Demetrious Johnson credits Matt Hume’s multi-discipline training—MMA, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing—as key to his dominance, debuting after just six months at 18. He dismisses early MMA’s steroid culture as a survival tactic against head trauma but argues modern fighters like Paige Van Zandt or Jon Jones gain unfair advantages through doping or extreme weight cuts. Rogan and Johnson clash over IV hydration bans, calling them "legal cheating," while Johnson defends his technical style over brawling, despite injuries like labrum surgery. The UFC’s rigid scheduling and Reebok deal complicate focus, but Johnson’s whole-food diet and Hume’s relentless discipline keep him elite—proving smaller fighters can thrive with speed and precision. [Automatically generated summary]
I mean, I will honestly say it's credited to Matt Hume and Brad Curtin.
Ever since I started training mixed martial arts, you know, I didn't jump into mixed martial arts because of the UFC. I mean, I did see the Ultimate Fighter and all that stuff, but I saw the workouts, how in shape they were.
And then when I started fighting, Matt was like, okay, you can do a mixed martial arts fight.
So I had my first amateur fight.
Then next, Matt was like...
Good job.
Then I'll go back to training and then Matt was like, hey, how do you feel about doing a kickboxing fight?
I was like, sure, why not?
Did a kickboxing fight.
Won that.
He goes, good job.
Then he's like, hey, there's a jiu-jitsu tournament.
You need to go there and beat everybody.
I'll go there and take first place.
He goes, good job.
In the back of his mind, I think he's molding me to be very well-rounded.
Then one time he's like, hey, there's a boxing fight.
You want to take it?
I'm like, Sure, let's take it.
Won that.
And so forth.
Then I did a Muay Thai fight.
Then I did another jiu-jitsu tournament.
So I never just did pure mixed martial arts throughout my entire upbringing.
He would make me do different aspects of martial arts, mixed martial arts, to get me ready.
So if I got in a fight and I'm fighting a pure boxer, I can get in there and be like, okay, I'm fighting a boxer.
So boxer, I can put my head super low and not have to get worried about it.
I mean, he would talk to me, but he would not talk to me.
It was just different.
And then eventually, once I had the first fight with Ian McCall, he goes, Alright, Demi Joyce, you gotta start taking this shit seriously.
I was like, what do you mean?
We're in the UFC, I just fought for a world title against Dominic Cruz.
He goes, dude, you only train with me twice a week.
Like, Saturdays and...
At that point, it was only Saturdays.
Wednesdays and Saturdays.
He's like, you only train with me two days a week.
Like, you need to take this shit seriously.
When people are professional athletes, they come, they leave their families and move away and train with the trainer.
And so that's why you saw a huge change in my game from the second Ian McAuliffe because I started training underneath him.
If I went to go take a shit, Matt was like, hey, hey, hey, what color is that poop?
I need to know.
He started overseeing everything I did when I was swimming, conditioning, everything.
Beginning of my MMA career, when I was fighting Miguel Torres, Kid Yamamoto, Demacia Page, Nick Pace, I was doing my own thing, like doing my conditioning on my own.
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, Friday, I was doing my own thing.
And then Wednesday, Matt would come down the south, beat me up.
And then Saturday, I would drive up to Kirkland.
And train with him, and we would spar.
So, after that fight, the first team in the call fight, he was like, you need to take this shit seriously.
And that's when I was like, alright, I'll do 100% with you then.
Oh, and even though he's, I think he's 49, he'll be 50 this year, it's always funny because when we get ready for a fight, we're all, we're in it 100%.
We're training, we're learning, and I'm still learning.
And then when I get ready for a fight, you know, he lets me do my thing, stay in shape, I do a good job doing that.
And then sometimes we'll come back and we'll spar.
And he was just in China and he was in Singapore.
And I'm always like, okay, I'm going to get the best of him this time.
I'm going to get the best of him.
And so he's like, alright, I think I'm going to spar today.
He'll go upstairs, get his gear on.
And then my buddy Carol goes, oh, dad, dad's going to spar tonight.
I remember watching him way back in the day when he fought Pat Miletic, and he broke Pat Miletic's nose, and they stopped the fight, which I was like, I remember even at the time, I was like, what the fuck?
You're going to stop a fight over a broken nose?
That's crazy.
It happens all the time in boxing.
It happens all the time in every sport.
But for whatever reason, they just decided to stop the fight.
Yeah, it's so smart to do that, and so few guys do.
Everybody wants to be a tough guy.
Everybody wants to rough it out and push through it.
It's so smart to do.
It's so smart to just let the engine heal, let the machine heal.
There's so many guys that think you have to be a hard ass.
You have to wrap up your arm like a mummy and get in there.
I mean, you could always do something.
You know, you could always, like, I know a lot of guys who have, they've torn muscles, so they do all the workouts in the pool or something along those lines.
Well, Rafael Dos Anjos, before he beat Anthony Pettis for the title, he had an MCL tear.
He couldn't do anything.
So all he did was sprints on the Aerodyne.
I mean, he was just doing hour-long sprints, you know, like just, like, interval sprints on the Aerodyne, and that's all he did for, like, the last couple weeks of his camp.
I remember the first time seeing him in fighting, and I was watching him, and I was like, Okay, he understands distance.
He understands fighting.
And then as I saw him fight a little better competition with Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier, and I saw how he crossed distance and how he could take a shot.
Think about the weight cut issue now because of the IV ban.
For people listening to this don't know what we're talking about.
You used to be able to make weight and then after you made weight you could rehydrate with IVs intravenously.
They banned that because fighters apparently people in other sports have used IVs to mask performance enhancing drugs.
So they banned IVs.
A lot of people think it's dangerous because they think it's the most efficient way to rehydrate.
And if you're going to have weight weigh-ins, and especially if you're going to have a big disparity of weight classes, like you're in a weight class like 125 where there's a 10-pound jump between 125 and 135, but a lot of them, like 85 to 205, that's 20 pounds.
I've never had to IV, not once in my whole entire career.
And there's been times I have to cut eight and a half pounds the day of weigh-ins.
I think it's gonna help people fight more at their natural weight classes.
You know, I honestly think I'm probably one of the smallest guys in the flyweight division.
You know, this morning, I don't know when I woke up, but I know yesterday I woke up at 141.5 and I had beer.
Good food the night before.
So I'm a small guy.
So when I cut to 125, I mean, it's a hard cut.
I'm cutting 15 pounds.
But I rehydrate very well.
I never get tired when I fight because I make sure I do my homework, learn how to diet right, and then make sure I get enough water in me so I can have the water to cut out of my system.
But for guys who, you know, I know John Dotson, I've heard he gets like 157, 160. Does he really?
That's what I've heard on the street.
I know Joseph, he used to get big between his fights, but I heard he's kind of, you know, last time I talked to him, he's kind of stayed a little bit lower.
Because in reality, it's like, what's the point of getting big and put muscle on?
Eventually, you're going to have to cut it off anyways.
I mean, the first thing that goes when you're losing weight is typically muscle, then the fat, and then so forth.
So for me, I'm all for it.
I think you're going to start seeing a lot of guys like Hanna Burrow.
He's going to fight at 145 now.
Who knows Conor McGregor?
He has a huge cut to 145. He's going to possibly fight at 155. So I think it's good.
I mean, obviously, I think I know a lot of guys love the way you can IV. But now they're like, I think the biggest thing is they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we used to be able to do this for 20 years plus, and now you're just going to come here and say we can't do it?
I thought this was America.
So I think that's where people are getting their panties in a bunch.
Yeah, and I think they're trying to do, in my personal opinion, I remember when we were doing the USADA meeting, and it cracked me up because he was like, well, that's a totally different story, but he said that one fighter came in, didn't give a name, came in, Did his test before the fight.
No, before weigh-ins.
Tested.
That test came back clean.
But then after the fight, they did the post-fight, they're like, okay, there's something.
No.
So he came and weighed in.
They tested him before he weighed in.
Then after weigh-ins, they tested him again.
Then after the weigh-ins, after the fight, they tested him.
And they're like, okay, whoa, something's wrong here.
Because he rehydrated, and he was hiding something when he rehydrated.
And then the USADA guy, I forget his name, he's like the head guy, bald guy.
Like, Ronda Rousey, after the first round, obviously there were stylistic issues, and there was obviously technical issues, where she wasn't as good as we thought she was standing up.
You know, when you see her hit the pads, and you see You see her fight someone like Betch Cohea, she looked good.
But then you see her fight a skilled striker like Holly and some issues got exposed, some technical issues.
But she fucking sprinted.
She came out the opening round and sprinted.
And by the end of the first round, she hit a bunch and she was exhausted.
And you think about it, that's how she's been so successful with her opponents.
I mean, the biggest thing you could do, nobody trained in the gym like, okay, round one, fight.
Nobody fights like that.
So when you do that to an opponent, that breaks them down.
It freaks them out.
I would, you know, give praises to Greg Jackson and John Wigglejohn, those guys over there in Albuquerque, for getting Holly Holm ready for that.
Because in my mind, going into that fight, I was like, if I was Holly Holm, I would take a second, relax, see what Ronda's bringing, you know, use my jab, use my high kick, use my spinning kicks, just to get Ronda off her game.
Because Ronda likes to collapse.
She likes this collision.
Like you said, when she fought Bech Cohera, yeah, she won that exchange to Bech Cohera when her wins in Octagon.
If you look at the people she's fought, their combined record, I did the...
The promotion has to do their thing to sell the next big fight.
But as me, as an athlete, I'm like...
So, Betch Carrera vs.
Ronda Rousey.
You want to know how this is going to go?
Ronda Rousey is going to knock her out.
Because, yes, Betch Carrera is undefeated 9-0, but who the fuck has she fought?
Like, you have to look at, you know, who that person has fought.
So, when I look at a person like Josephine DeVitas, I always give him high praises.
Because the man's fought Domina Cruz.
He's only two losses between me and Domina Cruz, John Dotson.
He hasn't lost at 135, and he's only lost to 125. It's to me.
So his skill set is high up there, too, where Kat Zagano, I thought she had the best chance to beat Ronda Rousey, but I spent time with her in the back when we were getting ready to fight UFC 178, and she was so emotional.
I was sitting in the back there just eating a banana, and she was like, doing her thing.
And then Betch Cohea just shot her into the stratosphere because it was in Brazil.
I'll tell you, man, that was a surreal moment.
It was surreal being there in Brazil because every time I've been to Brazil before, they never cheer for Americans.
I mean, they cheer when you're over, you give props to Brazil, but when you're on the weigh-in scale and you're fighting a Brazilian, they're very proud.
And they were fucking cheering Ronda and booing Betch Cohea.
She was taking it all in and walking around like some fucking gladiator shit.
It was like some Russell Crowe shit.
I was like, wow, this is crazy.
But for her, what a trip it must be to go from that, which is just like the most epic victory in Brazil, in the home country, million pay-per-view buys, she's a superstar in every talk show, and everybody wants to talk to her, to head kicked, to beaten down, and then head kicked.
Watching that fight and how Matt always talks about pushing your opponent to the distance where you need to land a kick.
So once Holly...
I mean, when Holly had her down once before and then she got up and Holly kind of let her go.
And then the second time when she pushed her butt into the high kick and I was like...
I mean, I've always...
I didn't know too much about Holly Holm.
Then once, you know, the fight was getting built up, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do a little more research on Holly Holm.
And then I saw how she was strong.
She was an athletic.
And, you know, she's always...
Her high kick's very good.
And then when she landed on there, and I was like...
This bitch is bad.
And so I just felt that Ronda Rousey ran into somebody who's just as athletic or more athletic than she is, who doesn't, I'm not saying Ronda Rousey blows up between her fight camp, but I would say, you know, if we went to Holly Holm right now, she would probably still have abs, you know, she's fit.
Yeah.
And who's a great striker.
I mean, that's her domain.
I mean, she's a world champion in boxing.
I heard she had a kickboxing background before, too.
And that's one thing I say.
I always talk to TJ Dillshaw about Ronda Rousey.
I'm like, damn it.
I was like, oh, Ronda Rousey, her pad work's so good, but I just want to see her fucking kick.
I was like, you know, if she had a good jab-jab inside nine to disrupt Holly Holm's base, to change the distance, you know, because the only way Ron Rossi can hit you is from punches.
My legs are longer than my feet, so I can use my kicks to change the distance, to disguise my distance to Holly Holm, but she doesn't have that in her repertoire.
I don't know how...
I don't know if Edmund is versatile in kicks or the clinch game because each time around it clinches, it's always, I'm looking to throw you.
I'm not looking to clinch, Muay Thai, throw elbows, shoot down for a double leg takedown, switch to single leg, drag you off one foot, throw the left hook.
She's not versatile in that.
So that's when people are like, man, she's the best robot in the fighting world.
I'm like, I haven't seen her kick.
I haven't seen her do a double leg takedown.
I haven't seen her drop to her back and do a heel.
So I can't buy into that.
I mean, she's an amazing athlete.
What she's done with the skill set she's been given, absolutely amazing.
I mean, her numbers are way better than mine, so what the fuck am I saying?
The thing that I see from Joanna is that she's a stand-up artist.
She hits like a fucking truck.
But the thing I see from Paige Van Zandt is that, one, she's still green.
She's still new.
But the pace she puts on people, the pace that Loretta Valerie put on Joanna...
When Joanna wasn't hurting Valerie, and I was like, okay, so she's not hurting her, but I can start to see Joanna start to slow down just a little bit.
If Valerie had a little more wrestling, a little more diverse, just fighting, I'm just going to fight you.
I think, and that's what Paige brings when she fights.
She puts on a high pace to where she's in your face.
Yes, she has some weird scrambles where, you know, it's like, oh, what the hell happened?
But she ends up on top, and then she starts punching ground to pound.
I think...
That pace is going to give Joanna Jacek a problem.
Obviously, Joanna is going to prepare for her and have her great takedown defense.
But I think if Paige Van Zandt comes in, I'm like, okay, I'm going to get in your fucking face.
I'm not going to give you a chance to get your jab, set your Muay Thai up.
I'm going to get on you.
We're going to clinch.
I'm going to wrestle you.
Like when I did my Muay Thai fight, I didn't.
Dude, I didn't fight the guy Muay Thai style.
I fucking wrestled him.
I got in there, started clenching at him, grabbing his head, and then when he tried to put me off balance, I put him off balance for my wrestling.
That's what you have to do with someone who's a Muay Thai world champion.
And I believe Paige Van Zandt could do that if she has the right skills, if she has the right coaching, and the right attitude, and is ready to get fucking hit a lot.
And we were talking about it, and he did the podcast, and he was saying, if you watch the fight, what happened was that Dos Anjos was always there just slightly quicker.
Like, their skill sets were incredibly similar.
Like, incredibly similar as far as how good they both are.
But Dos Anjos was just landing just a little bit quicker.
He was there first.
He never let Pettis set up.
And because of that, he won all the exchanges.
He just won virtually every minute of every round.
I mean, back then you had Herschel Walker, you know, you had great football players.
There was a lot where you could compare and you could look at them and you go, well, these guys are elite athletes.
They're playing the same sport.
Man, you go back and watch UFC 1 and it's not even the same sport.
It's just not.
The sport has evolved.
Even from 2005, if you go back to the time when the UFC had the Ultimate Fighter, if you go 10 years for the first season of the Ultimate Fighter, you go 10 years ago and then watch now, the difference between world champions then and world champions now, it's, boy, there's a giant leap.
I mean, if you look back to the first time that Daniel Corbin and Jon Jones fight, he goes, Fuck, I didn't realize how heavy he was when I had to carry him around.
And I think the second time they fight, he's going to have to carry that weight around because Jon Jones is longer.
I would say Jon Jones is maybe faster.
I mean, they're both still fast, but I think Jon Jones is going to have the upper hand in his striker realm.
So, Daniel Corman is going to have to carry all that extra weight around.
That's a beautiful thing, is that Jon Jones, yes, he's put on weight.
He's not, you know, big Jon Jones.
He's athletic.
He's taking his time off more seriously than instead of doing his partying days.
So, in retrospect, when he gets in the camp, he's already way ahead of the curve than he was when he fought DC the first time.
So, if anything, I think it's worse for DC that Jon Jones is lifting now because he's not out partying and getting fat.
Like, even after watching that fight, when I watched DC and Cormier, when they fought, I felt like Jon Jones.
And I've always felt like this way with Jon Jones.
Like, when he fought Rampage...
Even when he fought Lyoto Machida, I feel like he goes out there, he takes it all in, see what his opponent wants to do, does a knee tap and all that stuff where he kicks people in the kneecap.
But I feel that there's a point where he turns around and goes, okay, I'm going to fucking finish you now.
Like when he broke his foot, when he dislocated his toe, his tail, I felt like you saw a different fighter to where it's like if a wolf had its prey and its playing with them, then it was like, okay, I'm going to tear your throat out.
That's why I felt like when Jon Jones' DC fight, I felt like Jon Jones just kind of, he did it enough to win, but I felt like he wasn't like, I'm going to fucking destroy you now.
Like I'm going to put you on your back.
I'm going to take your back and send me you.
And I feel like the next time you see Jon Jones fight DC, I think you're going to see that.
When he almost beat Anderson Silva, that was a perfect example of a guy that was fighting injured.
You know, when Anderson had a fucked up rib going into that fight, couldn't stuff the takedown, couldn't stop it, and still managed to pull off that triangle in the fifth round.
But if you watch that triangle, like I watched that triangle a bunch of times, it wasn't in.
And I think somebody else was there with Matt, and then the guy called...
He called the guy who was with Matt, and he goes, hey man, hey, I'm thinking about gambling in a fight, what do you think?
And this wasn't Matt, this was a guy who was there with Matt.
And he goes, well, the way the fucking things look, Paula Feo is at the bar right now drinking fucking wine, so if you're going to gamble, you gamble and chill.
It's very rare you see guys who come from pure Brazilian Jiu Jitsu like Jacare, Bibiano Fernandez, who come from a gi perspective of grappling and be able to transfer well over to mixed martial arts because I've grappled with a lot of black belts and no gi in mixed martial arts and I'm like...
I don't know how I feel about it, but when I go with a Bibiano, I'm like, holy shit, this is a totally different level.
With the gi or without the gi?
Without the gi.
Each time I grab a Bibiano, it's like...
I'd rather be in Bibiano's...
Hang on, what was that?
I'd rather have Bibiano in my guard than me being his guard.
If they're pure jiu-jitsu and they've done mixed martial arts, so for instance, for me, you can tell when I'm on my back, I'm not a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter.
I know how to do my arbor, I know how to do my commerce, I know how to do my front chokes and elevate and tip you off and all that stuff, but...
Typically, when I'm on my back, I'm doing either two things.
I'm trying to set your weight somewhere else so I can get back on my feet so I can start striking with you, or I'm looking to LA you to reverse you and then get my top game and start playing my game to looking to punch you.
Typically, when I go with Bibiano, he has both those styles where he'll cook the beans.
When he's on his back, he's throwing up the triangle, the armbar, doing certain steps where I'm like, okay, this guy, I don't want to be here.
I want to...
I don't like it.
I want to pass your guard and get it there.
To where the guy we were with the other night, I can feel it.
I was like, you're just trying to cook the beans, dog, and it ain't going to happen.
These beans aren't going to be cooked.
And so that's why I was like, okay, you're just pure jiu-jitsu.
Then once they take the bait and they bite, you hook them.
And so when Matt's talking about striking, you know, you go out there and you start, you know, Making him, you know, if you have a counter striker, you want to give him that illusion like, hey, I'm right here.
Kind of what Conor does.
Conor gets here.
You know, he's here.
And then when you start striking, he's like, I'm actually right here.
And I can hit you.
So that's what kind of reference of like, I'm a big reference of analogies.
When I teach mixed martial arts, when I used to teach, I would always use analogies when I would teach my...
I never forget when Chad was like, he was still talking shit when I was, you know, he goes, uh, uh, uh, and I think, I think it can happen.
I mean, For me, if somebody was going to talk, I remember when I was getting ready to fight Dawson the second time, he goes, I'm going to talk shit to him in the fight.
I'm like, we'll fucking see.
We'll see.
And he did it.
There was a point in time where I was going to talk shit.
But even like, in all my opponents, every single time I fought them, to the John Dodson, even though he talks shit about me, to John Rangan when he talks shit about me, every single time I fight my guys, I go up to them and say, dude, hey, this isn't the end of your career.
At the end of the day, it's about being able to take care of your family and Pay your bills and have a career.
So this isn't the end for you.
Keep on fighting and, you know, maybe you get another chance at the title or maybe not.
And no matter how much shit they talk about me, then it doesn't matter me.
It was because it was like if I tell if I have a if there's a young guy that's thinking about a young girl that's thinking about getting into MMA, I will watch this fight.
You're watching a guy fight one of the most athletic, one of the most dangerous guys in the fucking in the sport.
And you shut it all down not by running away, not by avoiding him, by engaging over and over again, but controlling the distance, controlling the position.
Like, you were constantly out of position for him.
He's so dangerous and I think and I can feel I can tell the three points were like when we're training and I'll just get hit so many times so much and I'm like this is fucking stupid like I'm gonna get not I'm gonna get knocked out if I fight like this But then I believe in that's training and I believe what he says and it worked out good and I could tell there was some relief off of Matt's shoulder after that fight because we know how it can end like that.
And I think with Dotson going up to 135, I think it's a good thing for the young and upcoming contenders because I don't know They probably could get through him, but from what I've seen and how I fought Dotson and how he brings it, I can tell that he would be just like Joseph.
And that's me becoming more mature and trusting my skills.
Like Matt says my biggest opponent is me because he goes, dude, you could put people in the fucking matrix.
You realize that, right?
And I was like...
Really?
And he goes, yes.
And I was like, you do it in here all the time.
You can do it.
Just do it in a fight.
And that's when I was fighting, I think it was all about a team.
He goes, put him in the Matrix.
Put him in the Matrix.
And I'm like, with them little ass gloves, I'm not comfortable doing it yet because you get knocked out and then next thing you know, your paycheck's less and it's like, oh great, now I gotta survive all this.
So I'm hoping one day I can get to that point to where You guys can see where it's like, now that's the fucking Matrix.
Does it frustrate you when you look at what you're capable of doing and you look at...
I'm not the only one that thinks you're the best pound for pound fighter in the world, but then you see other people that are fighting that don't have maybe the skill set that you have that just get all this hype and all this attention and the more pay-per-view buys and you look at that and go, fuck, what do I have to do here?
There comes a point in time where you get pissed off about it.
It's like, not just me, but I think people around me who believe in my skill set.
But you can't let that detour you off your goals.
Like, I always make fun of people.
I always make fun of myself.
I was like, you know, if I end up breaking Anderson Silva's record...
Half the fucking world won't even know who I am.
And I always call myself the red-headed stepchild from the UFC, where it's like, they'll be like, if people in the day they're like, they come to see Dan White, like, Dan White, we're interested, you know, you know, pushing your company, you know, you know, can you tell me some of your great athletes?
And he'll be like, oh, you know, we have, uh, you know, Anderson, Conor McGregor, and all these guys.
And he'll be like, who is, uh, Demetrius Johnson is his name.
They call him Mighty Mouse.
He has 13 consecutive title events.
Why didn't you not mention him at all?
I don't understand.
And they'll be like, oh, him?
Oh, yeah, yeah, him!
So, I mean, I always make fun of myself like, you know, I'm ready to step travel UFC because I don't get the exact same hype as other people, which is totally fine.
I'm not out here looking for hype and all that stuff.
I'm not here to try to prove that the skill set I bring into the octagon is if you're going to go in a bar and you're going to get in a fight, You want to bring my shit in there.
Because you're going to get in a fight, and you're going to be able to beat this guy up, and he's not going to be able to touch you.
And you're going to walk out and I'm like, Officer, I was not involved in that fight.
But you finished fights, like you knocked out Benavidez in the first round, you finished Horiguchi with one second to go in the last round of a fight you were dominating, you finished Moraga in the same situation, a fight where you were dominating, you still went for the finish and finished him.
Like, you're in your 50. You're like, babe, make sure on my tune you put the greatest fighter ever, Demetri Johnson.
But, it's reality.
It's gonna happen.
There's gonna be better Demisha Johnson maybe 10 or 15 years down the road.
So for me, I keep that in my mind that It keeps me calm.
It keeps me grounded.
It keeps me humble.
That way when I go out in the fight and you know I'm on this super high and you know if I lose my title and I come back to Seattle and they're like, you got your ass up.
I was like, yeah, I did.
I lost.
It fucking happens, my friend.
It's called sports competitiveness.
I don't know if that's a word or not, but I just made it up.
Well, you do an amazing job breaking down the fight, and you're knowledgeable.
It's very hard to find knowledgeable people in this sport who break it down.
And you're one of them, and you have great charisma when you do it.
So when you bring up the perfect example about the Ultimate Fighter, how the talent there isn't there.
And that's the thing.
It's becoming more of a show to where it's like...
This guy's got hands.
I was like, bro, you take that boy into a fucking actual, like, legitimate fight, a guy who throws down the chamber who can mix it up, you're both gonna get fucking synced real fast.
That cash cow's gonna go, he's exciting.
Yes, absolutely, but mixed martial arts.
You think Bruce Lee was pushing the aspect of being excited and just getting awards?
I mean, and it's a very complex problem, and it's so difficult to do because it's improvisational.
You're dealing with incredibly fast people, especially your weight class.
You're dealing with the fastest people in all of MMA, and you're dealing with all these different possibilities.
There's so many variables.
There's takedowns and kicks.
Punches and elbows and clinches, and you don't know what he's gonna do while you're trying to do what you're gonna do.
You're trying to push the pace, and you gotta cut angles, and you gotta get the fuck away from them, and you have to have all this knowledge in your head of what to do.
Oh, he's doing this, that means that's coming next, I'm not gonna be there.
Fuck that.
It's like you have to have a fucking just gigantic database of knowledge.
So when you see these guys fight on Tough, and they're like, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna bang, like, oh god, you're like, this is white belt shit.
At the end of the day, I would be like, you know what?
You might bonus maybe ten times.
You might make more money than me at the end of the day just because you went out there and you sold shitload tickets and you got fighting every single night and all that stuff.
But you know what?
I want people to, you know, when I die and they look, they dig up, you know, Old DVD tapes and they see, they stumble across me and they see me moving.
I was like, oh, I want them to be able to sit there.
I'm like, holy shit, this guy's moving fast.
He's on the other side of the opponent.
He's on the other side of the shoulder and he's landing combinations.
Holy shit, he can wrestle too?
Did he just throw a fucking arm bar?
I'm like, who is this person?
What was his background?
Like, you look at Matt Hume and you try to find out, who was Matt Hume's coach?
And Matt Hume, self-consciously, he tells all the time, he goes, I had to cut him.
I knew he was not going to stop because I hit him so hard that I knew self-consciously I needed to cut this man to have this man stop coming at me.
And sure enough, he did the knee, cut him right there, and they're like, oh, back in the day, they cut when there was blood because they didn't have control of all the...
I mean, if you can't appreciate a virtuoso at the most dangerous sport, you can't appreciate that because, you know, you just want guys to stand and bang.
I'm not going to lie, each time it goes five fives, and they're like, oh, and I hear the clapping, and I hear people, and they start running, I'm like, No.
Yeah, and so now when I do my boxing sparring, it's harder for me to do it because I can do it and I can get the upper edge, but it's like, I'm getting fucking tired because we're boxing and I'm just throwing punches.
And people are like, and I said, and I was all ears.
I was like, explain yourself.
Like, what makes you say that?
And he goes, well, you think people are being on national television and on Ultimate Fighter and they're fighting to get a contract and they have holes in their game.
And they're not fixing those holes before going into the house.
That was one of the things I would have a hard time coaching with a fighter because I'll dissect a person and I'm like, okay, let me see you fight.
I'm going to go with you.
And I'm like, okay, you have a hole here, a hole here.
So are you looking just to fight to make two paychecks, three paychecks?
If so, then I guess you're in the right area.
But if you're looking to be a world champion, if you're looking to be able to provide for your family, I mean, I always tell you all the time, when I was in the UFC, when I fought for the world championship at 135, I also worked on a fucking full-time job.
And they're like, you're fighting for a world championship, you shouldn't be working.
I was like, uh, yeah, because I've lost a fight, so now I made, what, $14,000.
So if this microphone came to you and it was in protection, it would be like a v-board that would protect it.
And that's what I was a guy who made it.
And let's say you needed two and a half inches or three inches, four inches, five inches, whatever.
I would take it, do the math, put it in the computer and sit there and it would go.
And I'll go.
One.
One, two, three, four.
Okay, there's ten.
There you go.
And do that all day.
And now I have my phone on me and Matt will call me and go, hey, the UFC wants to know if you want to fight.
I'm like, I'll run into the bathroom and like, hey, what's up, man?
He goes, hey, you know, the UFC wants you to fight Kimamoto on February 5th, my debut in the UFC, 2011. I said, hey, let me see if I can day off from work.
I believe in that if I put 10 years in this job, that I should be well compensated.
And you can spend four or five years in a college education, get your college degree, and you go out and try to find a job, and they're like, no, you're not...
So it's like, if me and you both went to a Starbucks, and if me and you applied for a job, and you're like, I'm Joe Rogan, I had 15 years as a barista, I know how to make coffee from your cappuccino to the triple shop or whatever, and I'm like, I have no coffee experience whatsoever.
They're like, I'm going to take you, Demetri Johnson.
And people are like, what?
You take Joe Rogan, he has 15 years.
And it's like, well, I have to break his fucking bad habits.
He's not making Starbucks coffee.
He's not making Starbucks coffee the way I want it to taste.
unidentified
What fucking habits are you going to have to break?
This was in 2005. I think today you probably wouldn't be able to do that in college because the social justice warriors would come down on you for wanting to subjugate women in your horrible establishment.
Obviously, then the Reebok deal came in, so we obviously...
Xbox they didn't want to be part of you know there's they wanted that prime spot right on pay-per-view or even Fox they actually preferred Fox over pay-per-view because millions millions people millions people so when I came in they're like you know my buddy was like I think this comes across where my friend I was like dude I totally understand so that's that's when they left but I'm still cool the guy I actually just talked to him he's actually be down here tonight possibly so did you see the latest Reebok fuck up They made Anderson Aldo t-shirts and they wrote Anthony Pettis
There's a lot of people, but I understand they could have one person like, your job is to make sure before the product goes out, you check the fucking name.
And I think everybody should fight at the weight that they're in perfect shape.
I think the weight cut is contrary to what MMA and martial arts should be about in the first place.
It shouldn't be about having this...
It's like legal cheating.
It's really what it is.
It's like you're pretending you're 155 pounds when you're really 175. It really is like cheating.
I don't like it.
I think it's dangerous.
I think it's bad.
And I also think it's stupid because everyone's doing it.
That's what makes it stupid.
Because if you were the only one, if you really weighed 175 and you were cutting down to 155, and everybody else was just a natural 155-er, well, you'd have a crazy advantage because you get to balloon up to 175. But fucking everybody's doing it.
So there's zero advantage.
Everybody's just weakening themselves the day before they fight in a fucking cage.
To me, that is so counterintuitive and so stupid.
But I don't know how to stop it at this point in time.
And I think that if this was done and done correctly where you really monitored people, made sure there was no cheating and say, look, you know, Tyron Woodley, this is the weight you should be fighting at.
Matt Brown, this is the weight you should be fighting at.
It's like, when someone's like, oh, I didn't make it.
I was like, dude, as a fighter, we have two jobs.
Fucking make weight and fight.
If you can't do one of them, then you shouldn't be able to do the second one.
So that's why I'm like...
I agree with you.
I think if they did the hydration test, but I think a lot of people, if there was no money on the line, if you were still going to get paid, I think they would be more excited for that.
I remember one of my buddies, he was in high school and he goes, I'm doing my hydration test.
I'm going to super hydrate and I'm going to cut myself.
He went to the doctor and I'm like, nope, go back home and fucking come in hydrated and we'll let you know.
Then he came in and tested him.
I'm like, okay, you can lose three pounds and then you can lose...
Then you have to wrestle up a different weight class at the new year because you always get a pound allowance at the new year because they take into consideration of the holidays.
But I like your insight.
I agree with you.
All right, second question.
How long do you see yourself commentating for the UFC? I don't know.
It's incredible to go there and watch the all-time best combat sports athletes in the world in mixed martial arts compete and to be right there for most of the best fights ever and to call them.
Man, there's a lot of emotions involved with those two fights, huh?
I don't know I Have I have very I'm very torn on that I like both of those guys, but I'm a big fan of loyalty, and I do not like when someone just gets up and leaves a camp that has been so good to them, like Alpha Male has been.
I also I also feel like with a guy like TJ He had this deep connection to Dwayne Ludwig Yeah, and Dwayne Ludwig has done some incredible shit for his career without a doubt no doubt about it And I think Dwayne I've worked with Dwayne before and I've watched Dwayne train fight.
I watched Dwayne I've trained TJ. I've watched him work with Brendan Shaw.
He's held paths for me and gone over his philosophy.
Because I was like, well, tell me what you teach guys.
How do you do this?
How do you set things up?
And I'm very impressed with his...
He's completely fucking crazy.
But in the best way for a trainer.
Because he's obsessed.
Like the day that TJ fought Burrell, I had lunch with Dwayne.
And...
It was hilarious because it was me and a bunch of my friends.
We're all sitting down in MGM or Mandalay Bay, whichever one.
We're all sitting down having lunch and Dwayne didn't give a fuck who else was at the table.
All he was like, basically what's going to happen is the fight is going to go down.
He's like, Brow always has a tendency to lean to his left.
As soon as he leans to his left, TJ's not going to be there.
He's going to be the right.
The overhand right is going to be the beginning of this fight.
He's rattling off things.
I'm trying to keep up with him.
I'm drinking coffee.
Just to keep up with his words, but he's obsessed.
He's obsessed with making guys better and I think TJ recognizes that and I think that personality wise Dwayne and Faber just did not it just clashed it didn't work out Depends I mean, I don't I like Uriah a lot.
I think Uriah is awesome I love him as a person and I like Dwayne a lot.
So I don't know who the fuck is right and who the fuck is wrong.
I I literally have no idea, right?
So I don't know what really went down, but I know it didn't work out, but I know that for Danny Castillo, and I know for TJ, having Dwayne coach them has been a huge benefit.
I don't like that TJ took off, but I don't know the specifics, and I also don't know what MusclePharm is offering him.
Those fucking dudes, if you look at the financial reports, those guys are hemorrhaging money.
They're hemorrhaging money.
So I don't, I'm not sure what's going on there.
It might be some rich dude, like that dynamic fastener guy that was like sponsoring everybody.
Might be some dude who owns Muscle Farm that just loves MMA. I mean, maybe their products are awesome and they really believe in them and they're building up the company and this is part of their strategy.
I don't know.
But they're throwing a lot of fucking money at a lot of really good fighters.
I'm a part owner of Onnit, so we've looked at the MusclePharm business model and we're like, what the fuck is going on here?
Maybe we're not seeing something.
Maybe I'm missing something.
Maybe there's some revenue that we're not aware of, but as it's been explained to me, let's just put it this way in a positive spin.
They've made a significant investment in that gym, a significant investment in MMA. And a significant investment in their company that I don't know necessarily whether or not it's been profitable yet.
I'm obviously talking out of my ass because I'm not a financial guy.
But I like what they're doing in terms of building this giant team, in terms of putting together this world-class facility.
I mean, their facility is super impressive.
I mean, I've seen the gym that they put together.
It's fucking amazing, man.
It's awesome.
I have a dream of doing something like that someday.
I think that would be incredible.
If I do ever leave commentating for the UFC, one of the things fucking for sure I want to do is open up a big gym with guys like Eddie Bravo and get in some great striking coaches and just do it for the enjoyment of the sport.
Well you know the best part about that was filmed by John Wayne Parr who is a multiple-time world Muay Thai champion.
He's a 10-time world Muay Thai champion.
He's a good buddy of mine who's with his young daughter who's also a fighter.
His young daughter's a fighter and she's a huge Ronda fan and I not only did I get them tickets, I pulled them from their seats and had them sit behind me in the production seats.
And I think there was a point in time to where now, I think everybody's starting to understand.
I totally respect what he did where he was like, I need to go to be with somebody who's going to put 110% into me.
And that's Dwayne Ludwig.
Team Alphamore, they've done an amazing job.
And still doing a good job trying to keep that team together.
But at the same time, this is a business.
We're all trying to make money.
At the end of the day...
Uriah Faber, he's taken care of, regardless if he ever becomes a champion or not.
He's done did it.
I told Uriah Faber in his face, I was like, dude, you might never be the champion, but you'll probably be the most lucrative, successful 135-pounder to walk this earth.
And I think with TJ, he saw that if he went with Dwayne Ludwig, Which he should, because Domino Cruz ain't no fucking joke, that he is going to be able to keep on being 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Maybe, but here's the counter to that was like how much of how good he got was sparring with Joseph Benavidez, sparring with Chad Mendes, sparring with Lance Parma, sparring with Cody Garbrandt, you know, being in the gym with those fucking monsters that are his weight class every day.
Well, before that, I worked for the UFC. I worked for the UFC in 1997. I worked for the UFC in 2000, well, 1997. UFC 12. Okay.
Not 2012. 1997 in Dothan, Alabama.
It was the first UFC where they were supposed to be in New York, they're supposed to be in Buffalo, and they moved it down to Dothan.
So I did that, and I did it for about two years, then I decided to quit.
And when I decided to quit, I was very content not doing it, and I was excited when Zufa purchased it.
And so then they had their big pay-per-view event, before I started working for them, where Tito Ortiz fought Vladimir Matyushenko right after September 11th.
It was a big event in Vegas.
And me and Eddie Bravo went down for it, and I became friends with Dana White.
And, you know, Dana and I, we just talked about fights.
We would get together, and, you know, he knew me from Fear Factor, and that's how he...
They were trying to get celebrities to come to the fights, and so they would give you tickets and shit like that.
And I was just telling him, like, what about this guy?
You know about this guy?
What about that guy?
You ever see this guy fighting?
You ever see Shudo?
You ever watch Shudo?
You know, started rattling off all this different shit to him.
One of the things we would always say is, what the UFC really needs is some crazy millionaires who have all this money in the world, who are willing to spend a ton of money to promote the sport.
And if they did that, man, the sport is so exciting.
It could really be huge.
And so that was our thought process behind it.
And it's almost like we manifested the Fertittas.
And the Fertittas...
Out of nowhere became these guys that were these super millionaire, billionaire characters that were fans of the sport.
I mean, right now, we've got this NFL situation where, like, when you watch football, you really watch the NFL. There's no other options.
You got Canadian football, which is fucking ridiculous.
Or you've got the NFL. That's it.
And that's the situation right now we have with MMA. Even though I work for the UFC and I love the UFC, I don't think that is a good model.
I don't think it's a good model for the athletes.
I think the best model for the athletes is the model that boxing has.
And that's why...
When you look at how much money the top boxers make, the difference between how much the promotion makes and how much the athletes make, it's sided more towards the athletes in boxing than it is in MMA. I think with a company like Bellator, They're backed by Viacom.
I think the good thing about something like Viacom is that Viacom is this multi-billion dollar huge multimedia company.
The bad thing about it is they're a business and they're not in the business of MMA. The UFC, Dana White and the Fertitta's are huge Mixed martial arts fans.
They love the fights.
And they have no plans on bailing on the UFC. It's a very profitable venture.
They make tons of money.
It's a huge success.
And they built it to be that giant success.
So they deserve everything they get.
Viacom does not feel that way.
Viacom is in it to win it.
They're in it to make money.
And the moment it stops making money, they're going to cast it aside the same way they did Glory.
Because, first of all, High-level kickboxing is some of the most exciting shit you could ever watch.
It's super, super exciting.
And for them to bail on that, I just think it's ridiculous.
I just think it's so short-sighted.
And I think their promotion sucked.
I don't think they did a good job of getting people excited about it.
I don't think the promotion, like the actual...
The way it was produced, the production of it was that good.
It's like, what you have is an amazing product.
You got Nikki Holtzkin, you got, you know, Joseph Valtellini, you got Raymond Daniels, you got all these wild-ass kickboxers, you got Rico Verhoeven, you got amazing, amazing talent.
You just gotta figure out how to promote them.
Put the fucking money in.
Make that money.
Put the money in and get the return.
That's not the business they're in.
They're in the business of profitable promotions, profitable television shows, profitable Productions.
Whatever they put together, they wanted to make money.
And when you start seeing those 200,000 views, 300,000 views, they're like, fuck this.
Yeah, and they tried that one pay-per-view, which is an extreme disaster.
I always think it's good to have good competition because it makes people decide after their contract is up with the UFC or Bellator or other places, then they can decide on, hey, like, what, Gilbert Melendez, he tested the market for Bellator, and from the word on the street is that he got a good deal with the UFC, so I think it's a good competition.
I think it is good competition, and I also think that it would be great for everybody, including the UFC. I think that if the Bellator promotion really kicked it into gear and started putting on really high-quality shows with guys who you look at them, like, say if Jon Jones was over in Bellator, if Jon Jones left and went to Bellator, good fucking googly moogly.
Start smashing people.
And then Gustafson went over there, or a couple other guys go to...
That would be giant!
And it would force everybody to rise up.
It forces everybody.
Even if Glover, you know, someone who's like a real top ten contender, Glover Teixeira...
When you come to the UFC, this is the fucking hippie thing.
My amateur career was so long that Matt wanted to make sure when I got into, when he called me, when Sean Shelby called him, he goes, hey, we got a fight for Demetri Johnson.
We want to sign him after I knocked out Jesse Brock in Alaska.
And Matt was like, okay, who do you want him to fight?
and he goes, "Brad Pickett." Right?
Any other coach will be like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I don't want him to fight Brad Pickett.
Brad Pickett's tough.
He's good.
You know what Matt said?
Absolutely.
Let's do it.
I believe Dimitri Johnson can beat anybody out there.
I went out there and I fought my ass off, broke my hand, and lost the fight.
And was Matt upset?
No, he wasn't upset at all.
He goes, dude, that was your first fight in the big show.
Well, I don't know, but I mean, here's a counterpoint to that.
The counterpoint to it is, you look at a guy like Mayweather, who was an Olympic star, went from that to entered MMA and was slowly built up.
Now, here he is, 49-0, supposedly retired, but we both know that's bullshit.
He'll be back in April when they build that huge stadium in Vegas.
That's what I guarantee you.
I'm gonna predict it right now.
He's gonna be back in April, and he's gonna fight Manny Pacquiao after Manny Pacquiao recovers from shoulder surgery, and it'll be the biggest fucking fight ever, next to the last fight, which was the biggest fight ever.
He's not gonna pass up on money, and he's still young, and he's still awesome.
The only reason I'm going to go on Twitter is if I'm looking for something or if I'm going to post something about me coming on here or stream or anything like that because a lot of people just talk shit.
We also have to think about it this way, and they should probably think about it this way, too.
Like, what are you doing?
Like, if you're going online, like, I'll look at someone, sometimes someone will talk shit to me, and I'll go to their Twitter account, and I'll realize that's all they do.
You're wasting all that time hating on people and shitting on people.
I saw this guy the other day who was shitting on this fighter, and I went to his Twitter page, and his Twitter page was completely dedicated, like the name of the Twitter page was dedicated to shitting on this fighter, and all the tweets, and someone called him a troll, and he's like, I'm not a troll.
Well, I don't think she should do the rematch right now because of her head.
I think she experienced some significant head trauma in that fight.
And I think anybody that says any differently is an asshole.
That's what I think.
I really do.
I think traumatic brain injury is something that has gotten me more and more concerned over the last few years.
Because of talking to doctors, I've had this one doctor, Dr. Mark Gordon, who works with a lot of soldiers, football players.
He's worked with some combat sports athletes as well, where he relays the issues with traumatic brain injury, the damage to the pituitary gland, the damage to your body's ability to produce hormones, depression, and all the issues that come along with concussions, and how those are exacerbated by ignoring them or by trying to work through them or by getting...
Injured again, close to the concussion, which makes it way, way worse.
When I look at guys that have had to exit the sport, like T.J. Grant, who's about to fight for the title, and had to get out of the sport.
He's in a mine now.
He works for a mine in Canada.
And I just think that traumatic brain injury, although I love this sport, is one of the most overlooked and more dangerous aspects.
Now, you don't hear guys like Dana talk about it and you rarely hear people talk about it outside of someone like me because they're promoters and because that's their bread and butter.
I can't do that, because for me, my bread and butter is me being honest.
That's my business.
My business is I gotta say what I really think.
And what I really think is she needs a comprehensive overhaul of her game, of her MMA game.
I think she needs to look at, like, how she's preparing, and she needs to take into consideration all the problems that were exposed in that fight.
And she needs to re- reassess and re-address.
And I also think she has too many fucking distractions.
She's doing, you know, who knows what fucking movie contracts and scripts, and her phone's probably blowing up all day.
That's all fine when you're fighting Betch Cohea.
Nothing to take away from Betch Cohea, but Betch Cohea, she's like a mechanical or robotic sort of a puncher.
She kicks, you know, kind of robotic.
There's no real threat of explosion.
There's no real submission threat.
I'm not saying that Betch can't eventually put that in her game, but as right now, when I look at her, when she fought Shanna Baszler, I'm looking at a robotic fighter.
It's so robotic, you're laughing.
I think she needs to really look at the whole...
I mean, like we said, MMA is problem solving, right?
There was obviously a bunch of new problems that were exposed in that fight.
And one of the big ones is the difference between hitting mitts Sparring with people that aren't really strikers and fighting a 19-time world boxing champion.
Who's also an outstanding kickboxer, who's also an outstanding athlete, who's also incredibly mentally tough, who also has a fantastic, real, professional MMA camp filled with champions, potential champions, world-class contenders.
Mike Winklejohn is one of the best fucking striking coaches in the world.
Greg Jackson, who's a master strategist, and they've gone over this with a fine-tooth comb.
Look, man, I go back to the days when Mike Tyson had that fucking down jacket on and he was running at 5 o'clock in the morning and he was 19 years old and they asked him, why do you run at 5 o'clock in the morning?
And he was like, I run at 5 o'clock in the morning because I believe that my opponent is in bed and I believe it gives me an edge.
If you fucking spent a moment of your life preparing for that piece of shit movie, that's a moment wasted, right?
It's a fact.
You're doing the most noble, courageous, terrifying thing in all of sports.
You're becoming the most dominant and recognizable female champion of all time.
Just spend any time away from that doing some shitty movie, some nonsense...
Agent-created catastrophe of culture.
That's a waste.
It's a waste.
But there's a lot of money in that waste.
You might make a half a million bucks.
You might make a million.
Who knows what you make?
The point is that all that stuff came about because of her.
Of her fighting, and because of her success, and because of her dominance.
And as soon as that success and dominance goes away, then all that money erodes away.
So you open the door to the vampires, the vampires suck your blood, and then you're left there dehydrated and emaciated.
You're like, what happened?
You open the door!
You open the door and you let them in.
And I don't necessarily think anybody other than her mother, who's just a badass herself, I don't think there's a lot of people that are going to tell her that, you know?
She's in a different stratosphere because there's never been a woman that's been dominant like that, that's been a world-class fighter that's appeared in all these Metro PCS commercials.
There's a lot going on with this one particular dude.
But this idea that you concentrate on what got you to the dance.
And what got Ronna to the dance is this singular focus that she had in judo, which made her this dominant judo fighter, right?
And then she enters into MMA, and there was no grappler that could fuck with her, man.
She's hip-tossing bitches.
She's throwing them on their heads.
I mean, she was just so spectacular with her arm bars.
But she found someone that had the kind of potential and that had the kind of talent that she did in a singular discipline, but it was a singular discipline that she didn't have.
That discipline was kickboxing, you know, and boxing, striking, which is not her strong suit.
I always feel that there's something I can still learn, even though how many fights.
Or even with Jiu-Jitsu.
I just put on Nagi.
So I wonder, like, how much kickboxing do you do leading up to the training camp?
But then again, you bring up, you know, the opening door or the demons where it's like, hey, we're going to get in, get this workout in, and then I got to go do this interview.
Hey, I got to do this.
But at the same time, you know, the UFC model, they push that because they need to have her mainstream to be able to open up doors, to sell the pay-per-view revenues, to do all that stuff.
Like, what is the difference between, like, what Ronda brings to the table, and if all that stuff was so beneficial, well, how come, you know, how come other fighters who do the same amount of work don't get the same amount of reaction to it?
Well, it's because the results inside the octagon are what's most important.
Yeah, but now you have people like, they get out of high school, I'm going to be a professional fighter.
Motherfucker, you know what that takes.
You know how much money you're going to make.
You know, homeboy, McDonald's is making more money than you, and you consider yourself a professional fighter.
And that's where, like, I didn't have that.
So that's why I think, like, my outside on, like, my insight on, like, I'm either going to win or lose.
I think that helps me to where now they built this model to where it's like...
You can be a UFC professional fighter and you can do all these great things which is absolutely amazing.
I'm not bagging on that model at all because it's given me the opportunity to sit here in front of you and have this conversation and for me and my wife to be able to travel the world and see things but I think that people really need to look at it And dissect it before they jump all into it.
Yeah, so there'll be point times where, you know, if there's not something coming up where they can advertise or anything, but there's point times where I take in a fight and I got no sponsorship money whatsoever.
And I went out there and I destroyed my opponent.
And people were like, how could you do that?
How could you do that?
But at the end of the day, I take a step back and look at it like, this is fighting.
I've done this to show myself to be the best fighter in the world.
And I would do it because I'm fishing.
I'm hoping that one day they're like, dude, we want to set you up and get you taken care of and all that stuff.
And it just shows you that I'm the type of fighter to go out there and snoop around and try to like, hey, hey, hey, hey, you want to response me?
They come into play, but I think the integrity that I had as a human being and as an athlete that was like, you know what, I've been rocking Xbox the whole entire time, and why am I going to run off and go throw this person on my shorts because they're going to throw me $60,000.
Yeah, but Matt is a trainer, as well as a manager, as well as, you know, I mean, he's like, he's kind of like an all-encompassing, you just have a very fortunate situation.
That's why I think they should come out straight up and be like, dude, you know what?
When Reebok deal first came out, like I said, the one thing I love about the Reebok deal is that I don't have to run around and try to finagle with anybody.
No, I don't think they would ever do something they thought would hurt the UFC or hurt the fighters.
I just think that it probably should have been investigated a little bit more thoroughly, and it probably should have been handled a little bit more competently.
Then you wouldn't have Anderson Aldo t-shirts.
You wouldn't have Anthony Pettis being called the fucking mauler on their website.
I think there's something about, like, flyweights.
There's something about, like, the lightest weight that, for whatever reason, people don't appreciate someone who, even when you knock guys out at that weight class, I don't know what the fuck it is, man.
And Matt was like, you're going to spar Demetri Johnson.
And we're sparring.
And I hit him in his stomach.
I was doing my thing.
And boom, boom, boom.
We hit him in the liver.
And he goes, oh!
And I was like, oh yeah.
And then I started hitting him in the face.
I was like, I'm very nice.
I tell all my sparring partners before my fights, I say, I promise you I would never hurt you.
It might feel like fucking shit in hell, but I guarantee you will be able to go to work on Monday.
Because a lot of my training partners, when I get back to my fights, they have normal 9 to 5 jobs.
And so I was hitting him in the face.
I was like, isn't it amazing how the body just reacts when he gets hit in the liver?
You don't even care I'm hitting him in the face right now, do you?
And then he started breaking his face and I go, wham!
And then somebody goes, okay, I'm done.
I gotta take a break.
Matt's like, give him a break real quick, DJ. But it's like, if a person is like, oh, you're too small, too small.
And I was like, dude, we can spar here and we can see how it's gonna go.
Like, I'm not gonna be a dick or an a-hole, but I'm gonna use my skill set that Matt has provided me with to dismantle you and show you, you need to respect me as a smaller person, I guess I mean.
Yep, those days I come in and I'm like, I'll be mentally prepared because, you know, I always love it how you say, I want to see his fucking strength and conditioning program.
And if you saw it, you'd be like, what the fuck are you doing, my friend?
And it might be, depending on where we're at in training camp, typically the ones I do, I fucking hate is the power explosion.
Because I'm throwing, I don't like lifting weights.
Like, I like lifting weights, but I don't like them weights.
When it comes to just strictly fighting, I don't like lifting weights because the person I have to lift up is 125 fucking pounds.
Well, supposedly.
So we do that.
And then I take a break.
I go to Teriyaki Madness.
I have teriyaki with brown rice and cucumbers.
I eat that.
Then I go across the street and get my PCC. I have an apple.
PCC is like a Whole Foods in Seattle.
I have an apple, maybe a banana, and some type of nuts.
And I fill up my gallon of water again.
Then I sit there and I play video games until 5 o'clock or 5.30 or 6.00.
Go across, walk next door, do my Muay Thai pads, and then we'll either do hard grappling or we'll break down video and drill.
And then next day, I do the exact same thing.
Wednesday, I do the exact same thing.
Thursday is off.
Friday, I do the exact same thing.
Saturday, I go up and spar and that's it.
So when people are like, when I look at fighting, it's my full-time job.
Some people are like, I love Dana White's comment.
People, you know, champions, they can't take the pressure of being a champion.
Being the fucking champions, if you ask me, all I have to do is go out there and fucking fight and make weight.
Literally, that's all I have to do.
I don't let any distractions get in my way of my fighting.
Like if someone was like, you know, Matt, I told Matt, I was like, Matt, you know, my goal is I want to do movies.
I want to be able to do something.
I want to go fight for so long.
Like when I start making those 2 million or 3 million or 4 million, if I ever make that from fighting, then I won't worry about doing fucking movies.
I'm worried.
I'm trying to do movies now because I'm not making that.
Because I want to fight for so long.
But if I made five or six million dollars in the bank, I wouldn't even worry about anything else.
so that's why I put all my heart and soul into fighting because hopefully one day it opens those doors to the vampires and I'll fight time you can make money the gay porn vampires they're going to come in But that's like, so when I say I do the same thing every single day for eight weeks to ten weeks, I live, breathe, eat, training.
They say it's possibly Henry Cejudo, but I never get married to that opponent because at the end of the day, it could be Henry Cejudo, six weeks into camp, he can get injured, and then they give me somebody else.
I mean, that displeasure in even your great performances, like this constant striving for perfection, that's what's made you the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, man.
Like Chelsea said, I don't have a fucking list of what's banned from USADA. Well, we had Jeff Nowitzki in, and we went over the list of all the stuff that they sell at GNC that turns out to be steroids.
Because they can just sell them, and then they get pulled off the shelves, and then they just come back with a new company name and sell some more shit.
And then when it comes time to, as I get older, I'm trying to find ways to preserve my body longer to where I'm at in the gym.
I'm in the gym learning.
So I'm up to the gym like two days a week trying to learn and drill and do all the stuff because I've already put the time in of learning so much, training with Matt.
Excuse me, in my amateur days, in my jiu-jitsu days, to where now I'm like, when it comes to fight time, I actually learn more when I'm getting ready for my fights because I'm in a gym eight weeks straight just training, training.
You can go so much over your next opponent to where it's like, fuck, let's work on something new.
Right.
To where it's now, I'm at the point where I'm trying to figure out how to reserve my body to when it comes time for camp.
It's like, okay, when I start camp, what's your weight at?
I'm already at 141. He goes, That's pretty low.
And I'm like, well, I'm not at home getting fat.
I'm working out, lifting, working on my strength.
So that's the hardest part I'm fighting in my career.
I have to wait on somebody else to be successful in this sport for me to be able to fight again.