Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIvUWfBup1o
[Music] valentina pleasure to have you in here very excited finally i'm here right finally yeah i mean we've been talking about it for a while and i've been a fan of yours for quite a long time you're a very unusual person very unusual i mean it's unusual to be a martial arts champion but you are you're an unusual martial arts champion i mean you're very you're very diverse you have so many skills and talents it's very strange like how does one first of all how many languages do you speak um three what i speak and i'm learning fourths i learned in thai now you learned because you were speaking thai after one of your fights it's the last one yeah so it sounds like you know it like you say you're learning it but you got a lot to say uh yeah it's kind of like i can say a lot but uh when i mean i'm learning i want to um so once i will speak it like fluently and i will understand like native people so good then i consider it yes i speak language before that it's kind of still learning and i think um i started to learning like couple years ago but um i think it's very important to have practice with native people go to thailand and like forget about speaking english just speak thai and this is how like um you just adopt everything so this is what i i want to put this language thai language on the next level then i will say okay four now four so like you immerse yourself um maybe yeah kind of uh because for me um i try to do everything like as the best way i can not the perfection way right but the best what i can now your first language is russian yes and when did you learn other when did you start learning other languages um so english it was i started to learn it in the school just some basics because it's like a school program we learn alphabet some just very easy words and nothing enough for like speaking level but when i started to compete and go and travel for the competition that was like my push for uh bringing my um like
language level to the next level and when we moved to um south america then i started to learn uh spanish but learning spanish it was kind of like the hard way i came there with no one words in spanish no one word and it's straight like to there if you want to learn spanish you have to speak spanish right now and i say from the moment what i started to speak to the moment when i was kind of like given my first interview it was four months after four months i was given my first interview in spanish it was not the perfect spanish but i still could communicate so talk us through this journey so why did you go to south america um i was born in kyrgyzstan my sister she's martial artist i was starting my training when i was very young age five years old and definitely uh um like through all the years what i practice in martial arts i compete a lot every competition a lot of martial arts and um so um i started to compete in kyrgyzstan then there was not any competition like any uh opponents and it was like hard to compete already then we start to travel my coach pavel is who i trained like since the beginning uh he decided like to um okay let's explore something new we moved to russia for a couple of years and then it was like also no opponents to fight with and uh we decided to move next and so see how to like explore indefinitely i think for martial arts for mma for like anything in south america it's a good place to and mostly it's um interesting to explore interesting culture from russia kyrgyzstan is very far it's kind of like totally different culture and we decided to explore over there we come to um south america and people there just wanted to learn a lot muay thai we started to train give like classes and they was asking for the seminars and we stay a little bit more a little bit more and then we decide okay why we not stay here and live here and we stayed there and
lived for eight years so you initially went there just to find people to compete with no initially it was um it's very hard to say in one word what it was initially because i'm not traveling for looking for a gym i'm not traveling looking for something like one i'm traveling for to explore new places to explore new culture to uh have different like uh adventures yeah i can say and this is what's initial reason for traveling to uh see what is there so and once you are there you kind of like okay uh south america it's very interesting um continent it's like it's not just one a country like peruvians live in it's argentina it's brazil it's colombia it's ecuador chile it's so many different countries and you want to be there you want to explore what is there you want to see how people live what they think and what they believe and it's kind of like it's uh pulling you into it it's very hard to say okay now it's time to go back because every time when i am traveling i want to explore more i want to see deeper it's for me it's not enough to see with the tourist eyes okay i take picture here there i've been there mark no it's not enough for me i want to understand what actually people uh how they live has this always been something that's fascinating to you like what draws you to want to know so much about these different cultures uh yes i i remember it was since the beginning i just like uh it was it is huge part of my life it's everything about me and i think it's kind of like the best schools the best education what one can get because um definitely when you're in school you can uh learn something but this is like a real school and the travel it put you in different life situation and you have to know how to react you have to learn how to communicate with uh like other people because uh for example i can say uh in your city in your street in your country you can be the superstar you travel somewhere else
and like for example if you are a local star and you go to the other country and you kind of like there okay that's okay but what and you have to know how to deal how to communicate with other people and it's put you on the ground every time and it's kind of like good even for the uh especially for the fighters so if you talk me through the progression of your career when you moved to peru first that's where you moved were you already a world muay thai champion oh yes it was um five or seven five or seven muay thai world championships and did you worry that you wouldn't get good training partners there or they wouldn't be at the same elite level that you're at um that part first i'm never worried about to find uh right training partner because i know this is the world it's like so many uh good training partner so many different people so many like you can find anyone uh no matter like if it's like a small place big place you can find a good level for your trainings the most important uh it's i think one of the most important ones it's uh to have a right coach because no matter how good uh um fighter can be if it's gonna be not right approach if it's gonna be right approach he can race or she can race if it's gonna be super much talent but not right approach he will fall and this is like the worst things i i think what happened that's why the most important what i was worried about to have right coach with me that's why i'm travel everywhere where pile goes so pavel has been with you from the very beginning yes yes from the very beginning that's a huge advantage he is my coach from the first um day in his gym oh wow from the year like i started five years old when i had five years wow so you've been with him since you were five years old yes i am fighting and training 28 years wow and since there it's like it's most more like a coach we are a team me my sister pavel uh the team who like
sharing the um um like so much things in common we love the same things like traveling exploring um like uh see different people and uh yeah it's not just a sport it's like uh family well it's very fortunate that he was willing to travel with you if he didn't want to move to south america would you have stayed in in russia it's you know it's um it's hard to tell it's not hard to tell because um i think at the certain point when uh everything come in one like in something one complete it's not a question if they don't want if like something happened differently because everything happened as it has to happen and you never think what it would be if it would be different way it just happened what how it happened and i know that this passion for travel it's not just my passion um pavel shares the same passion for travel my sister shares the same that's why we are like a good and strong team yeah it's a perfect combination so when you moved to peru you had no problem finding world-class strikers to train with and people to work out with uh you know it's kind of like when we moved there uh firstly we started to train and to teach muay thai and give different seminars because before it was mostly kickboxing so muay thai it's more deeper martial arts it's more complete martial arts because kickboxing in just hands and kicks muay thai it's everything it's elbow knee and clean chin so you can wrestle till the ground so it's kind of like more complete and it has different um fight character rather than kickboxing and this is what we're starting to do but um every time we was traveling even we were like living in peru we spend it for uh three four months in thailand every time so yes and this is amazing because for example we travel for the world championships there and we just stay there for another like two three
months and this is the best part so um where were you training out of in thailand were you at tiger muay thai um last six seven years it's tiger muay thai it's dream what i represent what i fight for uh before it was kosamui wmc la maijim and so uh for me it's every time i was like if it's thailand it's islands and what is the benefit of training in thailand as opposed to training other places um i would say the spirit because um what is muay thai it's thailand it's spirit of thailand and um definitely to train in thailand you have to enjoy everything but i'm not um fanatic of like people who just come in there and training like three session a day and they don't explore uh thailand what is that they explore the culture explores the food explore what's around they just spend like um all their time in the gym without seeing what's happening outside to understand the full picture you have experienced everything that's why um i say every time if you want to put yourself on the next level you have to train but also like speak with the people and see what's happening around so it's kind of kind of like open your eyes more widely and you think that actually improves your skill set it just improves your perspective which improves your skill set i think everything tied to each other so there is no for example um i i i would put this example i started to learn so i speak english i speak spanish right and when i speak when i started to learn new language it was helping me to improve my first language so it's kind of like yes it's totally different language but it's helping me to uh uh to put on the better level something what i have already that's that's why it's very hard to say if you do something it doesn't help to um get to put on the next level what already you have so it's interchange it's something that influent on each other that's why for me it's every time uh yes to have
better skills in sport in no matter what sport mixed martial arts just art martial arts or like whatever definitely you have to spend enough time on your technique you have to spend enough time on your skills but sometimes it's just not enough sometimes you have to go and see something else i mean like the character of the fight of different fighter to get this experience to try it on yourself not only just like okay this is my technique and i will perform it is the best way that i can yes but sometimes you have to add yourself your spirit in this in this technique to modify it especially how it will will work for you and this is only way how you know this technique will work it's uh if you are just like doing it because someone told you that is right it's once in but eve when you started to actually feel the technique then it's become your like so natural things that it's kind of like uh like dangerous for everyone did is this something that you learned to that things all help other things like whatever you do the more you experience the broader your understanding of things the better it helps all the things you do or is it something you were taught uh it's combination it's combination what i um what my mother was told me what my coach what pavel told me and definitely my own experience because i see it works first i hear from them it works it's one thing but when actually i see it works it's kind of like uh put stronger impact on you yeah and definitely uh for the experience what i have uh through the like all years what i practice in martial arts i see this is the only one uh like the way how put your level on your game on the next level and now it's just intuitive now this is just how you approach things naturally yes and no it's combination sometimes you have to um to break something like for example uh you're trying to learn something new and you go for it and you go for it and you try it's like and you have like barriers you cannot like break this barrier and
you try and you try and you try sometimes you have to put there a little bit more pressure to break the barrier and it doesn't um consist with anything like feeling or something like um intuition something like that but uh once you break it then it's like different level and then when you have to start to learn how to feel it from inside to performance a better way so your what was your initial martial art you started with when you're five years old uh i started with taekwondo taekwondo itf um yeah this was my first part and then how did you branch out from there like what were the years when did you start training in different arts um so it's uh every time what what was idea of pavel uh pavel every time was thinking about universal fighter about like fighter who uh doesn't have any like problem uh for example if you are speaking about striker striker every time would feel something weird and like uncomfortable when uh someone others start to wrestle him right and wrestler he definitely he will feel not the best uh strange when he's fighting so the idea every time was to be like universal to create from uh his student universal fighters that's why he put us in different competition as kyrgyzstan it's uh its little country and there is so many martial arts so many uh like schools and pavel have friends like presidents of uh federation of karate of presentation like different style taekwondo uh um wushu sanda so like different competition we uh would have and we competed in different ones like uh in my childhood it was like thousand different competition and er this is what like um helped me to feel the different style of fighting different technique and i never had like a problem to fight in different style it was a problem it was it it was kind of like how good you can transform transform
yourself for the like switch the chip for the different martial arts that's why i cannot say there was like okay this day i switch stand up for the ground or like i start to train like muay thai since this day because um it's just never happened it was everything like everything like uh so naturally development like um going from one style to another style and more uh first speaking about taekwondo there is like a taekwondo professional style project wonder it's uh the same like fighting similar to muay thai but uh uh they wrestle with more like um throws i mean like like judo throws or freestyle wrestling stroll so it's more like wide variety of straws so it's kind of like also help for my competition in muay thai um yeah but when i started to compete more frequently in muay thai it's i would say since 2003 and then you became just much more muay thai focused much more it started about 2005-6 because before it was like we already started to fight muay thai mma and on that time it was less competition for female fighters in mixed martial arts it was very hard to find like frequent fights if you want to keep like busy and fight every time you would fight like more like in stand up because there is more opportunities for you and this is what it's uh how it started that i started to focus more in muay thai because it was more opportunities in muay thai but uh in 2010 when uh female mma started to like just like poo explode yeah we definitely was uh like thinking to come back do the same and we started to compete and muay thai and mma so it's interesting that your the beginning of your journey in martial arts coincides with the beginning of the ufc so if we go back 28 years we're talking about like 1993 right like that is the beginning of the ufc oh my god it's a good example no yeah it's a
perfect example right because one of the things that we've always said uh as this sport has grown is that it's really interesting to watch these young kids growing up with martial arts with mixed martial arts as opposed to you know they would be 30 years old with a lifetime of wrestling and then learn how to strike and then enter the ufc we're seeing people like yourself that when you started your martial arts journey was the beginning of the ufc which is pretty crazy uh it is and i think it's um now you're a ufc champion i know it's crazy it's something that uh meant so much for me now yeah yeah well you're not just the ufc champion you're one of the best champions it's very it's very unique to watch you fight because you're you're one of those people like anderson silva in his prime where you've kind of cleaned out your division you know and there's no disrespect to your opponents but some of your opponents when i'm watching you fight them i'm not thinking are they going to beat you i'm thinking what are you going to do to them that's it's a strange position to be in where you're almost like competing you're competing against these women but your level is so much higher than everyone else in this 125 pound division that there's just not much there for you in terms of like valentina has to fight this woman there's no fight like that for you i think that definitely this is one of my goals in my uh performance in my training and um definitely is this is like what i um the idea of my fight style to be able to um win the fight made the fight very beautiful from the technical side very intensive very like just high level martial arts but in the same time without do it like dirty fight like street fight just like different level when you can finish your opponent without them touch you so this is kind of like like ideally idea
ideal well you can see how you sometimes impose the opponent's style on them it's almost like you're challenging yourself like the jessica andraj fight like in the coming into that fight most people thought the only way she would have any sort of advantage at all would possibly be grappling and so what did you do you out grappled her like did you do that on purpose no no no no uh i don't know this is what i think it's no because uh maybe uh people just like was speaking about that so much so frequently before the fight maybe it's just stay in my like mind and what's there but you know i never felt that this is a position dangerous for me since the beginning since they're like i i know exactly uh what is my strengths i know exactly what is my power um that's why it never was a doubt would i be good there no i know what i can i know exactly what i have to be worried about what i have to worry about um in the fight i had i know that i have to be careful like to see everything because it's mma everything can happen you cannot just go there and say okay i'm a champion everyone has to fall down no you cannot you can you have to be wild you have to be like a wild animal ready for anything and uh but in the same time you just you cannot overestimate your opponent because you are overestimate them it's going to be like not interesting fights you're going to be like just afraid of throwing anything and that's why it's you have to find the balance and the balance is everything where you are um like you can do whatever without any fear but in the same time very careful and um i know i never before the fight put some like challenges uh for me would i be good there would i be good like what i do like for my next fight i train myself for the different situation and this is what we are working like and it's not just my work it's uh like teamwork pavilion and nina we all watching our opponents and we share what we think about them what we have to be worried
what we have to work on and through our training camps through trainings we just work on every possible situation and even for example i saw some situation in the fight what's happening like not with my opponent or like different completely different fight and we tried this situation we uh we try what how i will what i will do how i would escape or how i will finish from this situation so we just uh getting ready for anything and this is what i think helped me to um take right decision during the fight because i don't have time to think about what i will do next what my technique will be next in the fight it's everything happened like instantly and i have to be sure that my brain and my body ready to act well it's very clear that you have a very well-rounded skill set but it's also clear that when you're faced with particular challenges your preparation for those particular challenges almost puts you in a situation where you want to try like the julianna pena fights good example that right like you shocked the world when you arm barred her ever because everybody felt like if she had a chance to beat you it would be grappling and you as a muay thai champion if you had a chance to beat her would be your striking but then when you submitted her everybody was like holy like that was a wake-up call for a lot of people that you're not just well-rounded but you are capable of finishing everywhere that you're lethal everywhere yeah this is what uh every time was in my training my goals for the competition uh not just go there and compete but go there and win doesn't matter what i have to do to win the fight i have to find the solution i have to find the way to win the fight and every time it was like my mindset i'm i don't like like um this idea just go and have fun in the fight i don't like idea just be there and like just to experience the feeling i think for someone it's good but if you have like higher goals for yourself you have to put higher goals like higher like things what you're singing for this is in my head this is what i had since the beginning that uh
no matter what happening i have to find solution to turn the fight to my side and wins the fight and um definitely i was like i understood fighting in mixed martial arts i have to have more arms i have to have more advantages like uh if we are comparing with the uh other fighter because uh more advantage you have it's kind of like um in the war right you have a handgun you have like a certain like percentage to win you have like uh more like arms in your like position you have more percentages so i want to have like 100 and uh percentage to be in the fight that's why i was training like everything and um like training uh not just pretend to do technique but know how to make people tap after this technique yeah so when you're saying more arms you mean more weapons right exactly now is this something that was just inside of you when you first started doing martial arts like how did you when did you realize that you had this competitive spirit that would lead you to become a champion was this something that you knew from the beginning or was it something that you developed along the way like did you always know that you wanted to be a martial arts champion um i started as i say five years old and as a like regular child normal child like um i doubt that anyone at this age would clearly know what they want what they want to do in the future for the children um like it's like what they want to do just have fun play play around with the same children like around and this is uh i was no exception so it was the same i just wanted um i don't know just to be a child uh but uh my mom she put myself and my sister antonina to the gym of pavel and we started to train there so um she had vision for us that her children her daughters have to do martial arts because she is martial artist and she knew exactly this is something that she want for us to be strong to be confident uh to be like just fearless of anything because
martial arts give that all and um definitely at first it was not anything deep i mean like knowing that one day i will be the champion something like that no it was it was just um playing doing some techniques in form of play and just exercise but when i start to grow up and i started to understand actually what i doing like and what i want to be in the future it was um i'm saying about like age 12 13 14. this is the perfect age for the children for the child to understand and analyze what they are doing in their life what they looking for what their is their expectation from their life and this is the age when i actually started to train with a lot of sense uh with a lot of like i understood that this is my life this is martial arts what i want to be like i want to do forever like this this is what i wanted to do and um i didn't know um where is gonna lead me i didn't know it's just like you start one thing you never know where it's gonna lead you can expect something but you don't know how it's gonna end and for me it was just like to have this experience to have this way in martial arts just to enjoy the process and this is how it's ever since started but um i would say once i start to understand that this is my life martial arts then i put my heart to all like trainings and like um i wanted to be better and better and there it was i discovered my like talent what i can do what is my good side and i discovered that i can understand technique way faster than other people like children the same age and i can perform it like a little bit better and so this is i start to just to feel it uh inside me so your mother was a martial artist as well she is martial artist she is not just what no um what style did she start with uh she's president of kyrgyzstan muay thai federation actually yes she has her student students she has her like um team uh what she's like trained and what uh she traveled to world championships but yes and she started when she was young and
it's kind of like was her passion for the uh for her life and i'm so happy that she decides that this is what we will do um because it's kind of like uh yes because of her i am where i am right now so your mother started with muay thai or did she have a bunch of different martial arts as well she started in the uh time when it was like karate but um it was like soviet union karate underground karate because you know in soviet union it was prohibited to do karen karate was prohibited yes really yes interesting and to win um until big until the soviet union collapsed why was karate prohibited um because the philosophy of karate it was again the finalists philosophy what uh soviet union had because karate it's more like um different philosophy it's like oriental philosophy in soviet union it was everything strict interesting so what martial arts were legal in the soviet union um what sport the sport it was um it was because it's like it's uh it was combination of judo and what they created in russia and this sports like gymnastics uh like uh at least seasons running right like um uh summer summer olympic games we can say so yeah this is uh but the cult of sport it's very it was very strong when did combat start to make its emergence because combat took essentially a lot of the techniques of mixed martial arts but wore the ge top like what when did that start um you know i cannot tell exactly but you know that sport sports samba in combat samba it's uh definitely more every time more it was about the sport symbol it's just a wrestle yeah it's every time it was like more something that more children would do and more like influence but with um uh i would say when it's all martial arts like taekwondo karates it was like it started to be more popular then definitely it was more uh time for the uh fighting styles for the uh uh martial arts like combat sports it was like just
insane it just was everywhere so it wasn't until the collapse of the soviet union that things like karate and tae kwon do and all these other martial arts became popular yes and free and free and then they started integrating that with combat and and becoming mixed martial arts you know um i would say that combat uh combat samba it was uh since the beginning because uh it's part like uh if i'm not mistaken it was kind of like what the military was training so yeah but uh if you're speaking about like competition about what uh people competing right now yeah it's different so you start out with taekwondo and then you make your way to muay thai and when you're a teenager you you start deciding that this is going to be your life did you have any other dreams or interests or hobbies or passions or was it just martial arts you know my life it was uh so much uh different things to do and i i mean just to learn different things that i that's that's why i never had this like oh i want to do that that and i never uh had this like i have to choose one i have to choose oh i'm martial artist or i'm like i don't know something else i don't have uh and i'm lucky that i didn't have this um like that i have to choose because um for example um in my opinion a person can be complete in everything it doesn't matter uh like um he can be martial artist but the same way good artist like paint or like play some instrument musical instrument or singer or um good shooter or some different profession because uh if you're thinking about for example we have life right and to become a professional in something we are studying for example it takes five years to be professional in certain things right if you're speaking about university or something like that so why we don't stay spend another like two three years to um learn something else in other years to learn more and uh it's gonna fulfill you as a person to add more knowledge into you
that's why uh for me it's never was like okay you're just martial artist my mom she um when i started do martial arts she said like okay are you also gonna do dance so it was like same scenes that i did since childhood i was dancing and doing martial artists because it's kind of like balancing each other it's like it's not you're not going to one side too much and other side you're going to be in between keep the perfect balance and for example then when i discovered the um uh shooting competition it was uh another thing that i wanted to learn more to be there like better every day to just do what i like and same with the languages i never start i never uh end i don't want to stop to learn i want to learn every day something new it's interesting that that that concept of balance was written about in the 1400s by miyamoto musashi when he talked about being a great swordsman he talked about balance that you had to learn poetry and you had to learn calligraphy and art and he was he was a big believer that you didn't just concentrate on sword fighting you concentrated on all these things and that they work synergistically they work together a and this is true because um you're a good martial artist yes but you want to get be a good person as well right and more uh you know it's it's just you are like a better person and i think it's very important uh your education it means a lot and you have to put all money in your education and not only just um like do whatever you like what for example when you were growing up for example any anyone uh had some dreams or some things that was like huge inspiration for them and then for the like time pass and you're thinking okay now it's too late to start to learn something and it's kind of like you're just wasting time but actually it's never late it's never late to learn something you what you were like wanted to do all your life it just you just have to start to make your first step and this is the hardest i think the first step but once you do it and when you understand that um this is the uh how it should works how it should be everything's
gonna be like fine and you're gonna just love it and uh just continue to learn continue to grow continue to uh make yourself uh a better person yeah it's so smart that your mother enrolled you also in dance and got you to learn dance as well as martial arts because the two the skill sets are so interchangeable like you see it like uh vasila lomachenko perfect example he learned dance for years and he has this incredible footwork that you see has given him a huge advantage in boxing and with you when you fight one thing that i've always noticed is you never are flat-footed you're always moving you're always you're never a stationary target you never get lazy you're always your back heel is always off the ground and that is not the case with everyone people that don't have like the kind of leg dexterity that you have or the kind of ability to move your your footwork they they maybe that's a big advantage i think agree and not agree it's like um yes and no because if you want to be um good one at something you have to work you have to spend more time to work on this thing on that thing definitely dancers uh they're gonna help probably with your balance are they gonna help with something but um it's not something that would help you to win the fight definitely no do you think it helps footwork though um i would say it helps is more like if you're speaking a balance because in dancing we have a lot of spins right and um yeah different dance have different level like different movements but i'm speaking about like folk dance what i was doing like folk dance russian dance it's kind of like her a part of ballet part of like traditional like traditional dance of different countries and a lot of spins and definitely it's uh kind of like help you to do like round kicks or something like that but i would say if
the lead man your coach have very right of approach of how to teach the students it's not necessary to do dancing he can just or she can uh just teach their students on how to do the footwork what is a better way to move or something like that the other thing not every coach naturally like teacher because it's also take a lot of knowledge uh coach has to have this like vision of technique and not only vision of how to teach exactly this technique for every student no also uh it's like he has for example five different students five different like biometrics fight style like different type of muscles different just different and he has one technique one two like two straight like two hooks whatever but everyone would hit it differently and if the coach see um and combine specific of each fighter with their like right angle how to turn the feast or something like that and can see this detail and say okay this is your saying do it right there this is will work for you maybe it's not the classical one one maybe it's not the right what everyone thinks like this is the right weight for this uh for this punch maybe it's like just a little bit angle just something like that but it's work for the student and the student is winning with this technique so this is the uh what uh coach has to have this type of the vision but what i see many coaches they know their technique and they don't see the specification of each fighter the the like biotype of the fighter and they try to just break the nature gift what the fighter have and put this technique just like what they are thinking is going to be right and this is what i want to say is this is wrong because it's kind of like uh it's not helping fighter to win and uh to get the right um technique for themselves what it will work for them it's just like uh what coach like just he's not naturally teacher this is what i i mean the most important it's not about dance
it's not about fighting it's about right coach what you have so it's about recognizing that each person is different and not trying to impose one style on all the fighters exactly exactly because even one style can be different even like it's the same but a little bit different just small details and coach has to see it he he has to understand and that's really where the art in martial arts comes from right it's this expression of the individual that comes out while competing and while training exactly yes i totally agree and it is an art and to us like to people who practice martial arts like when i watch you fight it's beautiful it is an art you know even the most brutal parts of it like when you knocked out jessica i like it's beautiful like the way you set up the kick to the body and then switched up to the head that's for someone who appreciates what that is like how you did that it's beautiful this is this is like i think that's why it's called martial arts but for people it's interesting because people that don't practice martial arts they don't like that term i've heard that described i've heard people talk disparagingly about martial arts saying that is not art it's just brutality it's just violence and although brutality and violence is a part of the art it is art because it's fighting art definitely you cannot just go there and say like to your opponent okay let's agree i do the technique and you will do that and then i win so you cannot just it's all about the fight yeah it's about expressing yourself while the other person is trying to express themselves and you both have similar sized bodies at least they weigh the same and you're trying to figure out how to impose your skill set and your training and your technique and your mind exactly and that i think is one of the more interesting things about you is this approach that you've taken to life to educate yourself to immerse yourself
in different cultures and to achieve balance clearly that is having some sort of effect for you as a champion like you're a different kind of person because of all these experiences and i think that speaks volumes on who you are as a champion i think it's one of the reasons why you're such an interesting person to watch fight thank you [Laughter] i think yes it's kind of like experience what i have through the years what i practice in martial arts it's um teach me how to i have how i have to react for the certain situation in the life right and i see for example many um young people they are uh for example having some success and they are starting to believe in themselves too much no belief it's a wrong word it's like thinking about themselves too much and thinking about themselves they're like untouchable or like yes and it definitely will affect their trainings but what i learned through the years in the training you have to be the most simple person as you can be because it's a fight it's a real fight it's not a fight and saying what you can like uh do beautiful leaves and repeat or something like that it's real exactly and uh if you uh have the wrong approach to what you have to like represent in the fight you never will be there uh like winner and definitely it's uh experience what i got and um through the years it's just shown me that um while i'm fighting i don't have time to think about like myself too much like oh then like work like that right you cannot you just cannot because uh it's gonna last before your fight and in the fight you're gonna see no it's not working you have to come back so clearly you have confidence but you also think that it's important
to have humility definitely and important to understand you have to do everything to win the fight because if you have you start to have like uh to have mercy on something like that in the fight it doesn't work or you winner or you're gonna be a loser so decide who you wanna be winner or loser yeah just decide it's easy simple it's simple if it was only that simple do you have uh an idea of when you're going to stop competing ah no no i don't have any idea because i like the way as a lifestyle what i have right now i feel myself so strong so healthy so good that's why i want to experience that feeling as long as i can i want to see what my body is capable of i want to see my limits i want to see where i can go because if you are like um put in this uh certain day certain year till what time you're gonna compete it's kind of like um my opinion it's not good because you starting go to your end slowly but surely yeah it messes with your head you think about it i think so and if you are just um enjoy the time what you are and and just experience and want to uh just do the best things what you can without like okay this isn't my limit and you just do it the best way you can and this is the only way to explore what you're capable of so right now you're 33 yes and so this is the prime of your athletic life i hope it's still come it's still coming but it's i'm sure there's years to go but this is like athletically they say early 30s for a fighter is their prime because that's when their mind catches up with their body like i would add a little bit more about the um we don't know because uh if if compared like what it was um five ten years ago what uh how people were like at age 30 years old for example 10 years ago they would feel themselves as like okay it's a lot they're already like family persons and they're like not thinking about competing or do something now we have a different scale now people like at age 30 they feel younger than it was
before that's why i don't know how like if we can say this is a prime maybe not maybe prime it's now 40 years old who knows well i think it's you love the competition so much you want to drag it out you want to stretch it out probably i love it a lot but it's so hard it's so hard to have training camp and it's uh it's more than just physically it's mentally and combination when it's physically and mentally this is what is really hard because i um notice that um mentally what what i mean uh like mentally not just your preparation but uh when you have to every day train with your training partner all different training partners and you know it's gonna be like mini battle and you know that you have to uh uh push yourself to the uh like doing better thing it's not just like just running or just any physical exercises to do without too much mental like things to push so it's easier but in mixed martial arts in martial arts it's combination physically and mentally what it's uh making that hard that's why it's kind of like so hard during the training camp but it's worse it's worse when you feel your hands raise up and like everything good even if some something happen sometimes and something happens not the way you want even that one it gives you so much energy to continue that's why that's why my opinion martial arts is the best thing what anyone can have so meaning when things don't go your way then it gives you motivation to train harder and get better motivation and also like uh the energy of the event of the fight or for example um it put your uh level of martial art like on the next level it's uh teach you it's like sometimes you teach one technique for years and sometimes you just have to fight in the real fight and you will understand the technique so fast yeah um when you're talking about your body and your mind um and the the difficulty you're you're now training at the ufc performance institute which is uh an amazing facility in las vegas which for sure helps the body right oh definitely access to state-of-the-art equipment state-of-the-art coaches and nutritionists and it's an amazing place
do you work on your mind in in sense of do you study psychology do you meditate nothing no no i have very different very unusual approach for my trainings for example physically i don't like to train with weights i don't like to train with some like very popular equip equipment what's like modern fighters working i prefer like focus myself on the training in the gym for the mental i work on my mental game during the training as well for example i give this example my coach he said in time bible he's stating time how many minutes one round gonna be how long's the training gonna be so uh coming into the gym we don't have like from 10 to 11 this is our training from 10 to 12 this is a limit for our training no we have like um three four hours the window and it's decision of pavel when's the training gonna stop so it can go all three hours sometimes all four hours it's all up to him and this is like for example this is the mental preparation the mental game that you are dying in the training physically but your mind is saying continue your coach is saying continue and you are pushing yourself to continue this is the best mental preparation what you have you can have for the fight when your body already says i cannot but your mind says yes you can it's kind of like opening the second respiration second respiration yeah something like that so through this difficult training and forcing yourself to stay focused in the gym that's where your mental training comes from yes because as i said earlier to be the best version of yourself in anything in something in martial arts for example you have to do everything what's considering these martial arts you cannot do uh like psychology psychology apart because if you go to um as a person who doesn't know what is that fighter psychology or never was in the
fight it doesn't know how it feels in the fight they will give you wrong uh advices they will teach your own things no so it's it's completely you don't wanna happen it's something that um gonna mess they're gonna like choke to each other strike each other and be so completely like incompatible exactly so this is you never want to happen did you get advice from other fighters did you did you like train with other champions and get advice from them at all i trained with other champions but um i don't need advices the only person who i take advices this is my coach my sister and my mom only three person what i consider that they are have rights to give me advices well obviously it's working this is the most important thing yeah the most important thing is that it's working but it doesn't matter i won't listen to something like what people have uh right saying right or something like exactly that i consider would work for me it doesn't mean that i will close the eyes and i won't listen you no i won't do that definitely i will take it but i mean to go to someone and like okay okay share your experience share your like no no it's not even like you've been listening for a thousand times if you are not experienced that you never will feel it it never will it never will work for you so backwards when i feel a person trying to give too much advices when no one asks them to give that advices i feel like okay maybe i have to get away from that person yeah that's a weird one right when someone is it's usually someone who's not that good oh no they can be good yeah they can be good uh like uh physically like technically but they maybe not that good with their mind yeah maybe right maybe they're trying to convince themselves oh yeah giving you advice it's interesting you say you you don't like to use modern training equipment do you mean like weight lifting like
like cardio machines like what do you mean exactly yeah they leave the cardio mentioned i don't like them you don't like them no no no but you look like you do it's interesting like you look very fit and strong and someone would assume if they saw you and you're fighting oh she must do a lot of strength and conditioning work no i don't no i don't like to run is like i hate run and i don't like to hit pets also you don't this is my hat i hate pets but i don't like do that i know some people it's like favorite scene because they don't have to fight or something like that like this have this mental pressure but i rather do uh five rounds of fight like sparrings then do like five rounds on pads no i just don't like it what about working with power with techniques do you like to hit the bag oh yes yes i do everything bags pads but i just don't like it you don't like it do you like any more than the other do you like bag more than pads um for bags it is it can be sometimes a little bit more lazy you can relax you can explode you can't like do like manage your timing for the pads especially when paw will hold pads it's just intensive all five rounds not stop and it's like this is what i uh for in the fight i can um like in the sparring i can find time in when i rest when i explode yeah ins when i hit in pads and pavel holding pads there is no time for it just go go go but definitely what um i'm working on it's like a lot of um work with partner when you wrestle it's your weight lifting it's the same but with someone who moves right yeah has someone who responds someone who make your like uh do your protection so it's for me it's um this is my like training style what i do day by day and this is where i get my strengths where i get my power and i'm my speed how many times a day do you train one time a day now yes that's unusual right for professional fighters for me no [Laughter]
i would say um if um a person still learning and still like like many things to work on they have or teenagers or like children they have to work like twice a day or like some three times too much you know twice a day that's fine or they have to work more i was working more so i was training more when i was like early ages now it's enough one time a day it's more than enough and you know uh people sometimes do um for example one hour in the morning then sparring's in afternoon and it's kind of like they tired here they tired there and they they cannot do one hard session and show like everything put in the sparrings and have this full energy they just like do it's not here and not there it's something in between and you don't know like do i have to do that or that and sometimes it's you just like feel so tired when the time is fight and you are like on the in your changing room in the fighting room before you fight you're thinking oh i wish it's gonna finish soon because i'm so tired this is i don't want to happen i want to feel so much energy for my fight because it's good if you are training good but the most important part to win the fight right yes it's um some some people they confuse they think that uh they have to trend like like so hard and like to prove something like that but for the time in the fight they don't have energy they like a balloon right they go down and um so this is very thin line but you have to know what is good for your body and where you have to know uh how to manage your training system and is this something that you've just figured out about yourself over the years um i think this is the um uh what like my team is training right now how we prepare for the fight yes it works for me it works for me because i we do very hard session this one but very hard one just one but that is unusual if you pay attention to other mma fighters they usually break it up to two things a day usually they're doing a strength and conditioning workout or maybe they're doing pads in the
morning and then they're doing some sort of sparring maybe wrestling and jiu-jitsu in the afternoon and then maybe they'll do mma sparring in the evening so sometimes you have these three sessions but you prepare differently yes and i don't like to do like separate for example now it's muay thai time now it's wrestling time now it's grappling time i don't like it because we are fighting mixed martial arts it has to be everything in one that's why in my training we do everything at once so you never just do only jiu-jitsu uh if you're speaking about training camp no if you're speaking about like um after the fight in between definitely i don't want to spar every day so like right now right now you just beat lauren murphy you're you're off for a while you don't do you have uh an idea of when you'll be competing again i don't have it yet i didn't ask ufc yet about my next fight and um yeah i just take my time yeah so right now you maybe would do a jiu jitsu class or train something differently just to try it out yeah i could um i train every day not every day now i train like um one day one rest one day one rest but just to maintain maintain physical uh and maintain mood the most important mood so you need some training just to stay calm to stay and to stay happy happy yes not calm happy because um i feel that i don't know how people feel with no trainings like they just don't train they just don't sweat and it feels so weird for me i feel that uh the sweat it's like um it's favorite favorite phrase of my sisters like when you take shower like you feel clean right but when you sweat in the training you feel clean from inside so this is for me that i have to do constantly and i just feel if i'm not training my mood is like starting to be crazy and it's like you you never know what to expect now she's laughing that's why she's angry and like no i have to train her that's the case with everybody i think i really do i
just think most people just choose to live this way where they don't have a real good grasp on their body and a good control over it because of exercise yes yes i think so it's definitely it um even training martial arts you don't have to fight you don't have to be professional fighter just do it for yourself and like everyone would feel the difference they're gonna be happier people so when you structure your training camp does powell structure at all like say if you have a fight and it gets scheduled you have uh 12 weeks or whatever you use for preparation who does pavel schedule everything he schedules everything so you just show up put in your time and that's it uh yes and no we are participating in everything like so it's not something that um i like to know everything i like like this is i like to understand how everything works and i'm not only speaking about training and the training camp i speaking about everything it doesn't matter what we do i want to understand what we're going to do what is like think we will work so it's kind of like work uh teamwork and definitely we are uh speaking about what to expect from the training camp uh where we gonna have training camp because it doesn't mean uh we are training uh like at the same location all the time we love to travel to have training camps in different gyms in different states in different countries so we plan it in advance we're thinking about like considering for example my fight gonna be in um this type of the climate so where it's gonna be better to train and we just plan it in like all together this is uh i think the best when everyone knowing what's happening and you've moved around in this country as well right you've trained you trained in denver for a bit uh for the fight with juliana pena yes so um is that when you started training with rose because you and rose have done roses have done some training together too yes was that beneficial for you i think it's beneficial for everyone for example um when a high-level athletes training each other it's kind of like good for both it's everyone can take something for
themselves and it's something that um good experience and we build our like good relationship friend relationships and it's amazing to have friends what doing like the same thing what you are doing and sharing the same ideas what you are having for this training camp for example in my uh training camp was brandon marina and it's like his uh amazing guy very strong guy very like uh strong technique and it was amazing to train with him as well so i think uh it's like um every time no matter who i train with i learn something new from them no matter what levels they are i able to learn something from them do you take trips specifically like if like say if you're going to face someone who's uh a great judo expert do you train specifically like would you go to a place and train with like a kayla harrison or something like that or someone who was specifically a judo stylist first of all uh we considering to have a similar weight class this is the number one rule because uh for example if someone is i'm not just speaking about scala right now i'm speaking like a general i know i'm speaking about general sometimes it's like uh it's not beneficial even the uh like uh person they are like skillful super controlled and do like so good their things it's um they just don't do it in their heart full power because they are just bigger and they just stronger it's uh not good for you because you have to feel this like moment when you're kind of like breaking them or they kind of like have this thing when they are like in their technique you have to feel the moment you have to be able to go hard exactly yeah and this is like the number one rule so i like to train and i'm trained with the uh training partner similar my weight class when you have competed at 135 pounds was that an issue like when when you went up to 135 well your first fight in the ufc there was no 125 pound division yes so like when you fought holly holm when you fought him out of nunes these fights are all at 135 pounds did you feel when you were in that division that you were just a little undersized oh yes definitely i was a smaller one yeah
and for 135 i never like was worried about cutting weight what did you weigh uh when when you weighed 135 did you walk around walk around this is my walkway right now like 1 35 this is cyborg and if i start stop to train for like one week and eat every day 138 might be maximum but with the trainings like 1 4 35 36 so yeah and uh definitely it's uh i didn't experience any problem fighting 135 but definitely i would have to think more about strategy for the fight being smaller you cannot you have to think about different tactics how to approach to different fighter because sometimes you will have enough power to break them sometimes no so it's kind of like yes or no maybe and you have to have your backup plan and you have to have your like body uh ready for different game plan that's why it's uh i didn't have problem to fight in 135 but i every time was to think about something extra things do you foresee a possibility of you competing at 135 pounds again because amanda nunes is kind of running out of opposition and you're kind of running out of opposition and you both had epic fights against each other do you think that that's possible as there is only one possibility why i move up to 135 and this is it yeah do you think that could be the case someday i think so why not it's gonna if everything's gonna continue like that way it's just going to be inevitable is there anyone in your division right now in 125 where you look at them and you say i want to i want to fight her it's just not my style look like okay it's not my style uh i would say to pick opponent for you because all the time i was when i was fighting muay thai mma i was like valentina would you fight her yes valentina would you fight her yes sure yes so it was like the way i am it is the way i am i'm not choosing my opponent i'm not looking for some like easy fights i want to fight with the the best ones that's why um
i just not pick and run i just wait when you seek like okay this is your opponent well it's it is an unusual situation though like i said you are in this position that's very similar to like many of the great fighters that are dominant champions where you don't have one person who stands out i think that there is a lot of girls there's a lot like in 125 it's uh the most comfortable weight class for females like once a 125 it's not too big not too small and a lot of girls they are like in this weight class and like from the strawweights they going up from the bantamweight they're going down so uh it's just like uh very strong girls over there but as i said um like it's wrong to compare uh like when they fight me and you have to watch them fighting like to seize their levels because my goal is to fight differently it's like i say when you can finish them but they cannot touch you so it's every time was the same muay thai was the same you for example i was watching them fights to each other before i fight them and it was like like wow yeah but then it's completely different so it's kind of like and 125 i think there is like whole rosters they are very good they are very strong and you could see the last for like the last event when it was all bonuses for the female fighters yeah now there's obviously some great great talent in the female division of the ufc um was amanda nunez your your most difficult fights i never was considered like difficulty of the fight only for the fight for this five rounds or less uh for me difficulty of the fight it's combination of training camp your approach to the fight fight week and the fight itself so uh i still cannot like um answer this question i think it's the hardest question and every time people ask me like what is your hardest fight hardest opponent and i just cannot answer because it's so different each
fight it's a different approach different training camp everyone is difficult difficult versus their like own style something like that that's why hard to say what is difficult about amanda style your size is size it's not her style it's not her style it's just she's big and heavy yeah and power everyone has power everyone has power one if you are speaking about 135 weight class every everyone has like a lot of power but yeah amanda i think she's just like biggs on anyone bigger you think she's bigger than the rest of the division what's his block weight uh what is her working weight 170 i don't know is it really that big i don't know well she does fight at 145 and she looks the same at 145 as she does at 135 and obviously at 145 she's able to knock out cyborg yeah yeah it's kind of like you know what abouts and accounts um everyone has like chances to knock out each other so it's just like it's it's 50 50. it's the situation if for example you have interchange the chances are more for each one right but you have to smart to have you have to fight very smart you know that small gloves it's like more possibility to be knocked out or you make the knockout so if um it's kind of like or you or you gonna hit or they gonna hit you so it's kind of like this is what i saw in their fights so it was interchange and this interchange who's on that moment were more lucky if you had a long time out like if the ufc said uh here we are it's uh we are in october if they said uh valentina august next year we would like you to fight amanda nunez that's going to be this big super fight would you try to gain weight would you lift weights would you do anything
differently or would you just concentrate on technique and strategy and maintain the same weight you're at now we are october and august yeah do you know anything they can approach me with this i'm gonna try well i think when i look at the two of you it's the most compelling fight in in the ufc in women's mma i believe that's the most compelling fight is because you're both at the top of your game and you there's an argument for both of you to be the greatest of all time i'm not gonna um do anything special to lift up my weight you wouldn't start working out yeah lift weights no no no no because um i don't believe it's gonna help i believe it's gonna be worse for the fighter because if in your whole life you was like um certain body type you know how to carry like certain muscles amount of muscles and then suddenly for last two three months you start to carry way more so what's gonna happen you're gonna be slower you're not gonna have same uh resistance for the whole fight because you have to carry more weight on top of you so i will do the same i just want to do the last like last day rate cut for what i do for 125 i gonna lose i'm not gonna lose this six pound what is like um that's what you do yeah and i just will eat normally as i do and train the same ways as i do it's interesting to see different people's approaches right like uh when israel adasanya went up to challenge yambohovic for the 205 pound title he did the same thing that you're saying he didn't gain any weight he just uh just concentrated on his technique and training but there was moments in that fight where the size of yombohovich was it was evident when in the grappling exchanges when he was able to control him on the ground do you think that there's any benefit i mean this is why i'm saying if you have a long time i'm not saying if you just have a normal eight-week camp i'm saying if they give you eight months nine
months and they let you know in advance you still don't think you'd ever try to gain any weight i don't think it's it's still gonna help because someone naturally bigger every time will have this advantage being bigger no matter how more weight you're gonna put on top you are still the same just with the extra weight on you well that's why i'm interested in jon jones and jon jones when he's trying to move up to the heavyweight division he's gained a lot of weight and he wants to be over the 265 pound limit and then cut back down to 265. so i believe he's walking around somewhere in the 260s now i think we will know the answer only when he will fight in this weight class and we will know exactly how it's gonna affect him will it be good for him or bad for him so we don't know as i say every person is different and i know how my body works i know uh what is good for me what is bad for me israel he knows exactly the same about his body type jon jones he knows uh exactly about himself so this is everyone's approach and i think everyone should do what they think it's going to help them to win so for you from going down from 135 to 125 was the right move he felt like much better at 125. it's my natural weight class it's like it's like what i was competing all the time have you ever thought of going lower 115 yeah and die from the hunger but there are some girls who fight at 115 that look in between fights very similar to you physically i know i know and i don't i really don't know how they do that like joanna like you wanna is you and joanna fought yes in muay thai yes and then and what weight was that at 57 kilos is 125. yeah and so that which is your natural way and then joanna has had notorious struggles to get down to 115. yes i know yes and she she's like that's why i so i have so much respect for her what like what she's doing it's amazing and like when she's like fighting 115 after all this weight cut and showing old technique what she is showing it's
looks so impressive and it's like very hard to do that and i know it's very hard but you know i feel good 125. i don't see a reason why i have to move down to 115. i don't want to try i don't wanna because now it's my best shape if i will try to lose my weight uh it has to be a huge reason why i'm do that because uh we have to consider the what's gonna be after i will lose all that but it's gonna affect my performing in 125 as well because it's everything has sequences right yes and that's why you better think twice before you take decision but no yeah i would wouldn't think that was a good idea that was just curious i think that there is a real issue with fighters that lose a lot of weight and i think the long-term consequences are probably ultimately not worth it no exactly exactly it's kind of like the same the opposite way for example they uh going down too much they are like having this extreme cutting weight but them all weight it has like 10 tendency come back like double triple with the friends come in the fridge and then it's make harder to go back and cut the weight again so it's kind of like it's going that way once working once but then you have to do it like harder and harder before you decide that it's not the smart things to do yeah your body starts to think that it's experiencing famine and also it's like it's fine it's okay for when you are half 20 25 years but if you are thinking about long-term fighting you have to think about your health as well do you think there's enough weight classes in the ufc would you like to see more weight classes uh for the female fighters yes um like 145 105 something like that or something between with boxing you know how boxing has so many champions and they have so many different weight classes you know like boxing they have you know often times like every four or five pounds would be a new weight class i think um like to use that much i don't feel it's gonna waste it like um i don't feel um that
it's gonna it's something that uh uc has to do because ufc has so unique type and it's like uh it's uncomparable to anything it's uh my opinion it's even bigger than olympics it's uh way bigger than olympics that's why um yeah maybe one of five for a smaller goal on one 45 we have 145 so but not in between i don't think so yeah it's um there's a much more limited talent pool as well right it's just not so many um mixed martial arts fighters like says because what is ufc it's uh you see it's roasters it's the best ones yes the best ones in the world it's not just a small league what you have like different levels of competitors it's like you can see the roaster it's like a low level here's a high level no here it's like since the beginning to the end super high level of everyone yeah this is like why this is what is making it so unique so special well it's really interesting because that level has increased dramatically over the last decade and a half when we first start saw ronda rousey competing in the ufc some of the earliest female fights in the ufc the competition that she was facing was just not at the same level as the male competition that but now when you see like rose number eunice versus zhang wei lee like that is a very very high level fight and it's very exciting because they're both world champion elite martial artists so when when they fight you're seeing two of the best of the best period in the sport it is and this is saying about how fast and how far mixed martial art developed and like even if we are comparing like ufc fighters 15 20 years ago it's gonna be different now it's like mixed martial arts it's complete fight style it's uh not a fight between stand-up fighter boxer or wrestler it's two high-level mma fighters who are like know how to dominate like ex so good in boxing so good kicking like take one so good wrestlers and like grapplers so it's speaking about the how uh mma develops through the years and it's amazing because now we can see there is no difference female fighter male fighter they are just like
performing the best way and it's amazing watch them how they compete it really is amazing when you think back from when you first started training martial arts as a five-year-old girl in 1993 to today the ufc is almost unrecognizable if you go back and watch any other sport from 1993 say like football or basketball it looks similar they mean you might have better athletes today and better training today but it looks pretty similar today martial arts has expanded so far above and beyond what it was at in those days yes and it it it's this is like a dream for a mixed martial artist to uh every time it was um like dream of mine and it's like to be comfortable in everything know how to fight in every single like situation don't have any uh like um fear that okay if someone will throw me down what should i do no i don't know this is amazing thing of being mixed martial artist that you are so complete that you kind of like you don't have a fear you just like know how to do in any situation do you um remember the first high level female mixed martial arts fight you watched do you remember who it was oh was it gina carano was it like elite xc was it strike force what was it that you saw you know like um begs then it's it's people just like like more like young generations they don't understand like they don't have any idea how it was by then to watch some fights you have to have this vhs you can see it you have to have not only this like tape but also the whole equipment to watch that yeah and it's only like special people would have it and being here like in america in united states it's different than being there it's everything way harder over there it's uh so much technology here and not yet over there so it's kind of like was very hard to watch fights uh it's only like special people would have this vha svhs tape yeah so it's kind of like i would say um first like fights female fights uh for
me uh you if you're speaking about youth definitely when i was competing muay thai and uh mma i was watching like different fighters from like their countries and like definitely it's like high level from the air countries and it was my first uh championship but i won world champion in mixed martial arts it was south korea in 2003. it was my first uh mma that was your first mma fight title what i won uh it was such a world championships uh in south korea in seoul against korean fighters the best in uh on there like the response so yeah but um i would say since mma started like two uh female mma start to develop like through the world like a lot it was probably uh gina karana and chris cyborg yeah that was when when it started and it was like big push for uh but definitely this one day it was kind of like the the second wave much uh powerful and it's like going beyond the limits and it was very important for the female martial arts that was i mean there was two waves right i think you said it perfectly there's the gina carano wave and the chris cyborg wave in the early days and then right after that ronda rousey and i think rhonda was an even bigger wave because exactly the way she was finishing everybody she's this beautiful woman who was so skilled and you know armbaring everybody and it was i think also it take place uh that it was youthful right because uh no matter how talented you are no matter how beautiful you are if you are fighting in the smaller league it gonna it's gonna stay in the smaller league so when they first started having fights in the ufc how was it how exciting was that for you when you saw women fighting in the ufc for the first time it um no it was the same for me it's like i don't know it's um you didn't think like that could be me now no no i never had this like things it could be me that or i will compete there i just was like okay it's happening it's opportunity definitely it can be someday but it
wasn't something like oh i have to be there and i was like do anything to be there i just uh every time in my life i don't like to rush things i just like do everything for make it happen to be ready when it's happen but in the same time to not do like some crazy movement towards that one because it's uh it's not um right i think it's uh completely like not right because you just losing your style yourself i just uh okay it's happening it's a good sign but i continue to do my life i don't know what's it gonna be like through the some years and um for example i i tell local fighters born in united states five seven fights they have chance to be in the ufc fighter who was born far has to make like hold this circle around the world living in south america for eight years winning um 17 times world titles and then only then being signed for the uc well that's you i had i had a long way i had and i'm not complaining i think it's a very good thing i think it's a very good uh way because i am ready for where i am right now because you can see uh like uh fighters who are like mentally not ready for being in the position what's there and just they are starting to break and they're thinking oh it's so much pressure i am not ready for that i don't want my title i want to give up i don't want to do it anymore so this is not right because they they cannot fight they still going to come back and fight and i think it's better fight for the title than be a challenger to defend your title but in my case i already like was so ready to do what i am doing i am ready mentally i was like uh i know that my first fight and it's uh definitely it was like huge it was big it was uh different to compare to other like leagues what i competed because it was just big but i was ready for it it didn't put any pressure on me extra i think you make a very good point because
i look at some talented young fighters and i say this person has a lot of potential but they're in the deep water too quickly i know and then they're gonna get hurt so they'll fight against someone who is far better than them and they'll get set up and and hurt and i think they might have a better chance at a better career a better result if they started out in the smaller leagues and worked their way up i think that like dana white's tuesday night contender series is amazing and i love the fact that these things exist even even the ultimate fighter i think it's amazing that these things exist but there are some fighters that i think should hold off and wait and some do like yuri prohaska he's a good example right he they offered him the ufc years ago i believe it was like five years ago and he's like i'm not ready yet and he's very smart and by the time he was ready man was he ready yeah i mean you look at his two fights in the oc vulcan ozdimir knocks him out and then dominic reyes knocks him out so two fights in the fc already in contention for the title amazing amazing but it's because he was ready whereas some other fighters maybe they get there too soon and you're seeing them gonna get beat up when they're fighting someone that's uh too many levels above them where it's not really competitive yet like they're not they don't have the skills like some people can just rise like jon jones again he's another example he was in the ufc early in his career but he was so talented yes that he was able to dominate guys like mauricio shogun who uh in his first title fight when he was 22 years old which is crazy right but some people they're just not ready yet but they could be they could be one day and i think that they get into the ufc maybe too soon whereas with you you had so much experience world championship muay thai fights you had mma fights you had all this experience you were like a fully developed martial artist by the time he got to the ufc which i think is the perfect way to do it i think for me it's work work so good
everything it's worked so well and i was ready i knew exactly what i want i knew exactly what is my goal what i have to do to like to continue make my life interesting and this is i'm still doing i know exactly what i have to do i don't have any doubts uh how to have my life how to live my life to still feel like this interests for the life interest for martial arts this desire for keep training they have same hard way as i do so i know exactly how to maintain that and this is i think the best because for me martial arts it's not just sport it's my every time say it's my lifestyle even my philosophy even uh for example if you are come back for uh to the question about the meditation and like all these things uh for me uh gym place where i train it's like my temple i'm coming there without laughing joking or because you are when you're going to the temple you have to be respectful for what you are doing for everything what's around you this is for me my gym i'm very respectful for that place and i know exactly if i will be uh respectful it will keep me safe from injuries not every time but most likely because i will i will be focused on what i am doing without any distractions that's why for me martial arts it's uh it's for me as a person uh it's teach me so much i'm so grateful for martial arts because it's like everything what i am right now it's because of martial arts do you have long-term goals i mean you are already a world champion you're already at the top of your heap what do you have goals i just want continue to have the way of life what i have uh the style lifestyle what i have um i don't like to put to set up this kind of goals i um i think it's good and no because if something went you don't know what like what exactly goal sometimes it's like you can invent the goal and if it's not fit for you you it's not happening you're just gonna feel frustrated i just
try to prepare myself for um the like to put in myself more knowledge what i can have i mean fighting and general like life like just to have like more things to know how to do and where the opportunity will come and it can be like anything it's like whatever i will be ready to take it but i know that when it comes you have to be smart to react it fast because sometimes people think oh maybe this is not time i will wait for another one but another one can never happen so in san diego thinking i should do that so it's kind of like hard hard decisions do you have ideas about careers that you would like to explore when you're done fighting um when i'm done fighting um done fighting but still like it can be like not done fighting so it can be both uh i ever like movies action movies so yeah acting it's one of the options that i really enjoy i don't feel myself like that it's something hard what i have to do it's just happened like everything what i do is naturally i feel that way um so i i don't know maybe shooting competition maybe after i finish complete fighting i will compete in shooting why not yeah i wanted to talk to you about that when did you get involved with guns when did that become a big part of your life i have the introduction was a like gun world from my coach from pavel he was served in army in soviet army so yeah definitely has a lot of knowledge about different arms guns and yeah it was back in russia but when we moved to peru uh we started to compete in defensive shooting competition like idpr ipsc uh here i think it's called ipsec it's very i think it's excellent sport uh like shooting style when you are not only just in your position and shooting for the uh like accuracy but also you are shooting in different positions moving standing laying down sitting so
uh it's like a circuit with different like targets uh different different circuits different uh um goals what yeah how you have to shoot and uh it's like everything combination about your speed and about your accuracy and also about if it's stuck some uh like the gun is stuck at some point you have to be able to uh resolve the issue and continue your shooting so it's very like uh amazing sport what teach you to respect what you are doing to respect again to respect everything like considering about the safety and like whatever you have but also teach you uh to not have fear for a gun but know how to um like how to use it for the sport i've talked to people that have shot with you and they say that you shoot like you fight who was that someone who had trained with you i don't even remember the gentleman's name but he he watched you shoot in texas and he said when you see her fight that's how she shoots and they said you're very high level i'm trying not trying of course like there is like so high level competitors in the shooting because they are spending all their lives do what they're doing and definitely it's like all these streaks about like everything about how they should and definitely uh for now i spend more time in martial arts definitely but i enjoy so much shooting because gun culture it's very strong culture and it's amazing because it's like a um it's a history it's a human history uh if you are like watching a gun from what made was made like big zen i have a rifle motion rifle from 1935. really yes it's like it was in um in the spain war and uh yeah it has a lot of history and some production yes is it good is it accurate it's very precise really actually you know i i don't know if you know the last uh no this summer i was participating in the first ever uh hunter games organized for from the sixth hour and so they they made like uh two days competition it was uh
five teams yeah five teams of uh three shooters uh so we was working the circuit of uh how many miles oh so it was eight hours to pass all the uh like circuit it was ten circuits uh like an elevation it was 10 9 000 elevation so it was hard competition but um uh what i was uh so for this competition i was my gun was uh uh cross uh the rifle from six hour and it's like the modern drive always like uh the um yeah exactly exactly with a like you see how modern is it it's like it's like so much technology but what i was preparing for this competition is my motion rifle the bald action yes so precise so good 1935 exactly iron sights uh oh yes yes it's kind of like nothing comparing to that yeah when did they first develop scopes for rifles i hard to tell yeah yeah it's i i would say maybe world war some something like that yeah but what i was uh like telling it it's about the history is the gun history it's like human history people who was uh like creating that gun there and like not alive anymore but we still have the opportunity touch their uh like creatures and like feel the energy it's like a sculptures what we have in different cities for example we see some in it like you know you read the capture like the history it was made but this famous artist back like i don't know 100 years ago the same with the guns yeah it's like it's a huge art history it's uh it's a it's a it's a it's way much deeper than just a gun i have a friend who collects old guns and he has uh flintlock guns so like with the flint and the the bop oh yeah black powder yes yeah the old school muzzleloader oh my gosh it's wild it's like you think that that was what people went to war with you know i have i i have one do you i do but i never shot it because uh it's very hard to find the right ammunition for it and you have to be sure that it's the right one so i was trying to i was asking like my friends like everyone but they advised me valentina like keep it on the wall
yeah it's an antique more than it is anything but it's so interesting to think that they used to use flint an actual piece of stone to strike against the base and that's how yeah it's crazy that that's how guns would fire and they would pull the trigger and then there was a delay and then it would shoot yeah i think it's the same with martial arts when it started like when it's like what's martial arts it was back then in what is now like modern arm exactly this is it wow that's that's such a cool gun and what year is that gun from um if i'm not mistaken it's uh sometime 1800s wow yeah keep that on the wall yes i know it's it is fascinating how much the technology has improved and changed um i i was uh hunting recently and uh most of the time i bow hunt but we did some hunting for pigs and we used uh rifles and um this rifle had a illuminated reticle like you hit a button and it would show all the different ranges where the rifle like where you would have to aim at a hundred at 200 and 300 and it was all marked off i was like this is incredible like the technology technology exactly for example this uh cross rifle from sig it has like brake system of when it's the scope connected via bluetooth yes with the binocular right and you can set your range like seeing the target you set it it's connected and the rifle know where to shoot yeah yeah that's a sig has an amazing system right where their their their range finder connects with apps their scopes connect with apps and that all of this works together i have a few guns from sig i have a few of their pistols and i have a ar i have two ars from them yeah yeah they make great stuff but it's just so incredible how everything is like when you when you start studying it and realizing that the ballistics are so accurate and precise that now they have these competitions where people are shooting out to 1100 1200 yards and hitting small steel targets at 1200 yards i mean it's crazy i know this is a level yeah do you do any of that long range shooting um
for that competition i was like spending more time training for the loan and the longest what we have it was one thousand one thousand yes it's the longest what we had in the competition yeah but um i i would say that i really looking forward to the next year where they're gonna do the second again because it's combination of shooting and to be uh in a good physical condition and it's like the the best and you aren't the nature it's like targets the same like in the shape of animal with like um steel uh lungs the shape of the lungs and you have to hit the uh this is the still target and you first you arrive to your stage you have to see where's the targets and you don't know how many there are them before you get into the like any of stages so it can be two or three like different targets it you have to find it like in the real situation hundreds of you are like kind of like have to spend some time once you find it you have to shoot like you have three shots and each shot gives you some points and then you shoot you move to the next target to the next target and it's kind of was like amazing experience one because of competition itself and the second because as so much amazing people yeah it was uh combining together and like uh so good spirit we slept under the sky in a tent so it's like uh amazing royce gracie was there yeah royce is big on shooting yeah he's very good too he's really dedicated to shooting we spoke with him and it's like he's so amazing person so just got done training with my friend john dudley in archery so now he's learning archery as well like he just went through a whole like comprehensive multiple day course one-on-one with my friend john amazing yeah it it i i think it's like in everything like definitely when you have these people around you it's so huge motivation well the gun culture and gun gun the gun community gets often times disparaged um unfortunately because it's not it's not accurate gun people and gun culture they're some of the nicest people i've ever met in my life it's true they're
very nice they're very respectful and they're friendly and kind and they're welcoming to people that want to participate and they're i mean i've never like when i go to terran tactical when i'm in los angeles there's always someone there that's like some world champion shooter that will give you advice and give you tips and help and you can there's so much encouragement it's yes it's amazing this is what i say that the uh gun by itself it's teach you about like respect be kind be noble be like help help to each other it's like it's amazing it's it's like it's it's just different and i would say that um those those people are like truly care about nature and truly care about animals because it sounds like they shoot animals they have the animals but they care it's every every time like funds what they're creating and every every time it's like foundation and something like that and yeah i was like i have friends hunter hunters and uh they are just like one of the best persons ever yeah they're some of the nicest people and what you're saying is true they contribute more to conservation than any other group true in this country there's not a single group that even comes close to the contributions to wildlife and conservation that hunters give yes this is this is fact all the money when when on hunters because the pittman-robertson act when hunters buy gear and ammunition and guns i think it's ten percent find out what that is i think it's it's a pittman-robertson act i believe it's ten percent so i think what it is is ten percent of all the money that comes from the sale of hunting gear goes towards conservation i believe it's not just hunting gear i believe it's also the sale of recreational firearms that money goes towards wildlife protection protection of habitat it goes to higher wildlife biologists who will monitor the population the species to make sure they're healthy so it's it's kind of counterintuitive to people that don't understand the relationship and don't
understand anybody in that what does it say here 11 okay so 11 excise tax on firearms and ammunition instead of going to the u.s treasury that is done as the past the money generated by the tax is instead given to the secretary of the interior to distribute to the states the secretary determines how much to give to each state based on the formula that takes into account both the area of the state and the number of licensed hunters so it's pretty interesting yeah and through this pittman-robertson act they've generated billions and billions of dollars that have all gone towards conservation yeah yeah people just have to know that right yeah it's like well it's again it's there's misconceptions there's misconceptions about gun culture in terms of like recreational gun users people want to think that people that own guns are like terrible people or bad people or just or bullies or whatever but it's not when you when you meet these people there there is a certain humility that comes with guns because you realize anybody could just point that gun at you and kill you like that is the ultimate balancing act right the like if if you want balance in in with of power it doesn't matter how big you are oh no a 25 pound child who can squeeze a trigger can kill you and it sounds terrible and you don't want a 25 pound child to have a pistol but if they had one they could kill you this is about like um i think about this education right i would um i would love to see more programs starting like in the school educate like like everyone to how to uh respect the arms the safety and instead of like uh prohibit like everything yeah just teach people explains people like then they have choice what they like or they want to do that or they don't but how they will know the truth if they don't know and everyone like try to hide well i feel that way about martial arts as well i think that if you know there's all these all these discussions about how to decrease bullying in school and i think
the best option is to teach children how to fight teach children martial arts because they won't first of all they won't want to bully anybody it's not skilled martial arts for the most part others there's some exceptions but it's not for the most part it's not the skilled trained martial artists that are the bullies it's people that are insecure and the people that really don't know how to fight that's why the best advice about boys is always to stand up to them but if you just taught them martial arts they wouldn't want to be bullies it's it's again it seems counterintuitive but i think that it really is the correct response the correct strategies probably to distribute martial arts throughout schools i think we have healthier kids i think so too because kids they have so much energy they have to spend this energy and what is the better place to spend it as a gym right to spend in doing something like useful for your life for like whatever not only self defense but in general sports it's good and it's kind of like uh definitely a child has to move has to do a lot of things he has to practice here there because they have so much energy they have to spend it and yeah it's kind of like the only one teach them explain them and like uh make them experience instead of like um i don't know if every time there is some fight in the school right and like instead of like do something like to prohibit put them in the class put gloves on them they would fight each other like a training class and something like that and then they will feel good and friends better friends than fighting on the street or something like that because i noticed that uh for example in my trainings when i when we do heart sparring with some other like training partners and it's make us like uh better connected to each other better friends because we experience the same yes we hate each other yes we hit with the full power but we have so much respect to each other we uh like um it's just different levels different what do you think about this debate about sparring because there's there are some people including very high level
fighters that don't spar anymore they get to a certain point in their career where like max holloway for an example and you could say you know there's a lot of debate about this but where there's no debate is how good max holloway looks so it's it's to me it's so perplexing because i think there's it's undeniable that there's a certain amount of timing and and fluidity that's generated from sparring but there's also it's also undeniable that sometimes people spar too hard and that you lose some of your resiliency and you're you're you're taking away some of the future of your career from these hard sparring sessions so what is what are your thoughts on heart sparring do you think mark's saying truth says he's not sport you never know right now yeah you never know i don't think he's lying but he might be he might he's tricky tricky max i know i think he's telling the truth i really do but you know what i feel about sparring sparring it's necessary if you want to prepare yourself for the fight you have to feel your opponent timing and like one thing when you had pads different when you hit someone and someone hit you back but um sometimes people they have wrong approach to sparrings uh sometimes they want like mostly young people not having much experience they want to show that they're brave that they are not afraid like to get to receive this hit or something like that um they said why i have to put helmet what i'm professional i'm a super fighter i don't put a helmet and definitely when you absorb strong strike like a jab or whatever it's you're gonna feel it you're gonna feel and if it's before the fight training camp you have to have sparrings a lot of sparrings and less protection you have more damage you have so it's my concept you have to pre to protect yourself first helmets shin pads elbow pads knee pads everything you have to have everything so uh it's kind of your um people that they if they have damage like everyday
damage damage and no protection this is what affected them in the fight because they're coming to the fight already like with a lot of right yeah and but if you are uh protected you still can like big gloves for example you have definitely you want spark with a small gloves with full power you don't want to do that but if you have like big gloves helmet and everything it's kind of you have certain type of protection it's definitely not protecting you a lot but it helps you to be healthier and stronger with less damage for the fight itself so when you spar are you sparring with like boxing gloves on depends depends usually like if it's um most likely if it's five round fights and we won't we need this part it's gonna be a big gloves definitely it will affect grappling definitely but you have to choose yeah and when you spar are you sparring full blast 100 power oh yes oh yes because i uh to get ready for something and know how it's gonna looks you have to do it in full right it's like for example rehearsal for the movie you can do it like 50 but you have to have it 100 percent like few times just to know what you're gonna do and this is the same even for example i um it's not happening here because we got our uniform like right before the fight but before uh when i fight it in muay thai and different like competition i was it was necessary to have one or two trainings in the same uniform the same gear what i would use for my fight in the competition so you would have training sessions with no shin pads smaller gloves no i want to say i no i want to say more about shorts or like top or something like that you have to make sure that it's going to be comfortable because it's like small detail but it can bring a whole difference i want i i will not do never full power sparring no shin guard smooth move small gloves never before the fight only for the fight yeah that makes sense um
the ties when they spar they spend a lot of time playing they play spar where they touch each other they're tapping because they fight so often that they're prepared for fighting because they're fighting on a regular basis sometimes once a week or once every two weeks but when they spar they spar very lightly what are your thoughts on that sort of play sparring like if you watch sanchez for example he's one of the best ever and when he spars he's very light and it's a lot of movement and playful you know it's very different for example we have to consider all circumstances for example if you are speaking about ties what they are doing the year for example fighting each week they have competition they even like can do shadow boxing before between their competition it wouldn't affect their performances because uh competition by itself is give to a lot and if you compete frequently definitely you don't have to spend too much time in the training to prepare your body for the fight you you can spend less time because fight it's already put gonna put you on next level and definitely uh like uh i i think sanchez he has days when he have to spar like in full he has this when you even he can do it light but uh definitely he is par in full as well so you think that the play the play sparring is basically just a result of the fact that they fight so often uh most likely yeah because uh to prepare like so you don't have to hurt yourself in training yes it doesn't make any sense to uh hurt yourself in the fight then do it again in the training then again in the fight no it's like what's the uh ultimate goal to be healthier for your fight that's why you have to find the way how it's going to work the best way the ties also do a lot of running i know yeah do you run when you're in thailand when you're trading no you don't no no really no i never run i never i i just don't like run because you know um
for example we have a glass and um this is our energy for example we can fool it with full of energy or like our training session it's this time we can fool it with half of running and half of doing like things what's gonna help for the fight oh we can fool it like this full time what's going to help us for the fight run is good but when it's not enough like your technique or something what would help you in the fight it's like not make sense but if you will do like strong training and running like before the training you come to the training already tired and you don't have this energy to do your main thing to do what you have to do in the training yeah to like perform your best in the training for your fight because you spend your own energy already running so it's like wasting your energy this is my thought the argument against that is that what you're doing in the strength and conditioning is building your reservoir of energy so you're you're making it much bigger because instead of concentrating on the technique you're only concentrating on the physical performance of your cardiovascular system you're only con concentrating on your vo2 max you're only concentrating on explosive energy and power and then in building that you strengthen the machine that you used to fight with yes but if you do the same with your training partner it will work double because machine it doesn't respond you it's like you used to do the certain exercise the weight what you are doing with the machine but when you are in the fight the machine's starting to work differently because it's attacking you as well and you have to now working differently this is what i want to tell it's you are not focusing on the technique when you are training with a training partner you are focusing on both your resistance and technique so it's different it's harder yes i know it's harder it's very hard because you have to be perfect in your technique and also have enough resistance endurance for keep going
this is what i want to say but i don't i don't want to force anyone it's just the way what is work for me well obviously it's working very well for you so it's interesting um well there's other people that had similar strategies like george st pierre told me he he didn't really i mean i think he varied he changed things up at some important time in his career and he he did have different approaches as time went on but at one point in time he said i don't do any strength and conditioning he goes i concentrate on efficiency and i concentrate on my technique and i concentrate on fight training and he had the same philosophy that time spent doing other things would detract from his ability to improve his efficiency and improve his overall technique and more i want to add like um all injuries they are coming mostly from training when you're in the training and when you are like uh already so tired to defend something and you just like okay whatever i will fall down and you fall down bad right and this is what is energy come from so if you are doing like you spend half of energy of running then already you don't have this defense level like protection protection level level against the injuries so it's kind of like another point of view when you train in thailand they give you a hard time about not running no no you know it's never was something like i i wasn't at any time training in thailand on the regular basis and since the beginning it was i have my coach and he's the one who is like saying what i have to do and what i don't have to do pavel he was every time like looking for me for uh his students for antonina uh to do the right things because uh like he spent so much energy in us he put so much like um everything was like creating the fighters right and then to have someone messed up and destroyed no he has to uh like take he has to see and control to have control of how the training process is going and for example now our trainings in tiger muay thai it's what we are doing we have the same
like group we have uh people from um all around the world some thai fighters some like uh fighters who are like in that time in tiger muay thai and we do like separate training we have our schedule and certain time what we are training and we do our uh our style training now when it comes to things like endurance do you monitor your heart rate do you check your heart rate in the morning you're smiling at me i don't do that i don't use it i don't check my heart rate i don't use gadgets i don't even like um i don't do that and i know there is like a lot of apps they are very helpful they just help to know how you feel right but my indicator it's myself my indicator if i feel good this is the most important indicator if i feel that uh um for example um i don't have endurance during the training it means that my diet is not good it means something like i have to change in my diet most likely so my indicator it's myself so i don't believe in gadgets they they're gonna help me in the fight i believe in myself only like there is one person who gonna help me so no heart rate monitors no no vo2 max tests none of that um do you monitor your progress when it comes to training camp entirely based on how you feel then entirely you don't write anything down oh uh do you keep a journal of your training sessions or anything um i i was doing it like years ago like most likely uh not training session but uh like diet yeah for example my weight in the morning like that and what this is what i was eating like that after training i felt this that's that i i did it like part of my time but right now no right now it's like um i know exactly what i and how i have to feel and i every time like sharing my feeling with uh my team and we are like saying like okay this is right this is not right this is like okay to feel that during this period of training camp and this is what we have to do to like maintain it or something like that yes now it's all about
um do you have a nutritionist that you work with i know you're at the ufcpi so do you work with their nutritionist or how do you decide like what you eat how i decide what i eat um the team of uc performance institutes they are so incredible and for example for uh like uh fight week charles uh nicole and uh like uh clean they are like working so good to build your like meals and uh working like excellent i cannot complain because it's amazing what fighter can have someone to be like to to worry about their food and you don't have to think about anything just like it's already just it but uh the rest of the time i just monitoring my food myself i [Music] know the diet what has worked for me i know exactly what is uh what things i have to eat how to maintain my weight or i don't have to eat but i'm not that like um strict on the diet when i um out of the fight out of the competition i can eat anything and it's the same the balance and my intuition when my body's like start to feel heavy and i feel okay this is uh too much water in me i just put sauna suit and go to run sauna yes now do you um like what what is your diet like if you say you know what works for you like what is it just a fight yeah well no just like general training like general like what is your diet like what do you eat most um a lot of cakes chocolate cakes yeah there's a lot of creams on top are you kidding no really i just like sweets yes you eat cake i do really yes so if you if someone asked me do you think that valentina srivichanko eats sugar i'd be like no no way oh yes a lot if you would ask people who know me they said like oh my god she's like all about this sugar you're all about sugar and but is it because you train so hard your body needs that glucose and you can get away with it is this like an after training thing or is it just you just
love cake i just loves him yeah it's just i like the taste but what about um nutrition like do you have like staples in your diet in terms of like meat and vegetables like what what what is your diet normally like um the only thing that i keep like a rule and some i can break it sometime if it's somebody or some like um situation it's uh i'm not eating after 5 p.m so this is the most important if i know that after 5 p.m i just stop i can drink some tea like water but no sugar and it's gonna be balanced so this is the most important rule and definitely when i feel it's okay it's too much sugar i go and eat salad too much cake so 5 p.m and then when would generally your morning workout be um sometime like sometime it's early 7 sometimes it's 8 but uh we train in the morning and i like to train in the morning um i don't like to train like past 10 so it's gonna be sometime between seven and lately so even if it's seven you're still generally getting about 14 hours of intermittent fasting but before the training i don't eat no training no wow so you eat at 5 pm is you're done and then after training and then you wait and then train for hours yeah wow that's interesting yeah no fruit no nothing i can take a shake for example meal replacement something like that and i lately i really like like um this like greens protein and collagen i mix that and uh i i can have that like just a small amount before the training but that's it yeah i don't like to feel full before the training it's affect my endurance but that's crazy that you go that long and then train really hard for multiple hours i uh yes but it depends what uh how much you ate before fight now um when when you're training are you taking any sort of glucose supplement while you're training like are you drinking gatorade or while training no no just water no i don't drink during the training you
don't drink any water no really yes so for hours you're training for hours no water yeah no water wow yep it's um i don't know it's in soviet uh system it was in that like old boxing all wrestlers they had the same like no drinking because it's kind of like you know i feel um when you drink your liver and your heart start to work more and it's yeah it's like in after five minutes after you drink you feel like more tired than it was before so i just like i don't drink even just a little bit of water there's a sip nothing no no because i don't feel that i i used to all my life i didn't drink and that i i just used to eat so all my life it was like during the training no drinks no water and this is uh i feel good i feel comfortable so i don't need that wow that's incredible what about alcohol i don't drink nothing i don't drink but um i'm not against it i'm not like the person who's like judging people for drinking or something like that no i think uh it's the same culture of drinks and more uh my family my grandfather he was doing uh he was like homemade wine and now my mom she is continuing his tradition and she is every time sending picture of uh making her own wine oh wow yeah but you don't touch it no i don't no i don't feel do you think when you're done competing it's different yes maybe maybe someday i'm i'm i'm i'm doing my theory now um what about vitamins and supplements and things along those lines training camp yeah training camp only during training camp on the training camp so for what is how long is your training camp um two months probably yeah so for those eight weeks you'll take in vitamins and supplements like what kind of vitamins do you take um so i have ufc performance institute nutrition specialist nutrition team yes it's amazing because they are taking care of everything that is that's very convenient and so that's generally the reason why you moved to las vegas to have access to the performance institute um actually it's
it was not the main reason i just love like nevada i love las vegas i like the climate yes definitely it's kind of like hot in the summer time but a few months it's only a few months if we are speaking about what the weather is not right now there it's just perfect it's so i like the quality of air and everything i i never thought that i will be so in love with the desert nature i grew up in kyrgyzstan we have four seasons we have gorgeous summer super cold winter uh like spring it's something like so beautiful like so many greens so many uh trees so many everything colors and i never thought that i gonna miss so much dessert and i knew it uh um we had last summer our u.s trip and we usually like um when kovitz sings all of this starts and we start to explore united states like so deep and like just traveling we just take our car our drug and for two two and a half months we're just driving around and it's our trip it's it's different we are not going like from destination to destination for example our navigator uh saying like okay you have two hours drive but in reality it will take like six seven hours because we are just driving small roads stopping in every little town and like if there is like by the coast marinas and something like that and uh last summer we travel um we started from las vegas and we went lake tahoe then san francisco and drew all highway one pacific coast up like to the um like all the way up and then like seattle washington and all the area by the border with canada so it was amazing trip two and a half months and then when we were on our way back and we starting to drive closer to nevada closer to that uh nature desert nature i was like oh my god it feel like coming back home you're accustomed to it now yeah it's amazing how much outside activity outdoor activities you can also do in the las vegas area like uh i've had uh alex honold on the podcast before do you know who he is the free solo climber yeah and he was telling me like there's
a lot of climbers that moved to las vegas just because they have access to so many climbing routes oh my god yeah yeah yeah and yeah it's so many activities like catching trails a shooting yeah loud shooting right yeah yeah that's that's right skydiving did you skydive too i did indoor indoor skydiving it's different it's different yeah but it's better to start with something right yeah and also you don't fall as far i know yeah you're just kind of floating around and you have with your protections much much much better well listen valentina um it's been a pleasure to talk to you i really appreciate you coming in here i've admired your work inside the octagon and i really appreciate your your style and your technique and your ability it's it's beautiful to watch so i'm a big fan so for me this was a real treat thank you so much it's my pleasure yeah i can't wait to see you in there again hopefully next time i will talk to you they will say and still i will work on it hard i'm sure you will i have no doubts so thank you very much thank you bye everybody [Music] [Music] you