May 10, 2011 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:05:37
| 
| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
The Joe Rogan Experience. | |
| Train by day! | ||
| Joe Rogan Podcast by night! | ||
| All day! | ||
| Leon, what's up? | ||
| I'm good. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Dude, first of all, it was fun hanging with you last night. | ||
| It was a good night. | ||
| It was a good time. | ||
| It was the first time seeing you live. | ||
| I was saying to my manager, you're so effortless. | ||
| He's like talking, right? | ||
| But it's still funny. | ||
| I was like... | ||
| If you can approach fighting like that, like make it effortless, then you're doing a good job. | ||
| Well, I think some guys can at certain stages, right? | ||
| Like there's moments in fights where don't you feel like you're in a zone sometimes and it just, everything's flowing. | ||
| Saturday night. | ||
| Saturday night, yeah. | ||
| I felt good. | ||
| All backstage, because leading up to the fight, everyone was like, ring rust, ring rust. | ||
| So I was kind of waiting for some feeling to say, where's ring rust, right? | ||
| But I felt great backstage. | ||
| And I preferred fighting with no crowd. | ||
| Did you really? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You get to the apex and it's like you get there, you wrap your hands, you warm up, you fight. | ||
| There's no hanging around for five hours backstage. | ||
| It's like a gym, right? | ||
| You get there, you're warmed and you just go compete. | ||
| So I preferred it for sure. | ||
| Do you prefer it because there's no noise, no distractions, no nothing? | ||
| And you can hear your coaches clearly. | ||
| Instructions clearly. | ||
| I'm a very good listener to my coaches. | ||
| I wouldn't say I prefer it, but it was good. | ||
| I enjoyed it. | ||
| You have been in a very interesting position over the last few years, where you are one of the top UFC welterweights, but just because of bad fortune, things just haven't totally lined up correctly, fights have fallen apart, injuries and sicknesses, and a bunch of shit went down, and Until Saturday night, you had been kind of ignored by a lot of fans. | ||
| A lot of people don't understand what level you're at. | ||
| They don't understand. | ||
| I think they saw it for the brief moment that you fought Saturday night, but then, unfortunately, there's the injury. | ||
| Bilal has the accidental eye poke, and it's another unfortunate situation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But at least during that First round? | |
| Yeah, the first round, they got to see your skill level. | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| And I was just getting warmed up as well. | ||
| Over the last year and a half, I've learned so much that I wanted to show and to have that incident happen. | ||
| It's one in a million, right? | ||
| When you're preparing in camp, you're like, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. | ||
| And then when that happened, I was like, I thought I was like, okay, take five minutes. | ||
| Let it play out a little bit, then hopefully we can fight again. | ||
| But he's always that bad. | ||
| His eye was so fucked. | ||
| It wasn't a poke. | ||
| Nah, it wasn't a poke. | ||
| It was like a knuckle. | ||
| If you see the picture, it's like, you're kicking, right? | ||
| When you're kicking... | ||
| You don't hold your fist and kick like this, right? | ||
| You kind of use it to momentum to swing your arm back. | ||
| And as I was doing it, it kind of just grazed his eyes. | ||
| Well, not grazed. | ||
| It kind of went deep. | ||
| But it grazed his eyes a bit. | ||
| But was it like the front knuckles? | ||
| It looked like it from the pictures. | ||
| I couldn't tell. | ||
| I didn't feel it. | ||
| I thought it was the kick that got him in his body and then he fell down at the start, you know? | ||
| They wouldn't start grabbing his eyes. | ||
| I was like, oh, shit. | ||
| I got... | ||
| I caught him in his eye, you know? | ||
| Right. | ||
| I thought it was just literally the kid that caught him because I did this and then... | ||
| I think Dana put a photo on his Instagram, Jamie. | ||
| I think it was a knuckle. | ||
| You weren't this, for sure. | ||
| It's so unfortunate, man. | ||
| But, I mean, for you, what I was getting at was that it has to be so frustrating. | ||
| Here you are, another ad blocker. | ||
| Here you are, you have this long layoff, and fights keep getting canceled, and then you finally get a fight, and you're performing really well, and then this happens. | ||
| It's like... | ||
| The bad luck, right? | ||
| The last year or so, just won after another. | ||
| After the Woodley fight, I was meant to fight Woodley in London in March and had that cancelled the week before, on the Sunday before the fight. | ||
| And then from there, just bad luck, bad luck, bad luck trickling down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There it is. | |
| Yeah, it's like the bottom of your finger. | ||
| So it's not like it's straightforward. | ||
| It's like it's just getting in there. | ||
| That's terrible. | ||
| And it wasn't the eyeball, right? | ||
| It's like under the eyelid. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I saw Bilal Sunday in a casino in Vegas and his eyes was fine. | ||
| It's the lid that was bruised. | ||
| Yeah, he said the vision started returning the next day, and now he said there's no permanent damage, so he's gonna be okay. | ||
| He had his lid stitched up. | ||
| I wish him well. | ||
| He's a great guy. | ||
| It was a great opponent for you too, because he's so relentless. | ||
| He's constantly moving forward. | ||
| He's a tough guy. | ||
| He's durable. | ||
| Very durable. | ||
| I'm gonna call him with a head kick in the first round. | ||
| I kind of rushed my work a little bit. | ||
| I kind of went wild and started swinging for him, but I should have picked my shots a little bit better. | ||
| He's tough, he's durable, but he doesn't beat me in any given day. | ||
| I believe if I fight 10 times, I'll beat him 10 times and that's just it. | ||
| He was a late step in for Hamzat, fell out and I think he should go back, work his way back up and then hopefully we can meet somewhere down the line. | ||
| But for now, I'm looking towards a title shot. | ||
| I'm looking towards being a world champion. | ||
| Do you think that the title shot is warranted just because of your previous work and just because of the great first round that you had? | ||
| Do you feel like there's any unfinished business because of the way that fight ended? | ||
| With Bilal? | ||
| I don't believe so. | ||
| I think from the first round, normally I'm a slow starter, right? | ||
| So if that's my first round, you're not making it to the fifth, you know? | ||
| So I think everyone saw where the fight was going and he wouldn't have made it to number five. | ||
| I understand your confidence. | ||
| I really do. | ||
| And this is not to demean that at all. | ||
| But you got to... | ||
| You gotta give the guy an opportunity, right? | ||
| You know what I'm saying? | ||
| Here's my point. | ||
| If the fight went the first round, if the eye poke didn't happen, the referee just stopped the fighter, but they're like, what are you doing? | ||
| Well, you know where this fight's going. | ||
| Well, you don't know where a fight's going, because fights are crazy. | ||
| Weird shit happens. | ||
| People slip. | ||
| Guy gets him in a choke. | ||
| Weird stuff happens. | ||
| People get injured. | ||
| Someone throws a calf kick. | ||
| All of a sudden, your leg goes numb. | ||
| You get hit with a punch. | ||
| Weird shit happens. | ||
| Fights are crazy, you know that? | ||
| Nah, it's crazy, but... | ||
| You know what I'm saying though? | ||
| I know your confidence. | ||
| Nah, nah, nah, I know what you're saying, but I would've won that fight clearly. | ||
| Joe, normally I'm a slow starter in the first round, right? | ||
| I know. | ||
| So, I would've felt great Saturday night and... | ||
| Even if I felt good, Bilal was not beating me. | ||
| I completely appreciate your confidence, but as a fan of you and as a fan of Bilal, I don't think it would be a bad thing to run back. | ||
| Not straight away. | ||
| That's my ninth fight, right, in a row. | ||
| I won an 8-5 win streak for Bilal. | ||
| I would have won the fight. | ||
| That would be a ninth fight without a loss from getting beat by Usman five or six years ago. | ||
| I feel I've done enough work now to prove that I belong at least in the normal contender fight or title fight. | ||
| I can totally appreciate your position, but I can also appreciate Bilal's position. | ||
| I know where it's coming from. | ||
| If I was him, I'd probably do the same thing, right? | ||
| He's ranked number 13, 14, and this big opportunity, his first main event, number three guy in the world. | ||
| I know where he's approaching it from, but I am looking for my own career, right? | ||
| I want to look towards the title shot. | ||
| I understand. | ||
| Hopefully, we'll get it. | ||
| Yeah, you've had all these weird situations where things fell apart. | ||
| It's very unfortunate. | ||
| Did you feel like the Hamzat fight was strange too? | ||
| Because, like, here's this guy who's only had a few fights in the UFC. He's got a lot of hype behind him because he's had, like, the Mirchart fight was a great result. | ||
| He looked fantastic. | ||
| But then all of a sudden, he's fighting you. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It was weird, right? | ||
| Because two weeks before that, Dana White came out and was like, nah, I'm never going to fight Leon or no one in top five. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But then... | |
| Next week, he's like, Leon, you want to fight him? | ||
| I was like, you just said I'm too high-ranked for him. | ||
| Where do you think that came from? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I think everyone was turning him down, you know? | ||
| Everyone was turning me down as well, so it was like, okay. | ||
| You want to fight him? | ||
| I was like, okay, what about Kobe? | ||
| Kobe said no. | ||
| What about Marcelo? | ||
| Marcelo said no. | ||
| What about Wonderboy? | ||
| Wonderboy is injured. | ||
| So I was like, hey, you got the most hype in the division now that I could, like, piggyback off to get to a world title shot, right? | ||
| And this was a kid. | ||
| Then I built him up as this kid that can't be beaten. | ||
| He's tough. | ||
| So I was like, okay, I'll go out there. | ||
| I'll fight him. | ||
| And when I beat him, I'll fight for the world title. | ||
| And that was my plan, right? | ||
| To use this hype they're building around him to get me to a world title shot. | ||
| I'm always looking towards the title shot, right? | ||
| So any way I can get there easier. | ||
| I was going to use Hamzat to get there. | ||
| Isn't it weird how hype comes along sometimes? | ||
| Like some guys just get... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Random. | |
| They just get washed up in hype and they're just flying down the river. | ||
| Like, what's going on? | ||
| I know. | ||
| I've been in promotion for so long. | ||
| I had like an eight-second knockout and everything. | ||
| I did exactly what he did, but like you said, right? | ||
| Just random, just comes from nowhere. | ||
| Well, it's like sometimes it's justified. | ||
| Like, remember when Joaquin Buckley, when he landed on... | ||
| How do you say his... | ||
| How did... | ||
| How the fuck... | ||
| He's got the gentleman he kicked with that wild kick. | ||
| How do you say his last name? | ||
| That was a good kick. | ||
| It's a crazy kick. | ||
| Holding on one leg and he does a jump spinning back kick to the face with the other leg. | ||
| I was practicing it in the gyms the next day. | ||
| It's a wild technique. | ||
| Kasanganai. | ||
| Kasanganai, right? | ||
| That's how you say it, right? | ||
| That's hype that's deserved. | ||
| But, you know... | ||
| Every now and then, I mean, that makes sense. | ||
| Like, then people were paying attention to him, you know? | ||
| But every now and then, like, a guy will get so much hype and then it becomes, like, a thing of its own. | ||
| Like, people start paying attention to it more than anything. | ||
| And it's... | ||
| It's weird, like, personality and hype. | ||
| It's so important for selling fights. | ||
| Yeah, 100%. | ||
| So important. | ||
| It's been on that since back a day, right? | ||
| Since boxing, it's like, we can put the bums in the seat. | ||
| Yep, that's everything. | ||
| That's everything, right? | ||
| So it's not really about skill set. | ||
| A bit about skill set, but it's more about you can put the most bums in the seat. | ||
| It's about everything, right? | ||
| Like, remember when Prince Nassim Hamed would come out on a throne and they'd carry him out? | ||
| Yeah, there's certain things that have to sell. | ||
| Do you ever think about that? | ||
| Like, man, maybe I should talk more shit or maybe I should be more flamboyant. | ||
| Like, how do I get more hype or should I just keep winning? | ||
| Nah, if you just keep winning, keep doing your thing, right? | ||
| Because if I come out tomorrow now and start dressing like everyone's wearing like robes and shit now, I start wearing a robe and paint my hair pink and you'll be like, what the hell are you doing? | ||
| You know, so... | ||
| Then you look desperate, right? | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| Weird stuff. | ||
| Be yourself. | ||
| Keep winning. | ||
| That's important. | ||
| And they can't deny winners, right? | ||
| If you work hard and you win, they can't deny yourself. | ||
| I'll win it my way and I'll feel more... | ||
| I'll enjoy it better when I win it my way, so... | ||
| What has it been like going through this lull where you couldn't get a fight? | ||
| A lot of ups and downs, obviously. | ||
| You got... | ||
| That was my fourth camp before I fought Bilal. | ||
| Cutting the Woodley camp. | ||
| So, it was... | ||
| A lot of ups and downs, but I used that time off to grow, right? | ||
| I kind of changed my mentality, like, hey... | ||
| Instead of sitting around and bitching and complaining about no one would want to fight me. | ||
| Use it as a blessing. | ||
| Use it to improve your skill set. | ||
| Use it to improve your mindset. | ||
| That's what I did in the last year and a half. | ||
| I used it to approach the game differently. | ||
| If I can control what I can control, which is all I have to do is turn up to training. | ||
| That's it, right? | ||
| I can't control Macedon or Kobe not fighting me, but I can control training. | ||
| And that's what I did. | ||
| I controlled what I could control and turned up to the gym, working hard, dedicating myself, staying disciplined. | ||
| Because I know one day I'm going to fight, right? | ||
| So... | ||
| Instead of sitting around and complaining and not growing, not learning, maybe I'll use it into my favour. | ||
| It's a blessing and I have grown leaps and leaps since my last fight in the full RDA. I feel good. | ||
| I feel good. | ||
| Now when you say improve your mindset, what do you mean by that? | ||
| Just the way I look at the game. | ||
| As before, I was kind of fighting to win, not to hurt them. | ||
| I'm fighting now to hurt them. | ||
| I want to be a world champion. | ||
| I don't feel like winning is enough now, you know, because I'm on an 8-5 win streak. | ||
| That's the third most in the division history. | ||
| Is GSP won, I think? | ||
| No, Kamara's won, I think. | ||
| GSP won a million. | ||
| So now I'm fighting to hurt them and to Cement my name in the division. | ||
| That's my mindset now. | ||
| I'm not fighting to win no more. | ||
| I've won enough. | ||
| I know I can beat them. | ||
| The more I win, the more confidence I get. | ||
| The more I compete against these guys, the more I know I can be world champion. | ||
| You know, coming from the UK, everyone tells you that, you're from the UK, you can't wrestle, you can't do this, you can't do that. | ||
| And I'm proving it fight by fight, and I'm going to achieve being a world champion coming from the UK. And it's going to mean so much for the kids coming under me. | ||
| That's my motivation to be a world champion. | ||
| So this was like a conscious decision. | ||
| Do you remember making it? | ||
| You remember deciding, like, I'm going to stop trying to just win fights. | ||
| I'm going to decide to hurt people. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| It went like a day, but I remember my mind just over the last year or a year and a half, my mind just changing that you got everything to be able to do this. | ||
| I don't know what it was. | ||
| It was kind of just fighting just to... | ||
| It's like, I don't know. | ||
| You're kind of fine just to like win, right? | ||
| I think the money as well, like in USC, it's like, if you leave, you just get half of your pay. | ||
| But now, like Saturday night, it was like a flat fee, right? | ||
| So it's win, lose, or draw. | ||
| I got to get the same money. | ||
| And I still went out there and performed the best of my abilities. | ||
| So, they should probably change that as well. | ||
| But... | ||
| Yeah, I think the mindset changed over time. | ||
| We're not just one day. | ||
| Over the last year or so, my mind frame changed. | ||
| Do you ever work with a mental coach or anything like that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no. | |
| Never? | ||
| No, I don't believe in it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| I don't believe in it. | ||
| I got teammates that do it, you know, and work with coaches. | ||
| But I think my life experiences helped me in the position I'm in. | ||
| What specific life experiences? | ||
| Just coming from where I came from, you know. | ||
| A lot of ups and downs I came from. | ||
| Ups and downs is like the norm to me, right? | ||
| I look forward to facing that adversity. | ||
| When I do face it, I know I can get through it. | ||
| So that's what it is, really. | ||
| I look forward to adversity. | ||
| I've been here before. | ||
| I've been doing this as a kid, you know? | ||
| I look forward to it. | ||
| When did you get started in martial arts? | ||
|
unidentified
|
How old were you? | |
| 17. 17? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| Straight into MMA. I didn't start. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, really? | |
| Yeah, I didn't do nothing before. | ||
| I was hanging around on the street with your friends and getting into martial arts. | ||
| That's interesting, because when you watch you kick, you would swear that you had a traditional martial arts background. | ||
| Yeah, I did. | ||
| Everyone said that, so I had my gym. | ||
| But I did nothing at all before. | ||
| I went straight from hanging around the street with my friends to one day a gym was getting built in my area. | ||
| My mum said, try it out. | ||
| I tried it out and I was stuck to it. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| I fell in love with it. | ||
| I fell in love with the striking first, even though I was doing all of it, but the striking just caught my attention and then the grappling came later. | ||
| It's so interesting now that you're seeing a whole crop of kids that are evolving that came straight into MMA. Nothing else. | ||
| Yeah, I can imagine another 20 years. | ||
| My son now is doing martial arts. | ||
| He's just kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. | ||
| So I can't imagine their generation, what they're going to be like, right? | ||
| Because every fight, every year, there's a new technique that's coming out. | ||
| That calf kick, that's like a new technique that lasts, what, a couple years? | ||
| Four or five years. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| So I'm looking forward to see how far MMA goes and what's the next thing that's going to come. | ||
| Did the calf kick, did that surprise you, the popularity of it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| How quickly it became such an important technique because you land a few of them, just three or four of them, and then the guy's fucked. | ||
| I first had it when I went to A.K.A. and Luke Rockhold did it to me. | ||
| This was like five years ago. | ||
| And he kicked my calf when I was sparring. | ||
| But I didn't feel it when I was sparring. | ||
| But after the sparring, my legs were dead for like a week, you know? | ||
| So I thought, that's a good kick. | ||
| But I got like skinny shins. | ||
| I'm like scared to break my legs. | ||
| So I never try it. | ||
| But it's a good technique. | ||
| Right, when you see like the Anderson Silva break. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I got some bony legs, bro. | ||
| I'm not one kick in the calf. | ||
| I'm like body kicks. | ||
| I kick the thighs and the body and the head. | ||
| But the calf, I think it's like a technique to it as well, right? | ||
| You got to get like the meaty part of the shin. | ||
| So it's a good technique to use. | ||
| It's just so strange when you see like the Dustin Poirier fight, the first fight with Conor and then the second fight with Conor, how different it was not kicking the thigh, but instead kicking the calf. | ||
| Like shut him down, right? | ||
| Shut him down. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Should I got three kicks a land, did you think? | ||
| I mean, you'd have to go back and watch it. | ||
| I think it was a few. | ||
| When we were watching the countdown, Conor approached the game, just boxing, right? | ||
| You can tell, boxing, coaching, and that's all he was doing. | ||
| That was a good technique to use. | ||
| If you're going to fight him, you're looking at what he's doing in his training camp. | ||
| You're going to kick him, right? | ||
| He's a boxer. | ||
| So, fair play to Dustin. | ||
| He did an amazing job. | ||
| But, you know, Conor has that southpaw stance, heavy on the front leg, puts a lot of weight down there. | ||
| Especially when he throws his backhand, you know? | ||
| And he timed it perfectly, he throws his backhand, he kind of like slipped to the inside and landed a kick. | ||
| It was a good technique to use. | ||
| Yeah, when you see techniques that are sort of new to the sport, do you start looking like, what's going to be next? | ||
| What is it, going to be an axe kick? | ||
| What's the new thing that people are going to figure out how to do? | ||
| I know. | ||
| I'm trying to think. | ||
| Because the coffee came from nowhere, right? | ||
| I'm trying to think. | ||
| Well, Benson Henderson was the first guy, so I'll throw it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| He was the first guy. | ||
| I remember him doing it. | ||
| To be effective with it? | ||
| To, like, stop people with it? | ||
| It wasn't as effective for some reason, but he was using it. | ||
| I mean, it was definitely doing damage, but he wasn't, like, a lot of guys are stopping people with those now. | ||
| Yeah, stopping it. | ||
| Yeah, I'm trying to think what other technique he could use, right? | ||
| Because elbows are already in. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Maybe. | |
| Remember when Anderson did that? | ||
| That was crazy. | ||
| Against Tony Fricklin, right? | ||
| That was in England. | ||
| In his prime, he's like, my favorite fighter, man. | ||
| To this day, I think he's the GOAT, you know, from how easy he made it look. | ||
| People forget because of the end of his career. | ||
| If you just stop looking at the end of his career and go back and watch the Dan Henderson fight. | ||
| Dana White sent me the Dan Henderson fight the other day. | ||
| He goes, watch this fight again. | ||
| He goes, he fucking throws Dan Henderson around. | ||
| Who throws Dan Henderson around like this? | ||
| The GOAT. The GOAT. When he was in his prime. | ||
| I remember watching him when I was like 18 years old and watching Silva perform, you know, and Stephen Bonner, he was like, he just knocked him out with a jab. | ||
| I was like, oh God. | ||
| That was Forrest Griffin. | ||
| Forrest Griffin? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Crazy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| Well, he was just, his timing and his precision was just so amazing. | ||
| Like when he front kicked Vitor in the face, like, God damn. | ||
| I've been trying to learn that kick now for, In sparring for like years. | ||
| I just can't get the timing of it. | ||
| You always go like straight up and you just like skim the lip or something. | ||
| But you gotta get it like under the chin, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| To knock them out. | ||
| But it's a good technique to use. | ||
| I think to land it as well, if you look them in the eye and then get them staring at you, then go bang! | ||
| Then you land it, right? | ||
| But looking in the chest when you're sparring, I think Anderson looked down. | ||
| I think he did one of those where he looked down, then he kicked up. | ||
| I think that's what he did to Vitor, I'm pretty sure. | ||
| Did they? | ||
| Yeah, I think so. | ||
| See if you can find it. | ||
| Anderson Silva, KO, Vitor Belfort. | ||
| Did they look him in his eyes first, though, to freeze him, then look down and go up? | ||
| I don't remember, but I do remember thinking that he looked at the body and then threw it to the face. | ||
| That was good. | ||
| It's a sneaky thing to do, right? | ||
| Totally look down and kick up. | ||
| Anderson was a master. | ||
| He really was, man. | ||
| I remember the first time he fought Chris Lieben, the odds were... | ||
| He was favored, but not by much. | ||
| And I remember telling my friends, bet the house. | ||
| Bet the house on the Brazilian. | ||
| I'm like, this motherfucker is on another level. | ||
| Like, they don't even know yet. | ||
| Let's see it here. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| See, he's looking down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Whack. | |
| Boom. | ||
| Fuck. | ||
| Perfect front kick. | ||
| And before that, I remember I had a conversation with someone. | ||
| I'm like, eh, you really don't throw it to the face. | ||
| Like, most people didn't... | ||
| Yeah, to the body, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Go to the body with it? | ||
| Most people didn't think that that was a technique that you could use effectively to the face. | ||
| Especially on a seasoned striker like Vitor. | ||
| That was insane. | ||
| Oh, look, Dana White got caught. | ||
| He wasn't even watching. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| Bang! | ||
| Right through the guard. | ||
| Back that up again. | ||
| You can see Dana White's playing with his phone. | ||
| See him? | ||
| Look at him. | ||
| Look at him there. | ||
| Wasn't even watching. | ||
| How dare you, Dana? | ||
| Missed one of the greatest KOs in the history of the sport. | ||
| And then after that, Lyoto Machida did it to Randy Couture. | ||
| He did a jumping front kick. | ||
| He was good as well in his prime Machida. | ||
| He kind of just fell off, right? | ||
| Well, you know, I mean, how long can you compete at that level? | ||
| You know, it's like for some guys, they can sustain it for 10 years. | ||
| And some guys, it's only like three or four. | ||
| What age do you think prime is in MMA, would you say? | ||
| I think it depends on how you train. | ||
| I think it depends on the amount of damage your body's taken, whether or not you've had serious injuries. | ||
| Back injuries seem to fuck people up more than anything. | ||
| Because knee injuries are bad, but you can recover from them. | ||
| At least, unless it's bad meniscus tears. | ||
| Ligaments seem to be, you could recover from them, but it depends. | ||
| I think for most fighters, it's in the 30s. | ||
| It's like 30 to 34, 35. That seems to be the prime. | ||
| And if you're natural, that's when the wheels fall off. | ||
| Right around 37, 38. Yeah, that's when you go to 1FC. 1FC, Benatar. | ||
| For real, right? | ||
| Nah, for real. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Jesus, you ready to go? | ||
| Listen, man. | ||
| We're just telling the truth. | ||
| We're just telling the truth. | ||
| Nah, I think you're prime in MMA. Yeah, about 30 to 35. When they were doing TRT, though, didn't you think it was kind of crazy? | ||
| When you saw Vitor, like when Vitor fought Rockhold, when Vitor fought Bisping, and he just had muscles coming out of his teeth. | ||
| Another level. | ||
| The Brazilians at one point owned... | ||
| MMA, right? | ||
| Then once you saw it, it came in, it all fell off. | ||
| Which is weird. | ||
| I'm not saying it on Juice, but it's a weird thing. | ||
| Clearly some were on Juice. | ||
| There's no way they weren't. | ||
| And Vitor was on TRT. I mean, it was an open thing. | ||
| You were allowed to have it. | ||
| Which is strange, because like... | ||
| The thing that young people have is it's like this weird balance, right? | ||
| You're young, you have this incredible body, you move fast, you heal quick, but you don't have the knowledge and experience that an older fighter has. | ||
| But then if you take an older fighter and then you fill him up with juice, now you've got some weird situations. | ||
| Because now you've got both. | ||
| You've got a guy who's got experience and then you've got a guy whose body behaves like a young guy's body. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nah. | |
| I've never touched no juice, so... | ||
| I understand. | ||
| But you're young. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| When you hit, like, 40, you might be like, damn, someone says, Leon, come on over to Singapore, we've got some big fights for you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jacked. | |
| Nah, I felt good, but my body was good last week. | ||
| I felt good last week, so... | ||
| I was jacked last week, so it's all good. | ||
| Nah. | ||
| How old are you now? | ||
| 29. Yeah, you're still... | ||
| You're not even in your prime yet. | ||
| Nah, it's coming. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Exactly, so I'm beating all these guys, you know, so... | ||
| I think everyone above me is like 35, 34. I think Usman is 33, 34. Masvidal is 36. They're all like older men, you know? | ||
| So I'm not the youngest guy in the top five. | ||
| Were you surprised that they decided to have Usman and Masvidal too? | ||
| Um... | ||
| Surprised? | ||
| No, because I know, like you said, it's about money, right? | ||
| Putting asses in the seat. | ||
| I think if the fight 10 out of 10 times, I think Usman Pro win 9, probably. | ||
| It's a good, entertaining fight for the fans, but martial art is one of them fights, right? | ||
| We're just going to go out there and grapple him again probably. | ||
| I want to see what Masvidal can do with the camp. | ||
| Because clearly he wasn't prepared physically. | ||
| Take a fight on six days notice. | ||
| There's no way he can really be prepared. | ||
| Nah, he was training. | ||
| He had, like, wrestling coaches. | ||
| Like, I remember watching him. | ||
| He was, like, getting good training, you know? | ||
| He wasn't, like, sitting on a couch for the last, like, six months. | ||
| Didn't take six days and fought. | ||
| Right, but you know as well as I know there's a difference between just training and then preparing for a fight, right? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| What do you think he beats him? | ||
| No, I'm not saying that. | ||
| But what I am saying is there were some very interesting moments in that fight where he was outstriking him. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But, you know, Kamara was just so strong. | ||
| It's such a good wrestler. | ||
| And Fingy dropped him. | ||
| Bernal dropped him the other day. | ||
| So it'd be a good fight. | ||
| I'll be watching it for sure, you know. | ||
| But I think if I had to put money on it, I'd probably go Usman for the win again. | ||
| Well, once a guy beats a guy, he's always going to be the favorite to fight again, but it's just an interesting fight. | ||
| I'm excited to see how Masvidal performs with a camp. | ||
| No, it'll be good. | ||
| It'll be good. | ||
| I'd love to see it as well, but I can't see what he could do different, you know? | ||
| He's going to come out again, be it. | ||
| What he does is swing for the fences and try and knock him out. | ||
| He's going to high guard and just grapple him. | ||
| I just can't see what he does different. | ||
| Unless he catches him and knocks him out, I just can't see what he does different. | ||
| When you and Masvidal got at it at that post-fight press conference, did you expect that a fight was going to come after that? | ||
| That you would eventually... | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| I thought, okay, that's the next fight, right? | ||
| Straight away. | ||
| To have it now for two years, two and a half years, it's like... | ||
| We still haven't fought yet. | ||
| I've been calling him out ever since. | ||
| The UFC wants it. | ||
| But you just keep turning it down and say, no, you don't want to fight. | ||
| Well, that's the weird thing. | ||
| It's like, you're... | ||
| At an elite level, the top of the food chain in terms of your skill level, but you're not as known as you should be with the skill level that you have. | ||
| It's like you're the best kept secret in the division. | ||
| It's weird. | ||
| It's a weird thing, but... | ||
| It'll change. | ||
| Yeah, it's going to change 100%. | ||
| It's coming. | ||
| I can feel it. | ||
| It's changing, you know, slowly. | ||
| But I think number one should fight number two, right? | ||
| Number three should fight number four, and that's the way it should be. | ||
| Right. | ||
| But it's like, I'd have to go to number 13 to fight Bilal. | ||
| I'd have to go to fight Hamzak. | ||
| Because all these guys are like divas, right? | ||
| They're all just demanding. | ||
| Like Kobe, for example, just demanding title shots. | ||
| Like, just got beat like one fight ago. | ||
| Not knocked out. | ||
| One fight ago, right? | ||
| No, he beat Tyron after that. | ||
| Yeah, so Tyrone then beat Tyrone in four cents, right? | ||
| He fought Usman, then he beat... | ||
| It was just Tyrone, right? | ||
| There's one fight, right? | ||
| I think so. | ||
| After that. | ||
| I think it was just a Woodley fight. | ||
| Yeah, I'm sure it was. | ||
| Pretty sure. | ||
| I don't think you deserve a title shot. | ||
| You just got beat, like, convincingly. | ||
| You weren't like a... | ||
| It was a close fight, to be fair, but you did get stopped, you know? | ||
| So, I don't think you get a title shot straight away. | ||
| That's a fight you would like? | ||
| Kobe? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Now, yeah, for sure, 100%. | ||
| Obviously, I wanted a title shot, but now the fighting... | ||
| The only reason why I would say it'd be better for you to fight someone before the title shot is just to get the hype out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| So that with the pay-per-view gets built up, so that you'll get more money. | ||
| It'll be a bigger deal. | ||
| Nah, for sure. | ||
| I won't be sitting around waiting for the other fighting, you know? | ||
| So we're trying to get it, and Kobe's a weird one, so we don't know what's going to happen, but we're trying to get a fight done. | ||
| Yeah, well, the one thing that does come with Kobe is a lot of attention, and that's the good part of it. | ||
| It's a good fight, technically, you know? | ||
| I think the top... | ||
| All the guys, they're all similar, right? | ||
| In the skill set, what they're going to do when they fight me, right? | ||
| They're going to come to wrestle. | ||
| If I fight Ousmane, they're going to come to wrestle. | ||
| Kobe's going to come to wrestle. | ||
| Bilal doesn't come to wrestle. | ||
| They know what they're going to do. | ||
| It's easier to prepare for them. | ||
| I was saying before, he kind of swapped them out. | ||
| So when Hamzat fell out, I was like, okay, put anyone in, because they're all going to do the same thing anyway. | ||
| So swap another one in, and that's what it was. | ||
| It's all normal. | ||
| They're all going to try to grab ahold of you. | ||
| Yeah, I didn't try to grab ahold of you. | ||
| That means nothing to me. | ||
| I feel good with grappling. | ||
| I feel good with the striking. | ||
| I just can't wait to show my skillset and show what I'm about. | ||
| I haven't done what I could yet in the game, but I want to show it and I'm going to show it. | ||
| When you put together a camp, like say if you get a Colby fight, who designs your camp? | ||
| Do you design everything yourself in terms of when you do strength and conditioning, when you run, when you spar, when you hit mitts? | ||
| Yeah, I haven't got a head coach. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Nah, I ain't got like one coach that I said, this is my head coach, right? | ||
| I got like coaches for different martial arts and they all come together and I put them all together and they communicate like that. | ||
| But I haven't got like one person that say, okay, you have to do this, you have to do that, you have to do that. | ||
| I prefer it that way as well because I feel with head coaches, from my experience, it's like you do it my way or no way. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| You can't train 10 guys the same way. | ||
| Right. | ||
| I think that's what coaches do. | ||
| You've got one person, you train them all the same way. | ||
| But it might be different. | ||
| I'm tall and southpaw. | ||
| He might be short and orthodox. | ||
| He can't train me the same way you train him. | ||
| That's what I do and I feel comfortable. | ||
| I feel good doing it that way. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't think nothing's wrong with it. | ||
| Just for me, I prefer... | ||
| Obviously, I talk back and forth with my coaches and we run game plans together. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| So if I don't agree with it, Let's say my striking coach comes to me and be like, okay, for this fight you need to throw a head kick. | ||
| I'll be like, yeah, but I don't want to throw a head kick in this fight because I don't think it's going to work for this guy. | ||
| If I watch him and see what he does, that's what I do. | ||
| I watch the person, I break them down and say, okay. | ||
| Everyone's got habits, right, that they do. | ||
| Some people like to pass to the left. | ||
| Some people like to pass to the right. | ||
| So if he's good at passing to his left, if he can make him pass through his right, if he's not good, then you're going to have more success. | ||
| And that's what I try to do basically all over the game. | ||
| So if he's good at jabbing, if he takes away his jab just by moving out of the way of it, then he has to throw something else, which is not natural to him. | ||
| And that's the way I approach the game, really. | ||
| Just try to throw them off for what they're good at, but take it away from them and let them use what they're bad at. | ||
| And so, if you put together a camp, so you basically just have all these people that you work with, you work with a wrestling coach, a jiu-jitsu coach, striking coach, and then just you decide how the fight's going to play out based on how you're watching tapes, you're watching... | ||
| Yeah, I watch tapes. | ||
| No... | ||
| They send information as well. | ||
| You know, I'm not just like mastering it all myself. | ||
| They send like, okay, this is what he does. | ||
| And then I'll look, I'll be like, okay, what would you do to counteract that? | ||
| And if they tell me, I'll be like, okay, if it feels good to me, then I'll do it. | ||
| But if it doesn't, it's not natural. | ||
| I think it has to be natural movement, right? | ||
| right? | ||
| If you're kind of like forcing yourself to, like for example, this fight with Bilal, the coach was like, okay, you need to throw the uppercut, the back uppercut because he dips into it. | ||
| But in sparring, those weren't, sorry, or weren't, You can swear. | ||
| Yeah, it's the internet. | ||
| Fuck yeah. | ||
| That's hilarious. | ||
| Yeah, for the sparring, I was trying to, tried to do what he told me to do, but every time I was throwing an uppercut, the guy was catching me over the top with a hook, And I was like, This didn't come natural to me, so I said, I don't use a technique for this fight, because every time I'm trying to inspire, I'm getting caught with shots. | ||
| In boxing, that's what happens, right? | ||
| A lot of times, you guys throw lead uppercuts. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| But in boxing, they get off nice. | ||
| Canelo, for example, is good with it. | ||
| You just touch, you go bang, and it's good. | ||
| It looks good, but in boxing... | ||
| The guys are like, they're more like top top right here, right? | ||
| So you can work the body a bit more. | ||
| But in MMA, the guys are more like elusive and they've got different guards. | ||
| They've got long guards, tight guards, everyone's different. | ||
| So yeah, I think boxing and striking is two different things. | ||
| Do you work with boxers at all? | ||
| Yeah, sparring. | ||
| If they go to a boxing gym, it's like a war, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah? | |
| Yeah, in the UK. Especially if you're an MMA fighter. | ||
| If you go to a boxing gym, you're like, okay. | ||
| My coaches always take me to gyms and be like, okay, you spar this pro. | ||
| And then he's like, he's always like, just coming out bloody and just having like a tear up. | ||
| He's never like a play spar. | ||
| He's always like, if you're going to spar a boxer, you're going to have a war. | ||
| That doesn't seem like a lot of fun. | ||
| Nah, it's not. | ||
| How do you approach sparring? | ||
| Do you think that you should, like, you see, like, Max Holloway, like, his last fight didn't spar at all and looked fucking amazing, like, one of his best performances against Calvin Cater? | ||
| I've got a teammate that does it as well, Tom Breeze. | ||
| He's the same way. | ||
| Breeze doesn't spar? | ||
| No. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Yeah, he lasts two, three fights, so he doesn't want to do it. | ||
| That's interesting. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| So, I think each did their own, right? | ||
| How does he do it? | ||
| Does he do drills? | ||
| Like, simulations of situations? | ||
| Yeah, situations like play spar, you know? | ||
| Just like range finders, shots, really. | ||
| He's not really getting hit properly. | ||
| For me, I prefer sparring. | ||
| I spar twice a week in camp. | ||
| Do you play spar? | ||
| Do you touch light or do you blast? | ||
| Do you have full power sparring sessions? | ||
| In camp, one spar a week would be big gloves. | ||
| You can hit hard, you can go harder in big gloves. | ||
| And then on the Saturday, it's a little glove, which is the bumper gloves. | ||
| And that's more like play, spar. | ||
| That normally end up in a grappling match because it's small gloves. | ||
| It's hard to pull your shots right in small gloves. | ||
| So it's like one hard on a Wednesday. | ||
| Then Saturday is more like a technical working through your technique, spar. | ||
| Yeah, because it's so interesting how the ties do it because they fight so often that when they spar, they're just kind of touching each other and playing with each other. | ||
| And it's interesting if you talk to guys like John Wayne Parr, guys who trained in Thailand, he said there's a lot of wisdom to that because when you spar hard, you don't try things. | ||
| You're always worried about the consequences, but you can hone your fine reflexes by just light sparring because you don't worry about the consequences as much. | ||
| And they're already tough. | ||
| They already know how to fight. | ||
| There's so many different philosophies when it comes to Yeah, it's all different, right? | ||
| Because Russians do the same thing in wrestling. | ||
| They wrestle for like five hours a day, but they're just like drills. | ||
| They're not going hard, hard, hard, you know? | ||
| They're more just like drilling technique and just play technique. | ||
| You don't resist, you know? | ||
| So if you add it up over the years, there's probably way more hours in the gym than what you're doing if you're going hard, hard, hard every day. | ||
| So I see where they're coming from, but I think it's different. | ||
| I think you have to, for me anyway, you have to get that hit right when someone's trying to knock you out. | ||
| But they're coming at you full pace and you're reflexing, you're getting shots. | ||
| And I like to feel the shots before going into a fight. | ||
| Let's say I didn't spar for the whole camp. | ||
| I'll be paranoid, but can I still take a punch? | ||
| You know? | ||
| So I want to feel that I can, you know? | ||
| I feel it was different. | ||
| How many years were you training before you had your first fight? | ||
| Um... | ||
| I saw an amateur fight like six months in. | ||
| And I won. | ||
| I beat like a blue belt. | ||
| My gym did like a tournament. | ||
| It was like an in-house tournament. | ||
| Like a smoker? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| In-house tournament. | ||
| And then some blue belt came. | ||
| And then I did it. | ||
| And I won the tournament. | ||
| I started training for like six months. | ||
| And that's like kept me in the gym, you know. | ||
| And having like positive feedback from all the coaches and shit. | ||
| So yeah, about six months in. | ||
| Had my first amateur fight. | ||
| So... | ||
| You just took to it? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like, striking and martial arts just seems like something that... | ||
| Normal. | ||
| Normal. | ||
| Because I was a good fighter anyway, from, like, young, on the street, and in school and shit, so... | ||
| But you just didn't have any coaching at all? | ||
| You just knew how to fight? | ||
| On the street? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Street fight is a street fight, right? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Have you off? | ||
| So, nah, no coaching. | ||
| 2017, didn't start learning what it was, and that's it. | ||
| And did you stop street fighting when that happened? | ||
| I just started, no, but later on, yeah. | ||
| Because I ended up street fighting now for a while. | ||
| But at the start, you're kind of just like testing out your skill set. | ||
| Oh, just to see? | ||
| See how it works. | ||
| See how it works, you know? | ||
| People on the street, really, especially in the UK, they're not very good fighters, you know? | ||
| And they kind of just swing wild and you end up in a tussle and that's it. | ||
| But you can pick your shots good and see openings. | ||
| It's a different ballgame. | ||
| Yeah, that's a terrifying thing. | ||
| If you don't know how to fight and you're talking shit, then you see a guy moving and you're like, oh, Christ. | ||
| I've seen so many YouTube videos of like two guys fighting and one guy is talking all kinds of shit that he realizes like halfway and oh my god this guy actually trains. | ||
| He knows how to fight. | ||
| I think it's gonna be a bad night. | ||
| I've been out before you know like bouncers like the doorman and like wearing like gum shields and But I've seen these guys in the gym, right? | ||
| And they can't... | ||
| They're not really... | ||
| They look tough, but they can't fight, you know? | ||
| And I've brought them to the gym before and, like, I just sparred this kid that's, like, 17. He's, like, a little skinny kid. | ||
| And the skinny kid, like, beats them up, you know? | ||
| And, like, humbles them. | ||
| And it's a mad thing when you can fight. | ||
| It gives you... | ||
| I think it gives you confidence as well to not fight when you do go out. | ||
| Oh, for sure. | ||
| You know? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's the reason I put my son in it. | ||
| How old's your son now? | ||
| He's eight. | ||
| Eight? | ||
| Oh, that's a good age to start. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| So... | ||
| I think it gives you the confidence to... | ||
| You know what you're about. | ||
| I don't need to go out there and be tough and prove it. | ||
| I think that's what martial arts did for me. | ||
| It kind of calmed me down. | ||
| When I was younger and I was fighting, it's more just about proving yourself, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Shit talking and things like... | ||
| Can I have some coffee? | ||
| Yeah, sure, brother. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sorry. | |
| If you want another one of those monsters, we got those two in the back. | ||
| Cheers. | ||
| Cheers. | ||
| Good man. | ||
| I need some of this coffee after last night. | ||
| It was a good night. | ||
| It was a lot of fun. | ||
| Hanging out afterwards too. | ||
| Chappelle and those fellas, they go hard like that every night. | ||
| Do they? | ||
| I was done after like 2 o'clock. | ||
| I gotta go. | ||
| Dave's got a philosophy behind it, though. | ||
| It's actually well thought out. | ||
| He's like, the hang is important. | ||
| He's like, it's not just about doing shows. | ||
| It's like, the hang actually makes you funnier, and we talk about comedy during the hang. | ||
| It's always talking about jokes and talking about... | ||
| That's what I said to my coaches this week. | ||
| I was sitting down. | ||
| I was like, okay, this is what we're going to remember, right? | ||
| Hanging around in the hotel. | ||
| We don't really remember the fights when you're old. | ||
| You remember when you win or you lost, right? | ||
| But what you remember is the banty that you had with your coaches. | ||
| That's what I said to my coaches last week. | ||
| We treasure these moments. | ||
| This is what we work for. | ||
| Just enjoy it. | ||
| Camaraderie. | ||
| Yeah, man. | ||
| That's what it's all about. | ||
| That's what you're going to remember when you're old. | ||
| There's a similarity in the way fighters and comedians hang out with is that not too many people understand you guys like you. | ||
| You know, like fighters and your coaches and your training partners and the people you work with, they know you. | ||
| Regular people would never understand the amount of sacrifice and commitment and work. | ||
| What it's like to go through hard sparring sessions, what it's like to go through hard strength and conditioning sessions, that you're always pushing yourself, constantly pushing yourself. | ||
| They get it. | ||
| So it's hard to relate, I'm sure, to other people. | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| To be fair, all my friends, they train as well. | ||
| All your friends train? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Most of them train. | ||
| Since I got in it, they all kind of went in it as well. | ||
| They don't compete. | ||
| They're like businesses and do other shit, but they train martial arts, either boxing or strength conditioning. | ||
| They do something, so they kind of understand it. | ||
| They tell me shit. | ||
| I don't know about fights. | ||
| If you've seen this fight, I was like, nah, I don't watch it. | ||
| In the UK, it's at 3 in the morning, but they stay up and watch it. | ||
| I'm not staying up to watch the fights. | ||
| There's so many different disciplines that you could follow. | ||
| If you start paying attention to Muay Thai, or paying attention to boxing, or jujitsu, there's not enough time. | ||
| There's so many matches you could watch. | ||
| Yeah, it's too much. | ||
| I enjoy boxing. | ||
| I love watching boxing. | ||
| MMA, I watch MMA as well, but if I had to choose, I like watching boxing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Do you think you'll ever box? | ||
| Like when you saw Conor fight Floyd. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like if an opportunity, something along those lines. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, for sure. | |
| 100%. | ||
| I'll do that for sure. | ||
| I enjoy sparring boxers as well. | ||
| I enjoy switching stances as well. | ||
| I'll probably box one day. | ||
| I'd love to try it out because I've got good hands. | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| But it's not like... | ||
| Nah, nah. | ||
| Not now. | ||
| My goal now is to be a UFC world champion. | ||
| After that, I'll probably look down that role. | ||
| But once I achieve this goal, then I'll move on. | ||
| So, you were saying that you don't have a head coach, so you just have head coaches in all these different disciplines. | ||
| So, do you have a strength and conditioning coach that you use? | ||
| Yeah, Johnny Reynolds. | ||
| I've been working with him now for about eight years, I think. | ||
| Yeah, about eight years, six to eight years. | ||
| Before, I was working with his brother. | ||
| His brother was Anthony Joshua. | ||
| That's his head strength conditioning coach. | ||
| Then I went from his brother to Johnny. | ||
| Now he's my strength conditioning coach. | ||
| We've been working together now for a while. | ||
| And how many days a week do you do that? | ||
| Strength conditioning? | ||
| Two, three times a week. | ||
| So it's Tuesday, Thursday. | ||
| Then on Saturday, we either do hills or we do tracks or something. | ||
| But yeah. | ||
| And do you schedule it so that you do that and then do you do it after you spar? | ||
| Do you do it before? | ||
| Like how do you do it on days where you don't spar? | ||
| Yeah, I don't know. | ||
| Days I don't spar. | ||
| I'll probably Tuesday morning. | ||
| If I spar Wednesday, I do it Tuesday morning. | ||
| Then I have like a light, a light Tuesday night. | ||
| Then I spar heavy Wednesday. | ||
| Then like pads Wednesday night. | ||
| So I kind of like do it so it's like hard, medium, hard. | ||
| If you're tired, I'm good at listening to my body, right? | ||
| So I feel tired. | ||
| I know I'm tired. | ||
| I'll have a day off. | ||
| And that's what it is. | ||
| Our coaches, sometimes, like one head coach, will be like, nah, you have to come training. | ||
| Be tough. | ||
| Do this, do that, you know? | ||
| But I believe you should listen to your body. | ||
| You feel tired that day. | ||
| Have a day off. | ||
| I think it's more mental, right? | ||
| Everyone thinks, ah, I need to train. | ||
| I need to do this. | ||
| But you don't. | ||
| If you're tired, you'll be way more better if you had, like, one or two days off and then come back and train and fight. | ||
| So... | ||
| I think it's more mental than anything. | ||
| So this is like trial and error. | ||
| You figured it out. | ||
| Yeah, I figured it out over the years. | ||
| Yeah, I figured it out over the years. | ||
| Like I said, I think it's mental. | ||
| For example, look at... | ||
| Look at Floyd Mayweather, right? | ||
| I was watching Countdown the other day. | ||
| I was having McDonald's and shit. | ||
| Yeah, he eats a lot of McDonald's. | ||
| You know? | ||
| I think he eats really good too, though. | ||
| I think so, but... | ||
| Part of that is to show people... | ||
| Nah, no. | ||
| I don't give a fuck. | ||
| You're eating a cheeseburger and I'll still beat people's asses. | ||
| Some people will do that and like... | ||
| Fuck them up mentally. | ||
| Shit, I had a burger. | ||
| I'm going to lose the fight. | ||
| I was like, you're going to lose the fight, bro. | ||
| Joe, do you think? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Do you use anything to monitor your recovery? | ||
| Like, do you use a whoop strap or anything like that when you check your... | ||
| No. | ||
| The PR gave me that ring. | ||
| Oh, an aura ring? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I tried it. | ||
| It was hard to keep remembering to put it on and take it off. | ||
| Plus, if you're doing boxing or jiu-jitsu, to leave it on, it's like... | ||
| No, you can't do that. | ||
| Have you ever seen what happens to fingers? | ||
| No. | ||
| You know, that's why they develop those silicone rings when fingers get sheathed. | ||
| Have you ever seen that? | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| Google that. | ||
| It is horrific. | ||
| Wedding rings, what happens is they dig into the meat of your finger and it pulls the finger meat and the muscle completely off. | ||
| Because the metal from the ring, like, if you're in a bad situation, I know guys have happened And it came off? | ||
| The skin came off? | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Terrible. | ||
| I know guys have had it happen in rolling, where like, say the ring will get pinned like this, and it'll just pull back the meat. | ||
| Google! | ||
| Yeah, you should show it. | ||
| People should see it, because I know guys who roll with wedding rings on, and I've seen them do it, and I'm like, hey man, take that fucking thing off. | ||
| Oh, my wife, she doesn't want... | ||
| I'm like, listen to me, bitch. | ||
| Take that shit out. | ||
| You're gonna lose your finger. | ||
| Like, you will lose your finger. | ||
| Like, it's possible to lose use of your finger. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll show you what I'm looking at because I don't want to look at it for a long time. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Just bust it out there. | ||
| Wedding ring. | ||
| Did you Google wedding ring sheathing? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, finger sheathing injuries. | |
| Yeah, from wedding rings. | ||
| There's some horrible ones, man. | ||
| I don't see any of these. | ||
| Are these wedding ring ones? | ||
| Did you pull up a wedding ring? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I mean... | |
| Wedding ring finger sheath. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| That's what I'm talking about. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| Click on that one. | ||
| That's what happens. | ||
| Like, literally, it pulled the guy's fucking finger off. | ||
| The wedding ring digs into your hand, it digs into the meat of the hand, and it just tears it right off. | ||
| You gotta be real careful with those things. | ||
| That's why they invented, like, Michael Chandler has a company. | ||
| Jesus Christ, why can't I remember the name? | ||
| His ring company. | ||
| They make the best ones. | ||
| What is this company? | ||
| Can I have a monster? | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| It's also called Ring Avulsion. | ||
| Sorry, I was looking nasty. | ||
| What is Chandler's company called? | ||
| Because he has the best ones. | ||
| What, doing rings? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Groove life? | |
| Groove life, that sort of thing. | ||
| They make great belts too, but they make a silicone wedding ring that just... | ||
| Come on? | ||
| Yeah, it won't fuck your finger up. | ||
| Well, just take the ring off when you're trying to put it back on? | ||
| Yeah, you should. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| It happened to Jimmy Fallon a couple years ago, and cooking something slipped and fell, and went to grab the island in the kitchen. | ||
| Oh, really? | ||
| And he chiefed his finger? | ||
| It's happened to many people doing random things like that. | ||
| That's why Groove Life, I think, invented those. | ||
| I believe the store was an Alaskan hunting guide that figured it out. | ||
| He's the guy that invented that specific type of ring. | ||
| Can you tell Jeff to bring Monster in for the gentleman? | ||
| Oh, sure. | ||
| And tell him to get me one of them. | ||
| Just bring some of those Kill Cliffs, too. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll describe them, of course. | |
| Okay, thanks. | ||
| Yeah, I'm telling you, those guys do that every night. | ||
| I don't know how they do it. | ||
| And then they got the Rona and didn't even get sick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's crazy. | |
| Both of them. | ||
| Donnell Rawlings and Dave Chappelle both got the Rona and had nothing. | ||
| Just nothing. | ||
| They were just crazy. | ||
| Quarantine their hotel room. | ||
| I said, no symptoms? | ||
| No symptoms. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| Oh, fuck. | ||
| I was done. | ||
| I had it in December and I lost like six kgs. | ||
| I don't know what it's like in pounds. | ||
| I lost my smell, my taste. | ||
| I had like two weeks off because that's what you meant to do and went back to training and my body just felt weak, you know? | ||
| I had to pull out of the fight, so I had it bad. | ||
| Was that a situation where you were training hard and so your immune system was kind of broken down and then you caught it? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I believe so. | ||
| Because that's like, yeah, I think that's what it was. | ||
| I was working so hard in camp and then your body just shut down, right? | ||
| And then you had two weeks off. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| You got monsters, whatever you want. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Yeah, when you had like two weeks off and try to go back at the same intensity that you was two weeks ago, you just can't do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| So I have to pull out. | ||
| That Hamzat picture of his sink where he coughed up blood in the sink is fucking crazy. | ||
| But apparently he's had lung issues before. | ||
| He's had some sort of lung issue in the past. | ||
| What is that called? | ||
| Not pneumonia, but something that a lot of people get. | ||
| God damn it, I'm trying to remember that. | ||
| It's a very common disease that people get with coughing. | ||
| Maybe that's it. | ||
| I think that is it. | ||
| I think it's bronchitis. | ||
| I think Hamzat has bronchitis too. | ||
| So that on top of getting corona fucked him up pretty bad. | ||
| Is he recovering good? | ||
| He said he was going to retire. | ||
| I've seen it, but then he's like, no, son. | ||
| I know, Dana said no, but Dana doesn't want anybody to retire, which is kind of crazy. | ||
| He's still letting Khabib hold onto the belt. | ||
| Yeah, I know. | ||
| But, you know, Khabib, he's got his own life, man. | ||
| You can't tell him, you know. | ||
| I think he's going to come back, though. | ||
| You think so? | ||
| Yeah, I think so. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why? | |
| I don't know. | ||
| I think he's always training. | ||
| He's always around the fight. | ||
| Once he has some time off, I think he's going to come back. | ||
| I think they should set up Khabib versus GSP. Yeah. | ||
| Because GSP wants another fight. | ||
| That'd be good. | ||
| And I think he can make 55. I think he can make it. | ||
| Yeah, he said he can make it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They should definitely do it. | ||
| 30, you know, would be perfect, right? | ||
| If that was me, I wouldn't want to go out 29. I'd have to get out 30, man. | ||
| I'm coming back just to get out 30. Yeah. | ||
| It would be annoying. | ||
| Well, I just, I think, you know, he made a promise to his mother after his father died. | ||
| I just don't think he's going to come. | ||
| I could be wrong, but I think... | ||
| How long do you think they should leave it for to destrip him? | ||
| Not much longer. | ||
| How long has it been now? | ||
| When did the fight last... | ||
| Well, he fought Justin. | ||
| It was during the COVID, right? | ||
| Because they fought in Abu Dhabi with no audience. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I think that was six months ago, maybe? | ||
| Something like that? | ||
| Yeah, probably give him a little bit longer, probably. | ||
| Because he's been so dominant. | ||
| I think you should give him just a little bit longer to see what he's going to do. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, unless he says, I'm done. | ||
| Leave me alone now. | ||
| Well, look at what they did with Jon Jones. | ||
| You know, they just basically stripped Jon Jones. | ||
| He said, I'm going to go up to heavyweight. | ||
| And they said, okay. | ||
| And that's it. | ||
| He abandoned the belt. | ||
| And then they stripped him right away. | ||
| I mean, he easily could have held on to that belt while trying to try a fight or two at heavyweight. | ||
| He was going to fight for the lightweight belt. | ||
| The light heavyweight belt? | ||
| Or the lightweight belt. | ||
| That's interesting, right? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I think Oliveira should be fighting for the title. | ||
| But I think Dustin Poirier should be fighting for the title too. | ||
| And they're going to have Dustin versus Conor again. | ||
| That's the plan. | ||
| That doesn't make sense for the title. | ||
| Not why Oliveira's around. | ||
| I think Oliveira's supposed to be. | ||
| He's a beast, man. | ||
| That kid is so impressive. | ||
| And he's a guy that has had... | ||
| You know, these ups and downs in his career where he's lost and he's come back and he's lost and he's come back and you see where he's at now. | ||
| He's on another level than he's ever been before. | ||
| The Tony fight with Ferguson, I was super impressed. | ||
| Yeah, he's good. | ||
| I think skill set-wise, I think he's, for me, I think he's at number one, probably, for skill set. | ||
| You think so? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Very clean, right? | ||
| Yeah, him, Chandler, Dustin, Connor, who else is there? | ||
| Well, there's a lot of people in that division. | ||
| It's a great division. | ||
| I mean, it's packed, but it's like... | ||
| I don't think they can give Chandler the shot at the back. | ||
| Not right away. | ||
| Not right away. | ||
| I mean, he had that super impressive knockout of Hooker, which puts him in the top ten and makes a big deal, but maybe one more. | ||
| Because how many people have been in the division for so long, racking up wins, they'll be furious. | ||
| Yeah, pissed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know? | |
| Nah, horrible. | ||
| Yeah, I think Oliveira and Dustin should fight for the bout. | ||
| You know, and then after that, let Chandler fight. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I think Olivera and Dustin, but it doesn't matter what I think, because they're going to have Conor versus Dustin again, because that's where the money's at. | ||
| That's where the dough is at, right? | ||
| That's going to be crazy. | ||
| They're going to do that in front of a live audience? | ||
| That's going to be nuts. | ||
| Who do you think wins that one? | ||
| Who knows? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean... | |
| Conor was catching with some good shots, you know? | ||
| Just to shut him down, but... | ||
| It's going to be hard. | ||
| It's going to be hard to figure out, because... | ||
| Conor did hurt him. | ||
| He did rock him. | ||
| Dustin admitted it. | ||
| He said in the first round, he said he rang his bell. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But ultimately, Dustin won. | ||
| So you got to think he can win again. | ||
| And I don't know. | ||
| Conor never switches stances either. | ||
| It's very rare. | ||
| He doesn't box. | ||
| His power hand is for sure his left hand. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And if he switches, he's going to spin. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right, right, right. | |
| And if he switches, yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| So it'd be an entertaining fight. | ||
| If I put money on it, I'd probably go... | ||
| I think Conor can do it again if he just fix up his stance a little bit. | ||
| Earlier in his career, he was a bit more elusive, right? | ||
| Now he's just like heavy on his legs. | ||
| So I think Conor can do it if they fight again. | ||
| I'm sure he'll make an adjustment. | ||
| It's just crazy seeing a guy pull up in a yacht, you know? | ||
| To a big fight if he's doing shadowboxing on a yacht and meditating on the yacht. | ||
| It's like, wow. | ||
| If he did win that way, that's like the most baller shit ever. | ||
| Yeah, no, I couldn't do that. | ||
| In fact, I'd have to be zoned in, right? | ||
| I couldn't be being on yachts. | ||
| I'd have to be in isolation, in my room, my coaches, chilling, talking. | ||
| I couldn't do it. | ||
| I think it's too much to do as well, right? | ||
| You've got to focus on your job at hand is to perform. | ||
| So, yeah. | ||
| If you did do it, though, it would be cool. | ||
| Did you go through a bunch of different processes to get to where you're at now, where you know exactly what to do, like the week of the fight, you know what's best for your mind, you know what's best... | ||
| Do you try to distract yourself? | ||
| What do you try to do? | ||
| I try to fight a week. | ||
| I try to treat it like another week, right? | ||
| I think if you build it up to be something that normally happens, right? | ||
| Because you're sitting in your room, kind of like overthinking the fight. | ||
| What's going to happen? | ||
| It never does. | ||
| And the more I compete, the more I fight, I think you just think crazy shit in your head. | ||
| What's going to happen in a fight? | ||
| It never plays out that way. | ||
| So I learned to be like... | ||
| You know what? | ||
| Just treat it like another week. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| Eat what you normally eat. | ||
| Obviously, you've got to cut weight. | ||
| But on fight day, I eat what we eat on a sparring day. | ||
| I eat like normal chicken, rice, fish. | ||
| Eat light. | ||
| I don't really eat heavy on a sparring day. | ||
| I like to go for walks. | ||
| I go for like a long walk fight day. | ||
| My team just like... | ||
| Fight day? | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I like to go for like a long walk just to like banter on my team. | ||
| Just make it feel like a normal day. | ||
| I don't want to build it up to be something it's not. | ||
| I do this every single day, you know? | ||
| If you do it that way, I think you'll have better success than just sitting in your room thinking, oh, it's going to be... | ||
| It's like playing on a match sheet in your head. | ||
| Right. | ||
| When you say you go for a walk, do you find that that relieves nervous energy? | ||
| Why do you like to go for a walk? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I've always enjoyed on Friday going for a long walk. | ||
| I don't know what it is. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I can't put a finger on it to say, this is why I do it. | ||
| I just like to go for a long walk, stretch my legs out, have a little banter with the team, just chill with the truth like another day, like I'm back at home in my gym and I'm on the way to the gym. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| I can't think why I would do it, but that's what I like to do. | ||
| Do you just always like to do it? | ||
| Yes, I always like to do it. | ||
| Do you meditate at all? | ||
| No. | ||
| Nothing? | ||
| Nah, nothing. | ||
| My mental strength, I don't know where I got it from, but mentally I'm quite solid, right? | ||
| But I think just from my upbringing and my trials and tribulations I've been through in life, it's kind of made me who I am, right? | ||
| I know that I can get over struggle. | ||
| I know I've been there before. | ||
| I've done it before. | ||
| I can get over it. | ||
| I think the more you struggle, you get more armour, you're more solid, right? | ||
| And I think that's what it is. | ||
| It just builds me up to be what I am. | ||
| Yeah, there's an interesting mindset that comes from people that have been through really tough things in their life. | ||
| You know, like I spoke with Francis Ngannou, and he was talking about his journey. | ||
| Fucking crazy, man. | ||
| Fucking crazy. | ||
| Like, you think about that guy, 14 months to get out of Cameroon and to get all the way to Spain, only to spend two months in prison. | ||
| And just throwing his money and shit? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Crazy. | ||
| All of it was crazy. | ||
| The whole story is crazy. | ||
| That guy's been through so much that to fight for him is probably a relief. | ||
| Yeah, it is what it is. | ||
| I'm just saying, I've been through so much that a fight, like a fist fight, it's just like, it's a fist fight, right? | ||
| You're not going to die. | ||
| What's the worst shit that you've been through? | ||
| Worse? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know, like, one worst thing, you know, just like the duration of life, you know? | ||
| I don't think it's like one thing, like, this is the worst thing I've been through. | ||
| But I've been through a lot, you know? | ||
| Like, what kind of shit? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| It's hard to put a finger on it. | ||
| Like, I don't know. | ||
| It's like struggles in life. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I was born in Jamaica, obviously. | ||
| Came to the UK when I was 10, 11. My dad was basically a gang leader, basically. | ||
| Oh, really? | ||
| Yeah, in Jamaica. | ||
| So, basically, in Jamaica, it's like streets, right? | ||
| We call it lanes. | ||
| It's like streets. | ||
| It was like... | ||
| We're one street fight with like the Neville Street down like three streets down the road. | ||
| In my area, my dad was like the leader of the gang, right? | ||
| So he came to the UK before us. | ||
| He was like, sell drugs and whatever he did to bring back money back into the community to buy guns and do what he does, you know? | ||
| I came from that and from there he brought me, my brother and my mum to the UK. Obviously for safety, obviously. | ||
| And then he passed away when I was 13 years old. | ||
| So I was in the UK for about two to three years. | ||
| Then he died when I was 13. How did he pass away? | ||
| I got shot, got killed in London. | ||
| When I got a phone call, I was like 13 years old. | ||
| I remember being in bed, right, and my mum got a phone call at 2 in the morning. | ||
| So I heard her phone ring, and she was like, I heard her crying, right? | ||
| I was like, oh shit. | ||
| So I was like, she walked me up to her dad. | ||
| Just got killed in London. | ||
| But it's like a weird feeling, right? | ||
| Because I've seen... | ||
| Since I knew my dad, he's always been the same person, right? | ||
| He's always been in that life, you know? | ||
| So... | ||
| I wouldn't say I expected it. | ||
| It wasn't like a shock, right? | ||
| Because I knew what he did. | ||
| I know that's the life, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, and so it was mad. | ||
| What is it like growing up when your father is running a gang? | ||
| It's got to be fucking crazy. | ||
| Like, just knowing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As a kid, he's like, Do you feel normal? | |
| Because that's all you mean? | ||
| Yeah, he's just normal, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everyone... | |
| He's fucked up. | ||
| Because I liked it when I was a kid, right? | ||
| Because I had all the latest shit. | ||
| Because he was sending shit from the UK. I'm like a bicycle when he's in Jamaica. | ||
| I'm like a remote-controlled car as a kid. | ||
| That was a big deal. | ||
| I had all that. | ||
| Obviously, everyone around the area knew who I was. | ||
| So, as a kid, it's like, my dad is this guy, you know? | ||
| He was a special person. | ||
| Yeah, exactly, you know? | ||
| So, looking back at it now, and knowing exactly what he did and what he got into, it's wild, right? | ||
| But... | ||
| I understand the sacrifices that he made for his family in these different opportunities. | ||
| I know looking at it from now when I'm in the UK. In the UK, if you're broke, you can go to the council and give you money. | ||
| In Jamaica, if you're broke, you're broke. | ||
| There's no help. | ||
| No one's coming to help you and give you nothing. | ||
| So if he decided to risk his life and provide for his family, then you do what you have to do. | ||
| I love him for that. | ||
| I respect him for that. | ||
| And that's it. | ||
| Yeah, it's very difficult for anybody else to judge if you're not living in that situation. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| It's hard to explain to my friends. | ||
| It's hard to tell them, right? | ||
| Because you just won't get it. | ||
| You live in the UK. Basically, a fallback plan. | ||
| If we go dead broke in the UK, I can go to the council and it's called signing on and they'll give you like basically a month, like a weekly, that's it. | ||
| They give you like a weekly wage, right? | ||
| In Jamaica, there's no signing on, you know, so you have to, you're going to hustle or you're going to do something. | ||
| There's no opportunity for jobs or Especially if you come from the ghetto, there's no opportunities to go and get a 9 to 5. Because your area alone marks against your name. | ||
| You did what you needed to do. | ||
| You provided for your family. | ||
| You did a good thing by bringing me to the UK and bringing my brother and my mom to the UK. And now I'm able to provide for my family and give back to my family. | ||
| Did you ever worry that you were going to go down that path? | ||
| Yeah, I was going down that path when I was a kid. | ||
| See, when I passed away, I think that's when I got more like rebellious towards life, right? | ||
| And I was going down that path like in gangs and doing shit like that, you know? | ||
| Until about 16, 17, my mum brought me to the gym and MMA is what took me out of the life, you know, because I was spending so much time in the gym that I weren't hanging around in the street no more with my friends, you know, and I think MMA 100% saved me from that life. | ||
| Do you think that also the training itself relieves you of some of the stress and keeps you from being aggressive and keeps you from having to prove yourself with other guys? | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| I think what kept me in the gym is that the positive reinforcement, right? | ||
| To have someone say to you every day, oh, you're good, bro. | ||
| You can do it. | ||
| You can do that. | ||
| I think that as a kid, it helps you, man. | ||
| It motivates you to want to be there, right? | ||
| You want to be in that environment when everyone's telling you good stuff and they're saying, oh, mate, you can do it. | ||
| If you work hard, you can do it. | ||
| You can achieve it. | ||
| You can be a UFC world champion. | ||
| When I was on training for like a year, you know what I mean? | ||
| And this is what my coach was telling me and people were telling me in the gym. | ||
| So that's what kept me in the gym for sure. | ||
| When you talked about how you want to achieve success so that other kids can see what can be done, that's important to you? | ||
| Yeah, 100%. | ||
| That's one of my main motivations. | ||
| If you can touch it, it's different, right? | ||
| You can see it on the TV, but if you know someone in your area that grew up like you, in that situation as you, and he achieved it, then you usually feel like you can do it as well. | ||
| I know I know Michael Bisping was the first champion from the UK, but he did it living in the States, right? | ||
| He did it from America. | ||
| So for me, from being in the UK, it was hard to be like, okay, I can be a champion as well. | ||
| He did it from another place. | ||
| He didn't do it from where I'm doing it from, you know? | ||
| I was respecting him for doing it, but I want to achieve it coming from the UK. So the kids behind me can be like, look, Leon did it. | ||
| He came from the mud, you know, and he achieved it by sticking with his team, working hard and dedicating himself. | ||
| And that's one of my main motivations to give back to the kids. | ||
| I know what it feels like to struggle and to go through hardship. | ||
| Do you do any traveling? | ||
| I mean, you said you went to AKA and trained there for a bit. | ||
| Do you do travel around to different gyms at all? | ||
| In the UK? You know, you said you trained... | ||
| Yeah, I've been there twice, I think, like six, seven years ago. | ||
| Was that to work on your wrestling? | ||
| Yeah, I do work on my wrestling. | ||
| My first time I went there, I think, for the Kamaru Usman camp. | ||
| I still got out-wrestled. | ||
| But yeah, that's the only time I traveled. | ||
| And then from that, that's what I'm saying. | ||
| If you listen to other people... | ||
| It fucks you up, right? | ||
| Because when I was young in the UK, all these guys were telling me, even my coaches, not my coaches, but I'm training partners, you have to go to, if you want to be successful, you have to go to America to improve, you know? | ||
| So I started believing it, and that's the reason why I went to AKA, you know? | ||
| When, after the come out, I was in a fight, and I lost. | ||
| I came back to my, to the UK, and I was like, You know what? | ||
| I was winning up until that point. | ||
| I won all my fights in my early career. | ||
| Just by being with my team and believing in my team, once I start looking elsewhere, I need to move. | ||
| If it's not broke, don't fix it, right? | ||
| I'm winning with these guys while I need to move. | ||
| So I started believing in my team, believing in myself. | ||
| Obviously, the older I get, I more learn the game, and I study the game, and that's it, really. | ||
| It's also a situation, too. | ||
| I mean, you fought Kamaru Usman. | ||
| He's a beast. | ||
| I mean, the man is the champion for a reason, and his wrestling is phenomenal. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| He's tough, and he's durable. | ||
| He's a good fighter, a good champion. | ||
| Was it a unique experience to face someone that's that good as a wrestler? | ||
| Um... | ||
| A little bit, a little bit. | ||
| But at the time, I didn't look at the game the same way I look at the game now, right? | ||
| I approached it from a defensive point of view. | ||
| So I went in there thinking, don't let him take me down, don't let him take me down. | ||
| You know, I went in there with a defensive mindset towards the contest, you know, and that's a total wrong way to approach a fight like that. | ||
| And that's how I played out. | ||
| Yeah, that makes sense. | ||
| So, that's the good thing about this quarantine, about this pandemic, that it's allowed you to think things through. | ||
| Yeah, think it through. | ||
| Tighten up in some areas that I need to tighten up on. | ||
| It gives me time to grow, just physically and mentally, you know? | ||
| Because when in training camp, you're not really learning much, really. | ||
| Just prepare for this certain opponent, what shots he's going to use for this opponent. | ||
| You're not really – you fight three times a year. | ||
| That's a lot of camps. | ||
| You're not growing much in between because I wrestle like a month, then I'm back in camp again. | ||
| So what is the difference between a training when you're in camp versus when you're trying to learn and grow? | ||
| What kind of shit are you working on? | ||
| Everything. | ||
| So when you're in camp, you're doing specifics to this opponent. | ||
| So okay, let's say this guy's a wrestler. | ||
| I won't throw leg kicks earlier in the fight because he's going to take me down. | ||
| So you're mimicking the game for this guy, but when you've not got a fight coming up, Like I have in the last year and a half, I had time to just free-grow my skill set. | ||
| And if you want to learn, I'll learn it, you know? | ||
| Because I'm not preparing for nobody. | ||
| I'm preparing myself and growing myself, you know? | ||
| So that's what I've been doing. | ||
| I've been working my wrestling, my jiu-jitsu, my striking, everything. | ||
| Just been trying new techniques out, you know? | ||
| Trying out different stuff. | ||
| That's what it is, especially my elbows. | ||
| I've been working my elbows and just adding new tools to my arsenal. | ||
| Are you going to go to the fights next weekend? | ||
| Are you still in the country for next week? | ||
| No, I leave Monday. | ||
| Because I know you're going to Vegas soon, right? | ||
| Yeah, I'll go to Vegas today and then I leave on Monday. | ||
| Back to the UK on Monday. | ||
| Damn, it's too bad. | ||
| That was a good one to see live. | ||
| Have you seen any of them live? | ||
| Or you just only fought live where there's no crowd? | ||
| Have you seen a fight at the Apex Center? | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| I've seen a crowd event live. | ||
| I haven't been to Apex and watched it live. | ||
| They're so different to watch it live. | ||
| I'm imagining it must be pretty insane to fight like that where there's no crowd, but to watch it like that too, I think I prefer it. | ||
| I really do. | ||
| I said to my coaches, I was like, I should have preferred that. | ||
| It was like quick, you know, it was like in and out. | ||
| It weren't like no... | ||
| I get it for you. | ||
| Yeah, it weren't no fucking around, you know, just like you get to the apex. | ||
| Okay, Leon, you got to wrap your hands. | ||
| Okay, wrap. | ||
| Okay, you got like three more fights in your arm. | ||
| I was like, what the fuck? | ||
| So it was just quick. | ||
| You didn't have no time to think around, like make the energy get you. | ||
| Just like you get there, wrap, warm up, walk, fight. | ||
| I liked it. | ||
| It's good. | ||
| It's interesting next weekend because Stipe versus Francis is in that small cage. | ||
| Yeah, I don't know how to do that. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| For those two giants? | ||
| I don't know who benefits. | ||
| Probably Francis, right? | ||
| If it's coming out explosive like it did, if it does that, then it's two steps in the back of the cage. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| It'd be good. | ||
| Francis is such a unique guy because all he has to do is touch you. | ||
| You're going to be there next week? | ||
| Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. | ||
| I'm going to be there. | ||
| I don't want to miss that. | ||
| Yeah, he's a powerhouse, Francis, man. | ||
| I met him in Vegas. | ||
| His hands, I shaked his hand. | ||
| He's like... | ||
| It's like a giant brick. | ||
| Yeah, he's a unique guy because he really just has to touch you. | ||
| Anybody he touches, they're like... | ||
| It's different as well, right? | ||
| When you believe in your power as well. | ||
| He believes in his power, right? | ||
| He believes in his power and also he's lost. | ||
| He's felt the sting of defeat twice in a row because then he lost to Derek Lewis right afterwards. | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| Yeah, so he was very tentative in that fight, and then he comes back and he knocked out Curtis Blades, knocked out Junior Dos Santos. | ||
| I mean, he's a monster now. | ||
| He's coming to his own. | ||
| Yeah, I think he's believing in himself as well. | ||
| Especially his cardio, you know? | ||
| He's known I can go five rounds, you know what I mean? | ||
| So I like watching him. | ||
| He's also got a real camp now. | ||
| You know, now he's with Xtreme Couture in Vegas. | ||
| Is he? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Where was he before? | ||
| I think he was talking about it on the podcast. | ||
| I believe he said he trained for it in France. | ||
| I think a lot of the training for Stipe was in France. | ||
| But I think he didn't have the best situation in terms of training partners and how to get set up. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| I've had to... | ||
| Yeah, I think he'll probably get Stipe this time. | ||
| This is a smaller cage. | ||
| Stipe is tough though, man. | ||
| It's so hard to bet against the guy. | ||
| The guy always figures out a way to win. | ||
| I mean, Stipe, a lot of people bet against him in D.C. with the last fight. | ||
| That adjustment to the body shot was good. | ||
| Oh my God. | ||
| To adjust mid-fight. | ||
| That was incredible. | ||
| That fight, he knocked him out in that fight, and then he beat him again in the rematch. | ||
| So, you know, two victories like that over DC is pretty fucking huge. | ||
| But he's the most successful heavyweight ever. | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| It's hard to say who the GOAT is. | ||
| For me, Kane. | ||
| Kane. | ||
| Cardio Kane, Kane Velasquez. | ||
| Kane was a monster. | ||
| Yeah, I watched that fight a month ago. | ||
| Kane versus Fedor would have been the shit. | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| In the primes as well. | ||
| In the primes. | ||
| Kane versus Fedor would have been fucking amazing. | ||
| Yeah, Cardio Kane was another animal. | ||
| When Junior DeSantos, when he just, from round, I think he's fight number two, just set the pace. | ||
| His face is all, like, transformed. | ||
| He puts a pace on you that's inhuman. | ||
| Yeah, I was watching it thinking, I don't know how he keeps that pace for five rounds, you know? | ||
| But he did it. | ||
| I don't know how he does it either. | ||
| He had, like, weird genetics. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's the only thing that could explain it. | ||
| Because I talked to DC, he goes, dude, he would take three weeks off and then come to the gym and out-cardio everybody. | ||
| And he goes, it didn't make any sense. | ||
| Cardio Kane. | ||
| That's a one in like a hundred million people that's a heavyweight that has that kind of cardio. | ||
| Because most heavyweights, they have big power, but they can't put a pace on you like that. | ||
| Yeah, he sets the pace and he keeps it. | ||
| That's what's good about it, you know? | ||
| You don't really fade, really. | ||
| No. | ||
| He keeps the pace. | ||
| And he's wrestling and striking. | ||
| He's doing everything, you know? | ||
| He's not like lying on you and trying to like wrist. | ||
| He's constantly beating the shit out of you. | ||
| Boxing, wrestling. | ||
| Yeah, he was a guy that was almost too tough for his own good, too. | ||
| His body kind of gave out. | ||
| His knees started going, his back went. | ||
| He's got all kinds of surgery. | ||
| Shoulder surgery, knee surgery, back surgery. | ||
| Yeah, it's an old school mentality, right? | ||
| Just training for everything. | ||
| You're injured, yeah, fuck it. | ||
| You've worked for it. | ||
| But that's the problem, right? | ||
| It's like you're almost too tough for your own good. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But if it wasn't like that, he probably wouldn't be as good as he is. | ||
| Maybe. | ||
| So it's like, where do you go, you know? | ||
| It's hard to say. | ||
| Do you find that it's hard to achieve balance like that? | ||
| Like when you're training, you gotta know when to pull back. | ||
| But then if you're a really tough person, you're like, fuck it, keep going. | ||
| And that's when people get injured. | ||
| Do you have a problem with that balance? | ||
| How do you find that balance? | ||
| A little bit. | ||
| I kind of know how to my body and my body feels, you know, especially I know in the morning when I wake up, I feel like I'm going to have a light day today. | ||
| You know, I can tell how my body feels and to what I'm going to do that day. | ||
| So if I got like two sessions scheduled in, I probably miss my morning one and then go to my evening one or if I feel fucked, I just take the whole day off. | ||
| I know I have to listen to my body and white knees and when to push and when not to push. | ||
| But you just listen to your body. | ||
| You're not looking at a heart rate monitor. | ||
| No, that's interesting. | ||
| None of it. | ||
| Do you get massages? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| I get massages every week in camp. | ||
| I use chirotherapy. | ||
| Cryotherapy, yeah. | ||
| Yeah, that's it. | ||
| The cold chamber once a week as well. | ||
| So I use both. | ||
| I do both of them. | ||
| This camp, I was using chiropractor. | ||
| Got a bad injury on my back. | ||
| Are you using saunas at all? | ||
| No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No? | |
| No, I hate saunas. | ||
| Because of cutting weight? | ||
| Yeah, I hate it. | ||
| I did it once before in Brazil. | ||
| Never again. | ||
| No, I hate it. | ||
| Now, how much weight do you cut when you make 170? | ||
| So normally I'm like... | ||
| About 90kg? | ||
| I don't know, what's that in pounds? | ||
| 90kg is what? | ||
| That's like 190 something? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, 190, 191 I think. | |
| Let me see. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Why the fuck didn't the United States pick up kilograms? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I posted it, too. | |
| It says 198. Oh, okay. | ||
| Why didn't the United States pick up the metric system? | ||
| It's so fucking stupid. | ||
| We're one of the few countries. | ||
| America. | ||
| That's why. | ||
|
unidentified
|
America. | |
| That's it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They tried it. | ||
| When I was a kid, they tried the metric system on us. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They were teaching us the metric system, and they're like, the whole world's going to convert to the metric system. | ||
| And the United States tried it for a couple years. | ||
| So, fuck it. | ||
| Nope. | ||
| And they went, nah. | ||
| That was like, I think, when Jimmy Carter was president. | ||
| I'm pretty sure. | ||
| And then Reagan came along and said, fuck you, and fuck the metric system. | ||
| This is so dumb. | ||
| Well, England's interesting because you guys have stone, too, which is so weird. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah, yeah. | |
| Is that 13 pounds? | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| Stone is like 13 pounds? | ||
| Yeah, about 13 pounds. | ||
| 12.5, I think 13, yeah. | ||
| Yeah, we use cages, stones. | ||
| I don't know about pounds. | ||
| When I wear myself in pounds, I was like, what the fuck? | ||
| What do I do? | ||
| That's from that... | ||
| ACDC song, Whole Lotta Rosie. | ||
| Isn't she 16 stone in that song? | ||
| Isn't that what it is? | ||
| That's part of the lyrics of that song. | ||
| I remember being a kid going, what the fuck is he talking about? | ||
| Weighing in at 16 stone? | ||
| 19 stone. | ||
| Oh, that's big. | ||
| That's a big gal. | ||
| What is that? | ||
| Heavyweight gal. | ||
| What is 19 stone? | ||
| Let's guess. | ||
| What is that like? | ||
| Nah, it's heavy. | ||
| 260? | ||
| Oh, Jesus. | ||
| That's a big girl. | ||
| Squat! | ||
| Whole lot of Rosie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Maybe I make heavyweight. | |
| Get some squats in. | ||
| Where the fuck did stone come from? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Because when we do the weigh-ins in England, they yell it out in stone. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And then I would have to say the weight. | ||
| No, I didn't do it in my head. | ||
| You fucked. | ||
| I'm an idiot. | ||
| I'd have no chance. | ||
| I'd have to have my phone out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hold on. | |
| Hold on. | ||
| I'm going to figure this out. | ||
| Because it's 13 something, right? | ||
| It's not just 13. Oh, it's 14 pounds. | ||
| Just 14 even? | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| That makes it easier, I guess. | ||
| But either way. | ||
| Yeah, the kilogram thing is confusing. | ||
| I don't understand why we never adopted it. | ||
| Yeah, I don't know. | ||
| But I always use kg. | ||
| So even when I'm a nutritionist, he's like, what do you weigh? | ||
| I'm like, five a week, I'm normally 83 kg. | ||
| Five a week. | ||
| Then I cut down from there to make water weight. | ||
| So, yeah, I don't know where it came from. | ||
| So your last few days, are you water-loading? | ||
| Water-loading, yeah. | ||
| So a water-load, well, it depends how much you have to get off, but I water-load for about four days, probably. | ||
| So Sunday to about Wednesday. | ||
| So it's not a drastic cut. | ||
| Nah, nah, nah. | ||
| I like to get it down in camp, right? | ||
| I don't like to crash your weight. | ||
| I think it messes up your strength and your cardio. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For sure. | |
| If you just crash it, right? | ||
| So I like to get it down to a point where I'm comfortable cutting it, you know, so... | ||
| Yeah, not really bad. | ||
| Not too bad. | ||
| When you see those guys that cut big... | ||
| Did you see Rodolfo Vieira's last fight? | ||
| No. | ||
| You know, Vieira's that massive Brazilian jiu-jitsu guy. | ||
| He fights at 85, but he's a gorilla. | ||
| I mean, the dude is so jacked. | ||
| He did fight? | ||
| He... | ||
| Shit. | ||
| Pull up Rodolfo Vieira's record. | ||
| He fought this kid who was a young guy who was a huge underdog. | ||
| Anthony Hernandez. | ||
| And Anthony Hernandez survived and then started putting him on. | ||
| It was an amazing performance by Hernandez. | ||
| Because he was a huge, huge underdog in the fight. | ||
| Because look at that picture of Vieira. | ||
| Get a picture of Vieira. | ||
| The dude is a gorilla. | ||
| I mean, he's just like carved out of granite. | ||
| Look at that six pack. | ||
| I mean, come on. | ||
| Who the fuck wouldn't want that six pack? | ||
| Jesus. | ||
| But just gassed out hard. | ||
| Did he? | ||
| Yeah, real bad. | ||
| Real bad. | ||
| By the end of the first round. | ||
| You know what he cut? | ||
| A lot. | ||
| A lot. | ||
| He looks so big. | ||
| When he's in the octagon, he looked like he was like 215, something like that. | ||
| Nah, I think that's too much. | ||
| I think he cut too much and put on too much. | ||
| I think it's detrimental to your performance. | ||
| So I try to maintain it a little bit to not crash it. | ||
| Do you think it's possible that they could ever get to a point where there's no weight cutting? | ||
| Nah. | ||
| You don't think so? | ||
| Nah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what everybody says. | |
| Yeah, I know. | ||
| Nah, I can't see it. | ||
| I think it's crazy. | ||
| Unless you put like loads of weight, like boxing does it, like loads of weight classes, then probably, but nah, I still, I can't see it, nah. | ||
| I wish they did. | ||
| Want more weight classes? | ||
| Yeah, I wish they had more weight classes. | ||
| Maybe not as much as boxing, but I wish they did it every 10 pounds. | ||
| I think there's a lot of weight limits where there's just too big of a jump, like 85 to 205. Yeah, that's a big jump. | ||
| That's crazy. | ||
| That's 20 fucking pounds? | ||
| Yeah, that's a big jump. | ||
| And no other champions in between there? | ||
| That's nuts. | ||
| Yeah, but in boxing, it's kind of like ruined the boxing as well, right? | ||
| Because it's some different belts and different weight classes. | ||
| It's like, you've been well-to-weight. | ||
| There's like four champions in there. | ||
| It's like... | ||
| But that's happening kind of in MMA with all the different champions in different organizations. | ||
| There's legitimate champions in other organizations now, like Pitbull in Bellator is a legit champion. | ||
| Douglas Lima is a legit champion. | ||
| They've got some legit champions. | ||
| Nemcoff. | ||
| They got legit guys. | ||
| I know, but I think if I had more weight classes, you just water it down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Maybe, but you're built for 70. It works. | |
| You got lucky. | ||
| If you were one of those guys that was between 85 and 205, you're like, fuck! | ||
| Yeah, it's a big jump. | ||
| He's tried it, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I think if you build his body up a little bit more, you'd have more success. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| All he did is didn't cut weight and just went to fight. | ||
| Jon Jones, he's been building now for a year. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Izzy said that that's how he was going to do it, too, and he said that Jon was making a mistake. | ||
| I just think if you're dealing with grapplers, man, you need that weight. | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| If it's just a kickboxing match, maybe you don't need that weight because Izzy's so fast. | ||
| And he was doing good. | ||
| He was catching him with good shots, but the bigger guy is holding the shots. | ||
| Well, Boholvich is an interesting cat because, you know, he's a champ now at 38 years old. | ||
| Polish power. | ||
| Legendary. | ||
| Legendary Polish power. | ||
| Legendary. | ||
| And that fucking shit is legendary. | ||
| The way he put it on Dominic Reyes, I was like, holy fuck, he can crack. | ||
| I mean, Jan Bojovic can fucking crack. | ||
| He has some of the best punching power I've ever seen in the light heavyweight division. | ||
| Because he hits guys with weird punches. | ||
| He hits guys with like short shots, little short shots and fucks them up. | ||
| Fucking solid. | ||
| He's 38. Yeah, he's 38. He made his debut in the UFC when he was 31 and worked his way through and figured it out and now, top of the food chain at an advanced age. | ||
| 38 is pretty advanced and he looks fucking great. | ||
| I wonder what he puts that down to, to having success now in his later career. | ||
| I wonder what it is. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Maybe it's maturity. | ||
| Maybe it's experience, you know? | ||
| Maybe train smarter. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But his fucking power is extraordinary. | ||
| Nah, it is. | ||
| You know? | ||
| Even the way he approached the fight with Izzy, I thought Izzy was going to outclass him on the feet, you know? | ||
| But he was a good man on the feet, you know? | ||
| He did. | ||
| He was out jabbing him and everything. | ||
| There's always extreme consequences with that guy, you know? | ||
| Because, you know, Izzy always had to be careful. | ||
| Because all it takes is one shot from that dude. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It's a powerhouse. | ||
| The division without Jon Jones, though, it's like, fuck. | ||
| Jon Jones is the division. | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| I think it's been through three generations of fighters, right? | ||
| I mean, he really is undefeated. | ||
| They have the one loss that was Matt Hamill, but he was smashing him. | ||
| It was just a disqualification, which is ridiculous. | ||
| Yeah, I think if you're going for the GOAT, I think Jones should be the GOAT. There's... | ||
| It's hard to say because different word classes, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Khabib, a lot of people have the argument that Khabib's to go. | ||
| But I think in terms of accomplishments, no one's accomplished more than Jon Jones. | ||
| Jon, exactly. | ||
| Like I said, he's been through three generations of fighters. | ||
| You know, Khabib is good for what he did, but he haven't done it in a short period of time. | ||
| Right? | ||
| So I think if he had a longer career, probably, yeah. | ||
| Well, if Jon goes up to heavyweight and wins the heavyweight title, the discussion's over. | ||
| I'd love to see him versus Francis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jon Jones. | |
| Woo! | ||
| That would be good. | ||
| Francis versus anybody is so nerve-wracking. | ||
| I want to see Francis and Derrick Lewis again. | ||
| I want to see a rematch of that fight. | ||
| Because Lewis was here last week and his back was pretty fucked up going into that fight. | ||
| For the fight? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| He knocked out Blaze the other week. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, dude. | |
| Crazy. | ||
| Crazy power. | ||
| He's the only guy in the UFC in the heavyweight division that has that same kind of power that Francis has. | ||
| You can't make any mistakes with either one of those guys. | ||
| Both guys have crazy power. | ||
| That blades knockout was brutal. | ||
| It's an uppercut, right? | ||
| Yeah, it was good. | ||
| It's a good shot. | ||
| But for me, uppercut is not my shot. | ||
| It depends who you're fighting and what stance they got. | ||
| But for me, uppercut is a hard shot to land. | ||
| Well, he just said, the way he was describing, he said, Curtis bends in when he goes for a shot. | ||
| He doesn't go down and drop to the knees and drive forward like a lot of other wrestlers do. | ||
| He bends down. | ||
| And so they knew it and they were timing it. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Scary. | ||
| The powerhouse is good. | ||
| I think Francis probably beat him again if I pick. | ||
| Who knows, man. | ||
| It's a good fight, though. | ||
| It's one of those things, though. | ||
| Francis can't get hit by him. | ||
| Nobody can get hit by Derek Lewis. | ||
| He can knock on anybody. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like, both guys can knock each other out. | ||
| What does he weigh, you know? | ||
| Derek? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| He's got to be 270, 275, somewhere around then. | ||
| And I think he cuts a little weight to get down to 265. Oh, and on the chin? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And his fucking head is this big. | ||
| Is it? | ||
| He's just so fucking giant. | ||
| You know? | ||
| He can take it, too. | ||
| Do you remember when Sean Jordan knocked him out? | ||
| Sean Jordan hit him with a hook kick. | ||
| Crazy as shit. | ||
| It was real early in Derek's career. | ||
| But Jordan hit him with a fucking hook. | ||
| And Sean Jordan is this really big football player, dude. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| See if you can find that fight. | ||
| I haven't seen that. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| In the UFC? Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yeah, he hit him with a hook kick. | ||
| And you look at him and you're like, this guy's not throwing a hook kick. | ||
| Because he's built like a football player. | ||
| He's built like a lineman. | ||
| He's so huge. | ||
| And he gets his heel up there and I think Derek was like, what the fuck did I just get hit with? | ||
| Clean out? | ||
| No, he dropped him and then he finished him off. | ||
| If I remember it correctly. | ||
| It was quite a while ago. | ||
| I want to say it was like... | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Watch this. | ||
| This is early. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| Isn't that crazy? | ||
| Like how does it even get up there? | ||
| I know. | ||
| Watch this. | ||
| Like, out of nowhere. | ||
| I know the lead leg is alright. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, he kind of switched it right before he threw it. | ||
| So then he got on top and then beat him up. | ||
| And then finished him this way. | ||
| See, watch how he does this. | ||
| Like, he switched it. | ||
| Oh, shit. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's a wild kick to see a giant dude like that throw. | ||
| But he's a crazy athlete. | ||
| Sean can do backflips and shit, which, you know, for a 260-pound heavyweight is pretty nuts to see. | ||
| So I'd love to learn the spinning sidekick. | ||
| There it is. | ||
| I wish I had a bag here. | ||
| Yeah, I love to learn it. | ||
| I've been trying to do it, but even when my knees are too high or something, it doesn't feel solid, you know? | ||
| Yeah, it's a thing that you have to start out with a sidekick. | ||
| You learn how to throw the sidekick properly first, and then learn how to do it in the air. | ||
| Learn how to do the turning sidekick in the air. | ||
| Because everybody does it on the bag, but if you learn it on the bag, the problem is you get used to spinning instead of turning. | ||
| Like, you do it in the air so that when you extend the kick, it goes straight. | ||
| So that every time you... | ||
| So, like, when I learned it, I learned it on a line. | ||
| Like, you would do a line on the floor of the gym. | ||
| So you would turn and then make sure the kick is on the same line as the heel. | ||
| So you turn and kick and then extend the leg, turn, kick, extend the leg, and then eventually go to hitting things. | ||
| But if you do it that way, then you learn how to get the weight to go forward. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Because when people do it in a bag, you kind of get used to spinning your whole body into it. | ||
| Yeah, that's what I do. | ||
| Being like forwarded, like missing the bag and shit, going everywhere. | ||
| Fuck your ankles up too, because you'll catch it with your toes, you'll catch it with the ball of your foot, and it hyperextends your ankle. | ||
| You land it with the heel, right? | ||
| Yeah, you want to land it with the blade, the blade of the foot. | ||
| Have you ever stopped in the body with it before? | ||
| Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that was my shit. | ||
| You good? | ||
| That's the only... | ||
| It's the only video I have of me fighting in a Taekwondo tournament is knocking somebody out with a spinning back kick. | ||
| You got it on here? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Can I see it? | ||
| Yeah, it's on YouTube. | ||
| It was 19. When I was a wee lad. | ||
| A wee lad. | ||
| Yeah, it's a brilliant technique because there's so much torque in it. | ||
| You know, the movement. | ||
| Your legs. | ||
| There it is. | ||
| boom oh yeah as it went to kickers all right yeah it's yeah it sucks Getting hit with that is terrible. | ||
| I mean, you see it in the UFC when guys get hit with it. | ||
| It's just a horrible kick. | ||
| Has anyone stopped in the UFC with it? | ||
| I've seen people throw it. | ||
| Not like, but we just stopped the fight. | ||
| It's been a while. | ||
| I know... | ||
| Who's the last guy to do it? | ||
| I'm trying to remember people who've stopped people. | ||
| Charles McCarthy got stopped with it back in the day. | ||
| Yeah, I can't remember in a recent fight when someone got spinning. | ||
| Dennis Seaver. | ||
| Didn't Dennis Seaver used to stop people with it? | ||
| I think he stopped somebody with it. | ||
| I don't know, man. | ||
| It'll work, though. | ||
| Nah, it's a good technique, for sure. | ||
| There's a dude in 1FC that's got a fucking wicked one. | ||
| I like 1FC. Yeah. | ||
| Kickboxing, like, little gloves, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I like watching that. | ||
| You can kind of use it for MMA, right? | ||
| To what the techniques you use. | ||
| Because some people, because it's smaller gloves, your block is different. | ||
| But these guys are... | ||
| Yeah, this dude. | ||
| Look at that guy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Kevin... | |
| How do you say that word? | ||
| Bellingons. | ||
| Bellingons. | ||
| Yeah, he's a beast, man. | ||
| This kid has got one of the best spinning back kicks I've ever seen. | ||
| And it's a side kick. | ||
| It's a turning side kick. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| Boom! | ||
| See how straight it is? | ||
| It's brilliant. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| Turns. | ||
| Boom! | ||
| I mean, it's like getting hit by a car. | ||
| Yeah, it's the timing of it as well. | ||
| You probably can use it as well to set up your spinning back fist as well, right? | ||
| Oh yeah, for sure. | ||
| I mean, just some guys that come from that Taekwondo background, they learn how to do it, and then they learn everything else. | ||
| That's the key, I think. | ||
| Oh, look at that. | ||
| I think the key is like, and then he throws a wheel kick too. | ||
| The key is learning that first, like when you're a young kid, and then learning all the other stuff later. | ||
| Wow, spinning? | ||
| Yeah, learning how to do those kind of techniques, sidekicks and turning sidekicks, and then learning takedown defense and striking Muay Thai and everything else later. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because Taekwondo is only effective if you know all those other things. | ||
| Like, when I learned Taekwondo, one of the big wake-up calls was when I started fighting and kickboxing, and I was sparring against boxers and kickboxing and just getting fucked up. | ||
| Because my hands are terrible. | ||
| Oh, your range was different? | ||
| Yeah, and my hand sucked. | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| Because I was just kicking. | ||
| Because Taekwondo was just all kicking. | ||
| But the thing about all kicking is you get really good at kicking. | ||
| Good at kicking, yeah. | ||
| Because you can do things that you really can't do if a guy's punching. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right? | |
| You really can't get away with it. | ||
| Different range as well, right? | ||
| Yeah, different range. | ||
| Overcrowdy with the shots. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| Makes sense. | ||
| But you could develop leg dexterity from doing it that way. | ||
| And then, once you get proficient at it, then you learn all the other stuff. | ||
| And then you could actually apply it. | ||
| I tried to do it before. | ||
| I found a good taekwondo coach in the UK to just use the site, add tools to my arsenal, right? | ||
| There's a video of me teaching GSP. Is there? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And if you find the video of me teaching GSP, the thing about... | ||
| That video is that you can see how I break it down. | ||
| You can see what's important about extending the foot and the difference between the way... | ||
| Some people like to do it where your knee is low and you kick up, but you lose all the power in it. | ||
| And the key is having the knee up. | ||
| That's why doing it in the air is so important. | ||
| What for the balance in the air? | ||
| See, I was trying to show him the difference between the way he does... | ||
| This is him... | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't know if this is before I showed him or... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| It wasn't in the beginning? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, because you weren't in... | |
| I skipped ahead in the video where there wasn't even anything going on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I thought I... You're showing it. | |
| There I go. | ||
| No, I think it was way before that, man. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're just wiping the mat off. | |
| No, no, no. | ||
| Watch. | ||
| Watch. | ||
| I'm wiping the mat off at the beginning, but I think I had already thrown a kick by then. | ||
| I think it's the very beginning. | ||
| All I need to do Taekwondo for? | ||
| I started when... | ||
| Yeah, there it is. | ||
| It's the very beginning. | ||
| I started when I was 15. I did karate when I was 14, and then when I was 15, I got really into Taekwondo. | ||
| But, yeah, I'm wiping the mat down because the beginning of it is kind of fucked up. | ||
| But if you watch that video, you can learn from it. | ||
| I break it down. | ||
| How would you set it up? | ||
| Let's say that I'm southpaw, right? | ||
| They're going towards my right. | ||
| Then you spin, right? | ||
| When was your timing of it? | ||
| When someone's coming at you, it's the best because you can catch them coming in. | ||
| If someone's coming at you, especially if someone fights flat, but you can also set it up with other things. | ||
| You switch stances. | ||
| I see you do that a lot. | ||
| You can set it up as you switch stances. | ||
| That's a good way to do it too. | ||
| You can set it off a round kick. | ||
| You throw a round kick and then the round kick is almost like a setup for that. | ||
| Throw the round kick and then boom, go into it. | ||
| There's a lot of different ways to do it. | ||
| But catching someone coming at you is the most effective because it's such a ruthless counter because their weight is coming forward and then you extend. | ||
| It's horrible. | ||
| It's horrible. | ||
| So you land it in the solar plexus. | ||
| It's not a knee. | ||
| When you land a good knee in the solar plexus, it takes the win out of you, man. | ||
| Body shots are like a crazy technique, right? | ||
| It just shuts your body down, even if you land it properly. | ||
| Well, you're such a good athlete. | ||
| If you just found someone who was a Taekwondo coach that could show you how to do it right, you would pick it up. | ||
| Yeah, nah. | ||
| I was trying to find something that's good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's your kick so well. | |
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| I'm trying to find something. | ||
| I'm good at roundhouses, like head kicks, body kicks. | ||
| But I don't think I've got the... | ||
| It's the... | ||
| The turn. | ||
| Yeah, the turn. | ||
| Almost like falling short. | ||
| I can show you afterwards just the turn part of it. | ||
| It's not... | ||
| It's not hard to learn. | ||
| But the thing is, you've got to learn it on the air. | ||
| Learning it in the air is the best way to do it. | ||
| Yeah, keep your balance. | ||
| You just did it a minute ago, just keeping your leg here. | ||
| I'm falling over when I'm doing it. | ||
| The whole idea is to get the weight going forward as you kick. | ||
| Sometimes people kick and when they hit things, they're actually bouncing off. | ||
| You want to just make sure the weight is going forward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Solid. | |
| Yeah, that's me. | ||
| I bounce off. | ||
| I'll work on it. | ||
| It's a good technique to use. | ||
| I'm always interested in adding to my arsenal. | ||
| That's why I added my elbows. | ||
| I started using my elbows. | ||
| I caught going to Nelson with a good one in RDA and even Cowboy. | ||
| It's a good technique. | ||
| I realize in MMA, the inside fighting, not many fighters at school and fighting on the inside. | ||
| You get to lock up over-unders and you start grappling or you throw through leg stomps, knees to the body. | ||
| They're not very schooled in school and like using the tie-up to opening for elbows and for knees, you know, so I thought I had to add that to my arsenal and it's been working good. | ||
| Have you done any training in Thailand? | ||
| No. | ||
| Have you ever wanted to do that? | ||
| I love to go there. | ||
| I always say every year I'm going to Thailand this year, but I never get to go. | ||
| That seems like if I was fighting, like that would be like the place I would want to go, the motherland. | ||
| Go to the motherland and learn like one of them crazy gyms that's outdoors. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, it's just... | ||
| I watch it on YouTube. | ||
| It's like, Padman, right? | ||
| It was like, he kicks him. | ||
| Then he goes to kick. | ||
| Then he just kicks his legs away. | ||
| You're not learning nothing. | ||
| Yeah, there's some bad guys over there that are hilarious. | ||
| It's just amazing that this one country figured out this incredible way to fight. | ||
| It's really wild, right? | ||
| And it's effective. | ||
| Fuck yeah, it's effective. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| It's not big either, right? | ||
| Like in the UK anyway. | ||
| It's not like a popular sport, you know? | ||
| Like you didn't get paid much, but it's weird really. | ||
| It is weird because everybody likes stand-up. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| Yeah, everybody likes stand-up fights, but yet Muay Thai, for whatever reason, as a pro, as a pro sport, never really took off in America. | ||
| Look at Glory. | ||
| Glory's big. | ||
| It's not that big. | ||
| Yeah, to be fair, it's not big in the UK. Unfortunately. | ||
| Well, I went to watch Rico. | ||
| Botter? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| No, he went to Botter. | ||
| Who did he fight? | ||
| I can't remember what he fought. | ||
| And I went to Holland to watch him. | ||
| There's like 30,000 people in the arena. | ||
| I was like, what the hell? | ||
| Oh, they don't fuck around in Holland. | ||
| Holland is huge. | ||
| He came to the UK to have a fight and it didn't sell much, you know. | ||
| But when I went to Holland, I thought it would be the same thing, but it was like a big arena with 30,000 people. | ||
| No, it's huge in Holland. | ||
| I mean, kickboxing in Holland is so... | ||
| I mean, think about all the champions. | ||
| Ernesto Hoos, you know, Rob Kamen. | ||
| Tell you what I love to watch. | ||
| Ramon Deckers. | ||
| Gokansaki. | ||
| Gokansaki, yeah. | ||
| Turkish Tyson. | ||
| He's a bad motherfucker. | ||
| I like to watch him, man. | ||
| He puts combinations together. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| No, he's wicked. | ||
| You know, the fights in Glory and K1, they're so exciting. | ||
| But for whatever reason, it just never took off in America, like boxing or MMA. Same in the UK, which is weird because it's striking, right? | ||
| Everyone loves to see knockouts. | ||
| I don't know what it is. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| They don't know either. | ||
| No one knows what it takes to make it big. | ||
| It's weird, really. | ||
| I love boxing because it's got a long history behind it, and you can trace it back to slavery days and stuff like that. | ||
| So that's the reason why I love boxing. | ||
| I love to watch old-school documentaries and just the mindset of the fighters back in the day and where they approached their game. | ||
| We were just talking about Hagler before the podcast started and how crazy it is that he's gone. | ||
| I just can't believe it. | ||
| That guy, he was so disciplined. | ||
| When I was a kid, I remember I talked about it in this Instagram post that I made. | ||
| They had some profile of him when he was preparing. | ||
| I think he was preparing for a Mustafa Ham show. | ||
| And he was running on the beach, and it was in the winter. | ||
| That's the one I wanted to ask you about. | ||
| I remember watching you and Tyson was on the podcast, right? | ||
| He's like, he's running in the snow, screaming, war! | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And I was trying to find it all week for five weeks. | ||
| Fuck, man. | ||
| I wish I could find it. | ||
| Do you know where it is? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No? | |
| I couldn't find it nowhere. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm looking for it, too. | |
| No one can find it. | ||
| Fuck! | ||
| I mean, like, tap it in war on YouTube. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's, like, threads about... | |
| I heard Rogan talk about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| I can't find it. | ||
| I can't find it nowhere. | ||
| I'm like, where did I see that? | ||
| I'm not trying to find it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was... | |
| Some local news show. | ||
| I was probably like 15. And I remember just watching it going... | ||
| Because he was doing sit-ups and push-ups. | ||
| He was just so disciplined. | ||
| Nobody was more conditioned than Hagler. | ||
| Nobody. | ||
| When he fought Mugabe, he just kept the heat on him. | ||
| Just kept the heat on him. | ||
| Fuck, that fight was crazy. | ||
| Mugabe was putting people to sleep. | ||
| I remember I was working at this boxing gym, and they were talking about Mugabe long before he fought Hagler. | ||
| But he fought this dude and gained brain damage. | ||
| He knocked him out, and he's like, the guy was never the same again. | ||
| It's like, there's certain guys that just have punching power that's just out of this world. | ||
| And Mugabe was one of them. | ||
| Do you remember Julian Jackson? | ||
| Um, no, I don't think so. | ||
| Fuck! | ||
| Julian Jackson was another one. | ||
| They called him the Hawk. | ||
| He had this crazy punching power. | ||
| I mean, he looked like a solid guy, but for whatever reason, when that guy would touch people, they would just stiffen up. | ||
| Julian Jackson is like one of the most ferocious power punchers ever in the history of boxing. | ||
| Yeah, I love Hagler. | ||
| I've been watching him all week, which is weird, right? | ||
| Because I haven't watched Hagler for about a year, two years. | ||
| I haven't watched him, but... | ||
| For some reason, I just felt that energy last week, fight week. | ||
| So from Sunday to when I got to Vegas, I was just watching him, watching him, watching him. | ||
| I was posting on my Instagram, I even posted on my Instagram all week. | ||
| I was posting to him and then Just before I left to go to the Apex, I was watching his fights and I went to my room to have a little rest. | ||
| Then I got a message that Agla's dead. | ||
| I was like, I just posted him like an hour ago. | ||
| That's fucking crazy. | ||
| Yeah, well, like I said, it's discipline and the way it worked, and that's inspiration to me, you know? | ||
| And I watched a documentary, the first 30 fights, he didn't get paid no more than like, is it like $12,000 or something? | ||
| No one wanted to fight him. | ||
| I took inspiration from that. | ||
| You know what else I love? | ||
| He got out on top. | ||
| He's like, I'm done. | ||
| Tried to get a rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard. | ||
| Sugar Ray Leonard said no. | ||
| I fought he won that fight as well. | ||
| I did too. | ||
| I fought he won when I watched it. | ||
| It was a split decision, right? | ||
| I think it was. | ||
| And so he just said, good, I'm done. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| Out on top. | ||
| And the rest of his life spoke well. | ||
| Never had problems with... | ||
| What do you think that is? | ||
| Because some people, yeah, they're like... | ||
| Like, for example, Ali, you know, I know it took loads of punishment, but for some reason, some people get it, some people don't get it. | ||
| What do you think that is? | ||
| Well, there is a gene. | ||
| I think it's, what is the gene that makes someone more likely to get CTE? I think it's APOE4. I think that's what it is. | ||
| But there's a gene variant that Rhonda Patrick discussed, Dr. Rhonda Patrick discussed when she was on the podcast, that it specifically makes people more susceptible to CTE. Yeah, but it's also like heavyweights, man. | ||
| I mean, you think about the punishment that Ali took from Frazier, from Foreman. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Big, gosh, Larry Holmes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah. | |
| I mean, Trevor Burbick, those were terrible, terrible fights to watch. | ||
| But he just was getting battered. | ||
| And also, Larry Holmes was his sparring partner, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, just imagine sparring with Larry Holmes all the time. | ||
| Every week, yeah. | ||
| That's where a lot of the damage comes from, unfortunately. | ||
| Sparring? | ||
| Yeah, and this is what Max Holloway's thought process is about not sparring. | ||
| He's like, I want to keep my head fresh, so when I fight, I don't have... | ||
| I'm not going in there already banged up. | ||
| It's like, I already know how to fight. | ||
| Like with me, I don't spar out of camp, but in camp I spar. | ||
| When I'm not in camp, I don't spa at all. | ||
| I do, like, obviously, wrestling spa and jiu-jitsu spa, but I don't do headshots spa, but in-campus spa, headshots. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I think everyone's different, right? | ||
| It's like, it's up to you. | ||
| Work to you, work to you. | ||
| Like, Max Holloway looked fucking great last time before. | ||
| I can't argue with that. | ||
| So it's like, you can't argue with him, right? | ||
| He's the way it worked for him. | ||
| He's such an interesting guy, too, because he's so unassuming. | ||
| Like, if you met him, you would have no idea. | ||
| Yeah, I met him in Vegas. | ||
| If you're just hanging out with him, he's like, oh, he's this friendly guy who's just a stone-cold fucking killer when he gets in there. | ||
| Nah, he's good. | ||
| But he's durable as well. | ||
| He knows what he's doing, but he doesn't throw power shots. | ||
| He's like... | ||
| Just in your face. | ||
| Touching, touching, touching. | ||
| I like him. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| He's amazing. | ||
| I'm really interested to see next weekend Volkanovski is going to fight Brian Ortega. | ||
| That's an interesting fight too. | ||
| That's a good fight. | ||
| That's a good fight. | ||
| Yeah, I think. | ||
| What do you think? | ||
| Well, you know what? | ||
| When you see how good Max Holloway is, then you got to appreciate how good Volkanovski is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Because Volkanovski beat him twice. | ||
| Second fight was very close. | ||
| A lot of people thought Max could have won that fight. | ||
| But bottom line is, everybody else, Max is running over. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know? | ||
| I mean... | ||
| Except Dustin. | ||
| Dustin Poirier. | ||
| But that's at 155. That's not his weight class. | ||
| It's like Izzy, right? | ||
| You can't judge him from that performance because that's not his weight class. | ||
| He tried. | ||
| That's not his weight class, you know? | ||
| I wonder if he does it again. | ||
| And if he does it again, I wonder if he decides to gain weight this time. | ||
| I wonder what his approach is going to be. | ||
| But then it's going to be hard to come back down to middleweight, right? | ||
| So it's like, if I was him, I wouldn't do it again. | ||
| Not now, anyway. | ||
| Unless I'm going to want to move up permanently, then I'll build like John Jones is doing. | ||
| I'll build my body into it, you know? | ||
| Well, there's good fights for him in 85. The winner of Kevin Holland and Derrick Brunson, that's a big fight. | ||
| That's a big fight. | ||
| If Holland can win, Holland, I mean, that kid's a star. | ||
| If he can win. | ||
| I think if anyone's to fight Darren Taylor's all right. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, Darren Taylor's going to fight Vittori. | ||
| Marvin Vittori gave Izzy one of his hardest fights. | ||
| That guy is fucking good. | ||
| Nah, he's good. | ||
| He's good. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Vittori is probably one of the most underrated guys in that division. | ||
| No, it's tough. | ||
| That was a good fight. | ||
| I'd probably go with Darren, but I think that'd be a good fight. | ||
| And Calvin Gastelum is now going to step in and fight Robert Whittaker, which is interesting too. | ||
| Did they fight before? | ||
| Or were they meant to fight before? | ||
| They were meant to fight before, I believe. | ||
| They didn't fight, did they? | ||
| No, I don't think they ever fought before. | ||
| I think they were meant to fight. | ||
| Something happened. | ||
| I'm trying to remember. | ||
| They did tough, right? | ||
| Did they? | ||
| No, they didn't do tough. | ||
| Oh no. | ||
| I saw a picture the other day. | ||
| Really? | ||
| Both in tough clothes. | ||
| I don't know if they're in the house together or what. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I like Dana White's Tuesday Night Contender series better than tough. | ||
| Because I don't want all that drama shit and arguing over who ate whose asparagus. | ||
| Whitaker and Gaston were scheduled to fight when Whitaker was still champion in 2019. Whitaker is home country of Australia. | ||
| Cancel the morning of the event when Whitaker was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery for a collapsed bowel and internal hernia. | ||
| Oh, that's right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I remember that. | |
| That's right. | ||
| It was the day of the fight. | ||
| I remember that. | ||
| Oh, that's right. | ||
| That'd be good. | ||
| Whitaker looked great since getting beat by Izzy. | ||
| Yeah, he looked fucking amazing. | ||
| His sidekicks like it does to the knee as well. | ||
| It's a good technique to use against wrestlers anyway. | ||
| Well, he learned it from Yoel. | ||
| Yoel fucked him up in the first fight. | ||
| Is that he using it? | ||
| Yeah, Yoel hurt his knee. | ||
| He fucked up his knee in the first fight doing that. | ||
| You think that should be illegal? | ||
| No. | ||
| How are you going to make it illegal? | ||
| Nah, you can't make it illegal. | ||
| You can't. | ||
| You can't make it illegal. | ||
| I know people are saying, oh, I should make it illegal. | ||
| I know even Wonderboy said that. | ||
| Like, how are you saying that? | ||
| Did he? | ||
| Yeah, he said he doesn't like it. | ||
| He uses it though, right? | ||
| Wonderboy. | ||
| I guess you use it because it's legal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| But you wish it wasn't legal, I guess, maybe? | ||
| Nah, leave it. | ||
| I think it's a fight. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Leave it. | ||
| How come heel hooks are legal then? | ||
| It's like that elbow, the 12 to 6 elbow. | ||
| That's ridiculous. | ||
| Put that back in. | ||
| Yeah, throw it back in there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's crazy! | |
| You can do every other angle. | ||
| Yeah, it's so dumb. | ||
| But do you know where it came from? | ||
| Where? | ||
| Big John McCarthy told me that it came from the athletic commissions had watched ESPN. And you remember they used to have those karate demonstrations where they break bricks? | ||
| Yeah! | ||
| They thought that that was too powerful. | ||
| That that technique was too dangerous. | ||
| The fuck? | ||
| The 12 times? | ||
| The fuck? | ||
| What the fuck? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did it? | |
| Exactly. | ||
| That's where it came from. | ||
| That's why the 12-6 elbow is illegal. | ||
| It's so dumb. | ||
| That's mad. | ||
| I didn't know that was the reason. | ||
| That's the reason! | ||
| And it's still illegal, which is really hilarious. | ||
| It's like a legacy rule. | ||
| I mean, it doesn't make any sense. | ||
| Nah, I think it's... | ||
| I mean, this elbow's harder. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| This elbow's harder than this. | ||
| Yeah, I think I can generate more power this way than coming down this way. | ||
| Yeah, it's a more natural move. | ||
| Yeah, yeah. | ||
| It's because you're throwing your shoulder in it. | ||
| This just seems odd. | ||
| And you can put your whole hips into it, you know? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So, I think I should put it back in there. | ||
| I think so, too. | ||
| There's a lot of things that should be back in there. | ||
| I wonder if knees to a grounded opponent. | ||
| What did you think about that Aljamain, Sterling, Piotr Jan ending? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Um... | |
| I think if it was hurt, right? | ||
| If it's generally hurt, then I think it's justified. | ||
| But if it wasn't hurt and it just did it just to get a title, then it's different. | ||
| But it was clearly an illegal shot. | ||
| It was clearly illegal. | ||
| But why is that illegal? | ||
| That's my question. | ||
| Like, if you have two hands and you have one knee down, why is it illegal to hit someone with a knee? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| You can do this. | ||
| Why would it be illegal? | ||
| I can kind of get it if your both hands are on the ground. | ||
| Maybe I kind of get it, but even then I don't get it. | ||
| I think the problem is the cage. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| The cage? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Because if there was no cage... | ||
| Here I go with this. | ||
| I go with this every few months. | ||
| I go on a rant about this. | ||
| That they should just have a basketball arena. | ||
| If you're playing basketball, there's no cage around those guys. | ||
| They're running around. | ||
| They have a big space. | ||
| Put them in the middle. | ||
| Yeah, but what about war wrestling and shit? | ||
| Yeah, but why? | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why wrestle? | ||
| But why wall wrestling? | ||
| See, that's the thing. | ||
| It's like you're using... | ||
| The wall becomes a part of the strategy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You're pushing someone against it or you're pushing off of it to get back up. | ||
| But if you just have just open space, first of all, it's easier for everybody to see. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like, they do a lot of kickboxing tournaments like that, where they don't have rings now. | ||
| I've seen kickboxing tournaments where they just lay mats out. | ||
| Do they? | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah. | ||
| Like, amateurs, smokers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, yeah, yeah. | |
| There was one on, um... | ||
| There was a fucking... | ||
| One of those Muay Thai pages I was watching on a couple of days ago. | ||
| But if that was the case... | ||
| Then you could do all sorts of shit that you can't do, like knees to a downed opponent. | ||
| Because the problem is if someone's trapped, like if you're trapped against the cage... | ||
| The allergen sterling in one, you're in the middle of the oxygen, right? | ||
| That's why it seems like that should be... | ||
| It kind of seems like that should be legal to me. | ||
| You can punch him, but you can't knee him. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why can you punch him in the face? | ||
| If the guy's down like that, why is it okay to elbow him in the face, but you can't knee him? | ||
| I wonder why it is, why they chose to do that, you know? | ||
| But it's like, we need to draw the line, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| You have to draw the line somewhere, so... | ||
| I guess. | ||
| Like stomps? | ||
| I don't believe stomps should be, like, legal. | ||
| Stomps on the foot? | ||
| To the head. | ||
| Oh. | ||
| You don't think it should be illegal? | ||
| No, yeah, it should be illegal. | ||
| It should be illegal. | ||
| Yeah, right. | ||
| That's like... | ||
| Remember Pride, where they used to allow stomps? | ||
| Some Vanderlei Silva knockouts were ruthless. | ||
| He just stomped on a dude's head. | ||
| Nah, that's like barbaric, right? | ||
| It's just like... | ||
| It's kind of barbaric. | ||
| Yeah, it's that way you draw the line to sport and madness, you know? | ||
| Like soccer kicks. | ||
| Like, that was the other thing about Pride. | ||
| They allowed soccer kicks. | ||
| It made it exciting. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It's wild shit. | ||
| For the general public to be like, what the fuck is happening? | ||
| Getting stomped in your head. | ||
| I used to think that they should have no gloves. | ||
| I used to think that you should be able to fight with no gloves. | ||
| Because I was like, well, why is it okay to hit someone with a shin, but your knuckles have to be padded? | ||
| That doesn't make any sense. | ||
| Yeah, you fucking hands broke a break, right? | ||
| Well, it's also the cuts. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Like when you watch that bare knuckle fighting championship, you realize people just get sliced open. | ||
| Nah, you have to have gloves. | ||
| I think it should change. | ||
| I think UFC should look like changing the gloves. | ||
| I don't know why you could change it, too, is the question, you know? | ||
| Onyx, Trevor Whitman's company, has the best gloves. | ||
| Yeah, they're the best. | ||
| I mean, they're so superior to the gloves they use now. | ||
| They're completely full. | ||
| It's like you would know this better than anybody, that the UFC gloves make your hand one Yeah, just pads there, right? | ||
| Nothing stops it from doing this. | ||
| It almost like forces your hand into an open position and you've got to fight against it to close your fist. | ||
| Especially when you've got wraps on. | ||
| It's not naturally like this anyway, but like you said, you have to fight to close your fist. | ||
| But the Onyx gloves that Trevor Whitman designed, your hand is always curved. | ||
| Your hand is curved. | ||
| So if you want to open it up, you can. | ||
| But the resistance is to open it. | ||
| So your hand is in a natural fixed position like this. | ||
| And I think it's going to prevent a lot of hand breaks. | ||
| Because I think it's better managed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
If you don't affect the grappling paw of it? | |
| That's a boxing glove. | ||
| See if you get to Trevor Whitten and his MMA gloves. | ||
| I was just looking around for a good comparison. | ||
| I'm pretty sure if you go to his website, if you go to Onyx, his Onyx, I don't know what he called it. | ||
| Is it Onyx Equipment? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Onyx Sports. | |
| Onyx Sports. | ||
| It's the best MMA glove I've ever seen, by far. | ||
| And I know the UFC, that's his boxing glove again. | ||
| Does he have a menu where you can see the equipment? | ||
| There it is. | ||
| Yeah, he came... | ||
| Where is it? | ||
| It says training glove. | ||
| I finished a look into it. | ||
| Does he not have it for sale? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's the only glove on there. | |
| What? | ||
| He doesn't have it for sale? | ||
| Yeah, I guess he doesn't have it up there. | ||
| That's so weird. | ||
| I wonder why it's not on his website. | ||
| I know you could find it somewhere, but I wish I had a pair so I could show you. | ||
| Yeah, I think I should at least look into do something to the gloves. | ||
| No, it's been the same gloves now for forever. | ||
| Yeah, forever. | ||
| It's like boxing, right? | ||
| They had to move up from back in the day. | ||
| Yeah, like, even Pride's gloves are better. | ||
| Pride's gloves, like, there was way less eye pokes in Pride, and I think that was part of theirs because they were curved. | ||
| They had more of a, like, more form fitted to a fist. | ||
| But the Whitman ones are by far the best. | ||
| No, nothing anywhere? | ||
| I know how to find them. | ||
| It's just a way better design. | ||
| The way he has it, and the knuckles are way more protected. | ||
| It's like it forms around your knuckles. | ||
| It's really excellent. | ||
| That's it? | ||
| That looks like Pride, dude. | ||
| That one on the left? | ||
| Yeah, the one on the left is the Pride glove. | ||
| But you can see in that one how it's curved. | ||
| They've got to do something. | ||
| I thought maybe even there was a way to cover the fingers. | ||
| Nah, you don't want to cover the fingers. | ||
| You want to grapple, right? | ||
| I know, but would it be like... | ||
| You remember those old school bad gloves? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Couldn't it be something like that where it covers the fingers that way? | ||
| Nah, you won't be able to like... | ||
| Nah. | ||
| Kind of. | ||
| Yeah, kind of, but your grips, you want to feel the grips, right? | ||
| What actually might be better, in a way, because you'd have, like, when your hands get slippery, if you had the texture of the leather, you could kind of hold on to things, maybe a little bit better. | ||
| I'd have to, like, feel the grips. | ||
| I feel the gloves, you can, like, probably start slipping off, or whatever it is. | ||
| When you're solid, you can start playing around with your grips. | ||
| It's different, you know? | ||
| How often do you do straight jiu-jitsu? | ||
| Once a week. | ||
| Once a week? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's it? | |
| I wrestle three times a week. | ||
| Three or four times a week, you know? | ||
| So, I like grappling. | ||
| I don't really focus much on jiu-jitsu, jiu-jitsu. | ||
| I like MMA, jiu-jitsu. | ||
| It's like MMA grappling, right? | ||
| I don't really focus on just doing gi-jitsu, you know? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| I just do... | ||
| I do all... | ||
| I do grappling, you know, which is war wrestling, open mat wrestling, rolling. | ||
| So... | ||
| Yeah, I never really... | ||
| I used to, but as I get older, I kind of just do specific for the sport that I'm doing. | ||
| It was MMA. I don't care about not being a black belt, you know? | ||
| You don't care at all? | ||
| No? | ||
| My culture is cute, but I have to... | ||
| I hate the gi, right? | ||
| I do, yeah. | ||
| Yeah, I was fucking... | ||
| I was thinking stupid because you're fucking... | ||
| You're grappling with a guy, he's grabbing your collar, you're like... | ||
| He's not realistic, you know? | ||
| But when you're free of flowing, you got no top on, you can... | ||
| Free movement is better for me, you know? | ||
| But my coach is going to tell me I need to do it to get my belt. | ||
| But I can't do it. | ||
| Yeah, it's kind of weird for MMA fighters. | ||
| I think for MMA fighters, no gi is much more easily applicable. | ||
| But some people like the gi for the defensive purposes. | ||
| Because you have to get out of things correctly. | ||
| Like you have to really... | ||
| Like arm bars and things like that. | ||
| You have to be very technical in getting out because you can't just explode. | ||
| Because you're wrapped up. | ||
| So you have to follow all the correct steps and... | ||
| The thought process is that if you learn how to grapple correctly with the Gi, your defense would be better. | ||
| It definitely makes it more tighter, you know what I mean? | ||
| Because when I roll guys that do the gi, they're definitely more tight, you know? | ||
| But for me, I just wanted to do MMA, right? | ||
| I don't want to compete in Jiu-Jitsu. | ||
| No, never? | ||
| You never want to? | ||
| I used to when I was a kid, when I was younger. | ||
| I used to do Jiu-Jitsu tournaments and stuff like that. | ||
| But now I just want to farm up my game around MMA. Everything we do, you actually fit into MMA, you know? | ||
| So, yeah. | ||
| Yeah, you're so focused on your career. | ||
| You have to, right? | ||
| Yeah, I think it's hard to, like, take time off to go do, like, a pure jiu-jitsu competition. | ||
| Also, you can get injured. | ||
| Exactly, you can get injured. | ||
| So, yeah, I think everything you do, you should do it so it benefits your art and what you're going to do in MMA. You know, you should own teammates that do compete in both MMA and jiu-jitsu. | ||
| I mean, they enjoy jiu-jitsu, but I enjoy... | ||
| I enjoy MMA. I enjoy doing all of it, you know. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think you'd take a kickboxing fight? | |
| That's more your... | ||
| Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. | ||
| Yeah, 100%. | ||
| I love striking, I love boxing, I love kickboxing. | ||
| So, it's a possibility, for sure. | ||
| You know, I mean, it depends on opportunity, what comes up, but... | ||
| I love a boxing fight more than anything. | ||
| I got good boxing. | ||
| I'm like a weird one. | ||
| I can adjust my style to do what I want to do. | ||
| When I go to a boxing gym, I can be a boxer. | ||
| Same guard that they have. | ||
| I think it depends on the opportunity. | ||
| How long do you see yourself fighting? | ||
| It depends, I don't know, 38 probably? | ||
| 37, 38? | ||
| I don't know, I might get to 37. I feel good. | ||
| I keep going, you know? | ||
| That's the thing, right, with like modern science and learning how to recover better. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| So it all depends on what, 10 years probably? | ||
| Then I probably hang up, start teaching. | ||
| Is that what you want to do when you retire? | ||
| You want to be a coach? | ||
| Yeah, I'm all about giving back, right? | ||
| So that's... | ||
| I started like a charity as well. | ||
| With me, Darren Till, Jimmy Manuel and the UFC. To do with knife crimes in the UK. Because in the UK, obviously, guns are illegal. | ||
| Not even the police carry guns, you know. | ||
| But knife crimes in the UK is like... | ||
| You know, so I started a charity that's going to help with, like, at-risk youth that's involved in stuff like that. | ||
| And we're partnering up with the police, with a charity that's called Legacy in the UK. They're already in the field. | ||
| We're trying to basically go there, teach classes. | ||
| If the kids obviously show up and behave, then we'll pay for that gym membership for the year and just stuff like that. | ||
| Anything to do with giving back, that's my passion. | ||
| What is the name of your charity? | ||
| I can't remember the name of it. | ||
| It's called Knife Youth Mentoring Program. | ||
| They sponsored us a kit and finance and helped us. | ||
| One of my friends got killed last year, knife crimes. | ||
| I've lost so many friends from knife crimes from getting stabbed that if we can do anything to give back and to help, that's my passion. | ||
| Well, that's a very worthy cause, man. | ||
| It is a giant issue in the UK, right? | ||
| Mm-hmm. | ||
| It's kind of crazy. | ||
| He got stabbed on Father's Day. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, shit. | |
| He's fucked up. | ||
| His cousin called him out for, like, help, basically. | ||
| On Father's Day, he had his daughter with him. | ||
| They fucking took his daughter in the car to go pick his cousin up and then fucking got stabbed and then bled out on the floor in his neck. | ||
| Oh, Jesus Christ. | ||
| So yeah, anything you can do to help with anything to do with that, I'll help, you know? | ||
| And so that and working with young up-and-coming fighters, that's what you want to do? | ||
| Yeah, for sure. | ||
| Yeah, 100%. | ||
| As I said, that's why I want to achieve being a world champion coming from where I come from, right? | ||
| So I can... | ||
| Just show them that if you can touch it, like I said, it's more realistic. | ||
| That's my passion to give back to these young kids, especially kids that are at risk or coming from broken homes or poor families. | ||
| If you can help one or two, help them. | ||
| Well, Leon, I'm glad you got some attention from your last fight, and I'm sure you're going to get more, but I just want more people to understand how good you are. | ||
| Because it's so rare that someone gets to the level that you're at and just for unfortunate circumstances doesn't have the same amount of attention. | ||
| Usually when a guy's as good as you are, everybody fucking knows. | ||
| I think a lot more people know now, but... | ||
| It's getting there, you know. | ||
| I want everybody to know. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Same. | |
| Same. | ||
| It's getting there, you know. | ||
| I think fight by fight, it will come. | ||
| I think, obviously, getting more push from the UFC as well will be good as are, you know what I mean? | ||
| So, yeah, fight by fight, the more I beat these guys out there, the more I beat the guys, I think that's good, the recognition will come, right? | ||
| So, you're going to go and talk to the UFC. You're flying to Vegas tonight, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And do they have a timeline, do you know, about when they'd like to see you back in there again? | ||
| Well, I would like to be back straight away because that files out one round, right? | ||
| I didn't get to get in my flow. | ||
| So straight away, really, I feel the same, May. | ||
| We're trying to get Cole Covington, right? | ||
| So we'll see what he says. | ||
| Probably May, early June, May. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| So we'll see. | ||
| But I want to be active this year. | ||
| I had a long year and a half off. | ||
| So if I'm banging them out, I'll keep banging them out. | ||
| All right, brother. | ||
| Well, thank you very much for being here. | ||
| I'm a fan. | ||
| I appreciate you. | ||
| Thank you. |
Export Selection