The $250K Secret: How UFC Stars Build Digital Empires | MMA Awards DSH #983

He's a big man, but I don't want to get in trouble.

He's not that big.

He has hair loss, too.

Damn, shots fired.

I love that.

Shot's fire.

Sir, how are you doing?

Very nice to meet you.

I'm going to get straight to the point, Ralph, because I've been looking for years.

You founded an MMA League, is that correct?

No, not an MMA League, no, a media company.

So we started as a magazine publisher and we got into digital and social.

We had a clothing range with top out and now we're we're here with the only industry event of its kind, the World Mixed Martial Arts Real.

Would you be interested in making the first magazine solely for little people?

No, because I wouldn't print magazines anymore.

That's why we don't.

Only because of the fact that it's a challenging business at the moment, for sure.

Magazines are dying, right?

Well, it's not that they're dying, it's just everything that goes around magazines like the distribution networks and the wholesalers.

It's highly, highly challenging.

So, no, I wouldn't like to produce a magazine again at the moment.

Who's the greatest person you've ever had on the cover of one of your magazines?

Oh, I really couldn't answer that.

We've had all the stars of the sport.

Who's your favourite?

My favourite fighter or favourite individual?

Yeah.

I don't know.

I always love Mirko Trokop, Vandalia Silver, Dan Henderson, all the guys that used to stand up and really bang.

That's what I used to really love.

Thank you so much.

I love your

chat too, though.

Thank you, man.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Enjoy the show.

All right, have a good one, man.

Let's go, brother.

What's up?

What's up, man?

How you doing?

How you doing?

What's up, fellas?

How y'all feel?

How you doing?

I'm betting on bullshit because I hurt you already.

Who wins?

Who wins in a bare knuckle fight?

You or Bryce Hall?

Speaking of Bryce Hall, I'm looking at it.

Hey, if he beats Kimberley, if Bryce Hall beats Kimball Slice Jr., that's who I want to fight next.

You know what I mean?

But

who wins?

Me, of course.

What's your record right now?

Shit.

I think I'm

eight and five, bare knuckle.

Maybe eight and five.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

I can't really keep count, man.

I got so many bare-knuckle fights.

I've done this since 2019, man.

I was the first one to go over to Bond to England.

Wow.

I'll beat the dude 17-0 from Ireland, man.

Yeah.

Took the belt on my debut fight.

What?

Yeah, man.

So huge upset.

Yeah.

Let's go.

So, you know, but you know, like BKFC, man,

that's my home right now.

and i'm just trying to you know get that belt so look forward in the new you know the new year i'll be uh coming for that belt all right you get that belt

has the belt right now in my weight class he's a tough fighter man you know i just i can't wait to put myself to that test let's do it bro you get that belt you're gonna make your way to the ufc hey man

Of course.

Like, MMA is my passion.

I would love to fight UFC.

Dana White, give me a shot, man.

I'll fight whoever the fuck you put in front of me.

You know, put him at my weight class.

155 or 170, man.

Like, I'm there.

Let's get it.

You know what I mean?

Who's the greatest UFC fighter of all time?

The greatest UFC fighter of all time is John Jones.

Let's go.

Right answer.

Yeah, of course.

This guy knows it's good.

But

the fucking

greatest madman is Conor McGregor.

Yeah, I like Connor, man.

Greatest shit talker of all time, for sure.

Fuck yeah.

Yeah.

But no, Connor's a good dude, man.

He's part of us now, too.

Have you been in more street fights or more bare-knuckle fights?

I've been in more bare-knuckle fights.

Any street fights?

I've been in street fights.

Alright.

What's your record in street fights?

Fucking

definitely probably, I would say undefeated, bro.

Damn, all right.

Undefeated, man.

But what is a street fight, man?

That ain't really testing yourself, man.

Yeah, that's too easy for you.

That's easy.

I'd rather go out against somebody who's like training for me, man.

I feel that, man.

You know what I mean?

Street fights don't last long, man.

Don't do nothing but get your ass in trouble.

Facts.

Where can people find you?

You can find me on Instagram, JulianLaneMMA.

You can find me on Twitter or X,

Julian Lane MMA.

Boom.

Thanks for coming on, brother.

That was fun.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Hell yeah.

I'll send that to Bryce.

Yeah, man.

Thanks.

Yeah, tell Bryce

fighting, man.

You know Bryce?

Yeah, yeah.

He's been on my pod.

He lives in Vegas.

He's just got a lot of people.

He's going to win that fight, man.

He got the most fights, man.

He might not have the best

But you know what I'm saying?

That don't records don't matter.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm the guy that feels.

Yeah, I'm the guy that has stepped in against anybody.

You know what I mean?

I never turned down a fight, man.

Hey, it's nice meeting you.

Nice to meet you all, man.

I know that you're a doctor on a show.

If you saw a UFC fighter get knocked out, do you think you would know a couple moves to

get him back?

Probably not.

They'd be screwed.

Did you think?

Yeah.

I would believe in you.

I've seen your moves on the show.

You know, I mean,

I still don't remember any medical terms from the show after doing it for seven years.

Yeah.

Has the show ever helped you in the real world in terms of saving people's life?

Or even just helping them mirror medic?

No, you know, I mean, the only thing it's done is validate my career with my parents because they wanted me to be a doctor ever since I was young.

You talk about him now, mom and dad.

I wasn't smart enough to get into med school, but you know, it eventually became full circle when I became a doctor on TV.

So, with you being here, do you have a favorite fighter?

Who is your great ultimate fighter of all time?

Oh, ultimate fighter of all time.

Gosh, there's so many, but I mean, George St.

Pierre is one of them on top of the list.

But I'm a huge fan of Zhang Wei Li.

And I mean, there's truly too many.

I remember watching the very first UFC, and Hoist Gracie will always be my standout.

I love it.

I love it.

Who is one fighter you think you would win in the off-the-bot against?

Probably there's not a single one.

Odds?

They're talking about creating a dwarf MMA league.

So would you watch that?

Are you guys fighting?

We could.

If you guys fight, I'll be there.

I'm a lover.

I love it.

I'm a lover.

Do you guys practice?

We don't, but we're going to start training.

Do you practice?

I do, I do.

What do you do?

Jiu-Jitsu?

I've done taekwondo my whole life, but jiu-jitsu has been kind of my obsession for the last year and a half.

I feel like it's a very hard-working sport and very mental, right?

It is, and it's very addicting because it feels like, you know, the closest thing to human chess.

Yes, healthy, though, dude.

That's a good way to put it.

Boy, you got 20-something-year-olds trying to rip off my neck, but you know, other than that, it's fun.

That's a little scary.

Well, it was nice meeting you.

Nice meeting you.

Very nice meeting you.

I have one more half of you know my friends.

What is that?

No problem.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Yeah, yeah, no problem.

My other half.

Okay, yeah, no problem.

Who wins in a fight, you or these two?

I like my chance.

You're like, but I'm not going to give any slaps.

I actually think y'all, you know, I like my chance good time because anybody will play.

But take you out down low, you know, and you're done.

I don't know.

I squat a lot, so I don't know.

How many of us do you could squat?

I work in a face-to-face fight.

I know.

95 and 150.

So battle average is around

the fix.

Right at two and a half contracts.

You want to swap me right now, or I don't really want to hurt the blades.

I don't want to mess up.

Yeah.

Okay, okay.

Who is one fighter in the UFC who you really want to fight or you haven't fought him?

Well, he goes by the name of Bo Nickel.

So he's the guy I really want.

And if time's due, it will happen.

But that's the guy I want to fight.

And why hasn't he accepted a fight for you?

Well, for myself, I just got in the UFC myself.

So, you know, that's just a fight down the line.

No slaps for him.

I just think we match up really well, and I like the opportunity.

Why do you feel so confident against Coe Nick?

I think

I'm a really good wrestler myself.

And I think maybe sometimes some people might sleep on my wrestling, but I just think I got the skill set to beat him and continue to elevate in this division.

I wish I could elevate in height.

I agree.

I'm the same way.

We'll end off with this.

Who's the GOAT of the UFC?

My GOAT personally is John Jones.

I do think he is the GOAT, obviously, along with other allegations and things along with that nature, but I definitely think he is the greatest of all time.

So

he's done it all.

Look at all the champions he's beaten.

That's the best.

I definitely think he is.

All right, check him out, guys.

We'll see you.

Sean, great to meet you.

Sir, you are one of us, like a few inches off.

You're 100% correct.

So, where are you from?

Permanentos originally.

Wow.

From Las Vegas, 31 years.

Have you ever split the G?

You don't like the G?

That's my daughter.

My daughter, right there.

I know.

Like, split the whisk.

No, Guinness.

Guys.

Get it to the minute.

We can drink with Guinness with the whiskey as well.

Oh, yeah.

Irish Ireland?

He knows what he's talking about.

Let's go.

He knows what he's talking about.

I'm half Irish.

I've been to Ireland.

What?

You have been?

Yeah.

Been to Belfast?

No, I went to Dublin.

Oh, right, Coach.

Yeah.

Who's your favorite Irish fighter?

Ooh.

Oh, wait, he's got one then.

Iron right there.

No, many of you.

There's only one that I know.

How do you feel?

How do you feel about Patty?

Patty's pin from you.

He's a great fighter.

I think he can win a belt.

Yeah, really good.

I can see it.

Just gotta keep his weight.

I've seen him get really big.

10-40 shape.

You've got to keep yourself in 100%.

Well, it's hard in Ireland where you can literally, it's appropriate to have a bruise every hour of the day.

Yeah, I live on potatoes as well.

Uh-huh.

Potatoes and beer.

Good old Irish breakfast, right, at the bar.

I might head over there in March and become a leprechaun if that's okay with you.

Did I tell people there's leprechauns that going to believe me, but I said I could take you to a leprechaun hill.

Are you able to bring us to the leprechaun?

You can bring you to leprechaun hill, yeah.

Let's go.

Oh, we have to hold.

Just hide and pop out.

Are there a lot of rainbows over there?

Rainbows, I tell people, I'm a leprechaun.

I'm a real Irish leprechaun.

If we arrive, you won't be a leprechaun.

You'll be killing me.

No, you can't come over there.

Stay here.

Thank you, sir.

I love it.

Thanks, man.

How are you?

Hey, Sammy, what's going on?

Nice to meet you.

So, Sammy and I are huge fans.

Yeah, right on.

That's cool.

Thanks, man.

I appreciate that.

What was the best part about filming and the worst part?

So the best part is the cast.

Family that you make, personalities, so many different people.

The worst part would be

a wedge.

So Sami wants to get on the show.

What's the role you think would be best for him?

Stall cleaner?

No, I think he would work with Gator.

I think he would be in the

cooking up.

Okay, absolutely.

I love that.

He's one of my favorite characters on the show, and he needs someone to play off of his energy.

And he's also an enormous man.

So I don't know.

I think he would be funny.

That would be funny.

Yeah.

It would be like David and Goliath cooking in the kitchen.

That would be funny.

Because there would be any more ones.

If you could fight any other cast member in real life,

for sport or pleasure, either one.

You choose.

There's a couple of different answers.

One of them is not to be spoken.

For fun.

You want that as a ton.

Yeah, I bet you do.

For fun, I would like to fight for a house.

Ooh, yeah.

And how would that go?

You know what?

We wrestled him a few times, as does everybody on set.

It's always pretty fun.

Is Cole as big and bad as he like shows as rip as he is in person?

He is as big and he's imposing and he's large and you definitely don't want to mess with him, but he's a teddy bear.

Yeah, he's a bear at heart.

So were you...

Did you ride horses before the show?

Yeah, I was lucky.

I grew up riding horses, so I had a very stable foundation.

Were you one of the only ones that actually knew how to ride a horse?

No, probably half of us did, but everybody else got trained and worked their butts off every day and then got to the level so everyone's competitive at it.

The worst training acts that I saw a lot of stuff in the accident.

So we did a thing called cowboy poker, where we sit around

in an arena and the bull does its thing and they sit.

So when the bull is getting real mad, they put the stunt actors in.

And they all sit there and one time the bull got into one of our stunt ladies and launched it.

And just, it was catastrophic.

And she took it from something and came back home next year.

So are you an Akron advancing?

Is this a normal thing for you to be on shows like this and stuff like this?

I prefer it.

I'm high speed.

I'd rather do that than

you.

So what's next?

Next is Lion S.

Lion S, another one of my favorite shows.

Sure, next year.

So I'm very excited.

And where can everybody find you?

What do you think everybody?

What have we got?

Yeah, you can find me anyway.

to be

the doadoper.

We're just not ready to go yet, Austin.

What's your strategy?

We're at the wrong event, but whatever.

Well, but all of the men are so disciplined that they have to find inner peace.

And I think I was telling Ian,

that's the discipline's the most important part of it.

Last question, Ian, one more.

Who is your favorite fighter of all time?

I would say Royce Gracie, because when I was a kid, he was like the pioneer of the sport.

He was your bad boy.

Yeah, I'm quite a bit older than the fighters of North Age now.

Back when it was just getting popular, this guy from Brazil was like doing it.

And I'm like, who is this guy?

What is he doing?

He's wearing a gi, and nobody else is.

So

he's a stud.

Well, Ian, it was a pleasure.

It was my pleasure.

Thank you so much.

Very nice meeting you.

All right, we got War Rhino here.

How's it going, man?

Good, man.

Hell yeah.

Are you nominated for anything tonight?

Oh, absolutely not.

But there's some solid nominations coming through.

Who do you think is going to win, Fighter of the Year?

You know, I always think the Stockton Boys should win, but that's just me.

Hell yeah.

You know, but they're not even nominated, but I think that's the MMA's world's loss.

Have you competed in PowerSlot before?

Ooh, I have not.

That hurts my soul watching it.

I don't know if I would do bare knuckle with glass in the wrist before I would do PowerSlap.

Damn.

Really?

Absolutely, 100%.

How calm?

I am deathly afraid of just getting pimped slap for nothing.

I mean, they're not making that much right now because it's so new.

It's too new.

Bare knuckle is amazing.

But you watch these PowerSlap guys, man, and I don't know.

I just don't know what kind of households they grew up in, but respect to those guys.

I've seen some vicious knockouts on PowerSlap.

The knockouts I've seen on PowerSlap are almost worse than UFC.

My boy, my boy does PowerSlap, and he just got knocked out when they went to Saudi Arabia.

And he got knocked out.

That was his first loss.

And it was the first slap just cold-clocked him, and he hit the counter and walked back.

And just watching that hurts me.

I feel like whoever goes first has like a huge advantage.

100%.

And I don't understand the nuances of it, but all respect to everybody that even competes in that.

My hat is 100% tipped.

For real.

Ospinall and John Jones rumors.

Who you got winning that fight if it happens?

I think John Jones

gets stomped if that fight actually goes.

No way, really.

I think it happens at least in the second round.

Wow, that's a hot take.

Yeah, that's my take.

He's undefeated, though.

All respect to him, but I think he gets beat in the second round.

That's why he wants 30 million to do the fight.

Yeah, that's more than he normally normally gets, I'd assume.

Yeah,

I would hope so.

Jeez, Louise.

Well, what's next for you, my man?

You know, there's some big stuff coming up next year, and I got some big announcement going to come out in about April or May.

So I'm looking forward to that announcement.

Oh, yeah, stay tuned.

We'll link in his socials below.

Let's go.

Boom.

Hey, coming off.

Thank you, bro.

It's a little bit awkward right now because I'm not the finest in the room.

Yeah,

I'm usually that guy.

So I heard you're a fighter, right?

Yes.

If you could hurt somebody not with your knuckles, but with those

if it got wild that's what I would do because my hands are volunteer.

I can only imagine a front kick to the face with those or a heel kick.

Yeah, heel kick

Would you mind if I see how sharp they are?

Yo, let's guess how much they cost whoever's closest wins

How much are they over under $1,500?

Under

$789

under Wow, I'm going $450

$500 $450 Oh.

Oh, yeah.

How'd you guess that?

That's crazy.

No, I just knocked it out, you know?

Damn.

Well, speaking of knocking out, who's one fighter who you haven't fought yet and you really want to just be knocking away shot him?

So I wrestled in college against Michael Chandler.

Oh.

And I beat him pretty bad.

And he's got a good wave.

He's upperweight class.

He's bigger than me, but he's got a good wave and he puts on the awesome fight.

So that would be one that I would like to have.

Well, we were just talking about front kicks.

Have you seen that front kick?

Of course.

Are you scared of that?

No.

There's nothing in MMA that scared me.

I was there in person and it made me scared.

I had nightmares.

Oh no.

Well I can see that being a bad thing.

That upkick can get a lot of people's jokes.

Is there any chance Mike Dole Chandler would say yes?

No.

Why not?

Money ain't right.

It ain't about the money at the end of the day at his level.

It's about the pride.

Yeah, yeah.

And he might be afraid that you're going to woke his house.

Man, them childhood dreams, it comes to nightmares.

The problem mine was I wanted to make the NBA going up, so mine was also quite the nightmare i understand well as long as you got a dump shot you can get somewhere i don't have any shot it's a granny shot

all right

yeah thanks for coming on

everything yeah yeah meme coins that's how i made my my money crypto really yeah oh nice yeah yeah nerding out on the meme coins i caught nfts at the right time and uh yeah yeah that's awesome man i i sold my house went all in in crypto at the bottom uh my crypto partner over there we have a youtube channel crypto kings okay well if you want if you want that alpha you know come check us out and i've just grown my my platform big on twitter let's go do some influencing and stuff like that but mainly trading investing i'm in the trenches man nice did you get in on the hoctua coin

no

definitely not you guys got to learn man do not buy celebrity coins most of these guys are getting approached by scammers and it might not even be the hawtui girl that's scamming but the people that launched her coin are absolutely scamming don't do it the only celebrity meme coin i've seen stick around is Aggie.

Aggie's has done good because she embraced the culture, but still not that good.

I mean, it did good.

You can get some gains, but you know, Andrew Tate, obviously, but he's kind of in the crypto space.

So, but if a random influence or a random, you know,

celebrity wants to launch a meme coin, it's probably gonna not be good.

What's the highest multiple you've made off a meme coin?

I've made a

14,000x.

Damn.

Yeah.

That's insane.

So you got in right when it launched then.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Wrote it up all the way to half a billion markdown.

Let's go.

Do you think it's predictable or do you have a formula for meme coins?

We absolutely have a formula.

If you watch the Crypto Kings live stream, if you subscribe to me on X, we give an exact formula of how we do meme coins.

That will give you a way better chance of winning.

And obviously,

it is a luck of the draw and it's also a numbers game.

So you do got to be in the trenches, but you got to take the emotions out, man.

We call it the laws of meme coins.

if you want to learn more check that out what are your price predictions for this bull run for bitcoin and ethereum uh bitcoin i see going to uh

i i predict 169 000 but with everything so bullish it could go to 250.

damn ethereum 12 000 to 15 000 range solana 900 900

um ripple ripple i don't know it's got like a three maybe 4x left a lot of people are chasing that that's retail you're chasing that.

I'm really bullish on Pulse Chain.

Okay.

It's a new blockchain.

It's a layer one.

It's a fork of Ethereum.

It is the founder's Richard Hart.

So he has that cult-like hex community behind him.

And this thing is a cycle one, layer one, about to explode, in my opinion.

A lot of cool things happening there.

Actually, you could even interview my partner.

He was the top 200 wallets in Shib.

Wow.

Yeah.

That one took off.

He's a multi-millionaire, retired from it.

Well, guys, get ready for next year.

Crypto is going to be huge in 2025.

So we'll link his stuff below.

Thanks for coming on.

Absolutely.

Oh, yeah, man.

Cool.

That's awesome, bro.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm in there.

I'm on crypto Twitter every day.

Yeah, me too.

Hey.

Sean, nice to see you guys.

You guys are tall.

Wow.

Let's go.

So Neil, I've seen you on a lot of those year shows lately.

Yep, I've been very happy.

He seems like a great guy.

Taylor Jarrett is unbelievable.

What they do over there, Davey Lash is an incredible producer.

So to go from Yellowstone is amazing and then Revey Reverend, my wife, but also my agent and manager convinced us I'll be on television change.

So thank you, honey.

You on Telstra was incredible.

That was so much fun.

Watching

it.

Oh, yeah.

And then for that was sad.

Like half an end of the day.

Oh, no, no.

We're not done yet.

They're slowly like an onion.

They're unwrapping the hays.

They're making me cry.

I'm slowly unveiling.

Let's just say

my ideal all.

Was that one of your your favorite roles to ever play?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I got to work with Sylvester Tallone every day.

So

Sly is one of those guys that cares so much about not just his work and how hard he works at it, but he loves his family so much and his family's all around.

So Rave and I in the same way.

We always have our kids around whenever we do a production.

I love it.

What do you think the secret is?

Oh, go ahead.

Well, I was going to say, but to have Sly play Sly, the ultra-ego mafia character.

I just love that.

I can also say that I'm going to invite him to the dance with Scorsese Lubizo for Coppola films.

There he is.

I'm going to bring my own character with Taylor Sheridan.

I'm going to get him to buy him.

Yeah, he's the best Mafiosa character, I think.

Maybe in the history of cinema.

I love it.

Was it actually Bill Patulsa?

No, we filmed Atlanta.

I love the colours.

We were filming our own movie called The Last Rodeo, which comes out of May, in the Tulsa, where Neil got the phone call to be on Tulsa King.

We filmed Tulsa.

I don't know what we moved for that.

I love that dream.

Neil saw me Atlanta, which he loves, but no, it wasn't there.

Like, just the whole Tulsa King hotel and everything, and Ford Trend.

Is your favorite role?

You say like the Villain Role?

You feel like you play that really well.

No, I played it.

Yes, I love playing the Villain Role, don't get me wrong.

But I kind of had to do it because I want to intimate scenes.

So what am I going to do?

Like, you're going to be the best bad guy they've ever made.

And that was my design.

But now that Reveta and I are releasing our own movies, I get to fight my character.

So there's extremely good guys coming out with an edge.

Speaking of bad guys, though, we're at the U.S.

MMA.

Who is the baddest guy in the MMMA?

The Rock.

That's on MMA.

I love you anyway.

What an answer.

I'm pretty answering.

I'm an on Alex.

Are you just saying that because he's right here or you mean that?

Oh, my gosh, no.

That's funny.

I love it, man.

It was nice meeting you guys.

I appreciate it.

That's actually good.

Yeah, thanks for coming on, guys.

That was fun.

Glad to meet you.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, you bet.

Oh my gosh.

What are the odds that we find somebody on the carpet who just isn't that funny?

I mean, zero.

You are the spotted spot.

What up?

Nice to meet you, Dylan.

You have heard me.

How you doing?

Good.

You've been blowing up.

Man, I don't know.

You're being crushed now.

How did you even end up with your role with the UX move?

Oh.

How did I end up?

I thought it's a long-winded question.

Should I post it?

Are you squatting a little short?

Yeah.

We start on that, so.

Let's see.

The short version of the long story is that I got invited to an Apex maybe three years ago.

I showed up.

I filmed some content.

I was like, whatever you guys have an opening, call me.

I'll come back.

I'll do whatever you guys want me to do.

Then they have an opening for International Fight Week.

They were like, come through, shoot some content, see how it goes.

We did really well.

We crushed it.

Rest is history.

The rest is history.

You've been absolutely crushing it.

How long have you been working with the USC?

One second, I'm sorry.

I want to say a little over two years now.

And you plan on probably being here forever?

I'm going to die here.

Wow.

I'm going to die here.

In the ring?

Anywhere.

Yeah, have you ever decided to maybe hop in the October yet or no?

Have I decided to?

Yeah, would you ever fight?

No, I can't.

I just.

Her nails are too long.

The nails, you know,

my my lashes, my weaves.

You've done hundreds of interviews now.

Who's been your favorite fighter to interview?

Oh, man.

I mean...

That's such a hard answer.

It's putting her on the spot.

It's putting me on the spot.

I mean, everyone is like, how can you think?

You and Strickland seem like best friends.

He's my brother.

I interviewed him once, and he said, my owner is Snow White.

I'm being aware of that serious.

Wow.

It's funny now.

I mean,

that sounds like,

I mean, that sounds like like something Sean would say.

It means he likes you.

It means well.

That's a compliment.

The worse the insult, the more he likes you.

I had to learn that very early.

I loved it because I know he won't.

You know what's funny?

UFC fighters are the least freaky people because you know they actually won't hurt you because

if you're able to hurt somebody you usually just won't.

No, I mean even

I think Tom Askinal said once

he feels more safe and comfortable in a room full of fighters than anyone else.

I love it.

I love it.

Makes sense.

One athlete who you haven't interviewed yet who you really want to

an athlete I haven't interviewed yet.

That's a tough one.

She's interviewed a lot of people.

I was in House League hockey growing up.

You ran what?

House League hockey.

I played T-ball one home.

She was tough.

T-Ball is on the roster?

Yeah.

Yeah, we can play T-ball.

Okay,

what about Bagnet?

Is that on the.

I've seen, hold on I've seen did you get shot out of a cannon once?

Oh no, that was probably one of my ancestors.

No, I didn't.

Oh a blog you mean.

Maybe some blog.

Yeah yeah like that.

See a serious question though.

There was a dwarf MMA like would you join it?

Or would you let watch it?

Of course I would watch it.

You think you'd have fun watch that?

You think it'd go viral?

Yeah.

Who'd win?

Between John and I'm not sure.

I'm a love and not a fighter just like you, Nina.

So him.

What's your grip strength, you know?

Oh, well,

we should have brought that machine.

Oh my gosh.

I love this.

This is good.

Well, you, Nina, I love this.

Honestly.

Seriously, I haven't seen you in so freaking long.

You are fast.

It's so good to see you.

Sean.

Sean.

Hey, yeah.

Yeah.

Strickland?

No, not Strickland.

I have the number two podcast on Spotify.

We get 100 million views a month.

Jamal Hill's been on the podcast.

What happened with you, you and him today?

He got there, a little face off, little stare down, a few words.

You know, he's part of it.

I saw him doing that before.

Do you think he's still upset from the loss?

Well, it's hard when you lose like that.

Guys always think they could have done they could have done something different.

You know what I mean?

They always want to prove themselves.

Are you looking at a next opponent, anyone you have in mind?

Well, I'm letting the organization decide.

Right now, I'm folks, you know, come back, slow,

let me get back into the brine, and then let's see what they

can do.

I got two of my little friends here.

Do you think he can pick up both of them?

What are your thoughts on having an MMA league solely for people under the height of five foot?

What if you have

the league of men, so

if you're turning

it?

It's a good idea because it's going to give everybody an opportunity.

How many middle people would it take to whoop your ass in the Octagon?

How?

How many of us versus here in the Octagon?

Well, I don't know, but it depends.

Do they train, are they strong?

That makes it more more complicated.

You gotta be definitely more than one.

Okay, okay.

You have the hardest punch in the world, I would say.

I want you rating his punch on me one to ten.

Three.

Three.

Sorry, bro.

Don't improve.

You have to train me.

Seek ten.

Yeah.

Definitely.

My guy, I appreciate you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, boys.

It was very nice meeting you, Simon.

How's it going?

Who are we here with today?

Who am I here with?

My wife.

She's around here somewhere.

Let's go.

You guys going to power slap tomorrow, too?

No, I got guys.

We got Timba Garimba fighting on Saturday, so I got a lot of coaching duties, so I won't be doing much of anything.

Let's go.

Who else is fighting at your coaching?

Just Timba, but we have, you know, Al Joe's like a teammate of of ours, so Al Joe will be on the card as well.

So team for both those guys.

Are they favored to win?

Timba is, Al Joe is not.

Ooh.

A little upset in the making?

I mean, shit, you know, I think they're overlooking or underlooking Al Joe, right?

You know, because he's a fucking, he's tough as shit.

You got that inside scoop, so you're probably not even allowed to bet, right?

Oh, no, he shut that down years ago.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah, somebody ruined that for us.

I don't even know what happened, but.

Yeah, no, no, we're not allowed to bet.

We're not allowed to bet.

Damn.

All right.

Who do you got winning the title card tomorrow or Saturday?

You know, I lean towards Pantoja.

I think he's

eased into being a champion, understands being a champion.

And, dude, he's just very well coached by Pahumpa.

He's one of the most underrated coaches in the game.

I don't want to say underrated.

The guy's nominated for Coach of the Year again, but

I really value when I see good coaching, and that to me is Pahumpa.

I think Pantoja's got the game plan and the skills to go get that fight.

Let's go.

Rumors of a John Jones Ospin all fight.

Who do you got if that happens?

Oh, it's tough, man.

Like, I've, you know, John is the GOAT.

And I think when when you're breaking that guy down, he's an enigma.

And not only is he an enigma, he's figuring you out and processing data all at the same time.

We're trying to figure him out while you're fighting.

But, you know, I've worked with Tom in the past.

Tom is amazingly athletic.

He's got the skill set to beat him, the hand speed, the footwork.

So if anybody were to upset John that's in the UFC right now, I definitely think it's Aspen.

Wow.

Since the fight's evolving so fast, how often are you changing your training techniques?

You know, that is huge.

And remember, this sport is constantly evolving.

We have to be on the cutting edge.

Thankfully, we have such a big gym and a big team that we get a lot of people in.

I train with a lot of the guys from the fighting nerds, they come and train with us.

So we get to see different styles and adapt.

And that, to me, is the most important part about this sport is evolving and trying to stay on the cutting edge and see what other guys are doing really well.

Absolutely.

I feel like the skill level is so high now, it's really hard to be undefeated these days.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, we were laughing a couple days ago around my gym alone at Trink Couture.

Four or five, six-year-old kids that are just training every day.

They're not playing other sports.

This is what they do.

They're training in MMA.

So by the time they turn 16, 17, 18 years old, like the Raul Rosases of the world, they're competing.

Not only are they competing, they're beating top-level guys.

So it's huge.

Absolutely.

I don't want to cut your hand off.

There he is, the champ.

What's up, man?

Good to see you.

Well, man, what's next for you?

Where can people find you?

I'll be here this week for Timba and then

on the road.

Eric underscore XC MMA.

Boom.

Check him out.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks, John.

My man, all dressed up.

Let's go.

Little, we're just little around that.

Super tall.

Oh,

you're kind of tall yourself.

You think they could survive in an off-road race with you in the car?

Yeah, I think so.

Okay.

I don't think the airbag would go off because of our weight.

We don't have airbags.

This man don't crash.

Did you have an extra large helmet?

Because this big dog only needs one.

Yeah, 100%.

We'll get you down.

We'll hit you with a fire suit on and two gloves.

What's that?

Some race shoes.

You've been racing lately?

I did the Mint 400 this year.

We're doing kind of a restructuring of the team, but we started again at King of the Hammers in January.

Nice.

How long was that one, the race 400?

400 was nine hours and 14 minutes, if I remember correctly.

My biggest question is: how do you go to the bathroom during the race?

Just like that.

You have to go out your bathroom.

Like, he literally, as you asked that, he went.

Oh, he just went.

I can smell it because it's right.

His crush is with a high level to me.

He had a sparrow just last night, too.

Yeah.

You don't have time to pull over, man.

It's honestly, like, the Baja 1000 when I won it in 2012 was 20 hours 14 minutes and 59 seconds and I have a cath I have like a

catheter goes over instead of in.

So it's like a it's like a really thick condom that has a hose that goes out the bottom of my shoe.

I wish my

really thick condom.

So obviously we solved the issue of if you have to feed what if you have to do the other thing.

When you don't

when you don't really have to go number two and you take half a dose of Peptobismol, it clogs you up for enough time to get to the finish.

I feel like you're going at those high speeds too, you're not focused on google either.

No, the issue is a seismic environment.

The issue, though, is you held in crap for that long and then you win and you have to have champagne, which kind of makes you loaded.

That crap has to be a monster.

Yes,

it's pretty gnarly.

Do you even have time to eat?

In the car,

I do 250 calories every 52 minutes for nine hours.

Very calculated.

Simple and complex carbohydrates.

I have about eight and a half ounces of water, and then I micro-dose caffeine around four in the morning to seven in the morning.

Damn, yeah, because you're probably burning a lot of calories thinking about your driving, right?

Yeah, for sure.

You know, it's...

136 miles an hour at 2 o'clock in the morning on a road that you've been down three times.

And sometimes it's dark.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, it's always dark at three o'clock in the morning.

So you're going 136 miles an hour for almost 20 hours straight.

No, no, no.

No, I go back and forth between five miles an hour and 150 miles an hour.

You know, I go like 115, 117 through three four-foot bumps over and over.

My racetruck, you know, it's like any race car.

It's a million dollar piece of equipment.

But it doesn't slow down, it doesn't accelerate very well, and it doesn't like to change direction.

It's designed to go through really big bumps at a high-range speed.

I feel like that was exactly how he walks.

Yes, it's really accurate.

Yeah, and don't slow down, and you make it through a lot of bumping.

Yes, exactly.

All right, thanks for coming on, brother.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, power slap.

Yeah, are you going to power slap tomorrow?

Yeah, I'll be there.

Would you ever do power slap?

No, probably not.

UFC was enough for you?

No, yeah, well, it's funny.

I would absolutely fight much before I would do a power slap.

Yeah.

So, I got that answer from a few fighters as well.

Yeah, yeah.

I'll tell you what though, the live event is incredible.

I mean, the things that Lorenzo and Dana can do in terms of live event,

it's incredible.

Because people, you know, yeah, you look at power slap, there's some things that

are interesting and maybe unattractive, but when you go to live event,

it's incredible.

It absolutely is an incredible live event.

Were you at the sphere for the UFC?

I wasn't, actually.

I was out of town for that long time.

I heard that was one of the best events ever.

I did.

I saw a lot of pictures and videos, and it looked amazing.

But I needed to see it.

I did just on TV.

Yeah.

If Sean won, I think that would have been a big fight for his resume.

Yeah,

I mean, that's a tough fight, you know.

And people forget, like, you're continuously fighting the best guys in the world.

And I mean, just what Sean's done to this point is really incredible.

So, I mean, listen, to win a world title one time, I mean,

that's a lifelong accomplishment and dream.

And even to do it or defend your belt or repeatedly do it, I mean,

that's relatively unheard of.

Absolutely.

He's incredible.

Yeah, how did you handle your first loss?

Was it really tough on you mentally?

Not really.

I mean, I was still kind of wrestling a lot in the wrestling mindset.

And the advantage a lot of wrestlers have, too, is

they're quick to move on.

In a lot of tournaments, you'll wrestle three, four, five times in a day.

With a fight, yeah, you get frustrated, you get upset, upset, reflecting on what happened, this and that, but you just, for me, it was just like I wanted to get back in there quick and as soon as possible.

That makes sense.

Did you like wrestling more or fighting?

Oh, fighting way more.

Really, why?

Yeah, just

much more freedom.

You know, you could really do what you want.

You know, wrestling's a little bit more limited, you know,

and obviously you can strike.

You know, it's funny because I could take advantage of areas that other people won't get at.

Like, I'd fight guys that are way better wrestlers than I am, but I could make them a little more predictable in a way.

Or if I'm fighting guys that are way better striking,

I'm going to be able to control that gate where the fight goes.

So that's definitely, it was always an advantage.

I can see that.

Do you think wrestling should change some rules to make it more interesting for TV audiences?

It's tough, man.

I talk to Chale about that a lot.

And

he's been around some of the best wrestlers on the planet.

And

I think they're doing a better job marketing and getting it out there.

But at the end of the day, it's like you do got to make it a little more exciting.

right?

You got to get that buzz or even maybe put on a better live event because,

you know, just to see what the

UFC has done and even other organizations in terms of live event,

it's tough, you know, because when you have such exciting sport, you know, exciting events in MMA and then you go to wrestling, yeah, it's not as exciting, but they could definitely ramp up the marketing side.

Absolutely.

There's that jiu-jitsu meme of like falling on your back, getting in position, you know?

So these sports got to figure it out, I guess.

I know, I know.

Like, as a competitor, it's a lot of fun.

Wrestling, grappling, jiu-jitsu, all of it.

It's so much fun.

Just not that fun to watch.

You know, that's the reality.

So, when you got events like PowerSlap, MMA, UFC, it's, I mean, I don't know if there's anything more exciting to watch.

Absolutely.

Will we ever see you in a fight again, whether it's boxing, MMA, or anything?

You know,

perhaps.

Perhaps.

Never say never.

I could say Power Slap's definitely a no.

Even for a million dollars?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I would definitely say you'll see me fight before I do that.

Fair enough.

Where can people find you, man?

Yeah, I'm on.

I mean,

I'm lucky that I live here in Las Vegas.

So I'm around at least a lot of the events here.

Twitter, Instagram, Ellenberger, MMA.

So I still try to

stay close to this board as much as I can.

Awesome.

The link below.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Appreciate it, brother.

Yeah.

Thank you.