Transcript for JRE MMA Show #134 with Belal Muhammad

Very good to see you. Excited man. It's one of those milestones that you were chief.

Yeah, it's been a long road. It's like yeah, when I look back at it where I've been where I'm at right now like you still don't even like believe it, but it's like I still need to get over that hurdle where people still don't believe in you, still people still looking for excuses of why you beat this guy, why you beat that guy, why you don't deserve the title shot.

Yeah, when you look at the way his career is, the way, if you don't give enough credit for that and the way he dominated some of the best guys, once he was in his title reign.

But you mean, now people know how good his land is. People are respecting him the same way. I feel like I'm not getting respected and now when he plays with them like that beats them on the feet and then finishes them on the ground. I think that now people are realizing, all right, well, Islam is an all talk like when DC and all of them are saying that like he's gonna be better than Habib now they're realizing it.

Training with those guys. I tell people, like, if you never train with the guys from Daguesan from somebody under a team, you don't know what it feels like. It's not, it's not regularly due to like, it's like quicksand where you're in there. You think you're moving, you're looking for a way out. You know, I'm, I'm really good at flow rolling and everything is that I'm training with them. I last camp and I'm like, I cannot move to these guys. None of them. Like everybody under team has that same style, same pressure on top. And I'm feeling, and I'm like, I need a change of what I do in Chicago. I need a change of what I'm doing because these guys are so dominant with the way they play, the way they grapple. It's like, they're going to be everybody. Nobody's going to mess with them.

For, well, for the mentality, I think it's a big thing too. You know, when you're rolling with somebody new, you'll get a flow roll with them. You'll play around to see how they're feeling with them. They don't have that at all. It's I'm not going to lose a round and not going to lose a minute when I'm going against you. If I'm going to, this is our first time rolls with each other. You know, I'm on my back. I'm going to my back starting on my back and I'm like, all right, let's let's move. So I'm trying to play like, uh, guard trying to go from iron bar or anything like that. And then could be to show me. Get up. We're not playing just to this is get up. This is MMA. We're not playing just to not you're on your back or losing. And their mentality is, let me hold you down because I'm not going to lose this round. I'm going to stay on top of you. I don't care if I'm in your guard the whole time. And I'm just staying on top of you with the pressure. You just lost. Even though the rounds over, I'm sitting there like, man, we haven't done anything. It's like, I'm just laying on my back. You haven't done any pressure. No ground up on or anything. But I just lost because I'm on my back. When I figured that's their mentality, they don't want to lose any round in practice, they don't want to lose any minute in grappling. Think you're taking down, they're popping right back up. It's not. Let me get taking down. Let me play on my back a little bit. Let me flow a little bit like that. No. rough, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. And I think that's what transfers their mentality into the cage. When there's no, let me warm up here. It's like right into it. It could be goes under, he grabs you, he holds you down. You never felt to be focused. His strength is another level. And that's why I feel like a lot of these guys break once they feel it.

Yeah, a lot of those guys before Islam were afraid to go to the ground with him, like, Gaiti dropped a couple of times, Chandler dropped them and then, like, they stood up, because you had that fear with Islam. It was like, I don't care he's gonna feel what it is on the ground like they would say sandbows better than due to and He just has that mentality like I want to beat you at your own game in the way he tapped them out from half guard with that arm trying like nobody's ever treated Olivera like that that squeeze must be another level Yeah, I was rolling with like, I would roll with them and that first week, he's catching me with like an unaccounted choke every time I'm going with him and it's just squeezing, squeezing and I'm like taping and then Islam is nice. So like he'll tell you like you need to do what you need to do with this way and he'll show me the technique with it. When Habib is on top of you, he's like breaking me at every single point and I'm asking him for it's not brother you just got to keep going and I'm like all right cool So the next time he does he just I taught me again. He's like mountain me that I'm turning giving him my back and then he's like just laughing as he's talking to the guys outside of cages he's on top of me and I'm feeling like disrespected but it's like this not me but like at least like it's like it's like he'll be like brother do this way do this just the way you get out of this.

Yeah, so by the third week he wasn't catching me with any more, but his squeeze is on a different type of squeeze

Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons why they're all successful, I feel like. When I be walks into the room, it's like an army. We all get up, we all stand in line. He'll stand in line. He'll point to who's sparring hard in the cage, because it's a different type of sparring, too, where normally for us we have a sparring day in Chicago, where most teams I've trained at, will have a sparring day like Monday or Wednesday, where it's, for them, they're doing everything every day. Small gloves sparring every day, then right after that, you're taking off the gloves and you're grappling every day, then right after that, you're going to the cage and you're wrestling on the cage every single day.

but it's this light so it's not where it's where it's you don't want to not you're not trying to knock each other out right then if you point to you that you're going to your heart sparring hard sparring then you're going in the case with big gloves on and those guys are going we're going hard and he's cornering and then have your mendas is in their cornering so it's you're getting a real fight feel for me I was down there with them for five weeks so I'll be with corner his guy and my coach Lewis Taylor was down there with me with uh... in Dubai and he would corner me so it's like It's a real fight field. The guys outside of the cage will sit their peak in. So you get those little nerves that you would get in a fight. And I'm sparring with somebody who's cousin Abu Bakr who's also in the UFC. Well, it's a way you're sparring with somebody you really not used to. So you also still have that that tension that you feel like I don't know what this guy's gonna do. He's not one of my normal training partners where I know well, he's got a good left kick or he got a good cross. I know he's going to bring to the table. It's like not to real fight feel every single time because I don't know what he's going to bring to the table. He doesn't know what I'm going to bring to the table. And we have two corners corner each other in there. So when it's your hard sparring, you're in the cage. When it's not hard sparring, you're outside of the cage. You're doing a little bit of technique. Then it's

Yeah, because you know, I'm a guy that I like to cross train a lot. I'll go to a bunch of different gyms. I've been to Sanford. I'm a, I've been to a fortist. I've been to Canada before to train a frost hobby and I want to get bring that knowledge back to my team and back to my coaches. You know, these things are successful. This is what they're doing. This is what we got to start doing too. because we're a small gym in Chicago. And, you know, we had a real champion, Julia, on a Pena with us, but still, you have to keep evolving. You have to keep trying to do what the best teams are doing. And seeing how their team is, how disciplined they are, it's like, none of the guys are going to show up late to practice. You're not going to show up late in a smile and laugh. It's like, once he lines everybody up, you better sprint there in that line because he's going to tell you what your duties are for that day. And then when it's grappling, every single one of those guys, it's an amazing grappler. There's guys in there that you don't even know their name. They're still young, 19 years old, 18 years old. They're just starting, but they still had the same type of grappling as could be. They still feel super strong. I'm like, who'd like is this guy? So I'll look up his name and I'm like, oh, 12 and oh, 15 and oh, 16 and oh, and the whole team is full of killers. But I just want to bring their mentality, I think, is a different type of mentality that a lot of gyms don't have of being more disciplined. And I think that comes from being Muslim. I think a lot of it comes from that is it just being religious. You're bringing a different type of discipline where you have to pray five times a day and every single one of the guys is doing that. None of their guys are drinking. None of the guys are going out and parting. If there's guys that come to practice and they look a little bit tired, could be able to take their phone away from them, and he won't give it to them until the next day tomorrow morning. So he'll take their phone at night, 9 PM, and then you have to go to sleep, get a good night's sleep, and then next practice he'll give your phone back because you're probably on your phone on night playing games or something stupid. He pays attention to those things, and the fact that he wants you to win that bad, because he doesn't need to be there, he doesn't need to give you the knowledge, he doesn't need to care that much about you if you don't care about yourself. and it just shows you like how much a great person he is, too, and it just makes you want to work that much harder. This episode is brought to you by Zipper Cruder.

Yeah, and I think that that's a big thing too is You know what one time we were training Vegas and I have a Moroccan keep boxer that I trained with and we were down there training with heavy steam and he's sparring one of their guys and you know he's a great kickboxing or guys obviously a great grappler but he has striking so the first round he's taking my guy down beating him on the ground and the second and third round He's like, let me strike with him a little bit because the ground is kind of like too easy. So he's striking with him. My guy's landing hard kicks hard punches hard knees and it could be just like stops him and like snaps out. I'm like, you took him down. You treated him like a baby. Like, why are you going to sit there and kickbox with a kickboxer? I don't care if this is practice. I don't care if this is sparring. The goal is to win. If you want to look stupid, you want to be dumb. Then go against a plan. Go against a route that's going to help you win. He's like, and that, like, open your eyes too. It's like, He knows the path to victory. All their guys know the path to victory. It's hard grappling, heavy grappling, and strength on the ground. It's like, why are you going to be dumb and spar with the Moroccan kickboxer for and take that damage at Eagle?

Yeah, I feel like that's what a lot of these newer guys coming up. I was training with Ohio State wrestler. He was in Vegas visiting and he was like going to transition into MMA and he was telling me like, you know, I like this gym, but you know, and wrestling, I'm killing the guys, but then I don't know nothing about sparring. So I'm spirited, I'm telling you guys, you know, it's I'm still learning and then he said, everybody trying to throw hard at me because I'm killing him in wrestling. And I'm like, you got to find a gym where the guys don't have egos where you're going to try to help you build yourself because if you're spying hard and you don't really know how to take a punch or anything, you're only going to hurt yourself.

Yeah, I look at it when I go to gems and I see a guy like they're laughing about it. I keep, I'm not crystal yesterday, man. And I'm looking at it like, why? Is that what you guys do? And it changes my mentality because when I'm first coming up, I use to like, well, it's bar, like 15-minute rounds. It's just not stop boxing. And now when I think back to it, I'm like, it was so stupid because I know how to take a punch. Why am I going to take a punch at practice when I'm not going to pay for it? Build the skills. And if you find the right training partners and I feel like I have the perfect training partners where we spar super light and we're still getting that same movement, that same fluidity with the striking, with the speed, with everything, but we're not putting the extra on for it. And if you can't, if you don't have any guys like that in your gym, I think a lot of these guys are gonna have shorter careers or they're gonna get broken a lot earlier than they should have.

A lot of guys had to learn that the hard way where it takes them and like, oh man, you know, when you're coming up, you're fighting for pennies. You're not, you're not fighting for anything. I used to fight for $150 and I'll tell my family, no, I'm making like $15,000. Yeah, yeah, I'll sit there and lie to them. But it's because you had that dream, you had that, and I had the end goal where I knew I was gonna make it, or I felt like I could have made it. when I had you dad have I think leaders in the gym room that are gonna teach you the right things because if you have those guys and those bigger jams I feel like there's so many UFC fighters in there 20, 30, 40 guys yeah it's great training partners great things but if it's a guy like trying to come up on the come up or anything like that. They're going to use you as a body for them and they're going to beat you up and who are you going to talk to? You're going to talk to the coach, but the coach is like, well, this guy pays me more. So I'm going to stick with him. So you just go in there and give him some rounds. Keep it quiet. Nobody really cares what you have to say. So I think smaller gyms is our better for that. And for me, I had my coach Lewis Taylor, he was a fighter and When I came in, I was 23 years old when I first started fighting. And he was already a veteran in the game. He was in it. So he, I was following his footsteps and he was teaching me all the small things. Don't go to that boxing gym. What are you going to go to that boxing gym for? There are boxers hate MMA fighters. They're going to just try to knock you out. And, you know, I would sit there, go on my own a little bit. Like, you know, let me just see how it is. Because ego, then you go with it and they're just trying to knock you out. And it's like, what did I gain from that? It's just, it's a hard sparring, but it was like, I didn't really gain any skill level. I gained toughness. But it's not really going to help me when I need better footwork. I need better defense. I need better. I was still on the come up learning. So just getting beat up is not going to help me.

Yeah, I think the key, honestly, these training partners, you have to have the right guys at it. Really care for you because I've been at Jens where guys really don't care if you win or lose. But if you have that family feel where they're going to be in the gym, for you no matter what, and they're going to push for you and they're going to watch your opponent and give you that opponent's look. Like in bigger jams that if I'm a UFC fighter in your UFC fighter, you're telling me I'm fighting Wonderboy and in my smaller gym I had every single one of my five guys that I've trained with all of them trying to give me that Wonderboy look they're all paying attention to the way he does Hey, I think he does this extra and a bigger jam there I'm not a karate guy. I'm gonna give you what I got like you want this or not I got to get paid to I unless you're gonna pay me for it But that's what I love about the smaller jams is cuz I thought, damn you, my, I didn't have one black belt in my gym. I didn't have one black belt that was helping me push a grapple. So I had the mindset of, I have great wrestlers that I'm trained with. Every single one of my guys is a great wrestler. So I will, let's just not hit the ground. Let's just push my wrestling so hard that he's going to tire himself out trying to take me down. So I don't have to overthink it the situation when I fall wonder by I was I've been a camp with Anthony Pettis when he fall one or boy. I've been a camp with Woodley when he fall one or boy and Woodley brought in Sayes Northcut. Anthony Pettis was using Mike Bigger Rhodes and they have that karate style. But for me I was and I asked Anthony like so you think I should bring somebody in. He's like honestly just watch this tape. It was Forgot who it was, it was kickboxer that Fatal Ramedangios. And he's like, lit him up. And he's like, watch this. And he's like, lit him up. And he's like, just follow that routine.

Yeah, I think it was about Selena. Yeah, because he showed me the tape and I was watching now. I was just rewatched it. Just a pressure he gave and everything like that. And I just wanted to mimic that because he's like, yeah, I had a karate style guy, but one of the boys different man. His kicks are a lot snappier than you think. His spinning kick is a lot snappier than you think. His angles are a lot different. So he said, don't try to overthink mimicking him. Just stick with what you got in.

Yeah, I think so. I like, I never even wanted that fight. I was, I was telling, I was telling my manager, I was like, bro, give me to my own. I was like, I was like, because also just that one of my, it's a guy you can't hate. Like, I always love watching one of my fights. He's a nice guy in the world. Yeah. And you got to find a reason to hit him and just like him. Um, and just like his highlight reel. And I'm looking at it. And like I said, I was in two camps watching his guys and they're telling me like, he's nothing like these other guys is like kicks or snappier his. It hurts so much and you're seeing him. I'm like, man, I do not want to be on his highlight reel. I do not want to get hit with a spinning heel kick. And he was coming off of loss. And I feel like guys coming off of one loss is their mentality is different. There's that. They're that much hungrier where they want to get it right back.

Yeah, but Matality, like I said Kevin Hall, and I'd like, bro, you took him to the ground. Right. Why are you going to stand up for me?

And beating a guy like Wonderboy that name value right there. You see, you really want to push you. You have a good push behind you with Holland. So like you'd be Wonderboy, you could probably be right there in the next line for the title shot.

Yeah, that was a well-to-weight. But Wonderboy is ranked top 10. So he'll probably take his number if you beat him.

Bro, I had so many people messaging me after my fight with him like Bro you were all you did was hump them all you did was go he's 57 and oh kickboxer Yeah, and then after drop yeah, they're like He's old.

He's this and I'm like whoa look at he beat Holland and striking so I guess he's still got some fight left in him.

How's that old? And he doesn't take a lot of damage himself. He's been knocked out once by and that was it.

When he's beating guys like Luke A and he's beating Jeff Neill and he's like making them look like amateurs. They all wanted to play that. Let me, oh, you want me to strike with you. I'm going to strike with you doing that game and you can't beat him at that game.

And it's like so sophisticated. Like we can hit you with this and bring it over to top and he's like, When I first came out through one spinning hill, I mean, I was like, I'm shooting. I'm not. I'm not going to play this game. I was like, and then when I took him down, they just started giving me building the confidence building the confidence, building the confidence. So like, all right, well, my resting is up there where people beforehand were like,

Yeah. He's one of the main guys where that you saw to comes in. He were like, Do you remember he's taught you a lot that much? You know, guys senseless.

And then you're thinking back to the GSP fight. Where's like how could somebody be that good? Right. And like somebody who almost beat the goal. A lot of people say they go in. I was saying you follow that much and it's only like two years, three years later.

They get back to the paddy fight. I'm like, I forget we're gonna tag in all the videos with you and her, like, We're looking at each other.

Yeah, for sure. And then I'm rewatching it. I'm like, I'll go back and watch it. I'm sitting there and they're like, I still give it to Jared. And it's like, no bias involved. Obviously there may be, but I'm like,

Like just looking at the stats. I'll struck him 21 till like 16 in the first round. And he took him down and all the judges gave still the first round of patty. And I'm like, it didn't make any sense.

Yeah, and for a guy like him, I just don't think that He really wants it that bad. If you're going out of camp and you're getting up to 200 pounds, two, two, ten, and you're getting that big, you're not in the training room. For me, I'm under the spectrum all day. I don't care if I have a fight or not a fight, and it's just building skills in between fights. him. I'm looking at it. I was watching the fight for Jared, uh, because I know I was going to be in this corner, so I'm watching tape and I'm like, he's going to be the same exact fighter that left to us going to land all day. His coach very smart like that left took that left took the left and it landed the whole fight because he didn't evolve from his second fight his third fight his first fight because yeah, someone said that too that his fights are like fat camps.

I mean, you can make a show about it. Yeah. Like play that whole game. Like it's, like it's a fad for you, but I can general. It's not good for your health. Right. And if you're training with that much extra weight on you, that's been a little injuries happen. He's gone. He's going to the surgery now. So I'm wondering if that played a part into it. What's he going to surgery for? I don't know. They said he's not going to be on the March card because yeah, it's surgery though.

Yeah. And that's what I feel like he has to level up from Jared. So yeah. Who leveling up from Jared? I think is probably like top 15.

And you always have that mentality like when you're in camp and it's about to be like, two or three weeks out and you feel so good because you're eating healthy for six day weeks and if you're like your body feels good your energy feels good and I always tell myself like after this plan I'm not eating bad I'm not going to go on any bad binges or anything but it's like right after you went you're like I don't care no more like I'm eating whatever I want yeah like I'll make up for it but it only has to be it for me it's I want to give myself a week if you go one week yeah you go to two to three to four weeks a week must be glorious though It's like heaven and especially if you're winning it and for me, I was like I was flying back from Dubai from Abu Dhabi and I was like I'm upgrading the business class. I'm gonna do business class. I got me like a big bag of M&Ms. I'm just sitting there front row. My brother was able to sneak up there with me in visit class. She was like empty seat and they like didn't ever ask them. So he sat up there the whole time with me so me and my coach is just sitting up there. Yeah, oh, let me get some French toast.

I love nachos. Yeah. I'm a nacho guy. I'm chefs and cheese like what I'm in Vegas one time. I was on the same mean Anthony Pettis. We're training together and we both won that on a car together and he comes up to me. We're gonna go to the the club at I don't know what even name of the club was and he was like, all right, we're gonna get a table over there and I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go get a nacho daddy. I'm gonna go get some nachos and he was like, look at me like, I was such a loser. Am I coached? My coach is like, bro, you're such a lame. And I was like, is that on drink or party or anything? But my family's always at all the fights of me, so my best time is celebrating with them going to eat with them. So he's looking at me like, you're a lame man. And I was like, bro, let's go eat.

Yeah, I mean, I know a lot of guys that do it. Then they'll come into their practice room on Monday or hungover or something. You're not really doing as much out of the session. And you get hurt? Yeah. And I've seen it happen to a lot of guys. And I tell them, like, how bad do you want to house serious one of these younger fighters? Yeah. And I tell them, like, It's not easy road, everybody will ask me for advice. How do you get to the UFC? There's no easy road to the UFC. There's some people that will skyrocket right in there. They're like, they're famous. They got a following behind them and they're going to blow up right away or there's guys that have to inch their way in. That's like you, the grind.

Yeah, that was one of those fights where obviously I wanted to fight up for it. I thought that I fought Luka who was on a seven-fight one history again. He was number five in the world and I beat him and then I'd be one to go before that was number five and then you're gonna offer me number eight. And I was sitting there like this doesn't make any sense. Like Choms, how does that sell out there? Gilbert runs just a lot there. Give me those guys and they just weren't pushing it. They're like, well, we'll give you him. We'll give you Brady.

Yeah, and that's I didn't get why they were undoing that one. I was sooner like I'm asking for it. It was me guys. He says all this these guys are all turning me down. I'm like I'm not asking for extra money. I'm not telling me I need to have this this and this. I'm I'm like give me that fight and I'm showing people I'm texting my manager like they don't want to do it and I was like homes up doesn't want to do it. You have seen they don't want to do it and I was there they were like well, he's going to do an ADS and I was like Like why are you gonna do an idea instead of me? It doesn't make obviously the build is name whatever Yeah, but I was like this has to be a joke and then I was like well, give me Gilbert and they're like well, Gilbert's gonna fight mass with all and then I was there like there's nobody else for you, but Sean Brady so then you're like all right, well As long as I was in Abu Dhabi I was just wanted to fight in Abu Dhabi because the first time I fought there was the crowd there was amazing the people there were amazing so I was like just give me him if you guys think that he could beat me if you guys want to push him he's 15 or no and everybody's hype him up to be the strongest man in the world and he'll be touching you you fall I was like let's do it and I felt like after beating him and the way I beat him and that crowd I thought for sure I'm gonna get a hands up fight after that But they still didn't do it. Well, I'm so that's not scheduled to fight anybody, is he?

But now that he could be going up the middleweight.

Nobody's ever gonna be either smiling, cutting weight.

But yeah, that's a lot. For me, I think it's just the mentality for that fight. He's like, you're fighting Nadia. It's not like you have to do the extra running, the extra talking.

Well, you're in camp. It's not like somebody that's making me want to work harder when I fall a wonder boy. I'm working twice as hard. I'm doing five practices three practices a day doing whatever I can do because I'm so afraid of what he could do to me. They did as you're like pretty much pretty sure you're probably going to beat him pretty easily in the first shot at your hands up. So I don't I just think that his motivation back there wasn't there

Yeah. But also with Hamza where you're looking at that Kevin Hollin fight where he just came out so hard. Oh my god. I wish we would have seen the second round.

How hard for Dars is all the scrambling. I'm like nobody can keep up that pace.

That fight, that extra two rounds, I tell people, it's a difference.

He's very good. But that's the whole type of fighters or the ones that, like, I want to figure out. Those are the ones that were, everybody's telling me I'm going to get walk through. All right. Let me figure him out. Colby Cummins is another one where Dana Whitehava, if Ushman wasn't here, Colby would be the champion. I'm like, I don't think so. Like, I think Colby sucks. I don't think that he's as good as everybody thinks he is sucks. I think that compared to me, I think I'll be able to walk through him. I think that he's a lesser version of Sean Brady. I think because If you're looking at the guy, he's fought. He's being wouldn't be coming off of two losses. He being mad, but all coming off of two losses. Robbie Lawler coming off of two loss. He hasn't fought one of the guys that's in the top 10 right now. He's getting so much creative for losing close fights to lose my like. You're a good loser. Is that what people are trying to say to them? I'm like, bro, why does he get all that credit for? Because he, and it was mine still toe to toe with you. Neither one of them went for a take down. Neither one of them tried to shoot on each other. There were just two wrestlers kickboxing. So because he made it a close kickboxing match with a wrestler, makes them that much of a monster or a powerful final guy. I just don't think so.

He doesn't have anything else yet, but he's been missing.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's hurt for a court.

But when you're at that, when you're that person, like you have to have security with it. I'm like, all the trash talk you say, all the people that want to kill you, I'm sure American top team, all the Brazilian, you talk trash about like, you don't think that somebody sees you on the street is going to hurt you. And that's what I feel like a lot of these guys need to start realizing is like, you could say whatever you want to build a fight. But when you're talking about a guy's family, his kids, he deserved it. I know that it was a sucker punch. It was dirty on me as well. be a street fighter, go street fight them in the streets, hit him with something, but not hit him in like run off, but I thought he deserved it. I'm never gonna kick a man with his down, but I always kick Kobe covered with his down. I don't care about Kobe covered tonight. That's hilarious. I've had hate for Sean Strickland, and I've called him out before, and I was at the fight when he fought Pereira, Pereira knocked him out, and I got up to go to the bathroom, and at least I'd probably stop, don't go anywhere, don't see anything to him. I was like, bro, I was going to the bathroom with like, I hate him, but I wouldn't like laugh at somebody that they just got knocked out like I wouldn't go up to all you just got knocked out all the while or anything like that because I know what it is to get knocked out of the cage. I know what it is to want it that bad and be that close to achieving something and you lose fall flat on your face. So I would never talk trash about it, but if it was Kobe, I'd probably laugh and point in everything that I don't care about.

Kobe, yeah. Well, that's a real possibility for you. If he comes back, like people just don't know. I ask when is he fighting oh he's not fighting for a year he's gonna be he's not gonna be fighting for a while and then I'm looking at like they say why I'm assuming because he's claiming brain damage with the the core case and I know like some lawyers like injury lawyers and he's like yeah when somebody comes in claiming brain damage like all I hear is to change like I know that I'm gonna get paid for it because you could claim like future injuries or anything like that like stuff that's gonna happen in the future so And the the court can't do anything like well well wait 10 years before you let you get paid or anything and if you're suing Mazda was worth millions of dollars and your claim and bringing damage and to see you take a fight they're probably going to be like I think a fight if you have brain damage.

And I feel like they should be like guy code like, right? I'm not going to call the cops or anything like that. I'm not going to sue you off of that. And for especially for them too, because they had a relationship before. Right. Yeah, you were roommates for that long. You're going to sit there and go to court and sue them like that. to me that soft like I'm not gonna if it's if it's if I'm cold be I'm gonna get revenge if I'm cold be I'm gonna you ready and bear some of the cage or I will hire somebody out of treat to jump as well right they do the same thing so but when you're getting to that level it's like it's three guys that like I'm not a guy that's gonna go to court or snitch or do anything like that just I just don't like that mentality well we'll see we'll see what happens because if he gets a million dollars out of the stomach you're like oh okay you know I mean they die for chip to fight might

And especially like, we've seen it with guys that get knocked out and they've never been the same. Yes. from it and you're like how to act into this guy just change so much off of that and you're like they took that much damage in a fight you don't know which fight is gonna be and that's why I tell guys don't spot hard because you don't want to lose those years lose those that toughness from your chin because you can't you can't gain muscles on your chin right and I think 20 Ferguson was a big one of that like after that gaity fight he was never the same and it's like a prime example of like bro people get hurt and something changes in their, their body's not the beating man.

So I'm guys are just too tough for their own good.

But you think back to those, like, how you said he almost dropped them at the end of the first, and you're looking back at, um, Pereira and Edison, or he almost dropped them at the beginning of the first, you're like, how many of those fights are there where it's like, one more second. This guy would have won and the whole thing would have changed.

Yeah, I think he should have let him drop first before giving it a standing eight costs.

Unless you're a Tyson Fury and you get drop by while there and you get up and like how do I have to become so hard?

Yeah, but you're looking at that too and you have seen those videos of like the guy at the rough counting and somebody's like, dude, it was like 20 seconds to rest counting. Yeah. One, two, and it's like, what if it's like a bad ref, we're like counting a lot faster. That does happen.

Yeah, I don't know why they don't do that. Like just point to it.

And then you when you're looking at it too, like you said when it comes to famous guys or like a petty pill who was boxing and the rough like 10 more I'm not gonna count faster for you like yeah we're all humans, right? Like we all like somebody more than another person regardless of what you say.

for me, I hate like losing in general and then it hurts me more when I'm like Jerry's like my best friend he's like my boy so seeing him lose and because I know how hard he works he's one of those guys where I know that he puts the real time and he puts the world work in it This is like life story so crazy. So it was like that was his moment. That was his moment to shine. You know, the whole crowd was born and before the fight and they're all like that could have been a big deal. Yeah, and I'm like that could have changed everything. So for it to be like snatched out of his hand because three stupid judges like piss you off so much. I'm like

I'm looking at it. I want to see how he's walking afterward because Yod walked fine.

Yeah, and I'm like, you never, like, ankle-eye, I've seen him training before and this is the monster everywhere. And then you're like, wait, so his weaknesses, his lowers shend. All right, so we have the weakness. Now, other guys are looking at it and I'm like, I'm not going to do that though. I'm not going to come out there, low kick at his lower shend because

Yeah, he's tough. He's got like a global, or both of them just have that like. crazy just an old power and old toughness and they just had the dismounted just keeping our hands up a lot of it just not that new fancy for work or moving back or matrix style stuff like they just keep a simple keep your hands up go underneath and shut it off yeah go over man 42 years old fighting for the title again again

I'm excited for it. Glovers one of those guys where I felt like I felt bad for him because I thought it was going to be one of his last fights for him to take the title fight away from him. Every time I see him in the PI he's like the nicest guy and I saw him there that weekend for the ankle eye of fighting. I was like, man, it sucks man. It should be you and there and he's like It's alright, man. Nice guys like us, man. It'll come back to us later, man. It takes us the long row because we're both nice guys. That's interesting. Yeah, he was like the nice guy in the world, and I was like, yeah, you know what you're right. And he just made you feel good. I feel bad for you, but he's like, no, I accept it. It'll come back to me. So the way it just happened.

Yeah, but I mean, I understand the UFC's take on it. Like you need a title fight for the paper review. You got to sell it for that one that they had for you at 42.

He's back to help him. It worked out perfectly for him and Jamal is a dog though. Jamal's a dog.

And he's so common there. He's like, even either way, when I fought Dave and I, he was in the car with me on the way to the fight because he fought Paul Craig that day. And he's interesting. He's the favorite.

that Jamal's got crazy power. And he like switched stances right before he knocked him off that shot. I'm like, Oh, a bigger guy. That was how to switch stances. So smooth.

That's their fourth fight, right? That's not. That's all the stats today. It was like, Davison figurator hasn't fought anybody not named bread and marano in the last four years. The last four years only been bread and marano. That's only for three years.

This is going to be, I mean, we could watch them fight five or six times. I think he's going to keep switching back and forth, but now Marino doesn't have his coach with them. He switched right.

I don't know enough about what I don't know enough but it doesn't sound good when I watch that fight when I look at that fight I'm like this guy said he had an injury then he just fell down like it looked like he threw the fight the one who was cornering that day and then he came out afterwards and said oh you know I had an injury but it was like at least act a little bit more if you're gonna go in there and throw a fight.

Yeah, he was on, I've heard a thing that he was on his discord and he said that, like, Jeff Malena said, like, you know, I paid my, my mortgage, my house, my phone bill, everything with this discord right here. Make sure you guys join it. So he was pushing it hard. So I'm sure, you know, he was on the

Yeah. I mean, if you're gonna gamble. Yeah, but now I don't think fighters are able to gamble even on like football or basketball or anything.

then he did fighting and I think that like triggered everybody a little bit of a minute let me check what you do and I met a couple guys in Vegas and they were like talking about the situation and there he would sound me like one guy was like oh yeah you know I make like $500,000 each UFC fight and I'm like really he's like what he's like there's fights that are the lines a lot there even after the fights done so the fight will happen he knows who won how they won and then they there's someone to see and it will still have the lineup

Yeah, and he's a little bit the house on it and I'm like, you're lying. He's like, bro. I'll show you my bank account like this. What?

That's what I was like, that can't be true. He's like, bro, there's casino. I'll look for the casino that has it said all I do is gamble. That's what I do. And I'll wait for the fight will be finished and don't still have the line up. And I'll go to the casino put the blood on there.

I don't know if I did that or not, but yeah, that's crazy.

Exactly. You have confidence yourself that much.

This was one of the ones that he was telling me about too. He said that like Cross put out his discord that he they knew all the results from that.

You know, I mean, like 200,000, but I know guys that made like 800,000 off of that. And it was like, you're a jail bitch. I'll fight as a re-challenge series. And I was like, what? It is like, yeah, like, so dumb. They didn't play the results, but like, people that were in the crowd, they were like, we were going to text, like, hey, I was in the crowd. I know who won, won. You want all these things? Oh, man.

Yeah, but I mean, I think that's another issue, too, with like the UFC PI where you see guys, finally, random guys are walking in and if they see somebody getting worked on who's fighting and if he's always getting his ankle worked on. So you're like, go back, oh, I think somebody's wrong with his ankle or something's wrong with it.

Yeah, that was, yeah. I mean, we, we, we, we say a couple of shoulder injuries now. It's like crazy how happens the one person that it starts happening. Aaron Pico, I had to show the pop down when you were taking the Oscar.

Less the fighter mentality is like, sorry, I wrote some dirt in it. Like, I won't go to the doctor hospital unless unless someone conscious or I really really need it. Like, I'm trying to avoid that at all costs. Just seeing a doctor. I don't care what's going on with me. Yeah, I was like, I don't know if there's any chance you're going to tell me I can't fight or don't train anymore. I'm like, no, f you. I'm sorry. What's your worst injury you've ever had so far? For me, honestly, I've had two detached redness. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. Was one of the Leon fight? No, it was, I had one before that fight. It was, I think it was after it was from training. It was, I was training one day and I was sparring and then I was sitting like I see like black at the top of my eye and I'm like, Rub it, whatever. So I go back to sparring, light sparring, we're moving it right up, and then it just becomes really like all black. You can see it, but it's like a film of black over your eye. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? And then I'm like, all right, well, let me go to the doctor. And then like the doctor just gives me that look. And I'm like, So yeah, we had to go to surgery immediately. And I'm like, what do you mean? Like, what's going on with wrong, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, yeah, you have a detached right now. You could go blind. And I'm like, you know, you're thinking of Michael Biz being. And we'll have to tell him, and you're like, you don't know what to do. So then, you know, we go to the, I had to go like the surgery right away. Because he's like, the longer you wait, you're gonna lose vision more and more. So they had to like put a bubble in your bubble in my, And then like I still didn't know what it was. So like I'm assuming like once you take the bandage off and be able to see. So he takes the you know the next I go in there get the surgery done and then like the next Monday I go in there and takes the bandage off and I'm like bro I still can't see it's like no it's gonna be. We have to see what it's gonna be like in what it was like eight weeks to 12 weeks you're gonna have a bubbling your eye. And you have to like hold your head on a tilt like this. Yeah, for 12 weeks and you have to tell your head sideways. Yeah, like you have to keep the bubble on this place so like lines up the the retina or like seals back in and then like I couldn't watch. I got a you know the massage table is where you have to put your head down. They had a sit on one of those to watch TV with a mirror. that was downward and it was like point up to it to the TV because I couldn't look up like this. Like I had to keep my head down. So the pressure's on there. So I'm like, I had to watch TV like this for me to watch TV through a hole in a massage table. Dude, it was honestly, it was like the most depressing thing that I've ever gone through my life and it was like the hardest thing. Wow. And it was like one of those things too, where I was like, I'm not one of those guys that like cries well for anything. So like I kept it to myself. I didn't even tell my parents or my family. I would just like go to the house with sunglasses on. and see them and then just like avoid seeing them type thing like that so that they didn't even know you know that's right now now they know now from here but yeah it was like it was rough because you can't do any working out on my guy that works out constantly two to three times a day And so for 12 weeks you can do nothing. Could you even walk around the block? I could go walk, but not a lot. Yeah, not a lot. So, and for like the first four weeks, it was just like I had a stainless specific position the whole time.

Yeah, and then like you had to sleep with your head down, like I'm a back sleeper too. So I had to sleep with my head down on a massage table too. Like that. Like I had to stay in that position the whole time. like 12-piece period goes in like the bubble just starts shrinking and shrinking and shrinking so you're always seeing like a little bubble in your eye and then finally by the 12-piece it was done but then he was just like Yeah, I was like, I want to fight anymore. Oh, boy. Yeah, and you're like, no, I'm going to fly. I don't care what you say. It's type of thing. And so then I go back to regular training and I start wearing like one of those face like catchers face mask, the like sparring and training. I wear it goggles to train and roll in and like I just don't know how it's going to react once I go back to sparring and hitting hard again. How long did it take before you felt like confident like the 12 we period was when the bubble was gone and then probably like maybe like eight weeks into it after that where I was getting trying to get back in the shape, get it back to thing and finally trying to go hard sparring without the goggles on. Yeah, so it was rough. Do you remember what you got hit with? No, and that was the thing. I don't remember what specific thing happened to it. So it didn't make any sense, but like, you know, you get poked an eye sometime during training or anything, but like you just don't think nothing of it. So you know, you don't really go with your check, but I got never wondered. So then he just like, it was just concerts wearing terror on it.

That that point was at during the Leon fight when he poked it and I couldn't see nothing and I was like This is the doctor said yeah, I was like I'm blind and I was like And I was like and you're like you waited this long to get a main event you waited this moment and it's just gonna take it away from you and you're like I'm done fighting and it was just like

Yeah. Well, for, in that moment, you're just thinking like, dang. Right. Like, because fighting is my life for me. And I'm like, this is what I want. This is like my goal is to be right here. It's a top to be a champion. So just like, get a ticket away from me. I was like, not seeing a second nature. I'm like, man, I can't train. I can't fly. I can't do this. So that was like the most heartbreaking thing. And like, knowing that probably has to go through it again. Not knowing what type of surgery it is. The doctor told me not to do it. Like you should have stopped. What's wrong with you? You're like, fudge it.

And the Leon fight. It was like 40 minutes after that. Then I realized that my eye was just like, I had to get like three stitches under the bottom eyelid. And that's when I realized, my eye was just closed. It wasn't blind. Because I didn't realize my eye was closed. I was like, oh, I'm such a blind. I'm like, done. But then they're like, the guy is like, trying to open like this and he's like, you see any light? And I'm like, I see light. I see light. And then yeah, so then probably when I got back to the hospital, they had to do like stitches in the bottom of the bottom eyelid. And he was like, Don't blink and I'm like having a sister with a fly getting stitched Don't blink. Yeah, I was like what the fudge and I was like it was like the worst thing ever So then thankfully I was just like it didn't it wasn't the detached right now again. I was like thankful I felt blessed with a two detached right and it had end to other eyes Well, when did that one happen it was after that one so really after the Leon fight yeah, so After that one it was after the Lucate fight. I mean, uh, not detached right now. What you call it, uh, my lens was detached. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. So in the third round of the Lucate fight, I don't know. He just like hit me and I was like, I'm in the corner and I like feel something like weird in my eye. It's like, she, like a shield in front of it. And I was like, what the fuck did it? Like I felt like I just got like poked and I was trying to rub it. And it's, uh, I was like I don't have two rounds left and I thought I would like the first three rounds so that I was like I will whatever whatever and then After we're at, I'm like, the doctor, like, it doesn't look like there's anything detached or torn in there. That's all okay, cool. So then I wait till I get back home and you're like, uh, your lens is, uh, it was like loose. So then I had to have surgery on the lens part of my, yeah. When they do that, are you awake? No, no, they put me to sleep. Yeah, they put me to sleep. But I, like, I guess that for the first detached run out and know how long it was going to be before I see. But thankfully, with this one, it was just, It was like full of blood afterwards, but I was able to see.

Yeah, I met him in Dubai and he came and took pictures with me and he was like, yeah, I'm on the field of fighter and I was like, oh man.

Yeah, I know you had to get eye test every single time beforehand. And they check it all like that way. So yeah. I was sitting in the reading the busy book and it's thinking like, man, if I ever gonna have to do that, we're figuring out a way to lie in everything and just like reading his book and listening to his book, it was crazy because like the way he described it. And when I had to touch right now, you're like, you're going to like rent no doctor and it's like nothing but old people in there. And it's like, I don't belong in here with these like older people. Why am I having to get this stuff? And all the nurses in there are like, what happened to you? Like, you shouldn't be in here. These are for people like cataracts and stuff like that. You don't get later in life, so

Yeah. He's one of the guys that like, I like, try to mimic a lot because he was good A.V. where he was one of those guys and people, he used to call a pillow hands and all the other stuff, but he would freak out light guys up and there's cardio, was his weapon and it would break out.

a chain and yes, there's a different type of man that's willing to do that and I said you got to want it that much more because like you said like after your career there's a life after your career.

Oh wow. Yeah. Nurtane. That's crazy.

It wasn't us. It wasn't as bad as that one. It was just like, it was probably like four weeks after that one that I was able to, I was able to see right away, but it was like just full of blood. So I just had a way for the blood to clear out of the eye and Yeah, after that, it was just clear. Same thing, same mindset of trying to get back into training and everything and getting over that humpbox training with goggles on and still. Wow. You're still thinking about it. Like, all right, in my eyes, it stinks. In my eyes, it's just so they're wrong with that. Or it's God trying to tell me something. Do you think they could do a better job design in the gloves? For sure. I think so. And or like, enforcing the rules better. If you're going to tell guys like, hey, if you put your fingers like this, don't do it, but they give you like 25 warnings.

I think you got to be that guy too that you can't say that you got to tell them the doctor that oh, I'm I'm good to fight otherwise you don't look tough Yeah, and you could be like a DC when you fought to deep A and T said I do that I couldn't see the whole time Yeah, and as I was like little before but I like bro that was a terrible poke I pokes and nutshots

I don't care who you are or how tough you think you are. If you can't see or your eyes shut, you just have to keep going to that side.

Yeah, the whole time.

It's better if you keep your fist like that. That's your own.

They like that the whole time.

Is he making those gloves by the other ones by hand, though? I do not know. I do not know how he's doing it, but- Because with the UFC ones are weird, like sometimes you'll get a pair and a fight day and it's like a lot harder and a lot stiffer than normal two than some fight two, but like, oh, it's feel way better.

Yeah, I had to get stitches and that whole bottom part.

That's what you would assume, but you'd assume. But you get mad because guys like him are trying to push to narrative. Well, I want the first round head. The rest of the fight was going to go like that. And it's funny because it's like how much he was going to kill by who's finding he won in the last 30 seconds. So you would sit there. I'll be like, oh, let me get the Leon fight. Well, he was killing you. Every single person. Oh, he was killing you.

Yeah, and it for a guy like me, I'm like, I took that fight on two weeks notice. It was short notice, first of all. Secondly, my head coach, Lou Taylor, he had COVID that day. So they took them out. So then I had to get new coach in the corner. Shout out to Coach Sexton. He was, he was in there, but it was still the first time trying to mesh our teams together. And it was all just first main event, everything. So I'm like, bro, give me a full camp. I'm a guy that likes to study fighters. I study my opponents. I'm like, For the shine rate fight, we were studying him so high. All right, he's going to come out. His first strike is always left inside kick and literally that's the first thing he did. Like I'm looking at how you react to a single like how you react to a double like how you how you get on top can be sending me videos like he goes for a real naked talk with his only his left hand. He just uses right hand for, I mean, you know, a guillotine. So be careful with that. It's like we're looking at the smallest details with everything. And you can't really do that for a win-week notice fight.

Yeah, four years to try to get that back yourself. And you didn't come. So you were pushing it that hard. I understand. the money fight and it's going to sell paper views obviously but what he's got to get a bazo's mom you know he's who's my march what do you think about that rematch I mean

Yeah, I mean. people with so many times when people say I was lucky kick I like I like bro you can't call anything lucky in the sport especially could you throw it to land it there's not throwing any strike not to land it and it's just yeah you're talking to assholes yeah but it's lucky kick there is so funny but you'll be able to do the you think you're going to come out this fight just wrestling

And now is hand, like we're seeing. Yeah. With a cast on every time. And I'm like hitting a barley, because we both have the same manager. Shout out to Alia, I apologize. And I'm messaging him, like, bro, what's this talk with us, man? Like if he's not funny with title, he needs to be me. Like, he can't be mad at all. And he's like, no, it's gonna be us, man. It's gonna be us, man. I'm like, why aren't they announcing it? They announced London. Like why are they not announcing the fight and then they finally announce it, but like I was on him all the time.

There's something with like the ligaments I think in his like thumb or something that they had to like reattach.

So the retare? I think it was, I'm not sure if we were in the fight injury. I think it was probably a different injury.

Yeah, I've heard about that, too. I'm a big swimmer. I'm like running yet. I'm still giving my miles in, but like, I love just swimming. I don't have the best swimming, but yeah, it's you don't get the same wear and tear on your body as you would get with all that extra stuff on there.

Yeah. Yeah. Somebody's my favorite form. And I do like longer bike rides now being with Paul Felder. Seeing like how he's been doing triathlon stuff. So like I'll do like 20 miles 30 mile bike rides. Yeah.

It was funny because when he started, when he was fighting with us, that roof was burning, he was training with us. And like I'll tell you guys, I'm going to swim and he'd like, oh, let me go try it. And he only used to like the swim a lap and then walk a lap. And then swim a lap. Like you would not know how to swim. And now he's like all in like we went swimming and he's just sitting there and laughing me. how you want to do one of my workouts and we're in there and I'm looking at my watching it's like a two mile swim we've done so far and then he's like all right now I got to go ride the bike for three hours now they brought up go to get lunch three hours yeah after a swim and I'm like bro he looks so thin it's crazy he doesn't even look at the same guy when I see him get interviewed or interviewing fighters he looks like a bantamweight I told him, I'm like, bro, you could make 135. He's like working on at 165. When he used to cut weight, he'd be a who come into camp. He would come to us when he would do his camps at Rufusport. And he was sitting there and like measure stuff before practice. Like, let me get six blueberries and like two almonds. He was that guy because he was thick. He was small. Yeah, he was pretty big. Yeah, and I'm like, I can't live like that. Because people would always tell me like, oh, you need to go on 55. Like the first time I had baby, he looked at me, he's like, you're lightweight. It has like, no, I think I'm a Walterweight. And he's like, no, no, brother, you need to go lightweight. It has like you way right now. Like 190.

Yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's big after seeing him in person. And what is this feeling around it? I feel like minimum 190.

I mean, honestly, like, the way they do is different for, you know, because we're over there and it's, uh, we're in Dubai and we had, like, full buffets, every, and it's like, after our morning wake up, going on stairs, we had like a buffet. Then after practice, our first practice, our lunch was like a buffet and like a room, all the guys were going there, we all eat together and it's like, you're getting like, oh, this trays full of lobsters, this trays full of steak, this trays full of stuff, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, this trays full of rice, I'm there and it's like five weeks before the fight, so I'm like trying to like, D-Load calorie counter, everything like that. And I'm like putting in a small plane and they're like, oh, brother, you're cutting weight already. And I was like, I'm just dieting, I'm not really cutting yet. But they're like still eating normally. And like, they don't really start the hard cutting in, so probably like two weeks out, where, or like, fight week, where they're pushing it. They're like working it off. They're like, they have a son of Sudan on Monday. And they're on a treadmill that way. Really?

For me, I used to do it kind of that way. Like, before it was just me and my coach. And like I said, we had a small gym so like we'll go places and it'll be like fight week and I'm like doing bear calls with a sauna suit on on the treadmill and he's like making me do like boot camp classes with a sauna suit on so like I'm dying I'm draining myself and then you know you get to you start learning these nutritionists and they're like There's a size the way cutting it out, you know, water load, start water loading. Because I was like just storm outside. I was like, like, like, like, like, one piece of spinach and it's like chicken breasts, thinking I'm cutting away the right way. But now with these new nutritionists and they're like, doing the whole water load changes everything. And like, I don't start, I don't really even start trying to cut weight until the day before. So I'm trying to sweat it all out. So I'm doing two gallons from Monday to Thursday. And then Thursday, I cut all the water and then I just go on to sauna literally 30 minutes. And I'm usually done. So it's like, yeah, for me, it comes off super quick.

Yeah, and so they need just drink and shit tons of water. Yeah, I'm drinking so much water cutting out the salt and eating more protein stuff And you know, they have these like these little like fat peanut butter balls and stuff like that that I'm eating much and on but this fight camp It was like my first time doing the bath. I got never did the bath before So like I'm using the guy like I'm going to saw that I like to stretch out in there and then 30 minutes in of a good stretch. I'm like use the on weight so this time he's like well we'll just we went into sauna bag for like 20 minutes and then we went out of towels for like 10 minutes and I was probably like 174 the night before and he's like just go to sleep because you know you're not using sleep in the night before wake up so go to sleep now we're not going to take it all off we'll just do it in the morning so the next morning he's like we'll just do it we'll try a bath And I was like, I never did a bad fight. I don't want to try it. He's like, dude, we're going to try it. Everybody does it. It's going to work. So I'm in the bathtub and, you know, they put the water to a certain temperature. It's like 180 degrees or something. And I'm literally there for 20 minutes. And I get out of there and I'm laying out the bed and he's like, all right, we got to do another bath. And I'm like, All right, whatever man, let me just wait myself real quick. So I could see how much I have left. And so I walk away at 174 and then after 20 minutes in the bath, I was 165. What? Yeah, I overcut. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I was like, what the fudge is like, wait, hold on, we gotta go downstairs and check it. I just go downstairs there. So I went downstairs and checked it on the UFC scale. And I was 165. Wow. So I'm sitting there.

He said from now on he's a pro from now on we're doing the bath cuz I was like I didn't realize I didn't think about it cuz I'm like bro, I need to be I need to feel the sweat like I'm in the bathroom I don't know if I'm sweating or not and he's right Dude trust me. You're sweating. You're sweating and I'm like annoyed cuz I'm like you know you're cutting away now like bro I never want to do the stupid bath anyway You guys have to sit here over by five pounds. Yeah, yeah, I was like and I looked there was like man maybe one fifty five is possible Like, yeah.

One fifty five? Yeah. Earlier on, but not now, I'm like, I've never felt out muscle that anybody at one seventy. And I'm like, I'm so close to the title fight at one seventy. I'm like, what would be the point of going out of fifty five? Just to see what it feels like. If I get to the point where they're still like not giving me a shot or like pushing me at all, then I was gonna like offer to go down there and like, let me see if I could make it do a test runner or something like that.

It's crazy when you see a wake-up. Yeah. Because his whole face is chin is like all gone. And he puts it all back on. He's like super stoked. Yeah. Jack there like the giga chat.

Yeah, I was like, this one makes those sets at all.

Oh boy.

Yeah. I tell you guys, I'm like, you never felt it. It's it's different like they'll all you just shut you just either nuts. You're doing this and I'm like bro Roll with one of them feel how it is.

Yeah, I mean I'm gonna I got literally been messing with the guys trying to go to Dagestan But they're heading out to Australia now, but they have some rise that are out there, but I definitely want to go to Dagestan because I Know how memes done coaching right now, but is he done done that's real? Yeah, he said he's going to be done.

I just spent more time with his family. Like, I was talking to people. He goes, when they're in camps, they're all in. They're all together. They're like one big family where it's, I'm going to be every single practice with you. I'm going to be here and they travel so much. And for him, he has to corner this guy here, then you got to go to Australia, then you got to Vegas. And he has two young kids. seeing how he is with his kids like you brought a son out to Dubai when we're out there and it was just cool to see because you never see that side of you never see their family like they don't post any of that or anything like there so it's cool to see it like him wrestling with a son and he showed me videos of his son not doing gymnastics and it's not going to be a beast so just seeing how he is like kind of like how you're smiling like there that's how he was when he was like show me the video of the son so like you can tell that he misses them And, you know, for him when he goes to corner somebody, it's not just cornering. When you go to a different state, every single person in that state wants to see you, they all want to touch you, they all want to get a PC. We're in Abu Dhabi and we want to go visit like the police department out there. And, you know, we're all there before Habib. So it's like me, Islam, like the whole team is there. And nobody's saying nothing to us. And I'm like, you know, Islam and all these guys are still here. It's that's why I'm very tired of it. Nobody's really caring that right when I be boxed, every single person runs out, they run out with roses, flowers, like wait for it to get out the car and follow him. And he's just like a different level of superstar. For him, he was also like telling me to like, I just want to get, I want to be able to just go to Starbucks one time and just sit down and have coffee like I used to. I can't do that.

Yeah, and I wasn't like instead of like if he stayed on this track you would have been a gold coach. He wouldn't be a good shirt.

Yeah, you know, and he doesn't ask for nothing in return. He's like, he's given you his time, is that for he's on the match with you rolling and it's not like he didn't retire because he was out of shape or injured or anything like that. He's still that same. He's still that same. He's still that same top pressure, that same strength, grappling. He's just heavier now. wild so he's just still moving like this and he's like he's still freaking so strong I'm sure and it's like when somebody's rolling with you under Senator or to be a starbucks has given me like a comora and I'm sitting there like bro should I be like mad or like embarrassed And it's like humbling because there's guys out there like that and guys on this team that aren't in the UFC yet that aren't like that and you're learning. Imagine those guys you're growing up your whole life learning for these guys is younger cousins who aren't who smile at the belts are championing and who are who just fought this weekend. It's like they grow under.

Yeah, amazing. That's just a small side of them. His grapple is still their same as their eyes, but he has that striking too. And I tell people to you sleep on it. It's life striking. All their guys, they all know how to strike. They just know what wins.

No. And no. He said he is a black belt. He has think he's like a judo guy to a great wrestler on the Brazilian team and he has it all. So the way that Umar just showed patience. And they had that pressure just to have that never go out off last name. It's like people expect you to be great. So you're undefeated and your brother just wanted to Bella's her title. So you're going out there and he's just relaxed. He's calling cool and he's picking up his head waking him up afterward. It's like they're humble this.

They're humble this. It was another level and like learning from them and My being religious myself, but it's a different culture in America, but being over there five weeks with those guys where there's everything's to the tea everything's to the dot like uh... i shared one of my uh... my friend uh... harassio uh... he was on that that show that uh... mass but all was on that Mexican uh... what reality show he was on that show and i got shared like a video from him on that show and it was like women in bikinis but he was like it was more for him and he's like brother we shouldn't share that uh... for us you know uh... be better at that i was like oh and i was shatter for my boys i will share it with just him and i was like make sense because being a muslim People look up to you. I see younger guys look up to me and I don't want to think that I'm this certain way like I want to hold myself with a higher standard. They can't even look at the girls and bikinis and videos. No, like you know you're not supposed to it's supposed to be like lower your gaze where it should only be you on your you and your spouse or your wife or anything like that.

It's a different culture. It's a different thing. It's not like It's not like out of like, hate or anything like that. Or it's just like, you shouldn't be doing that. If there's kids around, there shouldn't be you tongue kissing with a girl in front of you or anything like that. And being a Muslim, being religiously, it should be like in the household. That's where it should be. It's just like holding yourself to different types of standards. And obviously, you want to show love and self with your wife. Hold hands. You don't have to be freaking, making out in a public and everything like that. But in America, it's a different culture, obviously. Right. You start seeing now more like Americanized Muslims where they're like, oh, well, what if you do it this way or that way? It's like, no, you can't just like switch what's in the car on. You can't switch what's in written down already. It's been like that for for how many years? And in Dagestan, everybody's like that. They all had that same mentality and being in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for those five weeks. It was great for me because it was like, not the eye opener, but it was just more like refreshing because you're training it then you hear the call of prayer. So every single person I don't care if you're the janitor or the the the workmen or the fighter or anything you're all going to pray at the same time you're all show that a shoulder to show their praying next to each other and there's no like ranking in that raw shoulders so they're all praying to the same god doing the same exact thing at the same exact time and you don't really get that kind of feeling in America it's like If I pull out my rug to pray on the street at a certain time, people are looking at your weird, like, oh, what is this? Or you have random people just like beeping or saying stupid things because they don't understand what it is. They don't understand the discipline it is to, all right, this is God's time now. We've supposed to pray five times a day. I don't care where it is. what you're doing. It needs to stop for this and everything one of those guys had that mentality. Every prayer is probably like five, 10 minutes long. So once you begin the prayer, it's not that long. So I got to tell people all the time where they're like, dang, you're gonna pray five times a day. But in the end, it's 50 minutes out of your life, 50 minutes out of your day out of 24 hours. When you waste so much time, scrolling through TikTok, scrolling through phone, things like that is like, give those 10 minutes to God. Give those 10 minutes to the person that brought you here.

Same thing, usually, so there's a morning prayer when you wake up in the morning prayer, then there's afternoon, then there's a midday prayer, and then there's a sunset prayer right when it's sunset. So usually, I'm right after that prayer is the fights after that probably, and then after the fight, you pray again, your late night prayer. So for me also, I just hold you accountable too, no matter what happens in the fight, whether you win or lose, I still have, I still owe it to God to pray. Whether it's, I'm thanking them for a win or I'm thanking them that I'm still able to pray. I'm still alive right now after this fight that I'm still here. Because these things happen.

so you have a time frame so from the morning prayer you have all until the afternoon prayer to do it then from the afternoon prayer you have to the midday prayer and then there's some people that I tell people all the time like when you're starting out if you pray a prayer late do a late like get the quantity in and then work on the quality later but at least get the quantity in first so you know you have to pray five times a day so when you're beginning out there's so many people that They come in and my coach is a convert Lewis Taylor. He converted to Islam. And he had so many people telling, oh, you can't do this. You can't do this. Why are you wearing this? And it was just like turning them off from the whole thing. It's like, I was born from a different culture. I was born doing different things. My family isn't Muslim. So I'm, if I'm with them and you see me hanging out with people that do these type of things, don't come here or cry to me. Like, I thought, bro, go at your own pace. Start patiently. If you missed the morning prayer, I hit both of them in afternoon. If you missed the afternoon prayer, I hit that one in the mid day. But just get the quantity in. Talk to God. It centers you a lot of the time, too, because in those 10 minutes you're not stressing. You're not thinking about the stress of the life. Well, I got to get this done. I got to get this done. I got to get this done. I got to get this done. That normal people have in the work day. I think it's kind of like a meditation for me. And it just clears my mind, clears my head and knowing that I got it done. And at that end of the day, I know that I did find my fried pairs. That's the most important thing. I don't care. Oh man, I forgot to do my homework. I forgot to do this. I forgot to do the stuff that I was supposed to do for work, but it's like I did the most important things, which is pretty.

God's will. So whatever his will is, that's what it is. So you could sit there and train and be super stressed out and like am I gonna win or am I gonna lose this fight? It's like, you just tell yourself, whatever God's will, that's what's meant to be. I've had, I've lost, I'm the biggest stage. I've lost my debut in the UFC. I've come in undefeated and I'm like, I lose a close fight and I'm telling, why did God do this? I mean, I pray five times a day like I'm a good person. I do this and it's like, When you're thinking back to that, it all brought you to where you are today. So knowing that his plan is always the best plan, no matter what. So now when I look back at the losses I've had, it's like, maybe I want to be where I am right now. Well, I want to be as tough as I am. I want to be as smart as him. I want to change the ways I've trained. And I think that all of these guys had that mentality. You don't have the fear of losing because if I lose, I was meant to lose. If I If I fail, it was for a reason. There's a bigger plan in the end. And God made not show to you now, but he made show to you in a couple of years. He made show to you in the next life. And because I go on to every fight and I tell, I'm asking God, because we put our head down to the ground. And that's when you're like closest to God when we pray. And it's caused a jute. So when you're putting your head down, you're talking to the highest. And you know, you talk deep from the heart because it's basically kind of like your face to face with God. And I always tell him before I find out like, if it's going to make me a better person, a better Muslim, Grammy this is victory, if it's not, the Grammy is a loss. If it's going to make me a worse person, it's going to give me an ego. It's going to make me unhumble. It's going to make me worse to the people that I love and the people that matter to me most is my family then I don't want to win I don't want to victory I don't want to wealth and just having that like that sense of whatever happens happens it's meant to happen I think it just changes everything

to be going to clubs or anything like that. So at the end, I think it's like the being, that's why you've seen most of the Muslims starting to be the best fighters out there.

Yeah, you have to. There's no, there's not no weak link in that gym. Every single person. And there is a monster like you know you have your regular gems and you know that I could go with this guy because I'm feeling sore today. I'm feeling tired to be roll with him. Yeah, because a little bit and just go smooth. No, then it's like you're all you're going to all you want to go with me. You pick me. All right. Let's go and it's like wait wait. You're okay. I thought you're 135 pounder. They're so strong and he's so it broke you like I rolled with the Umar before and I was like do this guy is like a monster and They don't have that fear themselves where you go to gyms. It's like, oh, well, the band awaits on this side, the light awaits on this side, this side, no, they're all going together. What do they do for strength conditioning? A lot of their stuff is just, they do a lot of normal stuff after practice that. like burnout with will hold a plank. Have you plank after we just grappled sparred and everything? We'll stay on our hands. We have to stay there for two minutes, three minutes until like I believe season you like breaking. And then I push up, then jump squats, then lunges. And I think it's those little burnout after practice when you're tired and your arms are dead. That levels you'll have with strength, but they also do have a strength coach that they would do twice or three times a week. While we were in an Abu Dhabi that he would put them more through like Uh, high reps for, for time. So they'll go from like, uh, doing shoulder presses to punch it a bag, doing box box jumps to like kick it a bag, little things like that. Um, that I think just like build strength and cardio at same time.

Yeah, I got a strength coach shot to Matt Murphy. We do more like heavy lifting stuff. So for like throwing body. So we do deadlifts. I'm going heavy on deadlifts. We go squats. I'm going heavy on squats. We go bench press. And then all the other stuff is more like cosmetic. But like the bases. Not cosmetic, but like I written out we're gonna do these little rolls or something like that. Yeah.

So out of camp, I'm doing more, more heavy. So right now it's just like a strength building phase. And then once it gets into camp mode, then it's more for reps. So like right now it's heavy with low reps. So if I'm benching, it's maybe 250 for like four or five reps, but they're like cluster sets where I'm putting it back on, then I bring it back down, then I explode back up with it. And then with squats, it's sitting down on a chair and then exploding up. Sitting down on a chair and then exploding up with it. But it's heavier, but it's just lighter reps. And then when it gets closer to the fight, he changes it up to like higher reps stuff for the conditioning aspect of it.

I'm just trying to build more strength and explosiveness. So I want to get stronger, especially once you're in the next guy, my whoever my next opponent would be, I figured it would be a stronger guy, heavy grappler. So I figured I would need the strength and I'm not the biggest welds or weight. So I want to make up for it with strength and explosiveness like that. And I think when people look at me, they don't think that I'm strong, but when they feel me inside the cage, then I feel like it's a lot of them guys get like their eyes open, like, oh, he's a lot stronger than I thought.

I used to trade with him when I would go out to Rufusport and I would drive down there one to week. It's like two hours away from Chicago, but I would go in there and I would trade with them and I'm like, we're sparring with big gloves on. And he did what's the best striker. So I'm feeling like, oh, I'm lighting him up. But once he grabs a hold of you, it's like, he takes you down and you cannot move. Once you're out by him. And this would big gloves on. And it's like, you really, it's really hard to grapple and hope he would out with big gloves on. But like, So after that, every time I'll go with him, I'm like, I cannot let him grab his hands together. If he locks hands together, I'm going down. And that was when he was still in belittering. Like you said, people don't realize how good he was back then when he came to the UFC was a different version of himself.

That was when it was in his private younger version of himself. And to have been just model you and take you down at will. It's like, I tell people it's harder to beat somebody for five rounds than it is to finish him in the first round. It's like if I could beat you dominate you for 25 straight minutes. That's a harder task than me going out there and finishing you in one minute one kick that's it like those guys get all the credit but it's like the guys like Ben those are the ones that are having a push through for those full 25 minutes dominating knowing that all the takes is one punch or one kick and they avoided all of that got to be a real champion at one of C1 and he just looks at the credit I was like People don't make sense.

Yeah, we do group as a literally show like sparring drills. We're going to do strike in drills. And Ben will just be like, stand in there with his hands behind his back. Just like looking up at the sky and how wait for sparring. And he's like not doing the drilling at all. It was like what the heck, but that's when I was like when he was boxing Jake Yeah, I was wondering how serious he was gonna take cuz I'm like I don't he doesn't take striking serious at all and if you if you're a guy like Jake who's athletic he's tough. He's strong All the takes is one place to land. I was like I don't think Ben just took that fight serious at all and he's one of those guys that I think nobody takes a loss better than like a Ben Ashken like He got knocked out by Madsman. He said, well, that sucked. I went and tweeted it. I'm a terrible loser. If I lose, I don't want you to talk to me. I don't want to see anybody. I don't want you guys to come near me. So to see you guys like that, it's kind of like, you want to learn from guys like that honestly.

Yeah. At all.

There's nobody better I think at distance. And John Jones. I'm very interested to see how he comes back now though.

But I don't know because Tyson Fury is back to fighting real boxes. Yeah, it's funny. Usek now and there's a diate wilder fight out there. I feel like, but do you really want, if you're Francis, do you want to fight a wilder, who's he has that one punch power? Right. At least with Fury, I feel like Fury will dance right with you a little bit. Let you show something.

He's like, that's the money. That was the fat party in.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't got a fancy crying. I just got a Rolls Royce.

You're talking about how we got a fancy car. I got a rose, bro.

What do you think about that other boxy fight? I hope they make that one. He's so unique.

I don't know. I mean, Garcia is fast. He's got great countering. He says, I love fighting softballs. I'm the softball killer.

Like, well, why would you want it? Yeah, how bad do you?

It just looks weird. Yeah. Like you said, you didn't have it during boxing. Well, you're in your big shape.

Yeah, my my girls doing a 75 day hard. It's like you do two workouts a day one indoors and one outdoors for 45 minutes each time. that you pick any diet you want to do, you can do any type of diet you want but you have to stick to it for 75 days and you have to read like a motivational book 10 pages every single day.

It's like the books, the motivational books. But our motivation is I better have abs at that end of this 75 days. I'm like, I mean if you're eating healthy and you're working out twice a day, I'm pretty sure you have at least two abs at the end of it.

Honestly, I think it's a, it's a tougher fight than Francis. Really. I do. I think that Serogon, his movement, his footwork. He's so good with his front leg and for John Jones, who, when I remember when he came back from OSP, he looks so stiff and That was a time off and putting a lot of muscle on. He just looked like a slower version of himself. So now this time it's a longer time off and you're coming back with way more weight on and you're going against one of like the faster heavy weights and the more smoother heavy weights. Instead of getting gone, you were, you know, he lands at hard punch. I could do it, but I could just shoot under that hard punch and got you. I mean, a zero gone, you have to watch the kicks, watch the full work, cut them off.

He's a monster monster. He's the one who got like stabbed, right? Yeah, not hard. Yeah, he's just great. One time I saw that You know, he's under Ali and Ali had like a media day for his fighters and Blu-Goye like comes up to me and like I make picks three every fight and I like circle fighters where I think he's gonna win and I post it on my Instagram and he like came up to me and he like showed him how he's like you didn't pick me my last fight

And like, I was like, now I started realizing that these guys are like watching it. But of course they watch. Yeah, I was like, this guy's crazy, but I was like, man, I got to pick him every single time he goes out. I was like nuts. But yeah, I always talked to Eric Nixon. Eric Nixon's one of those coaches that he's like my brother. I'll call him after, hey, they're giving me this guy. What do you think about it? And he would always tell me, like Francis is Francis one of those heavyweight staff loves to wrestle. Like, you know, wrestling practice strikers that don't show up. They don't hate to be in that grind. So different type of grind. They said, Francis, they're all the time. He loves to be in that. I want something to wrap the whole thing.

But that was that his moment. Remember when you just knock it everybody out and he had like two minutes of fight time. Yeah. Then all of a sudden you fight a guy. Oh, thanks. Pass the second round.

But that second fight man Francis is taking out defense. He looked good.

Yeah. You never did that. Well, take one. No, it's a twisting kick.

This is the funny thing for you to see that. Oh, yeah.

He's so smooth. And he's like intelligent, like you don't understand the distance. All right, that's the knee. This is not kick distance.

He usually does, right? Remember he was always that guy that would want to beat you at your own game. Oh, you're wrestling. I'll wrestle you. You're a striker. I'll strike with you. Yeah. So, well, it comes out to thinking. Zero God. You're a smooth striker. I'll all smooth you. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I was done, uh, Danny Igay. He was telling me how he went down there and he was, he's like, I never talked to anybody with kind of like the war mindset as him. It's like, he sees it as like a chest match. He breaks it down in that type of way. It's not like all the squad there, see red, whatever happens happens. He does this, this and this. Even with, uh, I said, I had breakfast for the months before the shot Brady fight and he was like, let's watch a little tape on him. Let's, let me look up what he, what he does. and just like watch a one tape of Sean Brady. He's not well, he stands like this. I think you should do this. This low kick will be perfect right here. But just seeing how he breaks down, how he talks people, it just tells me that being a coach and being at his gym, he'll get deeper and deeper and deeper into those little aspects of the fight that a lot of people don't really care about or look at. A lot of, I know a lot of fighters that don't ever watch tape of so many they're gonna fight. They'll never, they're just going there with the mindset of, if I'm in shape and I'm on my bus, I'm gonna win.

That's the most important thing I feel like. It's not all about toughness and I've had coaches that are telling me like, oh, well, this guy never fought before. Why are you going to think that he's a good coach, but You don't need to be a fighter or that. Some people are just better at understanding and breaking out fights in general than having to go out there and fight. Some people can see some people can fight.

I mean, Eric Nixick, my coach Mike Valley never followed before. He's the same way. And like I said, it's like, some people are better at teaching some people are better at breaking down film and seeing other guys weaknesses like I know it makes it was telling me that he would use to be a football player and he would do it's like bring that mindset that game plan mindset of what's the weakness if I know these guys are good at the past while we're gonna play past defense and then Fighters don't think like that for me when I fought Damian Maya my goal is to stand a strike with you. I'm not gonna grapple with Damian Maya when I fight any Wonder Boy. I'm not gonna strike with Wonder Boy. I'm gonna take them down when I'm fighting these guys a certain way I'm switching it up each time.

He was, uh, I know he was down there. He said he was down there for visiting.

And then I think he was doing stuff out of his garage. But then now he was down there. So who don't train it out there with them now, too? I think I'm not sure if he's doing his full camp there, but I know he was doing stuff there.

And I wonder who he's sparring with because you know there's this being in the gym and being who you are John Jones. You know, there's people like want to see how he is in a million people trying to get inside scoop of. Oh, how does he look? How does he look? And we really haven't heard anything like that from any of the little birds on somebody's shoulder or something like that. So I wonder if he's actually sparring with anybody training with anybody or if he just says that much loyal teammates that are not going to say a word about it until he wants to.

Yeah, there's not a lot.

People are sleeping. I've heard his blades. I think he's one of the toughest guys there.

Um, the way he'd be black beast. Yeah, uh, tied to a bottle.

I think Kobe was talking about he used to train with him and he was like, yeah, he would be in a practice room with us all the time and stuff like that. So coming up with.

Curtis Blades called him up and Curtis was like, Oh, it's so good. Yeah. He's like, well, I know everybody saw that we want to try to get my reaction to this fight. Serragans get it back to back. Whatever. All right. It's cool. Give me a Sergey next and I'll show you guys my work for the undercard.

That's so close every single time. You get to that level, it's all it takes to one punch. You only lost like Frances, then that black piece uppercut. Rather than that, he's been one of the most dominant heavyweight out there.

I make no such I was like what I guess it's so late.

I love dirt. It was supposed to be in, uh, I think Korea and then Koreans obviously were supposed to be out of card, but I think you got injured so that they blew the back to America, but they really had a time slot done. Oh, really? Yeah, I think so. That's what I heard. Yeah, so they had to keep it there because I think they had so many of those fighters from Asia on the card.

Being in Dubai when they had a couple of fights on and it's like the time change was so much and I was like, not want to watch it until the next part of the hour. I'll do the cardio in the morning and watch it on my phone. And then my coach, hey, did you see San Higgin and uh, uh, song your dog, his car? And I was like, bro, I was not one another result.

She's a boss. She's going to be a champion. She's one of those who's going to challenge Chanko for it.

I think they just gave her Alexa Grasso. So Chanko gets Grasso, but like you said it's not like, so I look at it like, oh man. But if I see Blancheville in there, like I'm even right now, like if he has the grout, I'm interested.

Yeah, I would see her in a marano training at the apex. I mean, a training at the PI and I'm like, man, I just want to see how their sparring goes because it'd be fun. Like, she's one of those girls. I feel like to keep up with some guys and it's sparring department with Gloves that should pay a dime, but yeah, I was just always like interested in it. Like you said, she smoothed everywhere. And now her wrestling and grappling get into that level too, where I feel like she's trying to show a different side of herself.

I was one of my buddies, he's like, he teaches people to get their guns, to get their gun permits at Chicago where they can carry on of their carrying and conceal. And he's like, something to do, try to break into my garage. And I like gave him the, stop where you're going. And he turned around super quick. So I had a shoot him. I was like, you broke into the wrong house. He's like, you know, I might have freaking gun range every single day. And this guy, like, tried to rob me. Well, like, what a moron. I thought so, but he's like, I felt bad for the guy. So, but I still shot him.

Honestly, I do, especially when I was, during I was riot times and just the marriage is sucks. Like she doesn't do anything to the mayor's terrible.

Literally. And I, you know, I trained with cops and I roll with cops. So one of my cousins, he has like a cell phone store and he's telling me like he put his shutters down and he's like, the oldest people outside my store trying to break in with the shutters. And so just coming to help me. So then I'm like, all right, so I'm trying to call my boys that are cops. And I'm like, hey, there's trying to break into this guy's store. Could you guys help them? And they're like, no, they're telling us to stay inside. They're telling us not to do anything. They're telling the police not to do anything. Like, bro, what? He's like, they're telling us to stay in the free thing. I was like, that was great. So we literally pulled up. like obviously my guy has like a gun inside the store so he's like shooting upward outside of the store so people like runaway and like people end up running away so that we pull up and people are like across the street yelling like you guys got a shirt you guys want to try to kill us over you guys know you got a shirt that's so great I'm like you did me while I'm robbing you I want to like just like people are just so airheaded so like we literally like put everything into trucks and took everything out of the store and people saw us take everything away and they still broke in and just smashed everything for no reason at all.

Honestly, I was like on the eyes of the movie to Vegas.

Yeah, and then I'm really close to like Nick six. I like him, but it's just hard because I'm a big family man. So like we're going to my office house every Sunday for dinner. I like going back there. My whole family's there. So it's a lot easier than like my teammates in Chicago. They've been helping me since the beginning. Like 10 years I've been with those same guys that I'm still training with now even if I go train at other gyms or train with other teams up still with the same core of guys so like I want to want to like leave them before I get to you know system in place now in Chicago yeah like we have and I know what it's worth doing yeah and that's the thing I have so many people you need to come here you need to come here we have this many UFC guys this this and I like

He was dealing with my dad and we're really getting breakfast and then we brought you up and then I just like I don't like Joe Rogan.

And then Brian was like, oh, why not? He said, yeah, you know, he never interviewed my son after the fight. And I was like, oh, that's not mine.

I was like, oh, I got to stop it. And I was just like, I have a baby.

Okay Yeah, and I tell them, you know, you know, dad's always once looking out for you like yeah, I think if this guy interview and now you an interview it's Joe and I was like bro like chill out like relax for Brian Brian was hilarious. He was super cool and he had some hands. He was fire of my boy. Oh, he boxes.

You got some stuff that you needed to want to have Jake Paul fights.

I take pause. Just like a ran of TikTok.

It's cool just like the experience. Like we go to the, it's called the Swallow Club Stairs and he ran it up there with me. Yeah, that one of the things we do like every week down there.

Yeah, I mean, I got a, a sauna at my house, like one of those, uh, lights on us and infrared infrared. Yeah. Yeah. So I got an infrared sauna. I got all the, the boots, all those other extra things. I get a massage when I'm in camp once a week, when I'm not in camp, probably like once every other week or something like that, or when I'm feeling it sore. But now it's being very careful and being smart with the way I'm treating my body. It's like, if one of the biggest things I learned from the, the guys, uh, from Habib's team is like, They'll come in before practice and he'll ask you like today's your hard sparring. How do you feel mentally? Are you okay? Did you get any fight with anybody in your family? Are you stressed out? Like if you have any of those issues your head you're not training. Really? Yeah, interest.

Yeah, you're gonna be in a fight and if you're not fully engaged and you're not fully ready for it, you're really not gonna gain anything and you're gonna hurt yourself. And that's where injuries come from a little thing. So when he brought that up, I'm like, huh? I got figured you guys would be like, tough enough, tough enough. Man up, my mentality was when I got there and I'm like, don't be soft. But they're very smart with it.

Yeah. And it was cool. Like I said, I'm like one of those guys where probably every single camp I'm overtraining. And like I don't feel like I'm ready unless I'm overtrained. So yeah, because you know, you I work out twice and then I'll be like Three hours of doing nothing. I'm like, man, I should have do something. I need to be doing something right now. Let me go for a jog.

It'll tell, you know, you'll get those days where it'll be like your red line or whatever. But I'm still got a train, but not train as crazy hard. Right. But for the most part, when I even feel like tired and I'm like, you're 90% recovery. I feel like trash, but then it matches me up. Oh, well, the whips is I'm okay. So I think maybe maybe I'm just being soft, mentally. My body feels terrible, but it's like the whip stuff. Yeah, okay. So I'm just trusting it.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm waking up and I'm seeing what it says. And if like when I started really believe it is what I caught COVID and I got woke up and I was like, uh, The day before I was supposed to come to a fight, and I was fighting a lot of good. I mean, Diego Lima, and then we're supposed to leave the next day. And I woke up and I said zero. I'm out of cover. Yeah, I said zero. And I was like, what the fudge? And then I was said in like that night. Like I was literally just like shivering at bed. I woke up in the middle of the night shivering. And I was like, what the heck's going on? And I was like freezing. And I was like, nah, I've got to fight this week. So I put like my jacket, I went to bed, and I'm like, still shivering with my jacket on. I was like, what the heck's going on? So then I look at my weapon and it says dad and I was like, so I call my buddy who's a doctor and I'm like, dude, what do I do for shivering? He's like, he's like, he's like, bro, I think you should go get tested. It was like early on when COVID first hit. It was like, I don't got COVID and I'll fight in this week. And he's like, I don't know. I think those are symptoms for COVID. And I was like, like, a hug up on it, I was like, forget you. But like the whole night, like I was up the whole night, I was like, I hit up Ali and I was like, are they going to test me when I come down to it when I get their tomorrow? And he's like, yeah, and I was like, what if I said the positive? He's like, then you're going to have to drive home or you're going to have to fly back. Well, they're not going to fly back. I can't be able to drive back home or you wait the two weeks and Vegas. And I was like, but they're for sure going to test me.

That was just like the first day of hit. So I was like, shivering that day. And then the next day I was supposed to leave. So I woke up at the next day of my flight, like, a couple hours. And I'm like, why the heck am I freezing whatever? And then, like, I'm calling everything that time. And I'm like, I don't want to fly to Vegas. And then then set me back. But for me, I'm like, if it's a cold, I'll get over it in a day. I'll get over it in a couple of days. And then fight Saturday. So I still have three or four days to get over it.

It was probably like two days of just like chills and shivering and then just like body store and us but like like day three I was feeling okay, but like I was like in the best shape I remember like you're about your health.

It was like a depressing moment because my fight just got canceled because of it. Yeah, so that was like fun just like eating trash and laying there and then probably about like day four that I was like all right, I need to get up and rescheduled some fight and then do something. So like by day four, I was back to training regularly.

Yeah, I was hearing about that. I was hearing that. Yeah, he's throwing up blood.

That's crazy. Crazy. But I mean, for me, like I said it, who knows if it wasn't my fight week, if I would have just still continued on or if I ever got even tested. Right. Like I would have figured it was a regular normal cold. Well, got over the chills.

Yeah, and that was a hard part too, because you're at a gym and you're wondering if you have a fight, you're like, Make sure you don't come to the gym if you have coal. Make sure if you have any time you're sent us and you don't know to trust anybody and like you catch coveness and like fight week and I'm like look at who the blame on like how do I say to somebody how do I get coven? I do nothing else. I didn't go nowhere. I just was at a gym and back home sometimes people have and they don't even know they have.

That was the being at Chicago. everybody would catch it at weddings like being a Middle East and they have weddings every single Sunday and then my mom was still going to go to weddings. I mean you're not going to weddings. We have to go to this person's wedding and I was like that's where people are going to catch it because like 90% of people don't even know they have it and then all of a sudden the next week 16 people from that wedding got it or 10 people from this wedding caught it and I was like

Or there's people that had the antibodies and it didn't even realize like, wait, I had to be for it. Right. Doesn't make any sense.

Does that change the way you like you compensated to? Because obviously the energy is different.

Yeah, if you're in the audience, I feel like the best. My family was there. They're like dude, I never watched a fight. I never want to watch fight not like this.

It's like sitting court side for like a NBA game or something because you hear guys breathe them every here. Maybe a little thing here in the corner and everything changes everything to it. You hear commentators do it like when you're in the cage it's weird for you because you're like you're in DC and I was like I wanted something to shut up. You don't talk about it. So like that because you're in there.

You know some guys they like it some guys like take some pressure off of them Yeah, and they're in that little place no one there feels better feels easier later Yeah, I had a teammate do it have his debut there last week and I tell them it's gonna be better for you because There's not a lot of people there you're not gonna feel like it's the same energy you gotta just had that mindset like it's in the gym because if you just change the the way you think about it, it changes everything. Not bad, it's in my debut. This is the biggest stage, the biggest company, the one I always wanted for, the dream, but you're fighting with 50 people on the crowd. So it feels like it's that normal bar that you're used to fighting in and freaking Boofu Indiana.

for me was it was different because I took an assort notice to and uh... it was there in robber on so oh yeah so then they call me for that one but like i was nine and all outside of the uc and i was i just want uh... the tie and fc belt and i was still waiting for my shot i was a dude they're not giving me a shot and like i said i've my coach seeing his footsteps and seeing him he never got a shot of the uc but He was killing everybody. He was like on a 10 fight finish streak of guys in the first round and like didn't ever call him and I was like bro if he's finished people like this and he never got a call like what makes me think I'm going to get a call then they call me during robin. I sure know this. I was like a couple of weeks and it was Aljo band and I was like we have to take it so we took it and it was international fight week too. So that just changed everything too because it's like a lot more.

Honestly, it's just basically, I don't really change anything, but the way I eat at night, because I'm cutting weight at night. So I have to make sure that since I'm cutting weight in a cap, I have to eat healthier.

No, you're not drinking water during the day.

Yeah, so I'll train in the morning at 10.30 a.m. No water. No water. So I'll train at 10.30 and then I'll have another practice at six. and so it's six but you're when what time you're allowed to eat when the sun is allowed to eat uh usually during those times it was during uh but the sun was going down like 7.38

Yeah. Yeah. That's really with no water or food. Do you get up early and eat? Yeah. So like our morning prayers, usually I like 4.30 a.m. So you have all the way up until that 4.30 a.m. to eat or drink. So I'll wake up probably four o'clock for you. And then I'm treating it like I just had a weight cut. So I'm drinking a pedia light. I'm drinking getting my electrolyte and I'm making sure that I haven't good carbs it. I'm going to have to be able to train some eating white rice eggs. Good protein. So I just have to be very smart with what I'm eating and not just like junk. Right. A lot of people during Ramadan. they're gaining more away because like you're not eating all day you're not drinking all day then it's time to break your fast so you'll eat a little bit of dinner your stomach's already shrunk so you're not that hungry but then you're eating sweet sweet sweet and that's the biggest thing for us is like your mom's making all these sweets they're in robin on you want to try this this and this so for me just being way more disciplined during it and that's got to be hard to not drink waterway training Yeah, I think it probably after a day four my body like gets used to it just toughened up and I tell people like you never know how strong your body really is until you push it and I think it just like evolves in a learns to keep doing it so

I started doing that at this camp, because when I thought Luke A was running out, so my coach was like, hey, we're going to adjust everything to that. So my second training camp was always at 9 p.m. at night, but for the Alas Joe bandfight, it was still like, I don't care. I was wasn't even, like I said, I wasn't thinking about the science of it or anything like that. I was like, let's tough it out. So I was still training twice a day.

Yeah, I would eat dinner. Yeah, I would eat dinner and then go train to get at night and, uh, and all the guys were still, they would adjust their schedule. The, the whole team would come at night, night, 30 p.m. And then they would come and train with me at that time. Well, that's nice.

Yeah, so you do your morning. I do my morning session, whatever it was. And then, you know, during Ramadan, you try to be closer to God. So it's not like just starving yourself or staying away from food and drink. It's like, you want to get closer to God. So you're trying to read the Quran. You're trying to be more at the mosque. Whenever you can, there's a night prayer that we do. And it's like a late night prayer that everybody goes to the mosque at the same time. It's called Thudawir. So a lot of it's just doing as much as you can possible to be closer to God and be a better Muslim. So during the day, getting your mind off the fight where I'm not, I think it helps me a lot of time too because I'm not stressing about the fight because I'm trying to do be the best type of Muslim I can be. So read the crowd more, you want to try to read the whole crowd. There are the month of Ramadan and you want to just bring yourself closer to that, learn more about it, learn more about the religion, everything like that.

No, I mean, I would definitely want outside of it. It's it does compromise. It's it's hard. Yeah, it's like it's not easy and it's I always tell myself like I'm not gonna do not I don't know the fight don't rather that again like they call us this thing. I want to say no, but they when they call you with a main event fight right against a guy that beat you before it's like I'm not we're gonna say yeah.

No, no, a lot of those a lot of them they refuse to they decide not to in there Like they said, they just focus strictly on the religion aspect of it. So like I said, for me, I've done it outside of the UFC a lot of times and I fought a couple times outside of the UFC during Ramadan. So I had like a game plan of what I was doing and a way of just toughen it out through it. So I think it just helped me out in general. But yeah, back to the, I mean, the Joe band fight. It should actually fly away. I think we brought closer fighting that week too. So just a lot of eyes. A lot of eyes just cool to see. And I was never one of those guys beforehand that would like watch tape or break down film or anything like that. It was just like We're not going to go on air. We're going to beat them. So going air is tough fight. We ended up losing a decision, but it was fighting the night. And it was like, like I said, I'm a terrible loser. So I put it in my head down. Like upset. I don't want to talk to nobody in my coach. It's time to like, bro, like the crowd's going nuts. You had to feel the energy. Look at the crowd and praise still embrace the moment, even though you lost. And like I had so many fighters come out to me that day. And it was like, It was crazy because it was like Max Howard like you want to a respect bro Diego Sanchez Hey, you're a beast you're a monster and he's your guys like I looked up to him like love to watch fight But I didn't care at all. I just cuz I lost so like but thinking back to know that which I would have like been a better loser at that time because we won the $50,000 bonus too And I was like how care man and me and Joe Banner like at the hospital and he's like we want the bonus and I was like just crying like it away from you dude.

That was the thing. I was trying to get out of the March 18th card with them and I was trying to be out of the same card with them in. Whether it was, is that still possible? It's just depends on who they get close, right? Yeah, it's like for me, I'm still training no matter what.

So I think it would be like eight weeks or something like that.

Yeah. So it would just be like you're hearing things of how's that going up to 185. Yeah. And you're trying to figure out what's happening is that you're like, well, where's Kobe at? So I'm talking to my manager because like I said, he manages me. He manages Gilbert. He manages from spot. So he's managing three of the top five guys up there. So I'm like, you have to have an idea of who they're going to give me. And he's like, We just have to wait. We have to wait and see who they're all friends who's ready at the time. And I'm like, well, give me mazrael. Mazrael is not a three five lose streak. It doesn't make sense. And I'm like, but he has the biggest name. He has the biggest name and he's a guy that's calling for the title, fighting the champions saying his name. Yeah. So if the champion said his name, it tells me that. That's a name I have to be to tell you that. No, you're not getting that fight because I could see Leon be any ooze mine if you beat them this time saying well I defend my belt once now I could call my shot and I would fight mass with all because he three pieces told me and you're like Yeah, I don't make sense, but you have see money makes sense.

But it's rough too for you, son, because when The adverts were at the place I'm at right now. We're here's on a fight when he's shrieking the world was begging for him to get terrified and I'm like, I found way better guys in the adverts. I have four top 10 wins. The adverts has a being one top 10 guy in the division besides Uspon and Kobe Compton has no top 10 wins into the division besides Mazda who's we beat on a three-fight losing streak.

I was so bitter. I was salty. I was hot. Like I wanted a snap so bad because like in the cage. So sorry, bro. And it's like I didn't commit the foul. He committed the foul. Yeah. I didn't do nothing.

And it crazy. I'm looking at it like It doesn't make any like make it make sense to me because I'm like I waited this long to get to this moment. I stepped up nobody stepped up to fight them fight up Leon Edwards. You sure notice comes up pulled out they need somebody and I was like all right. I'll do it. So that first round happens. I poking in the whole road. Well, you're losing anyway, and I'm like, Bro, there's still four more rounds. I'm a guy that my cardio is my weapon. I love to fight. I love to grind it out and It was still Leon Edwards. He was off for two years before that. So you're still trying to figure out what's Leon Edwards going to come. So it's a reading out period and that first round. And I tell people it's not a 10 eight round. It was a 10 nine round in that first round. So what you saying, oh, he killed you. And the Joe bad fight, I got dropped three times in the first round and the third round I almost finished them. So I'm not a guy that loses the first round. It starts to put my head down and I need my coach to give me a motivational speech like the average. No, I'm going to stay motivated the whole time to the end to the final ball range. I don't need you to wake me up like I'm going to put my head down.

Yeah, and that's the thing when I took the shot and Brady fight. It was like fighting downwards and he had everything to gain because he was on the feet that he beats me. Well, dang, look where he is now. John Brady can be fighting for the title and acts, but for me, it was like, if I be him, I'll move inside ways. I'm not like, I didn't really gain much from it.

Oh, well, Sean Brady was getting threats that somebody was going to bury one of the desert if you be below the Hobbit.

When I first got into the UFC, my mom would read comments and say, hey, how could we be to respond to this guy? And have like, are you reading my comments?

Kevin Durai had like a fake whole profile was like arguably a back and forth and I was like, what are you real?

And you can get lost in it. So he's like, I have like a don't list that I make when I have when it's quite weak. And like don't add to the phone for somebody who doesn't like, we have a call due in the last month. Don't let's get to the comments. Don't respond to sexes. Don't Like don't overthink the fight. Like I just have like a long list of stuff that I say don't. And I just like read them all the time. That's right. Because you get like you said you get lost into it and one of those things could change your whole mood, your whole energy for the whole day.

It's sad honestly. My girl her her dad's daughters like play softball college and she was like tell me that you know, she's just got signed to Auburn and she's like I get how do you do a trolls and I said softball players get trolls?

I was like I never even thought about it and it's like girl

It's awful. Yeah. And sometimes it's because they don't even want to play the sport. Exactly. They hate it so much. And it's like, they despise it. Yeah. You look at them. You're like, you're at the top of the world. And you're going to make it to that and be like, I don't even like it. I don't want to be here right now.

Appreciate that, man. Seriously, I miss a lot. Thank you for having me.

Hey guys, go follow me, Billy V. What's Evan Neon, Instagram, Twitter, and he'll always, uh, I try to do a TikTok, I couldn't do it.