The Brutal Truth About Fighting Friendships in the UFC I Anthony Pettis DSH #494

I mean if you do Ramadan, you already know the dedication level is like.

That's the fasting?

Yeah, the fasting, yeah.

I have teammates that do Ramadan plus train with us.

So let them drink any water after practice.

And I'm like, man, if you could do that, that's a different level of toughness.

Bro, I tried playing like basketball game on a fast and I felt so weak, dude.

Yeah, lightheaded.

And these guys are sparring and doing full classes.

So they could do that.

The UFC is easy.

That's not right.

Yeah, that's why I was like, man, if you could do that, that's a different level of like mind control.

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And here's the episode.

All right, guys, we got a fighting legend in the building today.

Anthony Pettis, thanks for coming on, man.

Absolutely.

You just came off the karate combat fight, right?

How did that go?

Went well.

I mean, honestly, it was my first time doing something besides MMA.

I boxed before, but like just the striking portion of it.

It's a cool rule set.

I think they got something cool going on.

Like it's very entertaining.

They're bringing in the right names.

So I'm interested to see like where that company goes.

And that's interesting because you don't have to be in your prime to do it, right?

Because it's more technical.

Yeah, I mean, you got to have a karate background, like a traditional martial art background, just because the rule set is more based towards traditional martial arts.

You can't do the low kicks like in MMA.

You can't take people down.

You're not allowed to do the jiu-jitsu part.

So it's really just...

more competition for like because I grew up doing taekwondo and karate as a kid.

There was no place for us to compete besides mixed martial arts.

So that's kind of why all the traditional martial artists transitioned into MMA.

But there's so many traditional martial martial artists out there there's probably more traditional martial artists than there are mixed martial artists damn i didn't know that wow so you figure like all these well karate and taekwondo are just done so well as a business a lot of parents put their kids in taekwondo or karate right away they grew up doing it but then once you turn like 15 or 16 there's like really nowhere to go with it unless you went to the olympics right but then mixed martial arts came and was so popular and you know kind of all the people transitioned over interesting yeah you fought in a ton of leagues you've done boxing what was your favorite league to fight in ufc i mean there's nothing like that walking out you know walking out in the ufc crowd i think what they do as a a business is why it's so done well.

Like, Dana White's a genius when it comes to, you know, marketing and making the UFC stand out.

But the crowd that's, you know, part of there, I fought in Japan, actually,

Satama Arena, 40,000 people.

And that was the craziest.

That was probably the craziest of the people.

40,000 people.

And they were so polite.

In Japan, they clap like this.

Gulf clap.

It's not like America.

They're not screaming.

No, no, no one's drinking.

They understand martial arts.

Wow.

Was that your favorite venue?

Yeah, my favorite venue, yeah, Japan.

Which fight was up?

Joe Lozan actually got a head kick knockout too so damn went perfect that's crazy man you've had some really iconic fights man when you look back at your career are there any fights you really think about to this day man i think i would say um

the the ones i'm proud of is moving up weight classes like when i went on fought wonderboy wonderboy was never been knocked out he still has never been knocked out i was the only guy to ever knock wonderboy out wow he's a good friend of mine too though so i don't think wonder boy it's it's competition um but like i would say one of the that was probably my my one that had to earn because like you know i moved up a weight class i'm fighting a guy who's he was top three at the time and uh you know i was coming i was coming from 155 to 170.

He's a 15-pound jump.

Then the rest of them are 10 pounds.

So it's 45, 35.

See, I jumped up 15 pounds, fought one of the best, and got a knockout.

I feel like when people move up, most of the time they lose.

Yeah, it's hard, you know, because it's like a different, the guys that are at 170 usually cut from like 200 pounds.

And then you're finding guys at 55 that are probably 185, you know, 190.

So it's like.

MMA became like a weight cutting competition.

Yeah.

That's nuts, man.

Are there any fights you lost that you feel like you should have won?

Man, there's so many of them.

I've never been knocked out.

A knock on wood, I've never been knocked out in a fight, never been submitted.

Actually, I've been submitted one time, so I gotta take that.

Who was that?

Carlos Diego Ferreira.

It was one of my last fights at lightweight.

The weight cut was just killing me.

That's why I moved up weight classes.

Like, I think as you get older and as you mature in the sport, the weight cut gets harder and harder, man.

Like, you know, it's just harder to shed them pounds.

And I also fought at 145.

So, you know, I've done a lot to my body, bro.

You got a big range.

Yeah, bro.

So, my 145 to 200 pounds, I fought Roy Jones Jr.

at 200 pounds.

Holy crap.

Was that the boxing?

Boxing fight, yo.

That's nuts, dude.

When you lose, is it always by like one mistake or is it usually just

it's probably like a combination of mistakes like because like in mixed martial arts there's so many ways to win I mean you got the wrestling you got the the striking part of it you know you got cage control I usually use against wrestlers guys that pressure me put me on the cage and hold me down my my strength is striking so like if I can get my range and my rhythm that's when I usually have success but The guys that I struggle with are like, you know, guys that are good at striking, but also have that forward pressure with wrestling.

Like RDA.

RDA is the guy who beat me for my belt you know took my belt from me his style was just in my face the whole fight you know we did 25 minutes and he was just non-stop in my face damn that must be so annoying to fight against so annoying yeah you're like you it feels like a bad dream yeah you've had them dreams like i don't know if you ever had one but like in your dream you hit somebody and like nothing happens

that's how it felt damn they're just like a brick wall walking straight at you i mean their cardio is so good too so you really got to knock them out like it's just like a non-stop pressure yeah five rounds is a is a long fight man five rounds is a long fight my last fight well with droy jones i did uh eight three minute rounds so it's 24 minutes so yeah geez were you more gassed gassed during that or ufc actually ufc'd because of the wrestling because i think in when it comes to boxing you know you just got two hands you got you know understand the rhythm you gotta you have to have like a controlled pace it's like a marathon right whereas like mma is like a sprint like you just go like you got the knees you got the wrestling yeah so i think mma is a lot more tiring i had more success at mma just because like my skill set i think i had the jiu-jitsu to back it back it up a lot of submissions off my back and yeah some crazy knockouts yeah a lot of good fighters have the jiu-jitsu back on the stretch that's i would say jiu-jitsu is probably the most practical martial art for anybody to practice like if you know jiu-jitsu you're gonna beat the guy that doesn't know jiu-jitsu just because there's actual rules and and regulations that you know put you in that position to like break an arm yeah put somebody to sleep and then the rest of them are kind of like you got to get tough and you got to get durable kickboxing kind of the same thing absolutely talk to me about the mental approach was there any opponents you feared going into the fight I never fear opponents.

That's one thing.

My dad told me a quote as a kid, and I lost my dad when I was 16 in a house robbery.

So like when he died, like I, I, I, we, I grew up doing martial arts with him.

He kind of taught me and my brothers like the competition side of it.

Like, you better win this tournament.

And when he passed away, a quote that he gave me was, never let another man put fear in your heart.

And I just lived by that.

You know, I was like, whether it's business, whether it's fighting, whether it's, you know, whatever it is, like, I always, I always had that in my head.

And when I go to my opponents, I, I, I try to intimidate them, man.

Like the spare offs, like, you can win, you can win before the fights.

Conor McGregor, one of the best at doing it.

He wins before the fight even starts.

He gets in your head.

He gets in your head.

He gets you emotional, and it breaks your game plan.

So I think, you know, that's, I played, I played a lot of that in my career.

I saw him do that with Aldo, man.

Yep.

Five seconds.

I mean.

Crazy.

And Aldo's one of the best.

I mean, I'd say he's one of the goats of mixed martial arts, what he's done in his career.

To see what Connor did to him, it just broke that mental.

And he was never the same after that.

Never the same.

It was crazy.

It's crazy how one fight can just mentally break you for the rest of your career.

Yeah, because if you think you're invincible and all of a sudden you realize you're not, then like the next training camp, like, man, I got to fix that hole.

And then you kind of over.

overemphasize on that hole and then you forget what you were good at yeah and it takes away from your power and you see guys you know transition transition, like, oh, he was a great striker.

All of a sudden he got knocked out once, and then he became a wrestler.

He becomes a jiu-jitsu guy.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I think that's what really happens.

And then you get coaches as well.

Like, the coaches have to be, you know, mistakes happen.

In mixed martial arts, it's not like boxing.

Like, boxing, they lose once.

Done.

MMA, like, you got guys like the champs now, they all have losses, like a couple losses.

It's just like figuring out what the hole was, still staying true to what your strength is, and trying to fix that hole.

Yeah.

So when you had that first big loss, where were you at mentally after that?

Oh, man.

It was rough.

I never, I've i've never been bled in a fight before that fight wow that was the first time i got hit uh got cut you know a concussion afterwards so i i felt how it felt to be on the losing side of that and i was with uh my wife at the time well we were married at the time but i remember telling her i'm like man if this is how it is i don't know how much i would how i want to do this like i this is like this is rough so like i was off for like three or four months and then holy crap came back for a training session and then i tear my elbow first training session damn and i'm off for another like four or five months recovering so yeah it was like from that loss to my next fight was almost a a year and a half.

Holy crap.

So that must have been probably your darkest moment.

Yeah, dark time, man.

Like the highest highs.

Cause like when I, when I came in, I signed with the WEC, which was like the UFC's smaller weight classes.

Yeah.

The 125, 135, 145.

Then 155 was the only division that like crossed over.

So when I won the belt and the WEC, I was guaranteed a title shot in the UFC.

You're talking about like minor leagues to the major, major leagues.

So I was coming over as the champ.

I was on a weedies box.

You know, I've accomplished some crazy stuff in my career.

And then boom, that one fight happens

right back right back to the zero which fight was up rafael dosanos damn yeah i lost my belt how how'd the fight go did he submit you or no no he won a decision oh

he just he just outscored me on the ground he took me down he landed some big punches like the first the first exchange he's a south ball and i should have went away from his power side i went to his power side boom got caught oh so you're supposed to go towards the power side when you go away from his left hand so like if he's a south ball you go towards his right because if you go this way power comes and i made the mistake got hit with a big punch Couldn't see for the rest of the fight.

Damn.

He just kind of just imposed his will really.

And I hit him with some big stuff.

Like, when I watched the fight back, I'm like, man, I hit him with some high kicks and it just didn't affect him.

Like, he really wanted to win.

That's crazy.

So you literally couldn't see.

Couldn't see.

Yeah.

When I was

fighting?

And you still had to fight.

Yeah.

Why didn't you just drop out?

Yeah, because then you lose.

And that was my belt.

So it's like, yo,

if I lose the belt, it's really hard to get a title shot in the UFC.

It's not like it's really hard.

Yeah, it takes years, right?

And it takes like the right,

the formula has to be perfect.

Like, you got guys that won 15 times tony ferguson you know won so many fights in a row never got a title shot just because it just didn't add up didn't line up right so a lot of things play into that it's sad to see his last few fights man i feel like he maybe he should have called it earlier he's one of those crazy guys too though it's like he's it's he's like uh his fighting style was good because he was in your face and you know non-stop throwing elbows and now you see him uh you know the way he fights it's just like little technical errors it's not like he's not not in shape it's like he's just doing things differently right and you fought him right i fought him yeah what was that like Man, that was like one of my favorite fights.

Me and him had a great fight.

I broke my hand in the second round.

Damn.

And I had dropped him.

So I hit him with like a kick punch.

So I threw right kick, right punch.

He drops.

And I just throw an overhand right, hit him right on the top of the head.

And then like he already had me cut open.

And this was pretty funny.

He's like, I'm on top of him.

And like, I don't even know why I did it, but I'll just like put my tongue out and I'm bleeding in my face.

Like, it was like one of those in the moment type things.

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Well, click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories cool entrepreneurs to talk to about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode guys the next round and in between rounds my coach had to stop it because my hand was broke ah so he won that one he won that one damn so if you didn't break your hand you probably i think i was winning on that scorecards because i dropped him and i was already winning that the first round so i feel like on the scorecards i was winning but his style like without a big punch like he's gonna keep coming forward with elbows and right do more damage than i really needed to at that time so he's like nate diaz he just keeps coming.

Oh, man, he's just non-stop.

Yeah, and you fought Nate too.

I fought Nate as well.

I fought everybody.

That's nuts, dude.

The Nate one, was that like you're just throwing punches and he's not even getting affected?

So I hit Nate with a big high kick.

First round, I won that round.

I hit him with a low kick and he never checks.

And for some reason, he checked.

I broke my foot on his, on his knee.

Oh,

right after I break my foot, I'm like, I tell my coach, I'm like, don't stop the fight.

I got to fight this one through.

And his pressure is just...

ridiculous like if you don't have it for him too if you don't have a bomb to keep him off or like range and movement to to keep him off you He's just in your face relentless with numbers and yeah, so he just he won a scorecard as well.

That's how he always wins man scorecards always

third round.

He just doesn't drop and he has that cardio He does them triathlons and you know, he does he does he does a lot of like cardio work to and it's a weird style because like in MMA there's there's not that many heavy level boxers and that he had that boxing style softball in your face no slaps and like yeah, it was has he ever been knocked out man he has oh he has yeah Josh Thompson knocked him out actually with a high kick that was like the only time I think he's ever been knocked out yeah I've seen him they They usually have to stop the fight because he's just bleeding so much.

He just comes.

He just comes.

Him and his brother, same style.

Yeah.

Nick, too.

Nick, too, yeah.

When you were fighting him, like, what was going through your head, honestly?

Don't lose.

I was like, man, I cannot lose to this guy.

Because me and him had some beef back in the day.

So when I became the champ, he was like, he was around forever, right?

And then I came in and I just exploded.

They put me on the Wheaties box.

I did my Showtime kick.

And I think, you know, he was like, yo, I should be in that spot.

He always would say that, like, yo, I want to fight the Wheaties guy because I was in the box.

And then when we had our fight, like, we already had drama and beef.

Actually, happened at a nightclub in Vegas.

It's like my crew and his crew were like talking back and forth.

Someone threw a drink.

And, like, ever since then, like, we all, we always had like some kind of like a little tension.

Yeah.

His crew runs deep, too.

Oh, they run deep.

Yeah.

They're 15, 20.

Yeah.

They're all from Kelly, too.

But after the fight, you know, we squashed the beef and, you know, it is what it is.

Nice.

So some of that beef is real that you saw.

Oh, that one was real.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Some of that's real.

I never know what's like real and what's kind of just smart.

It's hard to tell now.

I think after McGregor, everybody like thought that they had to like talk

sell sell fights even people can't even do it i know yeah it's like bad it's bad talking but i think when mcgregor happens like the mcgregor effect everybody tries to talk

that's why i respect khabib because he never talked and he just won yeah no i respect khabib a lot too and and then and where he comes from sambo i would say that's the best martial art to do for mixed martial arts because it's basically mixed mixed martial arts yeah and they've been doing it since you know as kids and and and they they're dedicated i mean if you do ramadan you already know the dedication levels like that's the fasting yeah the fasting yeah i have teammates that do ramadan plus train with us so we can drink any water after practice and i'm like man if you could do that that's a different level of toughness bro i tried playing like basketball game on a fast and i felt so weak dude yeah lightheaded and these guys are sparring and doing fool classes and waiting tonight to eat yeah so they could do that the ufc is easy that's not right yeah that's why i was like man if you could do that that's a different level of like mind control and body control that's probably why those guys don't lose man i agree yeah i think andrew tate said it he's like man if you look at like the most of the guys that are champs are like around that area like look at their religion background it comes back to that like if you could have that kind of discipline it's not it's not hard to put that into fighting and then they don't drink they don't smoke they don't they don't do any of that other stuff so they're very focused on that one goal yeah were you strict on that as well i was yeah yeah no alcohol during training camps i mean i drink out of camps like when i'm not in training camps for eight weeks i usually don't drink alcohol well i mean none of that nothing while i'm in training camp then i'll do my time off have some fun hang out with the wife go on ak and then come back and do it again load up

yep are you doing semen retention also during the eight weeks no i was never part of that no i've i've never believed in that i i mean i had sex during fight week

yeah so it's not true then i mean i've i've i've had sex during fight week and i've had knockout fights and then i've had sex during fight week and i've lost so it's like yeah i've never got enough evidence yeah i never i never i never thought it would affect my game plan i mean you're cutting weight too so it's like you're cutting weight and you're like miserable so it's like my wife's there i'm like man let's let me kill some time might as well all right right how long you been with her uh 10 years now 12 12 years we're she's been there from early days from the early days yeah she she was there when i first won the belt and then all the way to another that's a real one bro.

She's seen everything, man.

She's seen the highest, highs, the lowest, lows.

She's helped me out.

You know, after the RDA fight, we were in Dallas, Texas.

We stayed probably for, I want to say four or five extra days just because I was still trying to recover to get out the hotel room.

Damn.

That's how bad you were.

You were that banged up?

Yeah, it was just like, you know, injuries and the face was all cut up and stuff.

And I just, and I lost.

And like, when you leave, when you leave, when you walk out, you know, everybody's seen that.

So it's like my mom, people at the grocery store are like, oh man, you lost your last fight.

And it's just like one of those things that kind of fucks you up psychologically.

it's like the walk of shame almost in college right

and it's like everywhere it doesn't go away until your next fight damn that's rough so yeah talk to me about like the because the social media too is probably rough if you have a bad fight and i think when i when i came in so when i won the belt instagram just came out so like it was just starting to happen where like people had access to you at all times and uh you know i my my instagram blew up really quick and i had a lot of people like giving their input like hey you pettis needed to do wrestling or change camps or you know all these all this advice and yeah i i've i grew up in and understood like all right you got to filter that like you can you can see it but if it if it plants a seed and like it changes the way you think then you've got to like go back and reassess like where you're at agreed it's tough these days with so much scrutiny especially on twitter dude people have no chill on twitter i mean bro anywhere facebook too bro like wherever wherever they have access to you they have no chill no absolutely dude um so are you going all in on boxing uh i'm boxing again so i'm gonna do one more uh next my next fight will be a boxing fight i wouldn't say i'm done with mixed martial arts yet i just took a break you know i've got other opportunities coming up um Money's great outside of MMA right now, outside of the UFC.

But

my passion was boxing for a long time.

Like I was really good at boxing.

I just, I, MMA just made sense at the time.

More money at the time, right?

At the time, it was quicker to get money in mixed martial arts.

And I had that quick success.

Now that I have a name, you know, I get to pick and choose when I want to fight and who I want to fight.

So it helps.

I saw you say on another show, you've never bet on your own fight.

Yeah, never.

How come?

I just didn't believe in it.

I'm a betting man.

I bet a lot.

I've done very well in betting and I've made some big wins.

But I think like once you put it on yourself, like, I'm not even thinking about that.

Like, my only focus back then was like getting two paychecks, maybe three.

You know, the show money, the win money, and then a bonus if I got a knockout.

And that was like all I would focus on.

Right.

And then, like, when I had time to watch fights and like gather information and see, like, when you're a fighter, you know, like, what styles win fights and which ones, you know.

And in mixed martial arts, it's crazy because like you would think somebody would win and then boom, they lose.

MMA math never really makes sense.

But I think, you know, for me, it's like

the guys I know that I train with, the guys that I know, like how hungry they are and how much they want it.

Yeah.

Those are the guys I usually put five bucks on.

What was your win rate in terms of betting on UFC fights?

Man, I was doing very well.

My biggest one was my little bro, the fight before this.

He just came back from an injury and he was fighting the 145-pound champ in Bellator.

And he was a 35-pound champ.

And he beat the 45-pound champ.

And I think he was like plus 300.

350.

I got him.

Yeah, plus 350.

I put like 50,000 on him.

Put 50K on him.

I put 75 all together.

Did you tell him before you did it?

Yeah, he knew.

knew.

He knew.

Yeah, he knew.

Yeah, you put that pressure on him, man.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he knows what's up.

He's like, I'm a big boy.

I take my own risk.

That makes sense, though, because most people would say that's gambling, but you have so much knowledge in the sport that you can make educated decisions.

I'm definitely still gambling, though, because

I've made some pics where I'm like, oh, this one's guaranteed to win.

I mean, this last weekend, bro, like, Ilya Toporia comes and beats Volkanowski.

Oh, you had Volk?

I didn't bet.

I didn't bet on that one, actually.

But, like, if I had to pick, I would have said Volk.

Wow.

And, you know, to see Ilya do that, man, it's like, man, you just, you never know.

Yeah, because the experience, I thought Volk would have him, right?

Yeah.

And he has this more well-rounded game.

You know, Volk can kick, he can wrestle, he has good jujitsu defense.

Ilya just came with him hands.

I don't think Ilya ever threw a high kick or a body kick in any of his fights.

Only punches and low kicks.

That's actually crazy.

That's crazy, yeah.

Because you could counter that knowing that.

Yeah, and he's, and he just, he has success with it, man.

So I think, I think when you get to those certain guys, like when I was on my rise to the top, you're so focused and obsessed with the sport that you're like, you just think you're invincible.

That's how I felt, man.

I would train in any training room.

I'd come to Vegas.

I'd go to all the gyms here spar all the best guys and i just i knew i was like yeah i'm the best in the world you were that guy i was that guy yeah and then like once once like i said once you get that one first loss you become you become human and you're like oh i gotta figure that part out yeah a lot of people have losses now like you said though it's not like the old days where you were undefeated yeah it's hard to be undefeated man like there's so many good guys like if you see like i do my own fight show apfc i just did a fight show in manchester i had a 15 year old and a 14 year old fighting but it's like it's pancreasian style so you can't hit to the face okay but the level of technique and skill they had was insane i'm like man these guys when they turn 18 that no one's gonna be even close to their levels one of them had like 50 fights and he's only 14 15 years old 50 fights so you figure the experience level these kids are getting like the the game of mixed martial arts about to be insane in a couple years yeah have you seen it evolve from when you first got in like the skill level go up a lot million percent like when i first got in it was like practitioners like a guy that had really good wrestling or a guy that had really good jiu-jitsu or a striker now everybody knows everything every single style it's like it's a full mixed martial arts these guys are good at everything and you have to be these guys because you're fighting so many different styles definitely you can't just specialize in boxing or striking right you don't see the specializers especially the guys that are specializing anything like they're not they're not winning fights like they used to because like yeah other guys know like yeah i'll wrestle this guy or i'll you know take him down dude jiu-jitsu on this guy yeah look at mcgregor right striking used to be enough to just win fights but now i feel like you need more than just striking definitely you got to be well-rounded i think he's lost what five straight now he hasn't went he hasn't won in a while yeah it's been like almost 10 years dude yeah it's been a lot but that run was crazy what was going through your head during that run Man, that was right after my run.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So when he beat Aldo, I just lost my belt to RDA.

So

our paths didn't cross because of that.

So like he fought Eddie Elvarez, and I just fought Eddie Elvarez like two weeks, maybe two months before that.

Yeah.

Eddie beat RDA.

So it was like.

So you were right there.

You almost fought him if you won that fight.

If I'd have won Eddie or RDA,

me and McGregor would have fought.

Wow.

That would have been a fun fight, too.

I mean, two strikers, right?

Yeah, his style is fun.

My style is fun.

I think it would have been a great fight for the fans.

That's nuts.

You think Holo ever fight again, or you think he's done?

I mean, he just made so much money.

That's the hard thing.

And this is why I think the UFC has such a great business model.

They pay their fighters enough to have to fight again.

Like, they're not paying these guys millions of bucks and like, all right, go take a break for a couple, like boxing.

Like, MMA, like, you get, you get your couple hundred thousand, and then they know, like, all right, next year, next couple months, you know, this guy's going to need to fight.

And I think that's why they're so busy.

Like, MMA fighters got to stay busy because they want to, you know.

Yeah, pay for their families.

Boxers only fight like once a year, usually, maybe twice.

And then the high-level guys, Canelo Everez, you know, twice a year.

Yeah.

and he's making crazy money per fight.

So it's like he could take his time off and pick and choose his opponents.

And UFC, the UFC tells you who you're fighting next, and you got to say yes, otherwise they'll offend you.

Oh, so you have no say.

Oh, well, you can say no, but if you say no, then they'll pass you up for the next guy.

Got it.

So you kind of have to just

have to say that.

That's who it is.

Wow.

And you can't even request fights.

You got to just.

You can call out guys and like, you know, say, this is who I want to fight next, but it's ultimately up to the UFC.

Like,

their job and their matchmaker jobs is to put on interesting fights.

That's right.

And that's why they have such great products because the best are fighting the best.

How do you balance friendships?

Because you probably had to fight some of your boys.

And like,

can you still knock them out if they're friends?

Oh, man.

Yeah.

Wonder boy.

Wonder boy was definitely one of my friends.

I would say, I mean, I wouldn't say we were best friends, but we definitely were cool.

Like, we had acquaintances.

I knew his dad.

Yeah.

And then leading up to that fight, we fought in Virginia.

No, no, we fought in

Tennessee, Tennessee, I think.

I forget where we fought at.

But I know I was supposed to lose that fight.

Everybody was there to watch him win.

And, you know, his dad was doing all the radio shows with him.

And we had to do a press tour together.

And then once, you know,

we square off, you know, it's like, all right,

time to enter the cage.

And when we get in there, I see his face.

It's different than when we were hanging out and talking.

And I'm like, all right, now it's time.

Now it's time to go.

It's like a switch.

It's like a switch.

You got to be able to turn it on and off.

Damn.

I don't know.

I'm picturing my best friend.

And I don't know if I can knock him out, dude.

I think it's a killer instinct.

I think if he's trying to knock you out, you could.

Okay.

Fair, fair.

You feel a punch come at your face or your nose starts bleeding.

You're like, oh okay we're back in a fight that makes sense yeah what about with dana did you have a friendship with him during oh man me and dana are really good friends still good friends yeah i was actually just with dana um at chris angel's show i'm doing uh me and chris are partners in my apfc so chris is yeah he's helping me do the production side i don't know if you ever seen his show out here in vegas yeah i saw you on it when i was researching yeah his show is his show is crazy like his uh oh not his show i saw you on his podcast oh yeah his show so like his show in planet hollywood he has a studio that where he does his mind freak show oh dope but that's where we're gonna start doing apfc shows in there so nice you know the same level of production, like all the stuff that he could do, but with mixed martial arts being like

the key, the hook of it.

But yeah, so me and Dana, my Dana helped me

when I was up and coming,

the fight I won after the Henderson fight, after I did the showtime kick, you know, I was supposed to fight for a world title shot at the UFC.

They fought to a draw, so that didn't happen.

Then they gave me Clay Guida, and that was my first loss in the UFC, Clay Guida.

And it was like a wrestling guy.

Again, he didn't beat me up.

He just held me down for three rounds.

And right after that fight, I knew I was like, all right, I'm going on a run.

And that's when I got my title shot.

I beat, you know, Cowboy Cerrone,

Joe Lozan.

There was a bunch of guys in a row.

And then I got my title shot finally.

Nice.

And then after that title shot, I, you know, won the belt.

Dana had an opportunity to put a fighter in the Wheaties box, you know, and he picked me.

And

he could pick anybody.

Yeah.

But at that time, I was really hot.

You know, I did the showtime kick.

I was knocking guys out.

Yeah.

Then he picked me to be on the Wheaties box, you know, so he put me on the Wheaties box, helped me buy my mom her first house.

So yeah, man, me and I have a lot of respect for Dana.

That's big time, man.

How'd how'd you get uh close with uh chris angel um actually in a club craziest thing ever he was in a club we were in a club yeah i can't pick two nightclub in palms yeah so he was i had a table and he had a table next to me and uh you know that was after the showtime kick he was a fan of like the what i did in mixed martial arts so we just like talked and when we were friends for a while never nothing no business wise and then i bought a house out here in vegas in like 2013.

good timing yeah i know i was like right right down a block from him so like he's like up the hill for me then i was the only guy i really knew in vegas so he kind of showed me around and like you know showed me the ropes and now we're doing business together and you know i've seen what he can do with his show i mean he's the number one show in vegas so i heard that yeah if he could help you know bring any of that towards mixed martial arts it'd be amazing yeah i just saw him say on uh steve oh's podcast that shows bringing in 150 million a year crazy man nuts dude it's been like that for years and years i mean he was at the luxury before that i saw that yeah so at luxer he was doing the same thing yeah so he is the number one show in vegas that's awesome man and i saw you go on uh mike tyson's podcast yeah what was that like that was crazy craziest thing so i won my little brother and my little brother's a fighter too champ we're like we're the first two champion brothers brothers.

Oh, yeah, actually, have belts together.

I thought the DS were.

No, they never champs.

Oh, they were never champs.

So, Nick never won a belt, and Nate was the BMF title.

Serge won the Bellator belt, and I won the UFC belts.

Like, we were pretty, pretty well-known in mixed martial arts, but pretty respected.

Yeah, um, and then Mike Tyson reached out for that, you know, hot boxing podcast.

It was kind of new when that, when we did it, it was like brand new years ago, yeah.

Yeah, so when we went on there, the first thing we did is like, we get in there, he's like, Has each of us get a joint?

And I smoke not like that.

So, I guess we smoke and we're like, you can't say no to Mike so we're just we're smoking with Mike we sit down at the podcast and I was so high I like all I could say was like damn that's crazy

that's why I was so high and I watched it back I'm like man I missed out I'm like gonna have a gorilla combo with Mike that's jokes he's so like uh passionate about his stories like he's like in your face and like and like you don't know if he's serious or if he's like like if he's gonna go off in a weird way and yeah man he was like i was too high for that one that's jokes was your brother high too but we were so lit we got done afterwards like man i shouldn't have smoked that much oh my god i would have taken one one hit and three

they they gave us each one so like there was a whole joint each yeah so like oh my god he had one i had we were at the table we had our own yeah i would have blacked out yeah that's how i felt for real like i don't smoke like that if i take one hit right now i i'm so

i just stopped smoking i stopped for like two weeks now like trying to get back into camp now when i do camps but i i'm i'm in vegas bro i'm a big believer in the way weed helps you sleep.

I think that's what it does, like recovery-wise.

I usually do it at night right before I go to bed.

My sleep, I get on that, and I wake up the next day.

I feel way better resting.

than without it.

I like how the UFC changed their stance because when they banned Nick for five years, I was like,

Damn, for weed?

So crazy.

I mean, it's kind of fed up what they did to him.

They could have did that to anyone.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he was smoking like right before fights, but

it's, it's like, uh,

especially out here, it's illegal.

So it's like, you know, it's like drinking.

Like, yeah, it's like, it's based, it's normal here.

Absolutely.

Have you ever fought your brother?

I spar him all the time.

We had this crazy sparring.

Serge is the only guy that ever dropped me with a punch.

Damn.

Yeah, yeah.

He went in a sparring session with big gloves on too holy crap and he's like he's a 135er i mean he probably walks like 160 165 yeah but we had a sparring session it was right before my the play i got submitted he hit me with a jab i got rocked and i didn't realize i was concussed so like i'm like this is the week before the fight yeah i go do my last training session i was doing like broad jumps and like every time i jumped like I would feel dizzy.

I'm like, damn, something doesn't feel right.

Damn.

So I went that whole fight.

I thought it was because I was cutting weight.

I went that whole, like, that whole little week with, like, just with a concussion.

Wow.

Like, I was crying on the airplane.

I'm like, man, like, I feel like something doesn't feel right it's not my wife i'm like yo usually i'm in control of my emotions like i don't cry like that and i'm like i was crying on an airplane i'm like what the fuck is going on they don't test concussions before the fight no i mean it's up to you like you got to like say you got something wrong with you wow like they'll do like the basic you know medical tests to check your hands you know make sure your wake up was right uh you know your face like there's like a super easy medical test and and that wasn't you know they couldn't see that after the fight i went to the mayo clinic and they're like yeah you got a concussion man so

couple a couple months to get back normal off of that from a concussion those were scarier than everything because your brain is just like like you just have these moments of like panic attacks and like uh you know uh the you get dizzy the lights when you're driving like just stuff that you can't control so i didn't know that concussions never yeah concussions is the scariest thing i've never had one i thought they just take like a week to recover and you're good it just depends how bad it was yeah wow

it was pretty bad well then i fought afterwards too right so i didn't take no time off that probably didn't help yeah remember too luckily the guy i fought was a jitsu guy wasn't a trucker damn man it sounds like you've had quite a few concussions yeah well that was the one i really remember like that that was like uh you know one where i I was like, I had to go get medical attention.

After fights, I'm sure we're all concussed.

Like, we get hit that many times, but like usually you go to the after party, have a couple of drinks, and you forget about it.

We got to get you a brain scan, man.

See what's going on.

I've done it.

Oh, you've done it.

Yeah, UFC does it now, actually.

They do it for all their athletes.

So all the athletes in the UFC PI get to do a brain test before their fights, after their fights.

Oh, yeah, they try to get you back to where you were at before your fight before you can take another fight.

That's probably smarter than that.

So much smart.

Yeah, longevity for careers and like, you know, just health for their fighters, man.

Yeah.

Because you see some of these boxers, like the older guys, they can't even talk to you.

It's kind of scary, actually.

Yeah.

Most of them, man.

Oh, yeah, literally.

You can hear it happen, too.

Like, you'll have it, they'll have a conversation with a guy, and all of a sudden, the next time you speak to him, you're like, oh, something's different.

Yeah, they don't remember it.

Something's different.

Yeah.

But I think Tyson with the psychedelics really helped.

Yeah, man.

He told me about that, too.

The other DMTs and the mushrooms.

I've never done DMT yet, and I've done mushrooms.

Mushrooms definitely do.

I love mushrooms.

Yeah, I love mushrooms, too.

Like, it's one of those things that makes your day better.

You know, if you have to figure something out,

you you get locked in on those.

Yeah, yeah.

And then you got, it just takes away the ego.

Like, you can figure out problems without the ego being involved, I feel like.

Yeah.

Yes, but the way he's explaining DMT made me definitely want to try that.

It's on my bucket list.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah.

Ayahuasca on my bucket list.

For sure.

I definitely want to try it and see

what it opens up.

Because if you smoke,

I smoke weed, yeah.

So you know that feeling you get from weed, then you get the feeling from mushrooms, and it's totally different

parts of your brain.

Yeah.

I can only imagine DMT and ayahuasca.

It's going to be that movie Limitless, if you've seen it.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's get that done.

Have you had battles with your ego over the years?

Oh, yeah.

So, so much, man.

Like, I think, uh, so when my dad died at 16, you know, I, I, I, I, I stopped fighting.

I stopped doing martial arts.

I stopped doing everything.

And, like, I was in a moment in my life where I'm like, and I was 16 years old trying to figure out what kind of man I'm going to be.

Like, I was supposed to be like figuring out prom and homecoming, and I had to figure out my life.

I had to pay my mom's bills.

And, like, my mom, too, like, when my dad got killed, my mom stopped working.

Like, she lost this.

Yes, I lost both parents.

Like,

she shut down.

She shut down, man, for like probably two, three years.

Holy So, me and my older brother had to take care of the household.

We had to like, you know, pay for the bills.

And then we had my younger brother.

He was nine at the time when it happened.

So, he really didn't understand what was going on.

He understood he lost his dad, but like, not the rest of everything that came along with it.

And I think that's where my ego actually came about.

Like, when I figured out I could do it by myself.

I was like, oh man, I didn't have a mom or dad to tell me, like, this is right.

This is wrong.

This is what you're supposed to be doing.

I kind of made all my own decisions.

And it worked out really quick for me, man.

Like, at 18, 19, I signed with the WEC and I was the world champ at at like 22 23 years old so wow my ego was like way up here and then that rda fight eco check man and like everything everything like i re-evaluated everything my training my relationships you know who i was giving access to and uh i just saw a lot of it was my fault you know wow i take a lot of responsibility for that fight and why i got to that position damn yeah it takes uh takes some balance right you can't have it too high but you also don't want it too low Especially in fighting.

Like you, you want to have the confidence like, yo, I can win this fight, but not the confidence we're invincible.

Cause because that's when, like, you figure out, like, you get hit, and you're like, oh, that's when you see a guy's like, and then his career goes way down here because it's the eagle thing.

Yeah, you see a lot of fighters like that, man.

I mean, McGregor, obviously, and there's a few that have just gone from like the top of the top.

And then, yeah, you see, I mean, boxing, too, because boxing is longer than UFC, been around longer than UFC, but you see, like the top of the top boxers that get that first loss.

Yeah.

Never the same.

Facts.

Damn, man.

It's been fun getting to know you, dude.

Anything you want to promote or close off with?

No, man.

Thank you guys for having me, bro.

Oh,

Indiana, April 7th, APFC.

We're doing a big show out there.

Up and coming, guys.

A lot of good.

So, my goal with APFC was just to give the younger guys a platform to get to the bigger shows.

I think so far I've had 10 shows and I already have almost 15 guys signed to the bigger departments.

I understand.

Yeah, so APFC, April 7th, we're giving these guys a platform to show their suitcase, their skills.

And if you guys need to tune in, make sure you guys check it out.

Sick, we'll link it below.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you, brother.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.