Dominick Cruz reveals how his mother and grandmother’s tough love—including a breadboard punishment—shaped his resilience after losses like Cody Garbrandt’s, where he embraced vulnerability to grow. His injury history (two ACLs, quad tear) stems from refusing mental surrender, but therapy and a "letting go" mindset during his 2016 return to Takaya Mizugaki proved transformative. Cruz’s unconventional 12-week title fight prep against Dillashaw, fueled by sprints and pain adaptation, exposed MMA’s shift toward fame over skill, as stars like Paige Van Zandt out-earn technically superior fighters. His early rejection of IFL’s $6K/year to avoid a rigid weight class (155 lbs) foreshadowed his UFC success under Eric Del Ferro’s guidance, blending wrestling with striking. Ultimately, Cruz’s journey underscores how mental discipline and humility—not just physical prowess—define lasting combat sports greatness. [Automatically generated summary]
But then that question always comes to mind according to win and loss ratio, which doesn't always tell the truth.
Right.
Because that's not always the fact.
It could just be a bad night and a good matchup and they had a game plan or...
You lost and now you're going to sit and go to the drawing board and say that everything was off because of one loss?
Right.
Doesn't really make sense to me.
So it's kind of a mixture.
You've got to find the happy medium.
It comes down to trust in the people around you.
Not having nothing but yes men around you.
And I feel like as long as you have a good solid base of people that give the truth to you… Then you don't have to think with your emotion and you can think with logic.
I think it's important to have those people around you so you don't steer off the course.
I pretty much laid it all out right away because I wanted to just do that, which was at the press conference, the post-fight press conference.
I pretty much just wanted to, like I literally laid every ounce of every thought I had at that moment out there for everybody to hear at a point where I'm very vulnerable.
And I did that on purpose to show that...
We're not all, you know, the same.
Some people don't want to show their vulnerability.
Some people want to just be seen as only perfect, only tough, only strong.
And really the truth of what makes the strongest people in the world is their vulnerability early until they learn how to be tough.
And, you know, losing is part of that lesson, unfortunately.
For everybody and being unsuccessful is part of that lesson for people just as much as losing so it's like you do what you can with it and that's how I feel now is like I do what I can with it and the only way to make the best of it is to accept it right the second it happens understand that That's just the way it is.
That's the way that this has been slated for this portion of my life and just move forward.
And as long as you embrace it, don't make excuses for it, and then you can actually look at what you did wrong and take it in.
The second you make an excuse, the second you say, well, I was a little off here, a little off there because of this, this, and this, is the second you allow your mind to go into a path of, well...
It wasn't in my control, which means you're not really dealing with the problems at hand, I don't think.
I think you're kind of bypassing the problems at hand when you do that.
And then you can't grow from the experience.
So what's the point of a loss if you're not going to grow from it and get the most out of it?
Yeah, there's a real instinct that many fighters show, like almost immediately after a loss, to go right into what was wrong with the camp, what was wrong with an injury, what they could have done differently, personal problems.
Now, you're getting really well known as an MMA analyst, and I think you do an amazing job on Fox.
I think you're one of the best guys in the world at it.
You're really, really good at it.
But one of the things that people are getting a chance to see because of that is how your mind works and how much thought you put into not just fighting itself, but the whole process.
The whole process of preparation and mindset while the competition is going on.
And that's also being reflected right now in the way you express how you get over a loss.
Like you steal a packet of gum from the store and you walk out with it and you're...
I'm seven years old and you get home and you're eating a piece of gum and your mom goes, I didn't buy that for you, where'd you get that gum?
And we drive back with the gum in my mouth, put it in the wrapper, show the person at the front and that's not enough because I embarrassed the cash register so I gotta apologize to them and then I gotta go to the owner of the store, the manager, and apologize to them and then...
Might have to go paint a wall for him to make up for the piece of gum that I... I mean, it goes all the way down to that.
My mom has been that way since I can remember to where.
There's just...
She would never, ever let me make an excuse for anything I ever did.
Ever.
And I used to get so frustrated with her because she would also never really get mad.
She would never really raise her voice.
She would never really show a whole lot of emotion.
She would literally say, I'm not going to yell.
I'm not going to scream.
I'm not going to get angry.
I'm not going to give you that power.
But that's one.
And that meant I was getting one whooping when I got home when I did something wrong.
And so now I got to sit and think about that for the next five hours until we get home.
And then she takes me into a room and she sits me down with no anger.
Everything's understood.
And she says, do you know why we're here?
And she explains to me why we're here and why I'm in trouble and why I'm getting smacked on the ass with this breadboard.
And she just...
There was never any escaping anything.
Ever.
So it's like...
It put me in this weird mindset where I just I don't make excuses and anybody who makes excuses I call them out on it because it's old.
I was coaching a local high school, and one of the kids that I was coaching, I was 19 years old at this point.
And I just graduated high school and started coaching a local high school team because I wanted to compete.
Wrestling, correct.
And I didn't get into college like I wanted to to wrestle and didn't do all these things.
So I just needed to compete.
So I got in the room and started coaching these kids.
Well, they're my age.
They're 18. I'm 19. I just graduated.
So we become friends.
One of these guys invites me to a gym he goes to.
I jump in there and start training, right?
So during this time...
My mom, I'm going to school.
So I'm working three jobs.
You know, I work at Sherwin-Williams.
I'm a janitor at the gym.
And then I'm coaching this high school wrestling team.
And then I'm going to school at night and I'm training in between that.
So this is what I'm doing in Tucson.
And during this time, I told my mom, you know, I'm just so tired of school.
I go to night school after my three jobs.
I go three jobs and then I go to night school at 8 p.m.
and I'm just wore out.
I'm sitting in Spanish class one day trying to learn what I've been learning in high school in Spanish class.
I'm like, why am I paying for this school when I just did this class in high school and now I'm paying for it to get an associate's degree to go to another four years in college that I'm going to be in debt for?
Like, what am I doing?
I don't want to be here.
I wasn't happy in school after all my days at work.
So I said, you know, the only time I felt free and happy was in the gym.
It's the only time I could talk and laugh and smile and be myself, hurting other people, punching things, kicking things, yelling at things, telling people how I felt.
And then if they had a problem, we could fight about it.
I was at peace there.
So I just stopped going to school and said, Mom, I'm going to start training to become a fighter.
I mean, I think everybody believes their mom has their own.
I mean, moms are special.
We all know that.
But every person has their own way that they were raised and brought up and then they pass that on to their child.
My mom had a hard life.
So I think she's just so wise that she passed a lot of A lot of wisdom off to me young because she just growing up and raising us broke like she did by herself I think just taught her so much that she didn't want us to have to live any kind of struggle life like that.
So she made us learn the hard way with her instead of her taking everything and not teaching us anything.
We lived it with her and grew in the experience with her and then that got added to my life and what I wanted to do moving forward.
I mean, I've been fighting since as long as the Diaz brothers.
I started when I was 19 years old back in 2005. And I've been doing it since then.
So that's part of it, is that just years and years of fighting and facing different people and seeing what the issues were.
But more than that, it was built around the fact that I knew whether I knew I was ahead or not, my mindset said I have to fight, do something different, because this is a new sport with new rules and different equipment than has ever been seen in the history of this world.
So that means there's four-ounce gloves, We're using kicks, knees, elbows, and hands, everything, right?
All eight limbs.
So I said I need to make sure that I'm not taking damage.
As long as I'm not taking damage, I should win.
I gotta be hard to hit and my defense needs to be flawless with these size gloves.
It's not going to be the same as boxing.
I can't just sit here and cover like this because my gloves are a quarter of the size.
Things peek in and I learned that real quick.
And so I said, alright, so I need to move nonstop.
I can't sit still like I do in boxing or kickboxing because you're going to get taken down as well.
So that's where my mind started changing is with the takedown.
That's where I knew I really had to do something different is in no striking sport on earth is there a takedown involved.
So that means that I need to attack on a different plane.
And that means I need to not be down the center line.
As long as I fight not down the center line, it takes away As long as I don't fight on the center line all the time, it takes away almost all weapons from all styles.
Boxing is probably the one style that flows most off the center line.
But when we're talking about Muay Thai, or we're talking about wrestling, or we're talking about Judo, or we're talking about almost every other martial art, they attack down a straight line.
And so I knew I could take away most of their weapons just by changing the plane that I fought on.
If I fought on a different plane than them, then they would not have answers for the plane that I'm fighting on because everything they do is on that line.
So instead of fighting them and their style, I fought the lines that they're fighting on.
And then that kind of changed things mixed with the defense.
Well, I've always enjoyed watching you fight, and I've always enjoyed explaining how you fight to people that have never seen martial arts or don't understand it.
Because for people on the outside, maybe someone who's not a fan or never did any martial arts training, they look at it like just violence.
You know, they see guys just beating the shit out of each other.
And the way I try to describe it to a friend once, I said, think about it this way.
It's a lot like a conversation.
And the more words you have at your disposal, the more verbal memory you have, the more used to stringing together sentences you are, the more fluently the conversation is going to come out of your mouth.
The more it's going to flow.
Right.
And when you're watching, and I'll show someone like you, when you're trying to have, you know, let's call it a conversation, trying to have a conversation with Dominic Cruz inside the Octagon, You don't know where the fuck he's going.
Like, you're setting up so many weird angles and so much weird movements and so many false entries, and there's so much going on that you're, in a lot of ways, you're overloading a person's reactions.
Because now you don't just have a style to win a fight.
You have a style to stay winning.
Which means that your style hits so many different avenues that you can compete with all these different styles no matter what they match you up against until...
Now my style, I built it so that no matter which style you try to throw at me, it was going to give it a problem.
And that was the basis that I wanted to create when I fought, every single time I fought somebody.
It was, it doesn't matter what your gift is, the planes that I'm going to fight you on make it impossible for your gifts to be your gifts anymore.
Now, I've seen you practice, and I've seen your footwork drills, and I've seen, you know, a lot of your steps and the different various entries you have to techniques.
The bigger thing that Eric doesn't get credit for is his understanding of the psychology that goes into preparing somebody to win a fight.
You could have all the tools around that person.
They could be the best human being on earth.
But if their mind is not pieced together, the psychological pieces are not there, you're not going to be able to trigger them and get them in the fight when you need to.
Jeremy Stevens is a great example of somebody like that.
Sometimes you gotta like...
Get crazy with that dude in the corner and even slap him around a little bit maybe and he just goes and he'll kill somebody.
It's like there's a psychological thing about certain athletes that you have to be able to touch on.
Same with Greg Jackson is another guy who can do that.
And that's what makes a good coach on that night, a good corner man on that night.
Not just what you did for eight weeks holding pads and patting the guy on the back and wiping the sweat off their shoulders and You know, doing interviews and looking famous with them.
Like, what are you doing to make sure this person wins on that night?
Not, what are you doing to make sure you look good in this person's corner while he wins?
And that's something that I've run into a lot with people, is people a lot want to associate themselves with you when you're winning and not actually be there for you, but be there so they look good in your corner while you win.
And those are the people you've got to cut out.
Those are the yes men.
And those are the ones you've got to be careful with.
Eric is the opposite of that.
And he's somebody that's why I stick with him.
He's somebody I can trust.
He understands my psychology.
He understands the emotional rollercoaster of outside life, personal life, fight life, everything mixed together.
We've gone through this together.
And then he's a trustworthy person.
There are not a lot of people you can trust in this industry these days, or in fighting in general, boxing or MMA, so it's hard.
He knows his stuff, and he is underrated, and I think the fact that he doesn't toot his own horn, he doesn't get on these interviews, it does hurt him a little.
But...
That was what was hurting me early in my career too.
We're a lot alike.
And I had to say, if I'm going to make a living, if I'm going to really do this fight thing, I better start stepping this media thing up.
I better start stepping up this portion that we're doing right here and figure out a way to make it.
Because this is part of the sport.
You're no longer always fighting who deserves, who's the best in the world.
Now, that's an interesting thing you put that up, too, because it seems like...
I mean, it doesn't just seem like it.
It is.
But fighters in general and trainers almost all at one point in time were fighters or at least martial artists.
A lot of them are broken people looking to rebuild.
And that's what martial arts does for them.
That's what fighting and competing does for them.
It gives them an identity.
It gives them a sense of purpose and a sense of worth.
And that those types of people often time get very selfish and it's very difficult to find someone that you trust enough to let them all in and then once they do they're intensely connected.
You know I mean the bonds that you have With people that you train with and people that you spar with on a regular basis or people that you've competed with and gone to places with, I don't think people that have never experienced such an intense competition will ever truly understand that kind of a bond that people share.
Yeah, well, the psychological aspect of it, I mean, you know, who was it that said this, that fighting is 90% mental and the other 10% is in your head?
And just put that out there and say, are you willing to put yourself out there like that?
Are you willing to embarrass yourself if you do lose?
Are you willing to...
Deal with the media if you win for 10 years straight and then lose and then now you're the worst guy that's ever been seen in the sport or the worst female that's ever been seen in the sport.
Is it such a lesson if you're really listening in between the lines to the issue of the world?
And that's just my opinion.
We're all putting so much into this one thing and we think that that is our everything.
When really, it sounds cheesy, but if you put all that energy towards loving yourself and not the fight career, the fight career will still be there just as heavy as it is.
I did not get better until I gave up on fighting the injury.
And what I mean by fighting the injury is saying...
You'll be fine.
You'll come back.
Just keep training, keep training, keep training, keep training.
And I trained, but in the logic that I was given with what I'm allowed to do, according to my physical therapist, Gavin McMillan, he would say, you can do this, this, and this.
Don't push it.
I wouldn't push it.
I would do the things allowed.
But I'm telling you, that wasn't the issue.
The issue was surrendering.
The issue was knowing that fighting was the only way I was going to be happy then.
Being able to compete was the only way I could find peace.
Being able to prove that I was as good as I always was even after the injuries became everything that I was trying to do.
It was just a non-stop fight to just get healthy.
And I get through my second ACL reconstruction on the same knee.
Then I blow my quad out before I was supposed to fight.
When you're trained at a six-month mark, they're like, take the brace off.
You've got to start getting the stabilizer strong.
You can start testing it more.
You can start doing things, but you've still got to wear your brace when you do live scenarios.
But you can drill without it.
You see what I'm saying?
So you're actually pretty strong.
strong enough that it's not gonna tear but that's when I had a cadaver ACL mm-hmm so it wasn't as strong as it should have been at that at that six-month point because it was cadaver tissue my body did not adapt to the tissue as well as it could have mmm so do they do an MRI to see where it's at or do they just kind of base it on how it feels they base it on the endpoint and the stability of your knee at When they manipulate it?
When they manipulate it at the six month mark.
You're going in every two to three weeks for six months to double check with the doctor.
And that was when I hit like a real bad rock bottom on that one.
That was like, that one like, Oh my gosh.
When I went to the MRI and got home, I literally like called my friend and I told him to come over and I just, I mean, I pretty much just drank as much of a bottle as I could because I was in pretty good shape at that point.
So it put me out.
I passed out.
My head was, I woke up.
In my porch with my head on the grill in the morning, just a mess.
It was not pretty.
But I didn't care because I was out for nine months, you know?
So in doing it, I still hadn't really just given up yet.
So I'm still competing in my mind, which is the problem.
And that's when you're just overworking.
And not just doing things you're not supposed to on your knee, but just in general in life.
I'm just overworking.
I'm doing my Fox stuff now to make money.
And then I'm trying to do my rehab five days a week because I have to come back and fight for the belt when I come back.
That's another thing people don't equate is I was the champ, so I got to come back and fight for the belt when I come back after this injury.
I don't just get to come back and fight somebody three rounds.
I got to come back and fight five rounds.
Never been done before.
I had nobody to bounce this thought off of.
I just had to wing it, man.
And so I was.
And that caused, I think, a lot of problems with me because I didn't have the mental capacity to deal with it at that point with all the things that I was doing.
So I just kept grinding.
And then I finally get back to health after the second ACL. Six months, nine months goes by.
All right, let's take this Burrell fight.
So I'm ready.
I'm training in camp about a month in.
Um...
I have like a weird pinch in my groin.
It turns out to be the exact same injury Daniel Cormier just pulled out of the fight for.
It's the extensor tendon in your, or no, it's the, I forget the name of the, there's a tendon in your groin area that pulls and then you gotta just rest it.
I tore the...
mine was a little bit worse.
I tore the muscle, the quad muscle off the bone.
So it like separated from the bone.
But it wasn't all the way.
It was just enough that it was...
I could still like think I was okay.
But it would just fail on me occasionally.
So I could tape it some days and it would be alright.
I remember I was sparring one day and I went to throw a right hand and my leg just gave out and I fell on the floor.
I wasn't kicking.
I wasn't shooting.
I just threw a right hand.
And the feeling of falling because I threw a right hand made me know like something wasn't connected.
Like it just didn't feel right because it just failed me.
It wasn't like it hurt and I stopped.
It just literally, there was no pain and it just failed.
And I was like, something's way mechanically wrong with me.
I can't fight mechanically wrong like this.
And that was about four weeks out of the fight, three, four weeks out of the fight.
Well, I had already done a month camp with this injury, trying to tough it out.
So my camp was rough.
It was a hard camp.
And I didn't want to pull out, obviously, naturally.
So I ended up calling Dana, and it's one of the few phone calls I've ever had with Dana, unfortunately, and this is probably one of the times your members are telling them, I'm sorry, I gotta pull out.
But I remember not wanting to have my manager call them.
This goes back to how my mom put something in my head where you deal with this face-to-face or talking.
So I called and I said, look, I don't want to do this, but I gotta pull out of this fight.
If you got any doctors, you can have MRI me, whatever you want, but I'm telling you something's wrong with my leg.
So he's like, okay, I'll do it.
I got guys on it.
We can't have you pull out now.
I'm sure you're fine.
Check it out.
Get the doctors check it.
Yeah, your quad's torn.
You can't fight.
So the UFC pulls me.
You know, Dana's naturally pissed.
But then that slides Faber in there.
Boom.
Faber gets the shot with Burrell.
Ends up getting knocked out in that matchup.
But I pull out of that fight.
That's when they strip my belt.
And then that was the beginning of me giving up on fighting to an extent.
And what I mean by that is...
It's different than you think.
It sounds negative, right?
When you say that.
I'm giving up on fighting.
But it is actually the building point in my life where I finally let go of control.
I always had this thing up to that point where I wanted to control everything.
It's just something that I always had the gift of being able to do.
This last one, after the two ACL reconstructive surgeries coming back, and then tearing my quad after that, I said...
I want to come back and show people that this can be done.
I'm not the only one that can do this.
Anybody can do this, right?
I'm here for you, bidding your will, God.
This is my talking.
And no answers, no nothing.
And I said, maybe that's the answer.
I remember thinking, maybe that's the answer.
It's just, you might not ever fight again.
Are you okay with that?
And that was something that I never allowed my brain to even go to, ever, until all these injuries hit me.
And I would have never been able to unless I went through all that.
That was literally all the stuff because I'm so stubborn and so...
Just tough that I had to go through all that just to mentally say, okay, you might never do this again.
It could have been after the first one I could have done that, but I didn't.
When I did that, my health skyrocketed immediately.
I just went to therapy every day knowing I was trying to get better, but I didn't care if I fought again or not.
I focused all my energy in FOX and coaching the guys at Alliance Training Center to make them better and try to make the team better and feed off the thirst and the hunger that those guys had to be the champion that I still wanted to be.
And I decided that if I focused on Fox, focused on the positive energy of these guys at the gym, kept my mind in the sport, my body will be there because my age is compliant with my body still.
I'm still young enough that I'll be okay.
So I just needed to get my mind wrapped around the sport, stay in it mentally, but understand that if I never have it again, that's okay too.
And when I did that, it took away so much importance Off of needing to fight, have the title, as the person that I was, that it allowed me to open up and say, if you never fight again, you're still a great person.
You still did great things.
You still laid the tracks for the bantamweight division in a lot of ways.
You did this.
You had a great career, Dom.
It's okay if this is it.
And I kept that mindset, kept focusing on the things that I could control instead of the things that I couldn't, like the fact that I wasn't competing yet.
And as I did that, I got healthier and healthier, came back, fought Mizugaki.
It was one of the weirdest performances of my whole career, easily.
Because the walkout was different.
Just I was so...
I had no connection.
I had no connection to the win or the loss at that point.
There was nothing.
It was just...
I was just there to enjoy being there again after three and a half years and all these injuries.
Like, I can't believe I made it here.
I'm not injured.
And I remember thinking like, just you're in front of these people.
Enjoy the limelight, man.
Enjoy this ride.
Like this is incredible.
There's people that would pay millions and trillions of dollars to get this walk you're about to get and go fight somebody in this octagon.
Just enjoy it.
Don't work.
Don't connect.
And by letting go, man, by letting go of the injuries, by letting go of the wind, by letting go of the loss, by letting go of either mattered, I was in my zone and it allowed me to just be free And that was the best performance of my career.
But more than anything, it showed me a mental thing that I'd never opened up before.
And it was letting go of the things that you can't control will give you actually more peace because it disconnects you from...
So you feel like that piece was a significant factor in your body recovering because the pressure and the stress and the anxiety all that was playing It was it was wrecking not just your mental state, but also your physical state 100% every piece of it.
It was my mind doing it to my physical body and So it was initially a physical injury, and then it was the cascade of psychological issues that came with the physical issue that led to more physical issues.
It was the cascade of trying to figure out why I was so sad with all these things that I earned around me.
I already had everything that I thought...
When you grow up in a trailer like I did, and then you go to winning a GTR, the car you wanted since you were a kid, in a prize fight, and having a home that you bought with your own money that you never thought you'd be able to own a home in California because you live in a damn trailer park in Tucson, Arizona, it kind of makes you feel like Like, that's it.
You know, like, you've done crazy great things.
And you've, um, I, those were all just dreams to me and they happened so quick.
Like, at 20, you know, I mean, I didn't get my house till later, but when I got those things, it's like, I really, I, why are you so, I was still sad is my point.
Like, I was still, I had my depression that was hitting me.
And that's, so many people in this world are dealing with depression.
Like, it's a huge, catastrophic problem across the planet.
And And I definitely, it's in my bloodline on both sides of my family.
And it's something that everybody, not just myself, deals with on a daily basis, I think, in certain people's lives.
And that hit me very hard.
And I didn't understand why it hit me so much harder now, after I stopped competing.
Like, why is it so much worse now?
Well, the reason is my body was used to the active.
The activity, just go, go, go.
And what I realized is I turned off all my emotional, spiritual, and mental issues with exercise to where I never, ever, ever dealt with them, ever.
I only physically worked them out.
So my physical was perfection.
I'm a world champion monster killer, whatever you want to call me in your own perspective mind, right?
But emotionally, physically, and spiritually, I was a cricket.
And I never understood that until I was hurt, trapped in my own body like a prison cell.
Couldn't train, couldn't run, couldn't walk, couldn't bend my leg.
Laying on the couch, eating pain pills, realizing, man, unless you train, unless you compete, you hate yourself.
You hate yourself.
You're a piece of shit in your own mind without those things, without the beautiful girlfriend, without the beautiful house, without the nice cars, without the big money to show people.
You hate yourself.
So what am I really doing?
Why am I doing this?
I lost sight that the whole reason we're fighting is it's a spiritual, emotional, physical, mental battle that helps you grow as an individual and as a human being.
It's not just to have these things that you think will make you happy.
You have to learn those things through the process.
And I didn't know that until I was trapped in my own body.
I literally felt like I was in a prison cell.
And I knew that wasn't right.
We shouldn't be in our own body alone without people around us to keep us company and on a couch feeling like we're in a prison cell, should we?
Could only happen because I let go of control the things I couldn't control So you come back you fight Mitsugaki you put on the performance of your career just destroy him It was just a whirlwind wild crazy first-round stoppage Then what happens?
What's the secret link that I didn't know for the first three injuries that I had?
Was letting go of control.
This was my diamond.
Now I had a way to prove that I was on to something.
In my own mind.
And I did it.
And I was onto something, and I know it now, and nobody can ever tell me anything different.
It was just, I stopped right then and there.
The day I blew my knee out, I didn't train again for nine months other than physical therapy.
I didn't shadow box, I didn't do a push-up, I didn't do a sit-up, I didn't do a squat.
I went in the gym occasionally, but because I had learned to let go of fighting from the first two injuries, I didn't go in there panicking trying to keep training because I needed it for my health anymore.
I already learned that the way I find health...
Is to not train, let my body completely heal, don't do anything, and focus on my mind.
So I spent another nine months focusing on nothing but my mind.
And my tactic was, your body's not working right now, so you gotta switch it over to the next weapon that you have, which is your mind.
Your mind is the only other weapon you use besides your body on fight night.
So if your body's not working, switch it over.
So I just focused on my mind.
And by focusing on my mind, I'm talking.
I started looking up guys like Wayne Dyer.
I started talking to a guy named Michael T. Lardin.
Dr. Michael T. Lardin.
I started putting in place specific go-to people to talk to that I looked up to.
Power people, I guess you'd put them right.
I'm sure you have some too.
And I focused on nothing but my mind.
I didn't train at all.
And I remember I got a call.
I was out at the lake in Arizona.
I literally hit the nine-month mark on this weekend.
I get a call from Shelby.
The nine-month mark.
They knew my knee was going to be healthy.
And he goes...
You're healthy, right?
And I was like, well, I've done nothing but rehab, and it's been nine months, so technically I'm cleared by the doctor.
They know I'm cleared by the doctor because the UFC talks with the doctors 24-7 whether they admit it or not.
So it's like, even if the doctor shouldn't tell the UFC, they're telling them everything.
So they know exactly where I'm at in rehab, exactly where I'm at in therapy, to the T, and that's why they know when to call me and put the heat on me.
So I'm out on the boat drinking some beers, trying to enjoy my life, And I get a call.
We want to give you a title fight with TJ Dillshaw in the beginning of the year or whatever.
At that point, I had 12 weeks when they called me to get ready for the fight.
I don't sit down and talk for two hours to anybody about this stuff.
So it's like, who am I going to go on an interview with and talk about this stuff?
Pretty much you're the only guy who gets into this weird stuff.
So here we are.
And it comes down to that.
Like, yeah, I was on zero.
And I said, again, because of what I learned with the Mizugaki thing, letting go.
I just kept exercising that because what's going to happen is going to happen.
It's out of my control.
God's got his plan for me.
He took me this far in my mind.
That's my higher power.
And remember, if you're listening and your higher power is not God, it can be whatever you want it to be for your higher power.
It's a matter of just letting go.
It's a matter of just letting go and understanding that there's something in effect that's bigger than you here in the universe.
And as soon as you can do that, You're going to be who you're going to be.
And then when you are who you are because you're not worried about all these other things connected to it, you're your fullest self.
And in being that, it allowed me to get ready for TJ because I wasn't thinking about, he's been fighting, you haven't, he's been this, you haven't that.
None of that mattered.
It wasn't relevant because I was fighting him no matter what.
So I just let go and said, get in the tip-top shape you can with the tools you have and let's go fight him.
You know you have the skill set.
You know you have the knowledge and the movement and you're young enough and your body's working.
I stop just physical therapy, which I was doing three times a week only, and I go to fight training.
I start just my regiment, what I do for each camp.
In doing that, going from off the couch, doing nothing, straight into a five-round title fight...
That actually sparked what I now have, which is plantar fascia tendonitis in both my feet.
And so it's because going from resting for a year or whatever, three years, and then going full bore on your feet, it tore all the fascia on the bottom of my feet because they weren't ready for the brunt of force that I was putting on them with my footwork and my movement and my sparring and my kickboxing and all that.
It wasn't ready, so I tore all the fascia on the bottom of my feet.
So I started feeling something weird on the bottom of my left foot in that camp.
Simultaneously at the eight-week mark after I'd been training for 12, what, Four weeks I've been training for the TJ Dillashaw camp.
I broke my rib.
So I get kicked in my rib.
My body's just soft.
I hadn't been getting kicked or punched in over three and a half years now.
Because if you think about it, Mizugaki fight doesn't even count.
He hit me one time and it was just under a minute long fight.
And so the only wear and tear and callous, for lack of a better term, I have on my body is from the training camp before Mizugaki, which was only a three round camp.
So I have no wear and tear on my body, no toughness.
I get kicked in my rib.
Breaks my rib.
I lose right then and there.
I can't wrestle anymore and I can't spar anymore.
So now I'm at eight weeks out of the fight and they take away my sparring and they take away my wrestling because I can't go live.
So I'm just drilling kickboxing now.
Pad work with coach Eric Del Ferro and Miguel Reyes and grappling drills.
No, it was like I had to look it up online myself for some makeshift thing that would work and this thing worked the best.
I forget what it's called.
I could text it to you and figure it out.
Picture what the coaches wear when they wear that body plate and you can punch in the body and it goes all the way up to here.
Do you know what I'm talking about?
It's like one of those but it's a little smaller.
And it just goes here, and then you put it on like a shirt, and the cables cross in the back, and then the whole front is kind of like squishy, but protecting you from squeezing in blunt force.
Start panicking when I can't spar or wrestle live after four weeks with the busted rip.
I was like, oh it'll go away.
It just wasn't going away.
It was just killing me.
I couldn't even breathe, man.
I couldn't sneeze.
I couldn't cough.
It was horrible.
So I just said, I gotta shoot it with cortisone and see if that helps.
So I go in, see the doctor, they shoot it with cortisone.
Thank God it works.
It numbed it.
Within three days, I'm moving again.
I'm good.
So the reason I didn't shoot it right away is because you want to give it as much time as you can to heal before you shoot it to see if you can minimize the damage that you do with the cortisone.
It breaks down a tissue, like muscle and tendon tissue, if you overdo it.
You can do within three in one injected area, but you don't want to do more than three in one area, depending on where you're at.
This is my first one in this particular rib.
I mean, I've had them all over my body, but this and this rib.
When that kicks in, I'm like, sweet.
I can spar and I can wrestle now.
I just got to wear that thing.
So the whole camp, I'm wearing this thing.
And I can't do any core workout.
I can't do any strength and conditioning at all.
Because we had to ditch those two things in order to focus on cardio and skill.
Because we had to get my cardio and skill back and my timing and my reads back.
More than I needed strength and conditioning.
So because I'm coming back from so much, you actually have to just cut out what's not needed in the camps that you've had in the past and take what you can use.
Because of the sprinting, the footwork, everything else coming from nothing.
But it's only in my left foot.
So, I think I kicked an elbow.
I don't know.
I have it yet.
So I don't go get an MRI. I don't check anything.
I just ignore it because I'm fighting either way.
I don't want to know.
Sometimes it's just better not knowing.
Especially if you're going to fight whether it's hurt or not.
So I just said, screw it.
I didn't shoot it up with cortisone or nothing.
I just ignored it, kept running.
Super painful if you've ever had it.
Plantar fasciitis.
It's debilitating to an extent.
But thank God it was only in one foot.
And then I go into that fight...
I had about a good solid four-week camp of sparring and wrestling, thank God, of live stuff.
But other than that, the first 12 weeks was basically just getting into shape.
So my whole camp was comprised of Mostly sprints, pad work, and about a month of sparring.
I lost almost all rounds coming back because I was just so off from the year and not doing anything in my body, not being strong, and trying to get back in shape.
It was tough.
By far, that camp was the worst put-together ever.
Most off and horrible camp I've had in my whole 24 fights, by far.
And we didn't know that you had plantar fasciitis, so when you kept getting hit by leg kicks and your leg was giving out, I was thinking that your leg was giving out from the impact of the kicks.
And that helps because I have orthotics and there's supports you can put.
That keep the support.
But I have a high arch, and so what that means is the arch, there's a fascia that holds everything in place, and the arch starts to fail, and that's what that needle feeling is.
It's like it's the fascia on the bottom of your foot.
Because I'm always on my toes, it just wasn't ready for the brunt from zero to hero, and then it kind of put a bunch of lesions in it, and now how do you heal those?
I was actually thinking of getting some stem cells put in my elbows and my shoulders and my knees coming up, but for my feet, PRP and stem cell is all just, it's all just, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Anything you look at, if you Google plantar fat, they have no cure for it.
It's a worldwide problem that there's no cure for.
He's in the era of Jon Jones, and he lost to Jon in his first fight, and he's also dealing with the fact that Jon, although I love Jon too, Jon's a fuck-up.
And so he's gotta sort of be there while Jon keeps fucking up, and then a lot of it comes back to him.
I'll do a line of coke next time and then try to jump in there and see how I do and let's blow his knees out three times and then we'll see who's better.
It's interesting that sometimes people are just supremely talented physically.
And they don't have to deal with as many trials and tribulations in that regard.
He's very gifted.
It's interesting.
I've always said this.
There's a way that John gets a hold of people that you could almost tell when he gets a hold of them that they really have never felt anything like that before.
And you saw it with DC. DC, who's a supremely talented wrestler.
One of the best wrestlers to ever compete in MMA. Period.
Jon Jones got a hold of him, and you could see DC was like, oh, shit.
Yeah, he ate that right hand and just hit his head on the floor, woke back up, and then went after it.
And that's respectable, too, that I don't think fans or anybody can really understand what it takes to get slightly knocked out, stand back up, and want to keep going.
That's a different level of understanding of this sport.
As an athlete, when I watch a fighter go through that and keep their composure, move around, and deal with that problem, And then even if they lose but stay in the fight and go the distance and tough it out, like Diego Sench is a great example of that.
There's fighters that come back, and there's fighters that almost never come back.
It's really interesting.
We were talking about BJ Penn, one of the all-time greats.
I can't remember a fight where BJ was losing, where he came back and won.
Frankie Edgar, on the other hand, you can never count that motherfucker out, ever.
Frankie Edgar, in the Grey Maynard fights, those two chaotic fights, was so close to being stopped in the first round, where Grey Maynard is putting it on him, and Frankie's going down and down again and stumbling around the octagon, and Grey keeps catching him, and Frankie goes on to stop him.
That's why I put Fedor over Kane as the best heavyweight of all time, although I still think I maintain that Kane, when he was at his best, as far as what I see him, what he was able to do to guys, and what I see from his performance inside the octagon, especially his cardio as a heavyweight, his clean technique, his wrestling, the pace he puts on guys, his chin, I don't think there's been ever anybody like Kane.
I think Kane, when he was at his prime, was the best I've ever seen.
I never got to see Fedor fight live, but I would say if you have to give an all-time great to a heavyweight, I kind of lean towards Fedor because he stayed on top longer, beat more guys longer.
Yeah, but I remember even, because I was part of the sport in that era, and I'm so glad.
I really am so glad I was part of the sport during that time.
And I was just coming up, and I was like maybe 2-3-0 at this point.
I can specifically remember a time having to make a decision at 21 years old.
Do I want to be in the IFL? Do I want to go try out for the Ultimate Fighter?
Or do I just keep working my three jobs, coaching wrestling, doing what I'm doing here in Tucson as a janitor, stay with my money, and just be patient and keep winning fights until I get there?
And I was 20 years old.
They were offering me $2,000 a month to fight in the IFL with the Sabres, which was...
This was, you know, forever ago.
And $2,000 a month for me would have changed my life.
I'm 20 years old.
I'm living paycheck to paycheck and I'm doing all these jobs.
I can quit all my jobs and focus on training 24-7.
That's my mindset with $2,000 a month.
Heck yeah, I can do that.
That's the way to go.
But wait a second.
There is no 135-pound weight class.
There's no 145-pound weight class.
It's only 155 and up.
So I'm already eating as much as I can, trying to put weight on and get into the weight class to fight at 155 pounds.
Now I'm walking around 55, 60. But then at 20 years old, 42. You know, 142 pounds.
Trying to eat everything I can in sight.
And between that and 50, you know, 150. So I said, you're too small for that, I felt.
If they lock you into that contract for two grand a month, they're going to throw you out there, you're going to lose twice, they're going to cut you, and then you didn't get any money and you lost.
Now you've got two losses on your record because these guys are monsters.
And...
How do you come back from that?
So I said, alright, I'm going to say no to the IFL. I'm going to go try out for the Ultimate Fighter.
Tried out for the Ultimate Fighter.
Didn't get in.
Lost that opportunity.
So then I just kept training and that's when I got my first fight at 6-0.
I was 5-0.
Got an offer on two days notice to go fight in total combat, which is now my coach, Eric Del Ferro's promotion back then.
He was a promoter.
And I took the fight, fought it, and then I met Eric.
And I have three fights at 55. I have three fights at 45 if I remember right.
Also Wow, so at the time when this was going on 2005 when you started out was right when Stephen Bonner and Forrest Griffin had that epic fight in the finals the ultimate fighter season one and it launched MMA Yeah, and that's what made me decide and that's when I'm going to school You see so I'm like alright this thing is this is the time if you're gonna do it Get in now and just see what you can do with it.
Go all in, Dom.
You might make it.
Or keep going to school.
I wanted to be an EMT firefighter.
That was the goal.
And it was like, you know, what do I do?
I have so much stability here.
I got three jobs.
I got money coming in.
I'm comfortable.
I'm going to school.
I'm doing the picture-perfect 20-, 19-, 20-year-old vision for a kid who wants to be something, right?
Going to school, working.
Threw it all away and just said, screw it.
And it was nerve wracking.
But like I said, I didn't do it until I asked my mom.
My mom didn't even, the fact that she didn't even like think about it, like I didn't think about it.
Well, one of the things you said about you, I've said, if you watch Dominic Cruz fight, I would tell you, don't fight like that.
But look how goddamn good he is at it.
So you can't say don't fight like that.
Because he's not just like, the way you throw punches, the way you move and throw punches, and throw punches from odd angles, you could tell someone, if someone was like a very traditional, technical coach, you would say that is the wrong way to throw punches.
But I would say no.
Because look, he's fucking landing them, and they're hurting the guy, and he uses them a lot, and he's very effective with it.
Well, anybody can do it if they mimic your movements, and your movements aren't like Cirque du Soleil movements that you have to be physically gifted in order to pull off or work towards them for a hundred years.
They know what they're doing, but who else has fought somebody as much as they've fought me?
I mean, think about it.
Benavidez twice, Faber twice, TJ Dillashaw, Charlie Valencia has fought with them.
Scott Jorgensen trained with them before I fought him.
Ian McCall trained with them for a tiny bit of time before I fought him.
Essentially, every single person I've ever fought for the past 10 years has at some point been friends with Faber, trained with that camp because they were the little guy camp, while I said, why join them if you can beat them?
And I just did it my own way and let them all hate me and train together.
And it was okay with me, you know?
I needed to do things my way in order to build something different in a game that hadn't really caught up to the things that I was thinking about yet, in my opinion.
It didn't make me the only one that was right in these things.
It's just how I used the things that I used.
They had theirs too.
But my whole mindset was, like I said, if I fight like them, I'm going to be like them and they're going to adjust to me like they adjust to everybody else.
One, it all started with me fighting at 155 pounds weighing 142 pounds.
That's where this whole mindset started.
So it was, they're already twice as big as you, and on fight day, they're gonna be three times as big as you.
So you better not get touched, you better not get grabbed, and you better not get hit at all.
Don't let them touch you, because they're too big.
If they take you down, your energy's gonna be zapped by the time you do get up, if you get up.
And if they hit you, they're big and strong, and they're probably gonna put you out.
So you have to use all that strength, all that size against them, and make it their weakness instead of their strength.
And that's how I started, because I was so little.
I said, alright, I need to focus on defense.
Obviously, I've got to hurt them too, but after they do what they're trying to do with their big strength and be stronger and be more powerful and be more athletic, they're going to wear themselves out.
Now we're even.
Middle or round two, all those things that they had early, we're even now.
Now I can just outthink them and pick them apart and beat them.
I always had that mentality rather than Fight fire with fire.
It just didn't make sense to me when my body was on the line.
I wanted the path of least resistance.
And so it started with that until I got to about 5-0, fought in total combat.
I took that fight on two days notice, went out there with no coaches, no corner men, and went by myself, and they just picked random corner men and put them out there.
That night was why Eric liked me, because he saw I took it at short notice, won it.
It was a tough fight, but I had no corpsman.
I came solo on a flight and just went.
And so he's like, okay, I can work with this.
This guy wants to do it.
So he picked me up, but then that's really when the progression started, meeting Eric.
And that's because I'd never had...
I mean, I had pads held for me here and there in Tucson, but only if guys were getting 65 bucks to do it or Something for it because there's not a lot of money in fight game.
So they're all as hungry as I am the trainers and I wasn't really like some star pupil that everybody wanted to get on board and make a world champion at this point I was just a guy right?
I So I wasn't getting pad work.
I wasn't getting one-on-one training.
I lined up my own coaching.
I'd have guys that knew what they were doing, being pro boxers, pro high-level wrestlers, high-level blue belts at this time, and roll and wrestle and make my own team and my own coaches with the people that I had available, but I didn't have a head.
And when I found Eric, I won that fight, found Eric, and he said, I'll coach you, I'll get you a manager, and I'll get all this figured out for you.
That's what I was really looking for.
That's why I went to California and got out of Tucson, because I knew I wasn't finding that in Tucson.
When I went there and got that, it was like a gift.
I was like, this is what I'm talking about.
I knew if I went there and won with no one in my corner, somebody would want to pick me up.
Well, now, when I meet Eric, I'm no longer the smaller guy fighting bigger guys because, well, a little bit, but 45 is now allowed.
Now 145 pounds is just getting into these small shows, not just the WEC. So by the time I meet Eric at 6-0, I take that fight on two days notice at 145 pounds.
But I was getting ready to fight at 155 in Colorado for a world title.
But the whole show got canceled.
That's why I was in shape to take the fight on two days notice.
So when I met Eric...
The 45-pound weight class was there.
55 was the one that was basking.
So that was how I got into the UFC. But your question exactly was what?
Honestly, I had a couple things that I did naturally, and then Eric has a skill set where if you have a natural movement, he doesn't tell you to fix it.
He lets you do it and then has you add a weapon to it.
That's his gift.
And I had a lot of those little weird, odd things that I did.
Yeah, and it was a mixture of wrestling stance with punching and kicking.
If you watch wrestling, there's no set stance.
There's no set.
You know what I mean?
If you watch college, high school, like the highest level wrestlers, it's all fluent motion in both stances.
So I made fighting that because I started out wrestling.
And then I added the punches and the kicks to that motion.
Instead of trying to change what I already did with my wrestling and try to make it this way, he just let me do what I did Up to 5-0 with my wrestling and whatever I taught myself, and then he just tightened it up and made it into a pro-level look to an extent.
No, I have a system, but I'm a visual learner, so you could...
You can literally just do a movement in front of me and I'll learn it really quick.
But if you write it or I have to read it, I'll never get it.
I'm all visual.
There's certain things that I was running into when I would spar early on starting that I came up with habits to deal with because of my wrestling and not having a coach that instead of the coach saying, no, do this, I just adjusted and found my own answers.
Well, you're hard to read if you're being offensive and defensive at the same time.
Yeah, it's hard to read because you don't know if I'm being offensive or defensive.
It's one or the other or both.
I can do both because where I put myself, I'm defensively in a, generally speaking, when I've been doing very well in my matchups, I put myself in the gray area where even if you do hit me, it's limited power and I'm still able to hit you more than you're able to hit me, basically.
But the camp is really where the damage is done, not the fight.
The camps are just painful for five rounds, just the way it is.
But after getting through that fight with Cody, I feel like I just want to face the winner of those two.
I think that he had a good night.
Like I said, I fought that camp how many times, man?
Legitimately, if you had to break down, I mean, if you went back and looked at tape, you could probably break down 30 rounds with me in that camp.
That means they have all those reads on me through the years.
And then Cody started out watching me in junior high, high school.
And then the way I look at it is he's the one guy who could implement it because he looked up to the guys that wanted to beat me as they are the shit.
so it took down the ego From him and allowed him to learn from the best guys that I fought and really taking that information and use it Whereas you give a guy like Faber or TJ Information and I guarantee you it's in one ear out the other.
They already know everything You don't teach think TJ's learned a lot from Dwayne he is now, but I'm talking about then okay in that camp and I think that Cody is Was just like a sponge for these guys because he was young.
And so he came up in that camp as a youngster and nothing those guys could say to him would be wrong.
And so that made him very effective with what he's doing today.
And then he's built his style to be the champion, which was me.
and then having 10 pro fights and so that's 20 you know basically we were you know what i mean or 10 and 0 as a pro he lost some fights as an amateur but even then he goes through his losses as an amateur so they don't affect him on his record right and so like he's learning those things even though your brain is taking the damage he's still learning things that are going to be added to his pro career that gave him experience in the matter and
And that's what the amateur system, you know, the amateur system is going to create a different level of up-and-comers now because they're not coming in as their record.
They're coming in as two or three times their record if you count their amateurs.
Yeah, that's always the thing that drives me crazy about people that jump right into the UFC. Like, I mean, not to pick on CM Punk, but the idea that CM Punk with no competition experience whatsoever is going to fight professionally in the biggest organization in the world.
Why because here's a guy that has no competition experience whatsoever and he's gonna fight someone who Legitimately in Mickey Gaul is a brown belt in jiu-jitsu very good on the ground good stand-up tough kid has fought Amateur has fought professional and has a wealth of martial arts experience it's Contrary to everything anyone has ever learned about learning and teaching and getting better at martial arts and You don't just jump into the deep end of the pool when you're not some physical freak like Brock Lesnar or something like that.
You're talking about a guy who's a good athlete.
I mean CM Punk is...
but there's nothing unbelievable about him.
He's not some freak of nature.
So I would think that if this guy really did want to do this and do it the right way, Get him to go through it the right way like everybody else would.
But wouldn't you think that once you're already wealthy, like CM Punk is, he's already a millionaire, wouldn't you want to do it correctly rather than go for the big cash grab that's going to wind up getting your face punched in?
Like, if he was your friend, let's put it this way.
If he was my friend, I know exactly what I'd tell him.
You gotta learn how to fight.
You gotta learn how to fight the right way.
You gotta learn how to fight like everybody else does.
Slowly and surely.
You gotta train with the best people in the world and learn from your ability up.
Don't pretend you're already there.
Don't jump right into the UFC with a mean face on.
He's like one of those straight edge guys that thinks he could just get a hard work pays off, you know, and just went out there.
And he's a huge celebrity.
And he felt like he was just going to ride that to a new career in the UFC. And I'm like, that's like saying you're just going to jump into NASCAR and you've never raced a car before.
Because the UFC is like, look, hey, we got this huge superstar, and we're going to send him in with this fresh-faced young whippersnapper who's a good fighter, who's got a really good mouth, great at talking, and he's going to fuck him up for sure.
Depending on who you are, it's not offensive, but it's crazy how you start to realize in those scenarios that it doesn't matter how much time, skill, or purpose you put into this craft.
It matters how famous you are or else you don't get paid.
Well, Ronda, when she was in her prime, Ronda, when she was beating all these women and when she was just flipping people in their head and arm barring them, people were paying to see not just this spectacular figure, but also this person who really knew how to fight.
Well, also in the sport being really young, the female MMA being, it's gone through in just a few years, this fantastic metamorphosis where you're seeing women like Valentina Shevchenko, that is just an overall well-rounded, world-class mixed martial artist now.
Girls like, you know, Rose Namajunas who are coming up.
These MMA fighters that are coming up that are like super talented now and everyone's getting better.
The young people coming into the game that have this really comprehensive MMA game, whereas before she was fighting people, no disrespect to her opponents, but they were limited.
I guess it's just odd how you can look at somebody like Paige Van Zandt and the champ That if you really look at the breakdown of the weight class, Paige Van Zandt and The Champ are almost of equal value if you fight them to an extent because of views and who wants to see who fight.
That is the appeal that's making money, is my point.
She can fight.
Absolutely.
She's beaten some great girls in the division.
But if we're talking about Young Jacek, who can fight, fight, fight, put her blood, sweat, tears, like you see it in her and everything about it.
And then Paige Van Zandt, who is a good athlete and can fight, It's crazy the money levels that come to the same because one is just that famous and that camera...
Perfect compared to the other one who's just that good at fighting, but she's not as good on the camera as the other one.
So it levels everything out.
And that's what's blowing my mind is watching that happen even though the skill set isn't even close to the same, they're gonna make the same money.
They've been with us like two, three years now, I want to say.
Maybe.
If that.
With our camp with Eric.
But when they first came, I was a little off-put.
But the longer they're around, the more they're...
Like, they just...
They're so in the sport.
Their eyes are just like sponges.
That's the best way I could put it.
And they're just so hungry to hear.
And they're not just listening.
They're hearing you.
That's the biggest difference I notice with the women compared to trying to work with men.
They listen, but they're not hearing you.
They already have their own vision of, I'm CM Punk.
I'm going to go out there and hit him with the right hand.
He had that vision.
And no matter what you told CM Punk, That it wasn't going to go that way because you were a 50-time world champion and you know what's going to happen.
He had that vision and that was it.
Women, you can tell them how it's going to happen and they trust and they listen and they are open and they're willing.
And when you have that and you're teaching somebody something, that's when you can watch this thing grow.
And that's a huge thing with the women that I really have learned being around them They're just so humble in knowing where they're at.
But when you can let go of the ego, the ego is just such a horrible thing for us.
I mean, it...
many things that we could be free from.
Um, my ego could allow me to, to make me think that I'm above you and that you should have, uh, two espressos here for me because I'm me and I should have my water at 80 degrees and somebody should be giving me a massage.
And then when we get out of here, I should have my own car pick me up.
And if I don't have my own car pick, picking me up, then, you know, some, somebody should be, but that's only because I put myself above things.
And the only reason I put myself above things because my ego, The only reason I make excuses is because my ego forces me to hide what I am Rather than what happened.
Ego just demolishes everything, especially in the sport of fighting.
When you can set your ego aside, you hear it all the time, leave your ego at the door and then come.
That doesn't happen.
Very rare do people leave their ego at the door.
They're keeping track of every submission that happens, every takedown, every punch.
They're fixing their shin guards in the middle of the practice because they're getting tired and they don't want that one big kick to land or that one big takedown to land when they're tired.
And then it hurts their brain because their psychology needs to stop all takedowns In order for their ego not to be hurt, it goes on and on and on and on.
And ego is the biggest thing that I notice is the difference with men and women.
Now, women have it too, but it's just a different feel when we got women in the room and men in the room and how they...
Do you think that women are better at taking instruction from men and maybe not as good at taking it from women?
Do you think that what's going on is that the women are conceding that these men are bigger and stronger and more experienced and so it's easier for them to do it but maybe they still have that ego against other women?
Yeah, and his girl, they got, he was walking into the last fight with his kids with him and his girl, and he's kissing her while he's laughing at the, and it just, it blows my mind because everybody has their own systems, you know?
So we're pretty much running out of time because you've got to head back to San Diego, but I wanted to get back to where you're at now as far as, like, recovery and what your thoughts are about resting and getting back to camp and when do you think your feet are going to be raring to go again and all your injuries.
That's pretty much, that year just put a good brunt on my body, so I'm just, right now I'm just healing, and then those two are going to fight, I think, July, I don't know.
Those two will fight on that card, and then I'd like the winner of that.
I'd like to come back and fight for the belt and put on another good show.
I mean, regardless, that show was great.
And, you know, just to touch on that fight one more time, what was going through my head that changed things.
You know, I hear a lot about what people...
Oh, he didn't look the same.
He this, he that.
And it's like, there's some things that I want to clarify that unless you're a professional fighter and you're in that zone, you don't really understand.
And that was the...
The way that I approached the fight was a little different in this one than you've seen in the past.