JRE MMA Show #172 with Gable Steveson - The Joe Rogan Experience

[MUSIC]

>> All right, what's happening?

>> Pleasure to meet you, man.

How are you?

>> Great, don't great.

When you got a name like Gable, and you're named after Dan Gable, and you go on to win

an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, that is kind of, that's crazy, that's kind of

prophetic.

>> My mom, when I was young, she was trying to find names for me.

She liked Kale Sanderson, because Kale was a guy at the time, but she was at a tournament

Iowa with my older brother, and she kept hearing Gable, Gable, Gable, and it was Dan Gable

at the time, and Dan Gable's a huge figure in the Midwest for wrestling, and so she was

like, why don't I name you Gable Dan?

And the rest was history, which is really crazy, because his whole timeline is my timeline,

which is fantastic.

>> Except the MMA part.

>> That too.

>> Yeah.

>> Which I wish you would have done.

I think you would have been amazing.

>> I think you would have been amazing.

>> But it wasn't around.

>> I mean, when he was wrestling.

>> Barenaco maybe.

>> I don't know.

>> Do it on a street or something.

>> He could have found a way.

>> It's kind of fucked that there's no real professional outlet for actual wrestling.

>> It is fucked.

And wrestling needs a real way to go out there and be something big.

And I think they have a really good one now with R.A.F.

If you haven't heard about it.

>> Yes, I have.

>> It's American freestyle.

They're trying.

And I think they're trying really well, and I think it's going to come to a point where

how do you make matchups continue?

Because wrestling gets to the point where, and fighting in a lot of the sports, you can

get to the point where maybe you draft a guy and fighting, there's a next big thing.

There's a next guy out there that you can kind of create in, with wrestling, they're trying

to create an atmosphere of how can you create that person.

And I like it.

And I think it might work.

And hopefully it keeps going the way it needs to go.

>> It would be interesting if the problem is MMA is so huge now, and people kind of associate

wrestling with either MMA or pro wrestling now.

Those are the two things that they think of.

And I think it's one of those things like soccer, where soccer should be huge in America.

It's huge all over the world, right?

It's a very exciting sport, but nope.

>> You know what's crazy, how popular soccer players are?

And I feel like in America we have so many sports that we can't hit that market for soccer.

And I think that might be the biggest case, why?

Because if you go overseas, Ronaldo's paid $500 million, and if he scores a goal, he

gets $1 million a goal or something, so he's out here doing bicycle kicks.

But it's like, we have so many professional sports at, LeBron James is our biggest athlete.

But even then, I think it's at a point where some people see LeBron and, you know, it's

not like the crazy wow factors.

If you saw a soccer player in Italy or Spain, it'll be like, man, it's him.

>> Right.

>> Well, they have less sports though, right?

>> I think so.

>> I think into the guy like basketball, soccer.

>> Well, they're not really known for basketball though, soccer's big boxing, there's a lot

of boxers coming out of Italy, but other than that, Rome.

>> Yeah.

>> They've got a couple fighters.

But other than that, I think we're kind of at a halt with creating that big guy for America.

>> Well, it's just strange to me because it's such a wrestling itself, it's such an exciting

sport.

It really is very exciting to watch, and everybody understands it.

It's not complicated, you know.

>> I really think everyone understands it to a certain extent.

I think-

>> But they can learn-

>> They can learn.

>> They can learn all the other stuff.

>> Have you ever wrestled?

>> Yeah.

R wrestled in high school.

>> Just one year.

>> I was doing Taekwondo the same time.

>> I was doing Taekwondo because I was doing Taekwondo, and I couldn't do both of them

at the same time.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> And I was pretty good at Taekwondo.

>> You know what's crazy?

I think since you've done Taekwondo, maybe I should try.

>> You are such an athlete, you'd probably be awesome at it.

>> I might be able to pull it off.

>> I don't know if I can get to your level.

>> Well you would figure it out, man.

You'd figure it out.

Are you flexible?

It depends how, and what are we doing?

>> Well you would get flexible.

The thing is, like, God, you'd figure out how to get flexible.

The flexibility thing drives me nuts, because I've tried to show stuff to guys before,

MMA fighters.

And they're like, I'm not flexible, I'm like, what does that mean?

What does that mean?

This is not, like, you're not tall, like you can get flexible.

Like you just stretch.

>> Okay, we can rewind now, and I could say, I am flexible.

>> I am flexible.

>> Well you certainly could get flexible.

Like you can.

>> Anyone can get flexible.

>> But it's not, can you get flexible?

Do you want to get flexible?

>> That's a good question.

>> Do you want to do something?

>> This is a good question.

It's a lot of work to get flexible, and would it compromise anything?

You know, some people say it compromises some stability.

You know, like, to have, like, completely over-flexible hips and flexible joints that

it could possibly compromise some stability that maybe, but I mean, Yo-Oh Ramero is pretty

fucking flexible.

>> And he's explosive.

>> Crazy.

>> Super explosive.

>> Bro, how about that match with Pat Downey?

>> He went out there and made Pat Downey look like a beginner wrestler, and it's crazy

because Pat Downey is really good.

>> Really good.

>> Yo-Oh is 48.

>> I know.

48 shooting blast doubles, like he just, like he's back in '04 Olympics.

>> It doesn't make any sense.

>> He's a freak.

>> He's a real freak, man.

I mean, he's 48 allegedly.

We don't even really know how old he is, because he's from Cuba, you know?

>> How old do you think he is for real?

>> Oh, I don't know, man, 35 at this point.

>> I mean, he's obviously at least 48.

But it's just crazy.

>> But you know what the best part about it is, when guys get older and they kind of get

a little bigger, they don't look good in a singlet.

And this is crazy to say, but Yo-Well looks really solid in that singlet.

Bro, he looks solid everywhere, man, he's still got a six pack.

Still does.

And, you know, now he's doing dirty boxing, and he's still fighting MMA, he's just, he's

a freak.

I mean, and we really didn't even get him in MMA until his past is athletic prime.

>> Yes.

>> I mean, he really started fighting in the UFC.

How old was he when he first fought in the UFC?

I want to say he's like 35?

>> I don't know that, but it seemed really late, because when he was going through Olympics,

he was sound in every position, and like you said, I mean, and a couple interviews back,

if he would have started that early, just imagine.

>> Oh, my God, just imagine.

>> Yeah.

But that's the thing that you have, too, is athleticism.

And the thing about MMA is, the real freak athletes, they go to football, they go to basketball,

they go where all the money is, they go where all the traditional sports avenues are.

And it's just not, there's not a lot of freak athletes that wind up making their way

to MMA, and when they do, they really shine, you know.

And when I first started seeing you competing, you know, first obviously in wrestling, and,

you know, if you can win a gold medal in the Olympics in wrestling, I mean, you have

to have everything.

>> You have to have everything.

>> You have to be a freak athlete, you have to be unbelievably dedicated discipline, nobody

gets there easy.

>> No.

>> That is not, you know, like, oh, he's just gifted, it doesn't exist.

You got to have everything, man.

>> There's got to be a lot of tools.

>> Yeah, a lot of tools.

>> A lot of tools and a lot of fortitude.

The thing about wrestling that I've always said is, like, not only is it the best base

for MMA, because if a guy can dictate where the fight takes place, that is the most important

aspect of fighting, and you can learn everything else.

But it's also, it's like, the mental toughness that wrestlers have, the ability to grind

out those practices, the conditioning that's involved in wrestling.

It's above and beyond, I think, all of their sports.

>> Yeah, I think it's the next level of thing.

And you see in UFC right now, the guys that are dominating and winning are kind of putting

that wrestling base first, but making it MMA wrestling, you know.

I feel like when a lot of guys, a lot of D1 wrestlers come to MMA, they kind of don't

make the switch of how to take the right shot, and how to finish the right shot, and how

to use your feet to trip their feet out on the cage.

And if you get stuck with the stuck in a guillotine, how do you move from that spot?

And I think you see the guys that are doing the best, the Islam, the Hamzats are really

going out there and attacking and making sure that people can understand that, hey, you

got to fear this.

And then next, I'm going to come with the hands.

And so I think that's the biggest thing that we're working on now is that I've wrestled

my whole life, and I've done great things and won the Olympics and multiple national

championships, but I think the main thing is going out there and understanding that you

are that bad dude.

But when you show them hands, now you got to have to respect both.

And I think that's where a lot of this is going to come into play when I finally get to

that point of reaching that competition.

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Now how long have you been striking for?

I've been going into a little, so I'm from Minnesota, I'm actually from Portis, Indiana.

I moved to Appa Valley, Minnesota when I was 11 years old, and in college I met a guy

named Billy Simon.

He's from prior lake.

He fought nothing too big just on a regional scene in Minnesota.

He has a house on prior lake, and he has a place in his basement that is built out for

MMA and stuff like that.

When I was maybe 21 years old, I started hitting the pads and mind you, stiff as a board.

Don't really know what I'm doing, but he's kind of started and guided me along the way.

How old are you now?

I'm 25.

So just four years.

But I think really, really striking, seven months.

That's so crazy.

Like really after it.

It's so crazy.

Really time-consuming, hey, this is what I want to do.

I'm not going to wrestle.

I'm doing MMA.

I would say seven months.

But when you watch your dirty boxing match, I would have never believed that.

Except I know what an athlete you are.

It's just, it's so crazy how someone who really knows how to use their body can learn

other things.

Well, I think the main thing also is I'm all ears.

You can't go out there and think that you can do something without putting that time

in effort.

Like we talked about with the Olympics or like you talked about.

But I think the main thing is if I can go out there and be all ears and soak up game

from the people that are trying to show me the way, I think I can do a lot of great things.

That's all I do.

I'm all ears.

I want to show up twice a day.

I want to do the best thing that I can.

If I got to show up three times a day and I feel like it, I'm going to go do it.

Because it's also to be an elite athlete like yourself.

You have to be coachable.

You have to really, like the guys who like already know things, like I'm going to do it

my way, like they just never get elite.

It doesn't work now.

And I think you got to put that guard down.

You got to trust somebody.

And if you don't trust anybody and man, I think I can do it alone.

I think I can kind of wing it.

I think I can maybe not practice today.

You got to trust somebody and you got to put your heart in somebody.

And I feel like I have a good group of people around me to kind of put that heart into

it.

And they're kind of, they're not even they're kind of, they're leading me in the right

direction.

And I'm, man, I'm grateful.

So you were doing a bunch of different things, right?

So you, you become an elite wrestler.

And then for a while, you were thinking about playing football.

So you played football for a short amount of time?

About flew bills, yeah.

Yeah.

How long did you play it for?

I never played football in my life.

You never played.

No, that was the first time I played football, I promise.

That's crazy.

When you played football, it was professional, it was an NFL, my mom was always scared.

The high school coach at the App of Valley high school in Minnesota were like, hey, complete

football.

They were trying to call my mom and dad.

And I'm like, you're not going to convince her.

She is scared of death of football.

But whole time, I'm wrestling.

So what, where do we break this gap at?

Right, right.

And I just get done with WWE and I go out there and I'm chilling.

I get a call saying, hey, you want to try out for the bills?

And I tell Sean McDurmond and Brandon being, I said, hey, don't expect much.

I could put on shoes, but I've never had football cleats on.

I never had pads on.

I don't even know how to put the tights on anything.

And I went out there and I sprinted my ass off, though, and I tried out.

I was sprinting down and back and forth.

I said, hey, if I don't know any technique for D-line, you're going to see effort.

And McDurmond saw effort and that's all he needed to see and he gave me a chance.

What was that like, like jumping into a completely new sport?

Hard.

Because it's not just football.

How old were you when you did that?

I just turned 24.

Wow.

I just turned 24.

It's...

Ooh.

I know you see that stance.

That's a beginner stance.

But I came out there no gloves just winging it.

And I told them, just give me a good chance, but football is not just football.

It's the playbook.

And the playbook is crazy because I went from, hey, go out there and wrestle someone one

on one to see if the guard is light on his feet or see if he's leaning forward.

See if the center is going to silent count maybe or see if the guard taps the center to

snap the ball.

There's a lot of different things that you got to know.

And I'm out there with this big ass helmet.

I'm never put a helmet on, Joe.

So I'm out there with this big ass helmet.

My head's like down and I can't look up.

And I don't know what I'm doing.

But I knew if I gave effort that someone would give me a chance.

And I went out there in my first game.

I feel like I think I had a tackle, a QB rush and I was kind of unheard of at the time because

I've never played ball before, but it was crazy.

Once in a lifetime experience, most definitely.

And when you got cut, did you think about trying somewhere else, did you think about

doing it more?

Yeah, once I got cut from Buffalo, it was the last one to get cut from the room.

I remember going in and seeing Bean and McDermott and they were going to do practice squad.

But I knew they were going to do practice squad.

So I was like, yo, just send me home.

I'll figure it out.

I'll try again.

So my plan was to go back to college and wrestle already.

But I sat around for maybe a month.

Baltimore Ravens called me and Baltimore was like, hey, you want to come to a trial.

I said, okay, you know, I never played football before.

Just let you know, like if it's a little shaky, I went out there and I dominated the trial.

And I had like 10 minutes of work, but it was a great 10 minutes.

And they're like, okay, we're going to take your physicals.

You're going to be here and stay.

The injury report comes back and injury report says they need a, what's the kind of,

they need a DN and a linebacker.

So you got to compensate for the spot because you need someone to play next week.

And I probably need like six weeks on practice squad to play.

And so I get sent home.

They say, give me a week.

We'll bring you back a week comes.

Don't bring me back.

And so I'm like, okay, I see the writing on the wall.

Let me move on.

I sit for a little bit and in Apple's coach call.

They just got ran over by the team.

They said, we need a run stopper.

So I go out there do the trial.

I think it went well.

They said we're not taking anybody today.

And then from there, I was like, you know, maybe, maybe this is not it.

And so I went back to wrestle.

And did you ever think about MMA at that time?

Was it in the back your head?

MMA was in the back of my head since the Olympics.

But I wanted to make sure that if I was going to go to MMA, that let me try things first

before going all in on something that I need to go all in on.

And I did my tryouts, I did my things.

And now I want to go in all in on something that is finally here.

And when your mom was scared of you doing wrestling, how did she feel about you doing

MMA?

She's shitting off her.

Oh, my God.

Is she kidding?

But watch.

She didn't even watch me wrestle.

And so now I'm like, mom, I got to do it about the punch me in the face.

Maybe if he can get to me, are you sure you want to come and watch?

And she's like, yeah, I'll come watch.

If she comes, it has a good time.

It has her drinks.

And when I step out, I'm like, where were you?

Oh, it was in the back.

So you didn't even see me fighting?

Why you even come then?

So she, out of the three fights I've had, she's sat in the back and she'll be like, the

John will go and get her and be like, get what's done.

And she'll be like, oh, what happened?

And John will be like, good.

It's all.

So she gets nervous.

Oh, my God.

She's sweating.

And she's nervous.

But I'm just like, I'll give her that look of like, if this is one of them ones, I'm

going to tell you, but I haven't given her those looks yet.

So no.

So when you make this so you decide football is not going to happen, WWE is not going to

happen.

You did like one televised match with WBS.

I did, yeah.

What was that like?

Honestly, I had a great, from me being real and honest, I had a great experience.

I have no, nothing wrong with anybody there.

TKO was great, Triple H, Paul LeVec was great, Stephanie Vince, everybody was great.

I just had a competitive drive that I needed to get out.

And so you know, when you have that gap is there, you can't do both.

And I was trying to bridge both and I wasn't giving my 100% to the business.

And if I'm not going to give 100% to the business, then you might as well x me out because

it's already over with.

So that's how that's practically how it happened.

Yeah, no slide on pro wrestling, but it's just like, if you really want to compete, you

got to get it all out.

Yeah.

And so I would love to go back in the future.

I would love to do a sport and go out there and dominate and then, hey, maybe after

the UFC, have you a champ?

For sure.

After a couple of times.

And so I would love to go and if it meant well, and now we'll do it again, most definitely

because I have no hard feelings to them and that's how it goes.

So when you make the decision that you're going to go into MMA, what is that like?

Like what are the steps that you take?

I got doing NCAAs and I said, I flew down to Miami.

I met with John and a couple other people and I said, hey, I want to fight.

You know, you know, John had me in his camp.

So we're talking about John Jones.

Yes.

Did you know John before this?

I knew John because I knew John from Instagram.

Oh.

John like wrestling.

So I knew John from IG.

He sent me a DM.

He sent me his number.

And if you know John, he don't answer the phone worth anything.

And it's crazy.

But he sent me his number.

He said, call me.

So I called him and this was before he got hurt for the first teapay fight.

He was like, I want you to come practice with us.

You know, I want a wrestling partner.

I left him with a played football.

The next year comes, no, I'm sorry, I don't even know where I was at at the time.

But Skip, we go and he's like, I want you to come back for the second camp.

He's going through it.

Me and John hit it off like that.

Wow.

We hit it off immediately.

So when you guys started training together in camp, is that when it really sunk in your

head, when you're like, this is what I want to do?

Yeah.

He really, he really, I needed somebody to kind of engrave it in me.

With the rest thing, I had my father.

I had the University of Minnesota.

I had a lot of good people around me kind of like say, hey, this is how we're going to

do it.

This is where you need to go.

This is how it's going to happen.

And when I saw John, I saw that drive of like, damn, you know, this guy's winning and people

get close, but they can't get past him.

And why is that?

So I really sat back and like watched his mental and like, how he went about a lot of things,

how he talked to people, how he greeted people, how he walked, how he punched.

Maybe how he looked when he was in the pocket, when he needed to get out, when he rested

his hands.

And I saw everything.

And I was like, wow, like, man, this guy's a superstar, super, super star.

We all know that and and and people know that for a long time now, but I really saw him

and I was like, damn, I want to be that.

And that's what kind of, that's what flipped my switch right there.

What an amazing opportunity.

You know, you have done any MMA and you get to go in there and train with the goat.

It's crazy.

This one man, you know, it's hard to explain.

I tell people, people ask me all the time, like, what was it like seeing John for the first

time?

Because I'm 25.

So when John was like, super peak, I was like 12, 13 years old and I'm looking at this

guy, beat Gus of San Reyes and Tiago Santos and stuff like that.

So it's different.

You see a different side of people and when I saw John, I was like, wow, like, I've seen

you from my whole life and I get to see you in person, like, how cool is that?

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For people that don't even know, the close fights that John had, they were really only

close because John wasn't training.

That's really all it is.

That's true.

100%.

John was partying and he was what I would call playing with his food, you know?

Yeah.

He didn't, like, the gust of some fight is a perfect example.

Didn't train it off of the gust of some fight.

I mean, I talked to Greg Jackson and he was like, I swear to God, he barely showed up.

I'm like, that is so crazy.

And then he got it it out in the last rounds.

That's what's crazy.

It's a close decision, but he wins the fight by gutting it out in the final rounds when

he's done relatively no strength and conditioning.

Nothing.

So crazy.

It's fantastic to see.

Then really gets motivated for the second fight with gust of phantasm, which is what you

expect.

It's fantastic.

When John is in prime form, he's the greatest of all time for you to be able to be a young

guy who's thinking about MMA and train with the greatest of all time, two to now, two division

world champion.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

Amazing.

You don't need it.

And it's amazing because you don't see the guy that you see the best at the best right

away.

We're back.

So anyway, where were we?

John Jones.

Yeah.

And so you were talking about what it's like to first start training with them.

So you were, you had no MMA training really before that at all.

You had just been doing a little bit of striking with this guy.

Joe, I kid you not.

I didn't even know really how to defend punches.

That's crazy.

I didn't know how to defend punches.

You probably saw a video of him throwing the knee at me because I'm so hard-headed.

I'm like, let me shoot on John, but the whole time I forgot, he's a national championship

wrestler.

So I didn't even know how to defend a punch.

I didn't know how to defend a kick.

I didn't know how to do anything.

But I went in there and I said, hey, if you need somebody, it's got to be me.

And that's how hungry I was.

And I feel like that's how kids should be nowadays about getting that opportunity.

Man, just be hungry because someone's going to respect you.

Yeah, for sure.

But I mean, not a whole lot of people get that opportunity.

That's a crazy opportunity.

It's also like John is an elite wrestler as well.

And so like learning how to incorporate elite wrestling into all the other aspects of

MMA, and to be able to go right into camp with John is just, this is amazing.

Incredible opportunity.

Super incredible.

I'm grateful for it every day.

And especially, he's still here in my corner to this day.

We talked this morning.

He's still giving me all the pointers, all the advice even when we're not even fighting.

Just telling me how I should say things, what I should say, how I need to go about life.

I need to go about business and meeting people and greeting people.

So it's a true opportunity.

That's awesome.

That's really awesome.

So when you're in camp with him, you're going through the camp.

Were you planning on MMA then, or like, how does it work?

Like what were you thinking?

We just like, the moment you started training with them, is that when it really started

the fire in you?

Yes.

I had a little bit of burn for it, but in the back of your mind.

Yes, but a little burn, you got to have the heart, you got to have the heart.

So what kind of what was the stamp on it was I went to, I went to Madison Square Garden

with him and John was just doing John things, you know, just being a superstar, everybody

knew who he was.

And I was like, man, you know, I got to let go of metal, you know, like, maybe I should

be getting some too, like, you know, like John showed me the way a little bit.

So I'm trying to have him show me the way.

He's bringing me to every place, meeting every person, you know, showing me the opportunities

that he has.

And he looks at me and he was like, you can have this too.

And that was kind of the cherry on the top.

But we can put another cherry on the top and do a double one when he won the fight.

And then I'm holding the belt with him and I got to see this guy face to face.

And, you know, he just the most popular man on earth for that day.

And it's kind of like, wow, like, you don't get, you don't really get to see the backstage

moments.

You get to see the guy go out there on TV and fight, but I got to see the backstage

of everyone taking the pictures with him, the superstars.

You know, I'm walking out the next game and I see Queen Latifa and I'm like, damn, that's

Queen Latifa.

And I'm taking a selfie with Queen Latifa.

I'm like, yo, can I take, can I send this to my mom and she's like, yeah, go ahead.

And I see Fat Joe talking to him and everybody and I'm like, wow, like, this is what it is

to be like a real fighting star, like, and fighting is one on one.

And people want to watch someone fight, but I think in other sports, like we talked

about earlier, there's a full team with helmets on, with jerseys on, but then fighting,

people want to meet that badass dude and they want to meet the champ.

And that's what I want to be.

Yeah.

So what is, what is training with John like, like, what is the training camp like?

Like when, you know, you obviously haven't gone to the training camp, but then the other

elite fighters.

But one of the more interesting that separates John from everybody else is like, John doesn't

take no short notice fights, John game plans for everybody.

He studies tendencies, he's, his fight IQ, I mean, it's obviously he has, obviously he

has everything.

He obviously has all the skills, obviously has all the drive and everything else.

But the fight IQ is the big one.

That's the big one.

Because if you don't have a good driver, who gives a fuck out, faster cars?

It's really the mind behind it and puts it all together.

He's, um, he's sitting in a Ferrari with Ferrari gas.

A lot of people sit in a Ferrari with 87 gas and a car don't work.

So when I, when I got this he does tendencies of him watching people and he does it to me

now where he'll send me videos on Instagram of the top UFC guys big watch how he steps,

you know, watch when he throws a punch, how he comes back and he doesn't reset this

certain way.

And he's kind of already installing, installing those tendencies in me.

And so now when I was wrestling, I never used to watch people wrestle like I went out

there on a limb and I was just beating guys, even in Olympics, I never watched anyone

wrestle.

I never watched their film.

Really?

Never.

I told coaches don't show me one video because I don't want to focus on that one thing

he did and that was me being hardheaded.

Like if a guy had a great double leg and I'm like, damn, how do I stop this double leg?

And I'm worried while stopping a double leg instead of doing my offense.

And so I never watched anybody.

I went to the Olympics and I said, show me, show me the guys I'm wrestling and I said,

let's do it.

Yeah.

Guys, let's do it.

Come on.

I said, let's do it.

Come on.

Bang in their head against wall.

Listen to this.

Come on.

Damn.

He did that to me.

That's crazy.

I said, let's do it.

And then I'm not dying.

Like you can't beat me in any way possible.

And that's when I was at my best when I had that mindset and he's kind of putting that

back into me and I feel really good about it.

That's amazing.

It's amazing.

So when he's sending you videos, like do you have like a, do you, do you save all this

shit?

Do you have like a folder?

We have all these different fighters and different moves because you're, you're basically

brand new.

That's something.

But it's like, let me just tell you what I said.

You had a fight in MMA fight where you hit that dude with a left hook and then took

it down while he was out cold.

I sent Dana White to text message.

I said, everyone's fucked.

I did.

Wow.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Because I was like, that kind of speed is crazy.

Like that kind of speed and incorporated with elite wrestling is crazy.

I'm like, what do you, the heavyweight division is so shallow right now.

You got Tom Aspenal, Serial Gone, John Jones, if he chooses to fight again, Francis, if

some, by some miracle, they can work something out and bring him back to the UFC.

Other than that, there's no one compelling for like a championship caliber fighter.

It's, there's basically four or five guys on Earth that are in this like championship

caliber, like, class.

And you're already there, which is nuts and you haven't even fought in the UFC yet.

When I watched you move and I watched you fight, I was like, okay, how do you stop that?

Who is, who's got the skills to be able to stop that?

And in my mind, there's like, only a few guys where it's going to be a problem.

It is like the Francis and Ghanos, the, you know, the Serial Gone and the Tom Aspenals.

That's it.

There's like a few guys and everybody else on the way up, but the only problem is going

to be you getting fights.

Like that, that kind of speed is just bananas for a 250 pound man, you know?

And when you have that and you're 25 years old, it's like, this is a, you know, it's a

very rare thing that you see in MMA and it's kind of crazy because the heavyweight division

is of course the most prestigious division in the world.

The heavyweight champion of the UFC is the baddest motherfucker on the planet.

And you know, right now, it's, it's kind of a toss up, right?

Because Serial Gone had this fight with Aspenal.

John is kind of semi retired, whatever he decides to do, it's, you know, it's kind of up

in the air.

He'll probably have one more fight, right?

I want him to.

I think he's got the juice in him.

But I have.

Yeah, he would love the White House.

Yeah.

He's told me many times he wants, he wants to be main event on the White House and he wants

me to be a couple of slots behind him and kind of have us both win and that's his last leg

right there.

I would love, I would love for him to do one more.

If he really wanted to in his heart, he should, but if he doesn't, John's not going to do

it.

And he's going to have to go to the White House.

He's going to have to go to the White House.

And he's going to have to go to the White House.

But you just got to just, you're in control of your body.

Force yourself to eat it.

Chew it, swallow it, get it down.

Let's go.

But that was the worst.

It was the eating shit.

Holding your breath underwater was hard.

There's a lot of things they had to do that were hard.

It's a crazy fucking trail.

There was one where they had to jump out of helicopter

and like swim and grab some of the helicopter propellers

were like blowing the waters.

They couldn't, we did a few of the things like that.

Were you ever scared?

For some of them?

I was worried when they had a ride bulls.

That one scared the shit out of me.

Because I was like, you know, the stunt men are animals.

If you ever meet stunt men, they are some of the bravest

toughest dudes alive.

And the stunt guys had this attitude about the bull.

They're like, oh, that's a stunt bull.

That's a practice bull.

And I go, does a fucking bull know he's a practice bull?

I bet he doesn't.

I bet he didn't get that memo.

He don't know that.

He's just a bull.

That's a fucking huge animal.

And you're going to get a hundred pound lady

to ride this huge animal.

That's crazy.

That's over with.

And they got launched and almost got kicked.

And we, they rolled the dice a lot and got lucky

that no one got seriously injured, I think.

And the bull one was the big one for me.

I was like, you can't predict that.

Like you can, if you got a car stunt,

you got to jump a car off a building into like this big cushion.

Like, okay, cool.

You kind of know what's going to happen.

You know, this is the thing.

This could go wrong.

This is how we're going to prepare against it going wrong

or prepare for it.

But you can't prepare for a bull.

Like there's not much you could do.

If the bull decides to stomp this person,

that person could die.

That's a real possibility, especially people

that have no business riding bulls.

Yeah.

Bull riding is hard for bull riders.

Bull riding is tough.

It's crazy.

And they got a good seven seconds on that bull

if they're great.

If they're great.

And when you're watching it,

you're like, oh my god.

You watch the bull kicking and jumping up in the air.

Raise, I know their lower back kills after that.

We had one guy on fear factor who was a professional bull rider

and his shoulder was so destroyed.

He took a shirt off to show me.

He had scars all around his shoulders.

Like, my shoulder pops out all the time.

He just will pop out of socket.

He'd go reach for something in his shoulder

or pop out of socket.

It was just destroyed.

It was hanging on by a thread.

Geez, that's disgusting.

Ugh.

How do you live like that, though?

I don't know, man.

I guess you just deal with it.

I guess you just, that's the price you pay for greatness.

You know, got to pay something.

Yeah, well they all pay.

Every bull rider pays.

You see those guys later in the career.

They're all stiff because they got fused discs

and fucked up.

Nests up.

Bolts in their back and shit.

They're all fucked up.

Spines rubbing.

Oh yeah, it's a terrible.

It's messed up.

Terrible way to live.

I can't believe that bull riding is a real thing.

I know.

It's fascinating, though,

because you could really see guys go out there

and be like, you're facing the devil.

Literally.

The bull is going to win all the time.

Every time.

The best you can do is hang on for seven seconds.

There's no goat who could just hang on the bull

as long as possible.

No.

I'll hang on that bull for 30 minutes.

He can't get you off.

He's going to get you off.

He'll get you off.

Everybody goes flying eventually.

Everybody.

Everybody is going to happen one way or another.

Yeah, there's no human being

that could just stay on a bucking bull.

No.

And just like, when I decide I'll get off.

Have you rode?

No.

Okay, I haven't either.

Fuck.

I don't think black people do that.

I think they're hard.

Is there a couple of scotty?

Yeah, there is.

There is.

Oh, look at that dude right there.

Bam.

Ezekiel Mitchell.

Look at the size of that thing.

I mean, look at his angle.

You know what I'm saying?

He is so, the bull is so athletic

that he, damn, they're doing a handspring.

Exactly.

What they do it on his back.

Right.

And he weighs 2,000 pounds.

He's just throwing his body up and through the air.

That is fuck all that.

Like right there.

Like you easily get stomped death right there.

Ezekiel Mitchell.

You fall wrong.

He lands on your face and that is a rap.

Your fucking head is pulverized.

I wonder what the size of that thing.

God.

I wonder what the numbers are on like a football stumps.

Like the velocity and the mass of it.

Like what is the degenerated force for me?

Oh, it's got to be insane.

I mean, guys have died.

I mean, I know, hopefully.

None that I know.

But I mean, there has to be like an enormous number of guys

that have died, bull riding.

What's the, what's like the, um, since since, like,

when I crazy topic, what is, what is the, like, the craziest thing

outside of like me, fighting Taekwondo that you've done

that you're like, damn, I guess you felt good.

I never did anything other than, I had three kickboxing fights,

but other than fighting, that was the scariest shit that I ever did.

Yeah, I mean, I've never done it.

I'm not like a, I don't have a shoot.

No, okay.

I'm not a bungee jumper.

I'm a bungee jumping on vacation.

I did zip lining.

I was like, what am I doing?

This is stupid.

I don't like doing stuff like that.

I don't like dumb risks.

No.

I'm big.

So I went on a zip lining one time.

You know, you got to jump off the thing.

Right.

You got to jump off the platform.

Uh-huh.

I thought I was going to, Joe, I'm kidding.

No, that might have been my last down earth.

If that, that line didn't hold me.

Right.

Because what do you weigh about 250?

Like, 255.

Yeah.

It bounces.

You know, like, oh.

I was in Thailand and I went to do this thing.

It was a bungee comfort thing.

I couldn't do it because I was only 200 pounds.

And I was like, that's crazy.

Like, what happens if you get a guy that lies about his weight?

His overweight.

Yeah.

Because people lie about their fucking weight all the time.

I see the ones where the guys, they got the squirrel suit on.

Oh.

And they jump off the building.

Or they jump off the rocks.

Yeah.

They go down and they come up.

Uh-huh.

And sometimes they don't.

Sometimes they don't come up.

My friend Andy did that jumping out of a fucking plane.

He made it.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

He held the world record at one point in time

for the longest squirrel suit flight.

What do they call it?

What do they call those things?

Wing suit.

He held the record for it.

It's ridiculous.

But Andy's nuts.

He's a Navy SEAL.

18 miles.

One flight.

What do you think he's thinking at like mile nine?

Maybe I drop?

He's a psycho.

I don't know.

18 miles is crazy.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

I would never do none like that ever.

Uh-huh.

No, I'm not interested in parachuting.

I'm not interested in any other jet.

I might get on a wigboat and surf.

That's about all.

You fall in the water.

What's the big deal?

What the life jacket?

Yeah.

That sounds reasonable.

It sounds reasonable.

It's a reasonable thrill.

Falling out.

Hey.

Falling out of the sky is crazy.

But at least falling out of the sky.

You have equipment.

You check the equipment.

You make sure you double check.

You've done it before.

It's done.

You know when to do it.

With a bull, there's no.

There's no safeguards.

You know.

I mean, you have like some sort of a chest protector

for some people.

You have a helmet.

You're not.

There's no safeguards.

He could land on your hip.

You're never going to walk again.

It's over with.

Fuck that.

His game over.

I couldn't.

I can't fathom riding a bull.

Yeah.

Doesn't Donald do it?

Doesn't Donald surrounding?

He rides bulls.

See, he got the name Cobble.

You better use that.

He's out of his fucking mind.

He got to do something with the name Cobble.

That's a dude that has a real adrenaline problem.

He's got a real...

He's rightfully so.

Yeah.

He looks crazy.

He's got a real adrenaline problem.

He told the story about getting trapped

in a water who was diving.

And he got trapped in a cave.

And the guy he was with panicked

because his cords got tangled up.

And the water was cloudy

and he couldn't figure out how to get out.

That was one of the most...

I knew he was okay

because he was right here telling me the story.

But it was one of the most terrifying stories

that anybody's ever told me.

But that dude loves that kind of shit.

He loves like...

thrills.

I can't.

I don't think I can get behind the rills.

I can't.

No.

It's too much.

And especially your heart be like.

Mm-hmm.

It's just not like hell.

It's today my day.

I can't be my day.

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fit for all times.

Was fighting for the first time

was that what was the different

and the difference

the way it felt

the first time you fought

versus wrestling?

When I wrestle,

I'm not really nervous.

I'm more anxious

to perform and put on a good show.

When I went out there

for my first fight,

my heart was beating on my chest.

That pin drops

and it's like,

it's me or you.

And I always had the mentality

of like,

it's me or you,

it's door die.

Today's not my day.

You got to go.

But that first time,

you're like,

I kid you not.

My heart was like jumping.

And John had it like,

looking at me in the eyes,

and he's like,

"Yo, you're good."

Reliant what you know.

We've been here before.

You've done this before.

There's 2,000 people here.

You've wrestled in front of 20.

Just think about it like that.

And when I thought about it like that,

my heart rate calmed down.

You know,

you kind of get like shaky

a little bit.

You kind of feel like your legs are not there.

And that was kind of my first time fighting.

After that, I dirty boxed in.

I wanted to kill that dude.

Which is really crazy

because you couldn't even rely

really on your wrestling in that.

Which is what I wanted.

Right.

I wanted to go out there

and show you that I can throw punches

without having to look down at that leg.

And that's exactly what we did.

Was that a calculated decision

to try to do that as well

as just like to just have a pure striking fight?

Just so you could show that you could do it

and then in your own mind,

not have your main skill set to rely on?

Yes, I really wanted to handicap myself

because I wanted to show the people

and I kind of, hopefully I did do some great show.

I wanted to show the people at home

that are a casual viewer

who doesn't know a gable.

Like, hey, can I turn on dirty boxing

and the mom and dad and kids are sitting there watching

saying, hey,

what is about gable seats in that special?

And he's a wrestler.

So what can be special besides wrestling?

And then I go out there

and I get this knockout

and I jump over the ring.

And I'm doing the Arthur Jones.

Yeah, and the Sack Dance.

The crazy thing was the way you leapt

over the ring like it was nothing.

That was banana.

What does it feel like to not have,

oh, there it is, boom.

But this is the nuttiest part right here.

The big jump.

Like it was nothing, like it was nothing.

I mean, that is crazy athleticism.

But it's wild about that

as you look like a really good boxer.

And you have only been boxing

for a very small amount of time.

I always had very good confidence in myself.

I've always spoke about myself highly.

I've always wanted to be over the top.

Like a WWE.

You know, when it gets on the microphone,

the John Cena is like, "You can't see me,"

or Roman Reigns is like, "It knowledge me."

You know, when I go out there,

I don't want to have to say those things.

I want it to, when you see me,

that's him.

And I've always tried to be

that's the bigger than Gable Person.

But also, like if we have like a routine combo,

you can see like, "Man, he's real human."

You know, you can talk to him.

He does real things.

We put on shoes the same way.

We put on pants the same way.

And I feel like a lot of superstars

don't really show people that side of them.

And it's up to them if they want to or they not.

And I've always been like showing the families and the kids

that like, "Man, look at Gable."

You know?

I don't like human being,

but when you compete, it's different.

It's different.

But it's just crazy to be able to do that in a sport

that you're relatively new at.

I mean, just, "Man, just think big about yourself."

I get it every kid.

I tell everybody.

What's crazy about that, honestly,

is like, "I know you're just going to get better at it."

That's what's crazy.

When you watch someone strike that well,

early in their striking career,

like your striking journey is so new,

that the sky's the limit as far as your potential.

And the nicest way possible I really want to say this,

that's the worst I'll ever be.

The worst I'll ever be.

And for whoever who's going to watch this,

that's the worst I'll ever be.

Just think about it.

14 seconds.

And then now think about,

if I'm going to put some time into me,

some effort into me,

and I'm putting effort into myself,

that dirty boxing is probably the weakest I'll ever be

in the sport of MMA.

I believe you.

I mean, it only makes sense.

If you've been training that short amount of time,

it's striking.

Now, when you're training striking,

are you training boxing?

Are you doing Muay Thai?

What kind of striking training are you doing?

Or are you incorporating it all together in MMA?

I do it all.

So a lot of days I go in.

So I kind of have a really good schedule right now,

since I'm not going to go into a fight.

So I do every day,

besides Sunday.

Some days are two of days,

because I go to lifetime and play basketball.

I go to lifetime, I sit in the cold tub,

and saw none and stuff.

But when I strike, I go in there.

One round is maybe boxing.

Next round is kicks,

tips, knees, everything, elbows.

The next round is what the blueprint I have,

what moves I need to really do to get in,

to kind of get to my shots.

Or I'm going to fake shoot and punch.

And then I probably go 10 rounds,

12 rounds of that, five minutes each.

So you always incorporate all the MMA skills

together in a workout.

I try to.

It's interesting when I was talking to Ilya Toporia,

when he's, particularly when he's not training for a fight,

he doesn't do that.

He is very rare in that,

like when he goes,

and he works on his boxing,

he'll just box.

He just boxes.

When he works on his jujitsu,

he just does jujitsu.

When he works on his wrestling,

he just does wrestling.

And then he puts them all together

with MMA training.

But he spends an exorbitant amount of time

on each individual skill by itself,

to really like hone and tighten those things out.

Which is,

it's an interesting choice.

And obviously for him,

it's worked out spectacularly.

Yes I have.

But there's no real like,

I guess if you want to be like an elite soccer player,

I'm sure there's a program that they've kind of devise.

Like this is the very best way to become a good soccer player.

They have, you know, coaches and they game plan.

They know what to do with MMA.

There's all these different approaches.

Everyone, Alex Pereira's approach,

is different than Marab's approach,

which will be different than your approach.

Everybody's got a different thing.

Yeah.

It's just, like you said,

it depends a person,

and it also depends a team that you have.

I'm just really big on,

I'm just still very new,

so I'm really big on just trying to make sure I can absorb

all the information possible.

And kind of when I go on to these fights,

these first few fights come,

kind of showcase what I can.

And sadly, they have ended early.

Not sadly, but in a good way, you know what I'm saying.

But just go out there and showcase who I am.

And when I go train,

I don't mind sitting in there all day.

Sometimes me and John will practice for hours,

just sitting there, repeating, repeating.

And then all of a sudden,

we go on eight o'clock at midnight.

But I like that, though,

because it makes me feel good.

It makes me feel like there's someone invested in me.

It makes me feel like I'm here for a purpose,

and it makes me feel like this is what I'm,

there's someone out of the country, there's someone in Russia.

When I'm asleep, he's up.

And I don't like that.

He's up working.

So when I can get all the time possible,

I make sure I get all that time.

Because I don't want that dude to show up one day

and he's got a little insomni.

And I just can't, I can't think about that happening.

I always have that thought in my head

with in terms of like UFC fighters.

Like, there's such a shallow division.

The heavyweight division is so shallow.

I'm like, there has got to be some elite Russian wrestlers.

Russian wrestlers that are thinking about

going the Fedor Emilionenko route.

Like they're thinking about, I know Nemkov,

who just won the PFL title.

He's a very high level guy.

But there has to be some like really high level wrestlers

that are considering going into MMA.

Right now, Russian heavyweights are really not as good

as people think in wrestling.

They got a guy named Abdour, he's set alive.

I don't know if you heard of him.

I have.

T-C told me about him.

He is crazy.

If he came to fighting, it's over with.

Not for heavyweights, for the other groups.

Because he's got to go through me.

If he comes that way.

But Iranians heavyweights are really good.

I think that's where the heavyweight field

should start coming from as Iran.

They got a lot of good.

They got two good guys that are at once my age.

I'm 25 and another one is I think 22.

They battle for the Olympic spot of a year.

But the older one wins just by little.

But the time is going to pass

where that guy steps up and he's going to take the spot.

So I would watch off for him.

What's interesting with MMA is some guys have a background

in wrestling.

And then they learn how to strike.

And then they fall in love with striking.

And then they hardly have a wrestle when they fight.

It's kind of weird.

You would see that.

A lot in the early, like Josh Koshchek is a good example.

Who's a very good amateur wrestler.

And then when he fought in MMA, very rarely wrestled.

It was mostly striking.

You know, he could knock guys out standing.

And I think guys kind of fall in love with that.

And then there's also the amount of effort.

It's so tiring to wrestle along with all the other things

that sometimes guys just put that aside.

And they just decided to stand and bang with people.

I really like wrestling.

I grew up wrestling.

And if I had to change, I would love to go to the 20-28 Olympics

and win a gold medal.

That's how much I still love wrestling.

But right now, my path is MMA.

And I knew the first couple of times

that I would get those knockouts, like you look at your hands.

And it's like you're Spider-Man.

You got superpowers.

I got lightning in my hands.

I would have never thought in my 25 years of life

that I would go out there and I would left hook somebody

and he would be out cold and I would double leg and flip them.

Who would have ever thought that would ever happen?

And so like, you're right.

You get obsessed with knocking people out.

But I still think my base is wrestling.

I just haven't used the best base yet.

And that's just, I just want to show people that my best base

doesn't need to be used because the second best one

is just as good as the first.

- Mm-hmm.

- And the second best one is getting better all the time.

- Mm-hmm.

- That's the thing.

And again, I keep going back to this.

But if you can get that good at wrestling,

you can get that good at anything.

It's just a matter of putting in the time

and dedicating yourself to that thing.

But it's the mindset that allows someone

to become an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.

Boy, if that person, that's a scary person.

That person decides to focus on whatever the fuck it is.

Fucking pickleball, who gives it shit?

They'll be elite at it.

They just have to put their mind on it.

It's a hundred percent of mindset thing.

It ain't nothing else.

- Mm-hmm.

- You can have athletic ability.

You can hard work all day.

You can be so disciplined in the world.

But if your mind doesn't think it,

that's why I feel like that's why I beat a lot of people

before I even walked out there.

I knew it.

I just, you just got to know.

Some people--

- Some people just don't feel it.

And you just got to feel it.

- I know, you know.

It's like, I was talking to a friend of mine.

I don't want to mention any names.

Because then you'll connect it to the fighter.

But he said, man, he goes, I don't want to fuck with anybody

anymore that needs a mental coach.

And I said, really, why?

He goes, it's just like this, just too much.

He goes, I want to do it.

I don't need that shit.

- You don't need it.

- It's interesting.

Because some guys do.

And some guys that mental coach takes them over the top.

And then they find a way to win.

Where, you know, maybe they'd have mental hiccups in the past.

You know, but his mentality was,

I want a guy who has no problems.

And like, if I'm going to coach a guy,

I don't want a guy who's a head case.

I want a guy who goes in there and already has this.

I'm going to fucking dominate.

And if I don't, I'm going to learn why I didn't dominate.

And I'm going to come back and I'm going to get him next time.

- Yeah.

And I feel like that's the person I am.

I just want to go in there and dominate.

And I also think that a lot of people kind of rely too much

on a lot of outside things to kind of make them feel good

about themselves to go out there and perform.

Instead of just putting that switch on and just saying,

"Hey, we're here."

Outside things like what?

- Just, you know, mental coaches.

You know, if someone, you've got to get someone else to be

maybe a breath-working coach,

or another coach, or another coach.

There's so many labels for coaches out there that you don't need.

And when I was wrestling at Minnesota,

I had Brandon Egan Luke Becker,

who was assistant and head coach and Trevor Brando.

That's all I had.

I didn't have nobody else.

I didn't, because I didn't want anybody to interfere

with the connection that we had.

And I feel like when you get a great bond with somebody,

and then you bring in more people,

the bonds get mixed up.

People are paying attention to too many different things.

Instead of practicing, maybe I got to work on my mind.

Instead of working on my mind, maybe I got to go do something else.

Maybe I got to take care of some else.

- Sort of like when you were talking about not watching video

and your opponents, because you're thinking about his double,

how am I going to stop as double?

Instead of thinking about what am I going to do?

- Yeah.

I would rather be productive for the team instead of

being productive for eight different people,

and maybe three of them don't care about you as much.

They're there just to get a little something for me.

- Right, right, right, right.

- Where are you training now?

- Right now I'm still in Minneapolis.

I'm having a baby girl this Sunday.

- Welcome, congratulations.

- This Sunday, my little girl's coming out, I appreciate it.

Thank you. - That's awesome.

- She's going to pop out.

My lady's going to hopefully get to do it that day.

If it comes early, it comes early.

So that would be really nice.

So I'm in Minneapolis right now.

But when I do all the main training, New Mexico.

Jackson Wayne.

- Okay.

So in Minneapolis, where are you training?

- With that guy Billy Simon.

- Say God.

- Really?

- I'd be with him forever.

- So you're in this little tiny gym?

- I'm in that little gym.

Nobody sees us.

We got partners that need to come in.

But rather than that, I don't want the big lights.

- Right.

- When I was growing up, I reported to Indiana.

I had a wrestling mat in the garage.

Me and my two brothers were wrestling.

And that's where we got the most work in.

My dad said, "Go in there and hand fight."

And whoever comes out comes out.

And it was definitely not me at the time.

But maybe right now was me.

But we were going there and hand fighting.

If you get, my dad's philosophy was,

we had Iowa style wrestling.

And Iowa style wrestling was brutal.

If his face needs to be run into the wall,

run his face into the wall.

And that's how we grew up.

And if you don't want your face ran into the wall,

you better put his in first.

- Right.

- And so when you train with this guy,

are you training like,

I could get a call in a week to fight?

And I'm ready to do that.

Or are you training like,

just like developing skills constantly?

- I just religiously trained to develop skills constantly.

I try not to never stop.

I don't like stopping because I'm kind of,

this is crazy.

I'm a thicker body.

So if I sit for a little bit,

I feel like I'm getting fat.

And I want to feel that way.

So I just try to always keep myself in shape

and try to keep the best look possible.

So if you need me on one week,

which I don't want to do any short notice,

just how me and Don do it.

No short notice.

Like if you need me in a week, I look good, I'm ready.

But we just take our time.

- So John coached you about that.

Like give you some thoughts about that.

Because I think that's a giant mistake that guys make.

You know, and like the Alexander Volkanovski fight

is a good example.

The Islam machete fight.

He took that fight on 11 days notice.

He just been hanging around, drinking,

party, just being himself, just chilling.

And then he also gets this opportunity for a rematch.

First fight was razor thin decision.

He lost and he's like,

I can do better.

But you can't do better without a camp.

- You got to have time to be yourself.

- Yeah.

You have to have time to peak.

And one of the things I really always admired about John

is like even a fight like the Chale Sun and Fight.

They offered him Chale Sun and on short notice.

He was like, nope.

Nope.

And they're like, what do you do?

We need you to do this.

He's like, nope.

I'm a professional world champion.

I prepare for my opponents.

And I don't want to fight unless I'm prepared for my opponent.

Period.

It's the smartest way.

Look at him.

He's the goat.

I mean, it's just so many guys they get,

and I like to do appreciate that Alex

does take those short notice fights.

And he wins some of those short notice fights.

But it may times he's fought injured.

Like really injured.

Like the first yeary prohoscop fight.

Yeah.

Fucked up knee man.

And when he, when he stopped yeary,

there's a moment when he's on top of yeary

and he's beating on him.

And the referee stops it.

And he goes to step up and he rolls off of them.

The reason he rolled off them,

he couldn't support himself on his knee.

That's how fucked up his knee was.

And he was in a world title fight.

It's bad.

Crazy.

Well, I feel like this is the only sport

where they will let that happen.

Just because football, you sit on IR.

Yes.

We don't have no IR.

Right.

It's either you do it or you say no.

Right.

And as you say no, they get upset at you.

A lot of people get timid.

Yeah.

And I mean, once you get past that barrier of,

I think right now since I'm,

since I'm going to have this daughter,

I think my tone and mindset has changed

to kind of really be more of a,

a father figure for her,

but also for like,

if kids want to look at me and be like,

wow, you know, Gabe was normal also.

But I think just,

you got to say no to a lot of people.

You got to be,

you got to be generous in a lot of ways,

but you also got to be able to go out there and say,

I don't like this.

I don't feel this way about this.

And this is why.

And be cool on both sides.

But some people get scared of that moment.

Are you doing,

what kind of strength of conditioning?

Are you doing?

So I still,

I still live with the college team.

So everything they do with wrestling team.

We call it wrestling team.

Yes.

Everything they do at the University of Minnesota.

So I still do,

I still got the same strength coach with them.

Um,

bike sprints,

aerodine sprints,

um,

walk bike,

versus climbers,

everything.

We,

we try to mix it in all rowers,

everything,

just to, just to stay active.

And if it's not where we're getting close to a fight,

just maybe just take longer breaks in between

just to keep the heart rate up.

But I don't like when my heart rate takes a,

takes a break.

I like to kind of keep it consistent.

So when I ramp up,

it's already ready to rock around.

You already have a very high baseline.

Yeah.

And like when you're doing strength conditioning,

as far as like weight lifting and stuff like that,

like,

are you trying to put on weight at all?

No.

No, I like that.

You like 250.

I like to say where I'm at.

I do a lot of band,

band work,

a lot of explosive work,

a lot of jumps,

um,

a lot of light weights

with high reps,

just to kind of keep the body moving

and kind of keep the,

the, the, the cutness and the strength there,

but not also put too much

with your stiff.

Mm-hmm.

And you're,

you're naturally a large guy anyway.

It's not like you have to put on a,

a ton of weight.

But like when you see a guy like Francis,

he's,

who's 265 natural,

you know,

and he used to have to cut a little bit of weight

to make two,

which is kind of crazy, isn't it?

He's,

isn't crazy,

but it's also crazy that the UFC has a weight limit

that you have to make at heavy weight.

You have to cut weight to make heavy weight.

How different you think it would be

if they didn't have 265?

And it was just,

I think it should,

it should be no weight.

It's heavy weight.

It should be,

what they really need is more weight classes.

The UFC,

there's gaps that are just enormous.

Like the gap between 85 and 205 is crazy.

20 pound weight gap in between categories is,

that doesn't make any sense to me.

Ten pounds.

Ten pounds is still a lot,

but at least it's reasonable.

How many weight classes boxing have?

Like,

shit load, they have so many.

Boxing has so many weight classes.

Boxing got like eight champions for each weight too.

That's a problem.

MMA does as well, right?

If you think about it,

there's the one champion,

there's the PFL champion.

But the difference is,

there's really only the UFC champion,

in terms of the public perception.

Like,

we talked about Namcoff,

who's an excellent fighter.

Nobody knows who the fuck he is.

Not America.

You go to a regular kid,

you know,

some kid on the street,

and you know,

you say,

I'm Namcoff,

and they're like, what?

But I bet you that kid knows I show speed.

I bet they do.

Right?

I bet they do.

Right.

They know I show speed.

They probably know who Alex Pereira is.

They probably know who Islam Makachev is.

They know who the UFC guys are.

The UFC,

that title is worth so much.

It's,

you know, it's the name.

It's the,

it is the combat sports leader.

And if you're not in the UFC,

I don't care.

I mean, you,

look, you can go to the PFL,

and you can win that million dollar tournament,

and you can make money.

And I'm all for that.

And I'm very happy for those guys.

They get to feed their family,

and they,

they provide,

and they make a great living,

and they can retire

with some money in the bank.

But the reality is,

part of what you're doing is you're trying to be the best.

And if you're going to be the best,

you kind of have to be in the UFC.

Agreed.

I mean, that's just what it is.

There's,

there's so many great leagues,

but like the most prestigious people,

you can say PFL,

you can say anything,

and you can go to any place and make,

a shit ton of money.

But once you get that stamp of,

these are UFC champs,

you're like,

"Damn, man, that's him."

That's it, that's him.

Yeah, that's it.

They put that UFC belt on you,

and it's on ESPN,

and everybody sees it.

That's it.

The PFL is just another belt.

It's like, you know,

boxing has,

so they have the IBF,

the WBA,

the WBO,

the WBC.

It's like,

like so many fucking organizations,

it just gets so crazy.

It's like, didn't they try

to make Terence Crawford pay for his belt?

Ridiculous.

How crazy is that?

Terence Crawford's like,

"Fuck you, I'm the champ."

I just want to be 300,000.

Everybody saw it.

Is that what they wanted from 300 grand?

Am I,

can we get a look on this?

Because I might be tripping.

But,

well, they stripped him.

Well, they stripped him.

It's like percentage of purse.

And I think it was like,

3% of his whatever he made,

so it was,

that's so nuts.

That is so nuts.

That is so nuts that they get paid that much.

Just be a sanctioning body.

And what are they doing?

They're not doing anything.

Like, it doesn't mean anything.

Well, they just get the best looking guy

to maybe throw a belt on you.

[laughter]

That's about all.

They don't really get nothing else.

You get nothing.

You get a belt.

But, everybody knows he beat

the beat the brakes off Kinello Alvarez.

That's it.

Man, I love Kinello.

He's the champion.

I love Kinello as well.

But, you know,

I love what Terence did.

Because what Terence did was crazy.

He goes all the way up from 47 to 68.

He had one fight at 54.

You know,

wins the title at 54.

And then goes all the way up to 68.

And everybody's like,

"Kinello's going to be too big.

"Kinello's going to be too big."

No way.

Nope.

Skill.

His skill is king.

Yep.

And, but I think he's 38.

He's 38.

He could do a couple more if he wanted to.

I don't think he does.

But he doesn't want to.

I think he's done.

And I love it.

I love that he's done.

He's grown over $300,000 fee.

Wow.

That's crazy.

Do you think that's right?

No.

Unpaid fees and brief reign is undisputed.

It doesn't matter.

He's the fucking champion.

You can't take the guy's belt

because he's not willing to give you money.

Fuck you.

He won.

He won, fuck off.

Fuck off.

He won.

Well, now I see there is there going to be a new boxing promotion.

I'm Zepha.

Zepha?

Yes.

So the UFC is doing something with the Saudis.

And they are, I think they're launching their first event

in January.

I think they're launching their first event the night before

the big UFC on Paramount event.

So it'll be the 23rd.

Yes.

I don't think they've announced anything in terms of the card

who's going to be on it.

I mean, that's not a lot of time.

You know, that's only not even a month from now.

So I don't even understand how they're doing that.

But they're probably going to do the same thing

that Riyadh season is doing.

You know.

Which is really smart.

Yeah.

Riyadh season is great.

I mean, it's putting guys into that next level category

of, hey, you are a star.

Mm-hmm.

You just have to be right there.

Turkey all shake is throwing crazy money

with these people for a lot of these guys.

Oh, yeah.

They deserve it.

Oh, they definitely do.

But it's, you know, if you do that,

you're going to get people to fight that would avoid each other

or ordinarily.

You know.

And, you know, we've seen that already.

The Saudis have already been able to do that.

Get guys to fight.

And, you know, you're going to put on the most exciting fights.

You're going to put on the best matchups.

And so I think the UFC is trying to do that same kind of model

and now that the Saudis own Ring Magazine.

So they have the Ring Magazine belt.

Which has always been the most prestigious belt, you know.

Like, there's always a bunch of different champions

in different way classes.

But if you're a fan of Ring Magazine, like I am,

when you would get Ring Magazine

and they would have the Ring Champion, you know,

with Marvin Hagler.

Like, well, that's the fucking champion.

That's him.

Yeah, that's it.

There might be a WBO guy out there, WBA guy out there.

But the reality is, that's the guy.

That's the guy.

And the boxing needs like a unified champion thing like that.

So like, when you see Terrence in there with like five belts,

like, it's great that he's got all those belts.

But why?

It should be one belt.

It should be like, this is the Super Middleweight Champion

of the fucking planet, period.

Fuck all your sanctioning bodies.

That's the guy.

That's it.

One belt is all he needs.

And they all different colors, too.

They're all cool looking.

I mean, it's cool that he's got them all.

I mean, you go where his living room is probably dope.

The Instagram is of the cool.

Yeah, it looks great.

We look great when he was in the ring.

And he's, you know, got them on his shoulders and shit.

One of his waist.

And I wonder if they fight over who gets to be on the waist, you know.

Like, I'll give you an extra 100 grand if you put on your waist, you know.

But the reality is it's like the belt doesn't mean anything.

The fighter means something.

And when we all know who the champ is, we all know it's Terrence.

If this other guy gets the belt, like, okay.

You didn't beat Terrence Crawford.

So you're not really the 168 pound champion.

But isn't that hard?

Do you think for a box like that is that a hard shadow to live in?

Or do you think it's a shadow to, or is that labeled as a shadow?

You know, because Terrence leaves.

And then you step up.

Well, that's different.

When Terrence leaves, if he, if he gives up all the belts,

and he really does decide to totally leave, which I'm not totally convinced.

Because I think he wanted, they wanted to him to have a rematch with Canelo.

And they, I think he threw a big number at them.

This is all I'm reading rumors online.

I don't know what's, see if you find out what, if that's true.

Did they offer, did Terrence Crawford demand like a certain amount for Canelo Alvarez rematch?

Because he's coming in soon, I'll ask him in person.

But I feel like you could probably entice him for one more big fight.

Probably could.

You know, one more big fight at 68.

Or maybe even at 54.

I mean, really, you could fight at 47.

I mean--

When do you, when do you think there comes a point where people need to just stop?

And like, you know, there, there's always going to be money thrown at you.

But when you come up, when do you think there's a point that like--

It's different from the person, you know?

Yeah, so here it is right here.

So Bernie Davis revealed that Terrence Crawford's price for a Canelo rematch

and it's massive according to Davis.

Crawford won't return to the ring with Canelo Alvarez unless he's paid $100 million.

And he deserves it.

Rightfully so.

Crawford earned $50 million for the first fight in September.

But after a tactical low-action bout that disappointed many fans,

fuck off, who the fuck did that disappoint?

Who did that disappoint?

Right, you got to be a casual of that disappointed you, tactical low-action bout.

Blah!

Who wrote that?

For this.

I don't know, fuck off.

I think I can write a better one than this.

I think boxing has some very disrespectful journalists.

I see some disrespectful shit they write about boxers.

Go back to that little thing when it's out there.

So anyway, pressure now on Turkey all shake to decide whether the rematch is worth that kind of money.

Fans are already calling for other opponents, Benavides, Betabeev, Beavol, Fighters they believe,

bring real action.

Oh, so this is kind of a disrespectful.

It's kind of messed up.

Real action.

Why are they messing with us?

They do that a lot.

There's a lot of shit talking and boxing.

Which I guess is fine.

I like that there's not that much of that in MMA.

MMA is much more respectful.

Really standard and respectful.

Yeah.

And that guy deserves everything.

He's one of the greatest to ever do it.

And one of the best switch hitters in the history of the sport.

Are you putting him above Floyd?

It's hard.

It's, you know, it's hard.

You know, they they never fought each other, which I think would have been amazing.

They're both in their prime at the same time.

That would have been fantastic to watch.

Is any Floyd supposed to fight Mike?

How much?

Yes.

I think I'm certain.

But I mean, I feel like that's going to be like Floyd versus or excuse me like Mike versus Roy or like Mike versus Logan.

It kind of looks more like a firing.

It looks more like sparring really than a fight fight.

How is how is Floyd going to fight Mike Tyson?

Have you ever have you ever spoke to Mike Tyson?

Yeah.

I've had him on a couple of times.

Yeah.

He's my favorite.

Bro, he's when he was in his prime, there was nobody like him.

There was nobody like him.

Because he had that speed.

That speed.

And that's something that you have.

The speed of a, of a lighter person in the frame of a heavyweight is an extraordinary gift.

Because so many of these heavyweights, man, they got big power.

But like Francis, big power.

But they don't move like a lightweight guy.

They don't move like 170 pound guy.

When Mike was in his prime, he was so fast.

You could see guys trying to calculate and calibrate.

Because it was different.

They were used to fighting heavyweights.

And all of a sudden you got this guy bobbing and weaving and moving towards you.

And you were like, ah!

It's crazy.

Your brain is being overloaded with all the possibilities.

It was just, it was a totally different thing, man.

He's by far my favorite.

Oh, yeah.

In his prime, he's the most extraordinary heavyweight that ever existed.

Because it was, every show was an execution.

It wasn't like, you know, oh my god, is Mike going to lose this one?

No, in his prime, it was just all executions.

And I think the best thing about that, like being popular back in the day,

like he was such a big time fighter.

I was watching a lot of videos like Will Smith and Magic Johnson were sewing up

and Jordan and stuff.

Oh yeah.

You know how crazy it is nowadays that we have social media that you don't have to go

and watch someone live.

But back then, when you see the videos of Michael Jackson in this hotel

and you look out and it's like, wow, it's Michael Jackson.

That wow factor is super cool.

And he had that.

Oh yeah.

To the highest degree.

Yeah.

Everybody dressed up in the best clothes.

They all showed up.

Chains on, watches on everything.

It was an event to be seen at.

And if you were one of the people that was ringside.

Like you were, you know, you were an elite celebrity.

And that was, you know, the Mike Tyson era.

That was, I mean, it was different.

It was different than, it was different than any other heavyweight,

like since Ali.

So you had Ali and then Larry Holmes, who doesn't get the credit that he deserves.

He was fantastic.

So I watched him.

Amazing.

Amazing fighter.

But he lived in the shadow of Ali.

You know, and a lot of people hated him too, because he beat up Ali when Ali was already done.

Yeah.

That was tough to watch.

And, you know, he had been Ali's sparring partner when Ali was younger.

You know, and so, and everybody knew how good Larry Holmes was.

And everybody knew that Muhammad Ali was, you know, his older.

What's that?

Would you do that if he was a sparring partner for your homey?

And that's got to be a difficult combo.

Because you burn, you burn a bridge.

Yeah.

You burn a bridge with the whole society.

And the part of it is like you kind of have to, right?

Because if you are the heavyweight champion of the world and they want to set up a fight with Muhammad Ali,

Muhammad Ali wants to fight you and they want to give you $10 million.

And it's going to be on TV and everybody's hyped up about it.

Like, what are you going to do?

Say, no, I won't fight him.

I'm going to relinquish my crown.

What are you going to do?

Like, I don't, I don't know if he had any opportunity to do anything other than fight him.

Like, he was, Muhammad Ali was so beloved, not just as one of the greatest fighters of all time,

but also as a cultural figure that watching that man beat him up like that.

Just beat the shit out of Ali.

And then seeing Ali afterwards when he was, he had the shakes and he had Parkinson's.

And everybody knew that that was trauma-related Parkinson's and knowing that Larry Holmes dished out a lot of that.

I think in a lot of people's mind that always, and I think that this day is why Larry Holmes does not get the credit that he deserves.

He had one of the greatest jabs in the history of the sport.

Crazy, I just saw a video that he was flicking it.

Even when he fought Mike, when he fought Mike, he was way past his prime.

You know, he had been out for a long time.

Mike did his thing.

And, but, you know, there was a round in that fight where Larry Holmes was popping that jab where it made you think,

like, man, what would this fight have been like if Larry was in his prime?

You know, it would have been very interesting.

I think Mike was on another level though.

He was, when I see him, he just had the veins.

That was, that's my like wild for people.

He was just, he was a speedy tank.

And just the skill too.

And also that style, that peekaboo style was just so different than anything else anybody was doing.

So it was so hard to prepare for.

You got, most of these heavyweight boxes were standing straight up, you know, they threw on jabs and moving,

like forming or moving like Ken Norton or whoever they were.

But mom and Ali, you know, was the only guy that moved like a lighter guy.

He was different.

But Mike Tyson was crouching and bobbing and weaving and coming out.

It was a totally different thing to prepare for.

You can't prepare for something like that.

That's like when someone is too athletic.

That's like preparing for my was Garrett right now.

You just can't.

He's going to have 25 sex this year.

It's like, how do you prepare for something like that besides try to psych yourself and then maybe I can do it.

But you know, this is not going to happen.

There's always going to be freaks.

There's always going to be these athletic freaks.

They can just do things that no one else can do.

Now there's more than, now there's even more because when you see high school football guy,

six, five, two, two, eighty one in Ohio State.

People are bigger, also people are doing things for their kids at an early age to optimize their growth

and making sure that they come out bigger and stronger and faster.

Getting them training younger, strength and conditioning and you know,

plyometrics and shit when they're real young to get them prepared for things.

I mean, look, you know, Vasilie Lomachenko.

Yes.

So that guy, man, he was fast.

That dude's dad took him out of boxing for two years to have him learn Ukrainian dance

so that he had better footwork and he was dancing on people.

Oh, my God.

I watch his highlights on Instagram.

Footwork was insane.

Who's six the same?

Mm-hmm.

Same coach.

Who's six the same person?

Same coach.

I really like who's six.

Yeah, oh my God.

Who's six.

He's crazy.

Again, one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.

And not a big guy either, you know.

He just knows where to go and when to go.

Which is nice.

What's also always constantly moving.

He's never right in front of you.

He's constantly stepping and stepping and stepping.

And, you know, he's setting you up and he's always like downloading and calculating your movements

and your reactions and things.

It's so skillful.

That to me is the most beautiful thing about boxing is that someone could stand in the fire

and be so skillful that like Crawford.

I mean, standing right in front of a canal, there was one point in the fight where he was pity patting him.

His Lomachenko when he was in his prime.

Like, the movement was bananas.

And it was just his ease of footwork.

And it wasn't footwork like trying to get away from you.

It was footwork standing right in front of you and stepping off to the side and cracking.

Like that kind of shit.

Like these angles is just, unless you have tried to do that, you don't know how ridiculously difficult that is.

The conditioning on that is crazy.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, your legs have to be in peak form.

Super peak form.

It's just, there's so many guys out there that you could learn from by watching

and they set the bar so high.

And that is the difference between watching like Keith Hackney versus Emmanuel Yaburo, way back in 1993,

versus watching, you know, John Jones in 2025.

It's like we get to see now these guys that have seen it all, the Pewter Yons, the Iliotoporias, the Islam Makachevs.

You get to see the elite of the elite today.

And these young kids that are coming up now, they get to see that and learn from that and incorporate all these things.

And you're seeing these guys that are fighting on Dana White's contender series that are, they look like world championship caliber fighters.

And they're not even in the UFC yet.

Most definitely the lighter guys.

Yeah, there's so many good guys now.

But in the heavyweight division, it's still fairly shallow.

I know.

Where Gable comes in.

It's funny.

I think I heard you say shallow, about three times.

And you know, so in the most nicest way, because I like to be humble with the words.

And I like to like to talk with the confidence.

I really think I can go out there and do right by this big promotion and go out there and it's be fantastic.

I think you can too.

And I think you can do what Mike Tyson did, which is revitalize the heavyweight division.

Because I mean, other than John, who's of course a superstar, but he's kind of semi retired.

And that's when all serial gaunthing was a fucking disaster.

I mean, Tom Aspinall still can't see.

He's got a fucked up right eyeball still.

It's really bad, right?

I mean, the reality is he might not ever fight again.

Like who knows?

Like if he has surgery on his eye and it doesn't go well and he can't see out of the eye.

Apparently he's still fucked up in his right eye.

There's some tendon damage or something.

And you know, eyes are so tricky.

You never know.

Like unless you're a fucking complete psychopath like Michael Bisping, who fought 11 fights in the UFC blind in one eye,

which is so crazy that he did that.

Do you know what he did that crazy motherfucker?

What did he do?

He memorized the eye chart.

Like he memorized it so that he could put a, they could cover his left eye.

Oh my god.

And he could just, so whenever he went to do an eye exam, he knew the letters.

They would say, all right, read the third chart and he would say, uh, a b c d.

He knew what their letters were.

Oh, he's smart.

He's crazy.

Oh, he's smart.

He couldn't fucking see out of one of his eyes and still fought world class fighters.

So I think 11 fights he had only been able to see out of one eye.

Yeah.

I'm not really sure how to, how to engage with the eye talk on time.

Aspenal.

But I think he's a, I think it's a fantastic fighter.

I think God.

We need to engage with the art.

You know, I feel like getting poked in the eye sucks.

And I, I just don't know how he feels that he got, you know what I'm saying.

So I'm not, we don't know what he was experiencing.

Yeah.

And nobody, and nobody ever knows.

But, you know, critics are going to go online and say, say X, Y and Z.

But I'm just going to stand in middle ground.

I say, I think Tom, Tom's a fantastic fighter.

Um, a serial is great.

Also, and I think a lot of them are also great.

Also, you're going to, you're going to always say it's really shallow.

And I believe it's shallow too.

And I believe I can go out there and, and do the best I can and really dominate, um, when I need to.

But, um, just, just when, when I see Tom Aspenal, you know, Tom Aspenal reminds me of a guy from Turkey

that I wrote to the Olympics.

He was a 2016 Olympic champ.

His name is Taha Aguil.

He was 64, same size as, um, same size as Tom.

Same build, same everything.

And I went out there and I beat him eight to zero.

And I was in his face for that six minutes.

And I let him know that, that I was here.

And I feel like in that instance, that's when the tights change.

And I feel like what the guy like Tom, I think, um, I look at him as like a guy like Taha Aguil.

You know, he's on top.

He's the leader.

You know, he's still fresh.

But I think there's a, there's another hungry guy that's going to come.

And, and hopefully it's me that's going to come and go out there and, and do what I need to do.

Well, listen, I hope Tom gets back in because again, we don't know really what's going on with his eye.

And for all the critics, you need to know there's the right eye.

That's the problem.

But if you look at when he fought his left eye, the finger went deeper in his left eye than it does right eye.

So if you think he's faking it, he was knuckle deep in that fucking left eye.

He was all up in that eye.

Yeah, I mean, it's horrible to see to undergrow multiple eye surgeries, multiple eye surgeries.

And, and that's horrible.

By the time the statement goes out, I probably have surgery on one eye already.

Next surgery is coming mid-January.

Next surgery.

So he's having surgery on both eyes?

You know, it's, it's really messed up.

But I think the way the, the post-fight interview went, um, because I like the, I like to look at how, how people approached the world also too.

And he was in just, just upset how the people are reacting, you know, saying, "Why the fuck are you booing? Why are you doing this?"

I mean, there could have been a, there could have been a great approach to that of him saying, "Man, you know, I got my eye poked, but I'm going to come back stronger from this."

Well, the problem is people are always going to doubt you when you get poked in the eye.

You know, there's always going to be a bunch of people like, "Oh, you're fine."

Because people have gotten poked in the eye and they have continued fighting.

But is that smart?

It's a foul. First of all, I think every time a guy gets poked in the eye, one point deduction immediately, instantly.

Maybe even two points.

You should never do that to a person, never.

One thing you notice about PewDiePie on this fight with Mirab, he fights like this. His hand is in a fist.

So when he's got his hand up like this and the, the front hand is extended, he's not doing that.

He's kind of guiding you.

Yeah, honestly.

Well, he's letting you know this motherfucker's coming, you know, and he's also like in a shell, very well protected.

By having that one hand up like that and having that shoulder, he's got the chin blocked.

And then he's doing this with this hand.

It's a very good defensive position, also very skillful because he's so good defensively in terms of his movement

and the way he's able to roll with punches and get out of the way in time.

But he never pokes in the eye, he's not doing that.

Serial gun is a habit of doing that.

Why do you think that is?

You could speculate.

You could speculate all day long.

You could say he wants to do it, you know.

I mean, ask John, John spoke people in the eyes.

He does it all the time.

Yeah.

I mean, even if you would have took the points from him, he would have won.

Yeah.

I know it's just, it's one of those things.

It's like, here's a problem.

Why are the fingers out in the first place?

Like, why don't they cover that shit up?

Like, why don't they have it like one of those ever last bag gloves?

Like, where it's like a mitt?

Yeah.

I mean, have the thumb out because you don't grapple with these anyway.

You don't do this.

You never do this.

So why do the fingers have to be loose?

If you grapple, you're grappling like this or like this.

Like, if you're clenching your hands together,

you're never clenching your hands together like this.

You never interlace your fingers together.

So why the fuck are they open in the first place when it only causes problems?

If they developed an MMA glove that covered the tips of the fingers,

like a mitten, we would have way less problems with this shit.

You'd occasionally probably have a thumb in the eye every now and again,

but you would have at least eight less possibilities for each fight of things going into your eye.

True.

It just makes sense.

And it wouldn't hinder grappling.

You just have a thin piece of leather that, you know,

the padding goes over the knuckles, the piece of leather goes over the tip of the fingers,

and have it come down like this like a mitten.

But it's not hard to design.

If it was a mitten, and I'm on top, and I grab wrist control,

do you think the leather of the mitten sticks harder?

Probably.

Yeah, probably aid grappling.

They probably make fights better.

They probably do stuff like you'd probably be able to get more takedowns.

Maybe.

I don't know, man.

Maybe when the leather gets wet, maybe it becomes slippery like a finger.

We'd have to find out.

But at least we would have less eye pokes.

And it's not going to hinder the striking at all.

There's no need to have these fingers exposed like this.

No, there's no need.

But two great fighters.

I mean, accidents happen.

Accidents happen, and also purposeful fouls happen.

And I'm not saying that Zero Gone did it on purpose.

But he did it like five times in that fight.

I rewatched that fight a couple of times.

And every time Aspenal came towards him, he was doing this.

Every time, fingers outstretched, pointed towards the face.

It's just, it's illegal.

You're not supposed to ever do that.

Your fist should always be balled up when it's moving towards your opponent's face.

But we don't have to have these goddamn fingers covered like that.

Or open like that.

They should be covered.

It's not impossible to do.

It could be really easy to design a glove like that.

I don't understand for the life of me how the sports have been around since 1993.

And no one has introduced gloves like that.

True.

Now you're right.

A really good thing I wanted to ask you is for someone new coming in to a sport that a lot of people know.

How do you think they should bridge the popularity of the sport and also the real life of who the person is?

I might be saying this in a hard way.

No, I know what you're saying.

How do you think they should, because you know, I've been around a lot of people.

But you know, it always gets bigger.

And it always gets bigger.

And how do you, how do you bridge that gap of keeping that same mind frame of like, man, you know, I'm the guy, but I need to reset.

I always need to reset.

I need to make sure.

Yeah.

Well, it's going to be dependent upon you, right?

And it's going to be a rocket ride that you're on.

And the pressure and just the overall like not being able to go to the mall is going to be weird.

You know, it's going to get weird.

It'll get weird.

You know, you're going to get mobbed at the airport.

It's going to get weird.

And you know, you're going to have to, you're going to have to figure out a way to have your own private time.

That's very important.

When guys never have private time, they're always surrounded by people.

And you could lose yourself.

You could lose your way.

And just fame itself, fame itself is very complicated.

It's very complicated for people, especially for fighters.

When your entire identity relies on the way other people perceive you, that's not good.

It feels good when you're on top because everybody's like, oh, there's cable.

He's a fucking man.

Well, you're the man.

You're the man.

But if you rely on other people's opinions of you for your self-esteem and your self-worth,

then the moment you have a stumble, you know, what if you get eye-poked?

You know, what if you get eye-poked?

And then also a cable's a bitch.

A cable foot and you're like, what?

And you're dealing with the opinions of morons and they're affecting your own feelings about yourself.

And then there's all the other pressures that come with money and people trying to scam you

and business deals and bullshit and this and that.

And they want you to do movies and that kind of shit.

You know, like, look, that's the, that's the, the bane of fighters' existence

when Hollywood gets involved.

That kind of, in a lot of ways, led to the client of Ronda Rousey and a lot of ways, Conor McGregor.

The people start fucking, you know, throwing everything at you.

You're doing cell phone commercials and all this different shit.

And that stuff gets in the way.

Yeah.

It gets in the way of your training.

But it also gets in the way of your ability to have that deep pressure time,

to be yourself and to be alone with your thoughts, which I think is very important

just to solidify your own, your own understanding of who you are as a human being.

You know, and you don't want to be defined by other people's opinions and perceptions.

And then there's also like, the UFC does a fantastic job of showing who a fighter really is.

Yes.

You know, the countdown series, you know, the UFC embedded series.

So when they're doing stuff like that and you get to see this person interacting with their family,

going through training camp, going through the weight cut, and you get to see who they are,

joking around with people, hanging out with their friends, laughing.

That's important too, because people really want to relate to you.

You know, they don't want this guy who just appears, you know, every five months.

You don't know shit about him and then all of a sudden there he is in the ring again.

And you know, you're putting all these things on him and imagining what he's like.

The more they can get to see behind the curtain, the better it is for you.

Especially if you're a good person and you're an interesting person and they get to see,

it's also inspiring for people.

They like you like to talk about yourself like you're a regular guy.

You put your shoes on one foot at a time, like everybody else.

But like, wow, look at the greatness this regular guy can accomplish.

Sure.

Maybe I can do this.

Maybe I can do something like that.

Maybe in whatever I'm doing in life, whatever if I'm a fucking skier or whatever, whatever your job is.

Maybe I can be great and be a normal person like this guy is.

True.

No, 100%.

Well, that's a fantastic answer.

Because you know, I just feel like at some point I'll get to that spot.

You know, of like, how do I know if someone's not real?

How do I know if someone is in that space of things, and there's leeches.

There's bad people.

So, you know, it's always a nice thing to have someone that has surpassed that level that you can finally see and be like,

man, like how did you?

Well, John's a great guy to talk to about that.

Most obviously, John's had his stumbles.

Which is, you know, when people talk about John and the things that John's got in trouble with, I'm like, listen.

Do you want a wild motherfucker or not?

Okay.

If you want a guy to be the greatest of all time in fucking cage fighting, he's going to be wild.

That's one of the reasons why he's great.

When John was, what is he, 22 years old when he won the title?

23.

Mauricio Shogun, who was an all-time great pride legend, he opens the fight with a flying knee.

Who does that?

Who does?

You gotta be wild.

You gotta be crazy.

You gotta be a wild fella.

That's John.

I mean, and you know, obviously there's stuff he shouldn't have done.

There's, you know, a lot of extra curricular activities, a lot of partying.

It's not healthy.

It's not good.

But that is what comes with being that kind of a guy.

And, you know, John could probably tell you more about this than anybody that's ever lived.

Like, what were the stumbles?

What could I have done differently?

And he probably could help prepare you more than anybody ever.

Mm-hmm, most definitely.

He's already kind of put a big foot into it in man.

He's amazing with a lot of things now.

You know, he talks so well now.

A lot of things are in a sense of he's trying to look out for me in business opportunities

and places that I need to go and it's amazing.

You know, a lot of people don't do that, especially when you see the peaks and valleys of that person

and their public info also.

And a lot of people don't want to give people the chance because you see something about someone

until you finally meet them.

And it's like, man, like, this guy's a whole different person.

You would have never expected.

And so, man, with John, he's just, he's just opened a lot of doors.

And kind of, he is doing that guiding of me.

Well, that's great, too, because John is essentially guiding his replacement, you know,

which is really hard for a lot of people to have that kind of self-awareness to know

that there's only a certain amount of time that I can do this for

and I see this young, great man who's coming up and I'm going to help him.

And I'm going to give him some advice that maybe it would have been amazing if someone gave me.

You know, because John didn't have some heavyweight champion training with him

that could teach him those things.

No, he's out of his mind.

Especially not someone at that level, the level that he's at.

Man, I know he's honored.

We're both honored.

Yeah.

He just, like I said, he called me today.

He was just, man, I really think you should just let the world know who you are

and just kind of get people the real feel of who you need to be.

Yeah.

And I've always loved to have, like, you just talked about it.

You don't see a better, you see the real human being.

And I've always liked people seeing a real human being because we all do shit the same way.

There's nothing special.

Some people just have more money.

Some people just have more status.

But at the end of the day, hopefully we can all sleep in a bed.

And I know some people don't, which is, which is sad to see.

But it's just, some people live different lives.

And I want to live a life where it's happy and healthy with the people I have.

And I can meet so many people.

And I feel like I'm doing a great job right now.

So, man, any input I can get on how to be better, how to be more mature, how to be more sound.

Especially from John, I'm getting a lot, but from, to hear from you.

You know, you get different perspectives of you were in a different realm than, than, than John also.

But you guys are also in the same place. You like you do the podcast and John's semi retired.

But you see the, you see the two different lives of, of two different, real respected people.

Well, the, the mindset that you have to really want to acquire that information and really sort it out and know that these, these challenges are coming your way.

The, the money and the fame and all that stuff is the thing that everybody focuses on.

But really, the focus is on excellence.

- Mm-hmm. - Excellence is what brings you the money.

Excellence is what brings you the fame.

And the moment you start thinking about the fame and the money and not thinking about the excellence, you've lost your way.

- Mm-hmm. - You've lost your way. And a lot of people lose their way.

- Mm-hmm. - A lot of people, that money and that fame, that, it starts coming.

And also, and you're just thinking about numbers, you're thinking about the house you're going to buy and the car you're going to drive and all that stupid shit.

And you lose your way.

And, you know, one of the things that I always try to tell people, I try to tell those young comedians, especially, is that, think of the attention that you have, like, it has a number value.

Like, the attention, like, let's imagine, like, if you had $100, you know you can only spend $100.

Let's imagine your mind only has 100 units of focus.

- Mm-hmm. - You have 100 units of focus.

Any focus that you have on other shit outside of the thing that brings you excellence is just robbing from excellence.

- Mm-hmm. - That's all it is.

Hey, if you're concentrating on haters on social media, or if you got a crazy bitch in your life that's ruining everything, or you got some friend who's a hater, and you think he's, like, maybe, like, hoping you fail,

like, all that stuff that's distracting, and it's just robbing attention from excellence, you know, and some of it's unavoidable, and some of it actually strengthens your resolve to have a certain amount of, like, shit in your life.

Just to understand how to maintain and still be excellent despite of all that is probably some resilience building that comes from that.

But protect your focus. It's precious. Protect your time. Protect that energy that you have to invest in things.

It's so precious. The mind, your focus, and your drive, that is everything in your life. That's everything.

Anything that steals from that, I remember this was one fighter, and he was a very good fighter that was fighting and pride, and he had this crazy girlfriend. And every time he was going to fight, like, the day before the fight, the girl would start fought problems.

And she would start fights, and she'd, and she'd left the hotel, like, one o'clock in the morning and went down to the bar, she wanted him to fail.

She wanted to be more important than his fighting career, and his fighting career was so important and so overwhelming that she felt like she wasn't getting the attention that she needed.

So she would go get attention from him, and she would steal from him and brought, and it was crazy in this guy, and he never wanted to be in a champion.

It was a very talented guy too. I don't want to say his name, but it was one of those things where it's like, man, there are people in your life, you got to recognize when you're dealing with that kind of a person.

You got to recognize that. You got to cut them out. You got to get rid of them. They're stealing. They're stealing from your focus. They're stealing from your ability to create excellence. And that's what you're in the business of.

You're in the business of excellence, and anybody is trying to steal from that. Those are liabilities. That's like, you got to hold on the bottom of your boat. You got to patch that shit up.

It's just like Mike Tyson kind of said. Once you're favored by God, you're also favored by the devil too.

That's so true too. The temptations will come. And then also you start believing your own bullshit. Look at John when he wasn't training. Luckily for John, he was so much better than everybody in the division that all it took was a re-adjustment.

Like the Dominic Reyes fight. He almost lost that fight, you know. And Dominic Reyes, as great as he was that night, should not have been beating John Jones. I think John Jones with like a real focus and a real like real drive towards destroying Dominic Reyes would be on another level.

I think so too. He is the best guy to be in your corner, man, because he's made all the mistakes and still come out to go. Like who better to tell you how to do it right.

There's no one better man, probably the greatest, of course, the greatest by far. What do you do for chill time? Like what do you do to unwind?

Honestly right now, I like Hall of Duty. I play a lot of war zone. Ronnie, Ronnie 2K, you know who that is? Did you make the basketball game? Okay.

So I got my own player on 2K. And it says like, so when I load into the game, it says my real name. And then you're playing, the people know you're playing against me. So I'm playing Call of Duty or 2K.

I mentioned before the French Bulldogs. I mean, I like to take care of friends Bulldogs. I feel like Jamie's got one. You do? Yeah, always so cute.

So the bottom what? We didn't know. We didn't know you were in the French Bulldogs. So I had sadly I two pass away. I had, I just had one pass away.

He had IVDD and his neck. And that's a bad. It's a, it's a disc disease that happens in French Bulldogs because they're, they're bread so bad.

And so my, my first one had it in his back. He was playing all day. And then I turned and he was like paralyzed in an instant. And I was like, oh man, like that's not good.

So I had to put him down. Oh, that's horrible. And then I adopted one after this is like, I adopted one a year ago.

He just passed away a couple weeks ago. His name was Archie, my little guy. He had it in his neck. And I had him on painkillers for like six months.

And I, and I looked in one day, he kind of rolled wrong and he kind of yelped again. And I was like, we got to take him in.

Oh, that's horrible. So it's bad. You know, I got, I got bad attachments to friends Bulldogs. Like they're like my, since I'm having a real baby now, that's like my second baby.

You're going to be amazed how much you love your real baby more than you love your dogs. As much as I love my dogs, it's just, there's another level.

Oh, it's beyond. It doesn't even compare. One of my dogs went to surgery today. He had a hernia. He had a hernia. I have a golden retriever and I have a King Charles Spaniel.

He's the cutest old dog. He's so fucking cute. He's seven months old. And he was born with a little hernia. It's like some of them get that little hernia.

So they had to stitch him up. And but it's when I was playing with him last night, I was so scared. I was like, what does something happens to him?

Like I can't, I can't take it. You know, because I love him so much. He's so sweet. He just like when he like pick him up, he like kisses me like constantly.

And he makes noise and sometimes he barks while he's kissing you. And you're going to have to do a little tails wagging. He wags his tail with his whole body.

Like his whole body is wiggling all over. Yeah. I just want to go after the ears. Yeah. He doesn't like you would like to put a whole nibble on the ear and then he's with side. And then he was with his eyes.

Yeah, I'm like, let me, let me live for a little bit. But I'm the, I'm his whole world. Yeah. And I feel like sometimes we forget that.

Yeah. Well, they're little love devices. They just, they just want love from you and they want to give you love. They never have bad days.

They're, they're, they're never shitty. They're never in a bad mood. They're always cool. You know, every day is the same thing.

Every day I see him in the morning, I'm like, good morning. And these were crazy. And you just, I get on the ground with them on the carpet.

Just let them roll all over. I love dogs. If, you know, if it was up to me, I'd have 50 dogs. I also can make them live longer. I know.

Making them live longer be crazy. Like, like cats are like 20 years. Why can a dog be 20 years?

Well, I think they are working on that. I think there's actual startups right now that are working on animal longevity. And they're very cool.

Yeah. They're, they're working on different medical interventions that can allow dogs to live longer, which is fascinating.

Sometimes people, they clone their dogs. Tom Brady just did that. Yeah. I don't know how he did it, but I mean, that's weird.

Hey, have a good time. That's a pet cemetery. Shit. That is. That might be a hereditary. Yeah, I don't know if I'm into that.

I don't know. I feel about that. I feel like every dog has their own unique personality. And as much as I love the dogs that I have now,

like, look, I had my dog, Marshall. He's almost nine or he just turned nine, rather. And I've had him since he was a puppy. I love him to death.

But then I got this new dog, Charlie. And I love him to death too. He's a totally different personality. Like, I don't mind new dogs and new personalities.

I don't need the same dog over and over and over again. You know what I mean? I think that's weird. You should try a friend's bulldog. They got like 12 different personalities.

I love Carl. Jamie brings Carl and he's a little psycho. He got too many personalities. Oh, he runs at you and just wants to play.

They got that bowling ball ahead. I know. He's he's a little ball muscle too. Carl's jacked Carl. And he's built and stacked.

And he's a picture. He got pictures of him. Pull up a picture of Carl. He's adorable. He plays at my golden. And he just like throws himself like a meat missile at my golden.

Because my golden is like so gentle, which is great because the, you know, Charlie is only 15 pounds my little dog.

And so my golden is like plant. And he like gently puts a paw over when they play. That's Carl. Look at that face. Look at that in a face.

I just know he does everything extra. Oh, yeah. Look, no sleep. He's really nice. He's he's adorable. But when he plays with Marshall, it's really crazy.

We got a video of him. Did you get his nose done? Nope. No, he's just wow. That's perfect. That's really good. Some of them have fucked up noses. Well, they come out, they come out like this. Oh, no.

And then they can't breathe. And so they breathe out their mouth. And sometimes they got to get. It's like solder. Mm-hmm. Big clean that out like they make like a bigger hole. It's awful. But some of them have it where like you have to go in and kind of help the.

The that's off against because they're faces flat. So you got to help like the back and kind of cut it to where the it can go down the pipe. Oh, no.

Crazy. Crazy. I wish people I was so dogs could live forever. Those dogs got a million different characters. I know.

Well, I love all kinds of dogs, man. I love working dogs. I love German shepherds and Belgian malmons and can't course so be cool. They're a little dangerous.

That's what I'm hearing. They only load a one person. They don't like to listen. Yeah, whenever my my boy Mark De La Gratte from sit young sit your tongue. Muay Thai.

He coached a lot of UFC fighters coach Kenny Florian. Great Muay Thai coach. Great guy works for the UFC. He had a connoisseur. They had to put him down.

Bit his hand. Like they don't down on him. Yeah, and he had it for years. I don't know where. Well, you know who's testing them. Like sometimes those dogs and not all of them, but some of them they will test you.

You know, and you just can't have a dog that's biting you. No, because what else and what about your kid? Yeah, what about your wife? Yeah, facts. What if it bites the mailman? It's like never know. Yeah, when it's just like those and it's not all of them.

Like I've had pit bulls and I never had a pit bull that wanted even wanted to bite a person. They were always like the sweetest with people. But then you hear stories.

You hear stories. Crazy. I know. Because how can I go online and see a pit bull just not letting go of somebody, but all of a sudden the next video, I see a pit bull wearing a Christmas sweater with.

Paul shoes on. I know so it's weird. I know it doesn't make any sense, but it's looks like people. Some people are born crazy. Some people are born crazy. Yeah, are you big and anything like what do you believe in conspiracy wise? What's your big one right?

Don't open up big door. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yo, I love this one conspiracy. My dad, my dad's die hard conspiracy. If you and him had a talk. Uh oh. What is this big one? What's the big one for them?

I don't need you know, but I know he's really, but I think the biggest one right now. Um, he just said it, but I don't even know. I don't even want to say it wrong. But that's my thing, but I'm big on conspiracy. What is the subject? Do you remember the subject?

Some about I don't I don't even want to say it. Okay. I don't even want to say it right now. Okay. We'll talk off air. Yeah. Okay. But I believe there's a lot of things we don't know as people. And I believe there's a lot of.

The lot of conspiracies are real. That's the that's the problem. The problem with conspiracy theories is some of them are crazy and ridiculous. But the reason why people entertain crazy and ridiculous ones is because some of them are real and they're so nuts.

That you go. They did what? When you just when you find out about US history alone, you know, you find out that the reason why we got into Vietnam was. I don't know. It's called the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was supposedly the North Vietnamese, the Viet Cong attacked one of our ships. But it was fake. They faked it. It's not real. It's called a false flag. And they did it just to have a story so that we would have an excuse to invade Vietnam.

So we sent all those people to be a number nothing. A lot of people died for nothing. A lot of people died for nothing. And a lot of people made a lot of fucking money. And it probably had to do with drugs too because that's they were moving heroin at a Viet.

I mean, there was control of the heroin trade was a big part of it. There was also why one of the reasons why we were in Afghanistan.

While we were in Afghanistan, heroin production in Afghanistan was 94% of the world's heroin. What does it ramped up? Why have we invaded Afghanistan? It went up heroin production. Not only did it go up, but we were guarding poppy fields for the Taliban.

Why do we need a guard for the farmers rather? Why do you need the guard them? Well, are we using some medical here?

Or they're just getting used to fucking money. It's money. There's dirty money that gets moved around for sure. When you deal with something like the drug trade and billions of dollars are going all over the way, people want a piece of that.

And there's high level people that are dirty. And they get involved in that and they make decisions based on that. And they put people's lives at risk.

And people die because of it. And that probably happened in Afghanistan and definitely happened in Vietnam. And people don't want to believe that.

People are hearing this right now. Oh, stop with that nonsense. But it's true. I mean, there's a video of Geraldo Rivera interviewing these military guys that were guarding poppy fields in Afghanistan.

And the guy who's interviewing is very reluctant to talk about it, but it was on Fox News. And he had to talk about it because everybody was aware of it. It was becoming a big conspiracy online.

And they were coming up with some sort of a rational reason why they needed to guard their heroin production.

Because we need them to tell on the Taliban and like, really? Really? So we're letting the farmers poison young people and heroin acts all over the world because we want them to give us information.

Is that really what's going on? Or are you motherfuckers making money out of this?

They got to be making a lot of money too. A lot of money. A lot of money. Well, I just saw a story about that guy from...

He was a football player from Australia. He was selling drugs. What was that story? He was... He's not from Australia. He went to USC, quarterback. He was selling drugs.

He was selling drugs out of an apartment in Australia for a cartel that was from Tijuana. I forgot his name. It's his quarterback. I feel like a lot of people know it.

Is it a real recent story? It's a real story. A recent story?

From recent from what I've seen, it might be a couple of years older. But yeah, he got caught because someone along the way was a middleman for a lot of wild true story behind cocaine quarterback, signal caller for the cartel.

And they said he was making like a million dollars a day. And he cashed and he was trying to move it through Las Vegas casinos.

But the middleman, someone messed up the bet and he lost the money so he had a loan money from someone and that someone was like a undercover waiting for him like a year later and caught him at a McDonald's before he went across the road to Tijuana or something.

It's crazy, yo. You know how drugs control a lot of things and it's messed up.

Well, it's the money. When you think about how much money gets moved around in the drug game and people get tempted by that.

And then, you know, you get a hold of some legitimate business man. You say, listen, there's a way for you to get 10x return on your money.

You know, you invest in this and we do that. It's simple. You'll never get dirty. All the money goes to offshore accounts. No one will know about it. You can retire when you're 45.

Crazy. And then people start getting ruptured and it's also it's the excitement of doing something naughty. That's part of it too. Some people just get, you know, like some people like to ride bulls.

Some people like to do some shit. They're not supposed to do. They get, they get addicted to doing things that they are not supposed to do. They get addicted to the life.

A DEA agents, a lot of DEA agents become drug dealers.

What's this like? That's so a knuckle is Mexico. Yes. That's the same thing. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.

Or cocaine cowboys. If you ever watched that documentary. No, what's that about? Amazing. Cocaine cowboys won and there's cocaine cowboys too.

There was so much corruption in Miami during the 1980s during the cocaine time that one graduating class of the police academy, the entire graduating class either wound up murdered or in jail.

How you do that? Because they were all corrupt. They were all involved in cocaine dealing. All of them because there was so much money.

Everybody's driving a Corvette. Everybody's living large. Everybody's doing blow and wearing diamonds. It's crazy.

It's like you get caught up in that life. And if you're involved in, like, as your police officer and everybody around you is dirty, you know, like you just more likely, you're going to be dirty too.

Now aren't they kind of blowing the Ecuadorian ships up that are coming to here that are having a lot of drugs on them? Yeah, Venezuela, right?

They're just blowing them up. I don't even know. I'm not educated on stuff like that. But I wonder if it's for to keep the trade here? No, I doubt it.

I think more likely what it is is because Trump genuinely hates that they're bringing drugs into this country. Is there other things involved too? I don't know.

I'm sure some of it has to do perhaps with politics. I mean, I think that's a reasonable assumption. But Jamie, I just sent you something.

Here's what's interesting. One of the things that Trump was saying is that poising our kids and that 100,000 people are dying every year from drug overdoses.

We have to put a stop to this. From the time Trump's been in office, deaths by overdose have dropped off a cliff. Look at that. Look at 2024.

And leading into 2025. Look at these are all deaths from overdoses. I mean, that's kind of crazy. Like, look at that. From all drugs, which is the top one, look at that drop. I mean, that's crazy.

So you see the peak in was in 2022, or it looks like actually 2023 and 2024. That's the peak where people are dying. And then from the time Trump's in office, it's taking a fucking sharp downturn.

And why is that? Part of it's because they're blowing up these fucking boats that are bringing in all the drugs. And not just drugs, but drugs that are tainted with fentanyl.

A fentanyl is terrible. Terrible. Because a little piece can kill you. Exactly. It's smaller than a penny and you're dead. And people are snorting lines of it. And they don't even know what's in there.

And the cartel, they're buying, you know, they're taking shitty drugs and mixing it with fentanyl. So it has an effect. And people are getting it from what they think is a Xanax. And it's not a Xanax. It's fake. And it's got fentanyl in it. And they're dying from that.

They're dying from coke. They think it's coke and fentanyl's in that. You know, it's horrible. There's so much access to things in this world right now that I feel like there's so many attainable things that people don't even think about that.

A lot of shit happens in this world that we just have no clue. And it's kind of weird. And I just don't know like kind of the variety that I'm bringing to the combo.

But I'm just saying I got just to say it, but it's different. There's like a social media. You can meet so many people and and just going to random places and meeting people and then you can get roped up in the wrong things and just the downhill of the downhill starts.

Yep. You take a bad turn. And next thing you know, you're on a bad road and you keep going. You're eventually I'm going to get out of this game and can't know. Then you're in jail or you're dead.

Ed Calderon has been on this podcast many times. He used to work for the Mexican military now as an American citizen, but he's a cartel expert and you know, the stories that he's told us about the fucking cartel, the amount of money they have.

I mean, they essentially they have giant military operations to all cartel. The cart and they go to war with each other. It's crazy.

Is it Pablo Escobar that had the money in the walls of his house? I mean, probably I don't know who died and he buried it all over in different places.

I'm sure they all do that. I'm sure Escobar did that. I think they all do that. They probably they have so much that was one of the things of cocaine cowboys was this pilot.

They had millions of dollars buried in his backyard who just take garbage bags fill it with millions of dollars of cash. Dig a big hole in the backyard and bury it there because you couldn't bring into a bank.

Why not just give it away? I'll fuck it away because they're doing coke and they want more money. They just don't know what to do with it, you know, and they can't just have it all laying around their house and someone will break in their house and kill them and take their money. It's like then it's over with.

It is a crazy game, but I can't recommend that documentary enough cocaine cowboys. You'll watch it. You go, what the fuck?

I'm sure it's on everything. It might even be on Netflix, but it's incredible because you realize like, wow, like cocaine built Miami. Miami had more banks per capita. I don't know if it still does, but at one point in time, more banks per capita than any other city in the country. And it's because those banks were laundering money.

They were laundering cocaine money. It was all coming in and Miami never sleeps either. So it was all night affair. Yeah, that is a crazy fucking town. That is not a good town if you want to be a fighter and live like a low key discipline.

No, you can all of a sudden you're here. Then you end up here that all of a sudden is 8 a.m. Right? You're at the beach at 12. Can't be right. No, can't write. That's a dark hole that a lot of people should not be in, but how do you get out though? I don't know. Ask John.

He seems to have navigated those waters better than anybody because usually it ruins everything in your life. He's obviously had some missteps, but still comes out the greatest, which is not everybody's path.

But obviously John is smart in that he spends a lot of time doing the things that he wants to do, spends a lot of time training his dog, doing tactical stuff, shooting guns and training. You got to have things outside of that life that you enjoy other than just partying.

Yeah, you got to have fun. You got to have some type of gap and some release. Yeah, and he's got a good release and he's got a good mentality of what the release should be and how it should go and where he needs to go with it.

And then I mean, I've been with them now since we have this close in action. I've been with them to places and he's always he's always kept me on a straight path, and which is really, really nice.

You know, a lot of people that that may have, you know, like to like to take shots or like to do something like that, you know, there's always a little man, do you want one right, but there's never there's never been a time where he's like, man, I think you should try.

And it's great because as as as an order as a younger kid that's coming up, he sees the potential. And that's all that matters. And I just need someone to see it and man, he's been great with it for sure.

Yeah, when you're around a bunch of people that party and they drag you into that world, it's so easy for people to get hooked. It's so easy for people to just get roped into that lifestyle.

Because people essentially, for the most part, imitate their atmosphere and if you're around that kind of an atmosphere, those are the kind of people that you're with and those are the type of thrills that they're seeking, you can get caught up in that, you know, and it's, it's the bane of every fighter's existence is women in partying.

Yeah, you know, he's always been like, hey, you gotta stay, you gotta stay clean, go home. And that's been the best part about it.

That's great, man. That is fucking great. So what is the timeline right now? Are you signed a deal with the UFC? I know they're talking to you.

Yeah, they've reached out of many times, but I told them just I'm kind of on the lines of right now. I'm waiting for my little grota to give my baby grota give to come out.

So January is kind of a dead month for me.

But are you signed with the UFC?

No, no, I'm not signed anybody. Have they offered you a fight yet?

Yeah, they've reached out about a couple of things, but no one specific. They just offered dates.

Do you want to have fights in other organizations first? One of the problems with a guy like you is that you're so talented that you could have one, two fights in the UFC and all of a sudden be fighting a top contender.

You know, which I think you would do well.

Yeah, but if I was a manager of like a boxer and a guy with your potential, I would do with custom auto did with Mike Tyson.

You have him fight a bunch of different guys like you did with dirty boxing, small organization MMA fights, build up those skills, get a lot of experience while you're constantly training and growing and getting better.

And then once you enter into the UFC, you're essentially already the champion. This is nobody knows it yet.

I would really like to debut at the White House debut. I would like to debut at the White House. I would like to do I would like to do one or two more fights before then and then if I can sign do a big release.

Hey, he signed a good job and then debuted at the White House. That's my perfect world.

Is it hard to get fights right now?

Maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit. I don't ask. I just say yes and then just keep moving. I kind of leave it up to John to kind of watch the people and all the coaches to kind of watch and see what goes on.

But I mean, if the guy says no, there's no hard feelings. I mean, just keep pushing and hoping to get to the guy that says yes.

That's the problem is that when a guy gets so much hype around them, there's a lot of guys who want to eventually be a world champion and go, I'm not ready for this guy yet.

You know, it's okay. Good guys are still like, uh, this guy's not he's on another level right now, but just just when if they do think that just whenever you think you are ready, I will be there waiting.

That's terrified.

A lot of people heard that like, I don't want to wait. But also the smart move might be to get a hold of you now before you get better, you know, you can try now too.

But you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I'm saying to be like pick your poison.

Like I said, dirty boxing and that last fight November with that double leg, that's the worst I ever be. And it's kind of neat to repeat that to the world to kind of let them get a refresher.

That is the worst gave a season will be and the best is when he'll come back his next time. But after that, that's the last worst I'll ever be after that.

So do you have a blueprint like a map of where what you'd like to accomplish in your career? Yes.

Long term long term, I'd like to be champion UFC champion. I think a steep A has about five defenses of I'm not mistaken. I would like to do I would like to try to try to beat that record if I can.

And if I can't try to die trying, you know, I would like to I played in and fell on one of the Olympics.

I would just like to be just a overall good man, you know, a lot of people want to look at like we just talked about, you know, a lot of people want to look at the success the money.

I just want to be excellent man, you know, I said, I want to look back and be like, damn, like Gable did that.

And I saw Dana White, he had a picture and he said, let your last name be the reason that people remember you.

And I want to see some last name to be something that people remember and I want them to look at me and be like, damn, like through the peaks and valleys, Gable stood up and he became someone his life.

And he provided for his family and he went home healthy.

And that's what I want. Championships are going to come, but I feel like a lot of people are so obsessed with I got to do this.

But I'm obsessed with being the best person in a Gable because if I'm the best person in a Gable, you're not going to be able to beat me.

Keep that mindset and you will accomplish these things, my man.

And then I believe it.

Well, I appreciate it.

Thank you very much for being here.

Yes, you're right.

It's pleasure. Thank you.

And I can't wait to see fight in the UFC.

Man, I can't wait to see it.

It's going to be fun. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Bye everybody.

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