MMA Legend Georges St. Pierre | PBD Podcast | EP 154
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PBD Podcast Episode 154. In this episode, Patrick Bet-David is joined by Adam Sosnick and Georges St. Pierre.
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About:
Georges St-Pierre is a Canadian former professional mixed martial artist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts history. St-Pierre was a two-division champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, having won titles in the welterweight and middleweight divisions.
About Co-Host:
Adam “Sos” Sosnick has lived a true rags to riches story. He hasn’t always been an authority on money. Connect with him on his weekly SOSCAST here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw4s_zB_R7I0VW88nOW4PJkyREjT7rJic
Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Your Next Five Moves (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
To reach the Valuetainment team you can email: booking@valuetainment.com
0:00 - Start
3:27 - Will George St-Pierre fight Khabib?
12:41 - Does GSP really enjoy fighting?
17:01 - What does fear mean to GSP?
25:05 - Why is GSP so determined
31:45 - Power of affirmations
36:45 - Bullying
46:42 - Why tough coaches can be the best coaches
54:05 - GSP turning 40
56:04 - GSP claims he can beat Khabib/Conor
1:15:28 - GSP on fighter pay
1:25:09 - GSP on Justin Trudeau
1:33:07 - GSP top 5
1:35:57 - UFC smack talk
1:42:55 - GSP imitates Michael Bisping
1:46:42 - Paddy the Baddy
1:48:22 - Who can replace Dana White?
We have a special one here for you, episode number 154 with the one and only George St. Pierre in the topic of discussion as a GOAT, if not the GOAT.
I sent a question on Twitter yesterday saying, who would you say is the greatest of all time when it comes down to UFC?
And it was GSP, GSP, Khabib, GSP, GSP, John, John, John Joe, Silva, GSP, GSP, everywhere the name was coming up.
And there's a few things, folks, you need to know.
And this is one you may want to stick around and get all your peers on because there's a way for you to win this signed glove by GSP.
It's all based on super chat.
And I'll tell you here in a minute on what that is.
But there's a few things you need to know.
For some of you guys that don't follow UFC, but you know what UFC is.
This is a man who is the eighth.
He's got eight career knockouts, six career submission, 13 fight win streak, 13 title fight wins, nine consecutive title defenses, two division world champion.
That's Welterweight and Middleweight.
I think you were held as going for the most undefeated days in a row was, I want to say 2,204 days.
I may be off by a few days, but some ridiculous streak of how long you went with that.
With that being said, our guest today, the legend, the goat, George St. Pierre, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Thank you for having me, guys.
Yes.
And by the way, here's what our outcome is of today's podcast.
This is what our outcome is.
A successful podcast today in my life.
Every time I go on a podcast, I want to create a certain standard.
Success for us today is if by the end of the podcast, we can come up with a specific dollar amount to get you and Khabib to fight.
So if we can figure out the dollar amount and we get this to Dana and some of the guys, who knows what can happen?
We can get the two of you guys to fight.
We'll talk about that.
Are you comfortable with that outcome?
We'll talk about that.
We'll get into it.
We'll get into it.
But here's what we're doing, folks.
If you do want to get this autograph by GSP, The Glove, 100% of the Super Chat today is going to his charity that he has, the George St. Pierre Foundation.
He had no idea.
I just literally announced it today.
I haven't even brought it up to you right before I asked you, do you have a charity?
said yes you do and you support folks who were yeah at young athletes that trains uh for olympic because a lot of the time they don't have enough money to travel for competitions and also anti-bullying It's an organization that gives money to the organizations that I support.
I love it.
So folks, you put up the super chat, whatever the super chat is, 100% of what we're going to give to the charity.
At the end, we're going to take all the super chat.
Minimum's got to be 20 bucks to be part of this raffle that we'll do at the end.
Sanvel, at the end, if you can gather the names, we'll do the raffle.
Somebody's going to get this glove and we'll ship it over to you no matter where you are in the world and we'll give the money to the charity.
So, and we may do some callers at the end for people to call and ask some questions.
Having said that, George, with everything that's going on right now, with the anticipation of people wanting to see you come back and you got a birthday coming up in two weeks.
What do you think about when you see all everybody in media is like, dude, you know what it's like?
It's kind of like in the NBA, there was one game everybody wanted to see, one final.
I know you're a sports guy.
Everybody wanted to see the final of LeBron and Kobe.
We never saw it.
We got Jordan and Magic.
We got Magic and Bird.
We got Brady and Peyton.
We got a lot of these guys at face, but we never got Kobe and LeBron.
And LeBron says it was my fault because the year that he was supposed to go, he lost.
He didn't make it to the end.
Kobe did his part.
I think a lot of people would be curious to see a fight between you and Khabib.
What do you think about all these conversations coming up to see the two of you guys fight?
Well, it's always a question of timing.
We've tried to make it happen.
When I retired, a year after I retired, we approached the UFC with that idea.
And Khabib was on board.
I was on board, but the UFC had other plan.
They wanted to did, in a business point of view, it makes sense because they wanted to keep Khabib active because they keep the ball rolling.
They knew that if it would, I would only come back for maybe one fight.
You know what I mean?
They rather keep Khabib active, I guess, and not taking the risk.
And I understand that.
And therefore, that's why I believe it did not materialize.
However, when Khabib fought Justin Gachi and beat Justin Gachi, I think he took everybody by surprise.
He announced his retirement.
And I believe even his own people didn't know that he was going to make that move.
Because I remember I was doing the French commentator on the channel back home.
And I thought that after the fight, maybe he would have called me out.
You know what I mean?
I had butterflies in my stuff.
You were expecting that.
You wanted that almost?
I don't know if I wanted that, but if he would have done it, maybe I would like, I would have, I wouldn't have any choice, you know, because it's like a challenge that I was looking for a long time.
It didn't happen at the time that we tried to make it happen, but now it was, I think, a year after that, it was still fresh.
I was like, I'll do it, you know?
But it did not happen.
And he retired.
Now, what happened a few years after, I was offered to fight Ascar Dalaoya in a boxing modify rule of boxing match.
And of course, I'm still under contract with UFC a few years after I retired.
So what happened now, because Khabib is retired and I'm retired, so now the UFC, Dana called me and he's like, oh, now would you be interested by Khabib?
He asked me.
He called me.
But I thought it was strange because I never wanted to do it.
And now, because he called me for that reason, I was like, I didn't want to do it, but I told Dana just to see what happened because I was curious.
You know, it's always a chess game when the promoter calls you.
That's the world I live in.
So I didn't say no.
I said, okay, let me think about it.
So I wait and I heard in the news that they, and the way Dana talked to me, it was like Khabib already accepted, but it wasn't true.
He was just going to fish with me to fishing, see how to make the fight happen.
So they knew now that we were both retired.
So for them, it was an opportunity to make a big money fight.
So I said, I'm going to think about it.
And I wait a few days and I signed the media.
Ali Abdelaz Abdelaziz came out publicly and said, hey, now George want to fight, but now we already retired.
So it was all BS.
Dana kind of lied to me.
Khabib didn't approach Khabib first.
They approached me first to make it happen.
So you actually think Dana kind of lied to you?
No, no, no, I think.
I know now for a fact.
Straight up.
Yeah, 100%.
100%.
And you feel comfortable just putting that out there.
But it's the game.
That's the nature of the game.
It's a promotion.
You got to realize he's promoting.
It's not lying.
It's in a way of saying, if I have Khabib, in his mind, he's thinking, if you say yes, I know I can convince Khabib because I know what I'm going to pay him.
So in his mind, it's a yes.
It is lying, but I understand what Dana said.
That's how that's how the business works.
And now I know.
Now, I'm an experienced guys.
I've been doing it for 20 plus years.
Exactly.
So I know.
I know the game.
So that's why I didn't want to do it.
But I didn't want to say no.
Because the reason why he called me, because Dana had a lot of heat, because they didn't let me fight Oscar Delaware.
So everybody was complaining.
He said, why you didn't want to let George fight Oscar Delaware in the boxing fight?
And you hold him up.
So Dana, now by saying, say, he could have go back and tell the media, say, oh, why would I let George go fight in boxing when he doesn't want to fight Khabib for me for with the UFC?
So you would have had a good reason.
That's why he did this.
He did this.
It was a strategic move of his part.
You understand?
It's always like this with Dana.
I mean, I like the person now.
Now I'm retired.
We talk about it when I was inducted to the Hall of Fame.
I was like, now it's cool.
We talk about the old days and saying the real thing.
But when I was competing, it was always when the phone rang and I saw Dana what I was like, shoot, what is he going to come with?
How long ago was this?
Yes, off until like until like a year, a year ago.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
So, but now it's over now.
So now we can talk like two friends.
And how has the relationship changed when you said he would call you?
You would be like, oh shit, what does he want now?
When you were active versus now, the relationship must have changed to some extent, right?
It did change a lot.
Dana, it's normal.
He's the best promoter in the world.
There's a reason why he's the best promoter in the world.
He's the best.
I don't care.
Don King put anybody.
I think Dana is the best in the world.
He can sell ice to an Eskimo.
He's just that good.
He's very smart.
But to be a good promoter, you need to use certain tools to be tricky sometimes.
And he did what he had to do for the best of his own interests.
But I did what I had to do for the best of my own interests.
So sometimes it conflicts each other.
That's why we get some arguments sometimes.
But it's only business for me.
It's personal.
So let's go back to it.
So if today you got a call, is there a dollar amount that would get you to entertain fighting straight up with Khabib if he was also open to a UFC card like full-on, the same way you fought all these years?
Would you entertain a fight today with Khabib?
No, I would not.
Zero.
No, zero.
10 million bucks.
Zero.
It's nothing that can 30 million bucks.
I don't care.
100 million.
Seriously.
I can have a credit card that I can use for the rest of the time.
But would you want to do that with anybody?
No, because nobody, and I'm going to tell you why, there is no price for my health.
And I'm not only talking about physical health.
What took the most out of me during my active years of competition was the stress.
I had a lot of stress.
And I always told myself, because it's an addiction.
You become addicted to this thing.
It's like a drug.
Winning, especially winning a title, winning a fight, it's crazy, man.
I can't describe how it makes you feel, but it can become an addiction.
That's why you see a lot of these fighters.
They retire way too late.
Way too late.
They don't know when to hear.
They don't know because they become addicted to this.
And I always told myself, I draw the line.
I said, after 40 years old, at 40, it's finished.
No matter what happened, it's finished because I know that my best years are probably behind me.
Of course, when I retired, I felt that I might have left money on the table.
Maybe I could have stayed there for two, three, four more fights.
Maybe.
Or maybe I would have got hurt in the process.
I don't know.
But I don't want to roll the dice and take the risk.
I rather retire when my stock is high, when I'm healthy, and I can enjoy the rest of my life.
And also, on a business perspective, when you retire on top, you turn around, you have a lot of opportunities that opens to you.
A lot of these doors might be closed if you retire on a losing street.
Very good person.
That's why I think it's very sad when I see some legend retire too late because first they lose their health.
You know, they get brain damage.
It's very sad to see.
And they lose these opportunities that would have been open. to them if they would have retired on top.
It's not a game we don't play in fighting.
You say you play baseball, you play basketball, but the consequences of a loss in this sport, it's way more dramatic than it is in another sport, for example.
George, let me ask you two things.
So for you, you know, you look at somebody who competes at the high level.
We typically hear some stuff that people say, oh, that guy's just so confident.
Oh, that guy's got no fear.
Oh, that guy's got the reason why he's doing this.
Oh, he trains so hard because he just wants to beat everybody so bad.
And then deep down inside, when you go find out actually why this guy trains so hard, it's because this person is driven by doesn't want to get humiliated publicly.
So this person's like, there's no way I'm going to lose publicly.
Everybody's going to watch me.
I train extra because I'm not going to be publicly humiliated.
It's just not going to happen to me, right?
And some, you know, you said something about the fact that you always go into a fight.
You got this weird feeling.
You're afraid.
Oh my God, what if this goes wrong?
What if that goes wrong?
And the only fight you ever didn't feel this way was Sarah, where you're like, you went, I was like, I was good.
I'm like, I'm not going to lose to this guy.
And that's the one you lost because you didn't go in paranoid, right?
That dynamic.
Did you ever have a moment in your career that you not necessarily fear, but in a moment where you were fighting, something happened to the body or either on the fear end or humiliation end where you said, shit, I don't, what am I like?
What was this all about?
That either brought in the best of you or the worst of you.
Humiliation as well as fear.
I never liked to fight.
I never liked it.
People like, oh, you're bullshitting.
No, man, I never liked it.
I love the freedom, the freedom that it brings me.
I love the fact that it keeps me in shape.
I love the confidence that this sport gives me.
I love to go to the gym to train with my training partner, the camaraderie that I have.
I love the science of the game, the art of war, the chess game of fighting.
I love that.
I love that I have access of things that most people do not have access.
I love that.
But in order to preserve that, I needed to go take that walk and fight in the octagon.
But I hated it.
I despised it.
I never liked it.
I never enjoyed it a second.
Never liked it.
I like to win.
But the worst part for me, the worst day of the year for me is the days that I'm fighting.
It's terrible.
It's unbearable.
And when I was young, I remember when I started my career because I wanted to be champion, but I needed to go through that pain, to that grind in order to achieve what I wanted, to achieve my goal.
And I was looking around to all my training partners and a lot of them, it seems to me that I was making fun.
I was like, you guys are like psychopaths because it's either they were acting or telling me the truth, but I felt I was not in the right field of work because they were telling me, oh, I'm happy to do this.
I can't wait to fight.
And I'm like, you guys are crazy, man.
Me, I'm scared.
Like, I can't wait that it's over, but I don't like the process.
And I tried to seek the help of sports psychologists at the time because I was like, maybe I'm not in the right lane.
And the sports psychologist used to tell me, George, try to brainwash me.
He goes, George, stop saying you're afraid.
You're excited.
And I was like, it does not apply here, you know, because you're excited when you're in Montreal and it's minus 20 degree and you know that next week you're going on vacation in the beach.
I will be excited or, you know what I mean?
I will be excited if I'm fasting for three days and I'm about to eat my favorite dish.
I'm excited.
I can't wait.
But I'm not excited to go fight in a cage, not knowing if I will be badly hurt or humiliated.
i'm afraid and then i start realizing i said you know what there is no courage without fear I should not be afraid to admit that I'm afraid.
And I realize also that that fear that I had makes me way more dangerous because I realized that it enhanced my power, my reaction time, my decision making time.
That fear gives me the drive to train harder in the fear that my opponent train even harder than me helps me prepare even better in the fear that my opponent is doing more than me.
So what are you afraid of?
So because for me, certain words have evolved.
The meaning of certain words have evolved for me over the years.
The meaning of love didn't mean the same to me at 10, then 20, then 30, then 40, then today with four kids.
The meaning of competition was very different in my teens, then 20s, and 30s, and 40s than today.
The meaning of fear, fear for me recently has been very different.
It's been a very different meaning of fear because fear, to me, it's been more from the perspective of, I ask myself, why in certain things that I'm doing, like, why do you not stop?
What is the fear that makes you not stop?
The biggest fear I had was the fear of my kids dying without them one, with my dad dying without my kids ever meeting my dad.
Like, because I never met his dad.
So that fear drove the hell out of me, right?
So I wanted to understand the relationship with fear.
What was one of your biggest fears?
Like, did you, you know how you go to sleep and there's that one nightmare that you replay in your mind?
Like, dude, this cannot happen.
What fear haunted you the most?
The fear changed over the year.
When I was young and I wanted to become champion, it was the fear of being humiliated.
You know what I mean?
That was the fear.
And that's pretty much the fear that I had for the most part of my career, you know, to be humiliated.
Then it changed to the fear of maybe at one point, because you become more aware of what can happen, you become smarter.
And it's not necessarily a good thing when you're a fighter to not to be smart, but I'll try to explain the best as I can.
You realize that, man, I've been doing this for a long time.
You don't know the consequences of brain damage in long terms.
And, you know, in my fights, I have generally always come on top or almost all the time.
And I don't get punched too much.
But in practice, you know, you have to go through, people always say, oh, your fight or you go, you beat your opponent pretty good without taking so much damage.
It's true, but in practice, you practice every day.
That's what, you know, to get hit on the head every day.
The impact, the stress, the stress, I think it's one of the things that we don't talk about.
It's crazy.
You're on fighter's flight, you know?
Like to have a little stress, it helps you improve.
But to be on that crazy fear, stress of protection that is like a fighter's fight, that you always have someone that you know in a few weeks that you're going to fight that might kill you.
And after that person, once you beat him, there's another one and another one and another one.
So you constantly feel threatened, threatened.
And for me, I was obsessed.
It's one of the things that helped me perform better is I was obsessed by the idea of being the best.
I was obsessed and being a champion, being a fighter, it's a very selfish life because everything is oriented towards you.
Me, me, me, me.
Oh, I can get better.
If I do this, is it going to help me improve?
I was, I was completely insane.
Everything I was doing at the time was to get me a better fighter.
And my perspective changed because now I'm thinking about the future.
Like, I don't want to do this anymore.
I want to be, I'm healthy.
You know what I mean?
How old were you when you started thinking that?
I was a teenager.
I was a teenager.
When I first saw Royce Gracie, I knew that's what I wanted to do for a living.
And immediately my life shifted.
You know, I've never been diagnosed, but I think I'm a little bit obsessive, compulsive.
OCD.
Yeah, OCD.
I'm not the kind of guy who's going to open the door 10 times.
But I have these things.
For example, the other, give you some example, like how the brain works.
And I think it's a good thing when you're an athlete, but in society, could be a bad thing.
For example, now I try to detach myself from that, but it's hard sometimes.
Like I'm driving my car and I tell myself, and I tell myself, oh, I'm going to hold my breath for 500 meters.
And I, at 450 meter, I hit traffic.
I'm like, I'm holding my breath.
I'm like, shit, I'm going on the side.
And I do with the extra 50 meter.
And now I can.
This is not normal, man.
This is not normal.
Because you're playing a game with yourself.
You're playing a game with yourself.
I'm playing my game, but it's stupid.
But shit like this, I do.
But now I still.
Or the other day I go to my cousin.
I go pick up my cousin at school.
I'm opening the door for the parent that comes out with their kids.
And I'm holding the door.
And there is a kid that comes and doesn't go through.
He holds the door for me.
He goes, go, sir.
And I'm like, no, no, you go, kid.
You go, kid.
And he's like, no, sir.
I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm saying, if I would have been young, I was like, hell no, I'm not fucking moving until he go first.
But he's like, kid, and I'm thinking, I'm saying, and it was hard for me to go.
You don't like go or no?
No, I went first and I lost.
But I was like, no, it's hard.
This is not normal.
But think my brain works like that.
So you had like a Russian standoff with a kid.
It's like eight years old.
Like, I'm holding the door and he's holding the door.
He said, oh, go for it.
No, no, please go first.
And his name was there.
I was like, then I was like, okay, thank you.
And I play like nothing ever, but in my mind, I was like, if that eight-year-old kid only knew, he's like, by the way, have you ever seen a movie, Pre-Fontaine?
You ever seen the Pre-Fontaine movie with Jared Lito?
The marathon.
The marathon runner that would run like three milers, not one mile.
He was like, his coach is like, you're better at three and the whole Phil Knight story with the shoes.
So there is a scene in the movie where he's telling these kids, so here, you guys can run with me and you're going to practice and all this stuff.
And he's at this high school and he's an adult at this point.
He's a champion.
Everybody knows.
And he's running.
And this one kid keeps trying to get ahead of him.
And he says, no, slow down.
You can't run ahead of me.
He says, the kid is 12 years old.
This guy is 30 years.
He keeps running.
He keeps trying to, you can't get ahead of me.
You have to stand behind me.
He says, what is the and by the way, psychologically, he did not want to buy in the fact that even anybody that could beat him.
So they run at the end.
He still tells the kid, you can't run ahead of me.
So he keeps running faster than him.
These are the little quirks of the goats that it's so hard to explain that somebody will write a book and will call you, you know, hypomanic.
You're mentally off.
You're this, you're that.
Yeah.
But the world admires seeing folks who are able to take the game to the levels that you took it to.
I see it like a little bit like an addiction sort of.
It's something that I needed in the past in order to perform in my field of work.
But now I have to let go of these things.
And it's very hard to let go, man.
Like there's little things like that that happen to me.
And people don't notice it because it happened inside of my head, but it's hard, man.
Like, like, like, my some of my friends knows and they play trick with me sometimes.
Like, I'm eating sometimes, and sometimes I notice I like everything lined up in my table.
And my friend, like, let's say I go to the bedroom and I come back, these are good friends.
The configuration of the table, and they all laughing it.
So, when I come, I automatically put it up.
And they're all like, ha ha ha, you know, like stuff like that.
I mean, it's funny, but that's the thing.
I think it's part of my duty now to try to let go of this of this.
Why?
I have to, because if I don't, I will be able to function.
And, like, my life has changed now.
It's not about becoming the best fighter in the world.
Like, I have to blend in with the other people.
You know what I mean?
Otherwise, it could be dimensionable.
But you're only 40 years old.
I mean, you still got 60 more years to live.
I agree, but I think it will not happen overnight.
I need to slowly adapt to this.
And I need to release, release.
I won't be able to release everything from A to Z.
I think it will take time.
So go back, though.
Go back and ask, was there a life event?
I know you've talked about bullying as a kid when you were going through it, but was there a life event that got you to say, I have to be the best at something?
To say, I'm going to be the best at this game.
I'm going to go all the way to the top.
Was there a certain life event?
Was it, I'm doing it for my mom.
I'm doing it for my dad.
You know, some this kid said this.
And I watched a video the other day that's going viral.
I don't know if you guys have seen it or not.
This thing got like a couple hundred million views.
This guy who's a boxer, he's fighting the former bully from high school.
The bully from high school comes into the ring who knows how to fight, but he's fighting the kid he used to bully all the time.
But the kid that he used to bully all the time is now a very good fighter.
So the bully is still trying to bully him.
And this guy's destroying him.
I'm going to give you the video to play it here in a minute.
It's a great video.
I'll find it.
I'll show it to you.
But what was it for you that said, I have to be the best?
Was it something you were born with?
Or did an event in your life say, I'm going to show the world what I'm all about?
It's a hard question to ask.
I think when you care about something, and I'm a very by nature competitive person, and I cared about martial art, I got really inspired by Royce Greasina.
And I think I'm going to try to explain to you how I got inspired by him.
So maybe you will understand how the brain works.
When I was a kid, I was bullied, of course.
And I were bullied as a kid.
Yes, I was.
I was bad bad.
In Montreal, you're saying, growing up.
Yeah, South Shore.
Yeah, I was bullied.
Instead of focusing on what the teacher was explaining in front of the class, I had to focus on how I'm going to get my books from my locker, reach the bus before the kids wait for me.
The older kids, they had a program at the school where I was.
It's called in French, Tejeu.
Basically, it's kids that were older than us that used to redo their grade because they couldn't pass.
So they were like sometimes three, two, three years older than us.
But at the time, when you're a kid, when you're like seven, eight years old, it's a big difference.
Of course.
You have someone who's 10 years old and you're eight or 11.
It's not like you're 25 and 28.
No, you know what I mean?
It's 30% older than you.
Yeah, it's exciting.
Exactly.
It's a huge difference.
So that a lot of issues with this kid.
And at that time, I was, you know, I was, most of my friends were a geek and intellectual people.
And I was like, eight years old, you're saying.
Yeah, there were like kids that were more, you know, like Star Wars.
And, you know, like, I like that stuff, you know, like mathematic.
And I was like that too, but I was very good in sport.
You know, always been like in my among some of my friends, I was the one that was maybe the most athletic guy in my friend.
So, and therefore, I was very often in situation that when there was, they had, we had trouble with these older kids, I was the one stepping in to try to, you know, to fix it.
But unfortunately, it didn't go my way very often.
So, in the street, I have a losing record if I look in my childhood.
But I started martial art as a self-defense.
And so, if I, if I, then the self-defense become quickly a passion because things were not going well for me at home and they were not going well at school either.
The only place where I felt I was valuable, I was, I had value, and I was doing well was in the dojo, the place where I was training.
That was the only place that it was very rewarding for me to be there.
So, it became a passion.
Part of your identity almost?
Yes.
And I learned the discipline there because I grew up with a lot of anger, a lot of negativity.
And at that time, I felt a little bit oppressed.
I didn't realize how lucky I was to be born in a country like Canada with all the opportunity.
I felt like I didn't see the world the same way I was seeing it.
And if I fast forward later, my karate teacher died.
And when I saw Royce Gracie, I saw the first UFC, I was a teenager.
I saw a guy that did not look very intimidating, but he was fighting these other guys that were much, much bigger than him.
They look like bullied to me.
And he looked like the victim.
Yeah, oh, right.
So when I saw him winning the first tournament in the UFC, I saw him do things that I was never able to do at the time.
Like revenge, taking the revenge, defending himself against the bully.
So I believe that's why I got very inspired by what he did.
And right away, I was like, man, this guy is like my hero.
I want to become like him.
I want to be him because I was not able to do that when I was young.
I want to do like what he did.
So I wanted to follow his path.
And right away I told my friend at the time, I said, that's what I want to do.
I was already a black belt in karate.
By what age?
I was around 13 years old.
And this happened when I was 15 years old.
So I told my friends, I said, I want to become UFC champion.
They all start laughing at me.
But by 13, being a black belt, because I did karate as a kid, and I remember they gave, I was like a brown belt by like age 12.
But was I really a brown belt?
Exactly.
That's my question.
Like, were you really a black belt by age 13?
a legit badass or is it kind of the belt is only there to tie up your gear it doesn't The system of belt, it's a reward system.
It's a business thing.
And, you know, in reality, the belt is supposed to be white.
But over the years, because you train so hard over the years, it's become dirty, dirty, dirty.
It becomes black.
You don't have to change the belt like white, yellow, orange, green.
What a constant.
You want it to become natural.
Yes, that's how it should be.
But now they sell these belts because the money.
Now even they put stripe and it to make another belt in between.
It's a business thing.
So I was a brown belt with black stripes.
But I was 12 years old.
Any 18 year old would have kicked the shit out of me.
100%.
But what I mean is, it's not because you're an higher rank belt, that you're more of a badass.
It just means that you might have more knowledge than the lower rank belt.
It doesn't mean you're necessarily a better fighter.
But when you're a kid, you know what I mean?
There's a factor of strength, maturity.
There's a lot of things that plays out, you know?
Can I revisit something we were talking about just right off air?
And it has to do with this concept of being the best, right?
So you said I was obsessed with being the best.
Obsessed, right?
And I come to think of what's the female fighter, Rose Namayunas.
How do you say that?
Rose Namajunas, yeah.
There's this clip of her.
Even Rogan talked about it.
About she's just, she's in the ring saying, I'm the best.
I'm the best.
I'm the best.
Have you seen her do this?
Yes.
She says it, I'm the best.
I'm the best.
You said there wasn't a lot that separated the guy who was number two and you were number one.
Physically.
Yeah.
Right?
There's not a lot that separates the elite athletes physically.
How much does mentally, being mentally prepared, everything you were talking about earlier, what separates the GOAT, the greatest of all time, from all-stars?
I believe it's a lot of factor, but the reason if I think Rose Namajunez was saying, I'm the best, I'm the best.
I think it's called James Lynch theory.
And I'm going to explain to you.
We know that your mind can dictate your body what to do.
If I'm thirsty, I'm saying to myself, I'm thirsty, grab the bottle and drink water.
But the opposite is true too.
My actions can change the vision that I have of myself.
And I use that before every single of my fights.
Because before every fight, I'm terrified.
I'm extremely uncomfortable.
I'm scared.
However, there's a routine that I have in my locker room.
And the day of the fight, my trainers know, my friend knows, I'm putting on a mask.
I'm putting on an act.
They all know I'm scared.
And very often I'm telling them, I was like, shit, what the hell I'm doing here?
And they're laughing because it's the same thing all the time, the same movie that plays all the time.
But I'm playing a role.
So they ask me, even the way I most of before every fight, normally I don't have a good night of sleep because I'm too scared.
I'm running scenarios in my mind.
And they always ask me, how fresh do you feel today?
I'm always like, I feel great, man.
I'm ready to kick ass.
It's going to be a good day.
And I'm playing that role of a kind of a superhero who's not afraid, who's excited to find out how he's going to win the whole day until I meet, until it's time to take my walk to the octagon.
And I have a routine that I do.
When the UFC guys come and I'm come to get me before I walk, he goes, Say, Pierre, he kicked the door.
He goes, Say Pierre, are you up next?
Are you ready?
I'm like, yes.
One minute, sir.
I go in the bathroom and I go in the bathroom to look myself in the mirror.
And normally, before I used to have a gi, I was putting my gi map as I was doing this.
But I'm telling myself all the reasons why I think I will win the fight.
Even if it's not true, because I don't know what the other guys do.
Even if it's not true, as long as I believe it, it will transform the way I see myself and will make me more confident.
So I'm telling myself that I train harder than him.
I put more time than he did.
I have better trainers.
I have better training partners.
I flew in all these killers and training camp to try to test me and I got through like a champion.
You know what I mean?
There's no way I'm going to lose this fight.
I'm faster.
I have a better IQ fighting IQ than he does.
I'm stronger for whatever the reason is.
And then for one minute, I tell him all this as I'm looking down and I'm putting on an act.
And when I get out of the bathroom, I'm not the same person that I was when I got in.
It's showtime.
And now I'm on a different.
It's powerful.
I'm on what I call cruise control.
So that's what it is about.
You know what I mean?
You need to transform yourself psychologically.
That's how I, that's that's what I did.
So, when Rose is, I'm the best, I'm the best, that's why I think she does.
She's trying to transform herself, telling that repeatedly in order to start believing it.
You know, who used to say that a lot, Diego Sanchez used to be like, Yes, yes.
I don't know if you remember Diego, he was fun to watch, man.
There was something unique about watching that guy.
He had a good streak at one point, and you know why?
Because in fighting, and I think in everything in life, when you want to achieve something that is difficult, you need to go all in.
It's confidence is a very, very important thing.
That's why you see some guys that are good in the gym, but when they get in when the light comes up, they can pull the trigger.
Confidence for me, if I can make an analogy, is like let's say you have someone that have all the skills in the world, but no confidence.
It's like someone who has a lot, for example, a lot of money in his bank account, but no way to access his bank account.
So, it's useless.
So, when you have the confidence and the skills, now the magic can happen.
By the way, I want to show this video.
You were saying something about your coach.
You're like, man, I'm just scared.
All this stuff.
Have you seen the video, the scene?
We're not going to show that one.
There's a scene with you.
You're telling your coach, it's my groin.
I pull my groin, and the coach tells you, I don't care.
My adductor muscle.
I don't care.
Hit him with your groin.
Hit him with your groin.
Do you know that?
That's what his coach told him.
Yeah, he stays in the corner.
You're saying this, and the coach is like, hit him with the groin.
Are we able to watch it?
No, I want to show you this other fight about this bully.
So check this out.
So that guy to the right, he's talking to you.
You got to listen to the audio.
Turn on the audio and rewind it a little bit.
Who's the bully?
So the bully is the guy in the black shirt.
But you got to hear the audio.
You'll never beat me again.
Listen.
Watch what happens.
The guy in the black shirt is a bully in high school.
The other guy knows what he's doing.
watch you see the difference in skills It's not even close.
But you know what, guys?
I'm going to tell you the truth.
I mean, most people, they might glorify this.
Me, I don't like.
I don't like to see this.
Oh, let me tell you the part.
Yeah, the part that makes me feel uncomfortable about this.
I do not like this because I happen to be in a similar situation.
Yeah.
The bully is a bully because maybe that's the only way you learn how to communicate.
Maybe you don't know.
And I've changed my mind.
I changed my mind over that because I remember growing up, I wanted to one day take my revenge and beat up the people who bully me.
But it's a true story.
I'm going to tell you.
One day I was driving.
They used, I'll go back.
It will be easier to explain.
When I was one of the guys that used to beat me up, it was on the bus.
He was beat me up in the bus very often.
And not only beat me up, it was very painful mentally for me because he was humiliating me.
He was like telling me, shouting me names and stuff like that.
Condescending comments.
Yes, in front of everybody, because the cool guy were sitting in the back and the guy were not that cool were in the front.
I was on the front, he was in the back.
So when he was shouting stuff at me, everybody could hear.
And I was on the spot.
It was very humiliating.
And something was hurting me.
One day I came back from school with a black guy and my dad took me.
He said, now you're going to tell me what happened.
I never, I never snitched nobody.
But one time I did, I said, yeah, there's a guy in the bus.
I can't say his name.
He said, he beat me up in the bus.
And I'm from a small town.
Everybody knows everybody.
So my dad did the unthinkable.
He found out where the kids live.
Went to see the dad.
He knocked at the door.
When the door opened, my dad told me the story.
He said when the door opened, he could see that the dad answered the door, but he saw it was a bad atmosphere.
The dad was drunk, smelled alcohol, and he could see right away that the kid probably grew up with his dad, no mother.
And probably the way that he learned how to communicate was from his dad.
So I was just a collateral damage.
You know what I mean?
But at the time I was younger, I didn't realize that it's later.
I become more mature.
And when he told me that, I remember he was telling me that.
So he told me, he told me that he talked to the dad and he's going to stop bullying me.
But the day after I go in the bus, what do you think happened?
Oh, you went to snitch to your father.
Now I had to fight him again.
I got beat up again and I got humiliated again.
So it didn't do any good to me.
Fast forward a few years after, I'm driving my car on Saint-Laurent Boulevard on Saint-Laurent corner, Sherbrooke.
There's a guy begging for money.
Like they wash your window, you know.
I look, it's him.
No way.
The guy that used to bully me used to bully me.
So I look at him and he look at me and he saw me and I know he knew who I become.
So I go, I go like this.
I park my car on the side and I'm walking and I could see by his body language.
He was like, shit, I don't know what to do.
He felt like he looked like someone who was very scared.
So I look, I say, I tell his name, I say, what are you doing here, man?
He said, oh, things does not go well for me.
I was like, I need help.
I give him the money I had in my pocket.
I said, listen, when I was young, man, everybody wanted to be like you.
You were like the cool guy.
You were taller than everybody.
You have a lot of potential.
So what the hell?
Where is your pride?
How come you end up here?
He's like, I know things does not go well.
So I said, get out of here, man.
I don't want to see you there.
You know what I mean?
So I got back in my car and I laughed.
And this made me feel much better than if I would have beat him up.
Yes.
Because you know what I mean?
I wouldn't not want to.
If I wanted to, I could have kicked his ass.
But why?
Why?
There's a difference, though.
There's one difference, though, with this story that I see.
Because I'm fully with you.
You know, on the story you said, because, you know, you see certain friends that are bullying you when you were small and you're like, you know, oh, you ain't going to do shit.
All these dreams.
You keep dreaming.
You ain't going to do nothing.
So, but he stayed.
He was down when you met him the second time around.
Yeah.
The last time around.
This guy still coming acting like a bully and he's being reminded.
So the level of this sometimes in life, because what's the alternative?
Get bullied again your entire life?
Because that's a very emotional thing, you know, very emotional.
And bullying comes in different ways.
One is the fighting.
One is words.
One is status.
One is family.
I came from a divorced family and I'm Armenian, Middle Eastern.
Nobody was getting a divorce.
Who you know, you ain't gonna do shit.
So I joined the army.
I had the freaking same attitude as well.
And then some of those guys came back who were bullying and you're sitting down to them.
What victory do I have to show how much more successful I am?
There's no reason.
So what you did, that story, it's such a freaking emotional story right there.
When you tell a story, what was his reaction by the way?
What happened to that guy afterwards?
Because that's the part of it.
He came to my parent where my parents live.
After a few months, he wanted to talk to me.
I'm from a small town.
He knew where I live.
But my parents said, George does not live here anymore for it's been a long time.
So he goes, hey, can you tell him I found a job now?
Things go well.
There's a bad ending to the story.
And I remember I told on Joe Rogan at the time, but there's a bad ending.
I went a few years after on another street corner and I see him again.
And I turned my window.
I was like, I tell him, I was like, what the hell?
He goes, oh, things didn't go well.
I'm like, shoot, he's back in.
But what I don't like is the fact that sometimes the bully, I think it's ignorance.
You know what I mean?
It's their ignorance of ignorance in a way that they don't know how painful it is.
They don't know how damageable it is what they're doing.
You know, like this guy over there, he still acts like a bully, but I think he's kind of an ignorant guy.
He doesn't understand.
And the other guy, I think, should be the better man.
You know, I'm not saying let him bully you, but just do with the necessary force what you need to do to make him understand.
You don't have to humiliate him.
By the way, the story, the bus, the bully, the street corner, like, wow, ridiculous.
I'm getting, you know, the goosebumps.
But let's say you did kick the crap out of him.
Yeah.
Let's say you did.
Do you think that would have had a better effect?
Because you said you saw him a few years later right at the street corner.
It was too late.
I'm sure he does not bully young kid anymore.
I'm sure he doesn't.
No, but it sounds like he's bullying his own life.
It sounds like he needed some sort of ass whooping, mental clarity to change, right?
Because something needs to happen for you to change.
Like this guy, we don't know his story, but at the end of the day, when he gets the crap kicked out of him by the guy he used to bully, something's going to change.
Clearly.
You know, there's a guy that said, the teacher gets up there who's teaching philosophy or something, and he says, hey, I'm going to prove to you guys that God doesn't exist.
Watch this.
Hey, if there's really a God out there, you know, I want somebody to come and prove to me that there's a God out there in front of the, you know, he's saying this in front of students.
Anyways, I'm probably paraphrasing and telling a couple the story that details not accurate.
One guy gets up there and punches him in the face, a student.
The teacher.
Yes, punches the teacher in the face.
He says, what the hell was that all about?
He says, I'm a Marine and I wanted to prove to you that God exists.
He told me to come and punch you in the face.
So the teacher's like, you're out of your mind.
He says, no, listen, God told me to come and punch you in the face.
He exists, right?
I think sometimes all of us act cocky, every one of us.
And sometimes we need to be humbled, you know?
And I think it happens to all of us.
And quite frankly, I'm grateful for the people who humbled me.
So if somebody wouldn't have humbled me, so to me, I like what this guy is doing because we all need to be humbled at some point of the game.
As weird as it sounds, you know, it's funny.
I'm listening to you and you're talking about the fact that you know this whole situation, right?
It's like, you know, this thing, this whole situation, you know, how this is structured, all the OCD stuff, right?
There's a great book for that, by the way.
Two books.
One of them is called Hypomanic Edge.
The other one's called First Rate Madness.
Absolutely incredible that says why the crazies run the world because they see world in a different lens.
A German philosopher once said, if a lion could speak, we could not understand him because lions speak a different language, right?
Now, here's a challenge, and I want you to push back.
I'm going to give it to you.
Disagree with me if you follow like, I don't agree.
Here's why.
Okay.
So I won an interview with Mike Ditka.
Okay.
You know Mike Ditka?
Mike Ditka is one of the best.
He was a coach of the Chicago Bears.
He's big time.
American football.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I got a picture of time.
So I go interview Mike Ditka and I'm sitting with him and this guy was the guy that would call you out.
He was talking about he was like a child.
He was a fighter.
He was like, you know, he was a man.
Truly a man's man.
I'm sitting there and I'm interviewing with him and he starts becoming apologetic about how tough he was on people.
And I'm like, man, I don't know why I don't want to hear that.
Then I watch a story of Vince Lombardi, a documentary.
If you don't know who Vince Lombardi is, Vince Lombardi, some of them call him the greatest coach of all time.
Green Bay Packer.
Green Bay Pack time play.
When you win the Super Bowl in America, they give you a trophy that's called the Lombardi Trophy.
So because of him, right?
So there's a documentary.
I don't know if you've seen it.
You got to watch this, bro.
It's pretty sick.
So his wife would say, you know, we would put events all the time, and then he would come and entertain whatever.
I just got the chills all over my body.
He says, then all of a sudden he would step away and he would go to his room and he would start crying.
Lombardi.
Lombardi would cry.
You can't picture a guy like this.
Why are you crying?
He says, because I feel like I was a little too tough on my guys.
I was a little too tough on my players.
I was a little too tough on my, I shouldn't have been that tough.
And he's only reliving all the people he was tough on, right?
And then they go and interview the players.
And the player's like, shit, we're grateful because if it wasn't for a guy that had these types of expectations, we wouldn't be who we are today.
So, you know, I feel like sometimes when that killer instinct goes, you know, maybe you're right.
We're living at a different phase where it's no longer necessary to have that killer instinct.
But if I have a kid that wants to make it at the highest level in any realm that he's playing, I think during that time when he's playing, there's got to be an element of madness.
When you watch Man in the Arena with Brady or you watch Michael Jordan, The Last Dance, you watch some of these guys, you're like, dude, these guys are off.
And I feel like you have to be off to compete at that level.
So do you think for you to be at the point that you're at, it's because you're no longer competitively doing something that there's a vision to be the greatest in that space.
So because of that, you have to kind of leave that to the past.
And there's a new chapter coming up.
I think it's meant.
It's definitely more mental than physical.
Physically, I might not have been as good as I used to be, but I'm sure if I would have the same mental that I used to with the same drive, I could have go back and be very competitive and maybe be champion again.
I don't know.
Maybe yes, maybe no.
But I think, like you said, you need to be different.
And you talk about the past.
My old Karate teacher that I told you that introduced me to Karate.
My dad died.
Yeah.
My dad introduced me first, but he was working too much.
The way he taught me, man, he couldn't.
Teacher, Karate instructor cannot teach the kids the same way they used to taught me because they would go in jail.
They would go in jail.
But you know why?
You know what?
I'm very happy that he taught me that way because that's what I needed.
That's exactly what you said.
And I agree with what you just said.
I needed this.
It was a different era.
It was different.
My dad, the way my dad raised me, I cannot, I would never be able to raise kids like this.
I'll go in jail.
You know what I mean?
Now it's crazy.
You know what I mean?
You have kids, Juice?
No, no.
No kids yet.
No, it's crazy.
I'll go in jail.
You know what I mean?
It's a different time, different era.
You know what I mean?
It's just...
Pat, you're a father.
Four kids.
Yeah.
You hear what he's saying.
Your father was probably the biggest impact on your life.
No doubt.
We talked about that openly, vocally.
He was tough on you.
Not physically, though.
No.
Never hit me.
But the way that he interacted with you.
There's a lot of truth to what he's saying.
We even talked about it with the tennis coach, Rick Macy, about how tough he was with.
He was the coach for Venus and Serena Williams, greatest tennis famous television.
Nick Boliteri was probably much tougher than.
Boliteri as well.
Okay.
But you talked about the effect on kids today.
As a father, you're hearing this.
How are you digesting and processing what he says as a father, tougher back in the day versus what you're saying?
My dad and I had a conversation and he's talking about, you know, it's my fault.
It's my fault.
There was this moment that he and I had.
I'm like, dude, dad, stop.
I said, whatever way you raised me, you did the right thing.
And I'm glad for it.
I'm telling you, I would tell you if you screwed up, my dad was freaking like he expected this.
I'm like, dude, I'm so glad you were the way you were because I wouldn't be the way I am.
I think the challenge here is the person that's the coach who second guesses themselves, the person who makes it at the level he makes it, who second guesses themselves.
Like, you know, maybe it was too much.
Maybe it was this.
Maybe it was that.
No, bro.
You would have never made it at that level if you didn't freaking the mental torture a peak performer goes through to get there.
I mean, you know, some people are like, well, you know, the other day, Brandon Schaub and Joe were talking about it.
They're nice enough to say a few good words, but they were talking about the fact that, hey, on the podcast, they talk about levels to athletes, right?
Okay.
So let's just say, like, oh, you make in the top 10%.
Okay.
There's a very big difference between being the top 10%, anything versus top 1%.
So you make in the top 1%.
Oh, very different sacrifices and way of thinking to go from top 1% to 0.1%.
Then the 0.1%, there is the 0.0%.
So there's always levels, but to keep going to that next level, if people knew what it took to get there, 99.999999% of the people wouldn't do the work to get there because nothing is guaranteed.
That's the battle.
And, you know, like sales, I'll bring young sales guys.
It's a lot easier to get younger sales guys to give the best and work harder because they're thinking they have a shot at one day making XYZ.
But bring in a 50-year-old person and try to tell them.
The 50-year-old person goes and they're processing everything more logically.
They're like, yeah, I remember when I got my, in their mind, they're telling this.
No, I remember when I was 20, I got my real estate license and I gave five years and I worked so hard, nothing happened.
I lost that girl.
Yeah, I remember when I was 39 years old, I started that little restaurant and I put 300,000 and didn't work.
You can't convince that guy to pay the price at 52 years old because he knows too much.
Sometimes knowing too much will prevent you from giving your best for anything.
Old dogs, new tricks.
You know what I'm saying?
So almost not knowing and being oblivious is a freaking gift.
You say they say sometimes young, dumb is better than being like older and wiser.
It's true.
It's true.
You're not aware of the nature of the risk.
To Pat's point, this mental, this process that you're going through a process.
I went through this.
I don't know if you went through this because you matured a little bit before my, but turning 40, right?
You have a birthday coming up.
You're going to be 41.
You retired how many years ago?
It's about five years.
Okay.
How much did the number 40 affect you?
You're laughing.
40 was on my mind.
I was like, holy shit, 40.
Because you've been great for two decades now since you were.
I mean, when did you really reach the pinnacle?
Age 21?
I don't know what it was.
I'm not sure.
I think that you're the prime.
Talk about performance in sport.
I think it's hard to say because sometimes you have the physicality and the knowledge, you know, and your knowledge will always increase, but your physicality is point.
You know what I mean?
When the peak meets.
But you retired at age 35.
37.
37.
36, 36.
Okay, 36.
Yeah, yeah.
But looking forward, you saw that number 40 and you said quite clearly, I want the best to be behind me.
I don't want to, you know, retire too late.
What did the concept of turning 40 do for you?
I think it's just sometimes you physically and mentally, like physically, I feel like I don't recuperate as well as I used to.
Some little injury, sometimes that you feel that you didn't feel before.
Mentally, it's just a number.
I guess it's just a number.
And I think as time goes by, they keep pushing back the age, you know, of when you should retire.
You know what I mean?
I remember it was an era that when you reach 30, you're like, oh, you're pretty much, you're at the end of it.
But now in combat sport, especially when you're 30 years old, normally you're in your prime right now, you know, 30 years old.
I got a different kind of a question for you with that age thing.
So even today, so in your mind, you're a pretty logical, reasonable guy, but you're also a pretty confident guy.
You've got a good balance of both.
You don't lack confidence and ego and you don't lack logic and being able to reason.
Today, say you said, I'm going to go train and I'm going to go bring the coaches and I'm going to do real training.
Like, you know how you go ask certain people like, hey, did Masvedal really train this for going up against this?
Yeah, he did.
He was really, oh, does this for a journey?
That guy really wasn't training.
No, shit, he lost.
Why didn't he only do one week of training?
You kind of processed that, right?
Say you go and three to six months, you're fully prepared to fight, okay?
And say there is a fight with you against Connor or against Khabib, those two names.
If a fight was with you against Connor at their age today, and say Khabib agreed and said he wants to come back, we know it's not going to happen.
He said he's not going to do it because when his father died, he promised his mom that he's not going to come back.
And you're saying 100% you're not going to do it even for $30 million.
You say you will do it for $100 million, right?
No, for no, no, no, no, any idea.
But if it did and you did train, we know it's not going to happen.
But if it did, do you think you could beat a Connor or a Khabib today if you did go six months training and they did as well?
Well, if I have the motivation to do it, yeah, I believe so.
Even at this age, you think you can beat Connor if you do it?
If I have the motivation to go to another thing.
And you don't want to do it.
No, I don't want to do it.
I don't want to heart.
I don't want to have the motivation of doing it.
And you were kind of tying in the age factor with the motivation.
You don't think it's the age still.
It's not the fight, guys.
I don't want to take two months of my life doing this.
I just don't want to put me through the stress, through the grind of doing this.
Do you want to be in the hunt for another thing in your life again?
Or are you done being in that?
Oh, yeah.
What are you in the hunt for?
Like, hunt at that level of a hunt.
As a human being, and I'm sure you guys is the same for you.
The key for me is to be happy, is to reach the, to be the person that I want to be.
And I remember when I was a kid, I was looking at myself in the mirror and I did not like what I used to see.
I hate it.
I didn't like myself.
And I was a kid at the time.
I was bullied.
I was a kid who lacked a lot of self-confidence.
I didn't add a good image of myself.
And I remember that I had a vision and I had a vision of who I wanted to become.
I'm not talking about champion and physical.
I'm talking about mental, like as a person.
And I fall in love with that image that I want to become.
So that's what helps me to go through my day at the time when it was hard for me at the time because I didn't have the knowledge that I have now.
And I'm still not that person, that perfect ideal person that I want to become.
I'm better than I was, but I'm still lacking a lot of things.
For example, I'm not a very patient person.
I'm more patient than I used to be, but I'm not, you know, things like this, that the idea person that I visualized when I was a kid and it changed over the year.
I'm still not there.
I still, you know, I want to become that person.
I'm still working towards it.
And I'm not talking about championship and stuff like that.
This just helped me to become more confident, changing.
It's bigger than fighting.
Yes, exactly.
It's better to be able to do it.
Just be the human, the person.
Yeah, now I'm more of an entrepreneur.
I'm more, you know, it's different.
My life has changed, but it molded me to become a different person.
And I'm still not there yet.
I'm still working to become that person.
But are you in a hunt for something outside of that?
I mean, I understand because even in life, one can be in the hunt for what you're doing.
Like, I, as a man, I am in the hunt to really be curious to know what the 50-year-old PBD is going to be.
I'm 43, right?
I can't wait to meet my 50-year-old Patrick with David.
I want to see what I'm going to be like.
I'm so excited to meet that guy.
I'm patient.
The next seven years, it can go as slow as possible.
I'm cool with it.
But I'm excited about it, right?
I'm looking forward to it because I want to see what next development I'm going to have as I recreate myself.
But I'm talking about outside of that, you know, are you in the hunt for something, a sport, a business?
Like, Khabib is doing what he's doing.
Eddie Hearn and Jake Paul are sitting there.
Eddie's telling Jake, you're an average boxer at best, but that's still a compliment.
And Jake, so they're in the hunt for something.
You know, Dana's in the hunt for something.
Joe is in the hunt for something.
He's on a podcast game and he's doing what he's doing right.
Everybody's in the hunt for something.
What are you in the hunt for right now?
I believe I'm in the hunt to first to be healthy.
This thing is the most.
I think to be in order to be happy, one of the most important things is to be to be healthy, to be loved, to be the love, the health, I think it's part of happiness.
And freedom, we're never 100% free.
We always have responsibility.
And for me, I use fighting as a benchmark to have more freedom, to be able to do what I do.
And I'm still not satisfied yet.
You know what I mean?
I'm still working to be more free, to have more.
And when I say freedom, it's not necessarily money.
Money helps you to be free because you can buy things and sometimes you can have a better lifestyle, you know, a quality of life through it.
But that's not the only thing that makes you happy.
You know what I mean?
And I think that's what it is.
And I have knowledge that I have now that I'm glad that I have, but I wish I would have had before.
You know what I mean?
Stuff that I've learned that changed my life.
Man, there's so much stuff.
I wish I would have.
Do you know what I'm asking, though?
Do you know what I'm asking?
You know what I'm asking?
Do you know what I'm asking?
Like, here's what I'm asking.
Like, I'm asking, is there a space, not personal, not like enlightenment, which is we're all searching enlightenment because we want to get a little bit more clarity in life or freedom making more money.
But are you, because again, you're 41 and you're very young, right?
Are you in the hunt to give your best to, like, for example, are we going to see a GSP podcast coming out and that's what you're going to do for the next few years because you want to build a podcast and you want to go out?
Is it going to be, you know what?
I like what Dana is doing.
I feel like I can give back to the UFC world by doing XYZ.
I feel like I can go out there and do, build one of the best training facilities where young fighters come and I shape their mindset and I develop one of the best schools around the world to teach trainers, to teach fighters how to really fight.
What's that next thing with you?
For me, I think it would be to pass down my knowledge, you know, knowledge that I acquire over the years in order to help the next generation to get better, to surpass the present generation.
And I think it's Einstein.
He says, if I can see further than my predecessor, it's because I'm standing on the shoulder of giant.
And I think it's true in sport as well.
I think what I can do to help the next generation is, in a way, for me, I'm working now on a project with doing instructional video.
That's one thing I'm going to do.
And I'm going to be able to teach my knowledge to certain people that it will help them to not make the same mistake that I did.
So they have a head start already.
So that's why when you talk about, for example, sport and performance and business, anything.
Why performance get better?
It's not because the guy is better.
It's because they have a head start.
They learn from their predecessors.
And I think it's the same thing in everything.
And I think it's my duty in order to try to help make the world better to pass down that knowledge.
Who do you think?
How I am able to, sometimes I mentally, a lot of guys after they retire, they become kind of depressed because they don't have that high.
How I overcome that.
I use fasting and cold water immersion to this.
And people are like, ah, it's kind of stupid, but it's not stupid in a way.
Can explain?
Sometimes in life, some people like they feel depressed or they have some problems.
Everybody has problems.
Even if you don't have that much of a problem, you might feel like you have a lot of problem.
But one thing that helps me with fasting and cold water immersion is these, I put myself voluntary into that stress.
When you haven't eaten for a certain amount of days, and if you try that, ask your doctor first.
For me, it helped me mentally.
It's very therapeutic because when you haven't eaten for a certain amount of days, it's a very basic thing that you're fighting.
You're fighting against starvation.
You know what I mean?
So all your problems, like all your little problems will go away and focus only on the problem that you're fighting of starvation.
So it's not the fasting that will help you, that will be therapeutic for you.
It's when you break the fast, when you eat, it will make you appreciate life and how it will make you realize how insignificant those little problems that you have are.
Same thing when you're in a cold water immersion, you're fighting hypothermia.
I think it's a little ironic as you're talking about starvation and Pat had to have a little bite of food right there.
Yeah, but if you believe he will achieve.
And I'm really glad that you kind of revisited the conversation because you said, what's the next step with you, GSP?
And he said, well, you know, I want to be healthy.
And you're like, no, but like, what do you really want?
And the answer that you gave was, you want a coach.
You want to help the youth.
That coach, I don't have, I don't think I have the patient to be a good coach, to be one-on-one, a good coach.
Yeah.
Pass down.
Pass down wisdom.
Yes.
Nowadays, I remember when I wanted to learn jiu-jitsu, I need to physically attempt a class of jiu-jitsu.
That's what that's what it was in my days when I first started.
Nowadays, a kid can take a cell phone.
Oh, you want to learn an umbrella?
You want to learn an umbrella?
Oh, he look online.
You know, that's how that's why I guys.
Who do you think is doing it?
Right.
Meaning, by the way, did you see the breaking news?
Did you see what just happened right now?
If you want to pull this up, crazy because everybody's asking what your thoughts are on this.
MMA World React, Charles O'Reilly, misses Wait, being stripped of UFC title.
No way.
Yeah, this just literally happened 20 minutes ago.
Go down to read the article, go a little lower so we can read the whole thing, make it a little bit bigger.
Charles Oliver is no longer UFC, lightweight champion after losing a battle with the scale.
Dew Bronx failed to make championship weight for scheduled fight, UFC 130, 230.74.
Many men title against Justin Gaby, Gage, coming in 155.5 on two separate attempts, half a pound over the limit, just a freaking half a pound.
Shortly after the second attempt, it was announced that the lightweight title is vacated and only Gage is eligible to win Saturday.
Wow.
This is not the first time Oliveira has had a difficulty at scale, though.
His previous misses came when he was competing at a featherweight.
155 pounds.
He has won 10 straight fights.
I'd like to capture the UFC Title TKO.
How disappointing is this to lose it this way?
Yeah, but it is disappointing, but we don't know the whole story.
That's just Danny.
What do you mean by that?
What else could be?
Well, maybe he got sick.
Maybe he got food poisoned.
You know what I mean?
There's a lot of X factor.
Sometimes we're tempt to judge something when we see the headline, but we don't know that.
I think it's sometimes we don't know the whole story.
It could be just a lot.
I don't think it's a lack of professionalism.
It could be, but I have to wait to have more data on what happened.
I'm under the impression that, yeah, it sucks.
Especially if you're Justin Gage, your opponent doesn't make weight.
It's not fair.
But I think in this situation might be more damageable for Oliveira because that's meaning if he missed weight, that's mean he tried to really make weight.
He pushed himself to the limit of dehydritation.
So maybe his body will be more messed up, especially if it goes a few more rounds that it should be.
You know what I mean?
If the fight goes longer, it might have a very negative effect on his performance.
By the way, what was the who if you, if everybody, if both of them made their weight, who did you have winning this fight?
I think it was very close.
I think I would have gone with Gachi.
You would have gone to K.
Yeah, I go against the odds.
I think so.
I know Justin Gage a little bit, so I'm biased a little bit.
But the reason why is recently Oliveira tend to have changed a little bit of his style of fighting.
He seems to fall in love a lot with his striking.
You know what I mean?
And he's a great striker, but almost got Kyle Chandler.
Yes, exactly.
But that's why.
So I think his main chance of winning the fight, the smartest way to win that fight against Gache would be to take Gacey out of his comfort zone.
And if he does that, it's goodbye.
It's finished.
But I think I'm under the impression that sometimes he gets caught in these emotions that he wants to trade, you know, a strike for strike.
You know, I don't know if it's for the fans or if he just forgot his game plan.
He did that last few recent fights.
And I'm under the impression that if he does that with Justin Gage, it's a bad idea.
It's like flipping a coin.
You don't want to make the fight a coin toss.
You know what I mean?
Especially if you know there's a specific area that you can beat your opponent.
You want to go there.
You don't want to make the fight.
Let me ask you, what does Dana White do now?
What does he do last minute?
I mean, this is a tough place to be because he can't replace that fight.
It's done, right?
That fight is off.
So the main fight becomes Chandler Ferguson.
Is that what happens?
Is the next card just comes up?
Meaning, does the next fight just come up as a main fight?
No, no, I think that the it's I think it stays the same as just the fight won't if if uh Oliver Olive Row wins, it won't be he won't fight still gonna happen.
I think so.
I think so.
Normally what they do is they keep the fight, but if Oliveirau win, he's not winning the belt, even if he's still champion, the belt is out now because he didn't make weight.
But Justin also doesn't get the belt.
No, Justin do get the belt if he wins.
He has the belt.
Yes, he do.
No, no, but if Charles win, if Charles wins, he doesn't get the belt, but Justin also doesn't get the belt.
No, Justin, if Justin wins, he will become champion.
I get it, but if Charles wins, Justin doesn't become the champion.
The belt is out that Charles doesn't have it.
No, no, nobody is champion.
It's vacant.
It's called vacant.
Yeah.
Wow.
So it's a big punishment, but it's, you know, a half a pound.
Yeah, half a pound.
And also, depending where you fight, normally there's a certain percentage of your purse, of your show purse, because normally most fighters, they get paid for showing, for just show up and for the win.
So for your show purse normally, which is not all the time, but depending what is your contract could be like half of your purse goes like maybe not half, but like maybe 30 percent of half of your purse goes to your.
This is going to be such a layman's question, but I feel bad for the guy.
Half a pound.
Like, that sucks.
I feel bad for any athlete.
Do you feel bad for the guy?
No, I do not feel bad for the guy.
It's your duty, your responsibility to be on the weight, to be on the dot.
Sometimes, though, there's things that you don't control.
Maybe the scale that he was using is messed up.
Half a pound.
Maybe he got sick that week and he decided to, you know, for extreme shit, I'm still taking the fight.
You know, we all have done it in the past.
You know what I mean?
You don't feel bad for this guy.
I don't feel bad, but until we have more data on the situation, we'll see more who is to blame.
Fair enough.
What's the reaction been?
Is Twitter reacting to this or no?
Like, have you seen what folks are saying?
Justin said.
What did he say?
Let me see.
Poor Bastard still cutting.
I'm back at 65 while he's dying.
He better make it.
He has five minutes.
He'd already put on 10 pounds after he made weight.
Justin did.
He'd already gained 10 pounds.
Let's see what Justin looks like.
He already put on 10 pounds.
It's interesting to see.
Connor McGregor is benefiting, man.
Wow.
This is.
It'll be interesting to see what happens.
I think because this was one a lot of people were looking forward to.
In the Ferguson fight with Chandra, who do you think is going to take down one?
Shoot.
I don't know who will take it, but I can tell you, statistically speaking, I believe if it's a short fight, if it finishes in the first round, it's because of Chandler.
But if it goes past the first, maybe second round, it's going to be Ferguson, I believe.
I don't know a lot of fights I've seen with Chandra where I don't appreciate the first round.
Yeah, it's him.
He almost took everybody off.
So explosive, but Ferguson is so tough.
Man, he let his arm broke against Oliveiro.
It's crazy.
Sometimes it's hard to watch, man.
Man, I just hope sometime, I mean, I just hope on the human side that nobody gets hurt badly and the best man win.
You know what I mean?
When you say it's hard to watch, that particular fight or UFC fights in general?
No, no, no.
That particular fight, I remember Ferguson, when he fought Oliveiro, he let his arm broke.
I'm like, man, it was hard to watch.
He was completely hyperextended.
You saw the joint bending on the other side.
I mean, it's hard to watch for me.
I mean, for me, the way I see it, it's a sport and we all do that to make a living.
And it's hard to watch when you see guys that get punished very hard after they, you know, they go back to their lives or whatever.
You still enjoy watching?
Families.
Oh, yeah, I watch it, but I don't watch all the fights.
I watch only the guy.
Who do you enjoy watching?
This card, it's amazing.
It's going to be very stacked.
I loved it.
I like Khabibi's retirement, but I like Wokanofsky.
I like Olivero.
I like Kamaru Usman.
All the champion, Francis and Ganu, Semil Gann, all the guys.
Do you like watching Connor Fight when he was?
Oh, yeah, I love it.
I love Connor because he brings a certain element of emotion to it that nobody really is able to do at that same level.
Do you think he'll be a champion?
You think he'll get back to the top again?
He could, but it's going to be hard, man.
I mean, he's on a losing street now.
I mean, he lost his last three fights.
He can definitely do it if he, but I think, you know, it's hard to go to the buffet when you already eat before.
Let me just kind of put things in perspective.
Let me just put you things in perspective.
Your career earnings, UFC, I just searched at $7 million.
Is that about right?
Career earnings.
Not sponsorships outside.
No, no, but I did a lot more.
What did UFC pay?
I did a lot more.
The thing is that people don't know is we have a show purse.
Like the way my contract was, I had a show purse, add a winning purse.
But I will also, when I used to fight back in the day, I had a percentage of the pay-per-view buys.
Oh, no shit.
Yeah, of course.
It was part of my contract.
Nowadays, I think it's different because the UFCs, I think, give that right to ESPN.
And I don't know for how long it is.
So the fighters, it's sad because a lot of them, they don't have as much power.
So you made more money back in the days than today?
I think because of the infrastructure of how it was made, I think the fighters had more power before.
So I'm very lucky to have been competing during that era of time.
You know, Connor McGregor obviously is the one that I think made the biggest earning in the sport because he touched the pay-per-views.
I think I don't have the statistic in front of me, but I know like Ronda Rousey is there too.
She was amazing.
She made great for herself in terms of gain.
I think Brock Lesnar is there, could be.
But you know what I mean?
I'm just very feel very fortunate to have competed during that era of time.
If I would have done it during Rice Gracie, Mark Coleman, it was terrible.
They were underpaid, like so bad.
And if it's now, now the problem is they have power, but they don't have as much power as we used to have when we could touch a piece of the pie.
You know what I mean?
Some fighter does, but I don't think they have as much leverage in negotiation.
It's kind of sad.
Do you think, like, if you look at what's evolved within the UFC world, PD's always been a topic of discussion.
People will throw on left and right.
Was it more of a topic of discussion early on the early, early days?
So you kind of got away with it back in the then?
Was it more in the 2000s?
It was a topic of discussion all the time.
But the thing is, it was so much in your face that for me, it was an insult.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's still a problem.
We're not going to lie.
There's still a problem.
There's still, you know, there's still a problem.
There was always B, but it's much better now.
Now they're testing the fighters.
But there are still ways that you can cheat.
It's kind of easy in a way to cheat in a way.
You know what I mean?
We all have a card that we fill up that it's called a whereabout.
You tell them where you are, and every time you can lie on that whereabout.
You can't or you can't.
No, no, you can't.
You can lie.
And if they show up to test you, they say they got to ring you and say, hey, we're there to test you.
Where are you?
You know what I mean?
And you can, you know what I mean?
You just have to don't.
I think it's two or three strikes you can have.
So, you know what I mean?
The guys that do use performance enhancing drugs, they have ways of, you know, the system also could be corrupted sometime.
You know what I mean?
When there is money involved, there is always corruption a little bit.
So it's much better than it used to be, but it's not perfect, but it's much better.
They did a good job.
Well, the concept of fighter pay is something we've been discussing pretty openly.
We had Francis Nagano right here.
You've interviewed Dustin Poirier.
We've had Sugar Rashad Evans in here.
You've been on Rogan.
We've had these discussions on fighter pay.
You've broke down the EBITDA of what UFC is.
But you're saying that fighter pay today could be better?
Or what are your thoughts on that?
Oh, yeah, it could be better 100%.
It could be better.
It could always be better.
We are like, I feel the baseball player or hockey player.
I know hockey because I'm from Canada.
In the days that they were underpaid, before they had the union to protect them.
It's the same thing in fighting.
One day there will be a union to protect fighters.
It has to be.
It doesn't make sense.
Very interesting concept right there because there's the NFLPA, there's the NBA, they've got their union, the baseball.
Why is there no union in the UFC fighting?
Well, everybody wants to be in control.
And I think when there's money, there's always conflict and stuff.
That's why there have been some organizations that have tried to do it, but it was conflicting with others.
And that's very unfortunate.
But the reason of why they want to do it, it's great.
It's a great reason.
It's a very good one.
I think it will happen one day, 100%.
And very often, it's funny.
I have some of the parents, they come with their kids.
They're like, hey, George, this is my son.
He's the future world champion of UFC.
What advice would you give him?
I tell the kid, I say, you're doing well at school, stay at school.
Yeah, train if you want.
You know what I mean?
Train, you know, do it.
But don't put all your eggs in the same basket thinking that you're going to make it.
Because statistically, you're going against the big time.
It's one guy on maybe 100,000, maybe even more.
And I'm not talking about fighting.
I'm talking about basketball, hockey.
Same thing.
Same thing.
Fighting is even worse because get punched in the head.
American football is very, very bad too.
So what I said to the kids, yeah, try to make it, but don't give up school.
Don't give up school.
Because at least if you're 30 years old or late 20s and you found out that you cannot make it for X reason, if you don't have education, you have nothing that you can fall back into.
But if you do have education, at least you have an assurance.
You know what I mean?
It's very important.
Very, very important.
I see in the gym where I train, it's one of the places I love to go because it's very therapeutic for me.
I love it.
I love the science to go train, but it's very sad.
Would you have liked it if somebody gave you that advice when you were 14?
Yes, people give me that advice.
But do you, do you, do you, how did you take it when you were 14?
Somebody said that to you?
I took it.
I listened.
I stopped school.
I was in university in Kinesiology and I stopped it when I had my first title shut.
And I told my parent, because my parent always put school in priority.
They say, George, you're not never going to leave school until you live through our supervision.
You know what I mean?
We're always going to push you to school.
And I thought it was great, you know.
But when I had my first title shot at the time, I was working like crazy.
I had like two, three jobs, studying at school and part-time in the same time.
And I wanted to achieve my dream was to become world champion.
When I fought Matt Us before I fought Matt Us the first time, a few months before, I told my parents, I say, is it okay if I stop this session and I go back?
If things don't turn out, I go back next session.
Because if I miss this opportunity, it's my dream to accomplish that to become champion.
I have to train full-time to put all the chance on my side.
And my parents says, yes, go for it.
And the reality is a lot of the people when I go training in the gym, they come to me and they want to have advice from me.
They say, George, what should I do?
And sometimes I'm like, oh, yeah, when you throw your punch, I give them technical advice.
But the real advice sometimes I should give them, but I cannot do it because they're going to think of me being an arrogant prick.
I should tell them, I say, hey, hey, Mr. X, you're 33 years old.
You've been losing your last three fights.
It's sad to, I'm sad to announce you that you're not going to make it.
You're not going to go in UFC.
And even if you make it, your best years are behind you.
It's finished.
You should keep training, but find yourself a real job, like a real goal.
And it's sad because I will see their dream shattered in their eyes.
And I don't want that meet that person that tells them that.
And it's very sad because it's a movie that I've seen many times is a very, very bad ending.
You're going to finish physically broken and financially broken as well.
You know what I mean?
And it's very sad.
We only talk about the people that make it, but there's a lot, a lot more people that do not make it.
The odds are against you.
The reason why I was able to make it, it's, yeah, people say you work hard.
I work hard, but the stars were aligned.
I was lucky and fortunate enough to meet the right person at the right time.
The path was open for me.
I made it.
You know what?
Maybe if one of these little things changes, I would never have made it.
You know what I mean?
You don't know.
Maybe you can have a car accident and get hit and never be able to compete or never come back the same.
I had an ACL terror.
I remember about 10 years ago.
I had ACL terror.
The doctor told me, he said, you know, George, if you would have had the same injury a few years back, it would be a career ending.
So sometimes life, the line is so tiny.
You know what I mean?
One thing influence another thing.
And this, you know what I mean?
The odds are against you.
So you need to have an assurance.
Education.
As somebody who's from Canada, what do you think about Justin Trudeau and what's been happening with Canada the last couple of years?
I think it's, man, it's for me.
I've been traveling and it's always felt bad when I go home and everything is closed.
The business are closed.
And I think they were more conservative in a way that they wanted to protect people.
But I don't think if it was, I don't know if it was the right choice.
You know what I mean?
Because I see, I don't have the statistics in front of me, but I see the world around me.
And from what I've seen, what I can judge is like people here, business-wise, they're more happy than they are back home during the pandemic.
I see more happiness here.
Maybe it's because I don't live here, but I come very often than back home.
So South Florida or towards Miami?
Yeah, Florida, Texas, even in the UK.
Everywhere I go, their business hasn't maybe not as collapsed as much.
So it's fair to say that Justin Trudeau's policies have not been beneficial to the people of Canada.
Maybe it has been beneficial for protecting lives, I guess, health, but not maybe for business.
You know what I mean?
It's hard to, you know, it's depend how you see it, you know, and depend what you support the most.
You know, I'm more a guy in my life.
I've taken risk in my life.
I'm more a guy that take risk, you know.
So maybe I would go more towards a risk-taking politic, you know, like a solution, you know what I mean?
Because I'm more willing to take risk that's part of my personality.
But maybe someone who's more conservative, who's afraid, will be more on the other side.
You know what I mean?
Since you're retired for the last three or four years, have you found yourself gravitating more towards politics, towards business, towards sports in general?
Where have you actually spent your time focusing on?
Transform myself.
I've been taking acting classes.
It's been more than four years now.
I was very fortunate.
I had opportunities at Falcon and the Winter Soldiers on Disney Plus.
I just finished shooting a movie in UK now.
I was at a small roles.
So I work on my acting skills.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And I'm more of an entrepreneur now.
I'm helping promoting fitness equipment that we call Base Block that sells online.
A line of food supplement as well.
Warrior from Heart and Soil.
It's Heart and Liver.
So my life changed more towards that side.
How are your acting skills right now?
It's much better than it used to be.
And acting is like fighting.
It takes a lot of practice.
And I was acting all my life.
Like I said, I was afraid before every fight.
But when you see me come out, I look like I'm excited to be there.
And I was acting, putting on an act.
And same thing in acting and fighting, you rehearse.
It's a lot of rehearsing.
But in fighting, when you practice a lot of situation that can happen in a fight, you find out quickly enough that when you're in a fight, your opponent is never as good as you think he was.
And he's never as bad.
He's always different.
Same thing in acting.
You can rehearse a scene as much as you want.
But when you get on set, the background might be different.
The reaction of the actor with who you're playing might be different.
So you have to be, like Bruce Lee said, be like water, ready to adapt.
I think the best actor and the best athlete are the ones that can adapt the best.
Be water.
That's exciting.
Be water, my friend.
That's exciting to see you go in that direction.
Let's do a couple callers here.
Guys, I need to go use a restaurant.
Yes, I drink too much water.
I'm so sorry.
I might be the first one that ever died.
No, no, no.
You're the fourth.
Give me the four.
He's a part of the scene.
I drink too much water.
Give me 30 seconds.
I'm going to.
Give me water.
I got a pee.
Can we set him up?
Make sure there's a bathroom available.
Man, I hold myself somebody.
Listen, you have no idea how cool it is.
Even fighters got to use a bathroom.
We've had, I think, four or five people in total become officially members of the Soybo Mafia and have to use them.
But you kicked it off.
You started the whole tradition.
Then it was the biz dog.
So what'd you think about some of the stuff he was talking about?
I tell you, I got goosebumps when he talked about when he saw the guy, the homeless guy on the street.
And he talked about the father, his father going to the guy's house because he ratted on him, what have you.
And he saw what the kid was truly dealing with, a drunk, abusive father.
And that was the reason that he was lashing out with him on the bus.
He's a deep dude, man.
And we talked about this at the beginning.
He's not just a guy who's into AI.
He's into dinosaurs.
He's into the most interesting things.
He's not a regular guy.
The challenge, you know, sometimes you see a person that makes it to the highest level.
And then at that point, the challenge then becomes when you're talking to the kids are coming up to him.
Hey, you know this?
He's like, hey, focus on schools.
focus on do this it becomes uh it becomes you i read a book one time that says uh about guilt Never feel guilty about the price others have to pay to win at the highest level.
Never feel guilty about the highest price everybody else has to pay to win at the highest level, right?
Sometimes, as a parent or as a businessman, or somebody that gives your best, you're like, shit, man, I know how much money, how much you need to put into it.
You don't want to see another person have to put that kind of sacrifice into it.
Anyways, sorry, guys.
No, it's all good, man.
It's all good.
If we got the callers, let's get the callers in.
If they're ready, John, if you got callers, we're ready here.
I haven't eaten anything today except some little fruit and I drink too much water.
I guess it's the water that we're going to be able to do.
We don't got you whatever you wanted, George.
All right, we have Chase on the phone.
Perfect.
Chase, how are you doing?
We can barely hear you, buddy.
So whatever you're doing, you just kind of left us for a second.
Still can't hear you.
John, maybe let's get to the next caller for somebody that we can hear.
Go ahead, Johnny.
Stand by.
sure yeah it looks like we're not getting uh Got the next one.
They're on.
It's just that the audio is pretty low.
Yeah, something's wrong with the audio.
We can just keep it moving.
Okay.
You fought Carl Parisian.
How was that when you fought Carl?
Carl was a badass coming up.
He was fun to watch.
Oh, yeah.
Man, it was my first fight in UFC.
And man, I was so excited to be there at the time, but I was so scared at the same time.
I'm saying excited because that's the word that we use, but in reality, it's scared.
I was scared.
And I know he's an Armenian, a Ro-Parisian.
And he had one crazy good weapon that we knew.
It was his Kimura.
Kimura.
Constant.
Yes.
The Kimura is a lot that you do.
You can break the rotator off of the shoulder.
He is so good with that particular move that everybody knows that he's good at it, but nobody is able to stop him.
And I knew going into that fight, that was his main, like the bread, his bread and butter.
And I got caught in his Kimura in that fight, but I was able to get out.
Luckily for me, it was close call.
That was an incredible fight.
By the way, who's in your top five?
Nelson Rodriguez Jr. just asked, who's your top five?
If you were to name to top five, and you know, the greatest of all time, who would you have on that list?
I think the number one for me is Royce Gracie, because, of course, if you put him in the octagon right now, he would not have done so well because sport has changed.
But for his time, I think for me, it was the greatest of all time.
Things that you have done will never be done again.
I mean, maybe not of my living.
I think you can put Demetrius Johnson.
You can put Mark Coleman, probably.
You can put John Jones, of course, Anderson Silva, these guys.
Mark Coleman.
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
I used to love them.
When he won the Pride Grand Prix at the time in Japan, he was the best of the best.
The natural follow-up to that is because to remove your ego from this situation, right, GSP, everyone would put you in their top five.
Everybody.
Do you feel uncomfortable putting yourself on that list?
No, no, no.
I understand.
I'm in the list, but the greatest of all time, it depends.
It varies.
It's a very subjective thing.
The thing is, in a sport like fighting, it's very subjective.
Who's better, Ellie or Tyson?
Who's better?
You know what I mean?
In fighting, we cannot measure performance.
However, if I ask you who's the fastest sprinter, you're going to have to tell me that it is Usain Boat.
There's no choice.
You know why?
Because we can measure.
Same thing in lifting.
The sport that you have an instrument of measure.
You have to go with the result.
It's written.
And fighting is different.
And we often feel sometimes that the fighters of the past are better than the one today.
Often, but I think it's illogical to think that way.
And as hard and painful it is for me because I retire, I believe the fighters of today are better than the one of yesterday, but the fighter of tomorrow and of the future will be even better.
So the real goat is not even born yet.
And it's not because the guys are better.
It's because they are standing on shoulders of giant.
They benefit, they have a head start because they learn from their predecessor the technology, this stuff.
We just talk about how you can learn from a cell phone nowadays.
It's crazy.
I can learn from with a cell phone jujitsu moves.
I couldn't do that back in the day.
I had to go from Montreal to drive to New York to learn these skills.
You know what I mean?
So things are different.
So if I would take Royce Gracie and putting him today with the technology, the knowledge that he would benefit, maybe it would be just as good or maybe better than anybody here in the present day, you know, but there is no way to find out.
By the way, last topic here before we wrap up with the direction UFC is going.
When you see Kobe, Masvedal, Connor, Dustin, some of the Smack Talking ways that's going on, how they talk trash to each other.
Part of it is a show.
Is there a line one shouldn't cross when it comes down to Smack Talking?
Because when you guys were doing, you know, who was the biggest Smack Talker when you were in your 20s?
Who would you say was the biggest Smack Talker?
Would you say maybe it wasn't even in your class?
Was there anybody they said this guy wouldn't stop talking trash non-stop?
This is an interesting question that you bring.
For me, I know that it's a mental warfare, especially in fighting, because we don't play games.
The outcome of a loss or a win can change a life.
And I'm not talking about physical injuries.
I'm talking about money.
You know, you win a lot more money and you gain a lot more opportunities if you win than if you lose.
It's crazy.
The outcome have a profound effect on an individual and his surrounding.
Therefore, knowing this, there is no line to cross.
And I know some fighter will cross that line.
Me, you can say whatever you want to me.
Maybe because of my experience with bullying, I'm used to put on a mask and a shield on me.
So it comes and it deflects or it goes to one here and it goes out.
No problem.
However, if you start talking shit about my family, now it's a different problem.
So that's why, knowing this about myself, I always deflected family questions, like stuff like, oh, like father or everything, family.
I don't talk about it.
Nobody knows about me.
It's the thing that I'm the most proud of, but is my treasure.
And I'm in a fighting game.
It's a different game than basketball game.
And people will try to make you derail.
They might try to make you lose your mind.
And I can give you an example of that.
Sugari Leonard against Roberto Duran.
When they fought in Montreal, I believe that Sugar Releonard is a much better boxer than Roberto Duran.
I mean, at this level, it's very close, but I believe Leonard is better.
But when they fought in Montreal, Zuran insulted the wife of Sugari Leonard.
Leonard goes crazy.
He wanted to show that he's a man, so he stood up and he changed the way he fought because he became emotional.
When Conor McGregor won the first fight against Jose Aldo, same thing.
Jose Aldo became emotional.
He wanted to, he became enraged, try to give him.
He never did that.
He leaped forward like crazy, tried to knock him out with one punch.
McGregor is an amazing counter-puncher.
12 seconds.
Slip, boom, finish.
Same thing with Khabib, when Conor McGregor tried to do the same thing with Khabib, talking.
But his religion.
Yes, his religion is that and stuff like that.
So some fighter will cross that line.
That's why I never expose my family.
every interview you're never gonna you know what I I always deflected.
Nick D. Nick was, remember that one time you guys had an exchange where Sagan say, what are you talking about?
They don't have the information.
They don't have the data to get on their name.
I skim.
They cannot give it.
I never make that available to them.
I never make that.
I never showcase this part of my life because it's the part of my life that I'm the most proud of.
It's my treasure.
I'm talking about all my achievement, my career.
This is nothing.
But I never exposed this because it's to protect me.
Because I'm in that business.
It's a hard business and it's hardcore business, but I don't want that part of me being exposed.
George, crazy question.
So your record is what, 26 and 2, 26 and 2 or 28 and 2 at the end.
It's one of those two, right?
Yeah, it's hard.
Yeah, it's one of those two.
I'm so sorry.
What's crazy is both of the losses.
You came back and I think you beat Matt two or three times and you beat Sarah.
But the question is the following.
Say those fights were no gloves and it was in the street with the same exact 28 fights.
Would your record still be 26 and two?
It would be better.
It would be much better.
You think so?
100%.
Can you tell me why?
It's first in street fight.
I have a lot of experience in street fight.
I've been in many street fights when I was young, you know, and it's the same thing.
It's about the element of surprise.
If you have the element of if you're the aggressor, you do not have the element of surprise.
And street fight is different than fighting.
And I have a lot of experience.
If you're the nice guy, being a nice guy gives you a head start.
Because in street fight, when you feel the heat rising, you have the element of surprise to start and do this.
And fighting, if you have the element of surprise, it's a huge, huge advantage.
So your record would have been better than 100% first.
And also would be very, very good because of my style of fighting.
I was very good.
Every time you start a fight, every time the round ends, you have to start, you know, like another fight.
You know, me, I was always better at starting very strong, but sometimes what breaks the momentum is the round.
Then they restart again.
You know what I mean?
So you would have preferred 10-minute rounds than five-minute rounds.
I would prefer a 25-minute round.
Straight.
Straight on.
I think that's how it should be crazy.
I think the reason why there is round, and I think the reason why there is round is because to make the sport legal, they need it to make it look a little bit like boxing.
If you want to see who's the best man, let them fight.
Let them fight with no round.
And I think that would be, you know, there's a different way of judging it, but that's how it should have.
What's the surprise move that you would use?
You're saying that, I mean, maybe you can't tell it, but jump like that.
But you're saying you'd be better because the element of surprise.
Yeah, in a street fight, but in a street fight, they never start with a referee.
You know what I mean?
Like this.
But in the street, in a street fight, that's why you have the element of surprise.
But I was very good at knowing when I felt the eat rising.
Yeah.
You would attack.
The first one.
And you're saying when people were talking trash or you think that they were going to hit you and that you're like the quiet guy back.
Exactly.
But very often when I was in schoolyard, it was not only one guy after me.
It was like two, three guys.
They were older than me.
Why the hell were they picking on you so much, bro?
What were you doing when you're 18?
What's that?
I was not a cool guy, guys.
Before we wrap up, this is your last chance for Super Chat.
A bunch of you guys have already done.
We're about to do the raffle in three minutes.
If you do want to participate in the raffle and get your name in there, go ahead and put it in there.
For some of you guys that are wondering about Charles Oliveira, we already talked about that earlier.
And a bunch of other topics in regards to Khabib.
At the beginning, we talked about how much it would take to get him in the ring with Khabib.
You're going to need to go back and watch exactly what the answer to that was.
Michael Bisping.
Michael Bisbing was also one that was good at getting under people's skin, right?
Very good, yes.
Somebody said here, he imitated you.
Do you know how to imitate him?
You bloody bastard.
What a prick.
I was with Michael Bisping quite recently.
I was in Manchester.
We had a drink together.
It was recently.
Yeah.
Were like a movie or documentary come out about his life?
It's very good.
It's very good.
And he's a lot of fun to hang out with.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I mean, a lot of stuff has been said, but behind all this Fugesi things, there's a human.
And I always have a good time catching up with some of my multiple adversaries.
Is there anybody that you guys don't get along till today?
Or no?
Everybody is saying that?
There's nobody today.
There's absolutely nobody that I have fought that if I, let's say, I would drive my car and I would see them on the side having a problem, I would stop for every one of them.
You have no beef.
No beef.
And I don't think anybody has beef with me.
I don't think so.
All the stuff that have been said and done, even if it was very edgy, it was only for business.
For me, it's not personal.
So the next trip is you got to take a trip to Stockton, California.
Even McDiaz, I wish him the best of luck and everything.
I don't hold any grudge, nothing.
I really do.
I really wish him.
I hope if he decides to come back, and he did last time, it didn't look good, but I hope if he does it for the right reason, he has the motivation.
I wish him the best.
I wish him that.
I love watching those guys fight.
Was anybody when you were coming up, you watched Fight that you said, dude, this guy had the goodies to become very, very great?
Like, was there anyone that you felt we never saw the best of him when he was coming up, same era as you?
There's a lot of guys.
A lot of guys I've seen, especially in the gym that were very talented, very good, but they never made it.
Because they, I don't know if it's mentally, they couldn't pull the trigger.
There's a lot of these guys.
You just talk about there's a lot of these guys.
So that's why it's like a funnel.
There's so many guys that has potential, but when you narrow it down, it's only one that made it.
Sometimes the stars are just aligned better for one guy.
I don't know.
I believe that people are like, oh yeah, you work hard, blah, blah, blah, you made your...
Yes, but it's not necessarily true.
I don't agree with that 100%.
I believe there's a lot of, I believe in the causality.
I believe there is cause and effect.
And I believe our ignorance sometimes made it in a way that we call certain things chances, but I don't believe there is chances.
I believe there's always a cause.
And by definition, if there is a cause, there is no free will in a way.
It's kind of weird to think about it, but that's how I am.
Almost like we got our own UFC philosopher on our hands.
I told you, he's deeply.
He's a deep guy.
What's the story with dinosaurs?
Why do you like dinosaurs?
I like dinosaurs.
I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs because when I was young, I was drawing monsters.
And what looks the most like a monster is a dinosaur.
And I believe if you know about the past, it helps you understand the future and sometimes helps you predict the future.
You know what I mean?
If you know about the past, it helps you understand the present and helps you sometimes predict the future.
Well, you know, we are standing on the shoulders of giant dinosaurs.
I don't know if you know.
In Florida, is that what it was?
T-Rex, Florida?
I have one quick question.
One guy, I'm obsessed with this guy.
T-Rex, we're not in Florida.
We're in the west part of the world.
He's teasing you.
He's trying to have a lot of folks on the floor.
We are standing on the shoulders of giant dinosaurs.
Yeah, in general.
But I have one guy that I'm obsessed with these days.
Want to get your thoughts on this guy, Patty the Baddy Pimblet.
What are your thoughts on this guy?
Yeah, I met him briefly in England, in Manchester, too.
Yeah, he's very charismatic.
Yeah.
He's good.
To be a successful, to be successful in this business of fighting, you need to be skilled, but more than that, you need to be charismatic.
And in order to be charismatic, a lot of guys feel that they need to trash talk to imitate.
Carter McGregor, but you don't have to do that.
I sold a lot of pay-per-view because I was just authentic to who I am.
And I think Patty the Baddy is very authentic.
I think he's a very charismatic guy.
He's got a weird style.
I really enjoy watching him fight.
And I think he's still a star, but he's going to be even more of a big joy.
You know what I mean?
I think the sky is the limit.
And I think he is being authentic.
I don't think it's an act.
No, it's not an act.
But there's guys that you could clearly see it's an act.
It's unfortunate because they shoot themselves in the foot when they do that.
Yeah, because it doesn't work for them.
It doesn't work for them.
And to be...
It's got to be natural.
You need to be like you are.
And sometimes it's not necessarily in a malicious way.
We all do this for the best of our own interests.
And some guys, they will do this because they know that's the best way they can help themselves to achieve what they want to achieve.
You know what I mean?
I don't see it necessarily in a malicious way.
Even like you see, sometimes Connor McGregor will say stuff that are very edgy.
I mean, for me, it could become personal because he will attack your personal life.
But it's business in a way.
You know what I mean?
Last question.
UFC, who could replace Dana White?
I've asked this question from quite a few different people.
Just curious to know what your thoughts on this.
Man, I don't think, I mean, everybody can- Some said Daniel Cormier.
He said Daniel couldn't do my job, but who do you think could replace?
I don't think nobody can replace Dana White.
I don't think so.
I mean, to be as good as Dana White was, I think someone can come and fill the hole.
Maybe not be like Dana White, be better at certain things that Dana White.
Maybe sometimes Dana White is not very diplomatic.
So it could be more diplomatic.
But maybe to be a promoter, to be intense, as unique as Dana White, there's only one guy as Dana White.
It doesn't mean his job cannot be taken and he cannot be Ren Place.
I think everybody can be Ren Place, but everybody is unique and everybody has a different unique personality.
And Dana White is very charismatic.
He's in the unique category.
Let's do the raffle.
Okay, Tyler, if we're ready.
We got a bunch of guys that did 100% of this going to go to George St. Pierre Foundation.
One person's going to get this.
Started.
Set this up for success.
What's going to happen right now?
Someone's going to get a signal.
We're going to click a button and a glove by GSP.
Okay.
Is that it?
Or is it going to go to Zuniga?
Who is it?
JJ Carlin.
Carlin.
Congratulations to you, Jay Carlin.
Send us an email.
Put the information there.
You're going to get this glove being sent to you.
Congrats to you.
This was great, GSP.
What a great story you got.
It's been a pleasure having you on, man.
I've really enjoyed it.
Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity, guys.
Yes.
Final thoughts.
If guys want to find you, you know, is there any project you're working on right now you want to share with people?
I think you got something going on with Warrior.
Maybe share some of the stuff you got coming up.
Yeah, people that are interested in investigating about animal-based diet.
I mean, I have a line of supplement with Heart and Soil.
It's called Warrior Line.
It's heart and liver that has been desiccated in a process called dry freeze.
And it's great for because in the Western part of the world, we don't really eat organs.
But if you go see how Untergatherer tribe lives, that's the first thing they go for when they kill an animal.
So it's very interesting.
Anyway, this could help a lot of people.
And also, I'm with fitness equipment, the base blocks, the pro line.
So you can go check it out online.
Let's put the link below.
Let's find the link and let's put the link below for people to be able to get it.
