E523 Georges St-Pierre

Speaker 1 Sitting down today to talk about dinosaurs and fears with one of the greatest mixed martial artists of our time, of any time.

Speaker 1 He won UFC belts in two different weight classes, and you can't even talk about the sport without mentioning him. I'm really honored to be in his presence today, and I mean that.
Today's guest is Mr.

Speaker 1 George St. Pierre.

Speaker 1 Shine that light on me.

Speaker 1 I'll sit and tell you my story

Speaker 1 Shine

Speaker 1 on me

Speaker 1 And I will find a song I will sing and

Speaker 2 this is your country man yes sir and so what it's um

Speaker 1 yeah because it's French Canadian so which one is the real one?

Speaker 1 Or which, you know what I'm saying? Like, who's really the boss or whatever?

Speaker 2 Well, there's no really, I mean, who's the boss?

Speaker 2 I don't know if there's really a boss.

Speaker 1 Like, if you had to pick one, do you get to pick one or every day it's the same?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You mean the boss?

Speaker 2 Talk about the leader. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Most people will tend to say, oh, it's the, you know, the political leader

Speaker 1 of Canada or the French.

Speaker 2 Prime Minister or the president. But

Speaker 2 I think, I mean, you can call me

Speaker 2 conspiracy thinking that, but I don't think he's the one that really controls everything. I think there's people behind that.

Speaker 2 Maybe. I mean, that's what I believe.

Speaker 2 I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

Speaker 1 That's what I think too.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I think that the president is the face.

Speaker 1 It's a face.

Speaker 2 It's the puppet.

Speaker 2 But like our prime minister is the face. But I think there's people behind that there's certain things that he cannot do.

Speaker 1 that's what I believe did you always believe that you think or that you think that's grown over the years kind of

Speaker 2 it's a good question

Speaker 2 I think it's grown over the years

Speaker 2 especially because there's a lot of sometimes sometimes there's a lot of conspiracy that turns out to be true yeah and

Speaker 2 and there's so much stuff on on internet nowadays that you can try to search every any anything and they will give you something to read about yeah a certain subject even if it's completely preposterous.

Speaker 2 So it's hard to

Speaker 2 know what is real and what is not.

Speaker 2 But maybe that's the reason why, because of that, it makes me realize that, oh, what I'm seeing is maybe not really what it is. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think it's fascinating because, yeah, say if like a lot of media was like kind of all controlled, right? Then of course they're going to not want you to know some things. Yeah.

Speaker 1 And eventually people are going to kind of figure those things out. People figure things out.

Speaker 2 I think it's, it's always about money and power. I know.
People that has money and power, what they want is they want more money and more power. I

Speaker 2 tend to believe that most of people are

Speaker 2 mostly in the middle. And like if you look at politics, you have the extreme right, extreme left.
But most people are. I think mostly in the middle, you know, that they're not too

Speaker 2 one side or the other. And then the way it's portrayed is that you have to pick one side or the other side, and you're like, shit, I don't know what to do, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 Because I'm, you know, I'm stuck in the middle.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think stuck in the middle is probably the best spot, you know. And I think most people are probably pretty logical, you would think.

Speaker 1 But then maybe sometimes I start to wonder, do I give people too much credit? You know, like, are a lot of people just bat shit crazy, you know? And then I wonder sometimes, am I just batshit crazy?

Speaker 1 You know, yeah, it's true.

Speaker 2 We have to look at ourselves in the mirror sometimes. It's hard.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but I've wondered sometimes, like,

Speaker 1 yeah, I'm amazed, I guess, that power and money drive so many people. Like, I get it being like an influence, you know?

Speaker 1 But I think there's a part of me,

Speaker 1 I guess I'm shocked that it has that much control. What do you think?

Speaker 1 I mean, you're kind of one of one, George. You've had such a,

Speaker 1 I mean, you got to almost have kind of a perfect career in a lot of ways.

Speaker 2 You know, I made tons of mistakes looking at it and I wish I could do better because I'm very critics critic criticis critic critics about myself but uh yeah I'm happy uh what I've uh I have accomplished yeah and do you think uh was it power success driving you like what do you what was kind of your driving force do you feel like I'll be honest with you 100% I I never liked to fight I

Speaker 2 love the sport

Speaker 2 I love the science of it I like the camera dread that I have with my friend you know before like a training camp you know it's like you're going to war.

Speaker 2 I despise

Speaker 2 fight day. It's unbearable for me.
I'm extremely uncomfortable and not knowing if I will

Speaker 2 be hurt,

Speaker 2 humiliated or winning the ultimate price is unbearable for me.

Speaker 2 It's very hard to deal with, but it's the price that you have to pay if you want to achieve freedom. Like for me, I first started doing it because I had a certain

Speaker 2 natural talent, I would say. You know, if I would be born with an antsy cap, I wouldn't probably not be able to do what I did.
So I was a gifted athlete. And

Speaker 2 I also work really hard, but I also...

Speaker 2 I consider myself extremely lucky. The stars were all aligned because

Speaker 2 there is guys that I've met through my journey that were probably more talented than I was.

Speaker 2 There's guys that I met that probably worked harder than

Speaker 2 I did.

Speaker 2 But I think what made the difference is the fact that I met the right people at the right time.

Speaker 2 Sometimes life gave me certain opportunity that I did not shy away.

Speaker 2 I was always willing to get out of my comfort zone in order to improve, which is not the case from a lot of athletes and not only athletes like entrepreneur humans yeah humans

Speaker 2 for a human for for all of us it's hard to get out of our comfort zone but sometimes it's necessary it's a necessary evil in order to to improve yeah yeah well i think it would like what you said like because you can control how much you how hard you work you can control those are a lot of control factors yes but that is

Speaker 1 That's a risk when you get out there and you get on a fight day.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Some of it's out of your control.

Speaker 2 i remember feel like that is that what it felt like kind of it's it's it's always a question of risk and reward you know it's calculated risk um

Speaker 2 i remember the

Speaker 2 if i go back uh more than like almost 30 years ago

Speaker 2 I couldn't really speak English very well. I learned it at school, but I grew up in a French environment, so my English was really bad.
It's hard. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And the first time I remember I was already a black belt in karate and I wanted to go to the Gracie Academy in New York because that's where the best jiu-jitsu athlete were training at the time.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 I knew that I needed to go there in order to train with the best, to learn from the best. So I'm about, at that time, I'm about like 16, 17 years old.

Speaker 2 And I'm planning to go there with two of my friends, two of professional, that are professional athletes at the time.

Speaker 2 And one of them, only one of them speak perfect English.

Speaker 2 So he's a. Yeah, and it was not like it is today.
There were not like ways, so you had to go on map quests, and it was a pain in the butt to find your way. So I'm driving.

Speaker 2 I got a shitty Ford tempo with a hole.

Speaker 2 I remember where I used to put the brake pedal, so people used to make fun of me. It was like the flintstone, you know.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I could almost put my foot on the floor, you know.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 the plan was to go in New York to

Speaker 2 go there, and

Speaker 2 we share the the hotel together so we save money and we we we share with the gas and everything but the day before

Speaker 2 the day before the trip they get one of them called me and he's the one it's the one that speaks English he's like hey George I cannot make it I'm like are you kidding me

Speaker 2 and I'm talking to the other one who's supposed to come with me he's like oh if he's not going I'm not going either I'm like man but you know what I said I said to my son F it I'm going by myself and that's it so I went there and I remember man

Speaker 2 I got my ass whooped

Speaker 2 by a guy who weighs

Speaker 2 maybe 30 pounds lighter than me. Wow.

Speaker 2 I got tapped out like in jijitsu when you're stuck in an umbar or a choke, you have to tap. Otherwise, your arms break or you get choked out.
So, and I remember at the time, I was like, man,

Speaker 2 I was getting mauled. I was a black belt and car right.
I was a good, a good striker, but in grappling, I didn't have a lot of knowledge.

Speaker 2 And I knew I needed to learn it in order order to become a mixed martial art fighter. But man, I got beat up so bad.
And I remember driving back.

Speaker 2 I was that close to

Speaker 2 give up. And I told myself, I said, you know what? I need to go back out there and learn.

Speaker 2 And every time I was going back there, it was tough for me because guys, a lot of them were trying to bully me. A few of them were very nice to me, but it was a constant grind.

Speaker 2 And I remember the two guys that were supposed to come with me, they asked me, hey, how was it? I'm like, man, I got my ass kicked so bad. Man, they never came back with me.

Speaker 2 They were like, they wanted to stay in their comfort zone. So that's the difference.
You know, if you want to succeed sometimes, it's a necessary evil. You're going to go through pain.

Speaker 2 You're going to might be humiliated. You're going to, you're going to fail.
But then I have to go through that, man, in order to improve.

Speaker 2 You know, and that's, that's what I was ready to do, which is probably the case of other guys. So that.

Speaker 2 The reason why I was successful, it's not because I think I was more gifted or, you know, I work harder. It's just because I was ready to do that sacrifice, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 1 What do you think kind of made you in that space to take that sacrifice? Because I guess it's like,

Speaker 1 yeah, I mean, it's well, giving up is easy.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 I think saying something is better, saying something is too hard. It's kind of easy, you know.
I think unless you're different.

Speaker 1 I think some people look at that as a challenge and some people look at it as

Speaker 1 just a reality.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I think if you want to be the best at something,

Speaker 2 I'm not talking being good. I'm talking about you want to be the best at something.

Speaker 2 And in every field, I think you need to be a little bit obsessed.

Speaker 2 I was never diagnosed. I never saw

Speaker 2 a psychologist for it. But I think

Speaker 2 I'm obsessive-compulsive.

Speaker 1 And I think. Did you notice it when you were young? Like, what kind of things did you see like you would do?

Speaker 2 Well, one thing I would do

Speaker 2 that is completely crazy.

Speaker 2 It's very stupid, but I used to do like when

Speaker 2 I walk on the sidewalk.

Speaker 2 For example, I remember in New York going to train, I walk on the sidewalk and there is a line on the sidewalk. And I noticed that I step over one line with my right foot, but I have to step

Speaker 2 over with the left to make an equal number. And sometimes these...

Speaker 2 things are so stupid but it drive you nuts when i drill techniques in jiu-jitsu i have to do this in or wrestling or any combat sport, I have to do the same amount on each side.

Speaker 2 Even though in a fight, I will most likely do one side, my best side, but I have to do the other side.

Speaker 2 And I think these things, as crazy as it sounds, are probably some of the things that made me perform well, you know?

Speaker 1 Right. Because you need things to be even.
You need things to be calculated maybe. Or even the fact that you're even calculating things is kind of, it sounds crazy.

Speaker 1 It sounds obsessive, but it also is kind of magnificent in a way because to be great at something, you're going to have to be someone who's calculating things even when you're not,

Speaker 1 even in your subconscious.

Speaker 2 Also, I think it's good for an athlete for performance, but you need to learn how to let go. Yeah.
You need to learn to punch, punch in and punch out. And sometimes it's hard.

Speaker 2 I see in the news, sometimes some fighters, they can't do it. You know, they go crazy.
They keep going.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like Tony Ferguson, he keeps going.
Do you think it's a tough space that he's in? Like, because it's weird. People love watching him fight, right?

Speaker 1 And it feels like he loves giving himself to the people. He like, it almost like he shows up just because he knows we're going to love him so much.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 But you start to think that it's painful for him. I mean, he's had a tough run recently.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I love to see him fight. It's

Speaker 2 just unfortunate because the Tony Ferguson that you see nowadays, it's not

Speaker 2 the Tony Ferguson that he was when he was in his prime. And it depends what he's trying to accomplish.

Speaker 2 I prioritize my health

Speaker 2 first, and that's my priority. But some guys, they have a kick of it.
They don't care. They prioritize having, I don't know, some of them, they love to fight.

Speaker 2 For them,

Speaker 2 it's an adrenaline. They love it.
I never liked it. I mean, I did it because I wanted to have the freedom, you know, the life that I have.
So I use that to propel myself where I wanted to be in life.

Speaker 2 But some guys,

Speaker 2 they just love to fight.

Speaker 2 And it's funny because when I was young,

Speaker 2 I was looking around

Speaker 2 and I never felt I was at the right place.

Speaker 2 I remember I seek the help of sports psychologists. And a lot of them, they told me, you know, like, they were trying to brainwash me.
They were like, oh, George, stop saying you're afraid.

Speaker 2 You're not afraid. You're excited.
I'm like,

Speaker 2 bro, I'm excited if I, I don't know, if I say a beautiful woman or, you know, like, like, or, you know what I mean? I'm not, I'm not excited to go fight

Speaker 2 in a cage. You know what I mean? So

Speaker 2 I'm afraid. Then I realized that you should not be afraid.
I should not be afraid to admit that I'm afraid. You know, there's no courage without fear.

Speaker 2 And when I made peace with it, I knew it was a normal thing and I learned how to control it. But it's uh, that's why there's some guys I think they fake it so hard and they don't make peace with it.

Speaker 2 And when the light is on is on and it's time to perform, they crumble. You see that very often in combat sport.

Speaker 2 Guys that are very good in the gym, but then when it's time to go, they don't perform as well. You're like, what's going on?

Speaker 2 You know, that's why, because they don't know how to deal with, they don't know how to domesticate their fear.

Speaker 1 They don't know how to, they don't know how to manage their fear.

Speaker 2 They don't know how to manage it. They don't know how to control their stress.

Speaker 2 I remember, I think it's Kasomoto, the Mike Tyson coach, he says, fear is like fire. It can help you cook your food, but it can also burn you if you don't know how to control it.

Speaker 2 You know, and one of my psychologists used to, the sports psychologists used to say to me, he's like, you have butterflies, you have to make them fly in formation.

Speaker 2 That's one thing he used to tell me all the time. I'm like, that was a good analogy.
That's crazy. And I'm sure for you, the same thing.
I mean, when you do a show,

Speaker 2 I mean, I don't know. Are you afraid to mess up and be humiliated? Did it ever happen to you that? Oh, for sure.

Speaker 2 You screwed up. You're like, shit, this thing doesn't work the way I want.
And I mean, I'm sure it happened. Like it happened to me.
I get hit or, you know what I mean? I lose a fight.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it wasn't my plan and my strategy. Yeah, I didn't.
I ran out of bullets. I ran out of like moves.
I tried some jokes. It didn't work.
Oh, the beginning, you almost go out there

Speaker 1 because you just want, I think.

Speaker 1 You know, it's going to fucking hurt, you know?

Speaker 1 And you just want to, I think a lot of comics kind of hate themselves a little bit, to be honest and so they go out there because they know the feeling that the embarrass the pain the the embarrassment and pain they're gonna feel finally it'll match how they feel on the inside so there's a little weirdness in that that like

Speaker 1 some things are gonna feel a little even in a way um and also a lot of comedians hate themselves so much that The people could never hate them as much as they fucking hate themselves.

Speaker 1 So, or they've talked so badly about themselves, like in their own head, you you know you need you mean you need to be willing to make fun of yourself if you want to do yeah i think that helps because then it certainly at that point it's like you're using all the tools you already you make fun of others but you make fun of you need to be ready to make fun of yourself as well right yeah yeah and in your head like i think a lot of comedians are like um

Speaker 1 you know they have a lot of fear they have a lot of uh inferiority and so when they're when they're growing up they probably talk badly to themselves in their head and so then when they're able to joke about themselves it's almost a way of releasing some of that it's like they're making fun of themselves but it's in a way that is making bringing joy to people yeah so it almost kind of like alleviates some of that if that makes any sense over the year that did that feeling of

Speaker 2 it goes away it goes away for you yeah yeah that was my it goes away because it didn't go away from me really yeah it got worse because every fight is bigger than but just the fight so the fight itself so the training and all of that you training now training makes me nervous no no i'm i'm nervous before training because when you train for a fight you want to perform when you're in between fight off season now you want to have fun yeah that's when training is fun but when you're training for a fight it's about performance it's not that fun it's not fun uh winning is fun but you know like like like when a fight day would be tough i'm sorry the fight day would be the toughest it's terrible i i

Speaker 2 well to give you an example fight day it's Every fight day is the worst day of my life.

Speaker 2 You wake up after a shitty night of sleep,

Speaker 2 and when you wake up, you're like, because yeah, you don't sleep well because you make so I make so much scenario in my mind.

Speaker 2 If you do this, I'm gonna do this, and try to cover every possible scenario that can happen.

Speaker 2 And sometimes you close your eyes, you try to see, you try to be positive, but sometimes you don't see yourself winning. Sometimes there's certain imagery that pops up in your head that

Speaker 2 you see yourself losing. But I develop a trick.
I'm a firm believer of the power of thinking, you know, of the power of the mind.

Speaker 1 Visualization?

Speaker 2 Yes. So when you have a negative imagery that pops up in your head, it's a sign of intelligence.
You know, it's normal. It will happen.
Because you're smart.

Speaker 2 You can

Speaker 2 foresee certain bad outcomes. So you need to be prepared.
So it forces you.

Speaker 2 to you don't want to finish your visualization on a negative note because it will leave a scar up here so i always force myself when i see myself getting getting dropped by a punch, then I

Speaker 2 don't let go. I just force myself.
Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna scramble back up and get back in control of the fight. And then I can go on with my life, do whatever I need to do.
So I think if you only

Speaker 2 finish on the negative, it could leave a scar. That's one of the things that over the year I tried to do and it helped me a lot.
It's powerful.

Speaker 1 It reminds me of the fight, the first Sarah fight, I think, you know? And I know you didn't get the outcome that you wanted, but you stayed alive. I mean,

Speaker 1 that was a...

Speaker 2 Yeah, I got hit so many times.

Speaker 1 I was like, geez, I felt like we were getting hit at home. I remember.

Speaker 2 And Matt Sarah really surprised me because going into that fight, it was my first title defense. Matzaro was known for his grappling prowess.
You know, he was

Speaker 2 one of the... most decorated jiu-jitsu athlete at the time.

Speaker 2 And I was more worried about his ground game than his stand-up. But he worked a lot on his stand-up game, and he caught me with a punch that I never saw coming on behind the ear.

Speaker 2 And when he caught me,

Speaker 2 I remember I got emotional because I wanted to give it back to him right away. You know, like this was not supposed to happen.

Speaker 2 The odds were favoring me, like something like 10 to 1 or something crazy. So I wanted to give it back to him right away.
And like an idiot, I fall into a slug fist.

Speaker 2 And when you're stunned, you're not accurate because you're dizzy. He was accurate and he hits very hard.
So I got like a, I don't, I can't remember how many punches I got hit. He was alive, though.

Speaker 2 Oh, I, I, but you know what I did? So because I didn't know where I was, I was so dizzy, I tapped out

Speaker 2 and

Speaker 2 I got a lot of critics because, oh, he's a quitter. He tapped out on strike and everything.

Speaker 2 And it affected me at the time because I was like, man, you know, like, maybe I'm not as good as I think. And a lot of people were like, oh, he's maybe not

Speaker 2 as good as

Speaker 2 people think.

Speaker 2 And I needed to build myself mentally from that. And it was very, very hard because I lost the confidence.

Speaker 2 And confidence for a fighter is the most important thing because you can have all the skills in the world.

Speaker 2 But if you don't have the confidence, if I can make an analogy, it's like someone who has a lot of money in his bank account, but no way of accessing it.

Speaker 2 So I needed to.

Speaker 1 build myself back up and it was it was a tough time i remember i it's funny you see it that way because I saw it as wow. I cannot believe how I think it for me goes back to what you were saying.

Speaker 1 That like to envision, like if you visualize yourself getting hit, to then finish on a visualization of yourself, you know, returning back to form and like still being in the bout, because that's what it seemed like to me.

Speaker 1 I mean, I know we got the victory on that one, but um, I

Speaker 2 tapped out on strike, and I'm not ashamed to say it. A lot of guys that will say because there's this thing in our sport that, oh, you tapped out on strike, you quit.
But man, it's a sport.

Speaker 2 We're not in a war. And I'd rather save myself for another day.

Speaker 1 All right. Well, you always seem like that guy.
You always seem like this. You're always a perfect strategist.

Speaker 2 I'm never going to give up until it's finished, but that fight was finished. I was gone.

Speaker 2 It was a matter of time that I was probably going to fall unconscious. So I decided to tap and to save some of my brain cells.
Yeah. And come back another day.
And you did. And yeah.

Speaker 2 And I think there's no shame about it.

Speaker 2 When that happened at the the time, I was ashamed a little bit, and then I didn't want to talk about it, but you know, I'm glad I did it. I'm glad I did it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, I think it's easier probably to look in back in the past and see the long,

Speaker 1 you know, to see the whole, like

Speaker 1 all the work, you know, yeah, to see it as a whole, as like a whole piece there.

Speaker 2 Um,

Speaker 1 yeah, what was it? What was kind of one of the toughest times you felt like in your career? Was that probably it, you think? Because you had just gotten the title, it's your first title defense.

Speaker 2 That was that was bad mentally.

Speaker 2 The first loss before that, I lost to Matt Hughes.

Speaker 2 It was more of a learning experience. This was different because

Speaker 2 it really brought my confidence down.

Speaker 2 And I remember at the time I

Speaker 2 want to

Speaker 2 add a sports psychologist. He's awesome.
I shout out to Brian Kane. Brian or Ryan? Brian Kane.
He was amazing.

Speaker 2 And he's deceased? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 He's still around.

Speaker 2 He works with pro athlete. And he says to me,

Speaker 2 he says to me, because after that fight, immediately, the only thing I was thinking about is to get back out there and

Speaker 2 get my revenge, you know, because I was not proud of my performance. I was like, man, I'm better than this.
I'm better than this guy.

Speaker 2 I want to go back out there and show the world. And, you know, my ego wanted to show the world that I am better than this.

Speaker 2 But.

Speaker 2 The fight that I had was not against Sarah. My other fight, I needed to build, like like to have a few more wins before I had to return for a title shot.
So I was not focusing on the right thing.

Speaker 2 I was focusing on Matt Sarah instead of focusing on my next opponent. And that could have been very bad.

Speaker 2 So what my sports psychologist did to me, he said, said, George, you're carrying a lot of brick.

Speaker 2 And I didn't know what it meant at the time. So he made me carry a brick.
And he made me write the name of Sarah with clay on it.

Speaker 2 And he made me carry that brick in my training bag. And every day I was going to train with that freaking brick.
And in Tri-Star, you have to go up the stairs. And

Speaker 2 it's not a pleasant walk to go to the gym. It's kind of a training of itself.

Speaker 2 And at one point, like after a week, I call him. I'm like, hey, can I get rid of that brick? He's like, nope, you keep it.
You keep it. I'm like, man, this guy is completely insane.

Speaker 2 You know, like, he's, he was, you know, I thought that he was crazy. He probably needed a psychologist himself.

Speaker 2 So I kept carrying, carrying the brick, carrying, and right

Speaker 2 the week before my fight with, I think it was Josh Koschek,

Speaker 2 that I was trying to get back to a title shot. I was like, man, I can't deal with this shit anymore.
Can I throw that brick out? He's like, okay, I'm coming. Wait.

Speaker 2 So I went to where the Saint-Laurent River is.

Speaker 2 I threw it. I grab it and I threw it in the water.
And I know it sounds cuckoo to say, but it was something physical that I did that had a profound

Speaker 2 change on my mental.

Speaker 2 It kind of freed me from that

Speaker 2 needs to prove to the world that I want to beat him again, you know? So I was able to focus on the immediate task ahead. Right.

Speaker 1 Yeah, because sometimes that desire, I just, it's a blind desire almost like I need to prove. And it's not, it's powerful, but it's not effective because it's not calculated.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You know, and it can be even more dangerous sometimes than anything.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 So, so, so i was not i was going in a dangerous path because i was not focusing on the on the most important on the most important thing that was my the the the fight like i was focusing on the other fight be after but yeah i was about to to to screw it up bad i know whenever you retired hendrick was your oh no the last fight was bisping Bisping was my last fight.

Speaker 2 That was all. Hendrix is after I took a I took a break after Hendrix.

Speaker 1 Yeah. First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Dan Morgan and everyone over at Morgan and Morgan.

Speaker 1 We had an issue with Kai the hitchhiker, and he filed a lawsuit against us, and he made quite a hullabaloo. But Morgan and Morgan stuck with it until finally our case was dismissed.

Speaker 1 Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. They have over 100 offices nationwide and more than 800 lawyers.

Speaker 1 With over $15 billion, covering over 300,000 clients, Morgan and Morgan Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation.

Speaker 1 Submitting an injury claim with Morgan and Morgan is so easy. If you've ever been injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan.
Their fee is free unless they win.

Speaker 1 For more information, go to forthepeople.com slash this past weekend or dial pound law pound529 from your cell phone.

Speaker 2 That's

Speaker 1 slash this past weekend or dial pound law, pound529 from your cell. This is a paid advertisement.

Speaker 1 Yeah, whenever you took a break after Hendrik, you talked about like you were going through a tough time or something, what was that about?

Speaker 1 Was it stuff you couldn't talk about before?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I had a lot of issue. I had a lot of family issue and problem.

Speaker 2 And the thing is, when you're, I was a very active fighter. And

Speaker 1 When you say active, what do you mean fighting often?

Speaker 2 Yeah, fighting often. And also, you have to consider that you do a lot of promotion, tours, and stuff.

Speaker 2 It takes a lot out of you. And also the stress on always, you always have someone that is threatening you.

Speaker 2 Because when you're the contender...

Speaker 2 you don't have as much stress because you have one target you want to be champion yeah you want to go there that's the benchmark you know that's the best isn't it yes it's hard to be to become champion but it's even harder to stay champion.

Speaker 2 There's not a lot of guys that stay champion for a long time. It's very hard.
Because when you're champion, you're the target. When you're the contender,

Speaker 2 you have

Speaker 2 one guy is targeting. Nobody really targets you, but if you get to the title shot, you have only one guy that targets you.
When you're the champion, everyone targets you. So you're the target.

Speaker 2 You don't have much time to prepare for

Speaker 2 your opponent. And your opponent has been looking at you for years because he's climbing the rank and he's studying you.
He's trying to find a chic in your armor.

Speaker 1 And every time they interview any of those guys, they all call your name because you're the guy.

Speaker 2 Of course. So that's why it is much different.
It's much more difficult to stay champion than becoming champion. And when you're a champion,

Speaker 2 it's hard because your life changed. You have more responsibility and more

Speaker 2 there's a lot of more requests and stuff. And man,

Speaker 2 and that's what happened to me at the time. I was, you know, I was doing it for so long and I had so much pressure for so long.

Speaker 2 And I remember at that time, I was, I didn't want, I was shy to talk about it because I was like, if I

Speaker 2 talk about it before the fight, and I was fighting against,

Speaker 2 they used to have a big problem with performance-enhancing drug in mixed martial arts. It was a big, big problem.

Speaker 1 Oh, they got big problems with those at a damn 7-Eleven, dude.

Speaker 1 People are shooting up everywhere.

Speaker 2 I never wanted to accuse one individual, but I wanted to change the system.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 the UFC said that time didn't really add my back. They didn't really help me on that.
And I was fighting against that behind closed door.

Speaker 1 And it was you were saying some of these guys could be using, we have to test stronger.

Speaker 2 Oh, 100%. That's why I did the test when I fought Hendrix.
When I fought also, BJPN, we did the tests

Speaker 2 because I wanted to implement this. It's crazy because you play basketball, you play soccer, play football, but you don't play fighting.
You can lose your brain cells out there. It's different.

Speaker 2 And it makes some people like, yeah, but it doesn't make that small bullshit. It makes such a huge, it's a tons of difference, man.

Speaker 2 I've trained with guys that are openly, like they're saying to me, like when they are on, on, on cycle, it's not even the same person. No.

Speaker 2 Yeah, guys, it changes you not only stamina, strength, recovery, but also your, your, brain, your reaction time, you're more creative.

Speaker 2 There is things that you would do when you're on it that you would not maybe do when you're not, you know, so.

Speaker 1 Oh, you'll start fucking the air when you're on, you're on test 700 or whatever, dude. I saw a guy one time just,

Speaker 1 he just, he had so, you know, he just, he turned into an animal.

Speaker 2 Yeah, 100%. 100%.
So, so in fighting.

Speaker 1 So that's a risk then because you're at the top. Obviously, everybody's focused on you.

Speaker 2 And if you don't know if some of the, if you're staying clean and you don't know if some of the, some of the um testing is up to your what you believe is a fair code yeah then fuck that would be really scary well the the martial art i think that one of the things in martial art is the respect and and being just being fair and and i mean the these are the tragic traditional value of of martial art and and i i always try to carry that with me and uh i felt like i was

Speaker 2 in some way you know not betrayed but i i felt a little bit let go. And I was just fed up.
I was just, I just needed to take a time off.

Speaker 2 You know, I was, that's why I left for more than four years, you know. And I'm, I'm glad I did it because

Speaker 2 maybe I should have done it, maybe a fight, one, one fight before, you know. It would have you can burn out, man.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It's so much pressure.
People don't, I don't think, realize that. I can't even imagine the responsibilities.
And then, yeah, especially while the sport is still building so much at that time.

Speaker 1 Like, that was a huge building period for UFC. And so, like,

Speaker 1 to have so just to have like interview requests, I want you to be here and you want to do all the things you can do, you know, because you feel like you're physically capable.

Speaker 1 But yeah, part of you starts to get burned down. It's like a,

Speaker 1 I don't know, it's almost like when you light a candle and there's nothing left in it. Yeah.
That's how I feel sometimes.

Speaker 2 I remember you just finish a fight and immediately after there's another guy calling calling you out. And beat me.

Speaker 2 I'm sort of an obsessive, compulsive guy.

Speaker 2 So as soon as another guy calling me out, i'm starting to make scenario in my mind i'm like okay this i'm like it drives you nuts it drives you and when you're the contender you come you're on your way up you don't have that problem yeah you know yeah of course when maybe you get to the top five you know but but before that nobody noticed you nobody care about you you care about them but they don't care about you it's so funny so when you're on top now you're the target everybody talks about you they they they disrespect you and if you want you want it or not it touches you yeah you know because you say oh you don't bother watching this thing, but you know, it touches you.

Speaker 2 And you see, sometimes things get bad. You see the people, they insult each other.
And

Speaker 2 people always ask me sometimes, oh, do you think they went too far? I mean, this is the fight game, man.

Speaker 2 You can die out there. Or you can have certain damage that will make you die in the near future.
Oh, yeah. So the wheelchair or whatever, anything.

Speaker 2 The art of war, man, they're going to try everything to try to make you lose your mind. And we saw many, many fights that guys lose their mind.

Speaker 2 And that's one of the reasons why, like, everybody knows Conor McGregor. Yeah.

Speaker 2 His first title fight against Jose Aldo. He knocked him out in like something like seven seconds.
He pissed off Jose Aldo so much. Jose Aldo lost his mind.

Speaker 2 He went out of his game plan and tried to rush to him to give it to him. Conor McGregor is an incredible counter-puncher.
He just slipped. Boom.
That was it.

Speaker 2 That was a, I mean, it was very smart from his part to he taunt right Jose Aldo. It was,

Speaker 2 it was emotional. It was, I believe it was prepared.
I believe he put Jose Aldo exactly where you wanted to be. He set it up by all the interviews, all the things he said, all the things he done.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 1 He started the fight months before, in a way.

Speaker 2 Yeah. So when you're in that

Speaker 2 fight game, another thing that people don't talk about, you never want to show your your private life right because people will talk will use that against you talk about people me i can put a shield if you can insult me you can say whatever you want i'm very good at putting a shield and it's not gonna bother me but you talk about someone i love someone i care about now it's gonna get me you know yeah so and we saw that

Speaker 2 another time with with Connor and and Khabib Normagamanov,

Speaker 2 the famous fight after that.

Speaker 1 That was crazy.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 So that's the reason why it went crazy after because they were they they crossed the line but it's the fight game that's a fight game i don't think it's right but a lot of guys will do that to make you the real do you respect guys just as much that do that i mean it's just it's another facet to war in a way right it's the art of war man they they

Speaker 1 it's combat sport man it's it's kill or be killed man they're gonna do it you think it's evolved more as since like in the past like 15 years have you noticed it evolve more over time like that it's more of a strategy now or do you think more people people see it coming now?

Speaker 1 Like, what do you think the evolution of that's been of trash talking?

Speaker 2 It's a good question. I think what changes is the fact that now we have social media and we're in touch with the world.

Speaker 2 I can be at home in Montreal and

Speaker 2 insulting you when you're in Tennessee in two seconds and you will notice it in real time. Boom.
Before that, that was not really the case. We didn't have

Speaker 2 that power, you know? Now you can say something, the whole world sees it. And oh, did you heard what he said?

Speaker 2 So that's, I think, what made makes the difference.

Speaker 1 It's different now.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 Um, do you feel like the testing has gotten better over time in the sport?

Speaker 2 Well, now I think it got a little bit worse because

Speaker 1 one company quit, right? Or they one company got laid off,

Speaker 2 USADA, right?

Speaker 1 And I interrupted you. I interrupted you.
Sorry, George.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, please. It's true.
What happened is they didn't have any testing first. Then they hired, I think,

Speaker 2 USADA.

Speaker 1 that's what it got much but they test beef and stuff don't they is it the same group

Speaker 2 they they

Speaker 2 okay

Speaker 2 yeah usada i don't think it's why not bro if the same person testing my pork chops is testing mike perry then i think we got we gotta figure something out i mean i think both of them are clean but i'm just saying but well you saw what i when When USADA just just arrived on the scene, a lot of the champion I fall, I felt, you know, and they made a they lost a lot of money.

Speaker 2 But I give them props because they took the lead.

Speaker 1 They had to do it. They had to clear up.

Speaker 2 And I'm happy they did it. And that's one of the reasons I came back and I fought Bispain because if they would not have made drug tests, I would never have come back.
Wow. I was like, no way.

Speaker 2 I'm like, this, I don't, I don't like that. But now I think.

Speaker 1 Because it was too, it just wasn't fair. It just wasn't.
It's not fair.

Speaker 2 It wasn't sane. It was like

Speaker 2 sanctioned. And I'm never going to say, hey, this guy, this guy, but when

Speaker 2 you're in the industry, you know who's who, you know who do what. It's a small world.

Speaker 2 We all know.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's like when you're in ninth grade and some kid shows up like that with pimples everywhere. You know what's going on.
You know what Ricky's been doing. You know what I'm saying? You just know.

Speaker 2 Yeah. But sometimes it's not even, you cannot even notice it's physically because certain drugs, like for example, like EPO will give you a crazy stamina, but might not really change you physically.

Speaker 2 There is stuff that

Speaker 2 people talk, you know who's who.

Speaker 2 And i mean it was just at the time it wasn't it wasn't signed and i'm glad that ufc uh did this i didn't want to bring ufc down that was not my intent when i did this i wanted to elevate the sport and i'm glad they did it i think it elevate the sport and now yeah they're not with usada anymore but i think they hire another organization to to do the tests uh you know but i do believe that if you want to avoid corruption it needs to be a separated entity that do the tests than the the organization itself.

Speaker 1 And is that what they have now? Right now, it's a I am not sure.

Speaker 2 But if the organization has power in order, like in the testing, it's corrupted. Yeah.
It cannot be corrupted. It needs to be a different entity

Speaker 2 where the organization does not have any power. Right.
Right.

Speaker 1 Because they just be able to control and say, hey, let's make this okay and this.

Speaker 2 Of course, imagine you have a big fight coming up and the two the two guys that line the cars, like one of them tests positive. He just screwed up the card, you know, and they lose a lot of money.

Speaker 2 So they have

Speaker 2 an interest in this.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this says Drug Free Sport International will be in charge of the collection process under the new program that begins in January when the UFC's deal with USADA ends. This was last year.

Speaker 1 Former FBI Special Agent George Pierrot, best known for interrogating former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, will be in charge of the new program.

Speaker 2 Huh.

Speaker 1 That's interesting. You identify people and entities in the space that can make something that is already working well and you make them better.

Speaker 1 UFC Vice President Jeff Nowitsky said, you learn that USADA is not the only player in the space and that a combination of other entities and individuals can actually make your program stronger and better.

Speaker 1 And that's exactly what's happening right now with our program.

Speaker 2 It's unfortunate.

Speaker 1 I believe they want clean guys fighting in there, no doubt.

Speaker 2 I believe they want money.

Speaker 2 I think that's what they believe. I think that their number one interest is the money, which is normal.
They run a business. They're a business.
And after, yeah, the security of the factor. But

Speaker 2 it's not to bash them. And I think it's every company wants to make money.
That's the goal. Right.
Like, that's the number one priority.

Speaker 2 And after, if you can make it fair and clean, okay, but money, I think, is always the number one. I think.
And I, well, it's that point.

Speaker 1 That's business. And, you know what? Business.
And business, sometimes business is inherently has some evil edges to it. Or not evil, but it's like.
Business gets kind of dirty sometimes.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying this, but I remember like I went and saw Poirier's last fight and I remember waiting outside. The people came and took him in there to test him.

Speaker 1 But are those tests, are they able to keep those tests like

Speaker 1 legitimate?

Speaker 2 Are they like, well, the problem, I believe, is,

Speaker 2 well, just to give you an example, when I was training to fight Michael Bisping, you had to feel

Speaker 2 a whereabout.

Speaker 2 to tell to to let them know okay i have training at this time uh this time to this time at this place okay oh next week i'm in

Speaker 2 I'm in Florida. But let's say you really want to cheat, for example.

Speaker 2 You just tell them you're going to, I don't know, freaking Antarctica or somewhere where they're not going to spend money to send an investigator to test you. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 But you go there, you get your stuff, and then you know how long it stays in your system. And then after you got the, you surf

Speaker 2 on it for four weeks. You know what I mean? So, so.

Speaker 1 Oh, I see. So you could use it to enhance you and then be clean when it's time for show.

Speaker 2 For another thing that guys do, they have a sponsors. Okay.
So they prepare their

Speaker 2 excuse. So let's say I'm sponsored by a certain food supplement company.
Okay. And

Speaker 2 I'm taking, for example, a certain substance that is illegal. I know that my the food supplement, that the protein company that sponsor me is tainted by that certain substance.

Speaker 2 So I'm sponsored by them. So when I get cut, it's, oh, it's not my fault.
It's the company that that sponsors me. So that's another way.
So you prepare your, your, your, your, you know, that, that's,

Speaker 2 that's one of the way I would think they would do. Yeah.

Speaker 1 No, I think that makes sense. Did you feel like most of the fights you fought, people, your opponent was clean?

Speaker 2 I don't have the evidence. And it's, uh, it's, uh, it's wrong to accuse someone if you don't have the evidence.
But.

Speaker 2 I know for a fact that there was a lot of guys, a lot, a lot of guys that were using performance enhancing drug and it was it was a big problem yeah and it's the same thing in the olympic where you have money you will always have corruption yeah it's impossible to to to catch everyone because the the technology to cheat will always be one step ahead of the technology to catch the gay i know

Speaker 2 crazy that's like a cat and a mouse yeah well you were fortunate man you got in and you kind of got out at the time where you wanted i mean you you'd achieved everything you wanted i mean you're one of the rare people that it's like it's almost like if you look at your career and stuff you're like dang man he made all the right moves you know um you were strategic about it i was strategic but i have the chance to have real friends a lot of the people i i may i hang out with that i'm that i'm friend with they were friend with me in the beginning and for me it's very important because they don't tell me what i want to hear they tell me the truth what you need and even when i wanted to come back and fight Michael Bisping, a lot of my good friends, they were like, George, you're 36 years old, man.

Speaker 2 your best years are maybe behind you what what are you trying to prove and my

Speaker 2 my my my argument was like man i i don't want to live with regret i just want to do one more or you know depend on how it's gonna go you know and if i fail i fail and i and i leave and if i keep going i keep going but at least give me one one shot and and if i succeed we'll we'll see after you know what i mean and um i didn't want to leave with regret you know because let's say let's say i would not have done it I was, I would have grown up.

Speaker 2 Now I'm 43. It's too late, you know.
I passed my prime. I would, I would live with regrets, say, oh, I should have done it.
And now I would regret it.

Speaker 2 So I always believe that you never want to live with regrets. That's the worst thing.

Speaker 1 Has there been moments since then where like you're just on the couch or something, you've had a couple beers and you're like, I'm fucking getting back in there tomorrow.

Speaker 1 And it's just like, you're just kind of fired up.

Speaker 2 After

Speaker 2 when I retired, I retired because I had

Speaker 2 when I won the title, but people don't know this, but I was very ill. Like I had

Speaker 2 ulcer colitis because I was trying to gain weight. Colitis.
Yes. I was trying to gain weight because I was fighting in every swelling of the large intestine.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Okay. I was trying to put on weight.
It's not Crohn's disease.

Speaker 1 You have Crohn's disease?

Speaker 2 No, no, it's ulcer colitis. It's not Crohn's.
Crohn's is different.

Speaker 2 But very often, ulcer colitis transforms into Crohn and Crohn transform into cancer.

Speaker 2 A lot of time, you know, you see that progression.

Speaker 2 So when that, like when I, when I had those crazy cramps, it was during my training camp with bisping and I didn't know what it was because it was blood when I was going to bathroom.

Speaker 2 And I told myself, I said, whatever it is, I'm going to do the fight and I'm going to have, because, no, no, but to know what it is, you need to do what they call a colonoscopy.

Speaker 2 So they go with a camera. You need to go in there.

Speaker 2 You need to take

Speaker 2 laxatives and all that. Like it MTU.
And I was trying to put on weight.

Speaker 2 so you know what i mean i couldn't do it it was a few weeks before and i said you know what whatever it is i'll do the fight and i'll deal with it after and after the fight i went to do the test and i i got diagnosed with uh

Speaker 2 ulcer colitis and i was on heavy heavy medication like to for for anti-inflammatory and I relinquished that the title. I could have kept the title for one year and like parade with the sponsorship.

Speaker 2 But I didn't want to do that because of the, for the respect, you know, so I relinquished relinquished it because I didn't know what was going to happen.

Speaker 2 I as an man, I don't know what's going to happen, you know. So I tried to get better, and after a few few weeks, it didn't really work.
And I discovered fasting. And

Speaker 2 what happened is pretty incredible. I met a doctor, Dr.
Jason Feng, in

Speaker 1 Toronto. Jason Feng, F-U-N-G?

Speaker 2 Yes. He's...

Speaker 1 Japanese, huh? Yeah,

Speaker 2 nephrologist. I think it's Chinese or Canadian Chinese.
Yeah. Okay.
That's him, exactly. He gave me a fasting program.
He treat a patient that has certain type of diabetes.

Speaker 2 And he gave me certain program of fasting. And

Speaker 2 what happened after the next few weeks?

Speaker 2 All my symptoms disappeared. Wow.
And I diminished the dose of my medication until I no longer need it.

Speaker 1 And what type of fasting? What exactly were you doing?

Speaker 2 I did two types. I did what we call time-restricted eating, where

Speaker 2 certain you eat all your calorie in a certain window. Okay, like an intermittent fasting.
Yeah, like you eat your calorie in eight hour and you fast on, like you only drink water in the 16 hour.

Speaker 2 And I do also prolonged fasting. So what I do when I do prolonged fasting, I do four days, only water.

Speaker 2 And when I train, I take salt in my hand. I put a little bit and I lick.

Speaker 2 Okay. Or pervert.

Speaker 2 But you take salt because you don't want to deplete your mineral when you. And and this over time because ulcer colitis you're supposed to be stuck with that for life.
Wow.

Speaker 2 It's a condition you have for life. When you got it, you finish.
You know, you got it. And all my symptoms are gone.
Now I can drink. I can eat whatever I want.
And I'm, I mean,

Speaker 2 I realize that, you know, we talk about conspiracy and stuff. The reason why you don't hear about fasting is because nobody makes money with it.
It's not no pills.

Speaker 2 Yeah, but it's really worth investigating. Of course, ask your doctor, but man, it changes my life.

Speaker 1 and i just wish i would have known this before really it really did so you've used it in other facets too to you know when you need it

Speaker 2 it works for everything like sometimes you have an injury like say tendonitis and tendonitis often it's related to inflammation you know all inflammation disease when you fast it take away the inflammation and and and if All the stuff that I that I had regarding inflammation, like a toe, one of my toes, I had a problem with one of my toes.

Speaker 2 It was hurting me for years. When I started doing my fasting, fasting, it kind of disappeared.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, it doesn't think about that. We always think more, more, more, like a more medicine, more anything, more

Speaker 1 of this diet.

Speaker 2 I thought the same thing before. I was like, oh, protein shake, this, because I was trying to gain weight when I fought bisping.
And I realized, man, I was doing everything wrong.

Speaker 1 And we always think about the punch in, we don't think about the punch out, like you were saying. We don't think about the inverse of it.

Speaker 2 It's insane. And I remember I

Speaker 2 had a chance to go to Kenya.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 2 Tanzania.

Speaker 2 Kenya, Masai Maru. I met a tribe of

Speaker 2 hunter-getterer. Oh, yeah.
Those brothers can jump, huh? Yeah,

Speaker 2 but these guys, man, sometimes they spend three, four days without eating. And it's normal.
They're used to it. And if you see

Speaker 2 their old people compared to our old people,

Speaker 2 they're much more healthier. They look much more much better.

Speaker 2 And the reason why people, people will tell me now, oh, yeah, but they have a shorter life expectancy than us yes it's because of the a lot of the child uh die before the age of uh adulthood oh wasi so the numbers die when they're young yeah child child child uh how do you say in english the

Speaker 2 starvation or neglect no no no no they get they got like disease or the hospital is too far away you have to you have to drive like five hours you know that right there if so but if once they pass a certain point if you look at their their old people and our old people,

Speaker 2 they look much better. Oh, our old people look like shit, a lot of them, to be honest

Speaker 2 but a lot of them you know i've had a couple of grandparents and they were mid i thought but uh but what makes us live that long it's not because of our healthy lifestyles because of our technology for most of us right that's true that's what's saving us most of the time it's not us doing anything yeah when i was a kid for example i had like uh

Speaker 2 uh it's called in french convulsion fébrille it's a when you're a baby you're you have a rise of temperature so what your body does it shut shut itself down and it go into a coma like this.

Speaker 2 And that happened to me when I was young. My mom told me, if I would not have technology, I was brought back, brought to the hospital and they put me on an artificial coma and everything on plugs.

Speaker 2 And if I would not have that technology, I would have not been here with you today. So

Speaker 2 I'm alive today because of our technology.

Speaker 1 But how you treat the life you have is up to you as well.

Speaker 2 If you don't have technology, maybe 50% of us will be there.

Speaker 1 I'd be out probably. A lot of my family would be gone.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, like infant mortality rates. That's your favorite.

Speaker 2 Because they have Hunter Gadder tribe

Speaker 2 in Africa, they have a much higher infant mortality rate than us. That's what lowered their life expectancy, you know.

Speaker 1 When you look at some of the fights, did you watch the Bolal fight the other night? Do you watch the fights?

Speaker 2 I did. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Man. Do you think it was fair to make them fight at that hour in the morning over there? Or is that just fighting?

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, it's fair.

Speaker 2 It's fair or unfair for both of them equally.

Speaker 2 If it's equal, it's equal.

Speaker 2 I don't care. If you have to make them cross the desert before or swim or doing a trial, if they both do it, they have to do it.
It's fair.

Speaker 2 It's not the best condition. in terms of performance, but if both guys do it, it's a fair.
It was 6 a.m.

Speaker 1 there when they started that main event.

Speaker 2 But man, I was surprised.

Speaker 2 He performed very well. I'm a friend with Leon Edwards.
Oh,

Speaker 2 He's such a nice guy.

Speaker 2 When I went to England

Speaker 2 a year and a half ago, I remember I went out with him and Usain Boat. We had a great time.

Speaker 2 He's such a nice guy. I really like him.

Speaker 2 He's a great athlete, but he's got a great personality too. And man, I'm sure he's going to come back.

Speaker 1 It'd be interesting to see. I think it really sets up for a nice surprise.

Speaker 1 I don't think a lot of people expected it.

Speaker 2 What were the odds on it, Nick?

Speaker 3 Leon was minus 300.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so I think a lot of people didn't expect it. So I think it adds just, yeah, it adds to the sport, you know, which makes it exciting.

Speaker 2 I was very surprised by Bilal, like his transition, the way, because he doesn't fight like that all the time. Sometimes he just is mostly a striker or, you know what I mean? For that right mix.

Speaker 2 Man, he was on point. Like for that fight, he was like really on point.
It was like, wow.

Speaker 1 It was, yeah, I thought it was super impressive. It was really cool to watch um it made me just kind of realize even yeah i didn't expect that much diversity from him um

Speaker 1 is this what he said bilal wants to be greater than gsp for his legacy

Speaker 2 oh he definitely he definitely can if he you know if you keep working hard and uh

Speaker 2 you know

Speaker 1 all records are made to be broken you know and uh do you look back at the times when you like the era or it's not really an era i mean it wasn't long that long ago but when you look at the time when you were fighting right Would you rather be fighting in this era?

Speaker 1 Do you love the era you were fighting in? Do you ever think about it in spaces like that?

Speaker 2 I think I was extremely lucky to fight

Speaker 2 in my era. It could have been better.
If I would have fought today, I would have made maybe more money because of the social media and all that. But it could have been way worse.
If I look at

Speaker 2 like in the time of Hoyes Gracie, Dan Severn, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, these guys were the real guys, man. They were fighting two, three times a night.

Speaker 2 No rules, no weight class. Man, that was insane.
Ken Shamrock.

Speaker 2 For me,

Speaker 2 I respect these guys a lot because they paved the way for all of us. And they didn't make money, man.
It's sad. They didn't make money, man.

Speaker 2 They were tough as hell.

Speaker 1 Is there a

Speaker 1 like a union or something that pays for stuff for the pioneers of it?

Speaker 2 No, there's not wow. I think it's a question of time.
I mean,

Speaker 2 yeah, because when you say that,

Speaker 2 a question of time. Some guys, they tried to do it.
It got close, but then they're always fighting for power. They want to be in control.

Speaker 2 Certain group want to be in control and others wants to take more power. I mean, we all want the same thing.
We all want the same thing, you know, at the end of the day.

Speaker 2 And I think it's like every sport and hockey, baseball, it's a matter of time. Things were the same.
If you look at other sports, they were the same. Guys were underpaid.

Speaker 2 Their condition were not good. They didn't have any assurance, nothing like that.
And, you know, over time, it got better. I think it's only a matter of time.

Speaker 2 The only difference is in mixed martial art, UFC has

Speaker 2 the monopoly. It's a monopoly.

Speaker 1 Right, there's one show, really. Well, they have PB.

Speaker 2 Well, yeah, but it's the most

Speaker 1 PFL.

Speaker 2 Yeah, PFL is there. It's growing.
Which is very good. PFL is good because it's a competition to UFC, but UFC is the most prestigious organization.
And PFLs start to gain a lot of momentum,

Speaker 2 which is good for fighters because it gives them the ability to negotiate.

Speaker 2 But when you have only one organization that has all the monopole, all the control, it's hard for fighters, you know, to understood.

Speaker 1 Is pornography causing a problem in your life? That's a good question. It's a real question.
It has in mind.

Speaker 1 It has at certain periods in my life,

Speaker 1 watching porno and everything and watching porno was making me, it was ruining my life. It was ruining my life, man.
Made me feel just so much shame. That's what it did.

Speaker 1 Well, watching pornography has become commonplace today. And oftentimes, men will use porno to numb the pain of loneliness, boredom, anxiety, and depression.

Speaker 1 That's why I want to introduce you to my friend, Stephen Wolt.

Speaker 1 Steve is the founder of Valor Recovery. He is a dear friend of mine.
He is a dear friend of mine. And Valor Recovery is a program to help men overcome porn abuse and sexual compulsivity.

Speaker 1 That's right. Their coaches are in long-term recovery, and they will be your partner, mentor, and spiritual guide to transcend problematic behaviors.
There is zero commitment if you reach out to them.

Speaker 1 It's just the first step in trying to figure out if you may need some help, if you can get some help.

Speaker 1 To learn more about Valor Recovery, please visit them at valorrecoverycoaching.com or email them at admin at valorrecoverycoaching.com. The links will be on the YouTube.
And again, there's no

Speaker 1 commitment when you reach out to them.

Speaker 1 But I promise you,

Speaker 1 only something positive will come from you reaching out and figuring out if

Speaker 1 what type of help, if any, could benefit you. Thank you.
A lot of you guys know we started off with our first advertiser ever was Gray Block Pizza.

Speaker 1 Get that hitter, baby.

Speaker 1 And the owner of Gray Block Pizza, my friend Thomas, evolved his business up in Oregon to start Blue Cube Baths. And he sent me one, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 1 A wonderful cold plunge, the best cold plunge in the market. If you value American-made and pinnacle cold exposure this is your cold plunge

Speaker 1 blue cube baths what I love is you can you can set that temperature get it down to

Speaker 1 I mean it might just you might be able to ice skate in there I haven't put it that low but you can set it to a place where you feel comfortable I'll get in at around 50 degrees for about 10 or 12 minutes And that's what really sets me and activates me.

Speaker 1 I've done it before podcasts to really put me and just put me in my body and put me in the moment. You know, the positive side effects of cold plunging are

Speaker 1 countless. You can follow Blue Cube's Instagram for a chance to win your own cold plunge this spring and summer.
That's right. They're giving one away.
They will announce the giveaway soon.

Speaker 1 So follow them at Blue Cube Baths. And we wish them the best of luck and thank them for supporting the podcast so early on.

Speaker 1 Was there ever another fight? That's so great that you and Bisping got to fight. That must have been Bisping's a fun dude, huh?

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's crazy.

Speaker 1 He's crazy, dude.

Speaker 2 He's such a good villain. It's an it's

Speaker 1 because he knows what he's doing. It's like he's really kind of,

Speaker 1 he seems to be a guy that's enjoyed it, enjoyed it along the way.

Speaker 2 Yeah, he's got a, he's got a mouth that can decimate all his opponents.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 I was like, man, I'm not going to get into a trash dog battle with this guy. He's an Englishman.
We speak English perfectly. I'm like, my English suck.
I'm like, what am I going to do with this?

Speaker 2 I'm just also not good at,

Speaker 2 you know, like insulting.

Speaker 1 But also knowing that that's not your strength, I think was one of your strengths, you know, knowing where to like,

Speaker 1 I don't know, you always really had kind of a precision, it seemed like, for the choices you made.

Speaker 1 Did you, you looked at it as a business? I've heard you talk about it before.

Speaker 1 You know, you looked at it really as a business, especially if it wasn't something that you even enjoyed on the fight nights.

Speaker 1 Were you able to pull any like real joy out of it over time? Like, or was it all when you finally got done? Was it just like, oh, thank God.

Speaker 2 Like, it was a release when I got done, but, but, but

Speaker 2 I,

Speaker 2 I had great moment, a great memory of it. Like, I, I, it, it was a lot of fun.
When you win.

Speaker 2 When you win a fight, man, you look back at it and you're thinking like, man, everything is worth it. You know, it was all worth it.
But when you lose, man, oh, oh God,

Speaker 2 it's

Speaker 2 a crazy downfall. It's that's what makes it so

Speaker 2 hard. It's the risk.
Bigger the risk, bigger the reward, right?

Speaker 1 Were you a perfectionist, do you think, Dana?

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I was crazy. I was obsessed.
Everything I did was always oriented to trying to make me the best fighter. Everything, everything I did.

Speaker 1 It was the best fighter or the best person or the best like...

Speaker 2 Best fighter. Best fighter.

Speaker 2 Person, I just, you know, like, I was not trying to make, make a, be, being a character. I was like, some guy, they tried to be sort of some sort of a character, you know,

Speaker 2 like some good guy tried to be a bad guy. You see that very often.
Or some, you know, some bad guy sort of tried to be nice in front of the camera, but when the camera doesn't roll,

Speaker 2 they become some douchebag. You see that a lot

Speaker 2 when you meet celebrities.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 I always try to be true to myself and focus on performance, you know, because at the end of the day, I never hate, I never had any personal beef with any of my opponent. He's not a human being.

Speaker 2 And when I when I look across the octagon before a fight,

Speaker 2 I sort of feel like I looked to myself in the mirror because that guy maybe did a similar sacrifice that I did.

Speaker 2 So, if I disrespect him, it's sort of in the same, in a way, it's like I'm disrespecting myself. So, for me, it was just, I was just extremely lucky.
Even the guy was talking a lot of trash and stuff.

Speaker 2 I was lucky to have sort of that moment to shine and, you know, to that people were aware and I make money with it. And, you know, for me, after when it's finished, it's finished.
It's not personal.

Speaker 2 And there is none of the guy, the guy that I've thought that if they would be in trouble today, I would not hesitate one second to help them. Like if

Speaker 2 they are at my reach, I would not hesitate one second to help any of them. And And this, I mean it.

Speaker 1 That's fascinating to look at your opponent and think, what if they made the same sacrifices as I did? Then what, what else can I even do?

Speaker 1 That's a, dude, that's such an intense way to look at the other side of the per at the other person across from you.

Speaker 2 Well, but it's not only like they make the same sacrifice, but maybe they didn't have the same opportunities that opens to them. Maybe they were not as lucky as I was.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 I think the stars need to be aligned. I think life sometimes opens certain opportunities to you that if you wait too much, the door will close and it's gone forever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think it's something that's true. I mean, you look at the Diaz brothers.
I mean, if you look, you know, Nick took a time off of fighting for years.

Speaker 1 Well, they made him quit, though, didn't they? Make him.

Speaker 3 Yeah, he got suspended for

Speaker 3 and he refused to pay the fine and couldn't fight for five years.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Yeah, and that's one of the what a waste.
He was in his prime. I think he could have maybe beat champion.

Speaker 2 Like, when I retire, I was telling people, I was like, man, if he doesn't, he should push on the gas right now and go, man. That's his time.
He should do it.

Speaker 1 Was there a time when there been a fighter or something since then? You looking like, man, it would have been fun to fight them. Or do you have moments like that?

Speaker 2 There's a lot of guys that I wish we would have fight, you know, and that would be a big fight. It would have made a story.
But,

Speaker 2 you know, like it takes three entities to make a fight. It takes one fighter the other fighter it takes the the promoter as well and um

Speaker 2 very often the the the promoter didn't reach our demands you know what i mean and uh

Speaker 2 it everything needs to be aligned for for the the three the three entities

Speaker 1 yeah i know people always talk about you and khabib fighting you know did that interest you kind of so

Speaker 2 It was the fight that I would have come back for at the time.

Speaker 2 Not now, now time has passed, but after I retire, there was one fight I would have, you know, I would have had to go, it would have been Khabib.

Speaker 1 What was the most, what challenge, what excited you about that the most? I mean, obviously he was undefeated. But he's undefeated.

Speaker 2 He's got a perfect career. He's the competitor, the competitor inside of me would have done, would have taken the fight, you know? Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know, and

Speaker 2 that's one of the fights I would have done it, you know, like, like, but, but it needed to be at the right time. And

Speaker 2 when it was time to do it ufc didn't want to do it yeah so they wait a few years after when we were both retired

Speaker 2 and the train was was passed yeah the moment was gone and when they asked when dana called me

Speaker 2 i said

Speaker 2 i thought it was weird i was like are you like is kebib want to fight want to fight He said because he said no in all interviews said, no, no,

Speaker 2 he's down. He's down.
I'm like, okay, let me think about it. I'll get back to you.
And I thought it was weird. So I called his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, and Ali said, Hey, man, the timing is not good.

Speaker 2 It's bullshit. It's not true.
And after I, I, I've said, I've told the media what happened. And then I went, I don't do

Speaker 2 three people calls when I.

Speaker 2 And I thought it was hilarious, but because he's right. You know, he's not going to call a guy and say, hey, no, the other guy doesn't want no, that's not business.
He's exactly. He's a promoter.

Speaker 2 He's going to say, hey, this guy said this, this, this about you. Do you want to fight him? And you want to take, you want to use the emotions

Speaker 2 to make you tune in.

Speaker 1 It's like playing your mom against your dad. It's like, hey, dad, mom said I can do this.
And then you go to, hey, mom, dad said I can do this.

Speaker 1 Neither one of them said they could, but now you're outside playing.

Speaker 2 Exactly. It's all a game.
It's all a freaking game.

Speaker 1 And it's a lot of pressure, I think, on Dana, probably. I bet it's a lot of pressure because not only is he the promoter, but he's also...

Speaker 1 You have to answer all the questions.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 he's in a business. He's in control of a business.
Yeah. It's not up to him.
If someone signs a contract that sucks, he's not going to say, hey, you're worth more money.

Speaker 2 You should have, you know, and I mean, I mean, man, he's a businessman. He's going to take it and take advantage of you.
So

Speaker 2 it's not because what I'm saying is it's not.

Speaker 2 Eden is a good guy.

Speaker 2 I've met him. And when you, yeah, you met him, of course.

Speaker 2 Met him many times, but I met him while I was competing.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 when I was competing and Dana called me, I was before I hang up the phone, I was like, shit,

Speaker 2 take a inhale. Try to think of what is the possible thing that he's going to ask me because you need to be quick when he calls you.
You don't want to say something. It's time.

Speaker 2 Or you just say, you don't, you don't answer. Or

Speaker 2 you're always like, because this is a game. It's a chess game, man, with a fight game.
Everything you say, everything you do is going to have an outcome.

Speaker 2 So you're like, okay, what he's going to say, this is it. Then you prepare.
If you're ready, you take the call. If you're not ready, you let, okay, I'm going to prepare myself.
Let me take a breath.

Speaker 2 That's how you get it. Let me call Mike Brown.

Speaker 1 Let me get somebody to massage me during the during the off-grounds.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 the thing with Dana is my relation has changed over the years because now it's more friendly. He calls me.
I'm not even going to hesitate to say, hey, Dana, what's up? Like, whatever.

Speaker 2 I'm ready for anything. But when I was fighting, it's normal to have that reaction because he's the boss.

Speaker 2 And you know, whatever he's going to ask you, whatever you say, it's going to be the whole world going to know. So it's going to

Speaker 2 retract what you said right so when he calls you when i was fighting i was like shit sometimes i saw a certain instance i was like man i'm not taking the call right now or i'm gonna call him back think about what it's strategy yeah yes yeah yeah exactly it's almost like when your boss says what are you up to this weekend right you

Speaker 1 now if your boss but your boss they want you to work at 4 30 on saturday right and you do not want to but if you tell them that you're oh nothing much then you're halfway to working right?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 So yeah, it's interesting when you're the owner, it's also hard to be, I bet at times it's probably, maybe it not, I'm not putting words in his mouth or anything, but I bet it's tough for him to also be a person.

Speaker 1 Yeah. You know, and maybe it's easier after the fact because running a business is totally different than

Speaker 1 being a human being sometimes.

Speaker 2 He takes a lot of eat sometime and he does a lot of stuff. that he needs to do for the best of of the business of best of the UFC interest.

Speaker 2 And it's normal that he's running a business.

Speaker 1 And it's worked out because look at the UFC has created

Speaker 1 opportunities for so many guys.

Speaker 2 I had a lot of clash with Dana when I was

Speaker 1 I didn't even know that.

Speaker 2 No, no, we did we did add a lot of

Speaker 2 clashes when I was fighting because I

Speaker 2 attained a certain level of

Speaker 2 power that he couldn't control me. as much.

Speaker 2 All the other, some of the guys, he could say, you do this. Oh, yeah, yes, sir.
Like me, I was like, no, it's not going to work. Because

Speaker 2 I was making him a lot of profit,

Speaker 2 a lot of money. So when you, you know, there's a lot of things that they asked me and I said, hell no, I'm not doing because it's not for the best of my interest.
Right.

Speaker 2 So when the same thing when you get negotiated for a fight, my thing was like, if I'm negotiated for a big fight,

Speaker 2 Why am I going to do all the interviews, all the promotion if I don't touch a piece of the pie? You know what I mean? So give me a piece of the pie. So it will encourage me to do more promotion.

Speaker 2 Because if you don't touch any piece of the pie, if you don't have nothing, why am I going to do this?

Speaker 2 I'm just going to waste my time. Well, I'm supposed to train and rest.
I'm going to do interview.

Speaker 1 And your time has become more valuable because you're the champion.

Speaker 1 Yeah, there's, I think there's, it's interesting when you get to a certain level how the negotiations kind of change.

Speaker 2 It has to really be fascinating. You have to be

Speaker 2 to look at it in that way.

Speaker 1 And were you able to get like pay-per-view points and stuff back then in your fights?

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm very like,

Speaker 2 congratulations, man. Yeah, thank you.
But the thing is, there's a lot of guys in the business that in this industry that are not well managed.

Speaker 2 You know, they, they, they, they, they don't ask for what they're worth and they

Speaker 2 they're kind of afraid or, you know, they don't take right decision. And it's not

Speaker 2 Dana's job to say, hey, I think you should ask for a raise. Or it's normal.
He's not going to do that. He's the boss.

Speaker 1 He's, he's, he, he's on the other side of the so that the fight game you're fighting for a contract this should be your manager's fight you have someone that look for the best of your interests and that's one one fight and the fight the other fight isn't the octagon yeah so well it's fascinating you know i think that a lot of that happens with art when art or talent turns into business there's this other element that comes on you know and sometimes you have to trust your instincts and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong but that's how you hone your instincts to be sharper too is by using them you know and um and yeah i bet it's tricky probably for dana because i bet there's a lot of guys that he super cares about and and but he also has to run a business you know so i can't imagine that's got to be um

Speaker 1 it's got to be tricky you know and i think also you hear the nicest stuff like you'll hear like all the stuff he does from his employees or places that he tries to help out great covet he didn't he didn't lay off nobody it's amazing oh he's hell i called him the other day asking him for some help with something you know i know that um so you know he's a great guy i think he's also a great business 100 He's a great person.

Speaker 2 He's a great guy. And fighters, like, I mean, guys that are listening to us now, when they're in the middle of a competition, you know, like when they're competing,

Speaker 2 they might not have that relationship with Dana because Dana is on the other side. So it's always like a fight relationship.

Speaker 2 But once they're going to retire, they're going to see a total different person.

Speaker 2 Same thing with the Fertza brother.

Speaker 2 They're all great guys, you know, and

Speaker 2 every time I meet them, you know, it's hey, what's up? Big hug, Dana, the Fersta brother, all these guys, yeah, we're well, friends here.

Speaker 2 Everything we did, the clashes that we had, it was because we were fighting for the best of our interests, and it's normal, it's just business.

Speaker 2 And I think if you want to be successful, especially as an athlete in mixed martial arts, you need to build a team. Yeah, you can't do all that by yourself because

Speaker 2 you don't have all the

Speaker 2 credentials to do all the jobs.

Speaker 2 You need to have lawyers, you need to find a team of people that you can trust and people that have competence because sometimes people they hire people who trust but they turn out to be incompetent it's bad because it's gonna make you buy it's gonna make you do like uh uh

Speaker 2 how do you say like air air bike you know they're not gonna you're gonna be yeah you're not gonna go forward you're gonna extra work spin spin and yeah and if you have someone who's competent but someone that you cannot trust maybe is gonna he's going to, he's going to screw you

Speaker 2 down the road.

Speaker 1 It's tough, man. Starting to run a business or work with people, it's hard.

Speaker 1 But then you also like, I mean, one thing is like people criticize Dana and the UFC, but no other promotion has been able to sustain itself and establish itself and make it go that, you know, and flourish.

Speaker 1 So I think it's...

Speaker 1 It's fascinating. And I think it is probably, I think he'll be studied one day in the sense by business people.

Speaker 1 I mean, I can't even imagine because you have so many guys that are really putting their lives on the line, and then you have, you know, I just can't imagine it. It's got to be a lot, you know.

Speaker 1 Um, what keeps you busy these days? Do you still get those dinosaur updates?

Speaker 2 Remember, you were always uh, yeah, I love uh paleontology.

Speaker 1 Yeah, what is it about it you think that you love? I was thinking about this the other day.

Speaker 2 I, um,

Speaker 2 when I was young, I was always fascinated by uh by dinosaurs.

Speaker 2 And actually, when I took my time off after my fight with Johnny Andrix, I spent four years, like I was always training, but I spent time, I went on different sites. No way.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 I'm very lucky because a lot of the, it turns out that a lot of the big paleontologists that I've met, they're a fan of mixed martial arts. Really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I was able to have special access on different

Speaker 2 probably mostly of John Bones Jones, though, you would think, you know? I'm just guessing. That's like.

Speaker 2 No, it was incredible. I traveled across the world i went on different sites but i realized also something

Speaker 2 as much as i love paleontology i realized that i would never be i would never be able to do this because i thought that if i would not be a fighter i would have maybe be a paleontologist and no that's not true i would not never be able to be uh on that dick site for hours like

Speaker 2 like meticulous it ain't me no i can't i love to acquire the knowledge yeah but i would not have the patience to to go out there i i saw some incredible sites i i went and man i went in a in a in a place in an area in in argentina in pantagonia it was in the morning the sun rises and i could see i'm not kidding you like

Speaker 2 thousands of dinosaurs eggshelled they were eggshelled of titanosaurus the long-necked dinosaurs oh yeah man it was insane and you had to watch to not step on it like fossilized eggshells some of them were broken so that means the the animal was about to to to get out.

Speaker 2 It was insane. Like, I saw some of the craziest sight.
And that was a dig that they were doing? Yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2 they were digging. They were in scavating, like eggshelled.
I saw, like, I went on a place, and I think it was in Dakota. It was

Speaker 2 with Professor, I think it was Professor Pearson. It was a,

Speaker 2 they don't know what it was, but they found a... sort of a graveyard of triceratops.
South Dakota? I think it was South Dakota or Wyoming. Yeah, tritriceratops.
Triceratops.

Speaker 2 It was from the late Cretaceous, and you could see that some of the leg bone of Triceratops that were sliced because of Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yeah.
So they found Tyrannosaurus Rex's teeth there.

Speaker 2 It was just insane.

Speaker 1 So you were a promoter, really. When he goes back to

Speaker 1 the paleontological ages, dude, you were a damn promoter, bro. You to put some of those things in the ring, bro.

Speaker 2 I think. Man, maybe one day we'll be able to, I think they want to resurrect the mammoth now, I think, to put it back in Siberia.

Speaker 1 Dude, yeah, didn't they say they can recreate a Woolly mammoth? Did I read that somewhere?

Speaker 2 I think they're going to use Asian elephant to just do a wig or whatever. Put a mammoth inside and

Speaker 2 try to recreate it. Yeah,

Speaker 2 put it in Siberia.

Speaker 1 Well, what weight class is that going to be?

Speaker 2 Wow, there's different species of mammoth. There's Willie Mammoth,

Speaker 2 Colombian mammoth. So it depends which species they want to.
I think it's the Willie Mammoth they want to bring back.

Speaker 1 Let me see.

Speaker 1 A biotech company that hopes to resurrect extinct species said Wednesday that it has reached an important milestone, the creation of a long-sought kind of stem cell for the closest living relative of the woolly mammoth.

Speaker 1 And now the company says scientists have for the first time created induced pluripotent stem cells for the mammoth's closest living relative, Asian elephants. Oh, damn.

Speaker 1 It says scientists can now try to use cloning techniques and gene editing to manipulate the cells in hopes of someday creating elephants with key traits of mammoths wow so kind of like a uh a bit of a remix kind of such as their heavy coats and their layers of fat that enable them to survive in cold climates dude that's what the zoo needs because honestly dude yeah the zoo some of the animals are fucking not even in america some of the animals they're smoking they don't even care you know they're not even sad it's sad when you you don't see them in their natural environment yeah

Speaker 2 in a way they do it of course because it's not accessible to everyone For example, if you want to see a lion, you go to Africa. It costs a lot of money.
But to see, you know,

Speaker 2 I've been in zoos before, and I like to see animals in their natural environment.

Speaker 1 Do you think you're going to take any animals? Are there any animals you think you could take?

Speaker 2 Man, we're so weak, man, and nature. It's crazy.
Apparently, they say that even a chimp would

Speaker 2 kill you. Yeah, that's what they say.

Speaker 1 Can just pull your fucking balls off.

Speaker 2 Yeah, pull your ball, break your fingers, and

Speaker 2 rip your face.

Speaker 2 you know that when they go on crime scenes uh where chimps turns turns against the human that's what happened it's crazy i would hate because you cannot reproduce you cannot climb away and they take away your identity i went in this uh rwanda i had the chance to do a gorilla tricking and you see them like i'm seeing you so nuh uh this close yeah yeah that close so when you go there it's like in rwanda yeah in rwanda in africa it's in east africa And

Speaker 2 you take a car, it's about two hours away from Kigali, which is, I think, the capital. You go there and they give you a course.
They tell you, don't eat, don't.

Speaker 2 If the gorilla looks at you, don't look him in the eyes.

Speaker 2 If he comes towards you, don't run away. Just get out of the way and put your knee on the floor in a submissive pose.
Don't talk loud. Don't ever touch the female and

Speaker 2 the kid.

Speaker 2 And when I went there,

Speaker 2 it was amazing. I,

Speaker 2 oh, yeah. Is this it, Nick? Yeah, yeah, that's what it is.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Okay, so this guy, let me tell you about this.

Speaker 1 Why'd you dress for a funeral?

Speaker 2 Listen to, like, guys, guys, this is very interesting. So you see what happened, okay? So during one instant during

Speaker 2 my adventure there, I was with...

Speaker 2 I was with

Speaker 2 different people that were older than me. And I don't know what happened.
At one point, the gorilla, because what happened is

Speaker 2 you hang out with the kids and the female and the young. And

Speaker 2 once every 20 or 15 minutes, the big silver bag comes and you make a noise.

Speaker 2 And the guy that is with you, every day he sees the same family. So he's used to see the same guide.
But the tourists change. So the guide always answers back

Speaker 2 to tell, hey, we're here. So he comes and sometimes you look around to see if everything is okay.
And then he goes back in the

Speaker 2 Every 10 minutes, approximately. But once he came and he looked at me, do you have your belt with you?

Speaker 2 No, no, but man, he looked at me. And when he looked at me,

Speaker 2 I looked at him just very fast. And he started walking towards me like he was pissed.
Man, I got out of the way and I put my knees down.

Speaker 2 And I'm not a religious guy at all, but I became religious at that. And so I was like, please, please, please, please.
And then I open my eyes. He's not in front of me.

Speaker 2 I look behind i see his back he put his backs against me he explained to me the reason why the gorilla he turned his back to me it's because he wanted to show me how much i'm not of a threat for him wow to show you like he turned his back and he looked underneath his arm so when i looked back i was like man i saw his back it was just a threat a test right I was like, man, he would have, even with all my years of training, he would have ripped me apart, man.

Speaker 1 Did you feel like you stood any chance?

Speaker 1 Even do you think he could have got it to two rounds or no?

Speaker 2 I read a document.

Speaker 2 Apparently, it's a report in, I think it's in Uganda. I read, there's a military guy that a gorilla grab

Speaker 2 and he pull, he rip his head off like this. Like it straight up from a horror movie.
You grab him and

Speaker 2 it's that strong. So there's nothing you can do, man.
But what would you have done, you think?

Speaker 2 I think I would have tried to play it there. There's nothing you can do.
If he wants to kill you,

Speaker 2 the guy has two guys with him, with AK-47.

Speaker 1 So they help.

Speaker 2 No, no, but you know, he told me it's not because of the gorilla. It's in case we see an elephant or a Cape Buffalo.
Apparently, it's so dense. I don't understand that.
Apparently, sometimes you could

Speaker 2 run

Speaker 2 through a Cape Buffalo, and they're extremely territorial.

Speaker 1 Was that scarier than beating the cage?

Speaker 2 Well, it happens so fast. It's very different because it happens so fast that you don't have time to prepare.
So you just go with the flow. So I didn't even have time to be scared that much.

Speaker 2 I was just, I was trying, I was like, man, please, please, please. Then I look,

Speaker 2 shit, he's in the back. And I see his back.
And I could see the muscle through the fur. I was like, man, it's so massive.
It's insane.

Speaker 1 Keith Peterson's just standing there. That would be crazy.

Speaker 2 Man. It was one of the most incredible adventures of my life.

Speaker 2 I recommend it to everyone. And the money that you pay for that adventure is given to the gorilla.

Speaker 1 And now the gorilla and Rwanda in that part of the world are flourishing again oh it's beautiful so it's it's a beautiful thing yeah it is awesome to take care of our planet and to give back to it you know because it's funny because somebody probably saw a gorilla one day and even thought about getting in shape for the first time you know i'm saying you just don't know what we learn from animals you know um what what keeps you busy these days man well i'm in i'm involved with uh i have a uh

Speaker 2 home fitness equipment brand called base block pro

Speaker 2 uh it's uh oh really all kinds of apparel that you can use and train at home uh In Canada or U.S.

Speaker 1 as well?

Speaker 2 Kinesthetics.

Speaker 2 All around the world.

Speaker 1 I need to get something for home.

Speaker 2 It's light.

Speaker 2 You can put some of them outdoor friendly, so you can put it in your backyard. Some I recommend.
It's more for backyard to put outside. And some are more for inside, for home.

Speaker 2 And yeah, it's great.

Speaker 2 I don't lift. I never lift weight really much.

Speaker 2 And I'm a big fan of kinesthetics.

Speaker 2 I used to when I was younger to lift weight, but I realized that it's more efficient to train kinesthetics, especially.

Speaker 1 Kinesthetics is what?

Speaker 2 Yeah, gymnastics. Your own body weight.
Yes, exactly. So you have less risk of injuries.
And I think it's more efficient.

Speaker 2 Base blocks. Yes.

Speaker 1 Oh, sweet, man. Yeah, I got to get something else for my helmet.
I'm just getting a

Speaker 1 treadmill. So I got to have something else for when...

Speaker 2 I can't go down to the gym. I'll send you some.

Speaker 2 I'll tell my guy. I'll hook you.
That'd be awesome to have that one. Yeah, tell me which one you like.
I recommend you the Big Bar Pro. This one,

Speaker 2 if you have a backyard, put it in your backyard. It's outdoor friendly.

Speaker 2 And if you want, like for your legs, this one is very good. You is for M string.

Speaker 1 Oh, I don't care about the legs, homie. I'm up top.

Speaker 2 No, I'll send you some stuff. I'll tell the guy to send you some, so he'll be more than happy.

Speaker 1 Are there some fighters right now that you love to watch and you kind of cheer on? Do you find yourself being a fan of MMA still? I mean,

Speaker 1 I mean, I know it's obviously been such a huge part of your life. I don't know if it's something you just kind of close or if it's something that's always in you.

Speaker 2 Kind of one thing that has changed, and now there's so many fights.

Speaker 2 There's almost every weekend so i i can't watch it all i can't watch all the shows but but but i i i love to watch some of the guys that i i can learn from i like to watch tom aspinall oh yeah he's fun the the the fought the the fight of last weekend

Speaker 2 balal mohamed uh leon edwards i watch it um i like camera ruzman uh desania uh wokanovsky makacev i like to to watch the best so i can learn from them is it weird to look at them and be like that was me like because i think even as a comedian, I'll watch comedy sometimes and I'll be like, it doesn't seem like,

Speaker 1 I know it's a different person, but it doesn't even seem like that's my job. Has that ever happened to you?

Speaker 1 Do you ever have like this Clark Kent feeling when you're walking down the street that you're also Superman?

Speaker 2 I mean, no, I think

Speaker 2 what made me

Speaker 2 good

Speaker 2 is because I possess certain set of skills that made me unique. But some of the guys that are competing now, they have their own set of skills.

Speaker 2 And I think I can learn from them, you know, by watching them. I'm learning from them.
And, you know, of course, maybe they can learn from me.

Speaker 2 So it's impossible to be completely 100% well-rounded. You always have certain things that you do better than others.
And that's why I like the sport so much.

Speaker 2 Some guys are better at, for example, at grapplings. One guy is his strength might be his gran and pound.
One guy might be his submission skills. One guy might be his, you know, like Pereira.

Speaker 2 He's got an an incredible left hook. Unbelievable.
We all know he's got a left hook, but nobody, they all know the left hook is coming, but they don't know how to stop it. Yeah.
It's crazy.

Speaker 2 And left hook is one of the most fundamental punch that you learn in day one.

Speaker 2 And it works. It's one of the most basic weapon, but he does it so well.
He hides it. He hides it so well.
And the way he does it, even though it's so basic, nobody can stop it. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 that's fascinating almost isn't it how something simple can be and so obvious in a way can be so surprising you use different

Speaker 2 diversion different uh distraction to to get it on it's it's crazy and that's what i like about the sport it's like a chess game you know

Speaker 1 oh it's fascinating too i think as uh you know i've been a fan now like a big fan for probably maybe almost six or seven years now um

Speaker 1 and you get to to know the fighters more a little bit too on a personal, you know, like because there's so much social media, you get to know more about them and kind of cheer for them in different ways and stuff.

Speaker 1 But there's all types. There are guys who are outspoken.
There's guys who are kind of reserved. There's guys who are playing cat and mouse.
And there's guys who are just about getting in the ring.

Speaker 1 Have you gotten into anything else competitive?

Speaker 1 Is there something else that you do?

Speaker 2 I used to, when I was young, I used to play chess. Did you really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 Growing up, I was more of a nerd, you know, at school. And

Speaker 2 I was a victim of bullying at school. So that's why I started martial art.
I started karate at a young age as a self-defense. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Then later on, it developed into a passion, passion transform into a way I make a living.

Speaker 1 You should pull up on those guys right now.

Speaker 2 But I used to, I remember in order to miss school,

Speaker 2 I was enrolling into chess, chess tradition, because I was representing my school. And then once you win the school, you go to,

Speaker 2 how do you say, like the

Speaker 2 regional. And then once you go to regional, you go to Montreal, where it's the provincial.
And I never made it past that.

Speaker 2 I want the school, I want the regional. But when I went to Montreal, I never even won a match in the provincial.
Because these guys that they, that's what they do.

Speaker 2 You know, that's their, you know, me, I was just doing that for fun. And I was a kid back then, so it was fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah, well, you found other ways to win, man.

Speaker 2 um

Speaker 2 oh yeah the olympics are going on oh that's uh

Speaker 2 yeah the the olympic man

Speaker 2 it's crazy the this big like people like now they talk about the the what happened in the the the controversy the the with the woman and fighter you mean yeah now they they talk about the the the the ceremony the opening ceremony oh yeah they thought it was anti-catholic yes i i i i i i was in miami uh when that happened and i saw on the news i was i was like man, I'm going to try to watch it.

Speaker 2 But now

Speaker 2 they took it out of YouTube. So I don't think you can't see it anymore.
That's crazy. So

Speaker 2 I tried to find a way, but I just saw some part of it and I speak French. I was like, God damn.

Speaker 2 Yeah. I mean, it's weird.
I try to not be politic, but there are certain things that, man,

Speaker 2 you don't get it at home, you know, like you don't have to show the world. You know, I don't care who you sleep with, what you do.

Speaker 2 I mean, I like you as a person, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 Yeah, this seems a little crazy crazy for the Olympics, I think.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, it changes. That's one thing that changed over the year.
Like, we didn't have that before.

Speaker 1 It seems crazy. Like, maybe the world is so crazy that I don't even know the world anymore.
That's what I start to wonder, too, sometimes. Yeah.
But, yeah, this stuff seems like, what do we do?

Speaker 1 What sport is this?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 1 That's what I don't know. It's just what sport is it? But I mean, I probably, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 2 It's a different time. I mean, I don't know what to make of it.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's dark forces at play, it feels like, sometimes.

Speaker 2 I am not.

Speaker 1 You like going down the conspiracy rabbit holes, though. It's fun.

Speaker 1 And also, the crazy part about the conspiracies is, remember, during like pandemic, like they said all these things and half of them were true. And it was like, well, fucking...

Speaker 2 I was very angry. about what was going on in in uh in canada i didn't like the way it was uh it was uh run

Speaker 2 uh during the pandemic i was very pissed off i i didn't like it i i

Speaker 2 I think it was an attack on our freedom.

Speaker 2 We had curfew and this and this, I'm not afraid. Some people like, oh, you shouldn't become a political.
This is not right.

Speaker 2 I think it's about freedom.

Speaker 2 I was not happy about

Speaker 2 the decision that were made. I think it was an attack on the freedom.
And I think everybody should have had

Speaker 2 the

Speaker 2 decision of choosing the right to make the decision. Do I want to be vaccinated or not? But if you're not vaccinated, you're not allowed to do this, do this.
Like, man,

Speaker 2 your life, this, this was wrong. I, I, I don't agree with that decision.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it feels it started to feel like privatized communism to me in a way. It's like, you know, they, it's like the bait of the government, but really it's like private entities doing it.

Speaker 1 And I wish I'd spoken up more. I think there were times for me, you know, I just felt like kind of scared or I didn't feel brave or I didn't know some things.

Speaker 2 They would have canceled you.

Speaker 1 But that's crazy. They would have canceled you.

Speaker 2 That's, that's the thing. That's a, that's the thing about it.

Speaker 2 It's, I mean, it depends in nashville i don't know nashville tennessee right yeah yeah they can't they can't really cancel you that much there yeah but in canada that was like it's different like people

Speaker 2 people don't understand but it was different we had a curfew we it was crazy like uh

Speaker 2 man i couldn't get out of the country i had business to do you know my business is international i had to travel so i had no choice i i did it but i think he i think

Speaker 2 I was not agree with the decision. And this is my right to say so.
Right. But if I would have said it at the time, maybe they would have like put down my Instagram, put down all my stuff.

Speaker 1 I know that's what's it. Really, it feels like big tech is kind of the government now, you know.
But

Speaker 1 man, it's just an honor to sit down with such a champion these days and just get to have a chance to spend time with you, George. And

Speaker 1 do you, you know, they have the thing in the Olympics right now. They have a boxer who they who

Speaker 1 has like, oh, yeah. It's a female boxer, right?

Speaker 1 And, but she,

Speaker 1 was born a female and is a female. Let me say her name, Iman Khalif.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Algeria. Imania Khalif.

Speaker 1 And she's crushing it, and she hasn't won all of her fights.

Speaker 1 But there's people, it's been a huge uproar online because I guess she had higher testosterone levels, and she wasn't allowed to compete in the World Boxing Championships.

Speaker 1 Do you think at some point, because this just appears to be something that kind of happens more where there's some gray area in between gender right yeah do you think they should just have a a new division

Speaker 2 well what what this i don't know enough information about that particular situation to give an opinion on it because i'm i might

Speaker 2 yeah you don't have

Speaker 2 to but one thing i can tell you when

Speaker 2 a man is born when you're born as a man and then you change your sex and there then after you go compete as a woman this i think is disgusting.

Speaker 2 This, I'm not afraid to say it and stand up for that because I love women and I think they need to be protected, especially in combat sport. This, I'm not agree with it.
I agree.

Speaker 2 I want everybody to have equal, to be equal, to have the equal right.

Speaker 2 But when you have someone who's born as a man who changes sex as a woman and then compete, I think he should have his own category. Right.
That would be fair because otherwise it's unfair. I agree.

Speaker 2 We're different. Like, I mean, why? Okay,

Speaker 2 gonna change my sex and go compete in the UFC and make a comeback in the woman division. What do you think can happen? You know,

Speaker 2 you know what I mean? It's, it's not fair. You know, maybe some of them will kick my ass, but I think I will do pretty well.
You know,

Speaker 2 yeah. And Frade might give you a run.

Speaker 1 There's a couple ladies out there that would give you a run. Yeah.
But I agree. They, and they should solve it.

Speaker 1 I think it's not fair also if people are dealing with this, their own sexual identity and they don't know, create a new division so that they can be there and be the pioneers of a new division.

Speaker 1 You know, it's like then that way it's like they're getting to be a part of something new. They're getting to fight against like-minded people.

Speaker 2 I don't know, but I agree. I agree.
They should have their own division. I think if you're born in a different gender,

Speaker 2 because man, it's really not fair. People have no idea the difference, but man, it's a huge difference.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's a huge difference. Oh, God.

Speaker 2 We've seen in tennis, you know, like, I think it is, is it?

Speaker 2 I think it's Serena Williams. She played tennis against uh oh yeah she got you know

Speaker 2 and it has it was done in boxing too with um

Speaker 2 a few times i with the the feet she's a dutch uh champion in kickboxing she she fought a man in boxing and you know and this these like in tennis is different because it's a game basketball it's a game but when it's combat sport i think it's we should it's unbelievable to protect protect uh protect our females

Speaker 2 and the men should speak up for that you know the men should speak up for that you know the problem, sometimes when you speak up to that, you get pointed by the finger, and ah, this is unfair.

Speaker 1 But that's the media that's fucking, they're sick. Yeah, but here is, there's a fight in BJJ, actually, and is it this AD?

Speaker 3 Craig Jones Invitational, he's doing his tournament the same weekend as ADCC, and the main event is going to be him versus Gabby Garcia.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 1 so now this, though, they're both agreeing

Speaker 1 that they want to do it.

Speaker 2 I'm sorry for my ignorance. Is Gabby Garcia is a female?

Speaker 2 She's a female female. Like she's not like a she's

Speaker 2 but lots of

Speaker 2 help. Yeah, yeah, of course.
A lot of enhancement. Okay, wow.
But is he is it like a like a novelty fight, sort of, or or more like a.

Speaker 3 He's competing against the ADCC, so he's doing this to get all the eyeballs on it. He's doing it the same weekend.

Speaker 1 It's interesting.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because Craig Jones is one of the best grapplers of the planet. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 So he's probably going to. I mean,

Speaker 1 I don't know. I don't know enough about Gabby.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 I heard about that event that it was like a million-dollar event

Speaker 2 and in the same time as the Abu Debi event, but I don't know all the

Speaker 2 detail on it. Wow.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. Okay, that's her.

Speaker 2 That is her.

Speaker 1 My gosh, boy.

Speaker 2 I am.

Speaker 2 She's bigger than him, right?

Speaker 1 I got to get to the gym.

Speaker 2 Oh, but Craig Jones is one of the best. Yeah, one of the best.

Speaker 1 It should be interesting.

Speaker 1 What about just in jiu-jitsu? Can women compete as well in there if there's not striking?

Speaker 2 Well, they can compete women against woman, but against man, it's still

Speaker 1 the strength.

Speaker 2 The strength is different.

Speaker 2 And there's a lot of factor to, I mean, I'm not a specialist in that, but the bone density

Speaker 2 there's a lot of factors I mean there's things I first

Speaker 2 I think women are better than men they can give birth and there's we couldn't

Speaker 2 we couldn't endure that like women are better than men you know yeah dude this is what I believe but oh yeah there's one thing that we we have better than what we have normally we're more physically stronger yeah and we have certain advantage And that's why there's different category.

Speaker 2 There's men and women. And that's why, you know, to make make it fair.
But

Speaker 2 it's the same thing. Of course, if you take a woman, for example, who's has a lot of experience,

Speaker 2 make her fight a man who does not have any experience, the woman can kick his ass. Yes, yes.
100%. But if you go to the elite level,

Speaker 2 it will be pretty unlikely. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. It'd be interesting, though.
Yeah. Now, that kind of stuff, I think, is a little bit more, you know, it's like we're both agreeing to do this thing, you know?

Speaker 1 Roche, man, thanks so much, dude.

Speaker 2 Thank you, man. So cool.
Uh, thank you for having me, man. I'm absolutely

Speaker 1 awesome and just, just really cool to be in the presence of somebody that's achieved such greatness in their life, that got in and got out.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 yeah, do you have any other big goals in your life right now? Do you feel like? Well, I feel pretty content

Speaker 1 or does that evolve? Does that does a person that's a perfectionist kind of, I'm kind of a perfectionist too, I think. Do you ever get content? Do you feel like?

Speaker 2 I never, I'm never satisfied. now i'm more of an entrepreneur now and and

Speaker 2 that's my goal i i'm i'm very lucky i was able to transfer that

Speaker 2 that hunger that i had in in mixed martial art i wanted to be the best be the champion now i transfer it into you know into a business you know and or into my person i wanted to be a better person and you know i'm happy you know like If things go well for me, I have enough to live for the rest of my life.

Speaker 2 If I don't go crazy and then, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 I'm i'm trying to be happy i think the ultimate goal right for everyone is to be happy oh for sure there's different ways that you can use to attain that that that feeling but it's to be happy you know and i'm uh right now i'm very happy i'm healthy i'm happy and uh are your parents pretty proud of you yeah they're very happy um my parents and in the beginning they didn't want me to fight they uh and i understand them i

Speaker 2 it's it's not something that you want uh that you it's not a life that you wish for, or someone you love, you know. Whose kids you tell them not to fight, man.

Speaker 2 I'm gonna tell you something that happened to me all the time. There's a parent that comes to me with their kids and they're like, Hey, George, this is the future world champion.

Speaker 2 And I'm, and then I go, Oh, hi, I, how old are you? He's like, Yeah, he's 12 years old. Oh, yeah, you trained martial arts.

Speaker 2 Yes, I'm it's good, but remember something, stay at school, man, and you need to be educated. That's your number one priority.
And the problem that

Speaker 2 a lot of athletes, and not only in the MMA, in everything, in Canada, we have a lot of that example in hockey, but it could be basketball, football.

Speaker 2 A lot of athletes, they put their eggs all in the same basket. Oh, yeah.
So they all want, they all dream to be a professional athlete, but something happened. They get hit by a car.
Boom.

Speaker 2 Or they get an injury, like they break their ACL or their knees or something happened. Now their career is gone.
They're never going to come back the same. And what happened if

Speaker 2 that

Speaker 2 incident happened when you're like in your late 20s? There's nothing that you can fall back into if you don't have school. There's nothing.
So it's an assurance.

Speaker 2 I quit school when I was fighting Matt Hughes before my fight with Matt Hughes. So my parents forced me to stay at school to stay educated.
And it was one of the best thing they did.

Speaker 1 Did you quit college then?

Speaker 2 Oh, I wanted to quit everything.

Speaker 2 But I was studying in kinesiology. Okay.

Speaker 2 But I didn't like what I was doing at the time. I didn't know I was changing all the time.
One time I tried to be a fireman.

Speaker 2 I had many jobs. One time I

Speaker 2 was working in nightclubs as a security.

Speaker 2 To pay my university fee, I was a garbage man for seven months. Really? Yeah, I collect the garbage, man.
That's what I did.

Speaker 2 And I did it.

Speaker 2 But I was always forced, my parents always forced me to stay educated. And when I tell the kids, I say, man, train, you know,

Speaker 2 but I wish you the best, but the odds of success are very low. You know, and even you're so talented and you work really hard, that does not mean you're going to make it.

Speaker 2 Because that chances are success are so low. Make sure you stay educated.
And if something goes wrong and you cannot achieve it, at least you have something to fall back. Into.

Speaker 2 And maybe you're going to change your mind. You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 You're not the same person at 15 that you will be at 20 and at 25 things changes yeah i i didn't know what i wanted to what i wanted to become when i was young and i'm sure the same for you like oh yeah like i i wanted to be a a police uh a cops at one point then i wanted to be a fireman then i'm like oh uh i wanted to do a therapist then a paleontologist then i'm like ah i'm gonna be a fighter you know what i mean but the fighter was always in my mind since the beginning but i i needed to have a backup plan.

Speaker 2 I didn't know what what to do.

Speaker 2 I realized when I had my first title shot that it was an opportunity of a lifetime. And that's when I had a talk with my parent.

Speaker 2 I told my parents, I said, listen, I'm going to quit the next session because I'm going to train full-time because I have a title shot.

Speaker 2 If that doesn't work, I can always go back next season to school, but the title shot might never come present. The chance for the title might not ever present itself again.

Speaker 2 So I'm going to take a chance and I'm going to go full out. And I went full out.
I lost my first title shot, but I rebound immediately and then I end up winning the title. And that's how everything

Speaker 2 started

Speaker 2 for me in the UFC.

Speaker 1 Did they come to your fights to your folks? I'm sorry? Did they come to your fights?

Speaker 2 They came to my fight.

Speaker 2 My parents, when it was local, but when I

Speaker 2 my mom came to my fight when I fought for the title in Sacramento, when I won the title,

Speaker 2 but my dad doesn't like to fly. He's afraid of airplane.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 He's afraid of airplanes. You're afraid of nothing, which is kind of ironic.

Speaker 2 Well, no, no, I'm afraid of a lot of things, but I'm willing to do it. That's the difference.

Speaker 1 Willing to commit it.

Speaker 1 Thank you so much. George Saint-Pierre, I appreciate your time.
And yeah, just helping us learn more about fighting and more about the mentality of being a champion and

Speaker 1 the ups and downs of it. You know, that not everything's perfect, but that we keep moving forward and challenging ourselves.
I appreciate it so much, man. All right.

Speaker 2 Thank you, man. Thank you for the opportunity.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 Cheers, brother.

Speaker 2 Now, I'm just folding on the

Speaker 2 I can feel it in my bones.

Speaker 2 But it's gonna take

Speaker 2 a little bit of time.