JRE MMA Show #164 with Israel Adesanya

Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. What's up? What's up? What's up? Good to see you, my friend.
What is the chain? What does that stand for? NGAY, this is my fightwear brand. Ash Bell Castro started this.
Oh. He was one of the, I'll say this, he was one of the only guys who fucked with me before I really blew up.
So when I was fighting in China and I lost to Alex, they stopped giving me fights. And I had, I think at the time, I was the highest paid foreign fighter in China at the time.
Probably not now anymore. But then they stopped giving me fights.
And I was like, look, I have seven more fights on my contract. Can I at least just get three? I just need three because money was running out.
You know, the money I had saved up. And then, yeah, I was down to my last one day, like $500.
And Eugene was holding pads for me. You could see something was up.
And I just said, bro, I'm about to be broke, this and that, right, right, right. And he said, don't worry, just leave it with me.
I get home. I think I was on the toilet.
and he just said, bro, I'm about to be broke, this and that, right, right, right. He said, don't worry, just leave it with me.

I get home.

I think I was on the toilet.

And he just goes, check your bank account.

And I'm sitting there just like, start crying.

And I call him.

He's like, no, don't thank me.

Thank Ash, who started Engage.

And I call Ash.

I'm taking a shit.

And I'm just like, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Like, honestly, just in tears.

Because, you know, I i mean i've been there like

nothing and had everything and nothing again so for me yeah he's always been a guy that's been in my corner and me and alex volkanovsky now we you know we've helped raise the brand so we own part of the company so yeah i like to rep the set oh that's cool nice nice and i think we engage also was last final three when they had the whole Reebok fiasco. It was Venom, Engage, and someone else.
I can't remember who else. So we didn't get the gig, but it would have been nice, though.
Oh, the UFC gig? Yeah. Engage fight kits for the fighters.
But now it's Venom fight kits. Yeah, the whole fight kit thing is weird.
I really preferred it when fighters could have sponsors. Condom depo on the back of your shorts i don't like that i mean they should probably have some discretion i did like it though and i do like the fact now like uh the last fight i had uh hunter hit me up way before any gold gloves or anything says izzy we're gonna do this for certain fighters what design would you like on your shorts and i was like bet and i hit up curtis who works with engage does a lot of the designs and i taught him what i wanted and then he just did some custom stuff and i sent a few to hunter and then boom i got my shorts the lightning and i quite like that i like expression that's one thing i do miss about boxing or kickboxing is the expression on the mong kong the armbands the shorts like Jonathan Haggerty like he has cool shorts

with golden like

bows on the

f*** or kickboxing is the expression on the Monkong, the armbands, the shorts. Like Jonathan Haggerty, he has cool shorts with golden bows on the side.
I like that. It's cool.
I do too. Yeah, it's an expression.
I don't like everybody has to wear the same shit. I think maybe the UFC at the time, they wanted to be taken seriously in a sense.
So we had to like professional sports. But no, I think we're all different independent contractors and we have different styles so i'm glad now they've brought out for certain fighters like o'malley in his pink shorts bryce mitchell his camo shorts yeah let us express ourselves i like that but i wish fighters had the ability to advertise oh big time yeah that's that's big sponsors on your shorts is a lot of money like shop was making more money from the sponsors than he was from his fight purse yeah i agree and there's a way to bring it back i'm sure but even now because they've got some you get you get some kickbacks but it's better if you can just plastic condom depot and get a hundred grand on the back of your shorts how much does condom depot i don't even know but i used to think think it was funny.
It was funny. On the back of the shorts, I'm like, that's placement, advertising.
I just feel like, you know, if they didn't like some because it didn't represent the sport, like Condom Depot, then just fucking, you know, have a list of ones that you agree to. That's actually a good idea.
Like, say, approve sponsors. Okay approve sponsors okay yeah so maybe they go through a

check first right you want to maybe advertise on the fighter shorts you have to go through this rigorous check what's your company you know what do you guys sell right right or right or right and then yeah plastered on the shorts get some money because i do like it when boxers wear cool shorts you know they wear whatever the fuck they want like i love the one melvin manhofer wear those the gladiator ones

yeah

yeah he was a badass

I like tassels

that's me

one of my shorts

I always liked tassels

I like tassels, though. That's me.
One of my shorts, I always like tassels because when you kick, the way they shimmer, the way they look. And it just makes for cool picks.
Yeah. That's just one of the things about the UFC.
They want everything to be uniform and organized. But again, now for certain fighters, they're changing it, which is good.
But hopefully that trickles down. I don't feel like anybody should be wearing shorts and grappling.
I feel like the temptation for – yeah, tights. Temptation for grabbing is just too much.
Yeah. And it does happen.
Yeah, I've seen it. It happened to me even with – what's his name? Brunson.
And Brunson, he grabbed my tights. And I was like, yo, that's two times you've done it now.
So it is tempting. But I think tights would be the best way to fight.
But again, some guys have cool shorts. And if that's their style, that's their style.
Because some people, I guess maybe they're body type. Maybe they got no ass.
They don't want to be. I got something back there.
But I don't know. A guy no names, but like, you know, wearing tights, you look like a fucking stick or something, yeah.
Yeah, you look a little flat. Yeah.
Yeah. That's what it is, though.
Yeah, it is what it is. I mean, there's a lot of room for expression.
It's interesting to watch like all the different styles that people promote themselves as well. You know, like there's so many different ways now.
And then there's like alex who you know he doesn't even speak english and he's risen to the top just based on performance but even the fact that he doesn't speak english that's also his superpower just sharma right what do you think about that fight this weekend i can't wait i just did the breakdown for it we're about to drop it on youtube now i am picking in this fight alex because I just did the breakdown for it. We're about to drop it on YouTube now.
I am picking in this fight, Alex, because I just think the momentum behind it. This episode is brought to you by the farmer's dog.
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I know right now is so big.

He's just got momentum.

Look, I was the most active champion in UFC history.

I think next to Alex Volkanovsky as well.

He was right up there with me, or if not more than me.

I think Alex now is on his way to being the most active champ in UFC history

because he's already saved this year, I think, two or three cards alone. He's like stepped in and be like, yeah, Sharma, just does it, jumps in.
And he fights fucked up. He fights injured.
Apparently his knee was really fucked up in the first Yuri Prohaska fight. Oh, wow.
You know when he stopped Yuri and then he did like a forward roll off of Yuri? Yeah, yeah. He said he did that because he didn't trust standing on his right knee.
Oh, wow. Momentum.
Yeah, his knee was fucked up. So he didn't, like it was fucked up in training camp.
And so when he stepped off of him, he just decided to roll forward instead of putting weight on his right knee. That's smart.
That's some parkour shit. But again, that's what you have to do.
Look, when you get in the UFC, this is what I did as well. He did it the right way.
Fight as much as possible. Fight as much as possible so you can be in people's faces so they can see.
That guy just fought. That guy just fought.
Oh, I just saw him fight last month. And you fight as much as you can.
And you get that momentum behind you. And then you become champion.
You're that guy. And then, again, you just, that momentum constantly.
You're in people's faces. You're getting posted here.
And and that's how you build a stock up so i've done that and he's doing it the right way as well and i think if he keeps going i hope he retires never getting defeated by anyone ever again just you and the way you did it too oh my god that was one of the greatest celebrations of all time. Look, it's the story behind it.

No matter what, it's just the history.

Because David even mentioned to me, my brother said,

you know you're the only one that can actually stand with that guy.

No one's lasted more than two rounds or even a round with him.

And I thought about it during the breakdown.

I'm like, yeah, you're right.

And it's because I knew him.

I've fought that guy so many times.

And regardless of what happened, I lost three times and I finally won won one it was just the fact that i knew i could beat him every time i fought him i was just like i was i was beating him i thought you won the first one i felt so too but then that's you know the chinese judges kickboxing fight they gave it to him and then the second fight in brazil under the same company that he gets me but again i was besting him had him on skates he was fucking and then he bro his spirit you know what jerry said about the whole juju thing like that that's real that's real so the last time i fought him in miami look he beats me that's why i hate when people say oh is he scared he's scared it's like bro i ain't scared of shit the guy beat me in the biggest uh arena on the planet madison square garden same way as the last time he beat me in brazil in his hometown i was beating his ass had him hurt in the end of the first round all that shit took him down and then he gets me in the last round it's his spirit his whatever like ancestors or his people that are praying for him because i got prayer warriors as well. My mom and dad be fasting and they have people

in the spirit praying for me

but the way he carries

himself, something about him just

he knows how to recover well.

I just knew I could get him. I could get him.

After that, he knocks me out in the biggest arena in the world

and I'm just like

let's do that shit again, Dana.

I just knew. I was like, I can get him

and then that camp I was so I can get him and then that camp

I was so I went to a different place and that was the one I kind of mentioned I'd like microdosed a little bit or macrodosed a lot and like I always say this the shower is the most interesting place on the planet I feel because you have the element of water running over your body stripped naked in your bare essentials you kind of have this if it's a white shower yet like a

void place on the planet I feel because you have the element of water running over your body strip naked in your bare essentials you kind of have this if it's a white shower yet like a void white space I can create a lot in there I can make a lot of things happen and yeah one time after one of my showers I just wrote this thing on my mirror because I just had this premonition like this is where I get it done like there's no way you could beat me one time you could beat me two times you might beat me three times but i was like nah this guy's not gonna beat me this time and i just knew i had to get this done and the way it happened as well because first round i think i won and second round i was winning but then that fucking leg kick bro you know what it is you look at foot. You look at this bit of his foot.

It's like a hammer.

You know, like the back of a hammer or a hammer like a ball.

It is because that's what he kicks you with as well.

So he doesn't have to turn the hip over.

Right.

And then when he hits you with that, even because he's bone density, long legs,

and he hits you with that, you just feel it like, ooh, that's bad.'s it's a different feeling because i've been kicked by kickboxes all my life on the thigh on the calf as well but when he hits you with that bit it's just the surface area so small but it travels and transfers through your whole calf and you're like oh i can't put weight on this it's so interesting too how he keeps his body completely square and he doesn't even really hips. Yeah.
And so it's so sneaky. He doesn't have to because he's got so much bone density, so much whip from that little whoosh.
Mm-hmm. And, yeah, it's dangerous.
And I think that's going to be a problem this weekend for Khalil. But I don't know why Chael says he—did you hear about what Chael said? Yeah, Chael said he thinks Khalil's going to knock him out.
That's possible. But I just don't think he's—it's possible, but I don't think he's going to get it done because all it takes is one.
From either side, but I just think Pereira right now has just got that momentum behind him and the frame because he's going to just avoid the shots Khalil's throwing because he just got the long frame. He'll get right out the way way and I don't think Khalil has the reach to mess with him like that so he might have to get inside but uh yeah we'll see this is why paper can't fight paper they have to get in there and fight so we'll find out it's very interesting because Khalil's so fast and Khalil's had experience with high level kickboxers when he knocked out Gokan Saki that was a big one yeah you know that was was a big one.
And that was like early on where everybody was like, oh, shit, Gokhan Saki's finally in the UFC. And then, boom, Khalil just takes him out.
Khalil's fast. He hits fucking hard.
And he throws like the thing that he did with Lionheart, he throws that off-speed shit sometimes. He'll give you a little of this, and then he jolts in on you.
That off-speed uppercut was nasty. It's the looks.
It's like I'm here. I'm almost Prince Nassim-esque, but different.
Just like looking, looking, bang. But again, he's just violent.
Like when he smells blood, he just goes in. Yeah.
Like I said, he beats you like you owe him money or something. Yeah.
He's on you. He's on you.
Yeah, very violent. But again, I think Khalil, for him to win this fight, he just has to believe in himself.
And that sounds real cheesy, but believe in himself. Also, he's a southpaw.
I didn't think about that. Right.
I actually forgot about that until David mentioned it before. But he's a southpaw.
But I'm sure Alex and his team know how to deal with it. But I understand how Alex deals with southpaws as well because I can fight him both ways.
And I know when you give him that front leg and he knows he can get it, he gets more confident. But if you're a southpaw, he finds other ways to keep you at bay until he can get that leg.
It's going to be interesting to see right away how Khalil deals with the distance and how Alex deals with the speed. The thing is, Alex can be hit.
Bruno Silva and bruno silva tagged him a few times you took him out i think the 85 thing was the i think the drain for him to make 85 was insanity i think it was insane he's so he still can he still he still can yeah look it only works until you get knocked out and it's like i bet and let's go to 205 and i said look all these 185ers should thank me man they honestly i tell thank me because he a lot of the top guys didn't have to fight him he fought okay who did he fight strickland strickland that was one of the only top guys he fought beat him and then i think he got a shot at me next pretty much but yeah fucking rob drickers all them because it's not about just fighting him getting ready to fight him is a different thing. But I had to do it fucking four times, so I understand.
I have a different history with it. What's different about getting ready to fight him? For me, getting ready to fight him, you just know you're going to be in for a war.
You know it's not going to be an easy fight. Same for him.
He knows when he has to fight me, it's like, fuck, it's not an easy fight. Because he knows what I can do to him.
But for me as well, I was just like, fuck. Okay, let's go again.
And again and again it's not like because i feel that way with certain people but with him it's just a different feeling i guess because he beat me that's another thing because and i was like man i gotta fucking face this demon again all right let's face my demons and i get myself up to fight him but it's it's just getting ready to fight him it's just the the hurdle i think maybe just because of the history that's why for me i felt that way because of the history because to fight someone who's beating you multiple times it's like and you know you can beat them in your heart you just know but again that's the beauty of the story right you had come so close a couple of times every time and then even in the first fight in the ufc so close at the end of that first round like you had him if there was 30 seconds left in the fight or in the round yeah 10 seconds left but again that's the beauty of the story because then he waited till the fifth round or go to the fifth round he's just like did his fucking juju whatever thing and then fucking he just had this energy and he came at me and then my leg was compromised from the leg kick because my the peroneal nerve or whatever and i couldn't do anything so yeah but look i love that story for myself and i'm happy and people still go oh we need the third one i'm like look i do it again i fucking knock him out or no okay no it's three two we got the best out of seven right i'm not fighting for anyone else i only have so much left in this game i'm not going to spend this game fighting one guy exactly over and over and over again i got i don't know how long left but i just know i'm definitely on the other side of my career so i want to get these fights out the way and now i'm not champ anymore in the ufc so i just i'm in this situation where what do i do i know i want to fight though because i took 11 months off and i let my body heal and all that and i felt great so now i want to get back to Not as active as I was in the beginning maybe, but I want to be active. And I still feel great from the last camp.
Did some testing about three weeks ago. Find out where we were at.
I was about where I was before this last fight four weeks out. So I was like, okay, cool.
We're still good. Let's build off that.
So, yeah, I want to fight again. How much of an effect did taking 11 months off have? I think it was more good than bad.
I know some people say ring rust or this and that. And I'm like, nah.
I felt good in there. I felt good in there.
And it was only when I watched the fight back, I saw a couple of mistakes I made, even on the feet, where I was like, ooh, don't do that again. Just with my feet work, my exits.
Even David said, you had sloppy exits. I was like, yeah, my bad.
But yeah, that and then the moment at the end when I slipped and just the lapse in judgment when I was just letting him know it was me tripping. Those kind of moments, maybe if I was as active, it wouldn't have happened.
But who knows? We'll never know. But I am happy with how I I performed I was happy with the shape I came in I came in really good shape and what's his name Bill this guy he did the numbers for me he said this is the most active I've been in any fight by far in my UFC career he crunched the numbers up and said my strike per minute rate or whatever all you nerds figures, figure it out.
You can do your own. But, yeah, Bill Smart, he's this guy who helps me now with my strength.
He, yeah, did the numbers and said, this is the most active you were. So we can do some things different, put a little bit more gas in the tank, things like that, and then just stay active like that.
It was good. And I had fun in there.
I had fun just exchanging. Yeah.
I wanted to ask you about that, the gas in the tank thing. There's a philosophy that Marv Marinovich and Nick Kurson, some of these guys have.
BJ Penn's coaches? Yeah. What they wanted BJ to do when BJ was in his prime, essentially the camp was entirely based around strength and conditioning.
It was all conditioning to give you this insane gas tank their philosophy is you know how to fight You've been fighting your whole life. You're not going to get better at fighting in six weeks But what you can get is insane cardio if you only Concentrate on that and if they don't their thought process is that is the most important thing That is the thing that fails you the most in fights That's the thing that keeps you from hitting the gas keeps you from doing the things you want to do keeps you from being able to scramble out of positions But if you can instead of all this fight specific training Like put that aside and just give yourself the most fucking insane gas tank humanly possible and then fight and then the margins the things the times when you're going to need it like your skill level is already elite world championship skill level It's not going to deteriorate because your cardio gets better in six to eight weeks But what you can do is give yourself this insane base of cardio So in those moments when you need to hit the gas you can.
And that's what they did for BJ when BJ was at his best. Yeah.
I think the best I saw BJ from watching him, especially live, he was training with them. UFC 107, I think Diego Sanchez, he looked like a demon in that fight.
Exactly. Unbelievable gas tank and insane confidence.
Even in shape. He was fucking abs, all that.
I agree. Definitely.
You can always sharpen the tools, keep it sharp. But again, for when you're in a camp, it's just about getting fit.
And yeah, there's some things we can tweak so that way we can keep that output. Because when you get fatigued is when you lose your lapse in judgment.
You could, your reflexes as well. Things like that just start to go down.
Were you feeling fatigued in the last round with trickers i didn't i don't think so there was one point in the third round when me and him we really put it on and we kind of had this like low-key agreement like okay you're fucked i'm fucked let's chill for a little bit and then i think round four i came out bam, bam. And I did that sprawl on them.
But again, he's so stubborn because I sprawled on him. I literally, he shot, I sprawled and my hips hit the back of his head into the mat.
Might have rocked him, I don't know. And then, what's his name? Mark Goddard's like, get up.
And he's on one knee. And then when he was like, get up.
And he finally decided to get up slowly. And I tried to attack him.
He just threw. But not to try and hit me.
He just threw just to stop my momentum, you know, stop me from coming at him. And, yeah, he's a guy that just strong will.
Strong will. Like, yeah, I can respect that.
Physically strong too. Yeah.
Not as strong as I thought it would be, probably because I felt strong as well.

Like I packed on some muscle for that fight.

Preparing for those kind of grueling exchanges?

Yeah.

But even just for me myself, I just wanted to feel strong.

So me and my boy AB, we put on some muscle for that fight. And then having Matt actually making good food for me for the first time ever,

because I got this far off just whatever I wanted to eat, you know, Ura we were talking about that when we went to terry black's barbecue today yeah this is the worst thing to eat right before a podcast so i got the coffee now i'm like yeah let's go out we picked out but honestly for me having those kind of because i'm not 23 anymore 24 right my body doesn't metabolize food and, you know, the way it used to. So I have to think about it like Israel.
Be smart. Understand your body's getting older.
I don't feel old, though. That's the thing.
When I was young, I thought, 34, I'm done with this game. Then I'm like, I'm old.
But that was when I i was 24 but now that i'm here i'm like i could still squeeze a lot out of this could still squeeze a lot out of this so we are and the whole thing you ever use hyperbaric chamber nah not yet we don't i don't know if we have that in auckland probably do i did a whole series when i first moved to austin i did the whole series because there's this protocol i think it was it was an Israeli study that they did where they showed that it lengthens telomeres you do

like 60 sessions over 90 days and you know what they measure your biological age by the length

of your telomeres it puts 20 years on you like it decreases your age of your telomeres it's like

the DNA strand or something it's a well it's yeah I don't want to fuck this up. So what exactly are telomeres? Layman terms.
The way you measure someone's biological age is the length of the telomeres. And through things like NMN.
Yeah, that thing. Yeah.
I got it right. Yeah.
There it is. Telomeres are protein and DNA structures at the ends of the chromosomes that perform several important functions, including protecting DNA, preserving chromosomal integrity.
Telomeres help maintain the structure, integrity of DNA during replication. It's the bit at the ends, right? Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And as you get older, they get shorter.
Smaller, yeah. And they get weaker.
And, you know, so that's where. I don't even know how I know this.
I think it's just a real. I saw somewhere.
NAD shot. When people get NAD infusions, that helps that as well.
I've been seeing that lately. Yeah.
Bieber, the Kardashians getting them. I get those.
Yeah. Yeah.
But with Briggs, you can do it. Definitely do with Brigham.
OK. I use another company.
I see. I see.
There's a lot of companies that do it. OK.
But you. Is it USADA approved or is it one of them? Yes.
Yeah, it's USADA approved. I'll see you later on Briggs.
Yeah, but the thing that does it just as well, maybe even better, is hyperbaric chambers. And so hyperbaric chambers, you elevate it up to two atmospheres, so twice our atmosphere, and then you have oxygen.
You wear an oxygen mask and you sit in it for an hour and a half Okay, and dude you come out of that and you just like whoa Like what the fuck is going on? Like everything just every day for six I've been doing it a lot lately Okay, cuz I got one at the house, so I've been doing it quite a bit But it's just a completely different way of recovering I know know, I found out about it for recovery

when Uriah Faber fought Jose Aldo.

The leg?

Yes, his leg was fucking brutalized.

I remember.

I saw Uriah was, Uriah was always ahead of the game

and he was using hyperbaric chambers to help him recover.

And so then I started looking into it

and then I found out about this Israeli study

and then I started seeing all the different ways

that hyperbaric chambers can increase your recovery and, you know, TJ Dillashaw did a lot of that as well I think but it makes a big impact they always do it like when you go down to CPI in Mexico when they do stem cells they give people hyperbaric chamber treatments as well okay I have to look into that so if I wanted to do it I'd maybe do it say like what twice a week or something yeah something like that and how long does the effect last for that's a good question yeah i mean it probably depends on the individual but it just makes anytime i have something wrong with me i get in there i just feel just better i bet you someone knows if they have one in auckland now they'll definitely hit me up and be like i bet they do uh yeah i'd like to try'd like to try that. Yeah, I bet Auckland has it.
It's time consuming. You know, the whole experience is two hours because it has to get up to pressure, then it has to decompress, and you're in there for 90 minutes.
So it's like 15 minutes getting up to pressure and then 15 minutes of decompressing at the very end. You bet.
You bet. But that's a great way to recover as well.
I feel like every, especially as you get older, every edge you can get, sauna, cold plunge, hyperbaric, everything, every edge you can get.

Red light therapy, all that.

That's where I'm at now.

That's where I was this last camp.

And I feel like even the one before that and the one before that, I just remember thinking, like, how can I?

It was actually Eugene.

He said, how can you make this camp better?

And I'll always find something to do to make this camp better, the next one. So that's, like, the last three camps.
So this one I took with the whole having breakfast, having a chef help me actually cook. That was crazy that you used to train with no breakfast.
That's so crazy. So that was my way, I guess.
Then I found out about intermittent fasting, and I realized, oh, I've been doing that shit for years. Right.
I was just doing i guess laziness or accident but it actually helps though like wake up have two eggs or maybe he'll make sometimes like something with chia seed but normally eggs and a bacon piece or something and then she needs something yeah something just to get the fuel yeah yeah and even geordie uh from fight dietitian he told me definitely be having breakfast. Because he thought, like, you're crazy training the way you do train.
And some of my morning sessions as well will be grueling. And then I'll go have breakfast.
But I enjoyed it that way because I felt like more. One thing is when I fight, fight day, my body doesn't want to eat.
He'll make me, like, a nice plate of something delicious. And my body is just like, nah.
So fight day, I still try and eat something, maybe at least an egg. Because he'll have pancakes, eggs, whatever, bacon, an egg and a little bit of bacon.
But my body just doesn't want to eat. But do you think if you force yourself to eat, that would be a good thing? Nah.
No? So I just, I think DC said the same thing as well one time. He said he likes to fight hungry, so that way he gets that edge.
And I feel that way when it's fight day. But when it comes to training now, I definitely like to have breakfast.
I like the way it feels. Now I've done it for a few months.
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A healthy breakfast before you have a grooming training session. Yeah, it just gives you more gas.
Yeah, more energy. Aljo said that when he fought Piotr Jan that he didn't eat.
First or second one? First. Okay.
And he said he felt like shit. Oh, the day of the fight? Yeah the deal fight.
Yeah You know, I think the time of the fight got pushed back I forget exactly what the reasoning was or just forgot to eat or just wasn't feeling it because the anxiety Fighting for the title, you know the whole deal and he just felt it in the fight It just was where and especially with a guy like Aljo who cuts so much weight. Yeah, you know, Aljo is so, he was so big for 35.
Yeah. I remember running into him and he was like 176 pounds.
I was like, what the fuck? How are you going to make 135? He's so big. He looks good at 145 at UFC 300.
Yeah. I liked it for him.
I was bummed out that that Mosvar-Ive Loeb fight fell out because- It must be this weekend, right? Yeah. Yeah.
That's a very interesting. Aljo is strong at 145.
Why did that fight fall out? What happened? Aljo got injured. Ah, insane.
He got injured and he thought he'd be able to work through it but couldn't. And there's a point of diminishing returns with these weight-cutting dudes.
And I think, you know. There'll be something.
Like they've got the whole thing at one with the hydration clause. But the thing is, no matter what, people are always going to try and find a way.
Yeah. They're always going to try and find a way to sneak past the hydration test or something that they can use to pass it.
But I don't know how that works. I don't know how they test for it.
It's never happened to me. But weight cutting, even when I started fighting, people used to tell me go down to 170 for you guys.
Oh, my God. Hell no.
How the fuck can you make 170? Back when I was skinny, before I got really brolic, I could make maybe 80 kgs. That's close to 170.
Because 170 is 77 kgs. But lowest I ever got to was 80 as a kickboxer.
That was it. Yeah, 170, I'd die.
I wouldn't even. Because I've seen some of these weight cuts where guys and girls.
Like Hamza. Oh, bro.
Like when Hamza would make 170. Or even Cyborg.
Oh, yeah. You see her when she was in the bathtub crying and shaking? And Oliveira when they go and they huddle around them.
Where you cut weight, though, I'll say this thing. For me, when I cut weight, it's a spiritual experience sometimes.
It's a weird experience because not just me, I've seen fighters who have not get delirious, but start saying things that they wouldn't normally say, not even in a bad way, but just the way they talk. Because you're close to death.
Yeah. You see the light.
Yeah, man. You really are close to death.
I mean, it sounds ridiculous to say that. And for someone who doesn't understand what fighters are going through, you'd go, oh, you're being hyperbolic.
But not really. Not really.
You really are close to death. If you keep going for a few more hours, you'll die.
Yeah. Especially, I mean, I've seen my weight cuts are normally pretty tame.
Not as bad because I think I'm perfect for 185. But the ones that I've seen guys lose a lot of weight the day of, and I see them how they are.
And even when they go to the scale, you see their face just gone. Yeah, you never look too destroyed.
I always come in underweight as well. What do you normally weigh, like the week of a fight? Week of a fight.
If I get to the fight location, say, when they weigh me, if I'm, say, 198, 200. Yeah, that's easy for me.
I'm like, cool. That's normally what I'm at.
That's just a few hard sauna sessions. Yeah.
But even just the water loading. And then it's like, my body knows.
It's weird how my body does it. My body is just like, it just knows.
Okay, we're getting on've done it before it just knows it's just like muscle memory and i get to the fight location my body's like cool we're doing this and then the weight just starts to go did you notice a difference when they didn't allow ivs versus when they did allow ivs i never used it you never used it i never used ivs that's the thing so so you never cut weight enough where you were so depleted that you needed to get those bags in you? Nah. Fuck, I would like to.
They say that's the best way to rehydrate the brain. Yeah.
Because it takes how many hours if you do it orally? It takes a long time. Yeah.
To get the brain. And that's the...
Affects your chin. You're trying to protect as you're fucking noggin slushing around in your queen.
Yeah. Yeah.
Because cerebral fluid? It's made of, well, I'm guessing a lot of water, right? There's a lot of water in there. Yeah.
And the rehydration of the brain apparently is the slowest because the blood-brain barrier. Yeah.
That's the slowest. You know, your bodies, your muscles rehydrate fairly quickly.
Yeah. But still, it just never makes sense to me that a person is, like, literally on the verge of death 24 hours before a cage fight.
Let's go battle to the death. And then you get head kicked in the fucking chin and, yeah.
I mean, look, I do love this game, and I think weight cuts is always going to be a part of it right now. But who knows? Because even now we have height differentials, are we going to start discriminating against that? Okay, we only have height classes.
Is that the next? No, that doesn't make any sense because you've got guys like DC that, even though he was not even barely six feet tall, was a heavyweight champion, but he's a tank. And he has the wrestling skills.
I think that the way to do it really is to have more weight classes. I think when you have the big gaps, like 85 to 205 is 20 pounds.
That's crazy. That's such a big-ass gap.
And then, you know, 205, if you want to start fighting heavyweight, and then you're dealing with guys like Francis, who's a natural 265, that's such a gap. They should have the ones in between.
Okay, let me take it. 10 pounds.
165, 170, 175, 180, like that. They could do that, but I think that's maybe a little too much.
I think 10 pounds. Yeah.
10 pounds is reasonable. Yeah.
All the way up the board. 175, 165.
25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 205, and then maybe 225, and then heavyweight. Super heavyweight, yeah.
You have more chance. The whole thing of 265 being a limit for heavyweight to me is crazy, too.
Silly, because there's bigger boys out there. Mark Hunt used to cut down to 265.
Yeah. Crazy.
Even Francis did as well. Yeah, if they did, I mean, they can just, I think they talked about doing it.
They talked about doing it recently. Maybe last year, I think.
They talked about adding more weight classes, but then I never heard anything about it again anything i know california was flirting with it okay maybe that's what i saw they should have it everywhere there's too many too many gaps they're too wide like there's too many tweeners yeah you know too many guys that are too small to fight at 170 but they really can't make 55 healthy at least they took this shit out yeah they took finally yeah finally Well look i always thought that that's like a group chat like decision just say yo this is a dumb rule let's take it out boom but why does it take so long is it because the commission all over the united states or whatever have to get together or something i don't know i don't understand how that seems like a common sense rule and especially anybody who understands the power of elbows like this is not the most powerful elbow no it's just not and so to to deny that and to say that somehow or another that can't be blocked well that's crazy yeah you could do that just as easy as you could do that you could block that elbow facts yeah it doesn't none of it makes any sense there's bunch of things that are unrealistic, in my opinion. One of them is not being able to up kick from a downward position when a guy's on top of you.
So if a guy's on top of you and you're on your back, and the guy has a knee down, you can't up kick. Oh yeah, that's silly.
Yeah, I get what you mean. That's silly.
That doesn't make any sense. I think you should be able to up kick when you are flat on your back and he's on his knees.
Yeah. You should, because that's a real technique.
If you have rubber guard, like a flexible hips or whatever, you can just bring your leg and boom. Yeah.
Anderson did that to someone. Who did he do that to? What's his name? Yushin Okami, I think.
Yushin Okami. Did he? Yeah, he got disqualified and not in the UFC.
Oh, was that in Rumble and the Rock? Rumble, the yellow cage. Yeah, so that was a good knockout.
But then they disqualified him. They disqualified him.
Yeah. That technique, like if you are in a guy's guard and that guy can elbow you in the face, punch you in the face, why can't he kick you in the face? He should be able to lean back and up kick you and it would make the guard way more effective.
Dangerous. It's also more real.
one yeah boom boom oh shit that's a good knockout that's a beautiful knockout that should be 100% legal look at the hip dexterity yeah look at it like the way he just brought that back boom oh like an axe kick yeah like an axe kick from the outside i think yeah you know what you're right that's 100% a good technique it should be legal and you should be Avoiding that if you're on top yeah top is an advantageous position Anything the guy that can do on bottom that is real for like a real fight should be allowed Yeah, it's not like you're cemented in this position like the idea of like not allowing soccer kicks to a downed opponent What I think about that is the cage I think if you're pressed up against a cage and someone can stomp you or soccer kick you, there's no way to move. Yeah, true.
But if you're in an open space and there's a place to move, all those things should be legal because all those things are real techniques. Facts.
But especially if a guy's on top of you. If a guy's on top of you, on his knees, in your guard, and you can get a leg back and stomp him in the face, that's good.
Yeah. That's a real technique that should be 100% legal.
The one I like, soccer kicks, it just looks cool. But again, if you have someone pinned against the cage and even kneeing them, was it one they go, okay.
Yes, they allow it. I don't even know what the discretion of the referee is to allow it.
I think it's if they're pinned against the cage. Then he doesn't allow it.
Exactly. Okay.
Which makes sense. If you're in the open space, then it's like, if you're in the open space.
Soccer kicks go. Did you ever see the one where Roger Huerta fought in one and got one of the worst soccer kick KOs ever? Maybe, but I've forgotten it.
He fought some big Brazilian cat and this dude's soccer kicked him and it was like, oh my God. Like in the open space? Yeah.
Oh yeah. He had had him rocked already.
Yeah. And then he's down like this and this dude just leans back.
I think the thing as well is the look of it for, I guess, the people who aren't really hardcore fans. If they see that, they're like, ooh.
And then it goes back to human cockfighting. Yeah.
Okay, but if that's true, how about Arani Aldana? When she fought at the Sphere, her whole face is cut open. Oh, that was crazy.
Insane. They didn't stop the fight.
Tough, though. So tough.
Yeah. So here's the Roger Werner one.
Oh, no. So Roger's hurt.
And Roger shouldn't have been fighting at 170 anyway. And watch this.
Oh, no. Boom.
Oh, yeah. I mean, that one.
I have seen this. Bro, that one can fucking kill you.
Damn. That one can kill you.
I mean you. I mean that dude had everything in that kid He even held it for a little bit line it just really line it up full fucking goal.
Oh, that's a rough one That is bad. That's a rough one, but that's a real technique legal.
Yeah, I mean it's doing in real life Yeah, that's the point. It's the sport of fighting If it's a sport of fighting and you can't up kick a guy when you're in your guard because his knees on the ground, that's ridiculous.

Yeah.

Even the one you've actually, was it maybe you at this fair, you mentioned it with the Merab fight.

They stood them up somewhere at the end.

And I was thinking like, yeah, why did they stand them up?

Made no sense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think so, yeah.

I think Herb was alluding to they want more action uh i don't know if he's getting pressure from someone to have more action but one of the things that herb said was if someone wants it i think he was alluding to like some specific officials and executives whoever he's like if they wanted to look different i wish they would tell me because like this is herb saying this to you no no not to me he said it in an interview when he was being criticized for trying to get people to work and trying to stand people up so let me get this straight he's saying maybe some officials or someone would be alluding he's alluding to the fact that they want it to look a specific way ah i think think I pick up what you're putting down See if you can find his statement on it Because it was interesting the way he phrased it The way he phrased it Like cryptic Yes Ah, okay You know He's trying not to put someone under the bus But he's saying like, look, maybe someone's saying to him that Exactly And I think they are Because he's always like, let's work, let's work. Sometimes when it doesn't even make any sense, like they're working.
I saw, I remember, and I was like, yeah, he's on top. He just got him down.
He's actually trying to beat him up. Sean was defending well, but still saying, ah, true.
That would be interesting, though. When I say interesting, that's like shady.
Yeah, it's shady. But it's what we were talking about at lunch today too is that there's certain fighters they want to win because those fighters are more exciting and I'm a purist I feel like there should be no stand ups unless it is a violation unless someone does something illegal there should be no stand ups I think if a guy can take you down like Marab does and just beat you up and you can't do shit, and even if the audience is booing, that's the fight.
If Sean wants to get up, he's got to get up. I don't think it should be you can just hold him on in your full guard and the referee just stands you up.
Because that's such an advantage for the striker to be standing up again. And you already have the advantage of every round start standing up.
Yeah. And you work so hard to get something to the ground and they go okay stand up yeah i'm trying to think have i ever been in the position that they made me stand up no not on top uh but even on the bottom i always get up i find a way that's that's the ego thing because again look i had to kill that to to really be great at this game because i knew for a fact i couldn't beat some nerds in pajamas.
So that was for me my, okay, humble yourself and learn how to grapple. And then I sucked that first and I got better.
I never have shown too much of my grappling skills because they never really put me in a position to show as much as I need to. So for me, I was just like, cool, I'll just fucking do a Derrick Lewis.
Stand up. Get up and just beat him up as much as I can.
But yeah, fuck. That is suspect if someone is...
I actually want to watch that. I'll watch it later on.
Let's see what the statement is. Did you find it? So far, I've only found it.
Like Luke Thomas made a video and he said Herb called him after he made the video. Interesting.
Luke Thomas. Who luke thomas the journalist okay mma journalist they spoke for 30 i'm like i'm reading the closed captioning because i can't listen to it he said those instances here i'll just play this i guess this might be it i don't know if you saw her oh luke oh my bad of herb ultimately his opinion but not limited to those instances where he had called for more work from robab.
What I cannot do today is speak on behalf of Herb. Ultimately, his opinions and beliefs are his own, and they are his to tell whenever he elects to do so.
What I can do is speak on behalf of my views. Yeah, I'm just trying to not be what it was.
That's not it. There was an article where they had interviewed him.
A statement from him himself? Yes. It was a statement from Herb himself.
And he was saying, if someone wants the fights to look different, I wish they would tell me. Damn, that's suspect.
Yes. You found it? Again, that's cryptic.
Cryptic. Yeah.
That means they're telling you, I want more action. Okay, here it goes.
I've seen on social media, people have spoken me call Calling the fighters for more action That's what I've always done. I can tell you what I tell fighters during the rules briefing I tell them anytime I'm going to interfere or any intervention I'm going to talk to you first like if I'm going to stand you up What I'm gonna say first is I'm gonna say let's work.
I usually clap at what I'm expecting from him is not busy. And what I'm expecting from him is not busy work.
I specify I'm looking for effort to finish the fight. So either you posture to where you can set up fight ending attacks or advance your position, effort to advance, because it's not as easy as just passing the guard, but effort to pass, effort to advance your position, effort to bring the fight to finish.
That rule was put in place, standing fighters up, to make our sport look the way we want it to look. But he said something else.
It was more... If he goes, as a referee, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But, I mean, if that's what he said, I trust your, you know, your recollection of it, but if that's what he said, that's still very suspect. You don't want to get this this game this is one thing about the ufc is as real as it gets or mma itself this is what it is but if you have that happening then that's starting to seem a little bit like you know not to take away like it's the wwe or anything it's not that but you are influencing the course of a fight where a guy has control.

And the referee is the guy

officiating the fight, so if he's getting

word from someone, the way he said

that, someone.

I think he was saying, if someone wants me

to, if they want the fight to look different,

I wish they would tell me. But that's what I'm saying.

When he says someone, it's like, who's that someone?

I don't think the referee's job

is to instruct a fighter

to do anything other than follow

the rules. And if you can hold a guy

I don't think the referee's job is to instruct a fighter to do anything other than follow the rules. And if you can hold a guy down, I'm the worst with this because I think you should start in the same position you ended the last round.
Because I think it's one fight. I think it's one fight.
It's not five fights. So an advantage for the striker is always standing up.
So if a guy gets you down and has your back and the round ends, I think he should have the exact same position in the exact same place on the octagon floor when the next round starts. Because he earned that position, and you didn't earn the stand-up.
So if you're standing up, standing up for a guy like you is a giant advantage. Yeah, I'm biased.
I'm going to be like, ah, fuck that. Yeah, of course.
Well, also the audience would be biased the audience be like shut the fuck up bro it does it does make sense like when it comes to pure fighting because even bro even pride had 10 minute rounds the first round you know that's cool I'm saying look some things like I'm glad this they've taken out the way but again bring back tournaments just for one night let's see who. Let's see who's a real badass.
Yeah, that would be crazy. I've done a kickboxing.
I've never done it in MMA. I've done it in boxing.
But I might bring back a tournament. So, like, let's see who's really about this.
Because we have to fight, get the adrenal dump, and you go back and sit down, sit down for ages, and then eventually have to warm up again. I remember that I've a few times i've won a few of them but it's it shows this yeah like this you know it's also built-in drama over the evening where people watch a guy fight once and now he's gonna fight a second time and that was always wild about the early days of the ufc yeah watching those tournaments and pride as well that a lot yeah, that'd be fun.
I think even for like, oh, they did it once though. Glory did it.
Remember Last Man Standing? That was crazy. They fought three times a night.
The UFC did it once with the flyweight, the inaugural flyweight title. And I think it was Mighty Mouse and Ian McCall in the final.
No, I got it wrong. They fucked up the decision.
Because if it was meant to be a draw and they'd have one more round in Sydney, I think. Yeah.
And they were meant to, but then they gave, they fucked up the decision. But that would be crazy, though.
They'd go, okay, cool. The judges have it, this, that.
It's a draw. We're going to one more round.
After a crazy fight like that, that would have had the whole place just go. Well, that's what Glory does.
Yeah. One more round.
And you see the look in the guy's face like, oh, fuck. Yeah, I've had that too.
But that's where this comes in. Yeah.
Yeah. You have to just like, cool, let's go.
Get back in the corner. Is that one of the most difficult things to change your mindset in mid-fight, like if something throws you off.
Mid-fight, ooh.

Do you remember, what I'm bringing up specifically,

is do you remember Tim Kennedy and Yoel Romero?

Oh, get up, get up.

Yes.

Yeah, stool gate, stool gate.

Tim Kennedy had Yoel Romero fucked up, fucked up,

and then they put Yoel on the stool.

They threw ice on the floor.

They fucking, and he kept sitting on the stool,

and Big John's telling him to stand up, and he's still sitting down and tim kennedy's walking around going what the fuck this fight should be stopped fight's over yeah the fight should have been stopped but then yoel got up and then he stopped him afterwards but he had like a good solid 35 seconds extra recovery time which when you're hurt is huge yeah ice on the floor as well Tim said it fucked with his head and it was his mental weakness that he didn't he thought he was angry They're robbing me. This is bullshit.
I had him I should have won the fight should have been we did the round started the minute was up It should have been I could have got on him and I could have finished him and so in his head. He lost focus It does happen like i said even with me pointing at the ground in that moment any small lapse in judgment you you just need 30 minutes or 25 minutes of focus so in that point yeah i can see how that would get to him yeah that would get to him because you're like what the fuck they're about to screw me out of this exactly and they did and so then he's got to fight again while he's going this shit already been over So instead of concentrating completely on being in the present in the fight You think and I got fucked and this is this thing when Anderson 31 was on the Celebrating right and then if I think it was her but who yeah, like yo get get down here This and that right about what then you could have been over if Anderson just followed up with one or two more shots That would have been it.
It's like we were talking about Jalen Turner and Renato Marcano.

He drops him, has him fucked up, and then walks away like it's a KO.

I literally went like, because I was front.

I went to 300.

I'm such a fan.

I was there from the first fight.

That's why I like to wear that as a badge on.

I'm like, yeah, I was there. And I watched that, and I was just like, why?

He had eight more seconds. He could have just done something and taken him out.
And Addo was fucked up, too. He was hurt bad.
Yeah. And Jalen can crack.
He's tough. Oh, he's so big for 55 and so long.
I think he's also really talented as well. He's fast.
He's smooth. Like, when he fought Dan, you heard that shit.
Yes. Bro, that kick when I heard that, and Dan grabbed grabbed his waist and then Dan had his neck at the end of the round as well.
I lost my voice in that one. That's the one where Dan broke his arm, right? Yeah, just a scratch.
And he kept fighting. Dan's a savage.
Trust me. I love watching him come back into the top five now.
I love it. I love that he did that.
I love it. I love who he is as a person because, look, Dan, I see him every day most days, and he's a guy that you don't know what to expect.
Like, out of nowhere, boom, he just customized himself with all these tattoos. Yeah, crazy.
That's badass. Yeah, he just covered himself.
I think he's in Spain because, do you know Oscar Willis, the Mac Life reporter? He's fighting Bare Knuckle this weekend, I believe, or maybe next weekend in Spain. But Dan's going to go there and corner him.
I'm like, fucking. Bare Knuckle boxing or MMA? No, boxing.
That's not for me. I can fight.
Look, if I had to get into a fight, whatever, sure. But for me, I'd rather not.
I'll pass on that. But that's the kind of shit that Dan loves.
Dan's like, yeah do that shit He wants to do that shit He wants to be like Yeah He just loves fighting Masvidal's got that whole MMA league Where it's all Bare knuckle MMA Which I like Because it doesn't make sense To me that you don't Cover your shins Or your knees Or your elbows But you do cover your knuckles I just don't like the knuckles Because you see Moose knuckles stillose knuckles still there. This can cause more damage, like cuts.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. Slices you open.
Exactly. Guys get sliced up.
So if gloves, I guess they protect. They don't really.
The new gloves as well. I think I've only fought once in the new gloves now.
I might give it maybe one or two more. But I'm like, the old gloves just, they didn't really protect, the wraps protect your hands.
But the old gloves, they felt like rubber, like tire rubber. And I think they were just dangerous, like dangerous to hit with.
If you hit someone with those, it's like bang. These new gloves, they feel like a little bit of a memory foam.
A little softer? Softer. And I don't know about this whole curve thing.
They don't really curve. I can still do that.
Yeah. I try not to do that.
I'm not, you know, whatever. But still, this, I'll wait and see.
Bro, listen, man. The best gloves, for sure, are Trevor Whitman's.
Yeah. The best gloves.
He made the best gloves. They're the best MMA gloves of all time.
I've never seen them yeah I've got see if you can pull them up the onyx is that the onyx one yeah

I've got the big ones but I've never ever had MMA gloves yeah they curve so it's curved so your hand

is in this position so if you want to do this you have to open them up but it's still you could do

that for grappling it's all the same but they're in a curved position and I think that would avoid

so many eye pokes so many so many you haven't really been I poke too many times nah only time

Thank you. same but they're in a curved position and i think that would avoid so many eye pokes so many so many you haven't really been eye poked too many times nah only time was in training really bad one was in training but nah not not in a fight nah avoid that as much as i can i have another thought on that tell me what you think of this i feel like they should cover the fingers i feel like why with like a mitt oh it goes over the top with like a round Like a boxing mitt like a little something soft.
Yeah like those little bag glove mitts

Like that's Trevor Whitman's okay, that's the onyx gloves those those are the best gloves Trevor Whitman's a fucking genius man He makes incredible gear has he ever brought this idea to yeah

They were in negotiation, but I think Trevor went crazy and wanted like

Money he wanted something according to Dana at least that's his version i haven't okay yeah yeah but he but regardless of all that he makes the best gloves they're the best mma gloves of all time by bar none yeah about the big ones i'll hit them up see if i can get those ones just to try them out it's also the best foam. He uses the most high-tech foam.
It's the most expensive foam. And he makes them all by hand.
Trevor stitches them together. Yeah, I've seen him stitch them.
He's passionate about it. But, yeah, these new ones, so far, fighting with them, I still prefer the old ones.
You think they're more damaging? Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, I get it. i don't like to get hit so maybe that's why i'm biased with it but when i hit someone with those i feel it causes more damage and i i mean i can't cause damage i cause some damage on ddp with those ones but i still want to try them maybe one more time just to feel feel them but yeah they felt different yeah felt different i can definitely tell even the wraps when i put when i was uh squeezing my wraps into them i was like okay just took a while but still got in but i'm like all right cool grab i like to test the grip strength make sure i can hold someone but yeah uh we'll see i don't know why the fingers have to be exposed because you never do this there's no yeah there's never no reason to have the fingers ever in this position.
Every time you grip, you're gripping like this. Like that, yeah.
Or you're gripping like this. Also, it would prevent joint manipulation.
Yeah, small joint manipulation. It's almost like a webbing.
Yeah. It just covers that.
Why can't you just have a thin piece of leather that goes over the fingers and then something that's curved around the top? Like you said, like those bag mitts with the thumb out. Yes.
So even if you do get poked in the eye, you're getting poked by a large thing instead of a finger. Yeah.
It goes all the way into your eye and finger nails. Yeah.
So the nails would be covered. Which even if you trim your fucking nails, that's still a hard surface that can scratch the shit out of your cornea.
You got toes. I've seen people kicked in the eye even in training and infected the eye as well oh yeah man yeah i've seen that toenails but no i mean that makes sense i mean it just i think people are scared of change right even with these new gloves it's i think it's maybe that's why i'm trying to be like let me give it one more shot i'm not i'm not them.
Mm-hmm. I just feel The other gloves were just they had that thing on them You know he lost an eye.
Oh, that's why he wears the shades Exactly From holding pads from somebody so he was holding pads and someone missed and caught his eye with their toenail I do that too if that happened to me PTSD. Yeah, fuck I think like everybody should wear goggles if you're holding mitts.
Just the possibility. Just that we know that it happened to one of the top trainers in the sport.
Yeah, and it's not just a freak accident. Right.
Even just grappling, I try and keep my nails, like, trim just because I don't want to. I've done it before by accident on someone and I've caused, I think I had collar tie, and then they did something and then, and I go, not on me, on them.
happened to me as well but i felt bad when i did it on a person i had their skin in my nails and i was like yeah my bad so again yeah cut your nails but still that's not a bad idea i would fuck with that i feel like it wouldn't affect the grappling at all yeah and it definitely would help eye pokes which are the biggest biggest problem. Eye pokes are a giant problem, man.

So many guys have gotten eye surgery now.

I mean, Bilal's had three eye surgeries.

Yeah.

And remember when he got poked real bad against Leon?

Oh, not the Leon one.

Yeah, that's right.

Yeah.

Fuck, yeah, I can imagine.

You can change the culture.

I feel like it should be done because I don't think it's bad.

I don't see any negative to covering the fingers, and I see only positives.

Yeah. And I don't think it would do.
It's just real simple. Piece of leather here.
I get you. I get what you're saying.
Measure the fighter's hands. You know, because some guys have very long fingers.
Some guys have short fingers. Measure the fighter's hands.
Build a custom glove. That's not hard to do.
Same thing like having glove size. I'm sure someone will make it now.
Oh, someone's made that before? I don't think so. Yeah.
I don't know if anybody that's made that, but that should be the way they do it because that would eliminate an enormous number of eye posts. That's a money-making scheme right now.
If someone decides to make that and then put it out there as a prototype, be like, look, this actually works. Train with them.
And then they go, I'm patenting that. Boom.
Well, the UFC doesn't listen to me because I have all kinds of crazy ideas. I'm like, get rid of weight cutting, add more weight classes, change the gloves.

No stand-ups.

No stand-ups.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fair enough.

Because also, like, I'm not interested in making the fight more exciting.

I'm interested in what's the best.

What actually works.

I'm a purist.

I want to see what is the actual effective technique.

Like, there's sometimes, like, when you see in jujitsu tournaments where guys are doing

something like they're in a 50-50 position, I'm like, this guy could punch you in the

face, kick you in the face so easy.

I'll see it in MMA. The leg lock stuff.
Where guys are accustomed to doing that, and they're literally face down, holding onto an ankle, and the dude just boom, boom. One of my boys, Nate Law, he just fought in his, I think, third pro fight.
The guy had a leg lock, and Nate posted this quote from Chill Sonnen after the fight about if a guy is holding on to your leg, just posture up and punch him in the face. And that's what Nate did and won the fight.
So, yeah, I mean, the whole leg lock game, I know some stuff with X-God and whatnot, but I don't really fuck with it too much because i get scared because the commitment when i hold on to someone's leg yeah and then you just exposed unless i'm like a craig jones type who i just know as a wizard yeah the thing about leg locks is you have so little time to react yeah if you don't tap if you there's such a brief especially like an inside heel hook there's such a brief amount of time you have before your shit is just Blowing smithereens. It's just fine.
This is fine. This is my problem and it's gone.
Yeah rips apart

And then you fuck for nine months

Even if I'm brooding with people if I don't trust that person or if I just feel like I'll just go yeah cool tap

Cuz yeah, he goes nowhere for it

I don't try and hold up to shit like that especially like locks

Yeah, you have a hard time like that was like people trying to get a name for themselves training with you. Yeah

I'm sorry. yeah ego's not worth it i don't try and hold on to shit like that especially like locks yeah do you have a hard time like that with like people trying to get a name for themselves training with you yeah yeah so that's for me look it's not even if i go to a new gym i pick and choose who i go with and it's not like an ego thing because i don't want to get my ass whooped it's just like i don't know you well enough that right and sometimes you see people they they salivate Like, oh, this chance this is right i got my shot now but now sometimes in in grappling with this episode is brought to you by tekova's if you know one thing that's a must for me ladies and gentlemen it's a pair of boots that won't let me down no matter what i only have one pair of cowboy boots they are tekova's every pair of te Tecovas boots is handcrafted with over 200 meticulous steps for broken in comfort right out of the box.
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People in the jiu-jitsu class, they'll just lower belts.

They'll be like, I'm like, I'm good, thank you.

You know what I don't like? When I see a dude sitting out around and waiting while you're exhausted and then they go do you want to go like bitch i've watched you i'll call him out i watched you just sit down yeah for 10 fucking minutes oh you'd get that as well why didn't you just jump in yeah why weren't you just rolling right now you want to roll fresh yeah is that what this is yeah and you like call him out on you see the look oh shit yeah i just go nah i'm good thank you and i'll get someone that i actually trust because yeah it's not it's just i i know the feeling as well because i'm sure that someone will tap me or do something or i'll just let go and then it's like that i know when it's real and it's generally like good job and i know the one when it's like they're like yeah i'm gonna tell everyone about this i can't wait to get online yeah here we go but again that's the thing when i talk about ego and i had to kill that before i started training grappling because it was just i sucked right like nah i get taps one thing i definitely will get is a submission in the ufc before i'm done i will i will choke out, like a guillotine or a rear naked.

I like guillotines,

but it's learning how to find the sweet spot for me,

the sweet spot when I get it. And when I get it,

it's not even a bulldog choke.

I get really good at those.

Some I can find the spot and I just,

because I got the frame for it.

The best person at our gym,

Dan, hangman.

That's his shit.

He grabs your neck. You're going like, it's like, yep.
Find a way out. You can't.
Cool. Tap.
But, yeah, I like using guillotines, though, especially on wrestlers. Because, yeah, it just lets them know, okay, this is always a threat.
This is always a threat. But, again, it's something I've been working on.
But, eventually, before I retire, you'll definitely see me get a submission. Well, it's interesting because you're a specialist.
You know, you're one of those guys that, like, you didn't come in with a full MMA experience. You didn't start as an amateur MMA fighter.
You were a kickboxer. And so I remember when you and I first started talking online, I reached out to you on Instagram.
And you were like, I'm going to wait a little while. I'm going to just do this right.
Which I thought was very intelligent. Because you could have just jumped in like many guys do.
And then UFC throws you in with a wrestler. You get exposed.
And now you're so far behind the curve. It takes a long time to build up your confidence and your momentum again.
Because you got smothered in your first fight. Yeah.
That was 2015, I believe. I haven't sent a DM to Dana saying, just give me one shot.
Just get me to the cage.

I'll do the rest.

And look, I would have, but I'm glad I took my time.

And it was good for me just to fight different people from Ukraine, China, Brazil, all different types of places.

And then experience different styles.

And that way I felt confident enough when I got to the UFC.

My first fight, shout out Rob Wilkinson. Good guy, good friend of mine now.
And, yeah, he tried to take me down constantly. And I was able to withstand that because of the work we did.
And Andre, Andre Paulette, my resting coach. A lot of drills.
Just drills. Wall work constantly.
What year did you start that? What year did you start grappling training? I started in 2010. But i was meant to go into mma straight away but there was just so many kickboxing fights and i kept on getting kickboxing fights that i was just too also i like fighting kickboxing so i was just like i'll just take this fight take this fight but i was always grappling on the side like low-key grappling on the side and eventually i think uh i can't remember what year year my first ufc uh mma fight was uh would have been 2014 maybe or 13 and then i started taking it more seriously like i'm a purple belt now but i'm like i'm a purple belt i know i'm dangerous but it's like i'm not like there's levels there's levels to belts right there's some purple belts blue belts who can kick my ass you know but yeah uh i do enjoy it though i love grappling i like i feel like a ninja cat when i'm grappling and i'm on i'm on that flow state i just feel like i just it's it's fun to play with but then again i've only ever shown cases or brief like again uh who's one not just the Pereira fight in Madison Square Garden.
Gastelum, I had a triangle on them.

Tavares, I had a guillotine at the end of the round.

Some other ones with the Kimura traps.

But, yeah, just no one's really put me in that position to make me have to, like, really use my offensive grappling.

But, again, when I get taken to the ground, I'm just like, fuck, I'm just going to stand up.

If kickboxing was as big as MMA, do you think you've ever done MMA? That's a good question. Fuck.
Okay, money-wise, probably ego. Because I just knew a fucking nerd in pajamas could kick my ass.
I can't have that. Bro, honestly, I just know some dude can beat me and he doesn't have to even throw a punch in the back of my mind it's still that's why sometimes when all these you know boxes you know like like back in the day when it was usc versus boxing or whatever i was like well this is a this is real fighting like you want to see what the baddest person on the planet is fight right no one's No one's telling you you can't use your weapons, but you want to take away all my weapons.
Right. And that's why I don't think I'll ever box again because I just think it's too limiting.
Even kickboxing, I feel like, it'd be really hard for me to because it's too limiting. I do like aspects of grappling that I can use in a fight.
But yeah, nah. I like full-fledged fighting i think it's it's a healthy ego i just knew i have to really humble myself so i can learn how to fight these guys at their own game so yeah that's why i like how one fc has everything they have grappling matches they have kickboxing matches they have muay thai matches and they have mma matches i think that is the way to go and i really wish the ufc i know they're invested in this slap fighting shit but instead of that like slap fighting have a kickboxing league have a written i think they're they don't think that people would get into kickboxing i think they're wrong yeah they just did the one in denver for one fc recently went well and the fights are crazy yeah a lot of knock.
A lot of action-packed stuff. But if it was just marketed the right way, you know, with the UFC's marketing machine, easily, easily would be one of the biggest leagues.
Because everybody loves KOs. Everybody loves stand-up fights.
And you're going to- It's slap fighting. There's a lot of KOs there.
But you're going to get real KOs because kids, they can't, no one can grapple grapple. You can't grapple.
So you're going to get people that are forced to stand up, and you could then attract the greatest strikers in the world like 1FC is doing. They're getting all these Thai killers, these rod tanks, all these elite Thai fighters, and they're all coming over, and they're fighting in the cage now.
And I feel like there's an opportunity for that, for a kickboxing league in America that would be hugely successful if, like, the UFC machine got behind it. You know John Wayne Pops started that.
I think he did, if I'm thinking about it. Yeah, he did.
Cage, yeah. Little gloves.
I watched both fights with Brad Riddell, I think. No, the first one with Brad Riddell.
The second one, sorry. That was the one I watched at Cage Fighting.
Great fight. Crazy fight.
Even though John lost, he just showed me who he is. But yeah, I think he did start Cage Muay Thai.
Yes. That was his thing.
I think it was his thing. He should have fucking trademarked that shit.
Yeah, well, Muay Thai with little gloves is different too, right? Because, you know, there's blocks you can't use. Just shielding like the Dutch style.
I remember remember with the big gloves i always talked about it as well i always felt my striking was better for mma i always felt it was better for mma because i was like nah if you can just do this that's yeah you just block whatever hit it's just who's tough who's tougher right but with the small gloves you can get around the guard the hand traps are different so i always just felt like yeah my striking would excel better in MMA I wasn't as not I'm tough but I wasn't as just like tough for no reason yeah thank you like I used my brain yeah I was just tough for no reason like boom boom boom okay you hit me hit me hit you hit you yeah that's not my style I always felt I was slicker the way I moved the way I set traps and I like them. It makes striking better.
It's kind of crazy about the Dutch, right? Like, what is it about them that makes their style so savage? Because if you go back and you watch Ramon Deckers or Rob Kamen or Ernesto Hoost, oh my god. I think it's his culture.
Is that what it is? Yeah, I think it's the culture of the style because I've seen some of the gym spars. That's how they...
I heard it's insane over there. Khalil khalil was talking about it yeah khalil was telling the way he went to the train over there years back and he's like i don't can't fucking do this like these guys are going hard every day for zero dollars yeah zero dollars like what do you get paid in glory what are the best fighters get paid in glory like what was like uh i wasn't getting paid that much what does does Rico Verhoeven get paid to defend his heavyweight title? I think he probably gets more than most.
He's still in glory, right? Yeah. Okay, yeah.
Yeah. I kind of fell off them after they robbed me off the fucking belt.
I was just like, yeah, whatever. I don't care about that anymore.
Oh, the Jason Wellness fight? Yeah. After that, I kind of fell off.
I thought you won that fight too. Yeah, I know.
It's one of those things. Look, I'm glad things happened the way they have in my career because it always gives me an opportunity to come back or rise again and showcase my spirit, my fighting spirit, not just in the cage, but as a human being.
So all the things that have happened to me in my career when it comes to losses or setbacks, I just go, cool. Let's see what I can do next.
Right. Yeah.
Like even, look, the DDP fight, Strickland fight. What's the other one? Well, Pereira got that back.
Jan one, I feel like that was a side quest. I'm just kind of like, man, that's cool.
And I never hold on to them. I never hold on like, I need to get this.
It's like, nah, this is fine. Like the Alex one, I was cool if that never happened.
But then he decided to chase me, and I was like, cool, let's do it. The Jan thing is a crazy situation, right?

Because Jan goes to a split decision with Pereira.

It's a great fight.

It's a tough fight.

He has that crazy fight with Ankoliyev.

It goes to a draw.

And then no one's talking about him.

Everyone's talking about contenders in the light heavyweight division.

Like, what about Jan Bojovic?

Get him in now before he's too fucking old. I think he's already in his 40s early 40s but i think he won the title that old like wasn't he like 39 or 40 when he won the title it was i'm trying to think he i just feel like he's being disrespected like he's he's just not getting the attention like if you look at his performances the guy's not had a bad performance like there's not one fight that boring.
There's not one fight where he wasn't trying to win. He's not a wrestler He's fighting top contenders.
He's fighting kickboxing. Yeah, he's a fucking animal and he's out of the conversation Like they're talking about on Kaleev fighting, you know, like oh Alex is avoiding on Kaleev So he takes Khalil Klaiv andbo hovich went to a fucking draw like what about that like what about him? Yeah, maybe because he doesn't make as much noise cuz I don't really see him on there as much anymore What does this say? Ah, okay.
Oh, we supposed to fight rock right? Shoulder injury he's hurt right now. Oh shoulder surgery so that but that was January so that was ten months ago Yeah, must be well, and that's about the right amount of time especially when you're Dealing with shoulder injuries man those fucking things take forever Yeah, go see fucking what's his name Briggs, but yeah, I'm glad I got some today though.
Thank you for that I actually feel yeah, not from the stem cells. I liked it from the drip I got earlier.
But yeah, the stem cells. The ones I had in my ankle, yeah, they worked when I went to Mexico.
It works. It's a game changer.
It's a game changer. And we're getting fucked here in America where it's very difficult to get the same kind of treatment that you can get in Mexico and Panama.
What they can do here is much more limited. Hopefully in the future they'll release those limitations, but in America you're dealing with a lot of corruption because orthopedic surgeons, pharmaceutical drug companies, they're going to lose a lot of money if they have stem cell treatments because there's so many different things that it could fix.
Even Briggs was just talking about what he said on here, just going at them, and that went viral, which is good. I just told him, bro, put out a tweet and say, I will never, ever kill myself, ever.
I think that's a smart thing to do. Just put that tweet.
When you start fucking with those guys, pharmaceutical companies, they will find anything. Yeah, you get the plane crash.
Whoopsie. Oh, how did that happen? Fuck.
There was one, what was the one for me? i put that tweet out one time because i kind of got a little paranoid so i i did this interview with oscar willis right and i started talking about the whole this is when epstein just got arrested and i was saying like well epstein just got arrested right and then oscar goes yeah it's funny how the johnny depp and amber heard uh case is getting more attention than that. And I'm like, crazy, isn't it? So this Epstein guy just sold kids or whatever, trafficked them to these rich oligarchs and whatnot.
And I was like, what happened to them? What happens to those people? Where's the list? And then I didn't think anything of it, but then it went viral. And then every year since, it goes viral at least twice or three times.
I'll see it just circulate again i'm just like oh fuck so then i went on twitter and i said i would and i'll say again look i will never ever kill myself i've never even come close i mean we all think about it sometimes like when i was working this job you just have like a passing fleeting thought like oh if i just jump over this bridge and hurt my leg i don't have to work for the next six months because i hated my last job but i would never ever ever ever kill myself i'm not that i'm not built that way and i've been there before when i think 2013 i realized is this how people feel before they kill themselves like the how sad they were and i was like man that's sad that just made me feel sad for those who actually go through with it. Yeah.
But, yeah, anyway, I would never kill myself just in case.

Well, there's enough people commenting on the Epstein case that I don't think you have to worry.

But the people that are in the position to actually know the people's names on the list, those people are probably in trouble.

Yeah.

Because that's a crazy piece of information to have.

And the fact is that, look.

No one's been tried.

No one's been brought away.

No one's been discussed.

We know who went there.

We know for went there. We know flight logs.
No one talks about anything. There's no effort to prosecute.
There's no effort. And then you have Ghislaine Maxwell, who's in jail for sex trafficking to who? To who? That's what I'm saying.
You have to have done it to someone, but there's no effort at all to uncover that. Yeah, but I'm saying now, this year, it's kind of crazy how this year started off with, what's his name, Cat Williams on Shedding Sharp.
He starts talking, spilling the tea, sipping the cognac, and then now this whole P. Diddy thing.
Sometimes you have to tell Diddy no. Oh, man, bro.
Yeah, it's crazy.bs' alleged list of accomplishments is to be revealed soon. The names will shock you.
Attorney says, whoa. I think he's going to sing.
I think he has to sing or he goes to jail for the rest of his life. God protects me.
I'm so glad God protects me because look, if I got invited to the white party, I'd have gone. Especially if you didn't know.

Of course.

No one knew.

No one knew.

If you don't know,

you're just a celebrity and you know,

oh,

Jennifer Lopez

is going to be there.

Oh,

Rick Ross is going to be there.

Everyone's going to be there.

That would be a cool place.

I want to meet those people.

Facts.

And I just want to be there

having fun partying

but then they start to,

apparently,

they said they were using,

I'm going to guess

it's like ketamine

because they said

horse tranquilizer and they're putting in people's drinks and the champagne and then getting them all loose yeah i'll tell you a secret it's just us two right yeah after i knocked out perera in miami we went to tutti's the next night and they were like yo p diddy wasn't here watching your fight last night i was like wait word crazy and i went i checked my dms and i saw oh shit he hit me up and he was talking about two months later i want to do an interview or whatever and i said here's my manager's number but cool nothing ever came off it but again that's why i said god be protecting right because who knows like you never know oh yeah we're having this party later on yeah that's cool cool cool and then they start to like you know you find some chick you pull on you and then boom, how was that 15 year old like wait what right and you're filmed yeah i heard about that yeah he had apparently allegedly cameras all over the house and a hundred thousand bottles of baby oil yeah what nobody's that ashy bro a thousand but also by the way that's shit lube. Coconut oil is better.
Fucking water-based lubricant. But baby oil, as acidic as fuck, Johnson & Johnson's, like, that's demonic, bro.
Like, why would you use baby oil? Even if you're fucking dudes. Nah! You probably started out with it.
That's all the bottles. Nah, that's AI.
That's gotta be AI. That's gotta be AI.
I don't know if it's AI. I think that's real.

I think it was lube and

baby oil. I think you had a variety of

different substances. Who counted that?

It was a thousand. Look at that.

One, two, three bottles of baby oil.

Four, five, six bottles of baby oil

on the wall. Imagine having 500

bottles and go, we need to go for a fucking

target run. Nah, man.

The fact that they said it was fucking, what do you call it?

Costco and Costco goes, nah, we don't sell that shit.

What is this defaced ar-15s interesting? What does that mean? Does that mean they scratch the serial numbers off? Yeah, whoa, that's a serious crime. Yeah, that's a serious crime but again see he's in cahoots with Epstein and then is he in cahoots with was he in cahoots with it or was it just a similar type of an operation he they were friends really yeah cuz Epstein had a fucking know on Miami as well and that really private rich estate in Miami so they were all in cahoots as well but again I think he's gonna sing isn't it crazy like that was always the, tinfoil hat thing.
Oh, there's a place where the elites go to fuck underage kids. You're like, what? What's his name? Alex Jones.
Alex Jones. Yeah.
He was right. He was right.
He was right about a lot of things. Almost everything.
Yeah, most. About almost everyone.
Fucked up that one. But almost everything else, he was right.
But you gotta realize that guy had been in uncovering real conspiracies that the media had not covered for fucking decades and he was literally having like a psychotic break because of it because he's just drinking all the time and dealing with the stress how would you even kanye imagine you trying to tell people something right and then no one believes you and they call you crazy. I go crazy just trying to explain to people.
I can imagine the frustration, the frustration of trying to explain to someone. And you're like, no, this is really happening.
And they're like, yeah, whatever, you're this and that. And I went down the rabbit hole in 2020.
I'll tell you, I did. I had to.
And for me, it was just like I could see the fuckery.

Look, this is the mark of the immigrant. It's right here.
If you look at any immigrant, it's just like that little dot. It's a keloid.
It's from a vaccine we all had as kids all over Africa. I can't remember what it was for.
So I'm not opposed to vaccines. but when someone's trying to force you or coerce you or whatever into taking something that you're like you know something just doesn't feel right about it you know what i mean yeah but again i grew up in nigeria i know how corruption works right so i mean i'm a law-abiding citizen you know i'm I'm saying? I did my part, whatever.
But still, I just knew something was afoot. So, I, yeah, I did my part.
I played the game because it's all a game. I got offered different ways to play the game.
But I was like, I'll find my own way. And I did.
So, yeah, stay pure, which is good. Yeah.
This whole thing was just money. It was just they were trying to convince everybody that needed a vaccine because they wanted to make enormous amounts of money and they pulled it off.
And then now with all the information that's come out, all the deaths. I saw that show, Die Suddenly or whatever.
Yeah. And you see the blood clots from the same time that the vaccine got pushed.
Excuse me. And then everyone just goes, oh, oh, well, carry on with my dad.
It's like, again, I'm frustrated in a sense, but I don't say it because I'm like, we fucking told you. Yes.
But then I don't need an apology. No one needs an apology.
But it's kind of like everyone just, oh, well, I guess that's that. And then carry on with your fucking life.
I was talking to a dude last night who's a veteran who was telling me that the hospital where these veterans get treated, they literally told him we are not allowed to make a connection with any of these adverse side effects to the vaccine. Even ones that are listed as vaccine side effects, they're not allowed to make that connection because they mandated the vaccine.
Yeah. And the real problem the reason why all these corporations all these people don't want to talk about it is because they mandated their employees to get vaccinated yeah so they even though there's no liability for the vaccine manufacturers because they're exempt which is part of the problem why they fucking propose all these things anyway but then you're not allowed to make the connection with the problem these people are having and the fact that they got vaccinated two, three times.
You're not even allowed to say that this might have been the cause of it. They're not even allowed to bring up that connection.
So they have to just treat whatever this side effect of the vaccine is without talking at all about the vaccine and not give any connection to it. Isn't that funny? It's through the looking glass.
Yeah. It's like we're living in the matrix, man.
It really is. It's like there's complete mind control.
And the idea of mind control is like, no, mind control is not real. Of course it's real.
It happens. I've seen it.
So many bots, bro. Like sometimes I move through life and I feel like, look, we are all born like as players in this game, but everyone gets kind of programmed through schooling or whatever, education system, society.
And then they just become bots. And I can see it as well.
Because when I was bringing it up and I would say something, people I really love and trust sometimes and they did instantly. They call it Agent Smith syndrome.
And they decide, no, actually this and that. Right, right, right.
But you know why that is? Because they got vaccinated and they told people to get vaccinated and they don't want to believe they made the bad decision and they don't want to believe they coerced other people into making a bad decision. So they want to come up with all sorts of reasons why all these health problems and all these, and then the overall all to all cause mortality increase which is through the roof yeah in some age brackets it's 40 percent increase in all cause mortality strokes cancer heart attacks all these things have gone through the roof and no one is making a connection must be just uh you know the food people are eating who just ignore it it's just money even some people like that did get it they tell me they regret getting it yeah so many times i regret getting it but i had to because if not my job was gonna fire me then i had to and the the fucking gas lighting thing our former fucking prime minister she did oh i don't believe we i don't believe we coerced anyone into getting it i don't yeah and you just i'm like bitch you literally, bitch, you literally said if you don't get this, you can't go grocery shopping, can't go to restaurants, you can't do that.
Can't work. So your livelihood gone.
But then I don't think we forced anyone. We didn't force your hand.
That's the ultimate form of gaslighting. You're just like in our face.
was incredible the pressure was incredible and you know i felt it in the weirdest way because i saw people lying about me on cnn i was like this is crazy or the horse tranquilizer thing they changed yeah they was horse dewormer they changed the color of my face they made me look yellow and sick on television i'm like if you do that to me and by the way no one gave a that i got better real quick that was the craziest part about it isn't this supposed to be about recovering from a disease here you got a guy who's recovered in three days and is telling you all the shit he took and you're lying you still try to like superimpose that sepia kind of filter over you the one one that got me, so, because we still travel during 2020. I did four of those MIQ quarantines.
The one where you go back to your own country, and then you have to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks before you get led back into society. My coach usually did nine.
A lot of those. He even told me, Israel, that last one.
Luckily, the last one, he he was able to do it in his house but then his family had to go live somewhere else for two weeks he was just grateful he had it in his house my last one i i remember i went outside for our fucking daily outside for what 40 minutes or whatever sometimes we get shipped onto the playpen on a bus like prisoners or whatever and then i remember everyone's doing these circles just walking in a circle and i almost did a full circle one time i was like what the fuck am i doing and then i went back into my room and i stayed in my room for the remaining uh 11 days because i just felt like this was too much And then also the one that got me was third one. This lady had a kid in the,

she,

she, because I just felt like this was too much. And then also, the one that got me was the third one.

This lady had a kid, and she may be paraplegic or whatever.

She had a neurological disease.

And then the kid had a seizure while the mom was having a smoke somewhere.

The kid had a seizure.

And one of the guys went and helped the mom with the kid.

And the officer that helped the mom with the kid, they put him in quarantine for three days because he didn't have the correct ppe gear on so that let me know this isn't about looking after people it's about punishing this guy for disobeying the law because he didn't have it so wait oh someone's having a seizure hold up miss let me go put on this fucking overall and tape my gloves on this. While this kid's dying.

Exactly.

And they punished him for that.

So that let me know, like, okay, this is fuckery.

This is a foot.

Well, I remember when Dan Hooker had fought over here, and then there was a picture of him being on the side of a fence looking at his daughter.

Oh, yeah.

It was heartbreaking.

He couldn't see his daughter for, like, two weeks.

Eugene had the same thing.

He had a newborn at the time. So I have a picture of him with his wife and his son on the other side as well and then you're just separating families all that kind of stuff look i i like my alone time i love i might seem like a social butterfly and i am i can do both but i love my alone time and i like being inside but when you have too much, that's bad.
I didn't like that because then you start to go in your head with all these other things. I mean, I didn't go crazy, but I was dancing on the edge.
Well, that was a lot of things. I enjoyed it.
People on Twitter lost their fucking mind because they were on Twitter all day long, locked in their house during quarantine for months and months at a time, just literally getting mentally ill, just reading Twitter and attacking people and then blaming all these people that are unvaccinated on all the problems of the world. They just put us against each other.
Yeah. Constantly.
I just hope people don't do that again. I hope people realize, like, hey, no one benefited from that.
No one got better no it didn't help anybody survive it was all bullshit i hope there's another lockdown but yeah just for like a month i think okay look every year at least for two weeks or even some places maybe a month just all right shut everything down everyone go it was good like you get to spend time with your family or the people you live with and realize do i fuck with these people or do i not and they also build like build relationships and relationships things like that the whole world got better the fucking ocean got cleaner so i think it's good lockdown was good for that when when it was okay but not for extended periods like six months or whatever that's crazy terrible for the economy even a lockdown for a month is terrible for the economy. How so? It takes a long time to recover.
Oh, true. When everything seizes and you're not getting any packages in, like right now there's a Teamsters and Longshoremen strike in America, which means all the docks, all the shipments are coming in.
No one's moving nothing. Everything's locked down.
I think it's still all the Amazon just for two weeks. No, no, no, no, no.
Damn, really? Eventually that's no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no Because they want more money. Okay, they feel like they have a more valuable position than they're being compensated for and this is They can negotiate like you guys need to understand how valuable we are to your society you take us for granted Yeah, you don't want to give us what's fair and so we're gonna fuck you sure and they haven't had a lockdown like that since 19th year apparently.
Yeah, damn It's a real one. It's a scary one too because it they have an immense too, because they have an immense power, and they haven't flexed it before, and they're flexing it now.
And they're flexing it, like, right before an election, which is who knows what kind of effect that's going to have. Because if the economy tanks because of that, and they can blame Biden and Kamala Harris, you know, it could get crazy.
Yeah. I will see.
When did that start? Like, a week ago, two weeks ago? A couple days ago. Oh, really? I think it was October 1st.

Shit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Interesting.

I always like it when, look, I love America, but I like watching it from New Zealand.

I love, like when I call me, I love the food, like the fucking, you know, Shake Shack, just

delicious.

Like last night, it took so long for this burger or something, Austin, to get to our hotel. But but then when it got there we just smashed like all these smash burgers i ate three of them so good and i go back home and i eat clean i get my body right again but here i love it even um when trump won i was stuck here for in san diego for about eight weeks that's when i went to alto jiu-jitsu and i got really, really good at Jiu Jitsu for a while.
Me and my teammates, we just thought like when Trump wins, we need to have food for four days because it's going to be fucking crazy. The streets going to, because from where we are in New Zealand, the camera only shows you this.
So Trump wins. We're looking outside like, okay, it's safe.
Cool. Everyone's, and happening.
We see Trump flags on someone's lawn, Biden, whatever, on someone's lawn still. It's fine.
But then someone explained to me that even the Capitol riots and D.C., they face the cameras this way. If you just turn the cameras this way, you'll see the rest of the street just normal.
So from New Zealand, when we see what's happening here, it's just the biggest, craziest sitcom. And again, like I said, I love America, but I like watching it from New Zealand.
But I do enjoy being here. But again, watching it from New Zealand, we have our own chaos to deal with, but this one is just juicy.
It's a different kind of chaos. The whole world's watching.
That's what's different because America is such a weird country that the whole world is watching when we have elections. Even, look, Trump just got almost assassinated.
Twice. Twice.
Twice. What? There was a second assassination attempt.
No. Yeah, there was a guy who got caught with an AK-47.
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Terms and conditions may apply. I missed all this.
Yeah, because they took it in and out of the news in like a heartbeat. There was a shootout.
No, the Secret Service shot at him. He fled.
I don't think he shot at the Secret Service. He fled and then they caught him.
Was or after? After. After.
After. Okay, I see.
So this is a guy who's a real lunatic. He went over Ukraine to fight for the Ukraine forces.
It's a crazy person. Okay.
And this guy was somehow or another armed to the tits, even though it's illegal for him to be carrying a gun. He's a convicted felon.
And he almost assassinatedinated trump and it was out of the news cycle in a couple of days i missed that completely i didn't even know about it this is news they gloss over it they don't give a fuck but again how do you gloss over that the one with uh when he got shot and he just turned his ear crazy there's so many things fucked up with that you know why i mean i'm sure you've already talked people. But it's just the fact that it's just they apparently saw him on the roof for, what, nine minutes or something beforehand and just watched him.
So many things. Everything's wrong with that one.
Yeah. Everything's wrong.
It wasn't really Secret Service. A lot of those are Homeland Security.
The lady with the gun that she kept on. Fumbling with the gun.
Full panic. Yeah.
The whole thing was madness. And the fact that that went out of the news cycle real quickly, too.
Nobody cares about the fact they almost killed that guy. Now it's about the debate.
It's about the debate. Yeah, and they went right back to calling him a threat to democracy, a threat to our society.
And like, hey, who was that kid? How did he die? What happened there? How did he get a hold of those detonators? How did his apartment get completely professionally scrubbed? When they went to that kid's house, there was no silverware. His house was professionally scrubbed.
And he lived by himself. Isn't he a teenager? 20 years old.
Meanwhile, he was in a BlackRock commercial. BlackRock, the company.
Yeah, he was in a BlackRock commercial. Okay.
And then, yeah, dude, there's so much to that story. And here's the thing.
If he and then they kill him Who knows it's all lost it's all in the wind yeah a lone shooter a crazy person Unfortunately got ahold of trump you know we need to take everyone's guns Yeah, this gun violence is a real problem in this country, you know It's also a problem mind control like what did you do to that kid? What the drugs was he on no toxic toxicology examination they burned his body in 10 days really i took a hold of so they didn't even bury him no they fucking cremated his ass see this is what i like i just get the popcorn just go yeah it's nuts it's a crazy because he would have been lee harvey oswald too i mean just like lee harvey oswald allegedly shoots jfk jack ruby shoots him. He's dead.
What happened? Who knows? That's the whole magic bullet theory. Again, I've gone down that rabbit hole to a point where I saw that it might have been the driver.
Nah. No? Nah.
Okay. Nah.
So is that clip AI? Yeah, that's bullshit. Multiple shooters for sure.
Most likely people in the grassy knoll. And most likely probably somebody from where Oswald was as well It might even been Oswald Oswald might have taken a shot as well I saw this video to this that you can't trust shit these days.
No, bro. I swear next year I think next year it'll be the wind that's like you have to really know what you're watching I'll have to question everything because now it's fingers, text.

I can kind of,

oh, that's a bullshit.

And also there's a little texture.

There's a texture with the AI videos

and I'm like, that's AI.

For now.

Yeah.

Next year.

It's going to get better and better.

Yeah, I got to piss.

Let's take a leak real quick.

No worries.

Yeah, I'll take a piss as well.

Talking about my documentary.

It's great.

So we're talking,

what were we talking about before?

Oh, we just went on a tangent

about fucking chemtrails and shit. No, was just telling jamie about my documentary i said like he should watch it as well i said even if it wasn't about me i'd still recommend it because it was a well-made not so sporty sporty films like one of the best pictures i got sent was this lady knitting on a plane and then watching it and i thought it was like an old lady, not her demographic watching MMA.
She's watching me through the documentary knitting because it was something that it was different. When did they start filming this? They came on board 2018 we started talking.

And then they came on board with their cameras.

But Jeff St. Leo, who is my videographer, works for Zuck now,

literally does everything.

But, yeah, he had a lot of behind-the-scenes footage.

And we just put it all together talking about my kind of rise in this game, but also dealing with the, I guess, the pressures of all this, you know, because no one there's no book on how to be famous.

Right.

I had to learn this on my own.

I had to learn this myself.

What was the most difficult part of it for you?

For me, I think people.

I just didn't expect that.

I knew I wanted to be when you grow up, you think I want to be rich and famous like when you know the mtv cribs era right the pimp my right era i thought yo when i'm rich i'm gonna have seven cars one for every day of the week i'm gonna have this many houses have real estate now differently but also i only need two cars like there's all these other stuff that comes through also i'm not'm not a car person like you. I just like Hot Wheels.
But now I can buy one of them. Don't you have the McLaren, though? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
My best reaction when I wrapped it was, I love seeing little boys be like, when they see it, yeah. But now I put it back to black, and I'm going to do something different to it later on with some airbrushing.
Not me, my guy, Matty um oh just people there's even a bit in this documentary where um they were just filming one day and then these kids are like they just drove by my house and they beeped the horn they kind of gave me a fright and they came to my door and then the camera was filming so it's in the documentary and i i explained to them oh it's cool let's take a photo but then it got to a point where it'd be like 9 p.m 10 p.m and then yeah oh it's still being a home because my street my my house my front door was accessible to the street that was my first house i ever bought now david lives there that's his home and i live in this fucking complex that has a gate

and a code so if you have to get to my front door you have to be there and yeah just dealing with people was the main thing for me because i didn't expect the attention i was getting i was expecting it but i guess the variable of the unknown so yeah i just had to learn how to protect my energy and protect my, some boundaries.

You know what I mean?

Like today after lunch, I'd say yes to photos.

But if I feel like, say I'm at the airport, if I say yes to, you've had this before, we say yes to one and people are like, oh, he's taking photos.

And it becomes like a zombie apocalypse.

And I'm like, yo, I got to go somewhere.

So if I tell someone like, yo, I can't right now. If I say yes to you, I got to say, oh, please just one.
And I'm like, it gotta go somewhere so if i tell someone like yo i can't right now if i say yes to you i gotta say oh please just one and i'm like it's not just one right you don't understand yeah and then i'm the i'm the asshole but i and i love my fans i love people who actually support me and i try and make time for them but then also i have to make time for me yeah because i've been there before where it's pretty much i'm just there and then on my turn, my turn. My turn.
I'm like, bro, I'm not even having fun. I don't even have kids yet.
But when I have kids, that's when I'm going to be like, nah. Yeah.
My youngest daughter won't have it. She grabbed me and dragged me away.
Good. Like when people try to take photographs.
She hates it. Good.
My middle daughter, it doesn't bother her that much. But the youngest daughter, she gets fucking angry.
They're stealing my daddy's attention from me. Thank you.
Yeah. For me, even if I, okay, if I go on a date or whatever and someone sees me and tries to take a photo, I just go, I want her time right now.
You have to ask her. Or if I'm with my family, I just say no.
Especially when you're sitting down having dinner. That's crazy.
When they come up to the table, like, come on, man, get the fuck out of here. I think it's social awareness, this day and age and age and everyone and you know what it's it's funny i can feel it coming once they see me because they look like they're about to pull out a gun right that's what it feels like every time they do it i'm just like and i say yes to most of it but there's times i'll say no so that would be i say that the most difficult thing so far was just dealing with people um but again i do like people but also i don't like't like some people.
Some people are just so entitled. Entitled, yeah.
They just come up at you and it's just like, bro. They feel like you owe them something because they know who you are.
You're not even a fan. Sometimes it's this thing where they just see people taking photos.
I want a photo too. Right.
You don't even know what I do. I'm like, oh, can I get one, please? Who are you? Yeah.
Ah. Yeah.
I love that. You know why? I like it when someone doesn't genuinely know who I am.
But when they, oh, I'm sorry, I don't know you. I'm like, it's okay.
My name's Israel, because I got to meet them on a first name basis. Right.
But one of the best ones and the best replies I gave one time was these three chicks and two guys, they were just, you know, oh, my God, fan, fan, fan. And one of them was like, excuse me, but who are you? I was like are you i was like i'm no it's always a girl yeah and then she came back again like three more times like excuse me but like who are you i don't even know who you are i was like bitch i don't know who you are and then her face was just like and i just left it alone but again i prefer meeting people on a first name basis right it makes me feel like i get to know you and you get to know me without some preconceived notion of what you've seen on tv or youtube yeah yeah i love when someone doesn't know who i am now now it's nice now i can have a regular conversation with someone you know like what do you do you're like i'm a comedian oh have you ever been on television yeah a couple of times oh i'll look out for you okay good no i like those yeah easy it's each other.
It's real. I like what you said, protect your energy.
Yeah. Because that's really what it is.
Because if you give up your energy to everyone, you will get lost. Yeah.
You will get lost. I learned that the week before the Robert Whitaker fight in Melbourne.
So I had this epiphany and then did the fight, did well. And again, you know how I told you after my ufc debut it was all this attention and stimulus and when i went home boom right and for like a month i just felt sad and i'm thinking like nothing's wrong i'm so fucking like i should be happy i should be happy right and that's when i started going to therapy but then i learned through the techniques and tools i've got from that how to protect myself so before before the Rob fight, I felt the same thing again because my girl at the time had to drag me away from the after party.
Because I hid in the after party. I hid in the toilet.
I had a drink. Jesus Christ.
Put all the seats down, just sat there. And she's like, where are you? I'm like, I'm in the toilet.
So I just sent her a text. And she's like, nah, I'm coming to grab you.
So we went to go get ramen somewhere.

And then at the hotel before I flew out, I just put out something on my story saying, look, guys, I appreciate the love and all that.

If you see me, you can come say what's up.

But if you come yelling at me, I'm just going to walk away.

It's the yelling thing.

And I think that's learned behavior.

They say, oh, my God.

Yeah.

Joe Rogan.

And same rhetoric.

I'm a huge fan. I've loved you since this.
I've've watched you since this and it's the same like bot responses yeah npc responses and they're yelling but if someone just comes up like hey man i'm a big fan do you mind if i take a pic cool let's go and they make it quick they're ready they're not going oh excuse me what are you doing here right i'm just like yo don't hold me hold me hostage. Let's just go, like, take the picture.

I like those.

But if we have a genuine connection and I vibe with someone and we end up talking for like five minutes, even better.

But you can't try and facilitate that.

But, yeah, it's when people come.

And then they hang around.

And then they won't leave.

Yeah.

And I'm just, don't hold me hostage with your conversation.

Do you remember the first time you met a famous person?

You.

I did something real silly.

You will remember this.

This is another one of those things.

I can tell you now

because we're boys.

But I met you at UFC 192

when Dan fought Yair.

And I met you backstage

at the Wayans.

And then I came to say,

what's up?

And then I did fucking bought shit bro then i was like bro do you remember my friend chris he took a photo with you and it's a video huh and you're like yeah a lot of people do that and i was like oh yeah and then for the next like five hours idiot idiot why'd you say that oh and i just felt cringe but i got over it eventually but again it's one of those things that you learn um yeah certain things i learned even with snoop one time at staples center when it was a staple center i ended up smoking with him but then i filmed it and then afterwards thinking, like, why did you do that? You should have just enjoyed the fucking moment. Right.
And I cringe at myself when I'm like, oh, who doesn't want to fucking smoke with Snoop Dogg? Right. But why did I have to film it so I can show people? I don't even think I did.
Did I post it? I did post it. Yeah, of course I posted it.
But again, it's one of those things I learned now. So there's people I've met, places I've been now that I just, I enjoyed the experience and it is what it is.
I don't need a photo. Right.
It's in here. I've taken snapshots.
Well, but you've had all those experiences. That's where I give people grace when they're first meeting me.
It's like, I get it. I remember the first time I met someone famous.
It's weird. Yeah.
It's a weird feeling. You don't remember that one, do you? you? I don't good for the next five hours or to the next day I think the fight to see you the next day I was just like okay then I kind of got over it and I just think and I told Chris when I went home I was like yeah I told him about that and I felt so stupid it's like ugh but I know now it's better because when I meet people I really appreciate I don't geek out or whatnot even if it if it's something, I'm just like, yo, that's that person.
I kind of birdwatch them. And if they recognize me, one of the coolest ones was Eminem in Saudi Arabia because everyone's trying to get a photo.
And then my guy, Ike, security, just goes, hey, Em, Israel, would I take a photo? He goes, oh, yo, what's up? And he came and took a photo with me. And out of everyone, he let me take a photo with him.
So I was like, yeah, I felt cool because it's Eminem. You know what I mean? So things like that I'll appreciate.
In certain moments like that, I appreciate it. But I don't force it.
I don't try and facilitate it. I just let it be.
I just let it be. And if I get it, cool.
And I don't need it. That's the thing.
You don't need to take a photo for everything. Just enjoy the moment.
Just enjoy the moment. Enjoy the interaction.
Enjoy the energy. But I understand the weirdness of meeting someone famous because I do remember it.
It's an odd feeling. You don't know what to do.
You feel weird. You say dumb things.
You don't know why you're saying them and then you're like, what did I just do? I'm better now. The coolest one I think I had was Trump.
What was this? Vegas at the fights. I haven't even...
The clip was one of the UFC's thing. Documentaries.
And I was like, oh, yo, America's Last Hope. What's up? I dapped him up.
And Dana's there just smiling. And then we're talking.
We just dapping up and talking. And then he's like, enjoy your fight, this and that.
And it wasn't weird. Because, again, I can understand.
Like, I'm meant to be here now. Sometimes I get imposter syndrome.
Sometimes it still creepss in i don't know if you still get it yeah it still creeps in but i know how to identify it now yeah and i go right i'm gonna shut it down like any emotion but yeah that was one of the cooler ones i had where i was okay i handled myself well i wasn't an idiot and many other ones but yeah the ones and there will be more i used to get imposter syndrome so Yeah? Where I meet people, I'm like, I can't believe you know who I am. I got to hide.
You should know who I am. I know who you are.
You should know me. I'm a fucking loser.
I felt that a little bit yesterday. But I went to the mothership a little bit.
But, again, you watch it on YouTube all the time. You're like, oh, my God.
Me and my boys are like, we're here. This is cool.
And then only for a a little bit but i realized i'm meant to be here because everyone's standing around me i'm kind of yeah having to hold court but i kind of just want to shut up and just be like yeah this is cool just enjoy yeah but everyone's around me and i was just cool and ari was the man bro he's just such a he's a funny dude so tall and talking about kickboxing with him and yeah but i'll probably head'll probably head there tonight, see what's up. And I'll try and.
It's a fun place. Not geek out so much.
Yeah. Play it cool.
Play it cool. That's a fun place.
We have so many people roll through, too. It's so interesting.
Like, all of a sudden, Jelly Roll's there. Yeah.
You know. No, you guys did it, man.
Like, you literally. I think it was it Ron White that kind of started the, you know, the idea, and then all of you started to just march to Austin one by one.
Yeah, he came here before the pandemic. Yeah.
And he was the one who put it in my head because, you know, Ron's like, I fucking love it here. It's easy to travel.
It's the middle of the country. It's a beautiful place.
No traffic. People are nice.
I just came back from LA, so the contrast is definitely, you can see it. Oh, it's so much better here.
And it's better for comedy. It's just because it's the only club in the country that's owned by a comedian.
So it's free. It's like you can be yourself.
There's no executives or producers. Yeah, it's just me.
I don't even have any partners. It's just me.
Excuse me? When you say that, you mean like, do people have to pay at other comedy clubs to perform there? Only when you're very, very beginning, and it's corrupt comedy clubs that you have to pay for stage time. Yeah, that's not normal.
That's something to take advantage of amateurs so they can make extra money, so they can justify open mic nights and stuff like that. But that's not a lot of clubs.
Most clubs, you know, you have amateur nights. They all should have it, but we have two nights.
We have two nights of open mic nights. We just want to make it a real place where people can develop.
From the very beginning, you could do your first set on stage ever at the Mothership and eventually headline there someday. I've seen it.
Cam Patterson, some of these guys, they start there and now they're just... Killing it.
Yeah, hard work. Hard work, just grinding the kids in that club every fucking night.
And he's traveling all over the place, all over town, doing different clubs, going on the road. He's making the most of the experience.
And for someone like me, just a fan of comedy in general, it's fun to see the process of them starting up.

And then,

because I was there,

I used to listen to Kill Tony,

my old job,

just so I didn't go postal.

I was just like,

sit there with my headphones in

and the hoodie on

just to hide it

so they don't know I'm doing it.

And I'm just like,

and then now to see

where it's become

and then,

you know,

where on the street is,

they go,

you know what I'm saying,

coming up.

And I'm like,

oh shit. So it's going to be on there and it's going to be even bigger yeah i mean it's fun to see that and i've seen a lot of comics like just grow and then seeing the assets develop all that kind of thing and look i know how hard it is now just watching that because you think oh i've made a joke before i can do it nah and seeing people bomb on kill tony after just 60 seconds i just like yeah nah fuck all that i'd fight in front of millions of people with the stand in front of a crowd and try and make them laugh uh just that yeah it's a weird kind of rejection thank you that's what it is it's like oh shit that didn't land.
Escape, escape, escape. You can't do shit.
It's just like, nah, fuck this shit. But you also see other people can do it, so you got to figure out a way to do it.
And that's part of the challenge of it all. It's why it's so exciting to succeed.
Yeah, I'll leave that to you guys, the expert. It's hard.
But it's also fun. I mean, it's the most fun thing to do for a living.
And you could do it forever. All the time.
You don't have to rely on your body being fit enough to do it. Fighting is so unique because there's a small window.
You have from 18 to maybe 38 if you're lucky. Or you could be a Yoel Romero and compete deep into your 40s, but he's the rarest of the rare.
Or Bernard Hopkins, world championship level at 50. Crazy.
But are the outliers for most people there's a small window make the most of it in an MMA that windows the smallest yeah this is the smallest of all the combat sports that even make it to the top yeah yeah God think about how many guys have an amateur fight versus how many guys like make it to a just a world title fight mm-hmm just to fight for a world title and forget about defending the world title What you've done is like the rarest of the rarest of the rare and then win it back again You know, it's so rare. Yeah, but I've seen people throughout the walks of life and gyms I've trained at that I'm like I Think you're better than me, but they just never made it.
They never got the experience or the exposure. Also, when the lights are on, they shut down.
And they don't show up. I'm like, you're better than this.
But again. Gym champions.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a real thing, man.
With people that perform so well with no pressure, and then when that pressure's on, they're like 30% of what they are. You see them make the mental mistakes.
You see them rush in and it's it's weird it takes skill to learn how to perform under the lights but also you have to have that thing like you have to know you're that guy or you have to have that belief in yourself so again i'm glad i've done it and i'm glad i'm doing it but now i'm just like i just just want to fight. I just want to fight, have fun.

And, again, it's weird.

I just know that fucking gold belt always circles back around.

I don't chase it, never have, and I knew it would always be there at some point.

But, yeah, it will.

And in the moment, bro, if I'm not happy with what I've done in this game,

what's going to make me happy?

Right, right.

How could you be?

Exactly.

Exactly. I mean, think about how many times you defended the title, you won the title, you beat the greatest guys of your generation.
game what's gonna make me happy right right how could you be exactly exactly

you mean think about how many times you defended the title you won the title you beat the greatest guys of your generation how could you not be happy with what you've done already but I still feel great and again it's this is you know when I'm fighters talk about I lost the belt I felt this pressure lifted whatever I never felt that when I lost it in MSG I was just like i'm gonna fight this guy again and i got it back but then when i lost it um not to strickland but even this last one is the only time when i was just like i didn't it wasn't a champ i guess but when i when i this last fight was the first time i felt that like well but i still feel like i'm that guy because a lot of people still have that target on my back because I'm Israel. I diss on you.
But having to fight for the belt, having to fight with that thing. I don't know.
This is the first time I've ever felt that where I'm like, meh, I'm good. So I'm just going to see what happens.
Train, get better, and fight again at some point. Just concentrate on the task instead of this whole thing of the titles and yeah because i feel like when you have the title there's all this spotlight on you there still is a spotlight on me but it's not the same thing and now i get to enjoy a little bit more almost freedom in a sense but i've heard fighters talk about it heaps so again for me felt it until recently that I'm like, oh, I get what they mean now when they talk about the pressure.
The pressure's still there, but it's not the same. And I'm like, cool, I get to just fight for me now.
I get to have fun. Yeah, just, I want to try some crazy shit.
Like, I actually want to fight and just do some, I want to go back to the way I used to fight when we didn't have so much on the line. Because it's not just about me.
It's about the people that are around me that, you know, I have to, not have to, but, you know, like, if I do good, everybody eats. You know what I mean? So, now that we still do good, we still eat.
But it's like, ah, fuck the belt. We'll just have fun.
So, I just want to go go back to having fun the way i used to fight when i was a young fucking schizo fritterer who just did shit for fun like the fucking tavaris fight and around one i'm like i'm gonna try a minari roll see what that does and i kind of missed it but yeah i'm gonna bring that back i kind of want to do that that kind of shit again just because so do you think that like as the stakes are higher, the pressure is more and it just restricts your creativity? It restricts your ability to just be loose? It didn't at first. But the longer you defend the belt, it happened to Anderson as well.
It happened to Anderson as well. I saw it because I watched Anderson's rise and I saw even to the point where people wanted him to lose just because he was so great.
And then it's just that natural thing where people build you up because they want to tear you down. And I felt that happen to me as well.
They're like, oh, we just want to see him lose. And when it happened, they're like, yeah.
And then when I won it again, it was like, yeah. And I lost it.
They're like, yeah. So it's just natural.
It's natural way of, I don't know, the mob of humans or whatever, the fans.

It's just how it is, the Coliseum.

Well, there's always a bunch of people that don't like that you've accomplished something they will never accomplish.

Oh, there's always them.

Yeah.

And so they do want to watch you fall because it makes them feel better about their lack of success.

What did Dave say?

Someone rejoices when a great man falls.

There was a great quote he had in one of his specials. The cowards.
Yeah. That's the truth.
Yeah, facts. I've seen it.
I've even felt it as well. Like, where you're just like, I wonder what would happen if he loses.
Like, it'll just shake the whole landscape of things up. So you just wonder.
Like, I felt it. I think with Floyd, I just wonder.
Not that I wanted him to lose, because I'm a big Floyd fan. But I was just like, what would happen if he lost this fight they're like oh shit and but that's what makes it exciting you never know you know but yeah anyway i'm just here now and i'm just like cool let's have fun let's fight let's just get some you know some good matchups but again i'm in a spot now that you've got rob comes out fighting ddp and Sean are going to fight, and I can't think of who else.

Is DDP and Sean set in stone?

I think it's not set in stone, but it's what they're looking at.

When is that supposed to take place?

Next year sometime, but I'm trying to get something in this year.

So we'll see.

There's already a few call-outs here and there.

Like who?

The guy that just won in France.

I forget his name. Did he win? Not the main event.
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imanoff um imanoff um imanoff There's already a few call-outs here and there. They're cool.
The guy that just won in France.

I forget his name.

Did he win?

Not the main event.

Imanov.

Yeah, he said something.

I'm like, we'll see.

It'll be a good fight.

It'll be fun.

But again, what has he done?

He beat Brandon Allen.

Is that five-round worthy?

Because I'm never doing three rounds again.

All my fights are probably going to be five.

If I ever do a three round again, fuck, let's go.

Would you want to?

Because there's some three rounders that I feel like we got robbed that it wasn't a five rounder.

Like Sayuki and Charles Oliveira.

That was a good example of that.

Scrap.

That was a scrap.

Such a crazy fight.

I was there live as well.

Oliveira almost caught him a couple times with submissions. He went flat at that point.
Yeah, man. And lost a controversial decision, like very close decision.
And then I feel like you give him two more rounds, who knows what would happen. Another one was Hamzat and Kamaru.
Oh, yeah. That third round, Kamaru was coming on strong.
Off the couch as well. Yeah, off the couch, 10 days notice.
Crazy. Fighting at 85, 170-pound champion, right off the title loss, and then, you know, third round he wins, and you're like, God, what would have happened, fourth and fifth? Yeah, that's when some people come alive and say, let's go.
Yeah, especially champions. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I can't do five, but again, I say three.
I just feel like I would fight like a bat out of hell. I just feel like it would be different.
But again, I do enjoy the time in the cage. But even training for five-round fights, a lot of people train for three-round fights, but they don't understand.
Everyone wants to be champion, so you've got to train for five rounds. And it's like, oh, shit, you've got to do this shit.
You have five rounds of the spider circuit. Oh, shit, that's where you find out the men from the boys you separate so yeah i do like a five round fight and also you don't get paid by the round so sometimes fights end like that so yeah that's up to you yeah so do you have a timeline of like when you would like to fight again how many fights you would like to have because i know you're 35 now how long do you think you're gonna do this i don't know like i said i thought i would be 34 and i'm done with this i always just thought like yeah when i'm 34 i'm done but then i'm here now and i feel great so i'm like let's see three more years who knows who knows fucking kid might come out of nowhere i'm like like, oh, shit, I'm done with this game.

Is there any fights like Strickland that you'd like to do again? Oh, yeah, Strickland and DDP.

Strickland won definitely because that fight was not me.

And, again, I don't make excuses.

It was just another Dave Chappelle quote.

You have to realize when it's your time.

I can't remember.

He's such a fucking philosopher with it.

He said something about when it's your time, you have to know and be humble enough to know when it's someone else's.

You know what I mean?

That was just his week.

That was just his and everything.

So I just, you know, his time, let him have it.

But I definitely know what I can do.

And I took his best shots.

And I just know, like, yeah, I can take this guy.

I know what I can do.

Not similar to the Pereira one where, you know, I was winning. But this one, I definitely know what I can do I'm not similar to the Pereira one where I you know I was winning but this one I definitely know what I can do with this guy yeah what did so was that one shot that cracked you in that first round yeah changed the whole momentum of that fight yeah straight punches beat looping on linear punches he caught me good and in the moment I remember thinking like oh shit this nigga's hitting me oh shit he's hitting me and i went to mark gutter like you see the picture like i'm okay right and then even he told me my next fight with ddp's like don't do that don't have to do that you just have to find a way out but it was hitting me and i was thinking like oh shit this is really happening fuck and i had to fight out the position and just get back on them but yeah how much damage did he do in that exchange in that exchange nah not really much just the one shot the one shot was the one that got me but the rest was just kind of like nothing really got through it's just a lot of flurries and it looked violent but that's why i was able to look at mark and be like yeah we're good but yeah um gotta come back see what happens with him and ddp uh he could win You know Beat him We almost won the first time Yeah It was close Very

It was close. Very close.
Yeah, that was a rough fight. Even at the end, they were just swinging.
They had nothing left in the tank. You see Strickland, it was all arms.
Arms, yeah. There was nothing in the tank.
They emptied out. Well, we'll see.
We'll see what happens in that fight. And, yeah, at the moment, I just, look, I kind of like the feeling of not knowing because sometimes people ask, who are you going to fight next? When are you going to fight again? I'm like, I don't know.
I'm just chilling. So, again, I'm just going to keep training.
And sometimes short notice shit happens, you know what I mean? And it's like, well, I'm already in shape. Fuck, let's go.
Right. Yeah.
But we'll see. So stay ready.
Yeah, stay ready. Like I said, I've done the testing already, and I know where I'm at.
After this, I'm going to go get some work in. And, yeah, even on the road, bro, I love this food there, but fuck.
I know when I get home, I'm going to have to take all this off. I know it will come off because I've got, you know, good nutritionists now and stuff.
But, yeah, I just try don't have barbecue in no we do oh yeah you have like a terry blacks in new zealand yeah they have oh just even the food there i think the quality is different but also i try to stay off uber eats as much as possible now i have matt cooking for me so if i want something i'll see something on the reels matt can you please make this he'll be like yeah cool And he'll just make it that night. And you don't have to wear no bullshit in it.
Yeah. In camp, it'll be healthy.
But right now, I can stretch my legs a little bit. Add some cheese, whatever.
But, yeah. I just stay ready.
That's the main thing. Just stay ready.
Your camp, that city kickboxing gym, what a fucking gym that is. There's so many killers coming out of that.

And Olberg now on the rise.

Goddamn, that dude's good.

There's so many.

He's so tall and dangerous.

There's so many good fighters coming out of there now.

Even recently, we had Cam, Aaron Toe, and then Navajo fight on the contender series.

Navajo was the only one to get a contract. He got it with the hook I don't know if you saw that fight I didn't yeah Navajo Sterling he knocked out the guy in the second round so now he's in the UFC he got a contract and he's gonna fight this year I think in December so he's already in camp for his next fight cause he was kinda fresh coming off that fight fight.
So, yeah. He's another guy that...
That's him, yeah. The guy in the red.
Big nav. Boom.
And they set him up. Boom.
Boom. Out.
And the guy I fought was tough too. Came strong in the first round, but Navajo was able to just put him away.
Another king in the ring champion as well. I think he's two-time king in the ring champion what weight is that light heavyweight damn that's a big fella so he's a guy my miami fight with pereda he helped me a lot uh ben johnston helped me a lot with the looks you know uh but yeah he he's just a fucking savant the next level kickboxer but knows how to grapple he he looks at shit downloads it drills it and he's using it on you straight away or the next day just one of those guys and he loves to fight he's a guy who just stays in the gym stays ready like i say he's got a fight already locked in even losses go to fight uzdemir he's fighting uzdemir in macau you know uh what's his name uh no time yeah Volca yeah Volca knows him there yeah that's a good fight I like that for Carlos uh

who else in Osdemir in Macau. You know, what's his name? No Time.
Yeah, Volkan. Yeah, Volkan, Osdemir.
Yeah, that's a good fight. I like that for Carlos.
Who else? Yeah, so I like the gym, the way it's growing, even on the local scene as well. You have a lot of guys who are just coming up in the local scene and they're looking at us because of what we've done.
No government funding, no backing from the sports, what do you call it, in New Zealand.

They try to stifle us during COVID, you know, moving the goalposts.

Or you can quarantine in the gym.

Okay, now you can't quarantine in the gym.

We're sneaking around trying to find places to train.

They're following us with reporters, taking photos, putting us in the papers, making us look bad.

We're disobeying the law.

Think about your grandma.

All that kind of stuff.

So, yeah, we've done it our own way.

And we're still one of the best gym, if not the best gym in the world.

That's why I'm there.

Only reason I'm in New Zealand is because of city kickboxing.

If not for that place, I definitely would still be there to see my family.

But I would have probably moved all over the place.

Like Melbourne, I definitely would have lived in Melbourne for a while.

Like Melbourne, I love Melbourne, Australia. Canada somewhere.
Melbourne's great. Yeah, Melbourne.
I just like the culture, the food. Even here in Austin.
Australia and New Zealand, they just have such restrictive laws. Yeah.
And the government has such control over people. And I didn't realize it until the pandemic.
Yeah. And then I was like, Jesus Christ.
That's why I got to play the game, Joe. Yeah.
Keep moving. I play the play the game as it says like it's almost egotistical in the sense the rules are there for a reason and i am a law-abiding citizen but sometimes there's certain things where i think like the laws doesn't apply to me you know what i mean that's why i don't follow't follow politics.
I only ever voted recently in New Zealand because of the fucking referendum. They were going to make marijuana legal.
I was like, okay, that applies to me. I'll vote for that.
So what do you call it? One policy voters or whatever. The other laws and stuff, I'm like, man, unless if it's something crazy, like someone decides, oh, we're going to tax the rich 50% of their money.
I'm like, that applies to me. Then I'll vote.
So when i say the law doesn't apply to me it's in the sense of like i don't really care about what their policies are you know so yeah that's how i live and i'm able to travel a lot which i'm grateful for but yeah if it wasn't for ckb i definitely would have would have left nz or maybe traveled more checked out europe or you know shit like that but right now as I'm fighting maybe after fighting I will New Zealand is beautiful oh it is beautiful spot to live I like the pace I do like the pace and again I like watching America and the rest of the world from New Zealand because it's just like this little corner of the world just like chilling and just oh yeah Kiwi mate g'day you know and then yeah just see what happens the rest of the world. And we still get a lot of things happening culturally that are relevant to the world.
But, yeah, I definitely want to travel after fighting. And I get to travel.
I'm in fucking Austin, Texas now, you know, talking to you. Where was I? After this, I'm going to New York.
Yeah, I'm sure I'll be somewhere else on the planet at some point. But, yeah.
What do you think you want to do when this is over? So I have a plan in place because I know me. I'm an adrenaline junkie.
So I know I'll need something every, like maybe thrice a year, where I feel like I'm going to die. So one of my plans is.
That's such a crazy thing to say but i get it that's why i have a mclaren and you know i've you know never crashed it amen but um yeah so for me like i skydived twice already in the last year that was fun so again if i said okay i'm done fighting now then okay they're running in the with the bulls cool let's do that And I'll just train for that. And then when it's time, I'll go to Spain or whatever and get ready for that and then go run with the bulls.
Cool. Really? Yeah.
That would be fun. It's dangerous.
You could die. Yeah, but that's a dumb way to die.
Yeah, dumb ways to die. There's many fighting as a dumb way to die, too.
But it's glorious. It's glorious.
It's a glorious way. Getting stomped to death by a bull is not a good way to die.
What do I have? What's another one? Let's say I go to the outback and go learn to jump on a crocodile and save it from... There'll be know there'll be something i'll find things i'm there's always something i'll find something to do that'll make me feel like i'm my life is in danger so you feel like you're gonna need that forever because if not you just fall a lot of guys they come back and fight again because they miss that oh you know i was that guy i was that guy and those especially who never made it to the pinnacle or what they wanted to do then they still have that dissatisfaction and then they come back to try and reclaim that glory yeah do it for less money and then they fall short they become journeymen become alcoholics drug addicts you know shit like that so i don't want to also? My main thing, though, is definitely start a family.
That's one thing I want to do after fighting. It'll happen.
I don't go looking for that shit because when you do, you find the wrong thing. And I've made that mistake before.
We're not going to make that mistake again. So I know it'll happen for me.
And when it does, I'm going to be a great dad. You can't convince yourself that it's good.
It has to be good in a relationship. There's a lot of people that want a great relationship so they talk themselves into one and the next thing you know you're with some girls going through your phone.
I got talked into one. That's the thing.
Now I know I'm like, okay, bet. You got talked into one.
When you fall in love, you just.... Because I'm such a lover as well.
I'm so soft. But I learned my lesson.
And, again, it's one of those things you just have to go through. And I'm grateful for the experience.
I'm grateful that I did because now I know exactly what not to do next time. So that's why I don't look.
I'm single because I just enjoy myself. I enjoy not being responsible for someone else's emotional state You know she has a fighter because you know You know this you know fighters when they have to deal with shit.
Yeah before a fight before the cost of fight the shit I had to deal with Oh It was oh my god, and I was quarantining at the gym as well So that kind of stuff I don't want to deal with want to focus on me. There's a problem that girls, when they think that you're busy with something else and you don't care about, you're not paying attention to them.
They're not your primary focus. They get very upset.
I've seen guys where they're getting ready for a fight and their girl starts fights with them as they're weighing in. Not that bad.
At least she knew better. But still, it's just, look, it's more about also don't try and compete with your husband or your boyfriend.
With me, you'll lose. It's not, like, in a sense, like, this is what I do for a living.
You don't have to try and compete. You know, it's weird.
Like, when someone tries to compete with their person or whatever. I know.
It's nuts. Yeah.
nuts yeah this is meant to be a partnership right the intimate person in your life wants you to fail because they're competing with you and they want they want to get over on you but thing is what's good for me is good for us what's good for you is good for us right if you're a team so again if you're a team i'm learning and i'm not looking because i think that's that ship sailed in the sense I look at someone like, say, even a corner with Dee Devlin, that's fucking cool. I love that.
She's still with him to this day. They've got how many kids together? That's cool.
Regardless of what the state of their relationship is now, it's like, look, she was with him when he was no one and she believed in him. That kind of stuff is rare these days.
When I see it in other people, I'm just like. Right.
They still love in the air, Joe. It's still out there.
Sometimes it works. Yeah.
It can work. But, boy, you got to find the right person.
They got to find you. Yeah.
Something is there. Yeah.
I'm not looking. I'm just chilling.
I actually got on Hinge the other day just for fun in L.A. I was like, let me see.
I hate these apps. I don't use those.
I try to get on Raya. They still have me on the fucking waiting list for fucking the last two years i'm like that's hilarious but i went on hinge in la just to see just to see what's up but it's just funny it's just funny to see the experience a couple interactions it was cool but i was like ah this is what people do now it felt like the questionnaire to get on hinge i thought it was going to be like this thing cool cool cool put some pictures up i'm like am i trying to do adoption or some shit because it's like what is this and what is your primary focus and i'm like i spent like 20 minutes doing the whole thing so it's up now i still have it on in austin i'm like ah that's just for fun out there just for the lulls yeah yeah well it's you, you have to protect your time.
That's the problem. It's like you only, especially when you're doing something like fighting, the amount of time and dedication that's required to be at your very best is insane.
And there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it, even in sports.
If you're a basketball player, you have to play basketball. You have to practice.
But there's a lot more free time. Yeah.
A lot more free time, and it doesn't drain your body the way fight training does. The consequences is different.
Right. It's like after a game of rugby or whatever, cool.
I don't know how the brackets work or whatever, even in basketball, football, soccer, but then you get to play the next day. Not the next day, sometimes the next week.
Fighting, it's not always like that. Also, if you get hurt, you get hurt badly.
You have suspension six months and you have to wait. And then if you're not strong mentally, I've seen people break.
I've seen them break and it's just like, fuck, come on, man. You're better than this.
So, yeah, for me, fighting takes everything. It takes everything.
And I've done well in this it's like fuck come on man you can you're better than this so yeah for me fighting takes everything it takes everything and i've done well in this game and sometimes in the beginning i didn't give everything so that's why now that i'm at this age i'm like yo give everything so that way when i'm done i just know i did everything i could to be the best and I was and I'm proud of myself so I'm yeah I'm still here man

I'm still

like i said i'm not fighting for you know a belt or anything anymore that'll come around when it does but it's just i'm just fighting just because i i have bro a submission is more worthy to me than a third belt like i'm gonna get that yeah i'm gonna get that it's gonna and going to get that. And I'm not going to look for it.
It's going to present itself, and I'm going to get it. And I'd be like, right, I take that off.
Cool. Because I've done a lot of cool shit in this game.
It's more like just the highlights. And I just know I can.
So that's more worthy to me at the moment. And that's like a maybe ego thing or personal thing.
But yeah, that's just me, though. Do you have a timeline on how much longer you want to fight for like i said right now i say three years but i'll be 38 that's probably the end yeah where guys can compete at the high like jared cannonier got to like 38 30 39 he started to fall off a little bit and the last two fights he's lost i think gsb stopped just around there as well 37 maybe when he fought bisping yeah but who knows that's what i'm saying it's like i feel i don't think i'm gonna fight at 40 i don't think i think that's not me i'll be i'll be nah even for me as a person i'm like nah i'd rather be doing something else but 38 right now is in my head who knows fucking 36 37 I'm just.
I'm just like, right. Peace.
I'm out. I'm spontaneous like that.
But I think 38, 39. But let's see.
Let's see what happens first. But at the moment, I'm still here.
Do you have any thoughts of things to do other than things for adrenaline? Oh, yeah. Like things to do with your time? Apart from raising a family, production.
I definitely want to have my own production company and do stuff like a couple of acting things, of course, because they've already come up and I turned them down because of this game. I was like, you know, you have to give everything to this game.
I don't want to spend three months somewhere filming, you know, this kind of stuff. But definitely motion capture, definitely want to do that.
You know, what's his name? The guy that did Andy Serkis, Planet of the Apes, Gollum, Caesar. He's one of the best at it.
And I see the way he works and operates. And I just, I know I can do that.
I can learn. And I'm very coachable.
I can learn stuff like that. Voice over work with some cartoons or animes or whatever.
Video games, stuff i'd like to i have my own ideas of of things i want to bring to fruition but i don't necessarily have the skills even though i was doing computer graphic design for about three years i knew how to make a red ball bounce in maya the 3d program that was my biggest achievement in that but i can partner up with someone on studio and just bring my ideas to life if they like it like I'll learn how to write a script maybe so I can present it properly also fuck all this shit with AI I might just be able to do it in two years and be like right boom and if it hits it hits if it sucks cool do it again at the drawing board but yeah a lot of a lot of things. A lot of things.
I already have, again, shout out to my pops. My pops is a real OG because he helped me just triple and quadruple my money.
Yeah. Because if I didn't have him, I definitely would end up as one of those sad stories.
I feel just because of who I am as a person, I feel like I would end up as one of those sad stories because of the trust i have in people so i'm glad i have my dad around just to like just make sure things are cool there's always vampires right there's always vampires it's just human nature it's human nature i'm sure you have it as well on the way up and even now i'm sure you have it as well but they always they come out the woodwork and it's like uh let me see but then my dad's able to tell this is legit this is shit or let me have a look at this first he goes through every contract i can read but sometimes because i'm dyslexic i i read really slow or i just lose focus and shit like that especially contract shit so that's very difficult to really there's no

pictures you need an anime contract make me a cartoon that explains what happens if everything goes wrong with me crying oh no money or me living in a palace with a bathtub filled with gold.

Yeah, but I just get like, unless it. Oh, fuck.
Or me living in a palace with a bathtub filled with gold. Yeah, but I just get, like, unless it's something maybe fiction that entices me and I can really go deep.
But I like reading comics and shit like that. But a contract is just detail.
But there's one person on this planet I trust that wants the best for me is my father. That's a great thing to have.
Amen. because even i've said this like guys like habib

you know rest in peace to his pops he had him in his corner uh michael jordan he had his dad in this corner you know on the court my dad is in my corner but that's on the stuff that really matters outside the cage in life like i'm when i talk about imposter syndrome i'm like how the fuck do I have this many houses?

Right.

I'm doing well.

Cool.

I know I'm adulting,

but that's because When I talk about imposter syndrome, I'm like, how the fuck do I have this many houses? I'm doing well.

Cool.

I know I'm adulting, but that's because of my pops.

And I learned the game through him, but the details of the game I still don't know yet.

So after this, I'll have more, I guess, input in the sense that, okay, this and that and this is what this means and that you know with the property values and whatnot

i try not to get too much into it because right now all i can focus on is this fighting the main thing if i don't have this then yeah i can definitely tap into all that kind of stuff but now i'd rather just focus on this and let my dad handle it so again i'm grateful so grateful that he's around and he's the one that's helped me get to this point because a lot of people don't even have their dad in their lives you know and i'm glad i do yeah it's overall it seems like you're in a real good place i am so yeah i am look this is life yeah you know how it is ups and downs smiles and frowns but right now where i'm at i'm in a good place way better place because again like people the thing I did like

I appreciated it

after my last fight

people come up

and be like

hey man

that was a great

fat last fight

you did well

thank you

but when people come

because I was at the buffet

in Perth

and some guy

came up to me

just like

hard luck mate

I was like

what

like he wanted

to feel sorry for me

I was like

nah

get your fucking shit off me

I'm like

I'm good

I'm like bro

if you knew how much

I made from this fight Thank you. hard luck, mate.
I was like, what? He wanted to feel sorry for me.

I was like, nah, get your fucking shit off me.

I'm like, I'm good.

I'm like, bro, if you knew how much I made from this fight,

you wouldn't even feel sorry for me.

But some people don't know how to react,

so they're kind of like,

hard luck.

Well, they were rooting for you,

and they feel bad.

I know, but I like the,

again, I don't fault them for it

because they don't know what to say,

but the ones that come up, you're like, bro, that was a mean fight, man. You almost had him, but that was a fucking good fight.
I'm like, thank you. I felt good in that one.
It's a different look on two different, on the same thing. It's like some look at it with like, yay, and some look at it with that.
But I'm in a better place because, again, this isn't everything. Fighting is not everything in my life.
I've lost many times out of fighting, you know, and I've come back. I've lost in fighting many times, and I've come back.
So for me right now, where I'm at in life, I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying the ride.
And, yeah, I look forward to the future. I look forward.
There's a thought that some people have that in order to be at your best, it has to be everything. to live and die by your performances and when your performance sucks you have to suffer until you get a good one nah that's not for me i've been there before and it's not for me everyone's different and i understand that when it's like because even when i was on top of the world you know like number one and this and that it never defined me i never let it define me i always knew

i was israel adesonya before and after the belt i'm still me no matter what they're still gonna

be trying to fight me because they want to have israel adesonya on their record you know they

want to they want to fight me they don't want to fight the champ like people will probably even

pick a fight over me than ddp or maybe not because probably easier fight they think but still like

Thank you. fight me they don't want to fight the champ like people will probably even pick a fight over me than ddp or maybe not because probably easier fight they think but still like i'm me and that's never ever going to change that's never ever going to change as long as i stay true to me yeah and i i look if this game was going to change me if money was going to change me it would have done it ages ago a lot of a lot of zeros ago but i've always been this guy with or without money you can ask anyone who really knows me they'll tell you oh yeah that's the same dude i was dancing with back in the day still the same goofball keeps the same energy but now that i'm here i just i have a lot more freedom to do things that i want to do than i'm grateful for but yeah uh i even look forward to seeing forward to seeing who I become next year, like who I evolve into next year.
Cause again, I am me, but learning these things I'm going to learn about myself. I'm sure you have this as well.
Jamie has this. We all have this.
We're just figuring out who we are. What are you now? 57.
No way. Yeah.
Yeah. So you're still learning.
You're never going to stop. You never stop learning.

When you do, you're going to die.

Yeah.

Facts.

Yeah.

Life is an experience.

It's a long.

And people have like this number thing in their head.

Oh, by 30, you should know this.

Some people.

Some people know.

Some people don't learn until they're 40.

Some people never learn. I thought I was going to be married with two kids at 23.

Wow.

You could have been.

Yeah.

If you zigged when you could have zagged.

I'm glad I zagged.

I definitely did.

I don't know. 23 wow you could have been yeah if you zig when you could have zagged i'm glad i zagged i glad i zagged for that one that was so long ago and i was again i'm soft bro i'm like i'm surprised i'm fucking great at this this fighting shit like i'm so even bro do you see some some idiot try to step me out do you ever see that no what happened some so this is uh two weeks three weeks ago i had a great great day at training morning went to the the the shop to get a pie and i just thought you know people were just showing love i'm just oh hey what's up someone take a picture cool cool cool cool cool and then one guy just pulls up and goes yo izzy let's go one else i'm like and i thought like bro this is stupid i was like one outs what is that one outs in new zealand slang like one on one like one outs let's go and i was like this is silly like what the fuck and i just started laughing and i said bro i get paid millions for this i'm not gonna whoop your ass for free and then he kind of go angry and he's stuck at the lights it's green people are hon paid millions for this.
I'm not going to whoop your ass for free. And then he kind of got angry.
And he's stuck at the lights. It's green.
People are honking, driving around him. And I'm laughing, walking away with my pies in my hand.
And I remember just looking like, what the fuck? And I grabbed my car door and I went. And that pissed him off.
Then he drove and then parked in front of my car. And I was like, okay.
Took my watch off. And I told the guy, can you please call the cops? And I'm glad only one person actually decided to help.
Oh, I did see the video of that. I saw just a small clip of it.
I didn't know exactly what was going on. Just an idiot.
But again, I'm glad this is the day and age of people just, boom, cameras out. Because everyone who was around, everyone got their cameras out.
There was only one guy who used his phone to call the cops when I asked him. Because I didn't want to hurt this guy.
And this guy, I don't know if he was going through something or he was maybe cracked out or something. Because even the guy, the video that came out, it seemed like it was set up.
Because the guy kept on going. And I'm like, what are you trying to say? And I'm glad.
Like I said, I'm soft. I have patience.
And if I had a bad day bad day it might have been different I like to say that because of freedom of thought but also my friend you know Falvake got killed by senseless street violence this is something that we've talked about even in the film it was something that we all had to go through because he got hit with a coward punch and then hit the ground and then boom he's in a coma for about two weeks and then eventually they have to pull the plug. As I'm talking to this guy, at one point I go, bro, I don't know you.
Whatever has happened, I don't fucking know you. I'm sorry.
And he's like, yeah, talk to me nicely, bitch. And I started getting angry and then got to the point I spat at him and that was me like, I hoped he did something and then I'm like, right'm taking this guy out but then when i spat at him he just looked down and kept on talking and i realized you're not about this life i'm not gonna spend the next 10 minutes talking and to this guy it just elevates him in his mind exactly oh he took his shirt off at the end i got in my car i was driving off he had his shirt off flexing like what bitch what and i was like this guy's cracked out oh he's crazy person so for me again that's why i say i'm soft and uh i had to i had to really hold myself back i i don't know i'm sure you've no one tries you anymore of course they'd fucking be stupid to try you but i was thinking no one would try me anymore because back in the day someone would try me i'm like bro people were trying chuck liddell in his prime and he was a complete psychopath try that to Dan Hooker Dan would not have the patience instantly demolish that guy but again I just don't want to do something because if you breached the line yeah I was within range and within my rights to strike him because I feel like what happened with your friend if If you knock that guy out and he bounces his head off, that was what was going through my head.

And also we started this charity walk without fear.

And I, I'm glad nothing happened.

I'm glad I was patient because now that video can be used because we're trying to change the laws.

Look, the guys that killed my friend, when we were in lockdown, they were on home detention.

So they're free now.

Thank you. look the guys that killed my friend when we were in lockdown they were on home detention so they're free now they're walking free enjoying their life and my friend is dead they didn't get convicted i think one of them did but the rest of them they had home detention the ones that actually even helped they got home detention and i think for a year and a half so six months of that home detention all did it together in lockdown.
So what kind of punishment's that? You get to sit at home and watch Netflix, and my friend's daughter has to grow up without a father. For nothing.
For nothing. Just because ego, alcohol, drunk, this and that.
So again, I'm glad I'm soft, and't like confrontation i don't but when it's time to

get down i will get down and i i've put it out enough like i i want to protect my boundaries and shit like that but i don't ever want to be put in a position where someone tries to set me up just so they can make money off me but there will be a point if someone tries me enough that i'll have to definitely defend myself and there's no fucking referee in a street fight that's gonna to drag me off a person

in that.

I see red, bro.

Not that shit.

I'm Yes. You should see clearly that's a ridiculous thing.
Yes, I've never heard anybody say I see red and it worked out well But yeah, I just yeah I'm glad it worked out well for me and I Spared a life that day because if not it would have been really bad and then I might not be here, right? I might be in the fucking cell somewhere. They might try to make an example out of you.
They will yeah It will if you killed somebody oh, I know these these motherfuck in NZ, like the bureaucrats, they don't like people like me. They don't like people like me who was outspoken, who was not a quintessential Kiwi.
You know what I mean? The guy that just keeps quiet and yeah, you know. Follows the rules.
Just very humble. Like fake humility is something I've never been.
I know humble is what it is for real because I deal with that every day.

Like, I fucking spark Carlos Navajo.

I grow with Dan.

I get humbled every fucking day.

So I know what real humility is.

But for me to try and, like, let the world know I'm humble just so I seem like I'm humble, that's that fake shit.

And I'll never be that.

And when I see it, I cringe because I'm like, I know you right it's like nigga i know you we've done things so when i see people do that i'm like ah just be real you know so yeah i try to keep it real as always but again like i said i'm soft but sometimes you know it's a real challenge to be yourself with the kind of attention and pressure that you get. The magnifying glass of the world.
And I would never change. I'll never not express myself the way I always do.
But sometimes the world will try and put you in a box and be like, this is what you're meant to be. This is who you're meant to be.
And I'm like, nah. It's always weak people that want to do that.
Bro, like, who was the one I put up the other day? Because there was a scene from my movie. I was getting my nails done.
I was like, what was I doing? Some drip tips. And then I put a clip next to it where Cam goes, well, I've been wearing pink my whole life.
Niggas been saying I'm gay. Bro, if you think I'm gay, bring your mother around.
Bring your sister around. I fucking love that.
I was like, yes. Because, again, I don't care.
It's never never been an issue for me i think people think because i never flexed my girlfriends or anything online they're like nah definitely this guy's sus also because i'm nice and i'm soft that makes you suck that's hilarious being a nice person makes you sus yeah because i'm not a dickhead so silly but i can be a dickhead i have been a dickhead in the past but again i'd rather i was raised right my family actually you know my mom and dad raised me with good morals and yeah i treat people with respect when and even if i don't get it back it's like cool whatever but yeah people expect you to be this kind of because you're off that when there's oh man you're a lot different than i thought you would be in person well you're not trying to You know what I mean? People expect you to be some type of way or, ah, I thought, you know. Hard.
Yeah, or even an asshole. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look, there's people you can find who'd be like, yeah, he's an asshole. And I was like, well, yeah.
But who are you? Yeah, exactly. I was an asshole.
To you? Yeah, exactly. But you're an asshole, so I had to be an asshole to get you to fuck away from me.
Facts, facts. Yeah.
And I'm fine with that now. Because back in the day when I first came into this game, I always felt like I had to, with every fan, I had to put on the song and dance.
Like, oh, hey, how's it going? Howdy. But sometimes I might be at a four or five energy level.
So if someone pulls up on me, I'm just like, yeah, cool, let's take a picture. But I don't have to ham it up to make them feel like this is a great experience oh he's such a nice guy it's like bro the day my cat died i was i was pumping gas and the guy tried to take i tried to make me talk to his cousin on the phone and i said no and he's like oh all good and i felt bad and i was like give me the phone and i'm there with the phone pumping gas and i went bro no phones i was like get the fuck away because i but i did that because I felt bad that he I didn't talk to his cousin on the phone while I'm pumping gas and I went bro no phones I get the fuck away because I but I did that because I felt bad that he I didn't talk to his cousin on the phone while I'm pumping gas so what happened if something happened and boom or what because I wanted to talk to this guy's cousin on the phone because he saw me at a gas station while I'm pumping gas so when I talk about protecting my boundaries it's just about time and place and approach like yeah not.
And I've put that out enough where I feel like people do respect it now. But some people still think I hate fans or whatever.
But I'm like, that's what you think? If that's what you got from my message, then cool. You think that.
But it's about protecting my energy and protecting my boundaries. Well, I don't think they'll ever understand what it's like to be a person like you.
Yeah. Yeah.
Be in the spotlight. Yeah.
they feel like you have this advantageous privilege that no one else gets so they think that you owe them something you owe them your time i bro i'm a fan i pay for your pay-per-view right right you know you're just talking shit yeah oh no oh the ones that is when come bro i bet on your fight a i'm like yeah fuck your multi because again i put my life on the shit Every time I step in there I put my life on the line But they will never Understand that They'll come and tell me Like yeah bro One time This was years ago And the club A guy showed me A betting slip I was like And? This is after a yarn fight He showed me a bet I'm like Cool Like what do you expect me to do Give you a refund? Right. So I can't remember how I responded.
Yeah. Do you think I wasn't trying to win? If you ain't got it like that, don't put your money up.
Right. I only gamble with money that I'm going to lose or I can afford to lose.
But again, yeah, I'm fucking gambling with my life. Right.
I'm trying to win. And then something bad could happen and I'm not here again.
You know, so, yeah, people are weird and i love people like i always say this there's something about every group of people on this planet that i love including my own and there's something i hate about every group of people on this planet just little things little things that just annoys me i'll say like okay nigerians i hate how the elders sometimes confuse respect with fear because that's how i grew up they confuse respect with fear and i've had to deal with that you know i'm not gonna say anything else about anyone else because they know it's like oh israel hates these people or whatever but again i love people but at the same time they're taking advantage of the fact that you're being being respectful. I love me first I know what you're saying.
I gotta put me first. Yeah, you have to if you don't know what else will facts Yeah, I have to bro.
Well listen brother I think the way you handle yourself and the way you communicate and the way you're honest and just you could be yourself It's a great example to other people Especially young fighters that are coming up and trying to figure out how they're going to manage this. And if they ever be so fortunate, they get to a position like yourself, you've got, you gave them a little road map.
And I think that's a beautiful gift to give people, an understanding of how an intelligent, sensitive person deals with this crazy position in life. Thank you.
That actually hit. Thank you so much.
It's real. so much nah yeah i could say the same about you what you've done everything from day dot since i've met you that you don't remember and i'm glad you don't remember to now even being friends with you i like being friends with you and also i don't because you still have a job to do and i never want to put you in a compromised position i always still have to respect you and what you do, and I still kind of keep my distance a little bit, but I always respect and appreciate every time that we've interacted on Hangout and, you know, who you are as a person.
So thank you. I appreciate you, brother.
Thank you, brother. Thank you.
Love you, man. You're the fucking man.
Love you, too. Let's go.
All right. Let's wrap it up.
What else? Watch Style Bender on Prime.

Watch it.

Apple TV.

There it is.

Bang.

Beautiful.

Awesome.

All right.

Thank you so much, man.

Thank you.

I appreciate it, brother.

Thank you.

Bye, everybody.