Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqkCdypeRIk
[Laughter] [Music] [Music] good to see you brother what's happening man enjoying austin yeah so you're coming here are you letting the people know about you did i blow the not yet they're gonna know now can i let people know i think so i mean it's probably the you know move we spoke about earlier yeah i've always loved texas like we spoke earlier i i got signed here to the ufc was on it for so many years came out here during fight fight camps for a week and kind of just unplugged but focused on training had a good time out here it's always always a pleasure yeah it's a beautiful place i'm enjoying the [ __ ] out of it dude first of all congratulations on your comeback that you know you're a great guy and when there's someone i like who loses a bunch of fights in a row and you get into this skid it's hot it's hard to watch i can't imagine what it was like being you you know to have a young child and to be dealing with all this going on i mean it's like losing your top but then to come back the way you did against a really [ __ ] tough guy in the sun sound and get arguably the ko of the year i mean you got to be feeling pretty [ __ ] good i feel great you know back from the brink back from the brinks i mean that time in my life that time frame period and going through that you know from on top of the world world champion uh to three fight skid honestly it feels like a lifetime ago i feel like i'm just a different person um where i was at from there you know removed and the things i'm just doing differently thinking differently you know how i was able to approach the game picking myself back up time and time again i mean it's internet is a horrible place to get get knocked out on you know [ __ ] you got the trolls this and that you know it's but besides that point you know um just coming back to that and
having a love for it a lot of the times i got to the fight and um not to make excuses i was just i didn't feel myself i didn't feel like um and the training and leading up i felt physically i'm always ready to fight like flip the switch i'm already physically ready to fight i think mentally going into those fights i was just out of body i wasn't i felt like i was going through the motions you know my passion wasn't there i wasn't waking up every day like what's your reason why i was just trying to find that and i think the reason why i had so many people infiltrated in how i should train or how i should live or what i should do to get back there and really it wasn't nothing that i needed to learn new i didn't have to reinvent the wheel it was just doing the slight edge theory like getting out of your comfort zone like you're doing your sauna sessions like you're pushing yourself to go in there and just be uncomfortable um you know so i had to go out there and with that comeback you know i moved to jersey the training camp out there i suppose yeah i want to talk to you about that i'm a big fan of henry mark henry's a bad [ __ ] he's great i love i enjoy him so much his passion for his love for it he's so interesting too his crazy codes and the fact that the dude makes pizza on the side dude i was so nervous going out there because i heard of the codes and and like you know i was with lance lance kind of giving me a little insight on it on everything like damn codes and i just fight dude like i don't have really set things i kind of go off of my instincts and game plans and he was trying to you know brief me on it when i got to the first two weeks holy [ __ ] we go down to his basement and he has like pizza scrolls from the pizzeria where we have off about 50 things that we're working on um before camping so what does he write him on boxes pizza boxes pizza scrolls like the just uh basically white paper anywhere goes down and it tapes it there to the wall you have like cory's fight camp you have you know frankie's and yeah
you know he's working with 14 fighters at one time he knows all the codes and all different kinds of fights too like he's got zabeet there he's got frankie it's like all these different styles yeah different styles and we'll kind of you know what i like about that is he'll try things that's his beat does he does these crazy double jump scissor kicks and spinning you know the russians are really good at spinning [ __ ] you know so we threw that into the into the game and it's it's you know it was nice to get that kind of the stuff that frankie's done and had success over the years um so we meshed that together um he got to know me really well we worked you know extensively with ricardo almeida up there as well but yeah coach henry is just there's nothing he's obsessed with winning but what i loved about him was the first thing that he said to me was that his job is he's competitive he wants to win at all costs but his job is to get us back to our family and um i watched your podcast with andre ward and he said the same thing about his trainer and i once he said that to me and i have a child now my whole thought process has changed you know in transition in there like i want to be able to be around for my son's life i want to have you know um speak to my grandchildren i'm not drooling you know that's what i'm cutting on coach mark i want you to draw when you're you know you're 50 60 years old and i kind of style that fight i can punch and move i don't have to brawl these guys right you know and um just reiterating the defensive part of the technical offensive part with him is i could go in there and hit a six seven punch combo dude he would he would care less he's like what did you do after you moved after your head was off your hands was up like he's all about defense and you know i think he just helped me out a lot with saying that like getting me home to my family safe like that's what i want to do it's such an important approach to be defensively sound and and yet there's so many fighters who don't think like that at all they just think about offense and if you you know it's it's really like in jiu jitsu like
hix and gracie had uh i had a conversation with him once about jiu jitsu and one of the things that he said is that the most important thing is defense he said because i'm always safe this is what he said he goes i'm always safe and he goes in every position i'm always safe like he lets guys on his back with a fully locked in rear naked choke and he'll start rolling like that he he's always safe so he nev and that's interesting also i read that about the donahue death squad john donahue's guys like you know gordon ryan and all those guys they'll start in really bad positions all the time they train constantly in bad positions so they're always defensively sound and that makes sense with striking as well with so many guys are so concerned with offense and you know you've had so many spectacular knockouts like the thomas almeida fight that it's just like you probably just want to blast guys true i get i gotta like pull the reins back sometimes i'm like dude i'm so amped up just getting there and get the fight you know like forget to walk out fit the you know yeah i'm gonna i want to get the first blow i want to get that exchange and then that's when the fight unravels sometimes i think i get so amped up that you know taking it back you know doing that kind of having defensively sound sets up your offense yeah and my uncle was training me my whole entire life and this is what he said your often sets up your defense and vice versa but okay like my offense was so good and then you get to this point where people are breaking down your footages and your films and you know your speed and power you know you have to have that you have to be defensively sound if you're so offensive i'm a forward fighter i can fight going back a lot of fighters can't go i can feel i can fight positional um like you said about danner's guys chris holdsworth um has adapted into a phenomenal coach you know he's my right hand guy from martial arts to the t and he makes us start in horrible positions like that when we're dog dead tired and then get up and we're shadow sparring each other and then going back to the ground like really fight simulated things to where you're feeling uncomfortable in those positions like yeah i can go in there and knee wrestle
all day during jiu jitsu and i didn't get tapped out and happening but i was safe but i didn't put myself in those positions when the fight really happens you have to see how you know your grit you got to be able to fight off the hands right off the body trying to fight all those bad positions so you're comfortable or whatever the fight goes and i feel like that's where i'm at now i've transitioned into that fighter i was so green when i got to alpha male and and a lot of my speed and power catapulted me to the top where i have to kind of draw back a little bit and do the correctional errors not reinvent things not do things but the defensive part of things like you know i was up in training in jersey and i knew i had the good head slips and movements but some of the slips coach was watching me i'll get caught on the you know at the first or second i usually get hit with a fourth punch you know that's a combo puncher so i would slip slip and then i would slip down this way and i would get hit with the the jab every time he's like dude just bring your hand up a little bit when you're slipping to the right you're moving to the right and i you know how you feel after swear i'm like do i feel great i don't have a headache i'm not getting my ass kicked like i'm not getting hit really like my defense has gotten so um solid working with him and just constantly and chris is the same way my coaches out and alpha male are the same with hands up hands up hands up but i was at that point in my life i was just so aggressive and angry and just we had so much success attacking that way at doing that but this last fight i was honestly joe when i was you know doing those faints on the sun sound coach henry said hey don't feel like these faints aren't going to work like he's defensively sound he's a great fighter at that respect keep doing these faints they will work i'm fating this guy dude i'm fainting i'm fainting he's not really biting he's not really coming in but i kept on the faints and we knew you know i started catching with some some shots that i saw in his eyes were hurting him and then fainted did the tyson two his overhand right dropped him
and i knew once i had that range and the power and speed and his timing that he would come in with something so uh yeah the ko the way you did it where you dropped your hands and looked to the side and waited for him to move oh my god that was like one of the best walk-off chaos ever i felt great because the first round i kind of had myself to the cage and coach man he he'd probably kick my ass being on the cage like get get off the cage get to the you know movement more we're movement fighters you know he made me um and i know my back was in the cage but i saw and and the round was ending but i saw a sunset like oh here's my opening i saw that in the first round and the sacramento was staying off i was moving i'm speeding i'll switch you know stances um but towards the end i heard the clappers i'm like i'm back and swell let him come in i kind of leaned towards and he kind of like faded on it and then he chased me down when i level changed i kept my eye on him and he threw the hook because he was going south paul and i knew like i had to hand my hand on the cage to know where my distance was that he was coming with a kick after i could lean back i just had my range how my timing and once i threw it man i knew when i feel it from the hip it was it was over and that that guy is so [ __ ] durable that's the thing i mean this guy is so tough and so so durable for you to catch him and ko him like this yeah that had to feel so good that was good you know back against the wall i mean that was a pivotal point in my life but i knew leading up to that i needed to get an octagon i kept like hey sean dana and then obviously in the beginning of the year i had the kidney infection that landed me in the hospital i had to remove myself kind of what happened there dude i had a um i guess a staff or cellulitis i didn't know my shin was so sore for weeks i would tape it with a knee pad put a knee pad and tape it and spar and grapple but there was no like infection no nothing no cut um so you just thought it was bruce i kicked kicked this dude hella hard and i just thought that my leg was just bruised that bad like you know sometimes you hit your shins yeah you know
um kind of elbow maybe a knee and i was transitioning back i was in jersey for a month and i was back here in california for two weeks and i was going back to jersey and just training hard you know and um to where my body's just started shutting down like i remember telling coach mark after training one day i'm just feeling horrible um and then by that night i kind of just started feeling really bad and started urinating blood so i went to the hospital and they checked everything out like oh you're good like the doctor came in it's like here's a surgeon's number like you're going to have to get your lymph noise removed because my lymph nodes were swollen so much in my groin i couldn't even walk i was like get crawling in there and i'm like everything checked out they did all these tests i was there for like watching why would they just remove them just that's what he said i'm like all right so i was like drove home to germain i drove there the first time and then drove home chris is actually flying out for the week to help me train i was like crispr i don't feel good um there's something going on like you know but i just had everything checked out so i'm not gonna be [ __ ] and go back to the to the hospital but progressively during the night it just became like two words of straight blood i was this was urinating so this is not good i couldn't eat i had the cold chills went back ubered back to the hospital and they admitted me and i had a really bad kidney infection from um like a cellulitis that was in my life so how do they find out that you have a really bad kidney infection do they do it for a blood test i did blood cultures i was doing i did probably 26 labs i was in the hospital for they didn't know why i was what was caused from it i had a team full a team of doctor surgeons um you know uh infectious disease doctors like all these like trying to do these tests and like we didn't know what was going on and then they gave me antibiotic and i wasn't put up the penicillin for six days and iv the whole time it was the
first few days in the hospital i couldn't eat i couldn't even urinate myself the lady had to hold the bucket to where i was just i was just dying i think i was training myself you know it wasn't a diet thingy i was eating right correct taking supplements like just training hard and then i guess i just trained my body to well if you get that's the thing about people that get sick while they're training like people that are in like if you're in a fight camp your body is you're you're constantly breaking yourself down that's why guys get sick all the time in training because you're so tired all you trained so hard if you get sick bad while that's happening you can get really [ __ ] up and there are so many guys out there running around with staph infections that don't know they have them i've seen guys at the gym and they have like this little thing on their arm and then someone's got to say hey dude if you got that checked out right like that thing looks like a big boil like you got staff bro and they're like is that staff did that is that's definitely people don't know but that should get systemic and then you could die yeah it was you had to go and do you know how to go to a kidney specialist they went to cleveland clinic in ohio uh did all these tests they wanted to do a biopsy um staff is [ __ ] scary man so i texted dana like man like i had to pull out my fight and then he was saying that he was going to have the fights i'm like well i need to fight like i just need my soul needs to get in there i need to turn this around i'm on three fight skid like i was excited i was fighting columbus ohio my hometown i was gonna start to come back there and then the marshawn you know i was back to the visualization focusing on fighting like i was so far removed from that not because i was losing like even when i won the title i was just like so far like you weren't visualizing then i wasn't i mean i ended up injuring myself in the fight with crews with my knee and then i ended up having the back procedure in germany um leading up to the tj fight it took me out a whole year did you get that regeneraking stuff yep i did and it worked and there's shelf lifes of it you know i still feel um i learned a lot like doing obviously yoga
pt you know as much as i'm training i'm still doing five days a week of pt you know and mobility work for your back for my just overall mobility what was the exact extent of the injury it was an annual tear um in my the disc of the disc yeah so as i kind of just protruded it was just hitting that sciatic nerve and just locking up they're doing stem cells and discs now and they're having great results from that you know i know a dude who had severe sciatic pain and a drop foot like his foot was like going numb and and he got it completely fixed with stem cells wow that's right regenerative medicine is the future man it's really fascinating stuff some part of it's pulling from your own self to heal you and mix with some other yeah some of it and some of it they're doing from umbilical cords when a young like of a young woman gives birth they they take the umbilical cord and they make stem cells out of the umbilical cord yeah that's great yeah i'm all for it dude it's a it's incredible stuff but so you you you talk to me about the visualization stuff so this was something that you concentrated on earlier in your career really my whole entire life without knowing what law of attraction was and and having these you know people teach me this kind of stuff i remember writing on my planner in in grade school and junior high in high school like i was going to be a state champion you know that's what i wanted to be you know my mom always gave us christmas presents the jerome shot and steen center to go watch the state wrestling tournament ohio and everybody knows the ohio state tournament is you know you've been a state champion in ohio you're you're elite in the nation it's a tough state so that's what we were you know our first sport we fell in love with was wrestling we traveled all over uh once our mom you know put us in it and travis around the country packed in our minivans driving all kinds of you know iowa maryland florida just that's what we did every weekend you know that's what we uh enjoyed to do so i started visualization there with you know i saw the announcer's name you know hearing that this is just in your
like almost like just daydreaming just daydreaming just thinking about what you want yeah not paying attention in school but not like a not like a form like like a formula not like i didn't really formally formulate just i would write down my weight class my name what high school i was representing and i would just read that when i was in school and read it over and over again i would hear the the guy the announcer's name at the jerome shots he had a distinguished voice and you know freshman you know cody garber from new york expo claymont you know the mat too like you run out and like it's you know 20 000 people think about it in your house just yeah manifest that sounds like i'm going to be a state champion my freshman year and i did it and i think i think anything that i visualize like that and really put myself in those kind of uncomfortable positions now like i want to be a world champion and to be a world champion you have to put yourself through some misery some some straight pain to get you know your goals to be the top because everyone's going to everyone's fast everyone's tough everyone's strong it's like that slight edge story like what are you going to do that they're not going to do right and i think you know you know going back to the three fights kid going to jersey i need to get out of my comfort zone right i've never been away from my son more than a week you know like i had to go and and reward myself with coming back to my family coming back to my son after being away and dedicating myself to this you know this life that i chose to do but you know rewarding myself with the wind coming back enjoying my son um so every time i was away from like this is this is my deposit this is my deposit to get back to my son to have these good times great have make a great future for him things that i didn't have you know i'm fighting for him you know and things for his future good schooling um you know things like that so getting out of that comfort zone going to jersey and then did a winner from california yeah it's not you know i mean new training partners you know i mean
like dude i feel like once you're a champion like you have that x on your back like everyone wants your best and everyone's going to give you their best and i'm all for that i'm oh yeah let's let's you know let's do it and so having those new guys on you trying to just you know earn your respect and i had to go out there and have them earn my respect to be this kid is the real deal this guy is a real deal he's a world champion he's making himself come back and i'm going out there like frankie those guys are great eddie alvarez ricardo almeida coach henry uh the whole guys in jersey are kind of we laugh and joke like they're the team alpha male east coast basically you know we're such a similar style as wrestlers that are turning the strikers and just the mentality of the you know hard work kind of um everyone is a co-op everyone's helping everyone out like oh i'm holding pads with you like frankie was great he came in and helped me out when there was only four or five people in the gym he was getting my sparring rounds and just a great dude great camp to be with and i needed that i think i i don't need cheerleaders you know i mean but i need people that i respect that's going to push me the x around to the next uh you know how did you how did you choose mark henry did you guys have a conversation i talked to coach henry years before this and and anyone that knows mark is not uh he doesn't give out compliments like he's you got to earn his respect and i remember him telling me uh you know he's like dude we really love you enjoy you i feel like you're going to be a world champion in a few years i was like 1-2-0 in the ufc and i was that's a high praise from a guy that's worked with frankie and build him up and all these other fighters he's worked with that's what i appreciate and we kept contact you know mutual respect you know at the fights and seeing them but ali my manager was like hey like i'm not you know he's giving me some of my best life advice i know people have this perception of him but he's honestly helped me out so much in my family but he was the one like look i don't want to tell you what to do but i truly believe
that mark is something that you need in your life he's a great mentor he's just a great guy to be around happy go lucky he wants to win you know he shows you a good life and you know just things that he's been through in his life um so he's like i think you should go with coach mark and i'm like for me change i was always i re i didn't like change but some change is growth you know i looked at it differently um you know going out there and and battling myself to you know get up and be out of your comfort zone going out with coach mark so ollie's kind of one that kind of set the the staple to go out there i reach out to coach mark and frankie i'm like hey i just want to let you guys know i want to come check you guys out and would love to would love to work with you i'm still going to be here with team alpha my guys that it has brought me up but i just need a head coach a guy like coach henry that showed me a lot about breaking fights down watching more fight tapes like my guys chris and my coach out there they do the same thing um but coach is just more hands-on on that way like breaking it down and repeating like here's what we're doing working 10 rounds today 10 five minute rounds we have 50 combos that we're going over and then that's outside of camping inside of camp we're kind of limited to 30. so that's what we're working on for the whole camp of you know getting ready for your your adversary what he's doing and what you need to work with him so breaking that down just constantly working was just um he's got a mind that's like no other i mean i've never met a coach um quite like him that thinks like him you know there's people that on his level for sure i feel like chris is uh because chris is right there on a full spectrum of martial arts with the grappling i mean chris he's a bad [ __ ] i mean we do one-on-one private sessions and it's like no chris is a beast they're horrible they're horrible that he's like a wet blanket on you especially you go from pads to takedowns now right now you're grappling he's putting you those bad positions you got to fight out of this
guy it's it's bad so let me ask you what was mark's initial uh approach did he was it concentrating on defense was it faints like what what did he want you to do different obviously you're a tremendous offensive fighter and that's always been the key to your success but what did he what did he look at he said this is what you're lacking or this is what we can improve upon i'm just obviously the faints the defense um you know timing them sometimes my speed is a blessing and a curse sometimes i'll faint faint twice and they're still you know off the first vein and then i'm hitting the combo so it's like i have to kind of dub it down a little bit read more faints do more eye faints you know just face with the feet movement wise you know and because the speed is just just unreal you know for for mark you know he was like you're fast like you're probably the fastest guy i've ever seen the octagon no [ __ ] your hands oh i tried to be in there when you hit a sunset that's one things i said i said i i don't think there's a faster person in the sport right like you have crazy fast hand speed but that is true right like power and speed or sometimes people just rely on them so much you know like i always go back to roy jones jr the roy jones jr in his prime was the fastest [ __ ] human being that ever lived he was so fast but because of his incredible athleticism and ability he developed this style that was just so unorthodox that it wasn't fundamentally sound to the point of like like the way bernard hopkins fights or the way you know some other fighters fight where they didn't have to be as fast right you know because roy's thing relied so much on his speed speed and and precision you know and setting up being in the right hitting the quick shots and getting out and then coming with our stuff so i feel like well coach helped out a lot if you look at a lot of my losses i would load up right and put my head first and then like wow why am i going to give you my get back to the tj fight right the two fights those you were more emotionally invested in those fights than any fight you've
ever had right definitely and that's not me i don't have to joe i love the fight i can fight in your studio right now you know what i mean i'll kick jamie's ass you know if you know from his pants making fun of his pants earlier you know but uh oh wait wait oh yeah so i never like for me to go on there and kind of have that you know just an example of that i don't need to do that yeah you know and you know it was great i was a world champion feel like i had to defend it a lot of other stuff you know the backstory of it and the injury coming off the year i was just so like i said not mentally ready to go in there and fight that i physically was like overcompensated for it the emotions that go into a fight with someone you don't like it's always extremely difficult but for you to go into a fight with someone you don't like who you used to be tight with right and used to train with right that's got to be like doubly difficult it's not like i didn't didn't like teach i don't agree with a lot of things that happen um but that's so far in the past i'm that you know past that but yeah definitely taking that in there it was my my mental state was not what it should have been to go in against a guy like tj you know and we can fast forward to where you know he got popped and this and that tj can be on that stuff he can be on that stuff and he still can't beat me when i'm focused and i'm i'm mentally there and i'm in there and i'm excited you know like i'm glad that he's coming back he's got to prove to himself you know and that's a big fight for me to come back to you know in the future it's going that's gonna happen you know i feel like tj caught me at a time where mentally i was not in the best state of mind to go on there and and be a champion and that's why i was taken from me you know i wasn't doing the right things you know the slight edge things i wasn't doing those and you know he capitalized and and i look back on it i i kept going back in those fights and a little bit of insanity you know you got to be insane
to repeat the same thing thinking a different outcome and that's what i was doing in there i was always trained hard always prepared ready but what was what was it wasn't nothing dude that i needed to do it was just the slight slight edge things little work this work that like and looking back on it it's hindsight's 20 20 always in the fight but uh i'm thankful for that i have to feel like if i would have went off and defended the title and i probably wouldn't have been as hungry and motivated as i am today and that's going to help me out for the next five years of my career however long i want to fight for you know i always kind of break my life down to five five year increments but i'm excited for i'm more hungry than ever because i know what it takes to get back to the top so when you said that you stopped visualizing for a long time and now you're doing it again are you doing it now in do you have like a rigid format do you have like a do you have a disciplined format of visualization or do you just spend time alone thinking about things like how do you do it um yeah i do do a form i write things out i write out goals three months six months a year five years what i want to accomplish whether it's financial rights you know athletic why it's personal growth spiritual growth family growth things like that so i try to prioritize um what i'm lacking or what's the lower grade that i give myself and try to focus more on that so it's all balanced i feel like i'm trying to balance my life more as far as being i grew up in chaos you know i feel like i can i do well in that but i'm at a different place in my life and what i want from my son and my future i want to have that balance of you're not so 100 in this and you know lacking this you know i want to make sure it's kind of balanced across my goals but i feel like you know going back to talking about getting out of your comfort zone like doing things that absolutely suck and you got to mentally put yourself in that position were you in your comfort zone when you were the champion like when you say getting out of your comfort zone i know you trained hard so
like what is different i think that i i remove myself after um winning the world title i i didn't feel like it was everything that i thought i was gonna be in what way just the whole prolific you're a world champion you're the best in the world you know i didn't i never expected a lot of things that would happen but i just focused on what did you think it was going to be like i i don't know i don't think i had any expectations when i feel like a lot of things change around like oh man like how does it feel like i'm i'm still the same person i just gotta you know i'm just a number one person in the world at what i do you know i i don't know it just didn't did you think that like in achieving such a great goal that you would feel satisfied that you would feel like i wasn't satisfied maybe maybe because that's what at the later than the tunnel since i was at 12 years old and i was man just through the journey of getting to where i was at looking back on it i was like man like what's next i didn't have the what's next isn't it interesting like this is the thing that gets brought up all the time about fighting is that so much of it is mental especially at the elite level like at your level so much of it is how you are approaching all aspects of your life how your relationship is going how your friendships are going like what what how you what's your relationship with your family you know that's so much of how a fighter fight and then what is your focus on is your focus on adulation is your focus on doing interviews and letting everybody tell you you're the [ __ ] or is your focus on continual improvement and then recognize like yeah you might be a world champion but there's a bunch of hungry lions climbing up that hill to try to get to the king yeah you see it i have you know chris holdsworth my coach my trainer my good friend he travels with me you know we put through hard workouts you know this morning we're gonna go after your podcast and that's the thing doing those balancing that okay i might have you know come on your show absolute honor i gotta train i gotta you know i can't take this week off we're here you know look at homes and doing other things
with pmp my other business partners so just prioritizing what's important what's your goals how are you reaching those goals what are you working towards are you reading help books self-help books are you reading you know books to help your your mental fortitude to strengthen that you know are you doing yoga are you doing oh there's so much resources and staying and staying enthusiastic i think that's the main thing i wasn't enthusiastic i felt like i was just going through the motions and there's a lot of other fighters there's a lot of things that can transpire but i'm slowly putting the blame on myself because that's all i can control what i do how i react to things and i wasn't the person that i am during those kinds of you know tribulations or trials in my life you know and i've grown from that i was 24 25 years old i'm 29 years old now you know i look at the game um just differently you know i'm still a savage i'm still going to go in there and and try to kill you and and dana's going to give us a extra money for a knockout sign me the [ __ ] up do you like the extra money the bonus thing i i've i don't even like win bonuses it drives me crazy i feel like a fighter should get paid yeah like i don't think you are trying to win any more if you get a bonus you're a professional cage fighter there's this it doesn't make any sense there's only one time my professional career and i didn't get my second check and that [ __ ] sucked i was man i was uh because you're banking on i mean we make our money through our fights you know and luckily we have some good sponsors if you know able to be sponsored by it but we fight that's how we make our money and then there's bad decisions which is even crazy so it's not just that a bad decision gives you a loss but it could cost you half of your paycheck that's insane and we don't get it running back next week we gotta recover we might be banged up dude that was my first time after the sunsal fight since the km is a gauke fight that i didn't get injured i tore tendons and ligaments and
stem cells out for eight weeks to you know and then you know so i was like man i was back in the gym monday hungry to go and then [ __ ] cove get covered get title shot i'm like i'm about to fight figgy at 25. you got kovid bad right were you did you get coveted in the were you in the middle of training when you got it like were you worn out dead i was doing one training session and actually i started the whoop and i was like man like my recovery score is one percent in the morning my hry was like 13. it was one percent for like a week and i would only do one workout and then i'd have to cancel on chris and my lot i'm like one percent is dead dude that's crazy but then i was like you know i was gonna go ride the bike you know i was getting on those bikes doing you know 50 to 100 mile rides and just suffering because i had vertigo really bad so i couldn't get in those uncompromised positions that when did you start experiencing vertigo vertigo was my first symptom of cobin not knowing and then i had did you think it was a head injury my uh my doctor i went and saw he's like that's a concussion i'm like dude i didn't get hit hard and sparring my fights like i've worked on defense a lot like i know i would know if it was a concussive blow that gave me vertigo and um what did you experience it after training did you experience honestly it was during grappling i was like grappling you didn't like collide heads or anything nope just went into a scramble and next thing you know i was just like fighting the hands off and the whole room was spinning and i was actually training with you right and i was like man he's like yeah all right i'm like what's going on i was like kind of like didn't want to end in the round so i just kind of like closed my eyes and like held onto his hand so he wouldn't choke me you know he was taking my back so i was finished around and i was like man i just don't feel good and that was nauseated for a few days um so i went to my doctor he was giving me like anti-nausea medicine that was making me so much more tired than i was because i was fatigued from from training i was trying to train through it i was like i have a world title coming up in eight weeks like i have to get down to 25 and
my weight was good um i wasn't restricting any calories you felt something was off with your body besides the vertigo my body felt like i just was for about a three week period when i was training and i didn't feel like myself at all and just mental clarity was was so do you think during that time you had krovit the whole time i think so you know that is crazy and that makes sense that it hit you so hard because you never gave your body a break and you were beating yourself up while you were fighting off covet well that i think what happened was the kidney infection in the beginning of 2020. i was on all those antibiotics i was on five different antibiotics people don't even notice two weeks before the fight with the sun cell the infection came back so i had to go to another infectious disease doctor that my doctor hill found in sacramento this lady was amazing did two blood cultures found out got all the reports from the hospital in jersey the reports from the specialist in cleveland studied those all in a day i got a blood culture i was on the wrong antibiotics i didn't kill the infection just basically put a band-aid over it so i had to go 10 days to iv fusion center to get antibiotic drip for 10 days while i'm training two weeks before the fight oh my god i didn't let any of the ufc or anybody know i told ali what's kind of what's going on because i just needed to get in that knockdown i said dude just put me in that gun i know that it'll happen like to get me there healthy and i'll be good so but that [ __ ] with your endurance in a big way though yeah iv antibiotics are ruthless it was tough man it was uh and my strength conditioning coach we were having the hardest time i was hovering around you know i was getting my heart rate up 187 and then i couldn't get it below it like hover at 150 which i'm fine at santa 150 and going up and being in that 150 to 180 zone that i could be there for a while but we're working on the aerobic system so to drop it you know i just couldn't drop it it took about the last week of training before i flew out to the fight week to finally get my heart rate in like 35's like after a hard like a minute 30 push and
then drop it down so i noticed something like that was it but mentally i was like it's good so so two weeks out you did you had to do a 10 day cycle of iv antibodies in a 10 day of um oral what yeah i was on antibiotics for literally five months almost from jersey i was on five different antibiotics from the hospital so from the sunshine fight how many days did you have where you weren't on antibiotics before the fight i mean i declared that i had i was on antibiotics all the way up to the fight you know i was thinking about antibiotics yeah i was talking so you were taking probiotics to counteract the effects um frankie edgar's wife sent me uh she would do they were they took care of me when i was in jersey like hooked it up like coach brought me pizza in the hospital he was like it was during coco pizza but don't you have to cut weight i don't cut weight to 35. really dude i'm like right now probably 144 oh wow like i don't i and i stay you know strong and fast and this is why i feel good at the fight 35 yeah i have to just diet a little bit like everyone else does for 25 that's what everyone's making is a big deal going to 25 it's not that was a very interesting fight you you going down at 25 was very interesting i'm so excited for it especially watching the moreno and figgy fight last fight um great fight you know awesome it was entertaining but a lot of holes a lot of holes a lot a lot of things that i can you know take away from both fight whoever wins this next one but i'm not going to they fighting again yeah they're rematching each other that's why we're not going to wait it'd be eight months so i get a title shot so that's why i'm you know didn't mourinho [ __ ] up his shoulder in that fight he did something yeah i knew he had to do something what a fight though what the [ __ ] great fight yeah i mean i thought moreno did great i think that if he had more pop to his punches fig you had been in some trouble you know the takedowns look great you know i think matching that getting figgy worn out i felt like in that fight davidson really put himself on the line in terms of like he threw himself into the fire he didn't he didn't fight like
like he was worried at all about mourinho's firepower he was just trying to smash and mourinho is a tough [ __ ] it's like that dude he's that dude that's been in the gym for so long getting his ass kicked now it's finally like i'm starting to do you know what i mean because i know what you mean yeah he's just one of those dudes that just grabs like a darren elkins yep that guy gets his ass kicked and he'll kick ass too but like when it comes down to the fight this dude is he's he's all in you know like the merced bectic fight perfect example that was one of the greatest comebacks i've ever seen in my life yes because bectic is so technical so fast so so precise i mean the kid looks like a world champion down to hold elkin's down and do that grounded pound to him elkins is the number one fighter in the featherweight division with the most top game percentage per fight really and massage you know was on top of him i've grappled with you know elkins is not you know easy to hold on he's indiana wrestler that's just like gritty and just like let's go dude you know that's amazing about the sport though that a guy like you got to know how much gas you got you got to know when you could hit the gas and when you got to back off a little when you got to pace yourself and if you try to empty out and that guy like a guy like elkins who's so [ __ ] tough if he's still there you got a real problem dude it's yeah it's um you know when you crack someone with your you know with some of your best shots and they're just like covered in blood coming forward you're like [ __ ] give me a baseball bat let me hit this guy you know he's such a savage such a savage that's great he's a great guy i mean he leads by example he's not you know brash and outlandish talking he just gets in blue-collar guy he's a pipefitter you know comes in and when he first moved out here he had to go back he was doing ufc fighting and then part time he'd have to go back and get his union hours in and then stay for six months and come back and fight wow and so that until they finally you know retired from pipe finning and moved his whole family out just uh just a great guy great family
tough tough as hell but but yeah that is the kind of guy mourinho is that just blood and guts gritty guy and i think figareto i mean figareto is so good i think he probably thought he was going to get him out of there he did i mean especially with his his win over alex prez that quick and benevito's two knockouts which is gigantic flying high you know it's good eyes on 125 but [ __ ] the bantamweight division i can't leave that one yet like this is so much going on that's good like i'm staying here like i'll cut the weight for you know if you want me to fight this but god that that division is stacked at 35. so you basically beat your immune system up while you had covid and then because of that you got coveted really bad yes yeah so tell me what it was like i was horrible i mean i had that vertigo was the first symptom right and then when did they test you for kovit i didn't get tested until i went down to mike tyson's ranch we were working with the smart cups company we're all sponsored by them doing digital videos and it was our first kind of getting the athletes together because they started doing fighters boxers and some wwe kurt angle was there so i had to do like a rapid test like we just did here and um i waited to wait a while and they okay we want you to do another one i'm like all right cool like we just didn't see some things we liked i was like all right i'm like waiting for an hour do another one i'm like what did you guys another test yeah what'd you guys see i'm like oh you failed the first one i'm like well that's a subtle way you're telling it like i want to stay away from everybody like you know everyone's coming up to me and so i tested there in august um and then i went you know quarantined went home did the did you do any medication what did you do um i did a z-pack uh i got on an inhaler because i had pneumonia i got pneumonia um vertigo and then i did like a 21 day because i had it so bad i kept getting tested like every three weeks and you kept having i kept having i did
molecular tests which was like nine you know some of the best ones to do is that the pcr test yeah we're talking about yeah and just kept negative negative my doctor's like hey we're going to quit testing you you know like you're being positive you keep testing positive yeah get positive for it yeah and i'm like dang this is this is crazy i mean and i had started to have the symptoms going away like pneumonia was fine my lungs were good like i felt it like i was that's when i started cycling a lot um so i was out there just pushing the lungs that's what my doctor said was the best thing to do is riding that bike that much is getting those lungs to keep working because you have pneumonia really bad jesus christ wow like i felt horrible i thought cycling was one of the hardest things to do isn't it funny because you would think like most people would think that a guy who's a world championship caliber fighter is the type of guy who would get coveted and it would just burn right through his system but because you were training while you had it and beating yourself up it just got deep into you deep i mean it took over my body but i think honestly from the kidney infection beyond the antibodies my immune system was so weak how much time was there between the kidney infection the antibiotics and then getting coveted dude i literally got out of the hospital and i texted dana like hey i heard your did a press conference about having to fight my kidney levels are good i'm waiting for maybe have to do a biopsy um but i want to fight he's like all right work on it i was like begging sean so you got covered right away um so i then i uh after the fight yeah i had uh so june to august oh okay but uh so it was from the kidney infection the fight two fight camps you know basically one didn't happen uh recovering i mean building myself back up from where i was at getting ready to fight a sunset the first time in march you know i literally had to start walking on a treadmill for a couple weeks to get my i was in rough shape rough shape and i started training at my business partner's house he had a home gym because everything was closed uriah's gym wasn't open he said dude i
got a treadmill i got weights kettlebells you know ionic kettlebells and uh so i went over there and just started to to train and i'm like i'm getting myself ready and it was brutal brutal brutal training getting back in there this is pre-coveted this is pre-covered this is kitty infection jesus christ but so your body was obviously already compromised oh yeah i was yeah very confident i still on antibiotics and they still had me on antibiotics uh to clean out the infection i was on it for like a 30 day antibiotic from the hospital so august you get covid how long before it clears your system how long before before you start feeling good months like i literally i went to miami and worked with this company called amino wells and they did like kind of injections um we talked about kind of stem cell injections throughout my body arms um and i kind of started feeling a lot better at like the week after that i did a month on the injections with the three milliliters a week and i felt really good body felt good clarity went away i actually had to go to arizona the mayo clinic uh dana thought i had meniere's disease so i went and saw his doctor that did his surgery um they gave him a shot in his ears did all these testings hearing tests um did you have ringing in your ears i had ringing bad in my left ear and there's um i have a loss of uh hearing in this year and they don't know why i think maybe because i'm this is my lead lead and you get hit in the left ear okay that's all i can say i'm like i don't know i haven't shot a gun without you know anything like that you know trying to just figure out why it's ringing it makes like this popping noise um and i was just getting so like dizzy i couldn't even do anything um so so that's probably ten contributed to the vertigo for sure right they said it wasn't officially it's ear things yeah they said like crystals i had vertigo before i worked with upmc i was out for a whole year my pro debut broke my hand had uh vertigo from crystals being out there
i went to the upmc crystals crystals yeah was that an irregular tube that was throwing my equilibrium off which basically is positional vertigo a lot of it's that's the most common one you know a lot of people just you know they can steez wrong or do something sleep wrong on their neck and they have vertigo and there's a maneuver you do to put it back but it wasn't positional vertigo it was just literally coveted had had me so messed up so your body was so compromised from the antibiotics the kidney infection a second kidney infection so you were just basically getting your your health back which is crazy that you beat a sun sao in that state yeah because you could you had to be clearly compromised there's no way you could have been 100 if you were gone if you went through that much antibiotics before that fight but i think that goes back to the my mental state was at i knew that i needed to get that knocked out and change this around i was not living life like this i was tired of living on a three-fight skit i was ready to get back in there and when you know like for me like like we talked about earlier with the tgs fights i don't have to go in there and be angry and upset and want one ripped his head i got there hate this guy i have hatred for this guy it's a flip to switch like when you know you have it in you you don't you know and that that's been bred in me i've have it um so i just needed to get in there i was like not taking no for an answer i mean my coaches and stuff like oh i don't know if you're gonna make it you know coach mark i'd call him cause we basically did i would film my pad work and my sparring rounds and send it to coach on whatsapp and then he would break everything down do more of this do less of that looking good looking fast on you know your left hook counter off you know things like that so we did virtually you know camp through there so then when we came out to i kept working the codes to you know keep working your codes keep working you know and make sure you're doing under nine things like that and then when we came to fight week it was just
so talk me through you getting you got coveted tested in august of the tyson joe you knew that you had it when when are you free of it like this is the first test that i've passed since really today my doctor would test that february february yeah jesus see how excited i was yeah dude i'm free i'm free of it it was literally you know a couple months of having it testing it to where my doctor's i'm not going to send out any more tests because there were 72 hour return ones and every time you did it you had it every time i did and this is for months um tested my son he didn't have it i mean we were i was your wife didn't get it um she ended up getting it um but it wasn't that severe it was it was a couple months ago that she got it um two months ago her twin got it and it was kind of you know they were sick but not like what i had like i was just yeah well you're a perfect example of you know obviously you're a super healthy guy and an elite athlete but when you put yourself through training camp there's only one way to get in shape you got to beat yourself up there's no there's no other way around it's true and when you are so tough that you push through even though you had covid and you let that [ __ ] get deep into your system there's a lesson in there for people you know because there's tough tough's important yeah you don't get where you get without being tough but there's there's also you you got to be you got to be able to take a step back and go it's not wise to push sometimes and i think honestly if i got tested before having covered then i mean before i first had the first like i've had this you probably never got it i probably would have had it for a couple of weeks or whatever and yeah exactly it wouldn't be as it took over my body then i came back and i hit pads the first time like dude i'm in great shape because i was cycling 100 miles you know we had a hard pace we were riding four or five times a week you know building the legs up and um so i started hitting pads again i was excited like i'm back in the gym i can be around people because on the bike i was on the bike trail on the
road just you know suffering on the bike came back hit pads the first time and man i my bicep was so sore uh and that i remember going to sleep that night and waking up and excruciating pain wow and my bicep was just filled up with blood like this i thought i tore my biceps my doctor and he ultrasounded it and he thought it was a distal bicep tear you know deemed that i'm like i gotta call dana and tell them like hey i'm just turning my bicep i'm gonna then get the mri get the mri nothing's torn it was a guy then i had to go get a urgent ultrasound i tore my vein in half and it ripped in half wow and then i had three blood clots so i was immediately they started injecting me with blood thinners i was on i've been on blood thinners for you know since yeah this is because of cove that's another thing that happens with people that severe cases of covet they get blood clots didn't know and my business partner jeremy perkins he owns pnp medical which they work with covid or they work with blood clots they have you know some the devices they sell to doctors and hospitals and the whole time he's like dude i think you have a blood clot i'm like there's no way i have a blood clot that's the number one silent killer in in the nation is blood clots because people don't know they have it i had three of them in my arm didn't even know that's crazy i just had like my arm was sore for a while so you're on blood thinners now i just finished up my last i was on blood first for almost three months so how do they know when to get you off of them how do they know that you're okay um so i was going every month after i did a month of blood thinners um i was getting ultrasounds reaction i mean they were literally going from because i literally had my my vein was like an electric cord hard like a rope i couldn't even set my arm down it was so sore like driving in the console and this only manifested itself when you started hitting pads after after i hit pads like you didn't feel that before that no like it it blew the vein ripped the vein in half so your body
must have been see that's the thing too right like i'm sure when you came back you tried to rip oh dude i was [ __ ] i was horny i was so hungry you wanted to smash those pants well i was i was like feeling good i was in great shape my conditioning was on another level world class always is but i all that cycling energy yeah then i was not getting tired and i was just you know i'm like oh no yeah and usually my biceps hurt after i hit strike so i'm just just hooking and just for the first few times if i don't hit pads in a while but this was another pain i woke up and my brother just moved in with me and i woke up in the middle of night and it was at six and i had chris's class and i literally hit my arm on the side i was like i don't think i go to jitsu i'm like oh i got hill sprints i'll go do hill sprints in the afternoon texting my doctor hey can you check my arm out and he was like holy [ __ ] man this is not good so how long are you on the blood thinners for oh it's almost three months yeah i just got off i actually go when i go back from here i go to the hospital and get ultrasound to see if the because the one blood clot reabsorbed but i still had one blood clot since the last one and that was a superficial vein so i'm i learned a lot about health and this year from the kidney infection the blood clots and and now i just did a blood panel so every camp before i'm gonna get a blood panel of things checking what i'm low on maybe a vitamin or supplement can help me out not break my body down because we're training two or three times a day we're you know you understand it a lot of people who don't like to just to get to the fight yeah is amazing but to be able to peek on that night it's an art form it's an art form yeah it's it's scientific you have to really know your body and i usually do when you train with mark henry does he have any a different approach to strength and conditioning does he leave that to other people does he advise you in that or is he just technique oriented and you know what he he harps on and brags about and it's so funny from a a boxer like all boxers like talk [ __ ] about wrestlers like oh hearing those singlets and he's like get your wrestle on it he's like
make sure he's [ __ ] smart dude he knows he understands like i mean rutgers is right there so we have the ruckers in the new jersey training center so we go to train with those young hungry college kids they're trying to [ __ ] you up and then you have sure all americans or you have the international wrestlers that have out there on the training center and it's just a dog fight i mean you get those kids there's your hand fighting for 10 minutes with these dudes and we're live wrestling like and we all have wrestling backgrounds and it's funny when we get into mma we kind of dip away from wrestling so much because we're focused on striking and jiu jitsu and what got us there was those grinding wrestling matches when you're just i mean it's miserable and so he always says hey every time i get off the phone with him we're about to hang up he's like hey get your wrestling in i'm like all right cool yeah for sure so it's great so he he harps on that obviously strength conditioning is big as well but you know don't don't um see what i do i do strengthen the dishing outside of camp that's when i rebuild my body back you know everything that i need to do that's gonna get torn down and fight so i build this armor in camp and then i push the first outside outside of camp and when i get in camp the first four weeks are brutal you're sore you're hurt you're and then the last four weeks you kind of modify your workouts to where you're so you don't do much actual strength and conditioning while you're in camp i do i touch the way i touch the weight it's more for aerobic skill skill work i have my my coach amadeo novella has worked with um danny and tj and joe so these these guys see new methods that we're doing and danny always walks in he's like wish i had this when i was you know there i was a guinea pig you know over trained so he's learned so much and has us peaking at you know a strength weight and uh aerobic and just using all your different systems to formulate an mma because you know like anybody mma
training is so much different when you go into mma fight you have to be a conditioned boxer condition you throw kicks in with boxing now you're talking about a whole different cardio then you gotta wait for you got a guy like khabib trying to [ __ ] just take you down and be a wet blanket on you and then you have to get back on your feet and fight them like it's the cardio and the conditioning i think is uh it scares me dude i get scared before my workouts like i know what i go there an hour before and i was like oh you're here early i'm like well i have to mentally prepare myself to put my body through that and i think that that's going back to slight edge there i see a lot of my teammates they're walking in they're late they have no urgency i'm like i just couldn't do it i have to mentally put myself in there what i'm going to do i might pass out i might i'm probably going to throw up i'm gonna push my limits to where i'm gonna feel like i'm gonna pass out i'm gonna be sick after i feel like that's a slight edge jury you have to do and just getting to that point because dude how embarrassing would it be that i'm better than this fighter but my conditioning was worse and that's why he beat me dude being exhausted having fatigue will make you a coward in any circumstances lombardi right fear fatigue yeah yeah that's that's my favorite quote we had that in our wrestling room and i didn't even know what fatigue was and i was a kid i'd always always see this in our high school wrestling we grew up in it we're homegrown from kids tying shoes on the first time on the mat to you know wherever you go to college after like the same wrestling room the same coach was there for 30 some years eric token and he was just old school old school and had quotes and like fatigue makes cows everywhere that one stuck at me and then i figured out what fatigue was i'm like well i'm not going to be a coward i knew what a coward was i didn't know what a fatigue was but i'm not going to be tired i'm not going to be a coward so talk to me talk to me about the cycling because i think that's really interesting that you developed all this endurance from cycling i mean i mean i go back to when nick diaz was in his
prime and one of the things that separated nick from everybody was his elite cardio that nick nick has swam from alcatraz five times yeah maybe more since then because i remember i said twice once and he corrected me he was like five times i want to do it one time [ __ ] waters dude i don't i'll go to the beach and i'm all for it my son loves the beach always wants to go i i got to see my feet in the water i can't be out too fast the wife she's out there she's thai so she's like i'm out and deep in but uh yeah that world-class cardio that's what i think separates it like yeah there's something about that right the running the swimming and the riding and i think because you're so alone in yourself you know you're swimming you're swimming what are you doing you're you're you're on the bike you're you have to push yourself you're running you're in your thoughts you're pushing yourself yeah you know and then you get into that well i've done defeating myself i've done push myself past this limits where i want to give in now i have another human that might have some will that might give a little eye or body language that he doesn't want to be in here and now you start getting that confidence and i feel like for me going into a fight is my confidence comes through my hard work knowing that i left no um you know stone unturned and i feel like that just but you have to be smart with it now are you going to do that in all your future camps now or leading up to it it's because it seems like it was very effective for you yeah i feel like i just did my vo2 testing you know as high as it's ever been i'm i feel like i'm have world class cardio especially when the rounds get deeper i feel like i get better in the fight as i get tired i get sharper i feel when i'm when i'm you know putting the work in great shape of course um so definitely i think i have to tailor my cycling i'm not going to be because i have back problems you know i've had some back issues being in that bike for seven hours riding a hundred and some miles in that crouch over position like it locks you up um do you have you ever
talked to volkanowski i haven't no he uh had a pretty severe back injury and his back would blow out during every camp but then he got a really good strength and conditioning coach and worked with him on strengthening his back and he's never had a problem since because a lot of what happens with people that have back issues or sometimes it's good and sometimes bad is the muscles around the back aren't conditioned to maintain posture maintain the training camp and then they give out and when the muscles give out then you hurt your back again and the big muscles lock up yeah yeah yeah so my strength conditioning coach um dale novella and my pt russ uh down here from kind performance they've worked with a lot of baseball players who throw a lot like fighters so i don't do a lot of front loaded squats backloaded squats i do split stance you know okay single leg a lot of single arms single legs lunges just you know get the weight evenly distributed so it's not heavy load on one side and i feel like that's been um a huge advantage as far as strength where i'm not getting my back locked up i can still do these dead lifts i can still touch this heavy weight because you need to build your body and those backs up have you ever seen that uh harness system that louis simmons from west side barbell created that's he's in columbus marcus marinelli who's the base coach has one we used to train on that thing is amazing i got one in my old gym and what do they call that it's like it drops down belt squat squat yeah we have one at the old gym in california and now i have one in my house but uh from sorenex but it's it puts all the weight on your hips yeah so your bot your back doesn't take that load yeah we have one at the gym it's called a pitch shark and it's uh yeah the same same thing just puts it on the hips and you can just rip it so yeah we utilize that a lot obviously the machine that you gave me or told me to get a reverse reverse and then the machine that you just kind of like lay there and it kind of elongates um the other other machine oh yeah that's the um the decks uh from uh the company [ __ ] yeah dexter from god damn it it's one of the sponsors
yeah teeter they they're the folks that have that uh well first of all they have this those boots that you can hang from those uh gravity boots which are phenomenal and then that that thing is the [ __ ] that that dex is that a different one it looks a little different like different color oh okay that thing is the [ __ ] that is my all-time favorite back you could do those back hyper with that back extensions but in terms of like loosening up your back and and and having your back decompress what i like about that over even the the the regular teeter is that this one you're you're hinging from the hips so you're not supporting yourself at all with your ankles or anything else your body weight is in terms of your lower body is all supported by your thighs so you can completely relax your back and the decompression is just phenomenal it's i'd love that thing yeah i'm thankful you gave me that or you know you helped me get that my back you know that was when i was on the show three years when i had the back problems and i literally get on there my back starts getting tight from training or riding i'll lay in there you know five five minutes at a time you know just kind of decompress the reverse hyper to strengthen it and also active decompression from the reverse hyper and then that thing those two together are [ __ ] phenomenal yeah i feel great i mean i'm gonna knock on this wood but uh but it's good yeah did you do do you do any yoga or anything i do i do i mean we spoke about that um on a podcast years ago about doing hot yoga and i started getting into that but like i said i do five days a week of pt i do manual um manual work with cupping and blading and grasping and what is it i've never had cupping done how is that what does that do for you it makes you have weird weird circles all over your body yeah yeah i feel like the the only problem with that leading up to a fight is when guys see it like uh the artisana fight with paulo costa yeah paulo costa he had him all around his calves he was like that ain't good if izzy sees that [ __ ] he's gonna know yeah and uh i was getting a lot of work done too uh during one of my fights with tj the
first one in madison square i had heather from the ufc come in and i was just pretty banged up my neck and just stiff in my hand but i i found use with with cupping um as far as my hips getting hips getting uh kind of bound up so what does it feel like it loosens you up i feel like you just like you know when you have a physical trainer you're in these hips and you're hugging your other knee and he's open up your you know whole um exterior line it just helps get the blood flow you know um reacted there like kind of just traumatize it and all right the body's like oh [ __ ] something's happening here we gotta hurry up and um he'll get the blood flowing there um i think that's what happens a lot but i started doing dry needling too and um a lot of athletes like fast twitch athletes it it depletes them like it just your muscles are just so fatigued and fried from dry needling from dry needling because it's like just hits that nerve and it just spasses it out and the muscles is like i don't know what it what it does like um my trainer he did some on some obj uh back on me he said they would like when he would do it it was um you know he would be kind of unrest for like two days because it was just his body so fast twitch you know but i feel like when i'm that bound up i need to do something like that but going to the pt doing mobile mobile strength and conditioning together just and just stretching honestly stretching and drinking a ton of water like staying hydrated was a huge thing stretching is a funny thing because it's so important for fighters but so few fighters really stretch yeah they they train they maybe do a little bit of stretching and then at the end they're done but it doesn't suck any more than strength and conditioning work but for whatever reason people don't like stretching i think it's the the middle like oh man i gotta go stretch it's hard but it's like i can go and kill a two-hour workout or an hour workout with pads or grappling yeah because you express aggression yeah extras aggression like this ain't doing but it's actually going to help you out
in the long run the one that sucks the most is when you're um sitting your legs straight out and you touch your toes and you bring your body down because you can't breathe so you're holding on your feet and you're stretching and it's like your hamstrings and your body's like just stop just stop doing this you can't breathe come on you want to quit oh yeah you want to quit this that is to me the the most annoying stretch i've done so with my pedro fight i tore all my um my carpets radius um flexor tendon in my wrist and how did you do that just [ __ ] wide open slang and [ __ ] yeah playing it from my uh my beltway are you sparring hard or are you sparring technically i'm not i don't really spar i'm not going really far i don't need to joe i feel like i know how to fight i feel like you do need to go in and get like some [ __ ] thrown at you but more technical sparring you just need to have your someone throwing fast [ __ ] at you like chris he'll be throwing kicks and combos in our pad work and you know he'll be moving around but i'm not taking those hard shots and as well i'm getting comfortable with getting stuff thrown at me and and retaliating like when did you shift um i started shifting it probably um prior to you know right after the pedro fight i would say i started doing that more and more times did you decide that you were getting beat up too much in training i wasn't that's the thing like i felt like i was what made you make the show the shift i i just wanted to train smart i don't know if i was like over training over sparring uh because i would get to the fights joe and i would just be like [ __ ] i gotta fight i feel like i was over trained and um is that also why you started getting the whoop strap did the whoop yeah the whoop was it was huge i kind of wanted to show you where your recovery is you know like there's some days like you're not going to go over this strain but it's sparring day you know you're going to go over that strain but it's going to have you know okay after that sparring day you're going to maybe take
the the night off instead of doing a pad session you're going to let yourself so i'm pretty much in tune with my body prior to having this it's just a tool to help you know sleep you know hrv i think that's the heart your variable is great what's your resting heart rate's at and then obviously you know the sleep's a huge thing recovery for us is how much can you recover and go the next day i love the fact that it gives you real data so you don't have to guess yeah you have to say i feel pretty good you can actually look at the woop app and it'll show you exactly where your body's at based on just real pure feedback not intuition not guesswork right you wear it for a while with 30 or 40 days and it acclimates to your body so it has that grace period of like get to know your body training wise you know like i'll be done with the training session and they'll already know that it was a kickboxing workout yes my heart rate are you putting it on uh with one of those impacts i had the impact when i grapple um but sometimes when i spar i think i have it out position right on my wrist that i wrap it with my hand wrap and then tape it and it doesn't mess my wrist up okay um so the strap's cool um strap was good actually you know and i think closer to your heart obviously is going to get a better reading um is that real you just get it sounded awesome sounded great i don't know if that's the case you should just wear it because i feel like when i wear the chest strap but then you have it right in your sternum right you're sparring you get front kicked or need this yeah i mean i got hit there before with that thing on that that does not feel good it's not fun it goes flying everywhere you're trying to catch in between sparring like uh but this is nice it keeps the you know it keeps it right in there with that sleeve and then with this covered up it's it doesn't really
bother me too much but i do do the strap when i do like cardio and um where i can check my phone like when i'm doing the strength conditioning stuff like that but grappling i want to make sure like i want to know what my heart rate's at so i know right um you know the ufc just started doing punch you know dallas's with they put like the meters in your glove they cut it out and put this thing in your gloves yeah i uh have you done that so just showing the volume of punches or the impact impact yeah i don't know what what what's what's in there i don't know what they're checking they're just like yeah we're taking your gloves and uh you know you you pick your gloves and then during the fight they have there's a little thing in your gloves like yeah they literally cut your glove where the ufc logo goes out and slide this thing in they take it out after each fight and put it in so he has your oh that's right i'm like i want to find out why is this with francis yeah i was smart i'd always have a pair of gloves so dude you get those gloves fight week they're stiff as hell and i mean like we're going to wrap them up in this bag they're going to be in this little bag and you get out they're going to be work so i used to always bring a pair of gloves i would use the last two weeks of training camp so they already be broken into my hands and then i would just switch it out and i got so nervous when they were like i'm like oh [ __ ] they got stuff in the gloves like we can't use our old gloves now do you feel it any different no not really no i just slight edge thing you know right slight edge thing so uh but yeah and they told us that so i was like i chickened out last night i'm like oh no we gotta use these ones what do you mean so i would always bring in a pair of gloves that i had and i would just have in my bag and like i'm these are broken in not these ones that are fresh and stiff as hell but do they make you wear those stiff fresh ones or yeah so that's what they give you so you but you couldn't use the ones that you had they wouldn't let you um i don't think they would let you uh i just always did
[Music] you just always would do it yeah they're not the best it's tough you know eye poking yeah my thumbs always trevor whitman has a phenomenal design his onyx gloves his mma gloves are the first of all his boxing gloves all of his his gear is he hooks me up so shout out to the channel shout out to trevor yeah dude i love it though he's the heat molded man oh my god how many times you've been to a gym and you're like [ __ ] i forget my hand wraps and you can't hit with like well if you heat molded your gloves they're you don't really need a hand wrap for that thing it's they're just so good they're just so much better design what about his head gear his head everything's great everything he makes is great shin pads everything he makes is great but the thing to me is his hand his gloves his mma gloves they're superior they're a better design and i don't know what the deal is why they can't make a deal with the ufc to use those onyx gloves they should [ __ ] figure out a way to make it happen they are the best gloves they're so much better the the hand positioning is better first of all it forces your hand into this position instead of like this mma gloves with ufc gloves your hand is you want your hands want to extend your it wants to open your hand up and you have to force it closed trevor's gloves want your hand closed they curve at the end it get it puts you in a natural curved position to be able to strike and and they're better in terms of like the protection they offer your hands knuckles i'm not for that i mean my hands busted up like oh short dude as hard as you hit bust it up i broke the hand i always have you know i wrap it tape it see if you can get a photo of his uh onyx what do you have like literally one year ago today is when rashad was on the podcast to premiere them oh like really those gloves yeah but that one and then he officially i guess he measured me and [ __ ] and 3d scanned me and he's supposed to send me a bunch of [ __ ] so but those are not those are the pride gloves those on the right hand side um his or her yeah those are the boxing gloves is
those mma gloves right there what is that where you adjust that will your cursor right there click on that nope those are boxing gloves as well he's got um oh it's right there the white ones that that's that yes that's them those are the [ __ ] they are the [ __ ] they are so much better than any go i [ __ ] with the pride gloves i've i've touched a lot of different people's gloves and put them on different and a lot of good ones right but those head and shoulders above everybody else's they're they are phenomenal and they they have the best protection for your hands too yeah they're [ __ ] trevor whitman let's go please let's get it in there please change the gloves it's a new year come on yeah it's in there i don't know i mean i know they were working on some sort of a deal but for some reason they couldn't oh that'd be great they couldn't come to some agreement for whatever reason how many people get poked an eye on a fight a lot man a lot a lot and there was less than pride did you notice and probably most people got poked in prizes the gloves were more curved in pride i'm all for it yeah started yeah there's something needs to change because the eye pokes or i mean nick lentz i don't know if it was a poke or what but he lost 40 of his vision in one of his eyes and he just retired he just retired yeah he said his last fight he was seeing double i mean look at uh i don't well bisping i believe it was a kick that [ __ ] his eye up and then subsequent surgeries and you know that's happened to me before i got kicked in the eye and sparring and like the the toenail like raised my eye and cut my eye and luckily i didn't have anything detached or anything like that that's how mike winklejohn lost his eye holding pads for somebody yeah guy got him with his [ __ ] toenail that whole camp i couldn't spar uh my whole my eye was bloodshot for like two months like it was just they had to fight like the things that people don't know about what fighters go through just headaches were crazy man like yeah drops in my eyes for two weeks jesus christ yeah damn dude yeah it's it's been a journey though man it's been fun i mean i would
love to do it all over again now where are you at now do they have anything lined up for you you're obviously you're clear covid now clear cover dana and sean ufc brass when did you start feeling like you felt 100 i mean today was the first day you tested negative all right but when did you start feeling 100 i would say about a month ago jesus christ about a month ago a month ago folks is january we're in february now we're talking about a disease that you caught in august that is crazy to where i could feel like i could go and push myself and then the next day be able to that night be able to recover um so you were a good four plus months just wrecked horrible and trying to just work through i still step work through it you know i started on your bike still riding the bike still doing you know my strength and conditioning um individually when i had the when i had to covet or we still had the symptoms um you know they have all kinds of studies say you're only you know contagious the first 48 hours this and that like how would you what 48 hours i've read up and done so much studies on really i don't think that's true yeah i don't think that they maybe they just changed their in the beginning they had all these all these days in the beginning right yeah did they thought you know double mask yeah well now i triple now triple mouse is safe and better dude all right we flew out here i saw a lady with a double mask a shield and goggles and gloves my friend reggie reggie watts turned me on to this look at this come on son am i upside down no this is the right way yeah there's like head yeah you got there's a pad up on the floor come on son how about this dude i need one where's reggie let me fly home i didn't i don't want to experience kobet again this is the i don't think you're going to catch it again right no that's a mad antibody what's that um uh maynard keenan from tool he got coveted a second time bad he had it bad once and he got it a second time yeah i started cycling so i started following
some of the athletes that were top in the world cyclist athlete he got it twice you know back to back like it was that that's one of those things where i wonder it's because there's training if it's because they're training so hard because when people train your immune system just gets crushed yeah i think so i think it's like like everyone said that to me like oh your world world road elite athlete like you should be able to get this and i thought that too because i remember what pedro munoz was fighting frankie test deposit had to push it back like he's getting ready to fight like he had no symptoms like he was good like he was asymptomatic maybe but then he pushes it back you know a month or so and he's still fighting like do you think it burns the same thing yeah i guess everyone's comfortable everyone's different sometimes you know it attacks you differently but i truly believe that mine stemmed from you know the kidney infection breaking my body down with the damn antibiotics sure but what was i supposed to do do did other guys in the gym get it um there's a few not like a huge outbreak you know outspread of anything a handful here and there we closed down for you know a week and how did most guys what was their cases like not what i had my back i honestly don't know i mean i could probably just step to that you know being on the antibiotic and when you're on antibiotics it's not good it's not good for you it's terrible for you how did you had to do though the recovery from that is is rough too because your body's just does not want all that stuff in the system you know all those antibiotics they kill the good bacteria too they was feeling horrible yeah i wasn't even drinking coffee i was his stomach was so upset i couldn't even drink i love coffee you know dude i had staff once the first time i got staph um i i had it and they put me on some heavy heavy antibiotics and boy what did that give me so much respect for people that have fought on antibiotics because i i never realized how bad it wrecks you and now like luke rockhold won the title he beat chris weidman on antibiotics which is [ __ ]
insane right when you do antibiotics and you're i felt like my head was filled with cotton i was like oh that's horrible my whole body my body was weak it was like every punch i got hit in training and just little things like how that should hurt way more than it should have you know i think this was like it's all fragile like man just give me a tampon i'm get the [ __ ] out of here right now so now you're clear and now um what is like do you contact the ufc and say hey i need three months i need you know what do you say i told dana um that i'm healthy sean ollie i'm keeping good you know good communication with them i got a relationship with them outside of you know business and friendship but like when it comes to business let ali go in there and do do that stuff i told man i'm ready i like to fight jose aldo um you know they told me i had a title shot i'm not gonna wait till eight months and see what the flyweight division is going to do i'm healthy i want to get in there and fight i want to fight two or three times this year jose auto is phenomenal legend a lot of respect for him coming off a big win he was right there fighting for the title the fight before um you know i think that's a great fight stylistically for me and it gets me up it gets me hungry motivated i'm going to fight a legend he's at my way i get to fight jose aldo uh i gotta stay at 35 is that the proposed fight or is that what you're you're wanting that's what i'm wanting um ali told me that everyone's for it dana just has to make the fight so how many months would you need now knowing that you're over the illnesses yesterday and said you know they're you know maybe may i said if it doesn't happen april may like we gotta move different opponents and i'm ready to fight but you want him because he's a big name big name firmware champion there's a lot at stake i like the stylistically fight you know this is looking not past him but if i'm going to fight aldo and i still have the title shot at 25 which they've told me but obviously rematch and i'm for i want to fight for i want to earn my spot like i did in the beginning to be a champion you know what
would you prefer i mean what if the what if mourinho gets injured and they say figareto wants to fight you would you prefer that or would you prefer the aldo fight either or either fight i just want to fight you just any fight to be honest any fight that makes sense to me makes sense for my career where i'm going and if i'm having the title fight after you know whoever is declared winner and say moreno is a striker you know figgy's a striker all those triggers now i have to get ready for a different camp i don't have to get ready for this jiu jitsu savannah well the figurine is a jiu jitsu savant too man right that motherfucker's got a guillotine 100 take down defense i would love for him to try to take me down i'm gonna box that forward honestly i'm so you know i'm confident i'm confident in that especially after watching that fight after watching that fight i'm telling you what if i hit him as many times as moreno hits him he's gonna be face down ass up he fought almost like mourinho had no business in there with them and mourinho does tough he's tough he's tough he's a greedy dude like we talked about earlier he's gonna keep coming you're gonna have to knock that dude out and stop him but what a fight that was it was because of the way he fought and the you know moreno style i think he exploited a lot of weaknesses the takedowns um the punches on the brakes the the kicks was really what was uh stood out with me uh he was blitzing with the hands and you know figgy goes down with his hands and those kicks were coming he was catching get caught with the kicks he got hit with a lot of a lot of stuff that's i feel like i'm better faster stronger than and then and vice versa if vicki you know if i'm fighting moreno you know he's well it'd be interesting to see you at 25 because you'd be really big you'd be really big for that weight class i feel like um figure eight has been at our gym he's done two or three camps at our gym team alpha male with the brazilian connections that we have that foot was bigger than me yeah he's been he walks around bigger than i do
well he is [ __ ] shh when it gets down to 25. and he's missed it before you know what i mean so i missed it for the title when you fought joe benavidez the first time yeah yeah i mean that's that just shows you where you're at you know you're cutting all that much weight you know he just honestly fighting out his weight class he cuts that much weight and that's why i like 35 because i'm like i'm not that person but if i have opportunity to go and help a division and bring bring awareness and bring attention to it i'm all for that you know that's what we spoke about with sean and then the ufc and dana and mick like yeah i would love to be able to bounce back and forth not just win these titles and like i'm going to retire what did you think about tj trying to get down to 25 i thought that was the scariest i ever saw a fighter look like leading up to a weigh-in i knew he was gonna get knocked out did you i knew uh because he was just so like a monster she sent a video of him doing this hi just his neck was just too frail face face neck he had no fat um yeah no fat at all and he was clearly like eating his muscle tissue for sure that was not healthy and tj walks around bigger than i do you know i mean about 10 pounds he just probably you know 55s you know and it was cutting down to that 35 and then made it all the way down to 25 exactly that training lab that he works out with that uh cavia yeah that's i'm fascinated by that guy it's really interesting because they they they've got it down to a science like everything from your nutrition to the cardio all the different types of workouts that they do yeah i mean and the guy does everything out of his [ __ ] garage out of his garage that's pretty wild yeah it seems like his work i know uh my buddy lance palmer he's he trains with coach cavia and speaks highly of him he works out you know it's structured for him he's has his program he's in jersey he can do the training at home and do it at his house you know he's in ohio so so that's great you know and lance one of those guys his workhorse you tell him you know here's what's on the agenda you're gonna do it is he with uh the pfl now he's a pfl uh
back to back champ you know the first ever in their uh organization he's getting ready i think april the featherweight tournament starts again so he's getting ready to ship out to camp to coach henry as well pfl is interesting now right because now they they just took on rory mcdonald and they got showtime pettis so they're they're they're juicing up their roster they got some some new heat it's nice for you know a lot of the the fighters to have options [ __ ] yeah dude it's nice to see rumble and yoel romero at bellator holy [ __ ] they're fighting each other that's amazing i'm excited fight it's a big fight for both of them i mean yeah wow that's that's good bellator has put on some great [ __ ] fights recently uh mousasi versus douglas limo was a great fight they've got a lot of heat there now they got that russian champ that just beat bader i mean like yeah that dude he's a beast yeah oh man he's huge they've got great fighters they've got great fighters i'm excited for that fight yeah i just don't like the name bellator i think it's a dumb name bellator yeah we gotta doesn't make any sense what's a bellator yeah it's called call it mma i mean look to find that still cage people want a champion and you know you have an organization you gotta have a name for your organization but i felt like with boxing with the you know whether it was the wbo or the wbc or the ibf here's the lightweight champion of the world right here's the welterweight champion of the world this is the wbc welterweight champion you know they need something like that yeah for sure because like a bellator is like what is a bellator unification it means warrior in latin that's not the worst name but like [ __ ] i don't care who's speaking latin language who knew that i did i knew it we looked it it's like q-tips they got it locked up do you train ufc you know i train ufc yeah everybody wants cotton swabs you want you got any q-tips it's a [ __ ] q-tip that's right no one asks for cotton swabs give me a cotton swab right do you ask for a tissue or do you ask for a kleenex yes for a [ __ ] kleenex i'm tissue
i don't know i don't know my argument did fall apart you're right no that was great yeah i was doing good for a little while [ __ ] tissue i'm like kleenex i'm asking very quickly you don't have do you ask for petroleum jelly or you ask for vaseline well vaseline yeah that's what i'm saying yep um it's just the name ufc means so much you know it's like i don't care how big the xfl nfl yeah then you know like that's nba yeah it's like you grew up watching that [ __ ] it's like ufc you know yeah yeah yourself there and everybody that's the dell's latito's like that they branded that this weekend i'm flying to vegas for the fights and i'm [ __ ] pumped camaro usman versus gilbert burns that is a wild fight i'm pulling in that fight i'm really pulled at it i like both dudes i think both great are great assets i just feel i don't and then i it wavers because now you have uh working with trevor [ __ ] whitman like how great is that i know when i went to coach henry for that time short time how much i leveled up you know maybe that could have been a difference in boost one striking and open up his game more working with a coach at that much knowledge and and to give into the game i mean gilbert's working with henry hoof too yeah exactly and there's that there's no weakness there like gilbert is a monster he's he's a terrifying guy because gilbert is a guy that was torturing himself to get to 155 moves up to 170 and he's just smashing people and the way he beat tyron woodley boy did that open up a lot of [ __ ] people that first combination that he threw at him and then i was like holy [ __ ] when he dropped him you're like oh jesus christ and on top of that world champion in jiu jitsu gilbert's a [ __ ] phenom on the ground and like what a camaro is good at is wrestling you know in the internet camaro is also good at just mental toughness his mind is as strong as any man that fights in the octagon he's rock solid i mean you're talking about a guy who's never been taken down never been dropped i mean he's a [ __ ] monster man kamara was a monster and then fought in his fight with uh maz vidal with a broken nose he shattered his nose before that
fight after the fight they're testing they go you got a broken nose he's like yeah i had that already i've had that thanks how's that coming yeah i mean literally had a shattered nose coming into one of the most high profile fights that [ __ ] that you know the general public don't understand what you go through he didn't even talk about it until recently no one even knew about it until recently he knew he was going to do his win yeah he's i'm i'm a big fan of both of those guys i think that's a wild fight it's great and they've trained together and they train together so that there's a you know i train with tj going into those fights i knew what i did in training and training is training though you know but you also know tendencies you know where you have an advantage exactly training is training but especially in fighting because you know you going against tj he's not your [ __ ] friend on the mat you know that [ __ ] wants to win you know at all costs yeah so do i like we're competitive you get us in a room of sharks you want to be the top shark you want to be the the cream rises to the top you know that's what i think everyone at our team is so good um and we just level up with each other because if you're a guy in the room pushing the pace and you want to be that guy that's the man the other guys are going to the room elevates do you ever run into him since then um tj uh no i haven't actually how do you think you guys would talk do you think you would or do you have any animosity no i don't man you know what i mean like that's that's like i said i feel like it's a lifetime ago and i was just a different person um with the approach of everything and um you know i feel like we've probably hopefully grown from there i know he's had his you know stuff to come over you know with the testing positive for the epo you're bam to your band you know and all eyes are on him now oh he can't [ __ ] up now and then if he falls off like if his
performance is off or if people think that they're like he's not the same fighter then they're gonna call in to question his legacy well same here same here i it was the undefeated world champion you know right but you didn't cheat i didn't cheat but i fell off right but i started losing [ __ ] there's a difference right there's a difference what i'm saying is like the the real problem with someone getting caught for performance enhancing drugs is now the public is looking at your next performance and look if a guy takes two years off and comes back you're assuming there's going to be a certain amount of octagon rust but maybe it means some guys don't have it some guys do yeah but if a guy comes back after a two-year ban and he was banned because of performance-enhancing drugs and then there's a drop-off then people are going to be pointing the finger out that's going to be that that yeah that'll just be uh a case rested with knowing that he was on that the whole time you know and just now got tested for you know usada's great you know all for testing but dude we're pissing in a cup yeah you know hard is a test for epo like come on i don't know how hard it is because i don't i mean if you normally test for it yeah they don't they don't normally actively test for it it's extensive testing it's expensive testing to do so why are we getting tested i remember when you saw our first came in we used to get random drug tests quarterly whereabouts were addressed at 365 to 20 like they would come in the morning it would come in sundays afternoons like just sporadic to try to catch people which i'm all for um they used to bring a phlebotomist would give take blood i was like oh this is awesome you know we're doing urine and blood and then it stopped with the phlebotomist coming and goo in the blood it was just year and i'm like how easy is this the just is it because they keep catching people you gotta think man if you have a i don't this is my theory if you have a doctor you're good friends with you give them like here's a hundred thousand dollars to help me get this test and and you know and check my
levels and know that i got a peek at this or i have to be off at this time you don't think a doctor's out there in the world that's going to help well listen there's a guy on youtube um his name's derek and he's got a youtube channel called more plates more dates and he's a chemist and is like involved in bodybuilding and but he talks openly about the benefits of performing performance-enhancing drugs whether or not people are natural or not how people are getting caught and he has this thing on paulo costa what he thinks paulo coast is on he gets into that and he also gets into jon jones and what he thinks was happening and why he thinks that there's a there's giant flaws in the usada testing protocol but this guy is super informed to check him out very very intelligent and it like i sent it to shop i go dude watch this video this is [ __ ] crazy because he details all the stuff that you can do to to skirt the usada protocols and it's pretty it's pretty weird like i thought it was locked up i thought like there's no way to cheat now and he's like no you [ __ ] 100 for sure can still cheat right and you started in the catch tj it was a new athletic commission really popped it wasn't yes it was the new athletic commission so they tested him for epo they tested her feet no kidding blood test i didn't even get tested in my last fight at all dude they said the word you saw us coming we're gonna test you the fight of the week never never once i got tested from the athletic commission i'm pretty sure i did blood after and a urine but i didn't test it from usada so why do we have to do these whereabouts where we're like man sometimes if i didn't log in and say i'm i'm out here and give an address where i'm staying at they show up to my house that's a failed you fail you get three of those and you're out for three years right you know then how are some chad you know and these guys get these sentences or three years tj took epo and only got two years well what did chad get caught it was like a peptide for something he because his um he has uh what the [ __ ] is it called the skin psoriasis right wasn't it
tied like that i'm pretty sure i i didn't really you know felt like that was what he said he used a peptide cream but if that was the case and why did he get three years who tj willingly knew that he was doing epo the only way to do epos inject into yourself yeah you know and he got a two-year sentence chad didn't you know chad was kind of thinking about moving on anyway right all right so everybody just like yeah [ __ ] it yeah i mean he's got that guide service yeah he's doing great yeah he's got his meals this what is the name of his company again find out what chad mendes is uh because he sent me some of it it's really [ __ ] good and it's real healthy like a lot of those backpacking meals they're not that good they don't taste that good and they're not designed from years ago you fart like crazy dude well thanks chad thanks for joining not his stuff but uh some of this his stuff is really good but i've had some of the other stuff and like you just your body's like what is this get this out of me yeah well you know you're out there hunting and blasting horrible farts or deer coming like animals like no no no son they're downwind of that they're going to know joe's back on his storage refrigerator he had that fettuccine from that bag because you know you take those things and they're freeze-dried and then you know you add water to them they're dehydrated yes that's it peak refuel elk ragu pasta his stuff is phenomenal chad mendez that's his [ __ ] yeah and he's always working on it he posted on his instagram that's in my opinion that's the best out of those um backpacking camping hunting meals that like is he freeze-dried is that what he does see what it says like what how they whether it's dehydrated or freezer it says freeze-dried yeah it says they're like it's phenomenal phenomenal stuff yeah that would be great yeah because he's an athlete and he knows the right foods to put in your body you know right he would come off him
you know i think he fought conor he was in new zealand for like a 16 day yeah exploration with his father hunting and hiking and they're like oh i'm gonna fight conor and comes back and he's and chad's one of those guys has been an athlete his whole entire life i mean just a [ __ ] animal this dude will come out of being out of the gym for two months and just look insane on the mid sparring wrestling he would be giving me some of my hardest rounds because he's just so explosive fast technical and just built like a [ __ ] turtle dude to get in on it man like if you get started in those bad positions and you know he just did with uh he did a submission wrestling tournament with jeff glover choked him out which is crazy there he is look at him just an animal great guy too yeah no he's awesome i love that guy yeah i miss i actually just spoke to him uh prior to coming out here and hit me up about doing some kind of podcast with his buddy and he's like man i miss you i miss you too man he's like i don't you know he goes i just don't miss getting hit by him like me neither i don't miss having to go around with you brother like thank you but i didn't train with him is he still in that area the sacramento area yeah he's i think he's in uh the auburn area because he travels so much for his guide service he's always he's like he likes to be in the country yeah well he's always taking people like you know i've seen him he's got on his instagram taking people tuna fishing he's taking people like bird hunting he's like he's always running these guys i actually ran into him at one of those outdoor expos oh wow i was there with uh my buddy cam haynes and we're walking and i just run i go chad what are you doing here and he's like oh i've got my my guide service and i'm signing people up for it like that is [ __ ] cool this is why his career was in full bloom yeah he started doing that yeah it was great you know looking for and he always said like he made fighting fun you know to me he would come and do a six-week camp and go on there and give it a mall and train his ass off and he'd always say that you know he fights to fund his hunting
you know yeah that was his goals you know he was happy with what he was able to do um and he's selling out like crazy too his his camps or his all of his different hunting camps he's got they're selling out [Music] thrills with gills the fishing he's always like dude let's go fishing man thrills with kids yeah i think that's what it's called how [ __ ] good did clay look [ __ ] beats michael johnson i mean i was always i was like like i watched it with chris you know my brother i'm like man i'm nervous i get nervous for my boys to fight you know you see him in the gym and he's just a [ __ ] gamer dude he had michael johnson hurt i'm like yeah i'm like you you did really well in that fight you know johnson's a slick southpaw johnson dustin poirier with one punch exactly johnson's a beast yeah he's had 20 some over 20 fights in the ufc like that guy's not an easy win no you know no but clay is there still hammering and then even while he's getting his hand raised he's bouncing around like you can't stop moving yeah i see him in the morning uh i usually get there in the morning too early and he's like i'm just running i'm like oh cool you wanna practice like yeah i usually just run you know probably five miles a day uh before practice and he's just always gone like you know now he's in phenomenal shape it's it's it's crazy it's it's absolutely and you know the guy is still around i mean go back to his fight with diego sanchez which is like one of the craziest [ __ ] wars i've ever seen in my life it's just some people can take damage and not it's his mind yeah i mean just like damage and like some people get you know knocked out and they're [ __ ] up forever on it or they're you know serve their words or punch drunk like this guy you know he's articulate he speaks well you know um got the good hair i mean that hair is that hair is holding on it's holding on dude it's there but it's like he's got a man yeah he's man but he's trying to you know throw some [ __ ] over here he's a wild dude yeah he's uh he's great he's a great guy so what is good energies out there does he have like a fishing service pretty sure yeah he's
always asking me to go and do it i'm just like i don't know if i want to be on the cold ocean fishing like last time i did that i went open sea fishing you know danny danny's really big in the fishing my wife and she's uh loves fishing and i went out the first time open seat dana point and we caught a black sea bass um dude i was so sick on that i took dramamine before i just i just came oh you get let's go back so um you know clay took a job as a working in alaska on one of those crab boats like you see the world's deadliest catch he did that [ __ ] don't surprise me he did it for the adventure oh yeah yeah i remember him speaking about that uh cuz we had a couple friends come from alaska my buddy's actually stationed up there deadliest catch is a crazy show because they they lose people on that show like people die on that show all the time yeah yeah i mean that is a i mean crabs delicious but it ain't that delicious it's not worth it yeah it's it's a mess they open that damn thing up yeah like it's it's crazy it's like those cages and everything you're constantly wet but they make a [ __ ] load of money you know they go out there for a few months and they make a [ __ ] ton of money yeah it's true i mean clay to go out there and just do that for fun that just speaks of kind of character he is he's always looking for those kind of thrills and he's always he's the guy like when he comes to camp i love it because he's got a good playlist he he he puts the phone jack in he goes oh yeah what does he got classic rock yep yeah yeah and it's like honestly when you don't hear that for a while we're all listening to rap and yeah when you when clay comes in you know dj clay it's like this is some [ __ ] man like this is taking me back yeah some red hot chili peppers in there oh there you go dead nice it's just yeah it's it's great to have him in there and just learn from him he's been all over and he's been with us
for you know quite some time now and to see him um adapt and evolve himself later on in his career we just have good energies like i said uh alpha male and then it seemed like it was a great fit for him coming to you guys yeah it's crazy you know them guys you know fought each other chad and clayton there's so much alike you know i mean like remember chad's saying like man i want to have to fight click you know we look up to him you know like things like that so you there are fights you can go into and just be like all right you know a lot of guys join the gyms now does he still live in the tour bus hey i don't think i think he um we just spoke about that because i was talking about doing like a sprinter van and what i mean chris want to go and start doing seminars uh at gems and around just kind of you know showing our martial arts and sharing with people and helping them out and obviously go and see in the world once you know covert opens up and he was talking about how he had that big rv and he used to drive everywhere he's like i had to you know i think i'm gonna sell it man just uh and downsize to just like something like that because because you're falling asleep at the wheel like you just pull over things like that so he said just it's just safer yeah you know what's best about that you just pull it over and start getting tired so right well he was living out of that thing and going from camp to camp in it and he would drive it to his fight his family his father and his mother live in florida so he's always road tripping and fishing and yeah living life man like i learned a lot from that like i was so just like i can't do this i can't do that i'm just stuck to this training but you have to break it up you know you have to break it up you have to enjoy i think that you enjoy your wins you enjoy you know um that time in between camps because you know the window shuts all the time there's only a certain amount of time and fights that we have left in our career to why why be so stressed out and you know fighting is anxious you know the whole thing once you get that fight signed you kind of walk on eggshells like i don't get sick i don't want to get hurt right you know the worst thing to do is pull out of a fight you know
right you're motivated you're hungry you're training hard you you're going to make some money you're going to hopefully um level up in your life and your career with this that's what the opportunity is that is given each fight um do you have hobbies outside of fighting oh man hobbies um obviously not because it would be like right there yeah dude i just like to train man i like to train like do you think you'll be a coach when you're done um i think more and more that i'm um in the gym and i kind of go and just watch my or watch the classes i i like to help out like some of the younger guys um i don't know if i have the patience um not every great fighter is a great trainer i don't think i can like my my uncle is a great trainer but he's a horrible coach like he's a horrible coach but he'll train the [ __ ] out of you like you'll train you he'll have you hitting the tire and doing little things why is he a bad coach i don't think he has a p it's like if you suck he's like i don't know how to [ __ ] work with you this might be a great trainer for people who don't suck yeah exactly so he wants to come work with you know like you know we're in a small town so he's trying to i'm like you got to build you got to groom these fighters how many times we used to work i used to get so frustrated as a kid 14 13 to 14 years old he used to make me just work on my job you tape my [ __ ] hand in my head and just work on my jab and i got a really good job a stiff jab i have different angles off it it would just get worked through the frustration you know i mean i was like dude we got to this point because we work through that like you got to do the same thing and some people just don't have the the grit or the tenacity or the you know to to go in and work through that so he's just like if you know i could like i just don't want to work with you i don't want to waste your time it's it's so interesting how many different approaches there are to training and how many different trainers have like different philosophies and different styles and you see it
sort of accent you see that the the different styles in the camps because you see how different groups of people have sort of you remember like the old shoot the box camp they were just [ __ ] berserkers just wild people come at you like a comment oh my god it was like waterless that with camp was known for being savages [ __ ] kill you you know and alpha male right alpha male is known for being a wild camp i mean you guys have all like some of the best lightweight lighter weight fighters in the world some of the best guillotines in the [ __ ] sport you know i mean it's it's interesting how camps and different groups of people sort of take on like a persona and they have they have like a style that comes out of these places and the jersey guys you know spinning [ __ ] new jersey guys are we like what what mark henry's done is really interesting because he's worked with so many different kinds of guys yeah you know i mean he's he's got a fantastic group for sure but he's worked with so many different kinds of fighters usually been up there rashad was the first person rashad pulled me aside he said man the guy's a genius and he said he had all these notes pages and pages of notes and they would change with every camp he know the different codes he knows what i'm doing before i would even throw it or do it and he would it was crazy and i was just new on i would knew i think he was just studying my fights and the way i moved and it's funny i was sparring with frankie a lot and i feel like me and frank uh similar i think frankie's a little bit more of a combo striker um you know regretted but we had a lot of same codes so we're sparring each other me and frank are just fainting each other fainting each other i'm like is that my code or is that frankie's code because we're you know coach is calling it out right it's kraken like you know and sometimes you know are you gonna i'm sorry are you gonna go with him for your next camp oh sure yeah um yeah we talked about i just was like waiting to go out there um frank had a big fight coming up you know this
previous uh weekend and um some of the tomorrow another was that hard for you to watch that one oh my god i was heartbroken san hagen is a [ __ ] man he's good i remember san hagen coming out to alpha male when tj fought brow the first time and um yeah this is tough you know he brought him in as a training partner uh with dwayne and sean mcfadden and those guys the colorado connection um so yeah he i knew that that kid was you know tough um i saw a different i saw i think what he went through with the auto fight kind of lit a fire under him like [ __ ] this i'm not gonna let it happen again same thing with me it just took me a little bit longer to get it turned around well al jamaine is a monster on the ground he's a monster you know i mean he's matt sarah trained henzo gracie black belt that group of people like the the grappling level out of that team out of new york and you know that that area all those donahue henzo gracie guys [ __ ] that level so high yeah that's great those guys are so goddamn good on the ground there's so many good guys on the ground you saw it with al jamaine yeah when when al joe got him on the ground man he just wrapped him up and strangled him quickly i don't think corey is ready ready for that no not for just as this body like you can i you know watching them you know like be a potential fight like the kid a lot um could be attentional fighting so i'm just watching him backstage i just don't think that he was ready for that kind of prime spot like holy [ __ ] i win this fight i can be fighting for the title you know and it's um you know i think they just made a mistake algerian capitalized on it but if i feel like stylistically that's a bad fight for algeria if it doesn't get to the ground you know corey you know throws long kicks he stays rangy and and and algerian kicks a lot and kicks lots and goes back and that's the last thing you want to do look what happened with mariah's you know like yeah i mean he got it he's leveled up he's not taking them enough away from excited for the yawn yeah that's a really interesting fight that's a really because jan is so solid we'll see how good his wrestling is you know i think funk master is going to try
to you know for sure realize that as you should that's something that was not shown in in peter's fights where he does have wrestling just like when i fought cruz like could i go five rounds there's these unanswered questions you know unknown question unanswered questions that you know will get solved in the fight that's a great thing about fighting we're gonna figure it out well that division is so hot right now that 135 pound division is on [ __ ] fire it is you know and you're right in the heat with this sunshine knockout i mean you're you're right there top three you know next you know win or so puts you right back at the title shot so jose aldo is what you would like next i like next but you're open to anybody you know joe when when you're feeling it and you have this um this drive back and i don't have to say motivation because motivation comes and goes sometimes you're motivated sometimes you're not just the the the drive you know being driven a driven person right um so that drives back like i'm i'm excited i'm excited to see what i can do i have my uh camp i have my coach i have you know a lot of [ __ ] going on in my career that i'm worked for and and used opportunities and and able to travel and and be away from the family i know my son's getting taken care of my when my when i'm away so that's a huge mind over matter thing like he's good go focus on what you need to do right come back and you know and and reorchestrate camp and so i just feel like everything's ready to go like i'm i'm ready to flip the switch get in the fight camp i want to be sharp you know i think that uh outside training camp is great you work on a lot of things that you might not work in camp but in camp is where you get sharp your skill level rises um you train smarter obviously because you can over train outside of camp you're like oh i'm just going to take tomorrow off or do a recovery day inside of training camp i love what it it's it's blinders you're just focused that's what i want to be at right now in my life this stuff the sport is so fascinating to me in that it's constantly evolving different approaches and one of the big things now when the i
mean probably one of the biggest techniques ever is the low calf kick it is [ __ ] bananas yeah i utilize it a lot i do a lot of like uh i kind of modified it with the sand chai sand chai goes down it kind of kicks up i do a kind of hand plant three six you know 360 sweep with the leg i feel like it's it gets me out of range that i'm not countered a lot you know with that kick and it's quick um you know i feel like i'm i'm really quick in the transitions if case they were trying to come trying to take me down and i've utilized that a lot i think what happened a lot of the fight the first fight i came out and kicked uh a sun style right in the leg super hard it was in the beginning when you guys were talking and i noticed that hurt him like i noticed that his body language and his movement if you get kicked and you don't move right away like all right that you know oh yeah and and just the eyes a lot of things i hit him with i could tell but that that cav kick is it's crazy there's no bone there's nothing to help you can't really check it isn't it crazy how long it took for that to be a factor yeah i mean all of a sudden i mean i i credit benson henderson i think benson henderson was the first guy to start implementing it in fights in the ufc but he didn't have the same effectiveness right you know i don't i don't think we really saw how effective it was until i wonder who it was who started using it where they really started making it i don't know i'd have to go and watch some tape right figure out who the guy was but now jesus christ i mean it's justin gage he's the master of it you know dustin poirier and him had that crazy war and that a lot of that was low leg kicks and now dustin [ __ ] connor up with those low leg kicks i mean conor was done yeah you know in that second round you could see him with that wide stance heavy on that front leg and because they're both southpaw to southpaw that front leg was exposed and dustin was just smashing it it took all his power away all his motion away and after a while he just couldn't take it and that's what me and chris were
talking about earlier um throughout the training he's kind of taken over my kickboxing and flow into the into the takedowns as well uh working from both stances theirs might be your leg might get chopped up you're gonna have to fight southpaw and i feel like i'm um adapting very well speed kicks combos with both sides that's so important that's so important i think that's where the fighting is going you're gonna have to fight yeah both styles because there's going to be some kicks you're a boxing fan right terence crawford is the best in the world at that [ __ ] you you like you get used to him facing you in an orthodox dance and all of a sudden boop he's just out everything's backwards and he's lighting you up he wakes up he's like that's my title fight he's like i'm gonna uh flip a coin i'm gonna fight southpaw today that was marvin hagler too when marvin hagler was in his prime he could fight for many stance that was one of the beautiful things about his style yeah he's like he could do whatever the [ __ ] he wanted to that's such a such an advantage especially a switch dance when you have on attack and you have an angle so far deep that they have to really and that's what's great about mma it's it's it's boxing it's kickboxing angle it's takedowns you know so you get those angles you get those people running from those certain ones you switch stance you come with a same side kick they're out of position it's it's blinding also one of the things that they've shown in studies when they've done athletic skill is that practicing with your non-dominant hand makes your dominant hand better yeah because you're more aware of like what's off about that side and as you're drilling and you're really focusing it's almost like body mechanics yeah if you if you like like i'm sure you see that with holdsworth or with anybody who teaches when people teach there's something about teaching i remember at uh i was hired yeah guys who would i would train with these guys and then they would quit their job and start teaching they got better and they would be way better all of a sudden they were [ __ ] me up i was like what are you doing they just because they're
constantly focused on it and the finer details yeah constantly so you're kind of doing that when you switch stances definitely because you switch stances and you're throwing a straight left you're like oh okay this feels weird like this is just automatic but this is like hit off you're making sure like and then you're going to the right head or your head yeah and then you go to the right hand side where you're nor and now all of a sudden it's just locked in so they say that with everything when you when you practice with your non-dominant hand it makes your dominant skill better your dominant hand i should honestly probably be a southpaw fighter really i wrestle with my right foot forward but i fight with my left foot saw my shots come from my right side i remember matt hughes did that a lot he would because he was a right-handed which is great sometimes if i'm i'm i love my right hand i trust in it i believe in it i'm throwing a right hand that's a little out of range i get overcompensated my feet are under me i can roll right in the southbound boom take down that's what happened with cruz right backed up backed up i was like oh [ __ ] i'm south paul with the right boom double leg open well you know how to take down dustin poirier is right-handed as well okay and dustin will fight with his right hand forward most of the time but you know daniel cormier has a great series that he does on espn called detail and in that he broke down in this most recent episode he broke down dustin knocking out connor it's a phenomenal breakdown yeah check that out and he discusses how you could see when he's got a fighter hurt what's the hand he switches and he switched to orthodox and blast them with the right hand inside shot and that's we and that's another thing going back to coach mark he watched all my my my footage of my fights he goes all your knockouts were inside shots you don't have to wind up you don't have to it was inside catching here inside right inside hook rolling it on almeida and by the time i rolled off my right hand it was inside hook right inside hook i rolled out he was already falling to the ground followed up it's over with well the almena fight was so impressive because almeida was on a tear and you guys were both it was like a meeting a
collision course you know almeida was this guy yeah he was this guy that was [ __ ] people up man he was he had a really bright future knockout bonuses i'm sitting there broke as hell trying to get a fight i'm like man 50 bucks going into that uh fight week and i was like man i know i win this fight it's gonna change my life and sure [ __ ] as it did you know i mean obviously you know fights fights fights but every fight your biggest fight you know that's the most money i want i want a knockout bonus gotta go see dana and lorenzo and the headquarters like hey what do you guys want you know what we want to help you out what's your next fight and like i just want to stay busy stay active you know you know what's interesting to me is how [ __ ] good max holloway is and how max holloway is training on hawaii like the the the thought has always been you have to go to this big camp you have to go somewhere else and that's how you get better but meanwhile max holloway puts in one of the performances of the decade against calvin gangster he's a gangster i i was so excited for that fight because calvin and the the boston massachusetts and what they got going on striking is phenomenal like he's got some of the best boxing in the sport for sure 100 and now the ricardo llamas fight is a perfect example of that dude he was popping [ __ ] hitting his shots getting out of range coming back with combos like man this is like it's hard to hit and then to for what happened what max was able to do to him and i think what happened in that first round he put so much damage on her like sometimes it's one shot and you can be on autopilot you get hit hard you can be but you're you're just not firing right you're just you're taking that damage to the brain that was another fight where max didn't spar at all and he said after the second volkanovsky fight he didn't do any sparring after fights or in in in camp rather all of his training is just movement and training for endurance and training for you know he's doing drills and he's having pads but he said he's like i don't need to take any big shots similarly so that's what i am doing like
it's not realistic we're going to get boxing gloves on chin pads you're going to throw a kick i'm going to be able to block it with these gloves small gloves are coming over top in the head like that little placement saves you well my friend kevin ross had an instagram post recently about the importance of technical light sparring for thai boxing and one of the things that he said is like with the ties they they do a lot of this like sort of light tap sparring and that's where you work on things because you're not worried that someone's going to take your head off and that's how you get better skills also no no impact or no no shin pads no knuckles every so you're you you get a more realistic understanding of placement of you know where you're going to be when you yeah and it's like being able to play until you're going to develop that timing you're going to develop and so many guys think you just have to go to war all the time yeah and that every time you spar you go to war but that's it's not wise there's there is time to do that i think you know but smart doing like you're not going to go in there and just working what did you get out of sparring like oh i i just went and fought like what would you take away from sparring yeah you might have won but what did you work on you went in there and brought like that's what we did for so long like a technical approach i think a lot of these young fighters that are coming from wrestling are not a boxing background or striking background they need to get in there to know what a f um a fist fight feels like some of these wrestlers i'm so surprised i'm like they've never been a fistfight in their life some of these fighters i talked to lance my buddies lance for since i was a kid and he never really punched someone in the face until he was a professional fighter you know i mean his first professional fight i'm like you've never grew up and wanted to fight your brother got in a fight with your brother saying oh no never i never i mean never in a wrestling room like i have five so it doesn't hold him back exactly he's a bad [ __ ] but he he has that work ethic since he was a kid and you know he got in there and thrown thrown to the
wolves of sparring you know and now it's you know technical i think there's there's there's people that you do that with so that you have that urgency like dude i'm getting my ass kicked i better formulate something you know and work on something where i need to like and lance is great he uses wrestling to take it where he can dominate and that's where his good his strong point is you know he's got great cardio he's strong as an ox he's a beast yeah yeah um when you look at your career you were saying that you you were thinking about life in five year increments is that when do you do you think at five years you'll be 34 is that when you're thinking like you will assess where you're at your career whether or not you want to keep going or retire hopefully you'll be the champ then right like do you do this but yes do you have these goals set in your head or what do you like to accomplish i do i feel like uh my next three fights are kind of lined up obviously that's that's kind of out of my control but in my control with the ufc you know works on like aldo than either peter young or whoever wins it whoever's it's kind of optional because it's i can if i fight aldo right there i have a clan on two fight you know i knock him out two fight win knockout streak i can be next in the line for the title shot i know corey is up there if corey wants to you know get in there for the for the championship it's not going to fight till july who knows you know we can fight in in the meantime i want to stay busy you know as long as i'm healthy i want to stay busy i fought four times in one year i went from unranked to world champion i feel like i can do that better now because i've known what to do how to pull back how to train how to recover right um you know coveted was just a fluke thing that just took over my body that had me sidelined like if i didn't have covert i would who knows what would happen yeah it's the past so we're focused on this but well you know it makes you appreciate your health now though oh my gosh i i literally um thank all the you know first responders and the nurses and the people that work through my stuff you know in jersey and they're just so helpful and then all my
doctors like i'm okay i got this i'm i'm just making sure that i'm healthy because i know what i'm going to do in camp you know i want to tear my body down i want to give myself every opportunity to go in there and fight and level up and better my life better my family's life and i know how to do that and that's through hard work but working smart do you know when you're gonna retire do you have it in your head dude i've honestly not even thought about that you know i kind of take one fight at a time but obviously you have your necks i've learned uh throughout my life like when i won a state title i didn't i got there i was like man what's my next goal is i won the world championship what's my next goal so just have these high goals but then also have things that you can balance to next um so i haven't really thought about retirement i still feel like i'm just learning in this sport i feel like i haven't even hit my prime i feel like i'm just getting my style of fighting together my coaches and my team and i feel like i feel like the next five years are gonna be some of my best performances basically physically emotionally inside the octagon growing outside of the octagon and uh i'm excited for this ride i'm very very uh very excited to get back in there um both divisions are great so i have options you know that's that's a good good thing i'm right i'm sitting in a good spot you're sitting in a great spot i'm excited to watch brother i can't wait to call your fights all right me either well thank you very much for being here thank you for having me welcome thank you and uh i can't wait to see you again brother thank you very much man always a pleasure always a pleasure goodbye everybody [Music] [Music] you