Khalil Rountree Jr. shares his love for Baku’s culture and UFC’s global growth, crediting mindset shifts over physical struggles in fights like Pereira ($1M purse) and Hill. He admires Demetrius Johnson’s underrated dominance at 135 lbs, contrasts MMA’s evolving financial rewards (Volkanovski earned $132M) with boxing, and critiques UFC’s flawed glove design. Rountree dismisses scripted-fight claims, praising organic skill like Derek Lewis’s power, while advocating discipline over distractions—unlike John Jones—and using his platform to inspire fighters through resilience, framing success as a mindset for life. [Automatically generated summary]
When we got the news, like, okay, the fight's going to be postponed.
It's going to go into Baku.
I had never heard of the place in my life.
I agreed without even looking it up, you know, but in my mind, I was thinking, like, okay, this is a place I've never heard of.
You know, I started thinking, like, I don't know, it's probably going to be something similar to like Saudi, and it's probably just like a lot of desert, blah, blah, blah.
And I get there, and my mind was absolutely blown.
Amazing treatment from Baku City Circuit welcomed us in.
The fans were some of the best I've ever encountered, man.
They were so happy to have the UFC there.
Everyone in the streets, like people who weren't even fight fans, were just excited that the UFC was in Baku.
Yeah, I think that it really played into just my performance.
I was just in a really good place.
Let me, okay.
I was in a good place, but I was also in kind of a fucked up state, like, not going to lie.
I was just so happy to be across the world doing what I love to do and to be like treated like we're actually appreciated for, you know, like for what we do.
And so that helped me get through all the other shit that happened.
I still felt it a bit on flight day, but there was nothing that was going to, like, my mind for like through this camp, through this fight, man, like, I'm so happy for everything that I went through, honestly.
Like, there was nothing that was going to take away my shine or my joy or my feeling of like being ready, being prepared.
It was a battle with my mind.
And every day I had to make a choice to just be better, to be bigger, to be happy, to just, you know, to just embrace everything.
This was all like everything's just been about embracing the obstacles that come.
I have been, since the Pereira fight, I've been to, I'd say, more than six countries.
And every I have their fans there.
Everyone knows who I am now.
And that is something that was a shock to me.
Especially coming off a loss and just knowing that I gave my all in that fight and that's I guess what the people wanted from me to get that type of like acknowledgement because I've been in the UFC for so long.
But that fight, I guess, really showed people like who I am.
And I got to show the world who I am and against a guy like Alex.
So now I feel like I've at least kind of made my mark and been like, hey, I'm here.
And so people are now like, okay, Khalil, I know who this guy is.
You can say the name.
And now people kind of, you know, they're familiar with who I am now.
But the other thing that it showed me was that I know, I now know who I am and what I'm capable of.
I spent majority of that fight just soaking in the moment and just like, oh, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
I was excited to be there.
I gave everything I had, but then going back and watching it, I'm like, oh, I saw a lot of the mistakes that I made.
I think that that's one thing that I try my best to always embody the artist in mixed martial arts.
I think it gets lost in the growth of the sport of MMA, you know.
But, you know, from the past conversations we have and you understanding kind of how I was before, like, man, I need some type of outlet for creativity, you know?
And I think because of that, you have this, you have speed and not just speed of the strikes, but the way you move in and out.
You know, it's like when you close the distance on Jamal, you could see it was like, there were some moments where I think he was surprised by the speed in which you were able to close the distance.
I mean, like, I feel like in that fight, so there was not necessarily like beef between Jamal and I. Like, we never really exchanged, you know, there wasn't any like heated discussions or anything.
But we all have phones.
We all have social media.
We all, you know, I get Google alerts and stuff anytime I'm mentioned.
And so, like, I've seen things that were said, and I'm just like, okay, whatever.
I don't agree with it.
And I don't, you know, whatever.
If this guy looks at me as, however, that's just his opinion.
Just like, I think it were like things again about like the Alex fight or just saying that like he's going to outskill me or, you know, I don't belong in the division.
Just, you know, things like that.
Like, don't take my exact word for it.
But that's kind of how, like, that's the stuff that I kind of saw.
So for me, there was no real reason to show any like respect.
You know, if we're in the same building, if we're in the same room, I just like, whatever.
I wanted to just kind of block him out.
And then during the weigh-ins, so I had a press conference and they were saying like, hey, in the Alex fight, you know, there was a lot of blood.
You got cut up.
Can we expect the same thing from you in this fight?
And I said, no, there's not going to be any blood on my face.
How you're interviewing me now is how you're going to interview me after the fight.
I'm going to look the same.
He didn't like that.
I didn't say his name, but he didn't like that.
And so at the weigh-ins, he comes like, and mind you, we had three days before the weigh-ins, and we'd seen each other in the hotel room and blah, blah, blah, or in the hotel.
You know, there were many more opportunities for him to say what he said, but he chose to do it at the weigh-ins in front of Dana White.
Like I said, I think with camp, the training, you know, my head trainer, like with John, with Lorenzo, Christian, just the guys who are in my circle and the work that we do, I just, it really helped me with, you know, a lot of confidence and a clear vision and a path to victory.
And I just stuck to it.
So I just had a feeling that if I if I stick to the plan, I win this fight.
And then Las Vegas can come out and support a local.
So that's cool because with the growth of Las Vegas, we're getting sports.
Got the Raiders, getting a baseball team, women's basketball.
The local scene in Vegas right now is I'm proud of it to come from there and to see that now we have something besides just gambling and all the debauchery.
So it's going to be nice, and I'm very happy to represent that night.
To emulate someone's style, I think, it's helpful.
It is.
It is helpful.
But it's very hard because you can never really truly be someone.
So someone can give you certain looks that maybe you'll see.
So I don't rely too heavily on people emulating.
But I do appreciate bodies and people that are around the same size, just so I can, you know, get used to that body contact of maybe someone who's a bit taller and not training with guys who are maybe shorter.
You know, like if I had a short guy who can emulate my opponent, it's not going to help because it doesn't help.
So if I have a taller guy who maybe can't emulate and I can do what I want to do against a taller body, then the rest is up to like my awareness and like making sure that, you know, a guy who maybe has this weird style, okay, I'm aware of that, but I know what I can do against someone of the same size.
But yeah, and so they had different like salts that came from everywhere.
And you can see how it forms based off of like the, you know, the whatever ecosystem.
Yeah, so, so cool.
So that's Samut Sakan.
We were in Samut Sang Kram and really cool, man.
So we went there.
They took a bunch of, I guess, influencers from around the world and flew them into Thailand to welcome us and show us just different sites.
It's not always about the beaches and Phuket and all this stuff.
They took us and then spread us out.
So that's where we got to go.
And then we went back to Bangkok and had this crazy cool gala.
Buakao was there.
Yeah, like all these movie stars and the people from just like the Thai government and stuff just showing people pretty much like the heart of Thailand.
So it was very welcoming.
It was a really cool way to kind of come back and feel home again.
And then I ended up staying an extra week or two.
Same thing, Thailand tourism, you know, made sure that we just continue that experience.
So we stayed at some other hotels, did like the boat ride cruise down the river, you know, just had dinner, just really got to live it up and experience, you know.
To just keep going and to just to just keep like keep digging.
You know, like it's it's nice because I'm before, you know, like when I went, I went on that five-fight win streak, I was like coming back from Thailand and like now I'm fully in this.
You know, I'm I'm 100% in.
And with that, that means like I'm just, I'm committed to digging this tunnel.
And so like a win over Jamal, like that tunnel isn't open yet.
Like I got to get the belt first, you know, like, but I'm digging and I saw like, oh, maybe I got this like cool gemstone.
Like, okay, cool, put that in my bag.
But like, now I'm, you know, I'm committed.
I'm still, I'm still in the mine, you know, and eyes on the prize, man.
Obviously, if it stays together, MMA is rough with that.
People get injured.
But if that card stays together the way it's pieced up right now, just with those three, I mean, whoo, what a card.
This is an advertisement from BetterHelp.
Stress in the workplace is becoming an issue around the world.
Did you know that 60% of the global workforce has reported experiencing higher than normal levels of stress?
So it's more important than ever that we learn to take some time for ourselves.
Plan a nice long holiday this summer, go hiking, read a book, play video games.
I found that even a few minutes of meditation can help.
Another great option is therapy.
Everyone can benefit from it, and it's arguably one of the better long-term solutions to stress.
Therapy can teach you how to positively cope and manage anxiety while improving your self-confidence and self-awareness.
It can be very empowering.
And thanks to BetterHelp, therapy is becoming more and more convenient.
All it takes is a few clicks to join a session.
You can also join from anywhere, whether you're at the beach, on your vacation, or at home after a grueling day of work.
Plus, as the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.
Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash J-R-E.
From what I've seen so far and like just the text that I've gotten, yeah, a lot of people are really excited about it, which hypes me up and makes me want to, you know, train smarter.
I like what the UFC is doing now with like the Exits, you know, like Anthony Smith got a sick exit, like Dustin's got a sick exit.
For me, I don't know.
That was kind of one of the highlights of that night for me.
Not only did I feel like they both put on a really good fight, I just thought, like, what a cool way to be able to just like do that much work and then like be appreciated for it, like, win or lose.
I think, yeah, maybe the tides are changing a little bit.
Like, I felt like for a long time, and still to this day, it's still pretty like heavy, but to lose in MMA was almost kind of like the end of the world to the fans.
And like, you know, sometimes like someone can be on a tier and then they, you know, they lose and then you can just see the direction of the support like completely shift.
Like, ah, fluke, you know?
But yeah, I think that it's, you know, when I see things like, you know, Dustin's exit and all that stuff, granted, he did a lot in the company and he's done a lot in his career.
But to see that kind of gave me hope, like, okay, maybe this will, you know, give the fans a little bit of different perspective.
And maybe it can start to shift towards like appreciating people.
I just, people need to, it's like, again, it's casuals.
It's like people love.
One of the things that I really struggled with in the early days of commentary is that regular sports people were starting to do MMA commentary, and they were talking about fighters the same way they would talk about like a football player who drops a pass or a basketball player who misses a shot very disrespectfully, choked.
They were saying a lot of shit.
I was like, hey, hey, hey, you don't know what the fuck you're talking about.
Like, this is the wrong sport to be coming over here and talking like that.
And the early days in particular, there was a lot of that.
There was a lot of people that they wanted to get credit for their work by just being that arrogant.
You know, there's like a bunch of those people in the sports world that are just like insulting.
And then, you know, there's a long history of athletes meeting those people and fucking them up and slapping them.
It's super disrespectful.
And I don't know why.
But there's like a culture, particularly in America, that embraces that and that likes that because that's the kind of talk that like dum-dums have when they're on the job.
And like, did you see him last night?
Fucking loser.
You missed that three-pointer.
You should have passed the ball.
Like, you know, shut the fuck up, man.
I hate that shit.
I hate that shit because I didn't do a lot of team sports.
You know, I only was involved mostly in combat sports when I was a kid.
And so disrespect like that was like, God, you don't know what you're even talking about.
And that also brings to thought, like, I went to the Espes and that was really cool.
The first time going to the Espes and seeing all these other athletes, you know, that we see on football, you know, just on television, being in the same room.
It was amazing.
And I remember seeing just like the opening video.
And I think there might have been maybe one clip of an MMA fight.
But I'm listening to all the awards given out and, you know, best play and all this stuff.
And I was just thinking, man, I know MMA is new.
And obviously it's growing because we're here.
And they got John Jones in the crowd and they got Murab here.
So it's growing.
They're starting to acknowledge us.
But I can't wait until the day where there's more fights in the Espies.
Or in a PT clinic, it's just like, okay, ESPN's on, you know, and to be able to, yeah, to be shown through that, I think it's been really helpful to us.
The only way to not go crazy when you get really famous is to keep doing exactly what you've always been doing and make sure you fucking burn yourself out.
You go hard all the time with everything you do.
Because if you don't, then you're going to just wonder, you know, am I slipping?
Is this what's happening?
Is this all going to go away?
Like, that's one thing that people really do freak out about.
I've seen it happen to many fighters where they get too caught up in reading comments and interacting with people in a negative way online.
And it's just not good for you.
It's not smart.
It's not the way.
It's not, it's your, you're, you're dealing with the crabs.
It's crabs in a bucket.
You know, there's a lot of people out there that don't think the only way for them to succeed is to pull you down.
It's a dumb mindset.
But of course, there's a lot of people that they're not that aware of how much time they're wasting.
They're not aware of how much energy they're wasting thinking about other people, constantly dwelling on hating and all the stupid shit.
And they don't realize that they're stealing from their own life.
They don't realize it.
They're just caught in this weird trap because we have this undefined new modality of communication, this social media modality, this new thing, this new device that you have that interacts with your brain and oftentimes a very negative way.
And you're wasting hours and hours a day.
Like how many people look at their screen time on their phone?
When you do, you go, whoa, six hours.
That's crazy.
Six hours that I could have been doing other shit?
Obviously, it's like 10 minutes here, five minutes there, but it fucking adds up, man.
And it's always fun to just come here and just like chop it up with you.
That's why, I guess I just needed that own, like, I just wanted that for myself.
Just be like, Joe, what's up?
How you doing?
And you tell me, like, cool, I'm doing the same thing.
I wake up, I go to the gym, I shoot my bows, you know, I go to the club.
Like that to me, to know that just personally without being one of those people that are just like sucked into my phone or whatever, to just hear it come from your mouth face to face, that's what you're up to.
I think getting, I mean, I've been sucked into my phone before, for sure.
But now, for the most part, if I spend time on my phone at all, it's watching things.
I watch like YouTube videos, but it's always stuff on like, it's either watching MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing, boxing, or watching, like, YouTube videos on ancient history, the interesting things.
It could be like a series of just like life experiences and my like, I don't know, books that I read or just like things that I try to practice or some enlightenment thing that I'm trying to get or, you know what I mean?
Like I think that I think that it comes from that because I'm just I'm kind of always searching for the light in short, you know?
God, it's got to be so hard though in that situation because generally speaking, there's a moment in fights where you see guys starting to get hit and tuned up and you see hesitation and you see panic.
And you didn't show any of that.
You were getting beat up, but you were firing back.
So right before we went out or right before we got to the arena, my coach Lorenzo is like, all right, your nose is already cut, so it's going to open up.
And he's like looking at me in my face, you know, like he's like face to face with me.
He's like, your nose is already cut.
Accept it.
It's going to open up.
First time you get hit, it's going to open up.
All right, that's out of the way.
He's like, now, expect that you're going to get the shit beat out of you.
You're going to go to bloody fucking war.
He's like, you might break a hand.
You might break a leg.
You might get your jaw broken, but you don't give up.
You keep going.
We fucking come out of this fight victorious.
And he's like, you hear me?
And I'm like, yeah.
And he's like, so just fucking soak it in now.
You're about to go to fucking full-on war.
It's going, you're like, you know, like, you're about to go to hell.
Like, he's just like in my face, you know?
And he's like, we're face to face.
And he's like, I need you to accept it now, son.
Cause he kind of looks at me like, like his son.
He treats me that way.
And I appreciate it.
He's like, you're, he's like, but we're fucking, we're fucking winning this fight, son.
And you're going to fucking go to, you're going to fucking war.
And I was just, swallowed that, walked into the arena, just kind of accepting it already.
And so, like, in the locker room, you know, in my warm-ups and everything, I think subconsciously, I'm just like already programming myself for the worst of the worst.
Already there.
But not in a way to where I'm like, oh, I'm going to lose this fight.
You know, and like, even to the last, I'm like swinging.
I can't see.
Boom.
Body shot hurts.
I'm like, oh, backing up a bit.
But like, I just remembered like the whole time, this, just, this very like positive feeling that, like, and that's why, like, those shorts are framed in, you know, like, I got the shorts framed, never washed them, you know, blood still on them, gloves, never wiped them off, and I just put it in a shadow box.
It's on my wall, you know, like that for me is just, it was a, just a pivotal moment for me, just in my life as a person, as a human, you know, just, yeah, that's like the beginning.
I think I was like, that's the beginning of the, wow, of the journey now.
And then, obviously, like, you know, the loss was, it took a little bit of an emotional toll on me because my focus was to win, and that was my, you know, that was my intention.
But I think, like, in hindsight, I look at it and it's like, no, my, I was meant to be there to experience it and to learn from it because the things that I did learn and experience from that fight have made me a better person for sure.
But I think that, like, lately, I've been training a lot with Buchecha, who just got signed to UFC.
Incredible guy.
Amazing, like, multiple time jiu-jitsu champion.
Rolling with guys like Luke, Rockhold.
I mean, being able to be like on a team with those guys and us train together has really helped me as well because it's just given me more confidence in my abilities and my development as like a championship level fighter.
So yeah, I mean, like, even to, I, you know, I brought you those shorts today, the Santo Studio ones, man, we're, we're building an incredible team down there.
I think it's like the first time.
Are you familiar with what we're doing at all?
Okay, so like over at Santo Studio, Newport Beach, we've got Santo Studio, we've got Jackson.
Jackson's like men's jewelry.
Yeah, men's jewelry, but there's also like Jackson Media House.
And over there, we're trying to include all of MMA fighters, extreme sports athletes, like give them like a platform to showcase, you know, their talents and build themselves.
But Santo Studio, the clothing brand, we have the sickest team.
So we've got like Buccecha, we've got Arman, we've got, I mean, Dilla Shaw's behind it, we got Rockhold.
Man, the list goes on.
Gabriel Silva, Anderson Silva's son, on just like the fighting side, but then it's like Paul Rodriguez, Skateboarder, Nigel Houston, Ryan Sheckler, and then we got motocross riders like Jet and Hunter Lawrence.
And like, so there's all these kind of like extreme sports athletes under one umbrella, but like in one place in Newport Beach.
And we all support each other under like the same type of brand.
Ambassador, fucking, I was a part of the vision before there was like the first t-shirt ever printed.
Like Bear and I had a conversation.
He's like, hey, I got this vision.
And I'm like, dude, I'm behind you.
Like, I love how this sounds.
It's right up my alley.
Sounds creative.
There's clothes involved.
There's training involved.
So he's gone to just build this.
We got the Santo Performance Studio.
Huge gym.
Jiu-Jitsu mats.
Weightlifting, but also like shopping.
Dude, it's unheard of, but it's so cool.
And it's put us all in the same place to be able to train with each other, collaborate with each other.
If it wasn't for Santo, I would have never been able to train with guys like Buchetcha and Bernardo and Leo Vera, you know, the CheckMat guys.
So like now there's a partnership with CheckMat, which makes me like have access to training with these guys.
I would have never been able to, you know what I mean, have that same like connection.
So we're just doing everything we can to just, you know, like support each other within this like MMA community, help each other grow and just like expand and also include the community within right now Newport Beach.
But I mean, I'm sure that the vision is bigger than just that.
Or like maybe sometime not only there's like a renegotiation and it's not for as many fights, but like I think six or seven more fights would be nice and be able to like look around and say like, okay, is this enough?
You know, like is this okay for me to step away from and like, am I secure?
I love that there's so much outdoor stuff involved.
So like when I imagine the rest of my life and how I want to live that after fighting, it's like, let's say I do have my family and there's a child in play.
Okay, cool.
If I live in Hong Kong, I can just walk outside and take my child for a hike right outside the house.
And it'd not be like, I don't have to even own a car.
I can just, everything's walking.
You know what I mean?
It's like the way that this city's set up.
It's set up for people to walk, to interact.
It's very beautiful.
It's not, you know, I love it.
It's just, for me, when I'm there, I'm like, ah, this makes sense.
Like, especially with the vision of like who I want to be after fighting.
Like, when I see that, when I see just like the, like, the culture in South Korea, the people, how I envision just like my family interacting with society and stuff, like, to me, another thing that just makes sense.
And Thailand for me is, it just, it feels like home.
The language is very like easy for me to, you know, to speak and to like learn more of and to where I could be fluent.
It's not so much like when I'm there, I'm relaxing.
You know what I mean?
Like it's very busy.
Like there's a lot going on.
But I just, I can, I realize how I feel inside, you know, and how I'm interacting with people who I don't even know on a daily basis.
And when I think about like, I always, I'm constantly thinking about like my future or my vision, you know?
And when I think about, and when I think about my views, my future and my vision, there's a child involved.
And I try to think about like, okay, as a dad, how do I want to operate with a child?
Or like, how do, how do I want, you know, our child to experience life?
And there's just, you know, a lot of different questions and visions that come.
And the way that I've seen it, or like the way that I envision it, it's kind of like, it makes more sense that Way you know, like if I could if I could, let's say, take away some of the like stress of raising a child from my wife by like,
let's say, hiring help or you know, having instead of having a car, having a driver to have us get through traffic so that we can still enjoy life and, you know, go on like a family, you know, dinner or take the kid here or whatever, but I don't want to drive the damn car because there's too much traffic and you know what I mean?
But if I wanted to get a live-in helper, let's say in Hong Kong, it cost me $1,000 or less dollars a month to have a full-time live-in helper.
And there's nothing wrong with it there.
That's just the culture.
Like in Hong Kong, you have just groups of women who are live-in helpers that like on their off day in the summer or on their off day, like on Sunday, you'll see them.
Everybody's just in the streets with tents, combing each other's hair, boom boxes out, sharing food.
It's just a part of it.
Like that's not like literally tents in the streets everywhere.
Jamie, if you want to pull that up, it's crazy, dude.
I don't know if you've ever seen it, but it's so cool because like they enjoy the life.
But like Hong Kong helpers hang out or enjoying a day off or something.
It's just a way of life.
It's a lifestyle.
It's just a new perspective that I've never seen, like that I didn't see here.
And I like it.
I just think like for me and my development and growth as just like a human being, that's just kind of where it's like a never-ending like finding out what's next.
You know what I mean?
Like I've constantly got to adapt and evolve.
Like I'm American.
I have to learn a new language.
I've got to adapt to a new culture.
I've got to learn new rules and laws and all this stuff.
And like, cool, sign me up.
Like, cause that's just, I don't want my life to be like, okay, I know it all and I'm done.
And I'm just, okay, cool.
And I got the kid and I'm just, you know, like, right, right.
I want to continue to like grow.
To grow.
Right.
As well as, you know, showing someone else how to grow.
Yeah.
See, like, they're not homeless.
They're just hanging out on their off day because they can't and they like, they enjoy it.
No one's mad to be doing this.
Huh.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's a totally safe environment for these people to be out here.
They're not interrupting anybody.
They're literally just, this is a day off.
Like, oh, what are you doing on your day off?
I'm going to go hang out with the other helpers around the city.
Like, when I think about the stuff that I had to go through as a kid and just like the dangers and, you know, I'm like, hmm, how about like my kid doesn't necessarily have to be worried about certain things or, you know what I mean?
Being worried about like getting shot at school or like just different things.
It's just kind of like, what can I take off?
Like what mental load can I take off my offspring in the beginning?
Like there's a bunch of fighters when things start going really well.
They start getting movie offers.
And you see them on talk shows.
You're like, uh-oh.
You're getting outside of your lane and you're spreading yourself thin.
And there's just no way to really be locked into training while also doing that stuff.
So when you see someone preparing for a major fight and they see a lot of extracurricular activities, I'm always like, like Daniel Dubois had a fucking party the day of his fight.
I think this fight in Baku really got, like, it made me realize how important, like, being locked in is.
Because I was absolutely, I think that's why I got sick, to be honest, Joe.
I think that's why I got sick because I was just exhausted.
No, exhausted.
From the things that I had to do, from my obligations.
Oh.
So the week that I landed, I had to do like four or five days of filming with DraftKings for this online.
So it's like I just landed, but then like I didn't get time to adjust because the next day we got to wake up, you know, first filming sessions at 9 a.m.
And I think by time, like with jet lag, with training involved, with the filming, with all of that, I think by time fight week came, like my body's like, fuck you.
Yeah, but when you're, when you're forced to interact, like that's, I mean, you're dealing with something where you have this monumental moment that's coming up in 14 days.
And it's a fucking toxic way of fucking being and it's passing along through social media and kids are fucking getting beat up for it.
And we're fucking grown men on a large platform where people are looking up to us for many different things and they envision us as these fucking gladiators.
And this is what you're choosing to do as a fuck.
We have a responsibility.
I feel like as athletes, as champion, number fucking one, as champion, you have a responsibility.
You have a belt around your waist and all these eyes and microphone.
And that's what you're going to choose to say is talk shit and degrade my name.
And I'm not even above you.
I'm not even challenging you for a fight.
And you want to mention me.
And like that to me is just like, dude, spend your time wisely.
So that it's in a way, it's motivation for me because I'm like, I just won't do that.
Like, I think that there's so many different things that can be done when you have that belt.
Chaosundan had a really interesting video the other day.
He was talking about how people say that Dagestan is the place where you should take your kids.
You know, you want to take them to Dagestan two, three years and forget it.
There's like a fun line that Cormier has said, he's taking his son to Dagestan.
And that's one of the things that Bilal Muhammad said.
If I could do my career over again, I would have went to Dagestan earlier and I would have stayed there for years.
And then Chales Lundin had a very interesting point, which I think he's totally accurate.
And he's like, they're not doing anything any different.
He goes, but they don't have football.
They don't have basketball.
They don't have baseball.
So the best athletes go into MMA.
The best athletes go into wrestling.
The best athletes go into combat sports in Dagestan.
And so he's like, what you get is you have genetics, which is an ultimate requirement of the elite of the elite.
At the top of the game, it's like discipline and genetics.
Those are the two things that separate the men from the boys.
And he's like, we have all those things in America.
It's just when you're dealing with the elite of the elite, it's like, what pool are you drawing from?
One thing that I think they do have there, though, is this.
The fact that they're all very religious and the fact that there's no drinking, there's no partying, there's no nothing, there's no chasing girls, there's no bullshit.
We I don't remember exactly how much time, but we for two weeks before that were regularly going up to Mount Charleston and to running other mountains and stuff like outside of Vegas.
One of the things that I've heard, there's different philosophies on how to handle training in altitude.
But one of the things that I've heard is what you should do is you should train at sea level and then sleep and live at a high altitude.
So that way you get more output at sea level because you're getting more oxygen so you could put in more work.
And then when you're at the higher altitude, your body is adapting and developing more red blood cells and all that stuff and more adaptation for oxygen.
I love the fact that Murab, even like he's still tight with his old crew.
You know what I mean?
It's like, and the same thing, even when AJ was training down there, they're still tight with Ray Longo and Matt Sarah and all those guys that got him to the dance.
And then you see those guys also in his corner.
It's a very collaborative thing where there's no, the egos don't get in the way.
And one thing that's cool too is like the way that John's organized training in Syndicate now when people have fights coming up and like you're doing your live cage rounds and the whole gym's watching.
I mean, he's in his prime, clearly, but I don't think he's reached his full potential because I think he was even better in the second O'Malley fight than he was the first fight.
And I think O'Malley was considerably better.
But Murab's that much better now.
And, you know, it's this thing that happens, and hopefully you'll get to experience this, when you win a title, you get better.
There's like, DC says it's like 10%.
It's like there's something that happens.
Some people say 30%, but there's something that happens to you where you realize like, I am the fucking best in the world.
And you take that into your heart and your mind.
And then you carry that.
Like now you have that title.
You see it.
It's sitting there on your table or you have it on your wall, wherever you put your belt.
And you're like, I am the fucking man now, and now I will live this way.
I mean, and you see the, like, I think the perfect fight for him was seeing Kaikara France, they fought in the ultimate fighter, and it was a good fight.
And then you see this new fight where as he's the champion, Kaikara France is the contender.
I mean, I love when I hear fighters are making millions.
It's great.
It's great because I remember the early days of the UFC where people would make pennies when there was no money to be made.
I mean, I started working for them in 1997, the previous owners, you know, when it was before Zufa.
And nobody was making any money.
There was no money in MMA.
It's like everybody was scratching and clawing, and they were just doing it out of the love of the game.
Or because they had a career in wrestling, and then that wrestling, amateur wrestling career was over, and they're like, all right, I'm going to be a fighter.
I'm sure they paid him well, and at the time it was a lot, but I mean, like, Fedor's still fighting.
Is he fighting because he wants to, or is he fighting because he has to, you know, which is crazy.
Yeah, if one of the greatest of all time is fighting because he has to, it's not like Fedor is like living the craziest, flashiest lifestyle with like diamond, like Floyd Mayweather.
Like, if Floyd Mayweather went broke, he'd be like, look at his Instagram.
How is he not going to go broke?
Meanwhile, he's not.
Meanwhile, he's still got tons of money.
But, you know, Floyd made hundreds of millions of dollars.
He probably made more money than any boxer that's ever lived.
And we tried, Joe, I'm telling you, we tried hundreds of different ways to get the UFC logo printed on the gloves so that they will not come off in the octagon.
From me testing it on the canvas, doing live situations, sparring, rubbing it in the cage, blah, blah, blah.
Like, it's, it's, it's a little, it was a little softer, but it's, it's, it's treated differently to be able to, you know, to before, like, while it's being processed or whatever that whole process looks like, it's just, there's some type of, you know, chemical or something that's just different.
It's that every time when the fighters come to return a pair of gloves or whatever, or even in the fight, it's peeling off or chipping off, and that's a hazard if it gets in your eye.
Right.
You know what I mean?
It's more about the safety of the fighter, not like, we need more knockouts, change the gloves.
It's more that the logo wasn't adhering, and it doesn't look professional to have these guys fighting a championship fight, and then here's this guy raising his hand, and you don't even know.
I don't want to speak out of line here or out of turn.
I don't know exactly what went on, but apparently Trevor wanted more money than they were willing to give him.
But he makes the absolute best MMA gloves.
They're the best.
That's a good glove.
They turn over like this, where it's not like this.
So you don't like the thing that people, the problem with the old gloves that are now the gloves that everybody uses is that everybody says that they kind of force your hand into an open position and you have to tighten up to make them close.
But he was explaining to me the different kinds of foam that you can buy and that people buy cheap foam and it's not as high density and it's not as good.
It doesn't protect you as well.
And his is like the most expensive but the best.
But when his gloves, the design of his gloves, your hands are curled like this.
So it's an effort to do that.
But I don't know, man.
I feel like we're stagnant in innovation with glove development in the first place because I don't think this is necessary.
is gonna fight cyril gone yeah i might if i was running things i might set up the derek lewis fight with aspinall i might say forget cyril gone for now like derek just has his big knockout win who's more popular than derek who's Who's more beloved by fans than Derek?
I mean, it's like, if there is anybody as a combat sports practitioner and fighter, if there's anybody who I would say I'd want to be or like model myself after in my career, it'd be Muhammad Ali.
Just because of everything.
You know what I mean?
Like humanitarian.
Like he was beloved by people from all around the world.
You know what I mean?
Like just different medals from United Nation and like, you know what I mean?
And like not that like I'm not as outspoken as, you know, as he was.
But for just like the things that he was also remembered for outside of the ring, I just look at that as like so admirable.
And he gave young men like me something to kind of like aim at and like model myself after.
You know, like that to me, I feel like is very important, especially in this country and as a young man who maybe doesn't have a father figure or who doesn't know what to become.
And then you read the story about Lee and you're like, oh, that's similar to me.
I can become something.
I can be an Olympian.
I can be a champion.
Like it just takes this.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm not different.
I'm actually, there's actually people like me out there.
And I like, you know, it just gives you something to kind of hope to become.
And so I try to, I, I try to just be authentically me so that whoever out there does connect with me can see that, you know, yeah, you can go through certain shit, but like there's so much stuff that is possible for you.
Like your life's not over.
Yeah, you're in a bad position now, but you can get yourself out of it.
There's tons of help out there.
You know, mental health is a big thing.
You know, it's not the end of the world, you know, and if you feel like it is, there's support, you know, and if you actually have a disorder, there's support for that too.
And there's also outlets like martial arts and, you know, communities and things like that that will make you feel less alone in life.
Like it's life, but we don't, a lot of people, we don't have the tools, you know, or we don't have the people to listen to or whatever to be able to be like, okay, it's not just me.
It's everyone.
So what can I do to deal with this?
You know what I mean?
Like, I think that, yeah, that's kind of my thing.
So I think about when I get on a microphone or when I go fight or whatever, Like, there's a sense of responsibility.
It's not just about me in this world, you know?
Like, and that's, it's, to be honest, it's a struggle.
It's hard to not, it's hard to think that way.
It's very easy to be selfish.
It's very easy to just think me, me, me, me, me, you know, my problems, my struggles, my this.
But, like, to consider millions of people and lives and children and youth and teenagers that are watching the sport and da-da-da, like, I have to be conscious of the things that I do and how I live my life because I don't want to be the guy on the news.
You know what I mean?
Like, I just don't want to be that guy.
I'm terrified of prison.
You know what I mean?
I'm fucking, you know, I'm trying to make friends with police officers.
You know what I mean?
Like, I'm like, I'm just like, I'm just like, okay, like trying to do the right thing, not only for myself, but for my family, for my father, you know?
So there's just a lot of responsibility that comes with this game and how we live our lives, man.
And I'm glad there's people like you out there that do present a very positive role model because I know for a lot of young people, they turn towards really successful people in sports and particularly fighters, especially if you are a martial artist yourself and you look at someone who carries themselves a certain way and you admire it and you want to be like that person.
Like, I aspire to be my own version of what that means to me, what this person means to me, what they represent to me, which is like a championship mindset.
Like someone who's really like, there's a lot of people with championship mindset that never become a champion, but they 100% inspire people to live better lives.