JRE MMA Show #168 with Khalil Rountree Jr.

Joe sits down with Khalil Rountree Jr., a professional mixed martial artist competing in the Light Heavyweight division of the UFC.www.ufc.com/athlete/khalil-rountree-jr This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:13Speaker 00

  Checka, checka, checka, checka. What's up? What up? How you feeling? What's going on? Oh, man. Back from a amazing Thailand vacation. Oh, really? After that. After the, uh, after the fight. It just feels like I've been on like just a great vacation journey. Baku was amazing. Let me start off there. Please. Let me start off with Baku, Azerbaijan. Oh, my God. What a place. I heard it's amazing there. Absolutely incredible. Everybody who went there was raving about how great it was. Absolutely incredible. When we got the news like, okay, the fight's gonna be postponed, it's gonna go into Baku. I had never heard of the place in my life. Um, I agreed without even looking it up, you know?

• 0:57Speaker 00

  But in my mind, I was thinking like, okay, this is a place I've never heard of. You know, I started thinking like, I don't know, it's probably gonna be something similar to like Saudi and it's probably just like a lot of desert, blah, blah. And I get there and my mind was absolutely blown. Amazing treatment from Baku City Circuit, welcomed us in. Um, the fans were some of the best I've ever encountered, man. They were so happy to have the UFC there. Um, everyone in the streets, like people who weren't even fight fans, were just excited that the UFC was in Baku. So like that added to the experience. And then, um, it's just beautiful, man. It's like. What is it like? What does it look like?

• 1:42Speaker 00

  So where we were. Is it right there? Yeah, so that's Old Town. So I did a tour through there. Whoa. How old is Old Town? It, I forgot, I, so I forgot, but I know that 4,000 people still live in Old Town. There's boutique hotels in there. Um, there's just so much history. Um, that's like when it was built, um, kind of what they're known for. I don't remember what that building is, um, but the architecture there is. is one of the things that that's the uh the the flame towers so at night there's just projections and like it'll be like the flag or it'll just it'll actually be like flames because Baku is uh known for oil like being one of the first oil countries

• 2:28Speaker 00

  this is the carpet museum an amazing place full of car- carpets that are like century years old

• 2:33Joe Rogan?

  they built it to look like a carpet

• 2:36Speaker 00

  it's crazy and all these carpets are handmade like passed down generation after generation so like they tell you how deep the the the the culture and like the stories of these carpets and like how oh my god they the and clean clean friendly people

• 2:54Joe Rogan?

  I know a bunch of people that went there decided to stay for a few days

• 2:57Speaker 00

  I would I honestly I wish that I would have stayed longer I've already booked family trips I've told everybody we're going back to Baku

• 3:06Joe Rogan?

  wow

• 3:07Speaker 00

  man

• 3:08Joe Rogan?

  that cool

• 3:09Speaker 00

  just thinking about it I'm like dude this is a place that I want to I want to visit for the rest of my life I want to just keep going back to Baku man

• 3:16Joe Rogan?

  that's dope

• 3:17Speaker 00

  yeah so

• 3:19Joe Rogan?

  and obviously you had an amazing result there too

• 3:21Speaker 00

  uh yeah I think I think that the you know I think that it really played into just my performance I was just in a really good place

• 3:30Speaker 00

  let me okay I was in a good place but I was also in kind of a fucked up state like not gonna lie

• 3:38Speaker 00

  I was just so happy to be across the world doing what I love to do and to be like treated like we're actually appreciated for you know like for what we do and uh so that helped me get through all the other shit

• 3:53Joe Rogan?

  what was the other shit what was going on

• 3:55Speaker 00

  oh man so

• 3:58Speaker 00

  I knew that we were gonna be jet lagged no matter what I knew it because we're traveling you know super far

• 4:03Joe Rogan?

  sixteen hour flight right

• 4:04Speaker 00

  yeah super long flight so I knew we were gonna be jet lagged so I made sure that we got there two weeks early to adjust it took about six almost about a week to like fully adjust and then so during fight week say second day first day of fight week I'm like throwing up and shit and Nonstop.

• 4:28Joe Rogan?

  Oh no.

• 4:28Speaker 00

  And I'm like, okay, this is great. This is exactly what I want to be feeling right now, you know? Pressure's on, I gotta fight, you know, like, I'm super motivated.

• 4:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, and uh, I'm just like, I don't know what I'm, what am I gonna do, man, like?

• 4:44Joe Rogan?

  What was it?

• 4:45Speaker 00

  I don't even know.

• 4:46Joe Rogan?

  Food poisoning?

• 4:47Speaker 00

  I, I don't think so, because everybody, everybody that uh, I was with, we all ate the same thing.

• 4:54Joe Rogan?

  You were, you were the only one who got sick?

• 4:56Speaker 00

  I was the only one, man. I was the only one. And so.

• 4:59Joe Rogan?

  And you don't cut a ton of weight?

• 5:01Speaker 00

  No, so, I think what was.

• 5:04Joe Rogan?

  What do you walk around at?

• 5:05Speaker 00

  Right now, I'm in vacation modem, you know, two twenty-eight, two thirty, something around there.

• 5:10Joe Rogan?

  That's still, compared to guys.

• 5:11Speaker 00

  I don't get over two thirty.

• 5:12Joe Rogan?

  Like Pereira.

• 5:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:14Joe Rogan?

  You know, he cuts a ton.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, if, I, I just do not let myself get over two thirty. That's just like my, that's my oath to myself.

• 5:23Joe Rogan?

  And then in camp, what do you get down to?

• 5:26Speaker 00

  Twenty, I'd say between twenty and twenty-five is where I like to balance, two twenty, two twenty-five. And anytime in there, I'm good, because I know that that's where I'm gonna fight at. So, when I'm in camp, it's, you know.

• 5:38Joe Rogan?

  And then, when do you start your cut?

• 5:40Speaker 00

  Uh, so the way that it happens is, the last kinda two weeks, I don't necessarily do too much of like a diet change, it's just my, like, I'm always looking to peak on fight day, not like a peak plateau format that a lot of people go by, so, I'd say usually, let's say, we weigh in on Friday, that Tuesday, I'm around two fourteen.

• 6:08Joe Rogan?

  Okay.

• 6:09Speaker 00

  Two thirteen, something like that.

• 6:11Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that's nice.

• 6:11Speaker 00

  And then, you know, those last days is kinda like water load, proteins and fats only. I sit in the sauna no matter what, like, an hour, maybe. Like, my weight cut this time took, I hit mitts for an hour and a half, I laid down in a sauna blanket, and I was on weight. Like, I, so, it was like, under two hours for me to be on weight.

• 6:34Joe Rogan?

  So you're not depleted?

• 6:35Speaker 00

  Not at all.

• 6:35Joe Rogan?

  Feel good? And how long did it take for that cold to get out of your system, or whatever it was?

• 6:39Speaker 00

  Uh. I still felt it, uh, I still felt it a bit on fight day, but there was nothing that was going to, like my mind for like through this camp, through this fight, man, like I'm so happy for everything that I went through. Honestly, like there was nothing that was going to take away like my shine or my joy or my feeling of like being ready, being prepared. Um, it was, it was a battle with my mind and every day I had to make a choice to like,

• 7:12Speaker 00

  to just be better, to be bigger, to be, to be happy, to just, you know, to just like embrace everything. This was all like, everything's just been about embracing the obstacles that, that.

• 7:23Joe Rogan?

  This episode is brought to you by the mosquito bowl. Here's a story that's pretty incredible. After Pearl Harbor, four of the best college football players in America walk away from promising NFL careers to enlist in the Marines and fight in World War II. And the craziest part, it's a true story. These guys had their whole lives ahead of them, but traded the glory of the gridiron for the brutal reality of combat where the stakes were life and death. Directed by Peter Berg, the guy behind Friday Night Lights and starring Nicholas Galitzin, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis, The Mosquito Bowl, now playing in theaters.

• 8:04Joe Rogan?

  After a year away, Canelo Alvarez is back in the ring, October 31st, facing undefeated Christian Mubley live on the zone and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered for the fight. With DraftKings Sportsbook, your number one sportsbook for live betting. You can stay connected as the action unfolds and makes your picks in real time. Whether you're locked in for the main event or watching the full card with friends, DraftKings Sportsbook gives you another way to follow the fights you already care about. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code ROGEN. New DraftKings Sportsbook customers can spend five and get 200 in total bonuses within 21 days. That's code ROGEN in partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours.

• 8:47Speaker 02

  If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-MYRESSET. 21 and over, Virginia only. Eligibility restrictions apply. $50 in non-withdrawable bonus bets issued every seven days via click to claim for 21 days. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com/promos. Limited time offer.

• 9:07Joe Rogan?

  This episode is brought to you by Visible. As fall hits, we enter another season of change. Time to shift gears, drop the dead weight, and upgrade the wardrobe for the drop in temperature. But one thing that doesn't need to change? Your phone. The smartest upgrade this season isn't a new phone. It's a better wireless plan. Switch to Visible, the ultimate wireless hack. You get unlimited 5G data and unlimited hotspot powered by Verizon for just $25 a month. That means keeping the phone you already have, ditching your overpriced phone bill, and pocketing some savings for yourself. All the perks of big wireless for half the cost. Switch today at visible.com.

• 9:49Joe Rogan?

  The Visible plan starts at just $25 a month. Or get the premium Visible Plus Pro Plan and save $10 on your first month with promo code ROGEN. Terms apply. See visible.com for plan features and network management details. Tom, so the last time we talked was before the Pereira fight. Yep. And it was a great fight. Thank you. You had some great success. It was a tough fight. And then, what is it like after that fight? So you faced the best in the world, and you know that you can hang with them. You lost the fight, but you didn't gain a ton of experience. You went five rounds with one of the greatest. And what is it like after that?

• 10:35Joe Rogan?

  I'd say...

• 10:39Joe Rogan?

  Everything seems very different now.

• 10:44Joe Rogan?

  I have been, since the Pereira fight, I've been to, I'd say, more than six countries. And there's fans there. Everyone knows who I am now. And that is something that was a shock to me.

• 11:04Speaker 00

  Especially coming off a loss and just knowing that like I gave my all in that fight. And that's, I guess, what the people wanted from me to get that type of like acknowledgement. Cause I'd been in the UFC for so long. But that fight, I guess, really showed people like who I am and I got to show the world who I am. And against a guy like Alex, so now I feel like I've at least kind of made my mark. And been like, hey, I'm here, you know, and so people are now like, okay, Khalil, I know this guy is, you can say the name. And now people kind of, you know, they're, they're familiar with, with who I am now.

• 11:48Speaker 00

  But the other thing that it showed me was that.

• 11:54Speaker 00

  I know, I now know who I am and what I'm capable of.

• 12:00Speaker 00

  I spent.

• 12:03Speaker 00

  Majority of that fight just soaking in the moment and just like, oh, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. I was excited to be there. Um, I gave everything I had, but then going back and watching it, I'm like, ah, I saw a lot of the mistakes that I made.

• 12:16Joe Rogan?

  What mistakes specifically?

• 12:18Speaker 00

  The number one mistake that I think was made in that fight is that it was my first five-rounder. And. When I was going into the fourth, cause I took a lot of damage in, in the, in the end of the, like middle to end of the third. So I was up one and two. The beginning of three, I was starting to kinda. He started to kind of take over halfway through the round and once he started hitting me. I was like, oh shit, he's established his range and now I'm feeling it. So it wasn't necessarily like a cardio thing. It was just like, I started taking damage and everybody knows this guy hits hard. So.

• 12:58Speaker 00

  I was taking the damage. I was rocked. I was dizzy going into the fourth in the, in the break. I remember John Woods saying, alright, man. Like, you're doing great. Ten more minutes. Like, you can do anything ten minutes. Just stick in there. We got this. And because I wasn't familiar with the five rounds, I took ten minutes as sellout. So in the fourth round, I came out like, ready to, you know, I wasn't thinking with the mindset of like, I'm up two. He just took the third. Fourth round, I need to, maybe, relax, you know, maybe not, not get hit, you know, whatever. Fourth round, I came out, I bit down, and I went to war.

• 13:43Speaker 00

  I think that's what lost me, the fight, for me personally.

• 13:47Joe Rogan?

  So you made a lot of adjustments in the Jamal Hill fight?

• 13:49Speaker 00

  One thousand percent.

• 13:50Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, you could see it. You could see, first of all, what a performance.

• 13:54Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 13:54Joe Rogan?

  I mean, you dominated a world champion. I mean, dominated him. It was such a clear-cut victory. And it was a victory where a lot of people thought that you were gonna struggle with him. And, you know, you just really, you really showed a, a, a level above the Pereira fight. And I think maybe part of it is what you're talking about, like choosing when to engage and when not to engage. Like, there was moments in that fight where you were dominating the fight, but there's moments where he was coming after you. You just moved. You just moved. You moved away from him. And I know it pissed him off, but it's like, hey, man, you know, you were way ahead. You're way ahead, and you were do- you were dominating the exchanges. Then when you chose to exchange with him, you were hurting him.

• 14:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:36Joe Rogan?

  And dropping him. It was very impressive, man.

• 14:39Speaker 00

  Thank you. And that was, uh, that was the product of, you know, really reviewing mistakes and...

• 14:49Joe Rogan?

  You also do some wild shit, like standing hammer fists. Is that how you practice? Were you practicing that?

• 14:55Speaker 00

  Absolutely, man.

• 14:55Joe Rogan?

  That's a crazy move, man.

• 14:57Speaker 00

  We're artists, you know? I think that that's one thing that, you know, I try my best to always embody the artist in mixed martial arts. I think it gets lost in the growth of the sport of MMA, you know? But, you know, from this, the past conversations we have and you understanding kind of how I was before, like, man, I need some type of outlet for creativity, you know?

• 15:21Joe Rogan?

  Right, and that's what it is? Standing hammer fist?

• 15:22Speaker 00

  I mean, my mind, you know, just my essence is art. So I'm like, how can I, you know, paint this picture of like expression of combat? You know what I mean? Like, there's so many different, we got Selat, we got Krav Maga, we got all these things. And it's like, let me paint, you know, like, what can I use to, you know, to, to, to?

• 15:44Joe Rogan?

  That's a bold thing to do, to use something very creative like that on a world champion, too. Jamal Hill's a dangerous guy.

• 15:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's dangerous, man.

• 15:54Joe Rogan?

  Standing hammer fist.

• 15:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm dangerous too, you know? Like, I try to, yeah, I try to like, I, I, I always try to insert myself into, you know, into these things too. Cause I think about it, yeah, Alex, fucking hard hitter, dangerous guy. And I have to, like, yeah, so am I, let's do it, you know? Alex, or Jamal, same thing. Like, I know he's got one punch power, you know, all these things. I'm like, let me insert myself, let me take some chances, let me be bold, you know? I think that's, that's the fun part.

• 16:22Joe Rogan?

  I think there's an advantage that you have also as a lighter guy in that division is that you move quicker. And that was kind of evident in that fight, that you're like, you know, there's a range of light heavyweights and you're on the smaller range. Like, there's a lot of guys like Drakis, who's bigger than you.

• 16:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:37Joe Rogan?

  Who's the middleweight champion.

• 16:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:39Joe Rogan?

  He's fucking huge, man. It's the opposite thing, right? He's cutting a ton of weight. I don't know what he cuts, but every time I interview him, I'm like, how?

• 16:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:48Joe Rogan?

  How the fuck are you 185 pounds? You're enormous. He looks like a heavyweight.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:52Joe Rogan?

  And he is a heavyweight when he fights. I mean, he's over 205 for sure.

• 16:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, these guys, they blow up.

• 16:57Joe Rogan?

  Blow up. And you don't. And I think because of that, you have this, you have speed and not just speed of the strikes, but the way you move in and out.

• 17:08Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 17:08Joe Rogan?

  You know, it's like, when you closed the distance on Jamal, you could see it was like, there were some moments where I think he was surprised by the speed in which you were able to close the distance.

• 17:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think so as well.

• 17:20Speaker 00

  There were, yeah, there were some reactions in there that I was picking up on. Um, I could see a bit of frustration, you know? Um, I feel like I was able to read a lot of the things before they, you know, before they would come. And, um, yeah, I, I'm, I mean, I heard everything that his coaches were saying. And in my mind, I was just seeing him struggle with like not being able to react the way he wanted. And maybe that was because, you know, there was, there was a speed that they weren't necessarily dealing with.

• 17:51Joe Rogan?

  The speed and also the leg kicks. You, you fucked him up early with leg kicks.

• 17:56Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:56Joe Rogan?

  And it really had a significant effect. When you see him switching stances and he doesn't like to stand orthodox.

• 18:01Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 18:02Joe Rogan?

  You saw a lot of changes.

• 18:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, he, he did. I can, I can say that, you know, there were some improvements made. I think that he probably spent some more time working on his footwork. He was a lot less flat footed than he usually is. Um, I could tell that like his, a lot of the times his toes were pointed at me. And that wasn't what I studied. You know what I mean?

• 18:26Joe Rogan?

  So he made some changes.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  He made some changes.

• 18:28Joe Rogan?

  He landed some very good leg kicks, specifically in the first round.

• 18:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, thank you. I, I always do my best to, you know, try to channel my Muay Thai and.

• 18:39Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, no, you're like one of the few, like, I remember we talked about that, about the Eric Anders fight. Like you, when you came back from Thailand the first time, you, you were fighting like a Thai.

• 18:47Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 18:48Joe Rogan?

  And me and DC were having a blast with it. We're like, look at this. Like light on the front foot. It was like totally different approach.

• 18:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:54Joe Rogan?

  But, um, he landed some very good leg kicks in the first round too. It was a good exchange, but yours were doing a lot more damage.

• 19:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, he started off with the leg kicks. Like I think he threw maybe three or four calf kicks before I actually started answering back. Um, yeah, he, so he started it and I was just like, okay, cool. If this is the game we're playing, like, I love this game, you know, like, I love this game. So, um, yeah, it was, it was, it was a great fight, man.

• 19:23Joe Rogan?

  Why did you start the beginning of the fight, like with your hands down, just like walking towards him?

• 19:28Speaker 00

  Cause that's how I felt, Joe. I mean, like, I, I feel like.

• 19:33Speaker 00

  In that fight, so there was, there was not necessarily like beef between Jamal and I. Like, we never really exchanged, you know, there wasn't any like heated discussions or anything. But we all have phones, we all have social media, we all, you know, I get Google alerts and stuff anytime I'm mentioned and so like, I've seen things that were said and I'm just like, okay, whatever. I don't agree with it and I don't, you know, whatever. If this guy looks at me as however, that's just his opinion.

• 20:05Joe Rogan?

  What was he saying? Like, what was?

• 20:07Speaker 00

  It was just like, I think it was like things again about like the Alex fight or just saying that like, he's gonna outskill me or, you know, I don't belong in the division, just, you know, things like that. Like, don't take my exact word for it, but that's kinda how, like, that's the stuff that I kinda saw, so. The, for me, there was no real reason to show any like respect. You know, if we're in the same building, if we're in the same room, I just like, whatever. I wanted to just kinda block him out. Um, and then

• 20:41Speaker 00

  during the weigh-ins, so I had a, I had a press conference and they were saying like, hey, in the Alex fight, you know, you, there was a lot of blood, you got cut up, da-da-da-da-da. Um, can we expect the same thing from you in this fight? And I said, no, there's not gonna be any blood on my face. How you're interviewing me now is how you're gonna interview me after the fight. I'm gonna look the same. He didn't like that. I didn't say his name, but he didn't like that. And so at the weigh-ins, he come like, and mind you, we had

• 21:14Speaker 00

  three days before the weigh-ins and we'd seen each other in the hotel room and blah, blah, blah, or in the hotel, you know. There were many more opportunities for him to say what he said, but he chose to do it at the weigh-ins in front of Dana White. And I thought that was like, come on.

• 21:30Joe Rogan?

  What did he say?

• 21:31Speaker 00

  He said, oh, you're gonna bleed. You're gonna bleed. You better believe that. You're gonna bleed. Like, in my face, like, oh, I'm gonna make you bleed. And I was just like, okay, like,

• 21:42Speaker 00

  sure. You know, like, that was just really like internally, like, I'm like, okay, sure, yeah, whatever. And

• 21:49Joe Rogan?

  Why did you think that you wouldn't get cut? Like, what made you think?

• 21:55Speaker 00

  I knew how I've been training and what I'm prepared for and I know the type of athlete and fighter and man that I am and I just knew that it wasn't gonna happen. I was just that confident in my abilities and the work that I put in that I just knew it wasn't gonna happen.

• 22:08Joe Rogan?

  It's pretty wild also considering you're coming off of a loss, like you had more confidence coming off of a loss.

• 22:13Speaker 00

  One hundred percent because the loss just showed me that there's more work to do. You know, like people always say back to the drawing boards and like it was more than the drawing boards for me. It was like back to the dirt, back to the Vegas weather, back to the dying on the assault bike, back to challenging myself, back to going deeper. Who am I really? What am I really capable of? And you know, like that that was it. It was just like deep, deep internal digging to get out and to discover what I'm made of. And so in that comes confidence and that comes like I'm

• 22:53Speaker 00

  I know what I'm capable of and I know what I can do. And so that's how I felt, you know? So that's why I walked out like that because I was just like.

• 23:04Joe Rogan?

  Cause it's kinda wild. I was like, what is he doing?

• 23:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, but I was also prepared, you know, like I didn't wanna rush anything, like nothing needed to be rushed, like the cage is closed and we got twenty five minutes. I'm gonna run out, you know?

• 23:17Joe Rogan?

  Right, right, right.

• 23:18Speaker 00

  No, like I walk here. I know that you're not gonna do anything. I wasn't threatened that that that statement in my face didn't like, I was just like, here we go again.

• 23:33Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? Like another guy that wants to like get in my face, like, yeah. And I did the job that needed to be done.

• 23:42Joe Rogan?

  This is a very measured performance and some people didn't like that. Some people, you know, the casuals, I think there's casuals that.

• 23:50Speaker 00

  They wanted to see blood.

• 23:51Joe Rogan?

  They just wanna see chaos. They don't care about your health.

• 23:54Speaker 00

  They don't care about me at the age of fifty with, you know what I mean? When this is all over and I want my knees and my hands and my fingers and everything to work and I wanna be able to speak sentences and go through the airport on both my feet and not in a wheelchair. They don't care about that and that's okay.

• 24:11Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it's okay. I mean.

• 24:14Speaker 00

  You know, like.

• 24:14Joe Rogan?

  The only time it bothers me when referees react. Like when referees separate people because of booing, like, don't do that. Don't do that.

• 24:22Speaker 00

  Yeah, you can't, the referees can't be influenced by the crowd.

• 24:25Joe Rogan?

  Don't, don't give in to the casuals.

• 24:27Speaker 00

  He can't, man, um.

• 24:28Joe Rogan?

  Cause I thought it was a very smart performance. Like if you're gonna fight a guy like Jamal, who's an awesome counter striker, one punch knockout power, got a series of bodies behind him, like, he's knocked out a lot of dudes.

• 24:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:40Joe Rogan?

  He knows how to do it. You gotta fight him smart.

• 24:43Speaker 00

  For sure.

• 24:43Joe Rogan?

  And that's what he did.

• 24:44Speaker 00

  And I wasn't, yeah, I, I just like, to be clear, I know the things that I said can come off as like overly confident or whatever. I wasn't sleeping on Jamal, you know, like I knew what he was capable of and I trained hard for him. I really did. Uh, every day was, was dedication. Every day was, you know, strategy and planning.

• 25:02Joe Rogan?

  When did you feel like everything was coming together in the fight?

• 25:05Speaker 00

  Uh, before the fight.

• 25:09Joe Rogan?

  Really?

• 25:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, the, the, the, the win for me happened before the fight.

• 25:17Speaker 00

  Like I said, I think with camp, uh, the training, you know, my head trainer, like with John, with Lorenzo, Christian is just the guys who are in my circle, um, and the work that we do, I just, that really helped me with, you know, a lot, a lot of confidence and a clear vision and a path to victory and I just stuck to it. So I just had a feeling that if I, if I stick to the plan, I win this fight.

• 25:46Joe Rogan?

  And you did.

• 25:48Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it was, it was very measured, very smart, you know, and I liked it. I really enjoyed it.

• 25:53Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 25:53Joe Rogan?

  I enjoyed it because I like when people fight smart. I really do. When people maximize the amount of damage that they put out, minimize the amount of damage they receive in return. That's what you did.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so, yeah, now we got the next one, Yuri Prochaska.

• 26:07Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 26:07Speaker 00

  Did you see that news?

• 26:08Joe Rogan?

  I did.

• 26:09Speaker 00

  Just saw it yesterday, yeah. Um, so this is, man, I'm excited about this fight. Yeah, I really am. Um. Another guy who's, you know what I mean, like former champion, very skilled, very dangerous.

• 26:22Joe Rogan?

  Another guy's gotten a lot better since the prayer fight.

• 26:24Speaker 00

  He's gotten a lot better since prayer fight. He's dynamic, he's, you know, he's strategic.

• 26:30Joe Rogan?

  He's awkward as fuck, too.

• 26:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, he can be awkward.

• 26:33Joe Rogan?

  He's so weird.

• 26:35Joe Rogan?

  He's the weirdest.

• 26:36Speaker 00

  And it's in Vegas, so this is great. It's gonna be the first time since the Go Kansaki fight that I've been able to fight in front of a crowd.

• 26:44Joe Rogan?

  Oh, is that really?

• 26:45Speaker 00

  In my hometown, yeah. That was the last fight I had.

• 26:48Joe Rogan?

  That's crazy.

• 26:48Speaker 00

  At T-Mobile Arena in, in front of the Las Vegas crowd.

• 26:52Joe Rogan?

  I had not realized that. Oh, wow. So that's, that's huge. Don't have to fly, don't have to travel.

• 26:57Speaker 00

  Don't have to fly, don't have to travel, and then Las Vegas can come out and, you know, and support a local. So it's, that's cool because with the growth of Las Vegas, we're getting sports, you know, got the Raiders, getting a baseball team, you know, women's basketball, it's, it's, the, the local scene in Vegas right now is, I'm, I'm proud of it, you know, to come from there and to see that now we have something besides just gambling and, you know, all the debauchery.

• 27:26Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 27:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, uh, so it's, it's gonna be nice and, um, I'm very happy to, uh, to represent that night.

• 27:32Joe Rogan?

  So how do you train for a guy like Yuri? Like what, what do you do? I mean, are you gonna watch a lot of tape on him? Like, how do you prepare for a guy like that that's very unusual?

• 27:43Speaker 00

  Without giving away too much, I think that it just requires, you know, study, like passing any test, you know what I mean? Like it, it requires dedication and focus and, you know, doing the right study, making the right adjustments.

• 28:02Speaker 00

  And training, you know, it's, the rest I think is, is art, you know, like how we go about solving the, the problem is for everybody to enjoy.

• 28:16Speaker 00

  But I think that, yeah, it comes, it comes from study and, um, good training partners as well. I think that, that's a huge, um, a huge thing in, in anybody's training camp.

• 28:27Joe Rogan?

  Do you have anybody that could emulate that style? Or would you even try?

• 28:32Speaker 00

  You know what? I To emulate someone's style, I think is it's helpful. It is. It is helpful. But it's very hard because you can never really truly, you know, be someone. So someone can give you certain looks that maybe you'll see. Um, so I don't, I don't rely too heavily on, you know, on people emulating. Um, but I do appreciate, you know, bodies and people that are um, around the same size. Just so I can, you know, get used to that body contact of maybe someone who's a bit taller and not training with guys who are maybe shorter, you know, like if I had a short guy who can emulate my opponent.

• 29:17Joe Rogan?

  It's not gonna help against a tall guy like Jamal.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  You know, it doesn't help. So if I have, if I have a taller guy who maybe can't emulate and I can do what I want to do against a taller body, then the rest is up to like my awareness and like making sure that, you know, a guy who maybe has this weird style, okay, I'm, I'm aware of that, but I know what I can do against someone of the same size.

• 29:39Joe Rogan?

  Yuri's just, he's so unusual in that a lot of times his hands are down really low. His, his stance is very wide and he moves back and forth like a cobra. Like he hinges at the waist more than probably anybody.

• 29:53Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 29:53Joe Rogan?

  He does a lot of unusual stuff that you could see guys like try to adjust to that when they're inside the cage with them. It's like, you know, this weird moment where you have to think and consider these new possibilities.

• 30:06Speaker 00

  Mm hmm. Um, yeah, I think that, uh, you know, like I said, I just,

• 30:14Speaker 00

  I've just returned from, you know, a reset. Um, and yeah, now as soon as I leave here, I'm, you know, I'm locked back into Samurai mode, you know?

• 30:28Joe Rogan?

  What'd you do in Thailand? Were you just training? Were you just vacationing or doing training?

• 30:32Speaker 00

  It was incredible, Joe. So, uh, my wife and I got invited to Thailand from the Thailand Tourism Authority. So they invited us to come. They hosted us in Bangkok. Uh,

• 30:46Speaker 00

  Amazing hotel, Dusit Thani Hotel, you have to go. If you ever go to Bangkok, Dusit Thani. So, they hosted us, they took us to like a small pro- or the smallest province in Thailand called Samut Songkram. And in that province, they are known for uh having the best coconuts in all of Thailand. So, all like coconut water, coconut sugar, all that stuff most likely comes from Samut Songkram. Um, salt farm, a beef farm. What's a salt farm? Salt farm, so they, they made these channels that come from uh

• 31:28Speaker 00

  the nearest like body of water and they get the salt, they extract the salt from the sea. And then they create a bunch of different things from it, you know, bath salts. Oh, so they do it with some kind of machinery? Uh, no, it's like, yeah, there's a little bit, yeah, it's, it looks like this, yeah, exactly. Huh, oh, so they do it by hand? Yeah, they do it by hand. These people, they're out there, yeah, just, this is their daily life. And so we got to hang out with these people that are, that like live in this province. Wow, that's how they do it? Yeah, man. I would have never known. So, how are they getting salt out of the water like that? Like, what do you do to? I honestly, like, I was so excited to be there that I probably missed out on a lot of the details, but that's how it looked.

• 32:13Speaker 00

  Like, there were these windmills and I know they're like, yeah, the water evaporates and then there's like salt left at the bottom and then, yeah, they rake it into a pile and then it goes through other processes, but um it's really cool to just experience, like they're very passionate about. And there's different salts from everywhere, like that up there on the right is salt. I don't know where it came from, but. That stuff that looks like, like dark, like cereal? Yeah, it's salt. Doesn't it look like cereal? No, but like, yeah, cornflakes, toasted cornflakes. Um, that's salt. But yeah, and so they had different like salts that came from everywhere and you can see um

• 32:58Speaker 00

  how, how it forms to based off of like the, you know, the whatever ecosystem. Hmm.

• 33:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, so, so cool. So that's Samut Sa Khan. We were in Samut Songkram. And, uh, really cool, man. So they, we went on there, we went there. Um, they took a bunch of, I guess, influencers from around the world. And, uh, flew them into Thailand to welcome us and show us dif- just different sides. It's not always about, you know, the beaches and Phuket and all this stuff. Like, they, they took us and then spread us out. So that's where we got to go. And then, um, we went back to Bangkok and had this crazy cool gala. Um, Buakaw was there, you know, like, yeah, like all these, you know, um, movie stars and, and the, uh, people from just, uh, like the Thai government and stuff, just

• 33:49Speaker 00

  showing people pretty much like the heart of Thailand. So it was very welcoming. It was a really cool way to, to kind of come back and, and feel home again. Um, and then I ended up staying an extra week or two. Um,

• 34:05Speaker 00

  same thing, Thailand tourism, you know, let, made sure that we, uh, just continue that experience. So we stayed at some other hotels, did like the boat ride cruise down the river, you know, just had dinner, just really got to, to live it up and experience, you know.

• 34:19Joe Rogan?

  So it was all basically vacationing, not training?

• 34:22Speaker 00

  Uh, no training, because it was fresh out of the fight. So I flew, I was in Baku two weeks. I flew from Baku to Vegas. Stayed in Vegas eight hours and then flew from Vegas to Thailand. So I like went around the world in like 24 hours. Um, so I was fresh out the fight. So there was,

• 34:41Joe Rogan?

  Would it be closer to go from Baku to Thailand?

• 34:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, but the trips were booked separately. So like in order for that ticket to, you know, to actually work, I had to be in Vegas to fly out. Um, but I did it. I thugged it out and, um, yeah, it was, it was the best way to recover. Like, this was a good recover, recovery for me because I started the camp, uh, for Jamal in February is when I heard about it. But then it got postponed due to like one of his injuries. And, uh, yeah.

• 35:11Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 35:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, and now I'm back. And, um,

• 35:15Joe Rogan?

  When you get a big victory like that over a guy like Jamal, what does, what does that feel like in your head when you know the work paid off?

• 35:23Speaker 00

  Uh, to just keep going. Um, and to just, to just keep, like, keep digging. You know, like, i- it's, it's nice because I'm

• 35:36Speaker 00

  Before, you know, like, when I went, I went on that five fight win streak. I was like coming back from Thailand and like now I'm, I'm fully in this. You know, I'm, I'm 100% in. And with that, that means like, I'm just, I'm committed to digging this tunnel. And so like a win over Jamal, like that tunnel isn't open yet. Like I gotta get the belt first, you know, like, but I'm digging and I saw like, oh, maybe I got this like cool gemstone. Like, okay, cool. Put that in my bag, but like now I'm, you know, I'm committed. I'm still, I'm still in the mine, you know, and

• 36:12Joe Rogan?

  Eyes on the prize.

• 36:13Speaker 00

  Eyes on the prize, man.

• 36:14Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 36:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:15Joe Rogan?

  And the prizes, it's very interesting now, right? Cause Pereira lost to Ankalaev and they're gonna rematch on that same card.

• 36:21Speaker 00

  Same card.

• 36:22Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, which is gonna be wild.

• 36:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:24Joe Rogan?

  That's the main event. And then co-main is Marab and Corey Sanhagen, which is another awesome fight.

• 36:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:30Joe Rogan?

  So it's gonna be one of those cards.

• 36:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:32Joe Rogan?

  I mean, right now

• 36:33Speaker 00

  Busy night for John Wood. He's got me and Marab same night.

• 36:37Joe Rogan?

  Those three fights, that's an insane card. If, obviously if it stays together, MMA is rough with that. People get injured.

• 36:44Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 36:45Joe Rogan?

  But if that card stays together, the way it's pieced up right now, just with those three, I mean, woo, what a card. This is an advertisement from BetterHelp. Stress in the workplace is becoming an issue around the world. Did you know that 60% of the global workforce is reported experiencing higher than normal levels of stress? So it's more important than ever that we learn to take some time for ourselves. Plan a nice long holiday this summer, go hiking, read a book, play video games. I found that even a few minutes of meditation can help. Another great option is therapy. Everyone can benefit from it and it's arguably one of the better long-term solutions to stress.

• 37:24Joe Rogan?

  Therapy can teach you how to positively cope and manage anxiety while improving your self-confidence and self-awareness. It can be very empowering and thanks to BetterHelp, therapy is becoming more and more convenient. All it takes is a few clicks to join a session. You can also join from anywhere, whether you're at the beach, on your vacation. Or at home after a grueling day of work. Plus, as the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/jre. That's better H E L P dot com slash J R E.

• 38:09Speaker 00

  From what I've seen so far and like just the texts that I've gotten, yeah, a lot of people are really excited about it, which hypes me up and makes me want to, you know, train smarter.

• 38:19Joe Rogan?

  Well, you know, Yuri, who also beat Jamal in one of his last fights, looked fantastic in that fight. And coming off of the Pereira fight, he also made some big changes and big improvements. That's one of the things that makes your fight with him so much more interesting.

• 38:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, because I'm sure from his last, even a loss to Pereira, he... I knew him coming back, he mentioned it, like, he wants, he wants to fight for the title again, you know what I mean? So he's hungry for the title again as well, and so am I. And yeah, we've both made the adjustments, so I think it's a...

• 38:57Joe Rogan?

  The thing is, though, it's like, he lost twice, you lost once. So it's like, it's a little tougher to sell his fight than it is to sell a rematch with you. And I think you probably had more success, certainly than him in the second fight. The second fight, he got kind of tuned up.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think second round, yeah, second round was the head kick.

• 39:18Joe Rogan?

  Well, the first round, he got dropped hard.

• 39:19Speaker 00

  Dropped hard and then came out second round head kicked, yeah.

• 39:23Joe Rogan?

  He was out of it going into the second, and that left hook landed clean. At the end, it could have been the end of the fight right there.

• 39:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. No, those, those, uh... Perez got a different power, man, for sure. Like, it's, it feels like a stone.

• 39:40Joe Rogan?

  Does it, it feels remarkably different?

• 39:42Speaker 00

  Remarkably.

• 39:43Joe Rogan?

  Really?

• 39:43Speaker 00

  Yeah. Getting punched, I've never been punched as hard as I did when I fought Pereira. Like, ever. And sparring, there was just something...

• 39:57Speaker 00

  It's kinda crazy cuz like you just, I I give credit where credit's due, you know, like I don't wanna gas him up too much, but there is just one thing and it's like, I don't know, I've I think that it's it's real.

• 40:11Joe Rogan?

  Well, it's obviously real.

• 40:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's it's real, the power, the power, the strength is real, it's not, it's not anything lucky, it's calculated, but when it lands, it's like, yeah.

• 40:19Joe Rogan?

  Now, he was a guy I talked up big time when he was in glory, when he, when I found out he was coming over to the UFC, I was like, buckle up, cuz this is just different, he just hits different. And, you know, his frame's different too, it's a very, he's

• 40:32Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 40:33Joe Rogan?

  Moves different.

• 40:34Speaker 00

  I remember when like during the weigh-ins,

• 40:38Speaker 00

  when we faced off and like he just bent his arms up like this and I was like, fuck, this is a big man. You know, like, we weigh the same, but like, you know, like that, I was like, okay, this is a big guy, like, cuz he just bent his arms and like his, his hand was kinda like right near my face, so I could see just like, you know.

• 40:57Joe Rogan?

  The mass.

• 40:58Speaker 00

  The mass, so it's like, boom, and it was, I was like, okay.

• 41:00Joe Rogan?

  How the fuck did that guy weigh 185?

• 41:02Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 41:03Joe Rogan?

  That's what I wanna know.

• 41:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 41:04Joe Rogan?

  What kinda voodoo was he doing?

• 41:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, torture, man.

• 41:07Joe Rogan?

  It must've been unbelievable, I think that's one of the things that contributed, it is Izzy knocking him out. Other than the perfect punch, I mean Izzy landed an absolutely perfect punch.

• 41:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:16Joe Rogan?

  But I think, I mean, it's well noted that when guys lose that much weight, they're a little bit more vulnerable to getting hit.

• 41:23Speaker 00

  Yeah. Hundred percent, man, and um, you wa- you watched the uh, the Pori fight, I'm sure, oh yeah, you you were there, no?

• 41:31Joe Rogan?

  No, I wasn't there.

• 41:31Speaker 00

  You weren't there?

• 41:32Joe Rogan?

  The last one, you mean with Max?

• 41:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, with Max. Pretty sick, man.

• 41:35Joe Rogan?

  Very good.

• 41:36Speaker 00

  I was very happy, and what a cool like,

• 41:40Speaker 00

  I don't know, I like what the UFC's doing now with like the exits, you know, like Anthony Smith got a sick exit, like Dustin's got a sick exit. For me, I don't know, I, that, that was kinda one of the highlights of, of that night for me. Not only did I feel like they both put on a really good fight, I just thought like, what a cool way to, to be able to just like, do that much work and then like be appreciated for it, like, win or lose, I think, yeah, maybe the tides are changing a little bit, maybe, you know.

• 42:08Joe Rogan?

  What way, what do you mean?

• 42:09Speaker 00

  Like.

• 42:11Speaker 00

  I felt like for a long time and still to this day it's still pretty like heavy but to lose in MMA was almost kinda like the end of the world to the fans.

• 42:24Joe Rogan?

  Cause it is in boxing.

• 42:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:27Joe Rogan?

  You know, in boxing, everybody wants to be undefeated.

• 42:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, like undefeated and like, you know, sometimes like someone can be on a tier and then they, you know, they lose and then like you can just see the direction of the of the support like completely shift. Like ah fluke, you know, but um yeah, I think that it's, you know, when I see things like, you know, Dustin's exit and all that stuff, granted, he did a lot in the company and he's he's done a lot in his career. But to see that kinda gave me hope like, okay, maybe this will, you know, give the fans a little bit of different perspective and maybe it can start to shift towards like.

• 43:05Joe Rogan?

  Appreciating people.

• 43:06Speaker 00

  Appreciating the fighter, man.

• 43:08Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 43:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, like appreciating the fighter for for what we do. It's not it's not the easiest job. We don't get paid the most, you know, like so like, yeah, like a little appreciation goes a long way, win or lose for sure.

• 43:21Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I hope the tide is turning in that direction too.

• 43:24Speaker 00

  Man.

• 43:24Joe Rogan?

  I just, people need to, it's like, again, it's casuals. It's like people love. It's one of the things that I really struggled with in the early days of commentary is that regular sports people were starting to do MMA commentary and they were talking about fighters the same way they would talk about like a football player who drops a pass or a basketball player misses a shot. Very disrespectfully choked. They were saying they were saying a lot of shit. I was like, hey, hey, hey. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Like this is the wrong sport to be coming over here and talking like that.

• 44:02Speaker 00

  For sure.

• 44:03Joe Rogan?

  You know, and the early days in particular, there was a lot of that. There was a lot of people that they wanted to get credit for their work by just being that arrogant. You know, there's like a bunch of those people in the sports world that are just like insulting and then, you know, there's a long history of athletes meeting those people and fucking them up and slapping them.

• 44:25Joe Rogan?

  It's super disrespectful and I don't know why. But there's like a culture, particularly in America, that embraces that. And that likes that because that's the kind of talk that like dum-dums have when they're on the job. And like, "Did you see him last night? Fucking loser."

• 44:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 44:42Joe Rogan?

  "Missed that three pointer. You should have passed the ball." Like, you know, "Shut the fuck up, man."

• 44:50Joe Rogan?

  It's, I hate that shit.

• 44:51Speaker 00

  No, yeah, it's-

• 44:52Joe Rogan?

  I hate that shit because I didn't do a lot of team sports. You know, I only was involved mostly in combat sports when I was a kid. And so disrespect like that was like, "God, you don't know what you're even talking about."

• 45:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's annoying, man.

• 45:04Joe Rogan?

  You don't understand what this is. These guys are risking their fucking life. It's different than everything else you watch.

• 45:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:10Joe Rogan?

  You miss a basketball, you miss it going at the hoop. Okay, next day, you know, you get to shoot some more basketballs and practice and then you'll be playing in a few days.

• 45:20Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:21Joe Rogan?

  And you're back at it.

• 45:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:22Joe Rogan?

  With fighting, it's your fucking soul. It's everything.

• 45:27Speaker 00

  100%, broken nose, something, yeah.

• 45:29Joe Rogan?

  People calling people bums. It's like, "Shut your mouth."

• 45:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, dude.

• 45:32Joe Rogan?

  Stop.

• 45:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's super annoying. And that also brings to thought like, I went to the ESPYS. And that was really cool. Like, first time going to the ESPYS and seeing all these other athletes, you know, that we see on football, you know, just on television. Being in the same room. Um, it was amazing. And I remember seeing just like the opening video.

• 45:59Speaker 00

  And, uh, I think there might have been maybe one clip of an MMA fight. But I'm listening to all the like awards given out and, you know, best play and all this stuff. And I was just thinking, man, like, I know MMA is new and I'm, obviously it's growing because we're here. And, you know, they got Jon Jones in the crowd and they got Marab here, you know? So it's growing. They're, they're starting to acknowledge us. But like, I can't wait until the day where like, there's more fights on, you know, on, in the ESPYS.

• 46:31Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 46:32Speaker 00

  Where, what-

• 46:34Speaker 00

  We're doing great things, you know what I mean?

• 46:37Joe Rogan?

  It's the most exciting sport on earth.

• 46:39Speaker 00

  It's so exciting, man. And even like I had, you know, pro hockey players, all these guys coming up like, oh man, watch your flight. You know, so like the even, even the athletes that are playing the NFL, NHL and MLB, all these things there, they're even watching what we're doing.

• 46:53Joe Rogan?

  Oh yeah, for sure.

• 46:54Speaker 00

  I think it's, you know, I'm, I'm excited for the growth of the sport as well and I, you know, hopefully the next generation or even sooner will be able to know what it's like to be an MMA fighter and still get like an SB award.

• 47:09Joe Rogan?

  I wonder what's gonna happen if the UFC doesn't renew the ESPN contract. Cause there's this negotiation thing that's going on right now and I don't know where they're gonna land. There's talk of Netflix, there's talk of other networks, there's a bunch of different talk. And the, one of the things that we benefit from is ESPN, not just as the host of the fights, but also covering the fights, all the additional coverage, all the SportsCenter talk, all the different shows that they have on ESPN plus, the post-fight shows.

• 47:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:39Joe Rogan?

  Those are all huge.

• 47:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:40Joe Rogan?

  You know, the breakdown, people love that shit.

• 47:42Speaker 00

  No, they do.

• 47:43Joe Rogan?

  They love the pre-fight breakdowns, you know, Alan Joban.

• 47:46Speaker 00

  Alan Joban, Karen Bryant, yeah. I think, yeah, I think it's great, I would, I mean.

• 47:51Joe Rogan?

  Rashad Evans.

• 47:52Speaker 00

  It's gotta, it's gotta stick around, man, like.

• 47:55Joe Rogan?

  I hope so. I lo-, I love ESPN and I love the, I like getting, getting it that way off the app. It's easy, you know?

• 48:03Speaker 00

  And I, I think it helps us too. I mean, it's definitely helped the sport grow, right? And I think that people who, I think it helped us as fighters gain those fans who were, you know, football fans.

• 48:13Joe Rogan?

  Oh yeah.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  People who just have ESPN on all day.

• 48:16Joe Rogan?

  Yup.

• 48:16Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? Or in a PT clinic, it's just like, okay.

• 48:19Joe Rogan?

  Yup.

• 48:19Speaker 00

  ESPN's on, you know, and to be able to, yeah, to be shown through that, I think it's been really helpful to us and.

• 48:27Joe Rogan?

  And the thing is, it's like, you can get converted to a fan with one fight.

• 48:31Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:31Joe Rogan?

  All you need is one undercard banger. One undercard banger, you're like, oh shit.

• 48:37Speaker 00

  I mean, that was me with the Alex fight. It was honestly dude, like these people came out of nowhere. Like one fight changed my life.

• 48:42Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 48:43Speaker 00

  Like one fight changed my life, dude. It's, it's.

• 48:47Joe Rogan?

  Well, you dropped him, you had great moments in that fight.

• 48:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:51Joe Rogan?

  You know?

• 48:51Speaker 00

  Dude, off topic, what's it like to be Joe Rogan these days?

• 48:56Joe Rogan?

  What do you mean?

• 48:57Speaker 00

  What's it like?

• 49:01Speaker 00

  I'm here, welcome to the Khalil Rountree Experience. Today's guest, we have Joe Rogan joining us. Joe, how you doing?

• 49:08Joe Rogan?

  It's pretty much the same for me.

• 49:10Speaker 00

  Really?

• 49:10Joe Rogan?

  Get to sit down, talk to cool people.

• 49:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:12Joe Rogan?

  And I live my life pretty insulated. So I don't deal with all the hoopla.

• 49:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:19Joe Rogan?

  And chitter chatter.

• 49:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:21Joe Rogan?

  I just keep it moving.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 49:23Joe Rogan?

  That's the way I stay sane. You gotta just keep it moving.

• 49:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:26Joe Rogan?

  My day is basically the same every day. Get up early, write, shoot arrows, get in the cold plunge, lift weights, work out, do what I gotta do, come here.

• 49:35Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 49:36Joe Rogan?

  It's the same. And then I go to the club, tell jokes, go home, go to bed, rinse, wash, repeat. That's what I do.

• 49:43Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 49:44Joe Rogan?

  I, I don't do anything any different, so as chaotic as it seems, it's the same for me.

• 49:50Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 49:50Joe Rogan?

  I think what fucks people up is when they get caught up in other people talking about them. And then they get involved in it, and then they start reading things, and they start thinking, is that who I am, or is this who I am? Who's right? Am I a fucking loser? Am I the coolest guy ever? Who am I? You know, eh eh, just keep working.

• 50:09Speaker 00

  I love that.

• 50:09Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it's the only way. The, the only way to not go crazy when you get really famous is to keep doing exactly what you've always been doing.

• 50:17Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 50:17Joe Rogan?

  And make sure you fucking burn yourself out. You go hard all the time with everything you do. Because if you don't, then you're gonna just wonder, you know, am I slipping? Is this, what's happening? Is this all gonna go away? Like, that's one thing that people really do freak out about. Like, once they start getting some success, what if it goes away?

• 50:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:38Joe Rogan?

  What if it goes away? And then you get imposter syndrome, you don't think you should be there. And then if you read a bunch of comments, you know, most comments are negative.

• 50:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:46Joe Rogan?

  People telling you over and over again, you're a fucking loser. You start going, god damn, am I a loser? And start reading things. I've seen it happen to fighters, I've seen it happen to many fighters, where they get too caught up in reading comments and interacting with people in a negative way online and...

• 51:03Joe Rogan?

  It's just not good for you. It's not smart. It's not the way. It's not. It's your, you're, you're dealing with the crabs. It's crabs in a bucket, you know? They, there's a lot of people out there that don't think the only way for them to succeed is to pull you down. It's a dumb mindset, but of course, there's a lot of people that they're not that aware of how much time they're wasting. They're not aware of how much energy they're wasting. Thinking about other people, constantly dwelling on the, hating and all the stupid shit. And they don't realize that they're stealing from their own life. They don't realize it.

• 51:43Joe Rogan?

  They're just caught in this weird trap because we have this undefined new modality of communication. This, uh, social media modality, this, this new thing, this new, new device that you have that interacts with your brain. And oftentimes a very negative way. And you're wasting hours and hours a day. Like, how many people like look at their screen time on their phone? When you do, you go, whoa, six hours? That's crazy.

• 52:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:10Joe Rogan?

  Six hours that I could have been doing other shit? Obviously, it's like 10 minutes here, five minutes there, but it fucking adds up, man. It adds up.

• 52:18Speaker 00

  It's a work shift.

• 52:18Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. And it's, it's really time. It's really energy. It's focus that's just being robbed from you and with no reward. That's what they don't understand. It's like, you're getting robbed and you're not getting anything back. There's nothing positive coming. You're not growing. You're not getting smarter. You're not getting, you're not like contemplating, not getting wiser. No, you're just fucking, it's just, you're just, bah.

• 52:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, just being like.

• 52:50Joe Rogan?

  This episode is brought to you by the farmer's dog. Here's a fun fact. Research shows that dogs who maintain a healthy weight can live up to two and a half years longer on average than dogs who are overweight. Isn't that wild and also kind of obvious at the same time? So why is feeding vague scoops of ultra-processed kibble still the status quo for most dog owners?

• 53:12Joe Rogan?

  Healthy alternatives exist and trust me, I know. I buy one, the Farmer's Dog. I use it for both my dogs. They love it. They eat it up quick. It smells good to them. It smells good to me. It's human-grade food. The Farmer's Dog makes fresh food for dogs and my dogs love it. Their recipes are made with real meat and fresh vegetables that are gently cooked to retain vital nutrients. They also portion out the meals to your dog's nutritional needs, which helps avoid overfeeding and makes weight management easier. And isn't getting more time with our four-legged best friend something every dog owner wants? The answer to that is yes, obviously.

• 53:52Joe Rogan?

  So try the Farmer's Dog today and get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food. Plus, get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com/rogan. This offer is for new customers only. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Believe it or not, the holiday season is here again and that means you might need to fill some seasonal roles, fast. Maybe you need extra cashiers or stockers, or maybe something more unique like a lead elf or an expert gift wrapper or a Zamboni driver. Whoever you're looking for, whatever skills you need to power through the rest of the year, ZipRecruiter is one of the best places to start your search

• 54:36Joe Rogan?

  because you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. And because ZipRecruiter helps sort through thousands of resumes and applications showing you the most qualified and interesting ones first. There's even an option for candidates to explain why they want the job. Let ZipRecruiter find the right people for your roles, seasonal or otherwise. Try it for free today at ziprecruiter.com/rogan. That's ziprecruiter.com/rogan. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter.

• 55:12Speaker 00

  Take it out of you, I guess. Yeah. Wow, dude, that's, no, that's, that's great and it's good. It's a good reminder and refreshment for me to hear you say that because.

• 55:24Speaker 00

  How do I put it like, let's say if I get asked question like, how's Joe Rogan? Oh, you've been on Joe Rogan podcast, but like, how is you? And I'm always like, Joe's great. Like, tell me about this, is he that? I'm like, dude, I'll say, I say this. I can tell you, here, I'll just give you like, four things. Every time we talk, it's fucking good. We hang out, we talk. I feel like he likes me, I like him. It's always a great time. Two, there's a lot of books when I walk in there, there's a bunch of books, all types of different books. I think Joe's a curious guy. I think he's a smart guy, well read, a lot of cool things. And it's, it's always just based around like, yeah, when I think of you, I think just genuine dude, good vibes.

• 56:08Joe Rogan?

  I feel the same way about you.

• 56:09Speaker 00

  And it's always, it's always fun to, to just come here and, and just like chop it up with you. That's why I like, I guess I just needed that own, like, I just wanted that for myself to just be like, Joe, what's up? How you doing? And you tell me like, cool, I'm, I'm doing the same thing. I wake up, I go to the gym, I shoot my bows, I, you know, I, I go to the club. Like that to me, to know that just personally, without being one of those people that are just like sucked into my phone or whatever, to just hear it come from your mouth, face to face, that that's what you're up to, that makes me feel.

• 56:43Joe Rogan?

  I think it's the only way to live.

• 56:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:46Joe Rogan?

  I think getting, I mean, I've been sucked into my phone before, for sure. But now, for the most part, if I spend time on my phone at all, it's watching things. I watch like YouTube videos. But it's always stuff on like, it's either watching MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing, or watching like YouTube videos on ancient history, interesting things.

• 57:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:08Joe Rogan?

  So I'm not interacting with opinions and, and people.

• 57:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, and all that stuff.

• 57:13Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 57:13Speaker 00

  The, the stuff that'll piss you off.

• 57:15Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 57:16Speaker 00

  And, and take from you. Uh, do you ever watch like fighters YouTube channels?

• 57:21Joe Rogan?

  Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.

• 57:23Speaker 00

  Have you seen mine?

• 57:24Joe Rogan?

  I have seen yours.

• 57:24Speaker 00

  Oh, okay, cool.

• 57:25Joe Rogan?

  You like it?

• 57:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's great.

• 57:26Joe Rogan?

  Okay.

• 57:27Speaker 00

  It kind of, kind of. Inspired by you a little bit. I remember you saying in the past like, oh, you should start a podcast. I was like, maybe not yet, but how about a YouTube channel? So.

• 57:36Joe Rogan?

  Well, people love behind the scenes stuff. They really do. They love to see people train, training in particular. You know, I spent a lot of time watching Usik training before this last Dubois fight.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  Yeah. Was it crazy? I saw something the other day. It was like Usik swimming five hours. I was like, oh my God.

• 57:55Joe Rogan?

  He's an animal, man. I mean, he's so fucking good. He's so good. I mean, you think about what that guy has done. He beat AJ twice. He beat Tyson Fury twice, and now he beat Dubois twice. That's crazy.

• 58:09Speaker 00

  No, it's incredible.

• 58:10Joe Rogan?

  Those are two of the best, like, of this era. I think he's one of the best of all time. I really do. I think he's one of the best heavyweights of all time. And his movement is so deep. One of the things that was interesting, um, uh, where they were, they were talking about the fight and AJ was, it was Tony Bellows was talking about when he fought him. And AJ was saying that when he fought him, it was the most exhausted he's ever been. Because he's always moving. You never, you're not, there's no rest with him.

• 58:41Speaker 00

  No rest.

• 58:42Joe Rogan?

  There's like constant, there's constant twitching.

• 58:44Speaker 00

  Under fire the whole time.

• 58:45Joe Rogan?

  You're, you're constantly thinking, when is this coming? There's no silent agreements. There's no relaxation. There's no, you know, there's no, there's no rounds off. Everything is, he's putting it on you and moving constantly. Like, I always say he's like a giant Lomachenko.

• 59:01Speaker 00

  Got it.

• 59:02Joe Rogan?

  They were both trained by the same guy.

• 59:03Speaker 00

  Oh, were they?

• 59:04Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, Lomachenko's father trained Usik as well.

• 59:06Speaker 00

  Ah.

• 59:07Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 59:08Speaker 00

  So there's something, yeah, there's something.

• 59:09Joe Rogan?

  Obviously, gravity keeps him from moving the way Lomachenko does, because Lomachenko is so small. He can, like, dance around you.

• 59:17Speaker 00

  For sure.

• 59:17Joe Rogan?

  And footwork, just majestic footwork. But Usik's footwork is like, it's, there's a bunch of breakdowns of the final combination that he hit Daniel with. And, you know, he steps off to the side and lands that fucking left hook from hell. God, it was good. You could see Daniel was already tired. You could see it's like, it's just dealing with.

• 59:41Speaker 00

  There's gotta be something like, you know, Lomachenko's dad, like some type of philosophy or some, you know what I mean? Like, these guys just. Kind of tap into, you know, cause like to be a big guy, yeah, there's footwork and all that stuff. But I think, man, shout out to the coach, like to the guy.

• 59:55Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it's skill, man. It's, it's a skillful type of boxing. It's like, you know, there's, there's guys that are like heavy bangers and they rely on that. And there's guys that have, you know, good defense and they rely on that. But his thing is like this constant movement and constant feints and jabs. And it's all with a purpose. Everything is like setting you up. Everything is reading what your reaction to this is and anticipating what your reaction is. When's that right hand coming? Duck under counter. It's like constant. The jab was going in an upward direction sometimes. He was catching Daniel with this like upward jab. Here's the, oh, okay, here's a breakdown.

• 1:00:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've only seen highlights. I'd actually didn't get to watch.

• 1:00:37Joe Rogan?

  Fucking movement, man. It's so good, man. It's so good, the movement.

• 1:00:41Speaker 00

  Do you know, what's his age? Damn.

• 1:00:43Joe Rogan?

  He's 38, man.

• 1:00:44Speaker 00

  Oh, my God. Yeah, that was a solid left.

• 1:00:46Joe Rogan?

  Old. He's old for a boxer, you know, and the fact that he was a cruiserweight champion too. And that was the first drop, but here's the big one. The left hook that he, that he knocks him out was extraordinary, man. What are they showing here? Okay, the counters.

• 1:01:03Speaker 00

  Oof. This video is just about his weight transferring.

• 1:01:07Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, no, it's amazing. I mean, he's one of the most skillful heavyweights of all time. I think you have to go back to Cassius Clay, like before they took his title away, before they made him sit out for three years. Look, there's the final left hook. Oh, my goodness. Look at this counter. Steps off to the left and then full weight into it.

• 1:01:29Speaker 00

  Really long, like, you can tell that, yeah, that weight transfer was everything.

• 1:01:34Joe Rogan?

  It's just constant footwork and movement and a lot of his training is that.

• 1:01:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, you can see it. He's never stationary.

• 1:01:40Joe Rogan?

  Exactly.

• 1:01:41Speaker 00

  Like his feet are never in one place. They're constantly moving.

• 1:01:44Joe Rogan?

  Well, there's a lot of Russian fighters who fight that way, you know, and obviously he's from Ukraine. But, you know, Bivol, Bivol fights that way. There's a lot of these Eastern Bloc fighters that have this, this movement style, like there's a constant like movement style. And it's like, there's a lot of value in that, man. Like when you see flat footed guys and you see guys who fight like that, you go, man. There's something in that, like that's extraordinary.

• 1:02:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, flat footed guys, I feel like a lot of them, that's where they generate their power, right? Kind of like relying on that, like a Deontay Wilder, you know, like if his feet are planted and you're up against the ropes, like bye bye.

• 1:02:20Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, or George Foreman in his day.

• 1:02:23Speaker 00

  Oh, man.

• 1:02:23Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, it's heavy plotting, you know, like moving forward like this, covering up, just, but everything has just death on it.

• 1:02:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, just looping them.

• 1:02:33Joe Rogan?

  But a guy like Dubois, he can do that. That's the thing. That's how he fucked up AJ. He has that crazy power. But when you're not getting hit and you're just moving away and this guy's just whiffing these nuclear bombs by you over and over again. And then after a while, he's like, he's like headed into the thirties, like, oh, Jesus Christ.

• 1:02:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:02:53Joe Rogan?

  This guy is fucking not there and I'm exhausted. And then you're dealing with him like sparks are flying every time he's hitting you. And you don't know when these punches are coming because they're coming from these weird angles. And every time you throw a punch, he's countering you and you're nervous that which one of these is gonna like really rock me.

• 1:03:12Speaker 00

  Dude, to be in that situation, like during a fight is, ugh, it's the worst. I remember like feeling like that in the Alex fight. It just, there was a few like jabs and stuff. I was obviously just dizzy. And just dealing with like, okay, this guy's not slowing down and I'm hurting, you know, like.

• 1:03:34Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, around the fourth, he started getting that time. When was the fight stopped?

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  Uh, fourth round.

• 1:03:40Joe Rogan?

  It was the fourth.

• 1:03:41Speaker 00

  Fourth round, I think like probably two and a half minutes in, something like that.

• 1:03:48Joe Rogan?

  He started getting that rhythm where he's like moving away from stuff and then.

• 1:03:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:53Joe Rogan?

  Coming back in.

• 1:03:54Speaker 00

  Moving in.

• 1:03:55Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:56Speaker 00

  But it was.

• 1:03:57Joe Rogan?

  Unusual movement.

• 1:03:58Speaker 00

  Obviously deceptive, but like my eye was shut. It was, I thought I was blind in my eye, but I was like, okay, whatever. This is just, I don't know what was, what was going on with me in that fight. I was so excited to be there. And so, I mean, even, even in the fight, like not being able to see out of my right eye at all. Like not blurred vision. It was just like, all I saw was white light, like that's all I saw. And in that moment, I was like, oh, I'm blind. Fuck it.

• 1:04:26Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:04:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, like literally, so. I don't rem- I don't know what it was, like, maybe. All I know is I just saw a light coming in. Couldn't see shadows.

• 1:04:35Joe Rogan?

  When did that start happening?

• 1:04:36Speaker 00

  That was sometime in the fourth round.

• 1:04:39Joe Rogan?

  So you got hit with something?

• 1:04:40Speaker 00

  I got hit something, maybe like a jab. Boom! And I just remember like, my eye wasn't closed. All the way yet, but like, all I could see was just white light. And I was like, oh shit. I think I went blind, but whatever. Like, let's go. Like, you know, like, internally, like, it was such this, like, light. Positive voice going on the whole time in that fight.

• 1:05:01Joe Rogan?

  How do you think you developed that?

• 1:05:08Speaker 00

  I don't know, man. It could be like, a series of, just like, life experiences and my, like...

• 1:05:18Speaker 00

  I don't know, books that I read, or just like, things that I try to practice, or some enlightenment thing that I'm trying to get, or you know what I mean? Like, I think, I think that it comes from that, because I'm, I'm just... I'm kind of always searching for the light, in, in short, you know, so...

• 1:05:35Joe Rogan?

  God, it's gotta be so hard, though, in that situation, because generally speaking, there's a moment in fights where you see guys starting to get hit and tuned up, and you see hesitation, and you see panic. And you didn't show any of that. You were getting beat up, but you were firing back, you were fighting at the best that you could. It was very obvious that you were doing that.

• 1:05:56Speaker 00

  Yeah, to the very end. Well, you know what? So, right before we went out, or right before we got to the arena, my coach Lorenzo is like, alright, your nose is already cut, so it's gonna open up. And he's like, looking at me in my face, you know, like, he's like, face to face with me. He's like, your nose is already cut. Accept it. It's gonna open up. First time you get hit, it's gonna open up.

• 1:06:19Speaker 00

  Alright, that's out of the way. He's like, now, expect that you're gonna get the shit beat out of you. You're gonna go to bloody fucking war. He's like, you might break a hand, you might break a leg, you might get your jaw broken, but you don't give up. You keep going, we fucking come out of this fight victorious. And he's like, you hear me? And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, so just fucking soak it in now. You're about to go to fuck- Fucking full on war. It's going, you're like, you know, like, you're about to go to hell. Like, he's just like, in my face, you know, and he's like, we're face to face. And he's like, I need you to accept it now, son. Cause he kinda looks at me like, like his son. He treats me that way and I appreciate it. He's like, you're, he's like, but we're fucking, we're fucking winning this fight, son. And you're gonna fucking go to, you're going to fucking war. And I was just

• 1:07:01Speaker 00

  swallowed that, walked into the arena, just kind of accepting it already. You know what I mean? Like, I wasn't like, ah, I was just like, okay. Like Lorenzo said it, alright, this is what it is. This is what it is. And so like in the locker room, you know, in my warmups and everything, I think subconsciously, I'm just like already programming myself for the worst of the worst. But not in a way to where I'm like, oh, I'm gonna lose this fight. Like, I'm like, expanding, you know? Just like internally like, okay, fuck, I'm ready for this. Alright, boom, alright, my fucking hands are gonna get broken. My face is gonna get split up. Alright, and every fight's not like this. Like, not every opponent, we have the same, you know what I mean?

• 1:07:46Speaker 00

  The same thing, cause the strategy is always different for everybody, but some, they, he just had a feeling that this is the type of fight it was gonna be. So when it got down to that point, I think I had already accepted it. So the only thing I could do was just enjoy it. You know, cause I was like Such a crazy thing to say. I knew it was gonna happen. Like, I just knew it. So, yeah, if I remember, you're like, third round, fourth round, something in there, I'm just like,

• 1:08:15Speaker 00

  thank you, like, this is cool. Fighting for the world title. Crowd, I'm like, oh my god. Eyes closed, boom, I think I'm blind. I'm like, fuck, oh shit.

• 1:08:26Speaker 00

  Ah, he's not going back, you know, and they're like, even to the last, I'm like swinging, I can't see. Boom, body shot hurts, I'm like, ah. Backing up a bit, but like I just remembered like the whole time this just this very like positive feeling man. It was like and that's why like those shorts are framed in you know like I got the shorts framed never washed them. You know, blood still on them gloves never wiped them off and I just put it in a shadow box. It's on my wall, you know, like that for me is just it was a just pivotal moment for me just in my life as a person as a human. You know, just.

• 1:09:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's like the beginning. I think I was like that's the beginning of the.

• 1:09:14Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:09:15Speaker 00

  Of the journey now, so.

• 1:09:16Joe Rogan?

  That's wild. The world title fight is the beginning of the journey.

• 1:09:21Speaker 00

  I thought, yeah, I thought, you know, like, oh, no, this is like that was the beginning because when I was there I felt like I belonged. Like it wasn't foreign to me like, you know. Final, you know, main event, lights go dark. It's just the spotlights, you know, we I've only ever watched it, so.

• 1:09:39Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:09:40Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, I was like, okay, this is.

• 1:09:43Joe Rogan?

  Did it feel different?

• 1:09:46Speaker 00

  It felt like it was supposed to feel, if that makes sense, like everything, I felt like that vision that I've had. And it was like being there and I was just like. Yeah, feels about right, like.

• 1:10:00Joe Rogan?

  Wow.

• 1:10:01Speaker 00

  Cool, fucking Pereira right in front of me, hell yeah, this feels right. This feels like, yeah, this is it right here. Um, and then obviously like, you know, the loss was. It it took a little bit of an emotional toll on me because my focus was to win and that was my, you know, that was my intention. Um, but I think like in hindsight, I look at it and it's like, no, my. I was meant to be there to experience it and to learn from it because. The things that I did learn and experience from that fight have made me a better person for sure.

• 1:10:37Joe Rogan?

  That's awesome.

• 1:10:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:10:39Joe Rogan?

  That's awesome. Well, it really showed it in the Jamal Hill fight because you you came into that fight. It just looked like you were you had gone through something and come out of the other end. That's what it looked like. Because again Jamal's world champion, he's a dangerous, dangerous man, you know, and you looked supremely confident in that fight.

• 1:10:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, a lot of a lot of training, man, like I I.

• 1:11:03Speaker 00

  I understand that there's a lot. I'm a striker, you know, like that's just, I love to strike. Don't stray away from a striking match. But I think that.

• 1:11:15Speaker 00

  Like lately, I've been training a lot with Buchecha, who just got signed to UFC. Incredible guy. Amazing. Jiu-jitsu, like multiple time jiu-jitsu champion.

• 1:11:28Speaker 00

  Rolling with guys like Luke. Rockhold, I mean. Being able to be like on a team with those guys and us train together has really helped me as well. Because.

• 1:11:41Speaker 00

  It's just given me more confidence in my abilities and my development as like a championship level fighter.

• 1:11:51Speaker 00

  So yeah, I mean, like even to. I, you know, I brought you those shorts today, the Santo Studio ones, man, we're, we're building an incredible team down there. I think it's like the first time, are you familiar with what we're doing at all?

• 1:12:03Joe Rogan?

  No.

• 1:12:03Speaker 00

  So. Like over at Santo Studio Newport Beach. We've got Santo Studio, we've got Jackson, Jackson's like men's jewelry. Yeah, men's jewelry, but there's also like Jackson Media House. And over there, we're trying to. Include. All MMA fighters, extreme sports athletes. Like give them like a platform to showcase, you know, their talents and, and, and build themselves. But Santo Studio, the clothing brand, we have the sickest team. So we've got like Buchecha, we've got Armon, we've got, I mean, Dillashaw's behind it, we got Rockhold. Man, the list goes on, Gabriel Silva, Anderson Silva's son.

• 1:12:49Speaker 00

  On just like the fighting side, but then it's like. Paul Rodriguez, skateboarder, Naja Houston, Ryan Sheckler, and then we got. Motocross riders like Jett and Hunter Lawrence and like, so there's all these kind of like extreme sports athletes under one umbrella, but like. In one place in Newport Beach and we all support each other. Under like the same type of brand.

• 1:13:10Joe Rogan?

  And what is your role in this?

• 1:13:13Speaker 00

  Ambassador fucking I I was a part of the vision before there was like the first T-shirt ever printed like Bear and I had a conversation he's like hey I got this vision and I'm like dude I'm behind you like I love how this sounds it's right up my alley sounds creative there's clothes involved there's training involved so he's gone to just build this we got the Santo Performance Studio huge gym jujitsu mats um weightlifting but also like shopping it dude it's it's it's unheard of but it's so cool and like it's put us all in the same place to be able to like train with each other collaborate with each other like if it wasn't for Santo I would have never been able to train with guys like Buchecha

• 1:13:58Speaker 00

  and Bernardo and Leovera you know the checkmat guy so like now there's a partnership with checkmat which makes me like have access to training with these guys it's I would have never been able to you know what I mean have that same like connection so we're just doing everything we can to just you know like support each other within this like MMA community help each other grow um and and just like expand and also include the community um within right now Newport Beach but I mean I'm sure that the vision is bigger than just that

• 1:14:36Joe Rogan?

  So this is something also that you can do once you retire this episode is brought to you by LifeLock scams have gotten smarter because criminals use AI to flood you with fake texts emails and phone calls that are designed to be more convincing than ever one wrong click could put your personal information and your identity at risk so protect yourself with LifeLock LifeLock helps detect and alert you to threats and if your identity is stolen LifeLock will step in to fix it guaranteed or your money back dedicated US-based identity restoration specialists will work with you until your identity is restored backed by the million dollar protection package with up to three million in coverage for eligible losses and expenses

• 1:15:23Joe Rogan?

  It lifelock.com and save up to 30% your first year with the promo code JRE. That's promo code JRE or go to lifelock.com slash JRE for 30% off. Terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Chime. And I know people don't usually get excited about banking, but Chime is doing something different and it's worth paying attention to. In a recent survey, they ranked the number one choice for new checking accounts in America. That means real people, millions of them are choosing this over traditional banks. That's because banking at Chime is fee free. No monthly fees, no overdraft fees and thousands of fee free ATMs. But here's the real kicker.

• 1:16:07Joe Rogan?

  If you get their Chime card, it gives you 5% cash back on a category you actually pick yourself. Your savings rate crazy high. It's nine times the national average. They're calling it the most rewarding way to bank. Go to chime.com slash Rogan. Takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for more details.

• 1:16:38Speaker 00

  I would love to, yeah. I mean, right now, like, I think the understanding from Bear is that, like, I'm just focused on becoming a champion. But I'm sure he knows that, like, I'm heavily interested in, you know, doing something because I believe in the brand. So, yeah, after this, maybe there's something. But right now, you know, I have no distractions. You know what I mean? Like, I have no distractions. I'm, you know, I'm just making sure that I'm fighting and that, like, my money's in the right place and places.

• 1:17:13Joe Rogan?

  Do you have a time set in your head where you want to exit the game?

• 1:17:21Speaker 00

  How about this? I can say that I would like for my current contract to be my last contract.

• 1:17:30Joe Rogan?

  Hmm. How many fights you have in your current contract?

• 1:17:34Speaker 00

  Left, um, six or seven.

• 1:17:39Joe Rogan?

  And that's it. That's what you'd like.

• 1:17:42Speaker 00

  In an ideal world. Or like, maybe sometime down the line, there's like a renegotiation and it's not for as many fights. But like, I think six or seven more fights would be nice and be able to like, look around and say like, okay.

• 1:18:00Speaker 00

  Is this enough? You know, like.

• 1:18:03Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:18:03Speaker 00

  Is this okay for me to step away from and like, am I secure? Is my, you know, is my family secure? Okay, then.

• 1:18:13Speaker 00

  Cool. Cause time waits for no man. I don't wanna be forty-one, forty-two.

• 1:18:18Joe Rogan?

  How old are you right now?

• 1:18:19Speaker 00

  I turned thirty-five in February.

• 1:18:21Joe Rogan?

  So you're still in your prime?

• 1:18:23Speaker 00

  Still in my prime, so they say.

• 1:18:26Joe Rogan?

  Especially for a larger athlete.

• 1:18:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I, I don't have the.

• 1:18:30Joe Rogan?

  Thirty-eight.

• 1:18:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't have the wear and tear of a lot of the fighters. Like, I didn't grow up wrestling and all that stuff, so. Fifteen years into any type of.

• 1:18:39Joe Rogan?

  It's a big factor.

• 1:18:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, sports or athletics.

• 1:18:42Joe Rogan?

  Football's a big factor, wrestling's a big factor, knees, back, neck.

• 1:18:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:18:48Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:49Speaker 00

  But yeah, I mean, like, by the way that things are looking, it'd be nice, like. October fourth, win over Yuri, sets me up for the title fight against, here's an ideal situation. Win over Yuri in October, Alex beats Ankaliyev, rematch for the belt against Alex sometime in the, to begin, like, the first half of next year. Right? Beat Alex in the rematch, get the belt. I'm the champion all summer.

• 1:19:25Speaker 00

  Then. Somewhere in between summer and fall.

• 1:19:31Speaker 00

  There's a child that comes into play. My wife's not pregnant yet, but it'd be nice.

• 1:19:36Joe Rogan?

  Oh, you got this idea?

• 1:19:37Speaker 00

  It'd be nice, you know what I mean?

• 1:19:39Joe Rogan?

  You've got a vision board, man.

• 1:19:40Speaker 00

  I got a, that's, that's the like, everyone says like, all these guys, success, no, no, you gotta have a vision, man. Like, like you gotta have a vision in life, you do.

• 1:19:49Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 1:19:50Speaker 00

  You know, like if you don't have a vision or something to aim at, like what are you doing? You know, so like, yeah, these are like, you know, these are, this is my vision, but there's like goals in between, you know? Goal, be eerie, goal, get another shot at the title.

• 1:20:08Speaker 00

  Vision, start my family, finish my fight contract, be done with fighting, live in Asia.

• 1:20:17Joe Rogan?

  In Asia?

• 1:20:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:20:18Joe Rogan?

  Yeah?

• 1:20:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm moving back to Thailand, man.

• 1:20:21Joe Rogan?

  Really?

• 1:20:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:20:22Joe Rogan?

  Hundred percent.

• 1:20:23Speaker 00

  One thousand percent.

• 1:20:24Joe Rogan?

  Why?

• 1:20:25Speaker 00

  Cause that's where I wanna be, that's where I belong.

• 1:20:27Joe Rogan?

  Really?

• 1:20:28Speaker 00

  Yeah. I belong, I belong in, there's, right, right now, what like my heart is telling me? I belong in three places, either Thailand, Hong Kong, or South Korea.

• 1:20:41Joe Rogan?

  Why those places? Obviously Thailand, you know, you had amazing experiences there.

• 1:20:47Speaker 00

  Hong Kong's amazing, I love it there, it's good. Uh, I just came back from Hong Kong as well, so in that Thailand trip, I went to Hong Kong. Um, I love how it's set up, I love the structure of the city. I love that there's so much outdoor stuff involved, so like when I imagine the rest of my life and how I want to live that after fighting, it's like, let's say I do have my family and there's a child in play. Okay, cool, if I live in Hong Kong, I can just walk outside and take my child for a hike right outside the house and it not be like I don't have to even own a car, I can just, everything's walking.

• 1:21:29Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? It's like the, the way that this city's set up, it's set up for people to, to walk, to interact, you know? It's very beautiful, it's not, you know, I love it. It's just, for me, when I'm there, I'm like, ah, this makes sense, like especially with the vision of like who I want to be after fighting.

• 1:21:46Joe Rogan?

  And why South Korea?

• 1:21:49Speaker 00

  I like the culture in South Korea, man. I really do. Like, when I see that, like, when I, when I, when I see just like the, like, the culture in South Korea, the people, um, how I envisioned just like my family interacting with society and stuff, like, to me, another thing that just, that makes sense. And Thailand for me is, i- it just, it feels like home. The language is very, like, easy for me to, you know, to speak and to, like, learn more of and to where I could be fluent.

• 1:22:21Speaker 00

  I love the, the community there. I love how people live their life there. Um, amazing, uh, a lot of growth happening in Thailand.

• 1:22:30Joe Rogan?

  It's also a lot less expensive.

• 1:22:32Speaker 00

  A lot less expensive, for sure. Um, and to be able to, like, so, like, let's say, in Thailand, I'm, I'm American, right? We're all kind of born, like, to live the American dream. I can live the American dream anywhere I want.

• 1:22:51Speaker 00

  But for me, if I could live the American dream in Thailand, that would be ideal. If I could live the American dream in Hong Kong, that'd be ideal, you know? But it's a lot more expensive in Hong Kong. It's a lot more expensive in South Korea.

• 1:23:08Joe Rogan?

  Do you think you say this because you live in Vegas? Because Vegas is kind of a crazy place in America.

• 1:23:13Speaker 00

  Uh, not so much. Like, I've been to many different places. I mean, I've been almost everywhere in the States when I was on tour, you know? Austin's nice. Do I want to live in Austin? No. California? Absolutely not. New York? Absolutely not. Florida? Don't like it. Shout out to my Florida fans. Like, yeah, I love you guys. You know, like, I'm not saying anything against, don't hate me if I don't give you a place, if you, you know, whatever. Um, but there's nowhere, there's nowhere else in the world that I feel the way that I feel when I'm there.

• 1:23:44Joe Rogan?

  That's interesting. Has that always been the case? Or is it just like, does it represent something to you in terms of, like, personal growth?

• 1:23:53Joe Rogan?

  Or a vibe, the the relaxing vibe of it because.

• 1:23:56Speaker 00

  It's not so much like, it's not so much like when I'm there, I'm relaxing, you know what I mean? Like, it's very busy, like, there's a lot going on, but I just, I can, I realize how I feel inside, you know, and how I'm interacting with people who I don't even know on a daily basis. And when I think about like, I always, I'm I'm constantly thinking about like,

• 1:24:26Speaker 00

  like my future or my vision, you know, and when I think about, and when I think about my vision, my my future and my vision, there's a child involved and

• 1:24:38Speaker 00

  I try to think about like, okay, as a dad,

• 1:24:43Speaker 00

  how do I want to operate with the child or like, how do, how do I want, you know, our child to experience life? And there's just, you know, a lot of different questions and visions that come and the way that I've seen it, or like the way that I envision it, it's kind of like, it makes more sense that way. You know, like, if I could,

• 1:25:08Speaker 00

  if I could, let's say, take away some of the like, stress of raising a child

• 1:25:16Speaker 00

  from my wife by like, let's say, hiring help or, you know, having, instead of having a car, having a driver to have us get through traffic so that we can still enjoy life and, you know, go on like a a family, you know, dinner or take the kid here or whatever, but I don't want to drive the damn car because there's too much traffic and that, you know what I mean?

• 1:25:41Speaker 00

  So I can relax, but we can still have family time, we can still do the things that families and kids do.

• 1:25:48Speaker 00

  But it not cost me so much.

• 1:25:53Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, if I wanted to get a live-in helper here in the States to help my wife, it costs a fortune. Yeah. It's almost impossible. But if I wanted to get a live-in helper, let's say in Hong Kong, it'd cost me a thousand or less dollars a month to have a full-time live-in helper. You know, and there's nothing wrong with it there. That's just the culture. Like, in Hong Kong, you have just groups of women who are live-in helpers that like on their off day in the summer, or on their off day, like on Sunday, you'll see them, everybody's just in the streets with tents, combing each other's hair, boomboxes out, sharing food. It's just a part of it. Like, it's not,

• 1:26:37Speaker 00

  like, literally tents in the streets everywhere. Jamie, if you want to pull that up, it's crazy, dude. I don't know if you've ever seen it. No. But it's so cool because like they enjoy the life. But like Hong Kong helpers hang out or enjoying a day off or something. It's it's just a way of life. It's a lifestyle. It's it's just a new perspective that I've never seen, like that I didn't see here. And I like it. I just think like for me and my development and growth as just like a human being, that's just kind of where

• 1:27:11Speaker 00

  it's like a never-ending, like finding out what's next. You know what I mean? Like, I'm, I've constantly got to adapt and evolve. Like, I'm American. I have to learn a new language. I've got to adapt to a new culture. I've got to learn new rules and laws and all this stuff. And like, cool, sign me up. Like, because that's just, I don't want my life to be like, okay, I know it all and I'm done and I'm just, okay, cool. And I got the kid and I'm just, you know, like, Right, right, right. I want to continue to like, Grow. To grow. Right. As well as, you know, showing someone else how to grow.

• 1:27:44Speaker 00

  Um, yeah, see, like, they're not homeless. They're just hanging out on their off day because they can't. And they like, they enjoy it. No one's mad to be doing this.

• 1:27:53Joe Rogan?

  Huh.

• 1:27:54Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? Like, it's a totally safe environment for these people to be out here. They're not interrupting anybody. They're literally just, this is a day off. Like, oh, what are you doing on your day off? I'm gonna go hang out with the other helpers around the city and we're just, like, we're just chilling.

• 1:28:13Joe Rogan?

  Interesting.

• 1:28:14Speaker 00

  Because the, the, to live there, like, the places are really small. You know, like, if you have a thousand-square-foot apartment, you're most likely a multimillionaire. So most of the life, like, lifestyle is spent outdoors.

• 1:28:28Joe Rogan?

  So for them to go outside like this, and this is like a normal thing on a Sunday?

• 1:28:32Speaker 00

  Normal. Yeah, on a Sunday or on a weekend, yeah, absolutely.

• 1:28:37Joe Rogan?

  And Hong Kong, the city's supposed to be very safe too, right?

• 1:28:40Speaker 00

  Very safe, man. Very, very safe. Um, very safe, very clean. Like, when I think about the stuff that I had to go through as a kid and just like the dangers and, you know.

• 1:28:51Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:28:52Speaker 00

  I'm like, hmm. How about, like, my kid doesn't necessarily have to be worried about certain things, or you know what I mean? Being worried about, like, getting shot at school, or like, just different things. It's just kinda like, what can I take off? Like, what mental load can I take off my offspring in the beginning? I can take on whatever. I'm a grown adult, like, whatever.

• 1:29:17Joe Rogan?

  What do you think you're gonna be doing with your time, other than that, when you're done fighting?

• 1:29:21Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:29:26Speaker 00

  I have zero business experience

• 1:29:31Speaker 00

  because I've just been so dedicated to fighting. But.

• 1:29:36Speaker 00

  I do want to like start to learn, man, like I I wanna learn. Business, how to operate a business, I cuz I'm creative and I have ideas. But I don't have structure, I don't have, you know, really like the right mentorship.

• 1:29:54Speaker 00

  So like, yeah, like I'd like to have. Multiple businesses.

• 1:30:01Joe Rogan?

  Like what kind of businesses, what do you wanna get into?

• 1:30:03Speaker 00

  Something like.

• 1:30:06Joe Rogan?

  Obviously, something where you can express your creativity.

• 1:30:08Speaker 00

  Expe- express creativity, but also like something that helps. Me and people like health.

• 1:30:17Speaker 00

  You know, health.

• 1:30:20Speaker 00

  Health products.

• 1:30:21Joe Rogan?

  Is this one of those things that you can't really think about right now?

• 1:30:24Speaker 00

  I can't because it's just like I'm, you know what I mean, like I'm locked in, I don't wanna get too distracted. But like.

• 1:30:30Joe Rogan?

  I think that's a giant, it's one of the signs that someone, when when people spread themselves too thin. Like, um, there's a a bunch of fighters when things start going really well, they start getting movie offers and you see them on talk shows, you see a lot of this, a lot of that, you're like, uh-oh. You're getting outside of your lane. And you're spreading yourself thin. And there's just no way to really be locked into training while also doing that stuff. So when you see someone preparing for a major fight and you see a lot of extracurricular activities, I'm always like, oh. Like Daniel Dubois had a fucking party the day of his fight.

• 1:31:08Speaker 00

  Before the fight?

• 1:31:09Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:10Speaker 00

  Oh, boy.

• 1:31:11Joe Rogan?

  It's a big issue now, people are talking about it, there's like ninety people at his place. Partying the day of the fight.

• 1:31:18Speaker 00

  That's absurd.

• 1:31:19Joe Rogan?

  Right?

• 1:31:20Speaker 00

  That takes a lot of energy.

• 1:31:21Joe Rogan?

  Just being around those people.

• 1:31:22Speaker 00

  Yeah. Even if you're just sitting in the party, like your energy is being zapped.

• 1:31:27Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:31:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, and obviously, if it's your fight night, everyone wants to talk to you, everybody has questions.

• 1:31:33Joe Rogan?

  I just can't imagine why anybody would do that. Or what, there's videos of him hanging out, partying with everybody, I mean, not drinking, not getting crazy, but. Obviously, like hanging out with a lot of loud people talking, a lot of music, a lot of, you know.

• 1:31:47Speaker 00

  No, that zaps the nervous system for sure, like, how do you expect to go fight Usik after your nervous system's been zapped from a party?

• 1:31:56Joe Rogan?

  Understand it, I when I saw it after the fight was over, I was like. Look, he's probably gonna lose anyway.

• 1:32:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:32:02Joe Rogan?

  But, what is that?

• 1:32:04Speaker 00

  No, it's tough, man. I honestly, you know, I, I agree with that. I think this fight in Baku really got like, it made me realize

• 1:32:15Speaker 00

  how important like being locked in is. Cause I was, I think that's why I got sick, to be honest, Joe. I think that's why I got sick.

• 1:32:24Joe Rogan?

  Cause you were so locked in.

• 1:32:26Speaker 00

  No, exhausted. From the things that I had to do, from my obligations.

• 1:32:30Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 1:32:30Speaker 00

  So the week that I-

• 1:32:31Joe Rogan?

  Media obligations?

• 1:32:32Speaker 00

  So the week that I landed, I had to do, uh, I had to do like four or five days of filming with DraftKings for this like online. So it's like, I just landed, but then like, I didn't get time to adjust because the next day we gotta wake up, you know, first, first filming sessions at nine, nine AM.

• 1:32:50Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 1:32:51Speaker 00

  And then so we're like-

• 1:32:51Joe Rogan?

  Fight week?

• 1:32:52Speaker 00

  No, the, the week before Fight Week.

• 1:32:54Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 1:32:55Speaker 00

  The week before Fight Week.

• 1:32:56Joe Rogan?

  Still?

• 1:32:56Speaker 00

  You know, yeah, exactly. So like, I land and they came, they went to my house, 2 AM. I'm not bitching about this, cause the guys were great, but this is just like, my experience.

• 1:33:06Joe Rogan?

  How much time did you have to spend doing that?

• 1:33:08Speaker 00

  Well, I mean, we, we spent, you know, we spent a week of, of filming.

• 1:33:13Joe Rogan?

  How much time each day?

• 1:33:19Speaker 00

  Five, six hours?

• 1:33:20Joe Rogan?

  What?

• 1:33:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:33:22Joe Rogan?

  What? That's crazy.

• 1:33:25Speaker 00

  It wasn't every day that we, I, I don't remember, but yeah, it was like, we, we did a lot of filming that week for this, you know, for this content piece or whatever for DraftKings. And then as soon as they left, then it was Fight Week and then I had all the media stuff for Fight Week.

• 1:33:39Joe Rogan?

  Oh my god.

• 1:33:40Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? And I think by time, like with jet lag, with training involved, with the filming, with all of that, I think by time Fight Week came, like, my body's like, fuck you.

• 1:33:53Speaker 00

  That's exactly how it felt.

• 1:33:55Joe Rogan?

  What were you doing that they needed you for five, six hours in a day?

• 1:33:59Speaker 00

  Uh, like, you know, I, here's the thing, I'm, I'm grateful because I wouldn't have been able to experience Baku the way that I did had I not done this. So it's like-

• 1:34:08Joe Rogan?

  Right. You made some extra money.

• 1:34:10Speaker 00

  Old Town, yeah. So we go to the Old Town and then like, get a tour through Old Town for three hours and the lady's like, "This is this." So I got information and they're filming me, you know, get information and then from the Old Town, then we go somewhere else and, you know.

• 1:34:24Joe Rogan?

  So where ideally you would be resting?

• 1:34:26Speaker 00

  Hmm. Or doing my own-

• 1:34:28Joe Rogan?

  Or training, or- This episode is brought to you by NOCO. You're miles from home, you turn the key, nothing. Dead battery. Normally that means finding another car, someone willing to give you a jump, and dealing with old jumper cables. But what if you didn't need any of that? Keep a NOCO portable jump starter in your glove box and jump start your car yourself. No cables, no second vehicle, no waiting for help. It also works as a power bank and has a built-in LED flashlight. NOCO, the end of jumper cables. Use code ROGEN10 for 10% off. Select jump starters at N-O dot C-O. This episode is brought to you by Squarespace. If you're thinking about building a website,

• 1:35:13Joe Rogan?

  you should try Squarespace. I know because I use it. That's right, joerogan.com is powered by Squarespace. It has all the features that you need to create a standout website like an AI-enhanced website builder, SEO optimization tools, and seamless checkouts with mobile pay links. Head to Squarespace.com/rogan for a free trial and when you are ready to launch, use the offer code ROGEN to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

• 1:35:46Speaker 00

  Resting or adjusting.

• 1:35:48Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, but when you're, when you're forced to interact, like that's, I mean, you're dealing with something where you have this monumental moment that's coming up in 14 days.

• 1:35:57Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:35:58Joe Rogan?

  And then you just-

• 1:35:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, but I just like, that's what I'm saying. Like, my, my main thing was like-

• 1:36:05Speaker 00

  Embrace it, you know what I mean, like just embrace it, take it all in, yeah it's fucking hard. But, that mentality can only get you so far, right? That's why like, I really, I feel like, I'm gonna get fucking eaten alive for this.

• 1:36:22Joe Rogan?

  Not if you don't read it.

• 1:36:25Speaker 00

  I really feel like that what, like Alex having so many fights last year. And obligations and travel and all that. When he, I feel like that probably had a big, played a big factor in why his performance was the way it was against Uncle Live.

• 1:36:44Joe Rogan?

  Well supposedly he went into that fight with norovirus and he had a fucked up hand.

• 1:36:50Speaker 00

  I honestly, like, I believe it.

• 1:36:54Joe Rogan?

  It seemed like he wasn't hitting the gas as much. You know, it seemed like he was a little bit more, also Uncle Live is fucking good, man, he's good. That guy's really good. I mean, he's, he's, you're smiling.

• 1:37:10Speaker 00

  I can't smile?

• 1:37:11Joe Rogan?

  You can, but you, you're smiling like, come on, man.

• 1:37:15Speaker 00

  I'm just smiling.

• 1:37:16Joe Rogan?

  What is, what is your opinion on Uncle Live?

• 1:37:21Speaker 00

  I don't have one.

• 1:37:24Joe Rogan?

  You don't have any opinion at all?

• 1:37:26Speaker 00

  No, not one.

• 1:37:27Joe Rogan?

  No, cuz he's the champ.

• 1:37:31Joe Rogan?

  Okay.

• 1:37:33Joe Rogan?

  I get it.

• 1:37:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, let's go back to Alex, uh, norovirus.

• 1:37:37Joe Rogan?

  Are you just not a fan of his?

• 1:37:44Speaker 00

  I can say confidently, am I a fan? Absolutely not.

• 1:37:49Joe Rogan?

  As a human or a fighter?

• 1:37:51Speaker 00

  Both.

• 1:37:52Joe Rogan?

  Okay, so have you had bad interactions with him as a human?

• 1:37:55Speaker 00

  He just talks shit and I hate people that talk shit, like dude, I just don't like it. I don't like people who talk shit for no reason. If I didn't say anything to you, if I've never fucking mentioned your name. Then why are you talking shit to me or about me or disrespecting me?

• 1:38:11Joe Rogan?

  Well, people talk shit because you get some attention and I think with a guy like Akhaliya, there was a long period in his career where he didn't talk shit and he wasn't getting a lot of attention.

• 1:38:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:38:21Joe Rogan?

  I mean, look, he had that fight with Jan Bohovic.

• 1:38:24Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 1:38:25Joe Rogan?

  Where it was for the title, it went to a draw. No one gets the title. It was a crazy experience, right?

• 1:38:31Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:38:31Joe Rogan?

  And a very good fight.

• 1:38:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:38:33Joe Rogan?

  And people were mad at him. And he had to sit on the shelf for a while. It was kinda fucked up.

• 1:38:41Speaker 00

  So that makes him talk shit about me?

• 1:38:43Joe Rogan?

  I think he talks shit about everybody because you realize, like, this is what happened to Colby Covington. This is like, there's a thing that happens, like, if you talk shit, you will get more eyes, more attention, more money, and you'll get fights. If you do not talk shit, there's a possibility that you'll be cut.

• 1:39:03Joe Rogan?

  I know. It's not you. It's not you.

• 1:39:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, and here I am, and I'm still getting good fights and good money and it's like-

• 1:39:09Joe Rogan?

  As is Pereira, right? Pereira just fights.

• 1:39:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:39:12Joe Rogan?

  I mean, he doesn't even speak English and he's beloved over here.

• 1:39:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:39:15Joe Rogan?

  You know, but you can, you can get by with just your performance. But some people, they, they think like, man, I gotta get people to fucking pay attention. There's, there's so many killers out there, there's so many people that are popular. I gotta do something.

• 1:39:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, so fight better.

• 1:39:36Joe Rogan?

  I hear you. I hear you.

• 1:39:37Speaker 00

  That's, that, that's the only thing. It's like-

• 1:39:40Joe Rogan?

  It's just the shit talking.

• 1:39:41Speaker 00

  I hate it, dude. Like, I fucking hate it. Like, it, it really bugs me.

• 1:39:45Joe Rogan?

  Because you're a martial artist and you feel like it doesn't have a place in martial arts?

• 1:39:48Speaker 00

  I just hate it because it's fucking unnecessary. And it's like, and, and even as an adult, like, I had to deal with this shit my whole life.

• 1:39:56Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 1:39:57Speaker 00

  And it's, it's a fucking toxic- way of fucking being and it's passing along through social media and kids are fucking getting beat up for it.

• 1:40:06Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:06Speaker 00

  And and we're fucking grown men on a large platform where people are looking up to us. For many different things and they envision us as these fucking gladiators and this is what you're choosing to do as a fu- we have a responsibility. I feel like as athletes, as champion, number fucking one, as champion, you have a responsibility. You have a belt around your waist and all these eyes and microphone and that's what you're gonna choose to say is talk shit and degrade my name? And I'm not even above you. I'm not even challenging you for a fight and you wanna mention me and like that to me is just like dude, spend your time wisely. So that it's in a way it's motivation for me because I'm like,

• 1:40:51Speaker 00

  I just won't do that. Like I think that there's so many different things that can be done when you have that belt.

• 1:40:58Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:40:58Speaker 00

  Like that belt is an honor. You like to have that. There's a responsibility that comes with that. There's things that you can do with that. Like it's not just about you. Realize the responsibility that you have when you carry that title. And so there's just, I'm getting passionate about it because there's just, I wanna say so many things, but I'm not going to.

• 1:41:16Joe Rogan?

  I know what you're saying. I feel you. I feel you. I feel like um, there's a couple of guys kind of changed the game. One of them was Chael Sonnen and another one is Conor McGregor.

• 1:41:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:41:26Joe Rogan?

  And part of the way they changed the game was talking mad shit and getting a lot of people to pay attention to them.

• 1:41:31Speaker 00

  Yeah. Which, cool. You know, like it got them a lot of attention. It got them a lot of money, but like, and if that's what makes them happy, cool. You know?

• 1:41:42Joe Rogan?

  I just, I think some people think it's a good business decision.

• 1:41:47Speaker 00

  Like I said, I know nothing about business.

• 1:41:51Speaker 00

  Maybe that's why I don't have, own a business, you know, like I just, I don't know.

• 1:41:55Joe Rogan?

  It's good that you don't own a business.

• 1:41:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:41:57Joe Rogan?

  You don't want to own a business while you're in the middle of this journey that you're on. It's just like you, it wouldn't, it would just drain you, it would take time from you. It's not, you can only do so many things in this life. And especially when you're doing something that's all encompassing physically.

• 1:42:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:13Joe Rogan?

  It's not like, you know, you have, you have a business and you have a side business project. It's a passion project that you're working on. No, no, no, no, no. You're fighting.

• 1:42:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:22Joe Rogan?

  Fighting, you have to be all in and.

• 1:42:24Speaker 00

  You really, you really do.

• 1:42:25Joe Rogan?

  You are all in.

• 1:42:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:27Joe Rogan?

  Yeah. And while you're all in, look, I admire people that don't talk shit, but I also like a little shit talking. I do.

• 1:42:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:33Joe Rogan?

  Because it's, it's fun. It's, and it gets people excited and it does get a lot of eyes on the sport. And it makes for more pay-per-view buys.

• 1:42:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:43Joe Rogan?

  Which is why I think, uh, the, you know, like the UFC encourages it. Whether they encourage it or not, they use those things.

• 1:42:50Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:42:50Joe Rogan?

  You know, like when Connor fought Khabib, they, they threw in the video of Connor throwing the fucking, the dolly at the bus. Remember that?

• 1:42:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:42:59Joe Rogan?

  Which is crazy. Like, it's kind of almost encouraging that kind of behavior, which is crazy.

• 1:43:06Speaker 00

  No, it's, I mean, like UFC, as real as it gets, right? So you kind of get everything. Like. You get everything.

• 1:43:13Joe Rogan?

  They don't say it anymore though, do they?

• 1:43:15Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 1:43:15Joe Rogan?

  As real as it gets?

• 1:43:16Speaker 00

  I don't know.

• 1:43:16Joe Rogan?

  I don't think that's a part of it.

• 1:43:17Speaker 00

  Some, sometimes like, I don't know.

• 1:43:19Joe Rogan?

  Early days.

• 1:43:19Speaker 00

  It's, it's stuck in my brain, but yeah, there are different things. There are a lot of different, I guess, characters, personalities, you know?

• 1:43:27Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:27Speaker 00

  Yeah. Connor throwing the thing through, you know, the, the dolly through the window. Is it gonna make people watch the fight? Absolutely. You know what I mean? Did he do it for that reason? Don't think so. I just think he is who he is, right? It's like, we never know what's next with, uh, with Connor and respect, you know, respect to him for everything, but.

• 1:43:52Speaker 00

  I just, yeah, I, uh, I, and I understand your perspective as well, like, little shit talk, you know?

• 1:44:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's entertaining, you know, you see two guys like, oh, yeah.

• 1:44:04Joe Rogan?

  But I completely appreciate your perspective as well. And I certainly appreciate your perspective, having grown up through all that stuff, like, why include it? Especially when what you're doing is the ultimate test of who you are as a human. Like, what was the ultimate test of who you are as a man? The actual fight itself, which is gonna happen no matter how much shit you talk.

• 1:44:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, and whoever, like, whoever talks shit to me, you know, from, not even from now on, but like, whoever talks shit to me, like, I back it up. You know what I mean? Like, I don't need to say anything in return, like, I'm just going to back it up. I'm not, I don't wanna give anybody any more attention, or, you know, say people's names and stuff, but like...

• 1:44:45Joe Rogan?

  Connor and Khabib is the ultimate example of that, right?

• 1:44:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:44:48Joe Rogan?

  When Khabib was on top, almost like, "Let's talk now," and he kept punching him in the face, "Let's talk now."

• 1:44:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:44:55Speaker 00

  I mean, I love Khabib for that, like, I, I, you know, like, I, I, I can relate to that, you know, like, I can relate to that, to that feeling of how good that felt.

• 1:45:06Joe Rogan?

  He had this, uh, really amazing conversation. Someone was interviewing him, and they were talking about different addictions that fighters fall to, and different things that, that sidetrack people. And he's like, "The best addiction is discipline."

• 1:45:20Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:45:20Joe Rogan?

  And he was talking about his discipline. "The best, the best addiction is discipline. You gotta become addicted to discipline, addicted to hard training, addicted. Completely addicted to that."

• 1:45:32Speaker 00

  That makes me feel like a scrub.

• 1:45:36Speaker 00

  I mean, like, I'm dead.

• 1:45:38Joe Rogan?

  Fucking good he was, man, that's how good he was.

• 1:45:41Speaker 00

  But like, damn, addicted to it?

• 1:45:44Joe Rogan?

  I mean, when he talk, see if you can find that, Jamie. You got it? Here, here, listen to this.

• 1:45:53Speaker 03

  Every man addicted to something, some smoke, some drink, some chase girls, some whiskey. But real man, he addicted to discipline, to early wakes, to prayer, to training, to silence. Discipline no need motivation, discipline move without feeling, discipline say, "I go anyway, even when tired, even when lonely." Discipline is best addiction. You want strong life? Discipline build it. You want peace? Discipline protect it. You want respect? Discipline earn it. No shortcut, only work. Be man with control, not man with excuse. No cry, no blame. You want better life? Start with better habits. Discipline, every day, until discipline become you.

• 1:46:37Joe Rogan?

  I'm gonna use that as my morning wake up now.

• 1:46:40Speaker 00

  Do you know that, that's what I was just thinking?

• 1:46:42Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:43Speaker 00

  In my mind, I'm like, dude, where do I include this in my daily routine?

• 1:46:49Joe Rogan?

  Right when you wake up. That should be your alarm.

• 1:46:51Speaker 00

  Or is it like, you know, do I just sit and like, listen to this before I fall asleep?

• 1:46:57Joe Rogan?

  No, no, no, no, that'll fuck with you, if we're able to sleep. Why sleep? Why sleep? Run, run, pick up, run.

• 1:47:04Speaker 00

  Dreams of Khabib just standing over me, like... No, you're not real man, you sleep.

• 1:47:09Joe Rogan?

  It's interesting because Chael Sonnen had a video recently.

• 1:47:11Speaker 00

  That's so incredible, man. Shout out to Khabib for that.

• 1:47:13Joe Rogan?

  Shout out to Khabib. I mean, that's why he is who he is. Um, Chael Sonnen had a really interesting video the other day, where he's talking about how, um, people say that Dagestan is the place where you should take your kids. You know, you wanna take, you know, take them to Dagestan two, three years and forget it. There's like a fun line that like Cormier has said, he's taking his son to Dagestan. You know, and that's one of the things that Bilal Mohammed said. If I could do my career over again, I would've went to Dagestan earlier.

• 1:47:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:47:42Joe Rogan?

  And I would've stayed there for years. And then, Chael Sonnen had a very interesting point, which I think he's totally accurate. And he's like, they're not doing anything any different. He goes, but they don't have football, they don't have basketball, they don't have baseball. So the best athletes go in MMA. The best athletes go into wrestling, the best athletes go into combat sports in Dagestan. And so he's like, what you get is, you have genetics, which is an ultimate requirement of the elite of the elite. At the top of the game, it's like, discipline and genetics. Those are the two things that separate the men from the boys.

• 1:48:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:48:21Joe Rogan?

  And, that, he's like, we have all those things in America. It's just, when you're, you're dealing with the elite of the elite, it's like, what pool are you drawing from? One thing that I think they do have there, though, is this, this, the, the fact that they're all very religious.

• 1:48:40Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:48:41Joe Rogan?

  And the fact that there's no drinking, there's no partying, there's no nothing, there's no chasing girls, there's no bullshit.

• 1:48:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:48:46Joe Rogan?

  It's just prayer and training. Like, that is a, that's a ma- that's a major advantage, but, you could do that anywhere.

• 1:48:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:48:54Joe Rogan?

  You could do, anyone could live that way.

• 1:48:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, anyone can live that way. I'd imagine that, like, being in Dagestan because of, you know, just like, the cultural differences.

• 1:49:04Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:49:05Speaker 00

  Not to say that it would be easier, but you're dealing with less, right? Like, you can do it here, but like, you're, you go outside, you're gonna find a bar, you're gonna find something, you know what I mean?

• 1:49:18Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:18Speaker 00

  Like, you know, like, like, the, the, you know.

• 1:49:21Joe Rogan?

  But you have to make conscious decisions not to have that in your life.

• 1:49:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, which, like, doing it here would probably actually make you stronger.

• 1:49:28Joe Rogan?

  Right, because you have to deal with more resistance.

• 1:49:30Speaker 00

  Because you have to deal with more resistance.

• 1:49:32Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:32Speaker 00

  You know what I mean?

• 1:49:33Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:33Speaker 00

  Like, if you go out away where there's nothing, like, yeah, cool, but then come back to the real world and try to do it, and it's gonna be like, ugh.

• 1:49:40Joe Rogan?

  Right, but isn't that why most, I mean, from the beginning of time, fighters would take their camps away from life?

• 1:49:46Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:49:47Joe Rogan?

  Like Marvin Hagler, he would, he would go to the Cape, he would go to Cape Cod and train in the winter. Um, Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali, you know, they would go up into the mountains, you know.

• 1:49:59Speaker 00

  There's definitely-

• 1:49:59Joe Rogan?

  Tyson went to Catskills.

• 1:50:00Speaker 00

  There's something different about it, right? Like, there's something different-

• 1:50:03Joe Rogan?

  Big Bear, everybody goes to Big Bear and trains up there.

• 1:50:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, when, when I fought Alex, I was in Salt Lake, uh, or I was in, uh- What's the mountain up there? What's the?

• 1:50:15Joe Rogan?

  In Utah?

• 1:50:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:50:16Joe Rogan?

  Wasatch?

• 1:50:17Speaker 00

  No, above Salt Lake, uh, everybody goes skiing up there. Damn it, what's it called dude? Why can't, why am I? Mount Nebo? No.

• 1:50:29Joe Rogan?

  Park City?

• 1:50:29Speaker 00

  Park City.

• 1:50:30Joe Rogan?

  Oh, okay, okay.

• 1:50:31Speaker 00

  I was out in Park City for like two or three weeks before the flight.

• 1:50:35Joe Rogan?

  There's a lot of distractions in Park City, son.

• 1:50:36Speaker 00

  But not where we were.

• 1:50:37Joe Rogan?

  No?

• 1:50:38Speaker 00

  No, like, feel like the, the cabin that I rented out there was like,

• 1:50:42Joe Rogan?

  Oh, nice.

• 1:50:42Speaker 00

  There was nothing there, so we were just-

• 1:50:43Joe Rogan?

  How much time did you spend up there?

• 1:50:45Speaker 00

  Like,

• 1:50:47Speaker 00

  seventeen days, eighteen days, something like that. So like the tail end of the camp, we were just like up there.

• 1:50:52Joe Rogan?

  Did you have to acclimate to the?

• 1:50:53Speaker 00

  Yeah, to the, to the altitude.

• 1:50:56Joe Rogan?

  How much time does that usually take?

• 1:50:58Speaker 00

  Uh.

• 1:50:59Joe Rogan?

  Cause that doesn't seem like enough. Seventeen days doesn't seem like enough.

• 1:51:03Speaker 00

  We, I don't remember exactly how much time, but we, for two weeks before that, were regularly going up to Mount Charleston and to running other mountains and stuff like outside of Vegas, um.

• 1:51:18Joe Rogan?

  Right, cause there is quite a bit of elevation outside of Vegas, and I think Vegas itself is

• 1:51:23Speaker 00

  Five?

• 1:51:24Joe Rogan?

  I think it's, no, I thi- I think it's two thousand feet above sea level.

• 1:51:28Speaker 00

  Something like that.

• 1:51:29Joe Rogan?

  What's Vegas above sea level?

• 1:51:31Speaker 00

  Two thousand and one feet.

• 1:51:31Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, so Vegas is two thousand feet above sea level, as it is.

• 1:51:34Speaker 00

  There's a road right up by where we train, like, it's called Mount Potacy, and that's like seven, no,

• 1:51:43Speaker 00

  six thousand, something like that, so it's like, and it's, it's very short, like, very short distance drive.

• 1:51:48Joe Rogan?

  And you go train up there?

• 1:51:49Speaker 00

  We'd just drive there, and then we'd just run out there, train out there, come back down home.

• 1:51:55Joe Rogan?

  One of the things that I've heard, it's, there's different philosophies on how to handle training and altitude, but one of the things that I've heard is what you should do is you should train at sea level, and then sleep and live at a high altitude. So that way you get more output at sea level, because you're getting more oxygen, so you could put in more work.

• 1:52:13Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:52:13Joe Rogan?

  And then, when you're at the higher altitude, your body is adapting and developing more red blood cells and, and all that stuff, and you, more adaptation for oxygen.

• 1:52:24Speaker 00

  Makes sense, I've heard that as well, I just haven't tried it.

• 1:52:26Joe Rogan?

  That makes sense to me.

• 1:52:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:52:28Joe Rogan?

  Because it's just the, the, but then, it's like there's a mental benefit of being able to put in the work at a higher altitude. You know, and then knowing that like, say if you train like, I, I lived for a while outside of Boulder. I lived at this place that was eighty-five hundred feet above sea level.

• 1:52:45Speaker 00

  Oh my god.

• 1:52:45Joe Rogan?

  It was, it was, working out there was rough.

• 1:52:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:52:49Joe Rogan?

  It was crazy that when I would go to Boulder to train, I would go to Amal Easton's Jiu-Jitsu Gym. It felt easier because it was only five thousand feet.

• 1:52:57Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:52:58Joe Rogan?

  Cause that's like, Boulder's like five thousand something. And then one time, uh, we had to go to Philadelphia for like a UFC event and I was working out in Philadelphia. And I felt like a fucking juggernaut. I was like, I have so much energy. This is crazy. It's because I was at sea level.

• 1:53:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:53:16Joe Rogan?

  And I'm not used to being at sea level. So when I was working out, I felt so good. I was like, oh my god, I have so much fucking energy. It's cause I'm used to being oxygen deprived.

• 1:53:26Speaker 00

  Have you, uh, have you seen that thing they have at the PI, that, that ozone machine?

• 1:53:30Joe Rogan?

  No. What is it? The one that takes your blood and recycles it?

• 1:53:34Speaker 00

  No, it's like, uh, it's a, uh, altitude simulator. So I wanna do it, but they, they're like, you gotta commit to like a couple of months of training to see like the, the real benefit of this.

• 1:53:45Joe Rogan?

  Oh, so you have to be there for a few months?

• 1:53:47Speaker 00

  You have to like.

• 1:53:48Joe Rogan?

  Do you utilize that place? Cause you are a Vegas guy.

• 1:53:51Speaker 00

  I love, like, they have, you know, amazing physical therapists, um.

• 1:53:56Joe Rogan?

  Nutrition.

• 1:53:57Speaker 00

  Yeah, nutrition. It's very convenient, you know, especially like living there. Um, I just try to stay, I don't try to get too involved because every fighter can go. And it's just like, you kinda run into other camps and blah, blah, blah.

• 1:54:09Joe Rogan?

  There's a lot of shit talking there.

• 1:54:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, a lot of shit talk, or just, yeah.

• 1:54:13Joe Rogan?

  Energy.

• 1:54:13Speaker 00

  Energy, and everybody.

• 1:54:15Joe Rogan?

  John Wood has such a great gym, too.

• 1:54:16Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Syndicate is.

• 1:54:17Joe Rogan?

  Syndicate's so good. It's, John's such a great guy.

• 1:54:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, man.

• 1:54:21Joe Rogan?

  Great vibe.

• 1:54:22Speaker 00

  So happy for, for everything right now with just like Murab and then like, him and I and what we're building.

• 1:54:28Joe Rogan?

  I love the fact that Murab even, you know, like, he's still tight with his old crew. You know what I mean? It's like, and the same thing, even when AJ was training down there, they're still tight. With Ray Longo and Matt Serra and all those guys that got him to the dance. And then you see those guys also in his corner. It's a very collaborative thing where there's no, the egos don't get in the way.

• 1:54:52Speaker 00

  No, that's such a cool thing to respect.

• 1:54:55Joe Rogan?

  So cool.

• 1:54:56Speaker 00

  Like, everybody around him, um, training partners too, like, he just.

• 1:55:03Joe Rogan?

  It's all top down, right?

• 1:55:04Speaker 00

  He just brings a bunch of Georgian guys in and it's like.

• 1:55:06Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, if the guys at the top have a great vibe and they're all like collaborative and work together. You know, really, you feel that vibe in the gym.

• 1:55:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, it spreads. His energy is definitely like infectious and one thing that's cool too is like. The way that John's organized training in Syndicate now, when, when people have fights coming up and like you're doing your live cage rounds. And the whole gym's watching. You know what I mean, like?

• 1:55:33Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 1:55:33Speaker 00

  Like everybody, yeah, everybody's around the cage, you know what I mean?

• 1:55:36Joe Rogan?

  So you get used to that.

• 1:55:38Speaker 00

  It's so cool. It's, it's so cool and.

• 1:55:41Joe Rogan?

  What is it like having Marab at training? There, is there a fucking guy that has a better gas tank than that motherfucker?

• 1:55:47Speaker 00

  I haven't seen him. Dude, my week, the fight week.

• 1:55:52Speaker 00

  Actually, I had just.

• 1:55:55Speaker 00

  The day of my fight, okay, day of my fight, woke up. Called John like, hey man, wanna get a shakeout, just like shake out some nerves, like, you know, just hit some pads. He's like, okay, cool. I'm down in the, in the ballroom with, uh, with Marab. He's like, but you gotta wait a few minutes, like he's going some rounds. I'm like, rounds? And he's like, yeah, you just got, you gotta come down here and see it. So I'm like, I go downstairs in the elevator. We can get to the room. Marab is doing live rounds on carpet, hard floor in a fucking ballroom. With some guy. And they're, they're sparring rounds, bro.

• 1:56:30Joe Rogan?

  The day of the fight.

• 1:56:32Speaker 00

  Of my fight. So he didn't have a fight, but it, this was a week after his, uh, his second fight against O'Malley. So they're doing live rounds on the carpet. Shin guards everything, but like takedowns.

• 1:56:44Joe Rogan?

  Jesus Christ.

• 1:56:45Speaker 00

  On hard floor and carpet and he just doesn't stop. It's like, it's like, training never ends.

• 1:56:51Joe Rogan?

  That's how you get staff. That's probably why you got staff.

• 1:56:53Speaker 00

  Who knows, you know, but you like, like they're just, no one can stop the guy. He like, he's just a big ball of energy. He really is like, whether it's running up and down mountains and all this stuff like John Wood actually has to have some type of like monitor on this guy. He's like, Murab, don't train today. Okay, coach. Okay, coach. Next thing you know, he's on social media like, out in the mountains, you know, or in some river, like it just, he's, yeah, having him, having him around is crazy.

• 1:57:20Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, DC went to visit him the day after the O'Malley fight, the first fight, and he went to his house and he was running.

• 1:57:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:57:26Joe Rogan?

  The day after he won the world title.

• 1:57:30Speaker 00

  Isn't.

• 1:57:31Joe Rogan?

  And DC goes to his house and he's like, look at Murab's home gym. He goes, you know where this motherfucker is? He's out running. He's out running.

• 1:57:37Speaker 00

  The discipline.

• 1:57:37Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:57:38Speaker 00

  That could be what you're talking about.

• 1:57:39Joe Rogan?

  It's discipline.

• 1:57:40Speaker 00

  He's addicted to discipline.

• 1:57:42Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm. It never ends.

• 1:57:44Speaker 00

  That's it. Like, I think he's just one of those guys.

• 1:57:46Joe Rogan?

  It being, there, I just, there's a lot of people that are analyzing it. They're like, it has to be genetic.

• 1:57:53Joe Rogan?

  Does it? Does it? Like, is his head, is his head bigger? Is his chest bigger? Like, what's bigger? It's all the same. He's a normal sized guy.

• 1:58:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:58:01Joe Rogan?

  There's nothing, there's nothing extraordinary about his physicality, other than the fact that he's very strong.

• 1:58:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:58:06Joe Rogan?

  Which is, there's a lot of strong guys, but it's not, it's accumulation of time spent on the path.

• 1:58:13Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:58:13Joe Rogan?

  And he has not deviated.

• 1:58:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, at all. And I don't think he's anywhere close to.

• 1:58:20Joe Rogan?

  He's not even in his prime.

• 1:58:21Speaker 00

  No.

• 1:58:22Joe Rogan?

  I mean, I mean, he's in his prime clearly, but I don't think he's reached his full potential because I think he was even better in the second O'Malley fight than he was the first fight. And I think O'Malley was considerably better.

• 1:58:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:58:31Joe Rogan?

  But Murab's that much better now. And, you know, there's this thing that happens, and hopefully you'll get to experience this. When you win a title, you get better. There's like, DC says it's like 10%. It's like, there's something that happens. Some people say 30%. But there's something that happens to where you realize like, I am the fucking best in the world. And you take that into your heart and your mind, and then you carry that, like now you have that title, you see it, it's sitting there on your table. And or you have it on your wall, whatever, wherever you put your belt. And you're like, I am the fucking man now, and now I will live this way. And then you see them going into the fight. You know who you see that with? Pantoja.

• 1:59:08Speaker 00

  Hmm, yeah.

• 1:59:11Joe Rogan?

  That dude does not get the love that he deserves. When that guy gets into the octagon, it's it's like a fucking leopard just entered the room.

• 1:59:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:59:20Joe Rogan?

  It's wild, man. It's wild. Like, he's got this feeling about him that, you know, champions have when when they're just fucking feeling it.

• 1:59:30Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:59:31Joe Rogan?

  You know, when that guy steps into the octagon, you you see him across the ring from whoever the fuck he's fighting. It's like, that's a that's a cat, man.

• 1:59:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:59:40Joe Rogan?

  That's just like, you know what I mean?

• 1:59:42Speaker 00

  Honestly, yeah, like, yeah, yeah.

• 1:59:45Joe Rogan?

  Like a fucking jaguar or something, man.

• 1:59:47Speaker 00

  Jaguar, mountain, yeah, it's something like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:59:50Joe Rogan?

  Elite killer.

• 1:59:51Speaker 00

  You can kind of sense that, like, a little instinct in him, and you're like, oh, shit.

• 1:59:54Joe Rogan?

  One hundred percent, man, one hundred percent.

• 1:59:56Speaker 00

  In it, like, he's for sure in it. He's locked in.

• 1:59:59Joe Rogan?

  I mean, and you see the, like, I think the perfect fight for him was seeing Kai Kaur France, they fought in the Ultimate Fighter.

• 2:00:08Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:00:09Joe Rogan?

  And it was a good fight. And then you see this new fight, where as he's the champion, Kai Kaur France is the the contender.

• 2:00:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:00:16Joe Rogan?

  He fucking ran through him, man. Like, you see, it's a different human being.

• 2:00:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:00:21Joe Rogan?

  He's a champion now, and...

• 2:00:23Speaker 00

  Where does he trade?

• 2:00:25Joe Rogan?

  Um, he's ATT.

• 2:00:27Speaker 00

  ATT, okay.

• 2:00:28Joe Rogan?

  I mean, I don't know if he spends his all of his time down there. I don't know if he's there all the time, or if he just goes there for camps.

• 2:00:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, make sure of...

• 2:00:35Joe Rogan?

  I don't know if he, how he does it.

• 2:00:37Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 2:00:37Joe Rogan?

  I don't, I'm not sure if he's a, a, um, a Florida resident, or if he lives in Brazil and just goes there for camps. I'm not sure.

• 2:00:44Speaker 00

  No, but, yeah, whatever, I mean, whatever he's doing is definitely...

• 2:00:49Joe Rogan?

  God, this is the thing about being the flyweight champ, where if that motherfucker was the middleweight champ, he'd be a superstar.

• 2:00:55Speaker 00

  He'd be the baddest mountain planet.

• 2:00:56Joe Rogan?

  And that, to me, that drives me nuts, because it's like, you just... I like martial arts. I like someone who represents the best of martial arts, like, and in my mind, like, that guy's as good as anybody alive, like, when when he's running over every fucking contender and and choking them out, or knocking them out, or whatever the fuck he's doing, like... Damn.

• 2:01:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's tough, man. It's eh like, it's tough in this sport because of the way the weight classes like a lot of guys don't get.

• 2:01:24Joe Rogan?

  What's crazy is thirty-five gets so much love.

• 2:01:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:01:27Joe Rogan?

  It's just ten pounds difference.

• 2:01:28Speaker 00

  Ten pounds difference.

• 2:01:29Joe Rogan?

  Isn't that nuts?

• 2:01:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:01:30Joe Rogan?

  That's kinda nuts.

• 2:01:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:01:32Joe Rogan?

  Because when you see Pantoja next to those guys, there's not much difference in size. It's kinda the same.

• 2:01:37Speaker 00

  That's why I like, I forgot, somebody not too long ago asked me like, my uh, what would my MMA like Mount Rushmore be? And I remember saying like, Anderson Silva, GSP, um, Demetrius Johnson and Amanda Nunes. And they were like, Demetrius Johnson, like.

• 2:01:58Joe Rogan?

  Oh.

• 2:01:59Speaker 00

  Why would you even, why would you even?

• 2:02:01Joe Rogan?

  Hesitate.

• 2:02:02Speaker 00

  Hesitate, why, why even ask me that question, you know?

• 2:02:05Joe Rogan?

  You, if you weren't there during his prime, you had to see him during his prime, you know? When he was.

• 2:02:12Speaker 00

  Talk about martial arts and like, and just skill.

• 2:02:14Joe Rogan?

  Angles and movement and speed and in- intelligence.

• 2:02:20Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 2:02:20Joe Rogan?

  Knowing exactly how to engage and his ability to tran- transfer between grappling and striking seamlessly.

• 2:02:28Speaker 00

  Dude.

• 2:02:28Joe Rogan?

  Seamlessly, yeah.

• 2:02:30Speaker 00

  Perfect word, seamlessly, like.

• 2:02:32Joe Rogan?

  Oh, in his prime. In his prime, he was unstoppable.

• 2:02:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, but imagine, Demetrius Johnson at light heavyweight, there'd be statues of this man.

• 2:02:42Joe Rogan?

  Statue.

• 2:02:44Speaker 00

  You know what I mean, like?

• 2:02:45Joe Rogan?

  It'd be like the, the Rocky statue in Philadelphia.

• 2:02:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, who knows where it would be, but there'd probably be multiple statues of this man all over the place. And what a great guy, too.

• 2:02:55Joe Rogan?

  Oh, he's the best.

• 2:02:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:02:56Joe Rogan?

  And just, again, just underappreciated for whatever reason, you know, and during his reign, it just like his pay-per-view numbers were not what they should have been.

• 2:03:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:03:07Joe Rogan?

  But it's because he's small, that's all it is. It's like the casuals, they, they don't, like, who gives a shit how big he is compared to you? Just look at how, he's the same size as the guys fighting and look what he can do to that guy.

• 2:03:20Speaker 00

  We need to just, we need to have. This is a joke. This isn't serious. This is a joke. But like, smaller weight classes in a smaller cage.

• 2:03:31Joe Rogan?

  Well.

• 2:03:31Speaker 00

  It will make them look bigger on television and people will get what they, you know.

• 2:03:35Joe Rogan?

  No, they don't care. People don't. It's interesting because boxing has the same thing. You know, I mean, when you get into the heavier weight, look, look, Usik made somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred and thirty-two million dollars for that fight.

• 2:03:48Speaker 00

  That sounds amazing.

• 2:03:49Joe Rogan?

  Doesn't it?

• 2:03:50Speaker 00

  God.

• 2:03:50Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, I know. It was, uh, me and Volkanovsky and Izzy were backstage at the UFC, were at the weigh-ins. And I pulled up the numbers. I go, have you seen the fucking numbers? There's a video of it on Style Bender's website or his YouTube page. And I'd be like, check this out, because I had saved on my phone in case I ran into any fighters. I'm like, look at this. Look how crazy this is. And Dubois made like seventy-one or seventy-two million and Usik made like a hundred and thirty-two.

• 2:04:19Speaker 00

  I mean, like, if I made that type of money, I wouldn't have to, I wouldn't be looking to, like, leave to live the American dream.

• 2:04:24Joe Rogan?

  But what, what has to change for that to happen? I mean, does the Saudis have to buy the UFC?

• 2:04:29Speaker 00

  I don't know, because I don't understand.

• 2:04:31Joe Rogan?

  That's kind of what they're doing with boxing. They're kind of buying boxing.

• 2:04:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, I don't know, man. I don't know, like, I don't know what needs to change. Um, but, I mean, all I'm saying is, like, it would be really cool. That's like a dream. Like, to be able to make those kind of numbers.

• 2:04:51Joe Rogan?

  I would really love that for fighters. I mean, I'd love when I hear fighters are making millions. It's great. It's great. Because I remember the early days of the UFC where people would make pennies.

• 2:05:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:00Joe Rogan?

  When there was no money to be made. I mean, I started working for them in nineteen ninety-seven, the previous owners, you know, when it was, uh, before Zuffa. And nobody was making any money. There was no money in MMA. You know, it's like, everybody was scratching and clawing and they were just doing it out of the love of the game.

• 2:05:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:17Joe Rogan?

  Or because they, you know, had a career in wrestling and then that wrestling, amateur wrestling career was over and they're like, alright, I'm gonna be a fighter.

• 2:05:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, the money was in Japan now.

• 2:05:26Joe Rogan?

  There was money in Japan.

• 2:05:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:27Joe Rogan?

  But even the money in Japan was not boxing money.

• 2:05:30Speaker 00

  No, no, ten grand, fifteen grand, something like that.

• 2:05:33Joe Rogan?

  You know, I'm sure they paid him well. And at the time, it was a lot, but I mean, like, Fedor's still fighting. Is he fighting because he wants to? Or is he fighting because he has to? You know, which is crazy.

• 2:05:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:44Joe Rogan?

  If one of the greatest of all time is fighting because he has to, it's not like Fedor is like living the craziest, flashiest lifestyle, like diamond, like Floyd Mayweather. Like Floyd Mayweather went broke, he'd be like, "Look at his Instagram!"

• 2:05:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:58Joe Rogan?

  "How's he not gonna go broke?"

• 2:05:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:05:59Joe Rogan?

  Meanwhile, he's not. Meanwhile, he's still got tons of money.

• 2:06:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:06:02Joe Rogan?

  But, you know, Floyd made hundreds of millions of dollars. He probably made more money than any boxer that's ever lived.

• 2:06:10Speaker 00

  Oh, man. I, yeah, it's a dream.

• 2:06:14Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:15Speaker 00

  It's, it's a dream. It'd be nice, but I'm not, like, I'm, I'm glad that it's improving.

• 2:06:21Joe Rogan?

  It's improving.

• 2:06:21Speaker 00

  It's improving, for sure.

• 2:06:22Joe Rogan?

  It's definitely improving. It's definitely, it's like, you know, fighters can get rich now.

• 2:06:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:06:27Joe Rogan?

  You know?

• 2:06:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, we can actually plan retirement.

• 2:06:30Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:30Speaker 00

  You know what I mean? It's like that, that, that, that for now, like I'm saying, like, I'm grateful for it.

• 2:06:34Joe Rogan?

  And one of the things that I really like about the UFC too is they give fighters a chance to have a career outside of that. You know, like Paul Felder and DC do commentary, Chell Sonnen does his stuff.

• 2:06:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:06:44Joe Rogan?

  All those guys in the desk, Alan Joban, they all do their stuff, like Rashad does his stuff. It's nice. It's like, there's, there's an opportunity to work outside of having to fight.

• 2:06:54Speaker 00

  You asked me, you know, like, before, like, oh, you know,

• 2:06:59Speaker 00

  what would you do, or like, have I thought about anything? I honestly, I would love to work with the UFC, not as a commentator, because I don't really see myself, like, commentating, or like, being, you know, someone speaking, but I'd love to work for the UFC.

• 2:07:13Joe Rogan?

  Why wouldn't you want to commentate or speak?

• 2:07:15Speaker 00

  Uh, I don't know. I, I personally, I think I've mentioned this to you before, like, I just don't know if I have so much, like, input, you know, when it comes to, like, other fighter's skill, or whatever, like, I'm not the most exciting person on a microphone, you know, like, you guys do well. It's like, "Oh, fuck!" Like, you know, you guys have great reactions. I'm kind of more like, "Hmm, interesting." Like, the old grandpa, you know?

• 2:07:40Joe Rogan?

  Right, right, right, right.

• 2:07:41Speaker 00

  Rubbing my chin, like, "Oh, that was great."

• 2:07:43Joe Rogan?

  But maybe not as a commentator then, maybe as someone on the desk analyzing things, because you definitely have a very unique...

• 2:07:50Speaker 00

  Viewpoint. Yeah, viewpoint. I mean, that that could work, but I think something like, I'd, I don't know, I'd rather be like, I guess, behind, behind the, like, on the other side of the camera. What would you want to be doing? I don't know, something within the, they do that, like, the UFC is such a large company, there's so many departments. I am friends with, I try to make friends with everybody in every department because they're just great people that make, that make this all happen. The equipment team, you know, Ember, Stephanie, like, I've been testing the gloves for the UFC for the past year, making sure we get the right ones, you know. What is going on with the gloves? Cause you and Alex fought with the old, the new old gloves. The new old gloves, yeah. Cause they got rid of them. Yeah, they're done.

• 2:08:35Speaker 00

  They spent like a fucking year developing them. Yeah, and so I was a part of that entire process. What happened? What was wrong with those gloves? The main thing was that, like, because of the leather, the, the logos weren't sticking. So the logos were peeling off, peeling off, peeling off. That's it? And we tried, Joe, I'm telling you, we tried hundreds of different ways to get the UFC logo printed on the gloves so that they will not come off in the octagon. From me testing it on the canvas, doing live situations, sparring, rubbing it in the cage, blah, blah, and I don't get it, but why does the old leather work better?

• 2:09:14Speaker 00

  Because with everything in the world, but especially like in the, in the industry of like, like leather and suede and all this stuff, like, you can't, if I had a pair of leather shoes from nineteen seventy, it's gonna be different than the leather that's made today. You get what I mean? Like, it just, it changes. Both of them are made today, the old gloves and the new old gloves. It's a different type of leather. So it's a softer leather? It's just, it's. It's just not the same like it's it's it's a little it was a little softer but it's it's it's treated differently to be able to you know to to

• 2:09:57Speaker 00

  before like while it's being processed or whatever that whole like process looks like it's just there's some type of you know chemical or something that's just different.

• 2:10:06Joe Rogan?

  Cause what I had heard was that there was less knockouts with the new old gloves the gloves that they developed and then they abandoned recently.

• 2:10:14Speaker 00

  There's less knockouts. Cause I'm just hearing straight from what you know the equipment team's being yelled at for.

• 2:10:21Joe Rogan?

  The equipment team is saying that's the issue is that this leather doesn't keep.

• 2:10:23Speaker 00

  It has nothing to do with the lock the knockouts it's that every time when the fighters come to return a pair of gloves or whatever or even in the fight these it's peeling off or chipping off and that's that's a hazard if it gets in your eye.

• 2:10:37Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:10:38Speaker 00

  You know what I mean it's more about like the safety of the fighter not like we need more knockouts change of gloves.

• 2:10:42Joe Rogan?

  Interesting cause the knockout the knockout thing didn't make any sense.

• 2:10:45Speaker 00

  No, no, no, it has nothing to do with the knockouts it's more that the logo wasn't adhering and it doesn't look professional to have these guys fighting a championship fight and then here's this guy raising his hand you don't even know like there's no UFC logo on the glove like what.

• 2:10:59Joe Rogan?

  It all gets worn off.

• 2:11:00Speaker 00

  It all gets worn off so we we've tried so many different.

• 2:11:03Joe Rogan?

  Why not magic marker that wouldn't work?

• 2:11:06Speaker 00

  Who can't sell a glove with magic marker on it?

• 2:11:10Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, but.

• 2:11:10Speaker 00

  We have to make an official glove you know like.

• 2:11:13Joe Rogan?

  But the training gloves you know just have UFC somewhere else.

• 2:11:17Speaker 00

  The training gloves what about the people who want to buy an official UFC glove?

• 2:11:21Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, what are they doing with them if they're gonna work out with them?

• 2:11:24Speaker 00

  Still gotta be official.

• 2:11:26Joe Rogan?

  I get it.

• 2:11:27Speaker 00

  You know?

• 2:11:27Joe Rogan?

  The best gloves are Trevor Whitman's. He makes the best gloves. The best MMA gloves they're the best and the UFC was trying to get those for some. I don't, I don't wanna speak out of line here or out of turn. I don't know exactly what went on, but apparently Trevor wanted more money than they were willing to give him. But he makes the absolute best MMA gloves. They're the best.

• 2:11:50Speaker 00

  It's a good glove.

• 2:11:51Joe Rogan?

  They turn over like this.

• 2:11:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:11:53Joe Rogan?

  Where it's not like this. So you, you don't like, the thing that people, the problem with the old gloves that are now the gloves that everybody uses, is that everybody says that they kind of force your hand into an open position and you have to tighten up to make them close. Do you feel that?

• 2:12:09Speaker 00

  Um, I, I agree with that, but I've, I have found a solution to that.

• 2:12:15Joe Rogan?

  What's the solution?

• 2:12:16Speaker 00

  Just size up.

• 2:12:18Joe Rogan?

  Oh, one size up?

• 2:12:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. They all weigh the same.

• 2:12:20Joe Rogan?

  Ah, interesting.

• 2:12:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:12:23Joe Rogan?

  So what size do you use?

• 2:12:24Speaker 00

  This last fight, I used a double X.

• 2:12:27Joe Rogan?

  And you usually use an X?

• 2:12:28Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:12:29Joe Rogan?

  Interesting.

• 2:12:30Speaker 00

  And I think it's like, you know, a lot of fighters, we don't like to stray from what we do, you know what I mean? And like, every little thing can fuck with us, you know what I mean?

• 2:12:40Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:12:41Speaker 00

  Some fighters just-

• 2:12:42Joe Rogan?

  Maybe I shouldn't have gone to XXL. Fuck.

• 2:12:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, ah, that's why I didn't knock him out, you know what I mean? But, um, yeah, if, like, if you're, like, you, you just have to think. It's like, okay, the glove weighs the same. Whether it's an XL or an extra small, it weighs the same.

• 2:12:56Joe Rogan?

  How do they manage that?

• 2:12:57Speaker 00

  I don't know. But it weighs the same.

• 2:13:00Joe Rogan?

  That sounds suspicious. I'm gonna get a fucking scale out.

• 2:13:06Joe Rogan?

  That just doesn't make any sense.

• 2:13:07Speaker 00

  Next time, yeah, but-

• 2:13:08Joe Rogan?

  That doesn't make any sense to me.

• 2:13:09Speaker 00

  But we're all fighting in, you know, a four ounce glove.

• 2:13:12Joe Rogan?

  Unless they make it with thinner pads.

• 2:13:13Speaker 00

  Hmm, I don't-

• 2:13:15Joe Rogan?

  It would have to be.

• 2:13:17Speaker 00

  Maybe.

• 2:13:17Joe Rogan?

  It would have to be.

• 2:13:18Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, cuz then your hand can't fit in the-

• 2:13:20Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:13:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, like if I tried to get into an extra small, it wouldn't work. So, yeah, um, but like, let's say the size between an XL and a double X, they weigh the same.

• 2:13:30Joe Rogan?

  Okay.

• 2:13:31Speaker 00

  And I have to consider, okay, I'm getting my hands wrapped as well.

• 2:13:35Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:13:35Speaker 00

  So, yes, this XL glove fits like a glove, but what about when I wrap my hands?

• 2:13:41Joe Rogan?

  Right.

• 2:13:41Speaker 00

  Now I wrap my hands-

• 2:13:43Joe Rogan?

  It's too tight.

• 2:13:44Speaker 00

  And then now my hands are like this, and I'm like, ah-

• 2:13:47Joe Rogan?

  Cutting off your circulation almost.

• 2:13:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, so the idea is size up, even if it's two sizes up, you're not gonna have an issue.

• 2:13:55Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 2:13:56Speaker 00

  You know, or you go with a thinner wrap, or no wrap, you have that option.

• 2:14:00Joe Rogan?

  Well, Joe Pfeifer fights with no wrap.

• 2:14:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:14:02Joe Rogan?

  Which is crazy.

• 2:14:03Speaker 00

  I think it's savage. I kinda wanna do it.

• 2:14:04Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, I would have fought with no rap with the other glove, the new glove.

• 2:14:10Joe Rogan?

  The new old glove?

• 2:14:11Speaker 00

  The n-

• 2:14:12Joe Rogan?

  The new one that they abandoned?

• 2:14:14Speaker 00

  The old new glove.

• 2:14:15Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:14:17Speaker 00

  I would have fought, those felt so much better to me with no rap.

• 2:14:22Joe Rogan?

  Man, if I was the UFC, and clearly I'm not a good businessman, but if I was, uh, I would say, listen, how about you sell us the gloves, we'll promote your gloves, you sell them on your website, we don't make any profit off of it. Just give us your gloves to use for the fights, and we'll, we'll blow your business up. That's what I would do.

• 2:14:42Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 2:14:43Joe Rogan?

  I would say, look, you want a lot of money for your gloves? Good, sell them. Everybody should buy them anyway. He makes the best bag gloves, best sparring gloves. Trevor's a fucking wizard, man.

• 2:14:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's what I've gathered from just like-

• 2:14:54Joe Rogan?

  He's a very interesting guy, very smart guy, great trainer, just a great person, but his gloves, his MMA gloves, you put them on, you're like, oh, why aren't they all like this?

• 2:15:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:15:07Joe Rogan?

  The padding is a much more sophisticated, high-tech padding.

• 2:15:10Speaker 00

  I remember, I think one time he sent me a pair of boxing gloves.

• 2:15:13Joe Rogan?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:15:15Speaker 00

  Like, this was a couple of years ago, and I saw, like, it came with this paper, and you're supposed to put a blow dryer in it first. And you turn the blow dryer on to warm up the padding in there, specifically like for that. And then, once it's heated up, then you put the glove on, and you wrap it up, and then you let the padding cool down, and then it molds to your hand. I don't know if people remember that about the glove, but-

• 2:15:37Joe Rogan?

  I didn't know that.

• 2:15:38Speaker 00

  That's how you should wear those gloves.

• 2:15:40Joe Rogan?

  Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know that. That makes sense.

• 2:15:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:15:43Joe Rogan?

  But he told, he was explaining to me the different kinds of foam that you can buy, and that people buy cheap foam, and it's not, it's not as like high-density, and it's not as good, doesn't protect you as well, and his is like the most expensive, but the best. But when his gloves, the design of his gloves, your hands are curled, like this, in this position. So it's an effort to do that.

• 2:16:04Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:16:04Joe Rogan?

  But, I don't know, man. I, I, I feel like we're stagnant in innovation with glove development in the first place, because I don't think this is necessary.

• 2:16:15Speaker 00

  No. I train with, uh, the old, like, Ali Mittens.

• 2:16:19Joe Rogan?

  Oh, okay.

• 2:16:19Speaker 00

  Those are my favorite gloves in the world to do MMA with. Put a wrap on under it, you know, for, for padding or a pad, whatever. And I can still grapple with it. My fingers are just like this.

• 2:16:33Joe Rogan?

  Of course, which is, but this, this is how you grapple anyway.

• 2:16:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 2:16:37Joe Rogan?

  You never do this.

• 2:16:38Speaker 00

  No.

• 2:16:38Joe Rogan?

  You never interlace your fingers. So why are the fingers even exposed? Because eye pokes are a giant issue.

• 2:16:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:16:44Joe Rogan?

  And if you, let's say you could just eliminate finger pokes and all you have is thumb pokes. You would take away eighty, ninety percent of all eye pokes.

• 2:16:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:16:52Joe Rogan?

  And it would be obvious if someone did it on purpose.

• 2:16:54Speaker 00

  And Derek Lewis would be fucked.

• 2:17:01Speaker 00

  I'm on that interview, I'll poke him in the eye, I kick him in the nuts.

• 2:17:03Joe Rogan?

  He's so crazy.

• 2:17:04Speaker 00

  What a guy.

• 2:17:05Joe Rogan?

  He was telling the truth about like hitting someone in the nuts because he was tired.

• 2:17:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, he's like, I was tired. I needed five more minutes or some shit. He's like, I'll poke him in the eye, I cheat. He was just like, I cheat. I was like, dude, this, what the hell? But he's also crazy enough to say that, um, that he's like, oh yeah, the, the UFC is, is scripted.

• 2:17:24Joe Rogan?

  Oh yeah, that was ridiculous.

• 2:17:25Speaker 00

  It's like, dude, anybody, I was like, I, I know you're joking, but like.

• 2:17:29Joe Rogan?

  The problem is that gets on the internet and there's like so many videos.

• 2:17:32Speaker 00

  I knew it! Yeah, like there's so many people that believe you now, like, that's a funny joke, but damn it, dude.

• 2:17:37Joe Rogan?

  Bro, there's no script. There's, when, when you see he, he knocked out Curtis Blades, there's no script for that, bro.

• 2:17:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, you can't.

• 2:17:43Joe Rogan?

  There's no script. That's just Derek has got some phenomenal, God given power.

• 2:17:48Speaker 00

  He cannot script what we do.

• 2:17:49Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, no, of course you can't script it. It's super obvious to anybody that watches. That, that's the dumbest ever casual fan, like, comments.

• 2:17:59Speaker 00

  It's scripted, it's fake. He was supposed to win.

• 2:18:02Joe Rogan?

  Yeah, like, ugh, stop, stop, shut up.

• 2:18:05Speaker 00

  And then you have Dana White made him win that fight.

• 2:18:08Joe Rogan?

  Oh, it's so crazy to say. But that said, like, here's the thing, you know, Aspinall's gonna fight Cyril Gahn.

• 2:18:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:18:16Joe Rogan?

  I might, if I was running things, I might set up the Derek Lewis fight with Aspinall. I might say, forget Cyril Gahn for now. Like Derek just has this big knockout win. Who's more popular than Derek? Who's, who's more beloved by fans than Derek?

• 2:18:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, that would be a great fight to set up, absolutely. But I think that from, I guess, a business standpoint, it makes sense to use Cyril because of everything that he's doing in France.

• 2:18:45Joe Rogan?

  Okay, yeah, that makes sense, right?

• 2:18:47Speaker 00

  Movie star, you know what I mean? He's got the entire country behind him now, so, like, yeah, with the UFC, you know, expanding internationally, it's like, you know, Aspinall is a, you know, British icon. Cyril's a French icon.

• 2:19:07Joe Rogan?

  The whole Aspinall-John Jones thing is so crazy, the whole thing is so crazy.

• 2:19:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, absolutely, um, John doesn't seem to...

• 2:19:17Joe Rogan?

  John marches to the beat of his own drummer, son.

• 2:19:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, he's dead set in what he wants and how he views it, and so, like...

• 2:19:25Joe Rogan?

  But now he wants to fight for the title at the White House.

• 2:19:29Speaker 00

  And Dana shut it down.

• 2:19:30Joe Rogan?

  And Dana's like, no, I can't trust John to not fuck something up.

• 2:19:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:19:34Joe Rogan?

  Which is wild.

• 2:19:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:19:36Joe Rogan?

  But also, what are you gonna say when John just recently got in more trouble?

• 2:19:41Speaker 00

  I mean, it's, it's, it's tough, I mean, for Dana, you know, and his position.

• 2:19:48Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:19:49Speaker 00

  It's too risky.

• 2:19:50Joe Rogan?

  It is.

• 2:19:51Speaker 00

  It's very risky, like...

• 2:19:53Joe Rogan?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:19:53Speaker 00

  And it sucks because it's like, man, you've got so much talent and...

• 2:19:56Joe Rogan?

  The most talent.

• 2:19:57Speaker 00

  And such an incredible resume.

• 2:20:00Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:20:01Speaker 00

  And, like, there's nothing that I can really do about it.

• 2:20:04Joe Rogan?

  God, the story is old as time, though, isn't it?

• 2:20:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:20:07Joe Rogan?

  The story is old as time, well, that's one of the things I appreciate about you. Like, you're a very different kind of dude, you know, who's in the same business.

• 2:20:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:20:15Joe Rogan?

  Same wild-ass chaotic business, but you choose to put your sights on a different prize. Like, you're about growth.

• 2:20:24Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:20:24Joe Rogan?

  You know, you're about your own mind and conquering these challenges, and this is what it's about for you.

• 2:20:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, I'm grateful and blessed to be in the position that I'm in. And, like, I don't want to, I don't want to waste anything, you know what I mean? Like, I don't want to waste it, I want to be able to look back when I'm older and know that I used my time. You know, in in a in a good way um that I continue to grow and to learn and develop uh until it's over, you know, like.

• 2:20:55Joe Rogan?

  I think John does that too, but also he just loves to party. He just, he gets crazy. He just loves to get crazy.

• 2:21:04Speaker 00

  And I think that like, we've seen that so many times, like there's, we've seen so many athletes and celebrities fall victim to fame and partying and what that comes with.

• 2:21:18Joe Rogan?

  We're watching it with Connor.

• 2:21:19Speaker 00

  And we've seen the same people who are addicted to discipline.

• 2:21:25Joe Rogan?

  Mm hmm. Who you admire.

• 2:21:27Speaker 00

  And what they.

• 2:21:28Joe Rogan?

  Who do you, who are you gonna listen to first thing in the morning? You don't listen to Khabib.

• 2:21:31Speaker 00

  Khabib.

• 2:21:32Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:32Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, it's like, if there is anybody a- as a as a combat sports, you know, practitioner and fighter, if there's anybody who I would say like I'd wanna be or like model myself after in my career would be Muhammad Ali.

• 2:21:48Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 2:21:51Speaker 00

  Just because of everything, you know what I mean? Like humanitarian, like he was beloved by people from all around the world, you know what I mean? Like just different medals from United Nation and like, you know what I mean?

• 2:22:05Joe Rogan?

  He's a cultural figure.

• 2:22:06Speaker 00

  Cultural figure and like not that, like I'm not as outspoken as, you know, as he was, but for just like the things that he was also remembered for outside of the ring, I just look at that as like so admirable and he gave young men like me something to kind of like aim at and like model myself after, you know? Like that to me, I feel like is very important, especially in this country and as a young man who maybe doesn't have a father figure or who doesn't know what to become and then you read the story about Lee and you're like, oh, that's similar to me. I can become something. I can be an Olympian. I can be a champion. Like it just takes this, you know what I mean? Like, like

• 2:22:48Speaker 00

  I'm not different. I'm actually, there's actually people like, like me out there and I, like, you know, it just gives you something to kind of hope to become. And so I try to, I, I try to just be authentically me so that whoever out there does connect with me can see that, you know, yeah, you can go through certain shit, but like. There's so much stuff that is possible for you, like your life's not over. Yeah, you're in a bad position now, but you can get yourself out of it. There's tons of help out there, you know, mental health is a big thing, you know, it's not the end of the world, you know? And if you feel like it is, there's support, you know, and if you actually have a disorder, there's support for that too.

• 2:23:31Speaker 00

  There's also outlets like martial arts and, you know, communities and things like that that will make you feel less alone in life and like.

• 2:23:39Joe Rogan?

  Martial arts is a big one.

• 2:23:40Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know?

• 2:23:41Joe Rogan?

  That's a big one for people that feel outside.

• 2:23:45Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:23:45Joe Rogan?

  Go, go to a martial arts studio, go to a gym where there, you're gonna find a whole lot of people just like you.

• 2:23:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:23:52Joe Rogan?

  That are already on this path.

• 2:23:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, and, and that are cool people to learn from. I mean, that's what changed, that's what I just put myself in a new environment. And then I started learning how to eat and how to think, you know what I mean? And started to get courage and, and carry myself differently. And weight started coming down and blah, blah, blah. And then there you go, you know, my, my mental health stuff was a lot less, you know? It's never gone away completely, you know, but it's a lot less than it was when I was nineteen years old.

• 2:24:23Joe Rogan?

  But I mean, does it ever go away completely for anybody?

• 2:24:25Speaker 00

  It's life, you know what I mean? Like it's life, but we don't, a lot of people, we don't have the tools, you know? Or we don't have the people to listen to or whatever to be able to be like, okay, it's not just me, it's everyone. So what can I do to deal with this? You know what I mean?

• 2:24:40Joe Rogan?

  Yeah.

• 2:24:41Speaker 00

  Like, I, I, I, I think that, yeah, that's, that's kind of my, my thing. So I think about when I get on a microphone or when I go fight or whatever. Like there's a sense of responsibility. It's not just about me in this world, you know?

• 2:24:53Joe Rogan?

  Hmm.

• 2:24:53Speaker 00

  Like, and that's, it's, to be honest, it's a struggle. It's hard to not, it's hard to think that way. It's very easy to be selfish. It's very easy to just think me, me, me, me, me, you know, my problems, my struggles, my this. But like to, to consider.

• 2:25:10Speaker 00

  Millions of people and lives and children and youth and teenagers that are watching the sport and da da da like I have to be conscious of of the things that I do and how I live my life because I don't want to be the guy on the news. You know what I mean? Like I just don't want to be that guy. I'm terrible. I'm terrified of prison. You know what I mean? I'm fucking, you know, I'm trying to make friends with police officers. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, I was just like, I'm just like, okay, like

• 2:25:41Speaker 00

  trying to do the right thing, not only for myself, but for my family, for my father, you know? So like, there's just a lot of responsibility that comes with with this game and and how we live our lives, man.

• 2:25:52Joe Rogan?

  Well, that's very admirable and I'm I'm glad there's people like you out there that do present a very positive role model because I know for a lot of young people, they turn towards really successful people in sports and and particularly fighters. Especially if you're a martial artist yourself and you look at someone who carries themselves a certain way and you admire it and you want to be like that person. Like I want, I aspire to be my own version of what that means to me, what this person means to me, what they represent to me, which is like a championship mindset, like someone who's really like, there's a lot of people with championship mindset that never become a champion, but they 100% inspire people to live better lives.

• 2:26:37Speaker 00

  Yeah, and that's the journey. That's the path that I'm on for the rest of my life.

• 2:26:42Joe Rogan?

  Beautiful.

• 2:26:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:26:43Joe Rogan?

  This is the best way to end the podcast.

• 2:26:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 2:26:46Joe Rogan?

  Um, listen, brother, I appreciate you very much and I wish you all the best of luck and I'm real excited to see this fight with Yuri Prochaska.

• 2:26:55Speaker 00

  Thanks.

• 2:26:55Joe Rogan?

  Should be a banger.

• 2:26:56Speaker 00

  Thanks for having me.

• 2:26:57Joe Rogan?

  My pleasure. Congratulations on everything and I look forward to congratulating you again.

• 2:27:01Speaker 00

  Hell, yeah.

• 2:27:02Joe Rogan?

  All right. All right. Bye, everybody.

• 2:27:05Speaker 00

  Later.

• 2:27:20Speaker 04

  Life is all about making decisions. Sometimes you make questionable ones. Like buying a new TV that's too big for the wall because the electronics store employee was a little too good at their job. Then, sometimes you make great ones. Like protecting your home and auto with Progressive. You get customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.

• 2:27:50Speaker 05

  With Truvia Sweeteners, it's simple to make sweetness part of your routine. From sweetening your creamy morning matcha to freshly baked blueberry scones, Truvia Sweeteners make it easy to enjoy the flavors you love with less sugar per serving. From everyday drinks to homemade favorites, they're made to fit right in. Because with Truvia, every moment tastes better. Find Truvia at your favorite local grocery retailer and bring better sweetness home.