with, uh, I have a, uh, uh, home fitness equipment brand called

01:25:37.080 Base Block Pro. Uh, it's, uh, all kinds of apparel that you can use and train at home. Uh,

01:25:44.960 it's in Canada or U.S. as well?

01:25:46.800 Kinesthetics, all the world, all around the world.

01:25:48.560 I need to get something for home.

01:25:49.900 It's light. You can, you can put some, some of them are outdoor friendly. So you can put

01:25:54.460 it in your backyard. Some I recommend it's more for backyard to put outside and some are

01:25:58.800 more for inside for home. And, um, yeah, it's great. I, I don't lift, I never lift weight

01:26:05.380 pretty much. And, and, and I'm a big fan of kinesthetics. You know, I, I used to, when I

01:26:11.540 was younger to lift weight, but I, I realized that it's more efficient to train kinesthetics.

01:26:16.480 And kinesthetics is what?

01:26:18.220 Yeah. Gymnastics, uh, your own body weight.

01:26:20.440 Yes, exactly. So you, you have less risk of injuries and I think it's more efficient.

01:26:25.820 And Base Blocks.

01:26:26.740 Yes.

01:26:27.300 Oh, sweet, man. Yeah. I got to get something else for my home. I'm just getting a, um,

01:26:31.460 treadmill. So I got to have something else for when, uh, I can't go down to the gym.

01:26:36.720 I'll send you some. I'll, uh, I'll tell my guy, I'll hook you.

01:26:39.440 That'd be awesome to have one, man.

01:26:40.240 Yeah. Tell me which one you like. I recommend you the Big Bar Pro. This one, you put, if

01:26:44.020 you have a backyard, put it in your backyard. It's, it's outdoor friendly. And if you want

01:26:48.320 like for your legs, this one is very good. You, you, it's for hamstring.

01:26:52.020 Oh, I don't care about the legs. I mean, I'm up top only.

01:26:54.560 I'll send you some stuff. I'll tell the guy to send you some stuff. You'll be more than

01:26:57.880 happy.

01:26:58.640 Um, are there some biters right now that you love to watch and you kind of cheer on? Do you find

01:27:02.000 yourself being a fan of MMA still? I mean, I mean, I know it's obviously been such a huge

01:27:06.240 part of your life. I don't know if it's something you just kind of close or if

01:27:09.320 it's something that's always in you kind of one thing that has changed. And now

01:27:13.260 there's so many fights, there's almost every weekend. So I can't watch it all. I

01:27:18.220 can't watch all the shows, but, but, but I, I, I love to watch some of the guys that

01:27:22.480 I, I can learn from. I like to watch Tom Aspinall. Oh yeah. He's fun. The, the, the

01:27:27.340 fought, the, the fight of last weekend, Balal Mohamed, uh, Leon Edwards. I watch it. Um, I like

01:27:34.160 Kamaru Usman, Adesanya, uh, uh, Wachanovski, Makachev. Uh, I like to, to watch the best

01:27:40.100 so I can learn from them.

01:27:41.780 Is it weird to look at them and be like, that was me? Like, cause I think even as a

01:27:45.280 comedian, I'll watch comedy sometimes and I'll be like, it doesn't seem like, like,

01:27:49.440 I know it's different person, but it doesn't even seem like that's my job. Does that ever

01:27:53.740 happen to you? Do you ever have like, like this Clark Kent feeling when you're walking

01:27:57.080 down the street that you're also Superman? I mean.

01:27:59.860 No, I, I think, uh, what made me good is because I possess certain set of skills that

01:28:08.740 made me unique, but some of the guys that are competing now, they have their own set

01:28:13.060 of skills and I think I can learn from them, you know, by watching them, I'm learning from

01:28:17.440 them and, you know, of course it may, maybe they can learn from me or, or so it's impossible

01:28:22.640 to be completely a hundred percent well-rounded. You always have certain things that you do better

01:28:28.600 than, than, than others. And that's why I like the sport so much. Some guys are better

01:28:34.220 at, for example, at, at grapplings. One guy is, his strength might be, uh, his ground and

01:28:39.300 pound. One guy might be his submission skills. One guy might be his, you know, like Pereira.

01:28:44.460 He's got an incredible left hook. We all know he's got a left hook, but nobody, they all

01:28:49.200 know the left hook is coming, but they don't know how to stop it. It's crazy. And left hook

01:28:54.900 is one of the most fundamental punch that you learn in day one. And it works. It's one

01:29:02.300 of the most basic weapon, but he does it so well. He hides it. He hides it so well. And

01:29:09.680 the way he does it, even though it's so basic, nobody can stop it. It's crazy.

01:29:14.520 That's it. That's fascinating almost, isn't it? How something simple can be, and so obvious

01:29:19.460 in a way can be so surprising. He use different diversion, different, uh, distraction to, to

01:29:29.860 get it on. It's, it's crazy. And that's what I like about the sport. It's like a chess game,

01:29:33.820 you know? Oh, it's fascinating too. I think as, uh, you know, I've been a fan now, like

01:29:38.520 a big fan for probably maybe almost six or seven years now. Um, and you get to know the

01:29:45.500 fighters more a little bit too on a personal, you know, like there, cause there's so much

01:29:48.660 social media, you get to know more about them and kind of cheer for them in different

01:29:51.460 ways and stuff. Um, but there's all types of guys who were outspoken. There's guys who

01:29:55.200 were kind of reserved. There's guys who were playing cat and mouse and there's guys who

01:29:58.880 were just about getting in the ring. Um, have you, do you, have you gotten into anything

01:30:03.020 else competitive? Uh, is there something else that you do? I used to, when I was young,

01:30:07.880 I used to play chess. You really? Yeah. I, growing up, I was more of a, more of a nerd,

01:30:13.060 you know, at school. And, uh, I was, I was victim of bullying at school. So that's why

01:30:19.600 I first, I start, uh, martial art. I started karate at a young age as a self-defense. Yeah.

01:30:24.600 Yeah. Then later on it developed into a passion, passion to transform into a way I make a living.

01:30:29.600 You should pull up on those guys right now.

01:30:31.820 But I used to, I remember in order to, to miss school, I was, I was, I was enrolling into

01:30:40.160 chess tournaments because I was, I was, uh, representing my school. And then once you

01:30:45.340 win the school, you go to, uh, how do you say like the regional and then once you, I go to

01:30:53.200 regional, you go to Montreal where it's the provincial and I never, I never made it past

01:30:57.560 that. Oh, I, I want the school. I want the regional, but when I went to Montreal, I never

01:31:02.220 even won a match in the provincial because these guys that they, that's what they do. You know,

01:31:08.060 that's their, you know, me, I was just doing that for fun and I was a kid back then. So

01:31:12.000 it was fun.

01:31:13.180 Yeah. Well, you found other ways to win, man. Um, oh yeah. The Olympics are going on.

01:31:17.820 Oh, that's, uh, yeah. They got the Olympic, man. It's crazy. The, this big, like people

01:31:24.880 like now they talk about the, the, what happened in the, the, the controversy, the, the woman

01:31:30.320 and fighter, you mean?

01:31:31.900 Yeah. No, they, they talk about the, the, the, the ceremony, the opening ceremony.

01:31:35.600 Oh yeah. They thought it was anti-Catholic. Yes. I, I, I, I, I, I was in Miami, uh, when

01:31:42.060 that happened and I saw on the news, I was, I was like, man, I'm going to try to watch

01:31:46.120 it, but now they took out, they took it out of YouTube. So you can't, I don't think you

01:31:49.740 can't see it anymore.

01:31:51.000 That's crazy.

01:31:51.680 So I, um, I tried to, I tried to find a way, but I just saw some part of it and I speak

01:31:56.440 French. I was like, God damn. I was like, oh yeah. I mean, it's weird. I try to not be

01:32:02.340 politic, but there are certain things that man, it's like, is there a dark?

01:32:05.320 At home, you know, like you don't have to, to show the world, you know, I don't care

01:32:08.540 who you sleep with, what you do. I mean, I, I like you as a person, if, uh, you know

01:32:13.140 what I mean?

01:32:13.760 Yeah. This seems a little crazy for the Olympics, I think.

01:32:16.240 Yeah. Yeah. It changes. That, that, that's one thing that changed over the year. Like

01:32:19.800 we didn't have that before, you know, this is kind of, it seems crazy. Like maybe the

01:32:24.760 world is so crazy that I don't even know the world anymore. That's what I start to wonder

01:32:28.100 too sometimes. Yeah. But yeah, this stuff seems like, what are we doing? What sport

01:32:32.080 is this? Yeah. It's, that's what, I don't know. It's just what sport is it? But I mean,

01:32:37.740 I probably, you know, I don't know. It's a different time. I mean, I don't know what

01:32:42.080 to make of it. I mean, it's dark forces at play. It feels like sometimes. I, I, I, I

01:32:47.320 am not. You're like going down the conspiracy rabbit holes. Oh, it's fun. And, and also

01:32:50.720 the crazy part about the conspiracies is remember during like pandemic, like they said all these

01:32:55.540 things and, and they, half of them were true and it was like, well, fucking. I, I, I was

01:33:02.200 very angry about what was going on in, in, in Canada. I didn't like the way it was, it

01:33:09.460 was run during the pandemic. I was very pissed off. I didn't like it. I, I, I think it was

01:33:16.240 an attack on our freedom. We had curfew and this, and this, I'm not afraid to some people

01:33:21.040 like, oh, you shouldn't become a political. This, this is not right. This, this, this

01:33:25.140 is about, I think it's about freedom. I was, I was, I was not happy about what the decision

01:33:30.900 that were made. I think it was an attack on the freedom. And, and I think everybody should

01:33:34.780 have had the, the decision of choosing the right to make the decision. Do I want to be

01:33:42.500 vaccinated or not? And, but if you're not vaccinated, you're not allowed to do this, do this.

01:33:46.540 Like, man, you have no life. This, this was wrong. I, I don't agree with that

01:33:50.660 decision. Yeah. It feels, it started to feel like privatized communism to me in a

01:33:54.680 way. It's like, you know, they, it's like the bait of the government, but really it's

01:33:59.160 like private entities doing it. And I wish I'd spoken up more. I think there were times

01:34:02.600 for me, you know, I just felt like kind of scared or I didn't feel brave or I didn't

01:34:06.740 know some things. They would have canceled you. But that's crazy. They could have canceled

01:34:09.940 you. That's, that's the thing. That's a, that's the thing about it. It's, I mean, it

01:34:13.840 depends in Nashville. I don't know, Nashville, Tennessee, right? Yeah. Yeah. They can't, they

01:34:18.540 can't really can't see that much there. Yeah. But in Canada, that was like, it's different.

01:34:22.020 Like people, people don't understand, but it was different. We had a curfew. It was

01:34:27.520 crazy. Like, man, I couldn't get out of the country. I had business to do. You know, my

01:34:33.040 business is international. I had to travel. So I had no choice. I did it. But I think

01:34:37.320 he, I think I was not agree with the decision. Yeah. And there's my right to say so. Right.

01:34:43.220 And if I would have said it at a time, maybe they would have like put down my Instagram, put

01:34:48.100 down all my, my stuff. I know that's what it is. It really, it feels like big tech is

01:34:51.940 kind of the government now, you know, but, um, man, it's just an honor to sit down with

01:34:57.660 such a champion these days and, uh, just get to have a chance to spend time with you, uh,

01:35:02.100 George. And, um, do you, you know, they have the thing in the Olympics right now. They have

01:35:06.260 a boxer who they, who has like, Oh yeah, it's a female boxer. Right. And, but she, um, she

01:35:15.640 was born a female and is a female. Let me say her name. Iman Khalif. Yeah. Algeria.

01:35:21.480 And, um, and she's crushing it and she hasn't won all of her fights. And, um, but there's

01:35:27.420 people like it's been a huge uproar online because I guess she had higher testosterone

01:35:32.260 levels and she wasn't allowed to compete in the world boxing championships. Um, do you

01:35:39.220 think at some point, cause this just appears to be something that kind of happens more where

01:35:43.460 there's some gray area in between gender, right? Yeah. Do you think they should just have a,

01:35:48.580 a new division? Well, what, what, what this, I don't know enough information about that

01:35:55.700 particular situation to give an opinion on it because I'm, I might. Yeah. But one thing I can

01:36:03.640 tell you when a man is born, when you're born as a man and then you change your sex and there,

01:36:12.420 then after you go compete as a woman, this I think is disgusting. Yeah. This, I'm not afraid

01:36:17.420 to say it and stand up for that because I love women and I, and I think I, they need to be

01:36:22.860 protected, especially in combat sport. This, I'm not agree with this. I agree. I want everybody

01:36:27.380 to have equal, to be, to have the equal right. But when you have a, um, someone who was born

01:36:32.840 as a man who changes sex as a woman and then compete, I think he should have his own, his

01:36:37.840 own category. Right. That would be fair because otherwise it's unfair. I agree. We're different.

01:36:43.420 Like, I mean, why? Okay. I'm, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna change my sex and go compete in the UFC

01:36:48.480 and make a comeback in the woman division. What do you think can happen? You know, you know what I

01:36:52.940 mean? It's, it's not fair. You know, maybe some of them will kick my ass, but I think I will do

01:36:56.620 pretty well, you know? Yeah. Andrade might give you a run. There's a couple ladies out there that

01:37:01.500 would give you a run. Yeah. But I agree. They, and they should solve it. I think it's not fair

01:37:06.280 also if people are dealing with this, their own sexual identity and they don't know, create a new

01:37:11.020 division so that they can be there and be the pioneers of a new division. You know, it's like,

01:37:16.960 then that way it's like, they're getting to be a part of something new. They're getting to fight

01:37:20.560 against like-minded, um, people. I don't know, but I agree with you. I agree. They should have

01:37:25.300 their own division. I think, uh, if you're born in a different gender, uh, because man, it's really

01:37:32.480 not fair. If people have no idea the difference, but man, it's, it's huge difference. I mean,

01:37:37.020 it's a huge difference. Oh God. It's, it's, uh, we've seen in, in, in tennis, you know, like,

01:37:41.440 I think it, is it, uh, I think it's Serena Williams. She played tennis against, uh,

01:37:45.980 Oh yeah. She got, you know, and it has, it was done in boxing too with, um, a few times I would,

01:37:52.420 uh, the, the, she's a Dutch, uh, champion in kickboxing. She, she fought a man in boxing and,

01:37:57.600 you know, and this, these, like in tennis is different because it's a game basketball,

01:38:02.340 it's a game, but when it's combat sport, I think we should, it's unbelievable protect,

01:38:06.940 protect, uh, protect our females. Right. And the men should speak up for that. You know,

01:38:12.820 the men should speak up for that. You know, the problem is sometimes when you speak up to that,

01:38:16.600 you get point by the finger and, uh, this is unfair, but that's the media. That's fucking,

01:38:21.260 they're sick. Yeah. But here is, um, there's a fight in BJJ actually in,

01:38:26.460 is it this, uh, Craig Jones invitational. He's doing his tournament the same weekend as ADCC

01:38:32.880 and the main event is going to be him versus Gabby Garcia. Oh, so now this though,

01:38:39.780 they're both agreeing that they want to do it. I'm sorry for my ignorance is Gabby Garcia is,

01:38:48.380 is, uh, female. She, she's born, she's a female, female. Like she's, it's not like, uh,

01:38:53.580 yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. But lots of help. Yeah. Yeah. Of course. A lot of enhancement.

01:38:59.920 Okay. Wow. But is he, is it like a, like a novelty fight sort of, or, or, uh, more like, uh,

01:39:06.400 he's competing against the ADCC. So he's doing this to get all the eyeballs on it. He's doing it the

01:39:11.120 same weekend. It's interesting. Yeah. Because Craig Jones is one of the best grappler of the planet.

01:39:15.080 Yeah, for sure. I wanted, so he's probably going to, I mean, I don't know. I, I don't know enough

01:39:21.180 about Gabby. So. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I heard about that event that it was like a million dollar event

01:39:27.840 and in the same time as the Abu Dhabi event, but I don't know all the, all the detail on it. Wow.

01:39:36.360 Oh my God. Okay. That, that's her. That is her. My gosh, boy. I am. She's bigger than him,

01:39:44.220 am I right? I got to get to the gym. Um, how about Craig Jones is one of the best?

01:39:51.040 Yeah. It should be interesting. Can, can, what about just in jujitsu? Can women compete

01:39:56.260 as well in there if there's not striking? Well, they can compete woman against woman,

01:40:01.640 but against man, it's still, well, look, the strength, the strength is different. And, and

01:40:08.940 there's a lot of factor too. I mean, I'm not a specialist in that, but the, the bone density,

01:40:15.240 there's a lot of factors. I mean, there's things I, first, I think women are better than men.

01:40:22.760 Men, they can give birth and there's, we couldn't, we couldn't endure that. Like women are better

01:40:28.600 than men, you know? Yeah, dude. This is what I believe, but there's one thing that we, we have

01:40:33.500 better than what we have. Normally we're more physically stronger and we have certain advantage

01:40:38.720 and that's why there's different category. There's, there's men and women and that's why,

01:40:44.360 you know, to make it fair. But, uh, it's just the same thing. Of course, if you take a woman,

01:40:50.420 for example, who's, who's has a lot of experience, made, make her fight, a man who does not have any

01:40:56.940 experience, the woman can kick his ass. Yeah. 100%. But if you go to the elite level, it will be,

01:41:02.900 it would be pretty unlikely. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be interesting though. Yeah. Now that kind of stuff,

01:41:09.080 I think is a little bit more, you know, it's like, we're both agreeing to do this thing, you know?

01:41:13.320 Um, Rush, man, thanks so much, dude. Thank you, man. So cool. Uh, thank you for having me,

01:41:19.160 man. Yeah. It's really awesome. And just, just really cool to be in the presence of, um, somebody

01:41:23.820 that's achieved such greatness in their life that got in and got out. And, um, yeah. Do you have any

01:41:29.860 other big goals in your life right now? Do you feel like, well, I feel pretty content or does that,

01:41:35.360 does that, does, does a person that's a perfectionist kind of, I'm kind of a perfectionist

01:41:39.320 too, I think. Do you ever get content? Do you feel like I never, I'm never satisfied now. I'm more of

01:41:45.880 an entrepreneur now. And, and that's my goal. I'm, I'm very lucky. I was able to transfer that,

01:41:53.580 that hunger that I had in, in mixed martial art. I wanted to be the best, be the champion. Now I

01:42:00.000 transfer it into, you know, into a business, you know, and, or into my person. I wanted to be a

01:42:05.140 better person. And, you know, I'm happy, you know, like if things go well for me, I have enough to

01:42:11.200 live for the rest of my life that I, if I don't go crazy and I'm, you know what I mean? I'm trying

01:42:15.080 to be happy. I think the ultimate goal, right. For everyone is to be happy. Oh, for sure. There

01:42:19.760 is different ways that you can use to attain that, that, that feeling, but it's to be happy,

01:42:26.560 you know, and I'm, uh, right now I'm a very happy, I'm healthy, I'm happy. And, uh, are your parents

01:42:31.360 pretty proud of you? Yeah, they're very happy. Um, my parents and in the beginning, they didn't want

01:42:36.460 me to fight. They, uh, and I understand them. I, it's, it's not something that you want,

01:42:43.660 uh, that you, it's not a life that you wish for someone you love, you know? Most kids,

01:42:47.580 you tell them not to fight. Man, I'm, I'm going to tell you something that happened to me all the

01:42:51.700 time. There is parent that comes to me with their kids and they're like, Hey George, this is the

01:42:56.660 future world champion. And I'm, and then I go, Oh, hi, I, how old are you? He's like, yeah, he's 12

01:43:03.440 years old. Oh yeah. You, you train martial arts. He's like, yeah, it's good. But remember

01:43:07.620 something, stay at school, man, and you need to be educated. That's your number one priority.

01:43:14.120 And the problem that a lot of athletes and, and, and not only in, in MMA and in everything,

01:43:20.860 you know, Canada, we have a lot of that example in hockey, but it could be basketball, football,

01:43:25.800 a lot of athletes, they put their eggs all in the same basket. Oh yeah. So they all want,

01:43:30.660 they all dream to be a professional athlete, but something happened. They get hit by a car,

01:43:35.080 boom, or they get an injury. Like they, they break their ACL or their knees or something happened.

01:43:40.440 Now their career is, is gone. They're never going to come back the same. And what happened if,

01:43:45.080 if that incident happened when you're like in your late twenties, there is nothing that you can

01:43:50.760 fall back into if you don't have school. There's nothing. So it's an assurance. I quit,

01:43:57.300 I quit school when I was fighting Matthews before my fight with Matthews. So I was,

01:44:03.400 my parents forced me to stay at school, to stay educated. And it was one of the best thing that

01:44:08.020 they did. Cause you quit college then? Oh, I wanted to quit everything. I, I,

01:44:12.480 but I was studying in, in kinesiology. Okay. And, uh, and, but I didn't like what I was doing at the

01:44:17.720 time. I didn't know I was changing all the time. I, one time I tried to be a fireman. I,

01:44:22.140 I had many jobs. One time I was, um, was working in a nightclub as a security and I, I, to pay my

01:44:29.660 university fee, I was a garbage man for seven months. Really? Yeah. I collect the garbage,

01:44:35.160 man. That's why I did. And, and, and I, I did it. And, and, but I, I was always forced,

01:44:42.200 my parents always forced me to stay educated. And when I, when I tell the kids, I say, man,

01:44:46.280 train, you know, but I wish you the best, but the odds of success are very low.

01:44:52.140 You know, and even you're so talented and you work really hard, that does not mean you're

01:44:57.040 going to make it because that chance or success are so low. Make sure you stay educated. And if

01:45:02.920 something goes wrong and you cannot achieve it, at least you have something to fall back into.

01:45:09.100 Yeah. And maybe you're going to change your mind. You know what I mean? You're not the same person

01:45:12.760 at 15 that you will be at 20 and at 25 things changes. Yeah. I, I didn't know what I wanted to,

01:45:19.520 what I wanted to become when I was young. And I'm sure the same for you. Like, Oh yeah.

01:45:23.420 Like I wanted to be a police, a cops at one point, then I wanted to be a fireman. Then I'm like, Oh,

01:45:29.360 I wanted to do a therapist, then a paleontologist. Then I'm like, Oh, I'm going to be a fighter.

01:45:35.420 You know what I mean? But the fighter was always in my mind since the beginning, but I,

01:45:39.080 I needed to have a backup plan. I didn't know what, what, what to do. I, I, I realized

01:45:44.380 when I had my first title shot that it was an opportunity of a lifetime. And that's when I had

01:45:50.900 a talk with my parent. I told my parents, I said, listen, I'm going to quit the next session

01:45:55.040 because I'm going to train full-time because I have a title shot. If that doesn't work,

01:46:01.000 I can always go back next season to school, but the title shot might never come present. The chance

01:46:08.360 would for the title might not ever present itself again. So I'm going to take a chance and I'm going to

01:46:13.180 go full out. And I went full out. I lost my first title shot, but I rebound immediately.

01:46:18.160 And then I ended up winning the title. And that's how everything started for, for, for me in the,

01:46:24.300 in the UFC. Did they come to your fights to your folks? I'm sorry. Did they come to your fights?

01:46:28.200 They, they came to my fight. Um, my, uh, my parent when it was local, but when I, uh, my mom

01:46:34.360 came to my fight when I fought for the title in Sacramento, when I won the title, but my dad

01:46:41.080 doesn't like to fly. He's afraid of airplane. It's crazy. He's afraid of airplanes. You're

01:46:45.540 afraid of nothing, which is kind of ironic. I'm afraid of a lot of things, but I'm willing

01:46:49.600 to do it. That's the difference. Willing to commit. Um, thank you so much, uh, George St.

01:46:55.460 Pierre. I appreciate your time. And, uh, yeah, just helping us learn more about fighting and

01:46:58.820 more about the mentality of, of being a champion and, um, and the ups and downs of it, you know,

01:47:03.540 that not everything's perfect, but, um, but that we keep moving forward and challenging

01:47:07.500 ourselves. I appreciate it so much, man. All right, man. Thank you, man. Thank you for

01:47:10.180 the, the apartheid. I appreciate it. Cheers, brother.

01:47:12.660 Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be

01:47:19.360 cornerstone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind. I found I can

01:47:29.500 feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take.

01:47:37.500 And I feel like, um, yeah, that was my砂 Montandiei's Whose

This Past Weekend with Theo Von - August 09, 2024

E523 Georges St-Pierre

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