Mark Bell's Power Project - EP. 431 - Dream killer Gaston Balaños

Episode Date: October 6, 2020

Gaston “Dream Killer” Bolanos is a pro-MMA, pro-Muay Thai, and pro-kickboxing athlete. He currently holds 5 wins in Bellator MMA, all by way of TKO or KO. He currently trains out of Combat Sports Academy in Dublin, CA. Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Freeze Sleeve: https://freezesleeve.com/ Use Code "POWER25" for 25% off plus FREE Shipping on all domestic orders! ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Sling Shot: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ https://www.facebook.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbpowerproject ➢ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/powerproject/ ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject ➢TikTok: http://bit.ly/pptiktok FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell ➢Mark Bell's Daily Workouts, Nutrition and More: https://www.markbell.com/ Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/ Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

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And if your order is $99 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Helped my career more than I've helped the name. But, you know, it's kind of like, I want to say it's kind of an alter ego almost. The dream killer? The dream killer, yeah. It kind of happens more like at the gym more than anything else so does it happen like out of frustration or like what does it feel like to turn into the dream killer it's not like turning into it's just like i start i when i get to that

moment and i feel like i'm in that flow state like that's when i'm like i'm it doesn't matter what they're gonna do it doesn't matter like i get no there's a and i'm sure, it doesn't matter what they're going to do. It doesn't matter. And I'm sure you feel it too. There's a time that you walk in the gym and you're like, yep, today's the day. Nothing can face me. It doesn't matter how wrong it goes. It doesn't matter how good it goes. Nothing can face me.

It doesn't matter what anything happens. My day is going to go this way regardless. How did you get the nickname Dream Killer? Whose dreams did you shatter? So when i was 18 um carrying will partner me up but there will always be people that will come through the gym bigger guys and they will come around and try to you know like they'll either beat up the girls or like beat up people smaller than them or like anything like that i try to go too hard or not

respect the rules of the gym and he would partner me up with him i was 135 pound little kid walking around wait 135 pound 140 pound kid 18 years old cocky as shit he's ready you know like i was a different person than what i am now and he would just part up with him and i will it will always go my way i tore i've tore at least three acls of leg kicks um but i guess i was that guy i was i was that guy that he would put against and that's why the dream killer came out just basically kind of see like if if somebody was really fit for the gym almost right yeah yeah definitely definitely came like that yeah it was uh it just happened to be like that i was a i was a little shit man

i was a little shit and and Kieran Kieran will always put me with those people that would get out of control and it's like you know that's exactly how it would go

yeah you've been with Kieran since you've been really young has he kind of like mentored you a lot outside of the ring as well and maybe

maybe taught you how to control some of that stuff so you're not doing that kind of shit outside the ring? I've definitely become a better person being with Kieran and having Kieran in my life.

I used to be very cocky. I used to be very different than the person that I am now. And I'm still working on myself every day, man. But yeah, being around Kieran and growing up completely different. I grew up in Peru. I moved here when I was 13 years old. And when I moved in with him, things changed completely different. I grew up in Peru. I moved here when I was 13 years old. And when I moved in with them, it was,

um, things changed completely for me. Uh, moved in with him when I was 16. I lived with them since I was 16, 17. I finished my last year of high school with them. And, and yeah,

man, I mean, he's been a huge influence in my life and I'm thankful for everything he's done for me. Thankful for everything. You know, MJ thankful, thankful for everything MJ's done for me and thankful for the community that they've created at csa gym um yeah man i mean i'm almost about to tear up right now yeah well they probably um so then you probably really defend you're like a defender of the gym like when someone new comes in and they're not respecting the gym,

I'd imagine that probably really impacts you a lot. Or it used to. It used to a lot. I've definitely changed my ways a little more and I've, I've, I'm trying to channel that energy and different, you know, and being more of a leader now and try to motivate people around me versus, you know, being that guy. I'm not, I'm not a little kid anymore. You know, I'm 28 years old. I just turned 28, uh, the 14th of September. So I'm definitely a little kid anymore. I'm 28 years old. I just turned 28 the 14th of September. I'm definitely trying to use what I have and use my God-given talents and everything that I've been able to work for to motivate people. I want to motivate people. I'm nowhere near where I want to be. That's okay because at least I have a goal and at least I can get to where I can look forward to that.

That's what I want to do. I just want to become more of a leader around the team, and I want to motivate people, not just at the gym, but all around the world. Do you feel like in some way you were gifted this? I mean, because you're a very, very high-level fighter. You've been doing it for a long time, and I don't want to take away any of the hard work. I know there's so much hard work and dedication that goes into it, but still, like a lot of people try, and they don't do so great.

Like you feel like you may have gotten a little. When it came to striking, grappling has been obviously a little different, but when it came to striking, the second that I stepped into the gym, it just felt like home. And my dad started first back in Peru, in Lima, Peru. We started going to this gym called F14. We were just doing Muay Thai at the time. And at first, I would just go watch them. Just watching and watching and watching. And

eventually, I started trying it out. And a few months later, I had a fight. I had no clue. I had no idea. I was so young. I was kind of just brought up into it. How old were you? I was 11 at the time. My first fight when I was 12. i took a little bit of a break uh we moved to the north of peru and um i was just kind of being more of a surfer at that time there was like a year in between and then we moved here uh we moved to east palo alto where my grandparents lived um and that's how i started man we started i started going to this boxing gym in east palo alto and then i found vertex on the vertex um and in mountain Palo Alto, and then I found Fertix in Mountain View down the street

and started training, and before I knew it, I had another fight coming up, and the rest is history. Met Kieran, and here we are. Yeah. Dang. So when did you start fighting professionally? I believe I was 20, 21. I think I was 20. I believe I was 20. I was 20, 21. So about, I think I was 20.

I believe I was 20. I was 20 when I started fighting professionally, but I was fighting adults real long before that. I was fighting adults. I was 16, 17, faking that I was 18 at the time. Because I had run out of juniors to fight. And we were fighting any weight class, man. It was from 135 to 160 just trying to

get that experience so we can get to that that goal which would be going pro you know just trying to get the most experience that we could possible yeah uh go ahead and for you it was muay thai boxing kickboxing like when did you start getting everything together so i we we started with muay thai we went professional with muay thai at first because this is what I was used to I was in the US national team for Muay Thai I was also in the Peruvian national team I'm a South American champion two times of the American champion and then as we made the transition more into we went pro you know the more I did this I was like well I want to try kickboxing and then okay well I want to start making that transition to MMA.

You know, I started watching you, the UFC and watching Bellator and watching everything. And I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to do that. So Karen's like, okay,

let's go. He's never, the, the, the beautiful thing about our relationship is he's never tried to, yeah, he's always tried to steer, he'll always steer me in the right ways,

but he's never like, no, you should do this or no you should do that or like i don't think you should go pro i don't like he's always being very honest about his advice and everything that you know with everything so i've always been very thankful with with the things that he has to say about the things with the same thing with mj starting so young with fighting did you maybe look at fighting differently? Like, because it sounds like, I would imagine if you start young and you learn the skill of fighting, that's different than just, like, want to beat people up in the street. Or did you do that too?

So, when I first started, I was a very angry kid. You know, and being honest with you, my parents divorced when I was eight. That was a huge thing for me. And it's something that I still deal with, uh, at a time, you know, I literally like, I just found, like, I just found that to be such a big thing that dragged me, you know, dragged me in my life for so long. It hurts a lot of people. And I think I've seen people torn apart more than that, than not having another parent at all, which is, you know, sounds strange because I had no clue man I honestly had no clue and it's not till I started

like looking at myself and like really like looking in the mirror and be like what is it that makes you this way you know and I found that to be such a huge thing for me so I was able to call my parents and be like hey I forgive you and I'm sorry for acting this way for all

these years you know that must have been a big phone call it must have been hard it was huge because i mean i left my mom when i was 13 i left peru and my mom let me come here you know and it was it was huge to uh to do that because i have two little two little sisters and a brother and you know and like i've always been very distant and to be able to like move forward with from that and being like you know what i love you guys and you know you've always been great to me and like i'm sorry if i was in any different way right that i should have been it's hard as it's hard on both sides of it you know as a kid you're going through it for the first time and as a kid you think your parents don't know anything that you're talking about or anything

you're going through but they actually do because they went through it themselves. Yeah. But the weird thing is that the parents are going through it with you for the first time. Yeah. And that's what's hard. So when the kid, you find out the kid smokes pot, you find out the kid got into a fight, you find out the kid, you know, is doing whatever. Whatever the hell kids get into. You don't know how to, you have no idea how to react. What do you do? You punch a hole in the wall? You yell at the kid kids get into uh you don't know how to you don't have there you don't know how to you have no idea how to react what do you do you punch a hole in the

wall you yelled the kid kick him out of the house and that was what are they what are the options you give them love you give them a hug say hey i love you like you don't need to act this way like i don't know but there's no there's no right or wrong there's nothing that's going to stop and like i said i was very angry and like talking to you guys but i i finally figured out like i i channel all my energy into either surfing at first and then fighting. That's all I channel my energy into. That's all I wanted to do. I just wanted to train.

I wasn't going out to high school parties or anything like that. I just wanted to train. And when I didn't, my dad would be there for me and be like, no, you have to train. And now I always have that discipline with me. And I was always have that discipline with me, you know, and I was thinking for that, you know, like I said, like I also had to forgive. I had to forgive myself and forgive them, you know, because he didn't know how to be a parent. My dad was 21 and my mom was 20. They didn't know how to be parents to me, you know, and the fact that it didn't work out.

It made me the person that I am now. And I'm thankful for that. It's easy to see as an adult. Like, oh, it didn't work out. Like that fucking happens to tons of people. It's actually very normal. It's not it's not it's, like, oh, it didn't work out. Like, that fucking happens to tons of people. It's actually very normal. Like, it's not weird.

Yeah, it's not. And I'm thankful that they learn with me. And now, like, with my brothers and my mothers, my younger siblings, they can be better people. You know, that makes me happy. You know, it still hurts at times. You're like, fuck, that could have been me. You know, like, it happens, you know. But I'm thankful for that.

You say the first man through the wall gets bloody. And that's the first kid. And the first kid gets fucked up because the parents don't know what they're doing yet. Exactly. But I, you know, I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful for everything that I've been through in my life. And, you know, it's made me who I am today. It's made me a strong person. And I'm looking forward to doing more things with that, you know, now that I can leave that behind.

So, you know, I'm curious, like when you were a teenager, how did you come to stay with Kyrian? Because you came here with your dad. So how did that happen? So I moved here with my dad. And then my dad had a new marriage. In his new marriage, he found that he wanted to go back to Peru. When he wanted to go back, I was like, I want to stay. I live here.

This is my new home. And I had already met Kyrian at the time. I was commuting to dublin uh from pao alto i was a junior in high school commuting every day back and forth karen would give me 20 bucks of gas uh every couple days or whatever and he supported me through all that and i was like dude i'm really tired man like i'm tired of driving like i was i was i mean i was doing everything that i need to do to be a good student so i could train because if i didn't do that i wouldn't be able to train because my parents were like that. And my grandma was like that.

And eventually, it was like, dude, just move in. Obviously, we talked about it. He talked to Jessica. They opened their doors to me. And they became a home for me. And I'm happy that I was able to have. I didn't have a family like that growing up. Like them.

A happy marriage that's wild too because you got to keep in mind they got their own kids yeah and that's a big deal taking something else it is a big deal taking in another teenager fuck that yeah i was i was a senior in high school and they're you know and i caring will supporting me through everything they supported me through everything him i'm so thankful him and jessica like thank you guys like really yeah everybody i believe that everyone gets a shot from somebody you know and not it's He supported me through everything. I'm so thankful. Him and Jessica. Like, thank you guys. Like, really. Yeah. Everybody.

I believe that everyone gets a shot from somebody, you know, and not, it's not always that kind, but I mean, that's really, really amazing. And I think that, you know, fortunately, no matter how bad your life is, it seems like there's always somebody that picks you up or there's somebody that's a mentor. There's someone that cares just enough about your grandma and aunt. Somebody. Somebody comes along somewhere along the lines. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I've always had that with my, you know, my grandpa passed a year ago. And he was that person for me, you know. But Kieran's always been there for me.

From the minute that we met, I mean, he didn't like me very much at first. Really? No, he hated me. He hated my guts. Like I said, I was a cocky kid. I thought, you know, I thought I was a cocky kid I thought you know I thought I was the shit you know

and I wasn't I you know I was nowhere near where I want to be I'm still nowhere near where I want to be but yeah man we didn't like each other

I didn't like him Tyrion's fucking crazy like he like it's very hands on like he's he's been holding mitts for you for how long for years

and he's but he won't let anybody else do it. Yeah. I'm sure you get training with other people. I get training with other people. I've been working with Mike Bassel at Aloha Time Boxing in San Mateo,

and we've been working a little with my hands a little bit, so I'm improving that. I'm excited to show that on my next fight. He was telling me, though, he has to feel, even though it's killing him, his elbows, like his whole body's fucked up.

Yeah. But he said that he needs to feel it because he needs to know kind of, his elbows, like his whole body's fucked up. Yeah. But he said that he needs to feel it because he needs to know kind of where you're at. Yeah, that's skinny carrying. I don't believe that was recent. No, it wasn't recent. But, yeah, I mean, yeah, my game has, we just have such a, we've developed this relationship that he doesn't even have to say anything we'll just flow you know but at times you know he'll he'll stop and correct me and say the things that he needs to say and you know and we just keep improving and that's that's that's the whole

game right just trying to be better than you were yesterday and that's what i'm trying to do right now man that's my whole game right now just trying to be better than I was yesterday. Trying to set goals and trying to set small goals throughout the day. Having a schedule, sticking to that schedule to the best of my abilities. You never know. There's certain things that happen. You can't get to everything every day.

Exactly. Unfortunately, yeah. Unfortunately, you can't. But that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to accomplish that. And I'm trying to communicate when i'm when i'm feeling with myself and with my coach like not let my ego get in the way be like no push through that sometimes yeah sometimes you need to push but sometimes you gotta be you gotta be an athlete and be like no man like relax there's always the next day still let's recover today and let's come back stronger tomorrow. And I'm sure you can relate.

Absolutely. You said that you were like an angry kid. And obviously it's great that you had the outlet of fighting. I'm always curious about this with fighters. When you are sparring or you're getting ready for a fight or you're actually fighting, you um associate a lot of anger with that like when you're actually having to fight people do you use anger or are you just like because you mentioned i used to i used to at first now i try to be an assassin in there emotions and fighting don't go well together at least for me at least for me they don't work out you know i can't be

angry in there i need to see everything and i treat it like a business transaction man i'm there to just be better than the other guy and every day i treat it like that you know that's how i gotta be i gotta show up to the office and go like you can't be angry in the office right so it's the same way this is the same way that i try to be and some and some people and it does that just because it works for me doesn't mean it works for everybody and i'm so every day i'm trying to adjust and trying to find my groove and trying to become better you know become just better and you find that

I used to be very angry I used to be very emotional that's essentially that's how the name Dreamkiller came because I was emotional and I was

I was that angry kid and I was able doesn't matter put him in front of me I don't care you know Dreamkiller and then now that I'm

maturing and becoming you know the person that I the athlete that I want'm maturing and becoming, you know, the person that I, the athlete that I want to be, I'm trying to, you know, complete the circle, become better all around. Not be just a striker that can stop takedowns, but become an offensive wrestler, become better on the ground, become better all around. You know, become a better striker. Just because I've been a striker doesn't mean I'm the best striker. You know, so I'm trying to just keep evolving man

that's right now like that's my season that's I just want to keep evolving as a person as an athlete as a human all around

is that the hardest is that the hardest thing like is I mean ultimately because like I think in other sports you know you got other

people to rely on you play basketball and football there's other people on the field and you can blend in and take a playoff and stuff like that here and there but there's no there's no real breaks when it comes to fighting and it ultimately seems like when i talk to a lot of fighters it seems like it's kind of them going against themselves and i think that's why the movie fight club was such a huge hit because ultimately it was it was yeah

fighting against the whole that was the theme yeah 100, yeah, 100%. And, yeah, you got to get it out of your own way. And I know so many fighters that are great. And, I mean, myself included. Sometimes you can be as good as you want and you can be really good at the gym. But those emotions get in your way. You get in your way. You know, you get in your own head. And that's where you got to be.

You got to have those people to keep you in check and keep you accountable. And self-accountability is a huge thing too. You know, if you're not, if you think you're the best and you're already there where you're at and you've done enough or whatever, like you're not going to get anywhere. I think a big thing that happens is because you might be doing really well, everyone's thinking, okay, well, this is the way. And all I got to do if I hook hook up a dream killer and i'm part of his crew all i gotta do is make sure he's on the same path but that's actually not true what i would need to do to make sure you're on the best path is to say hey that training session looked like fucking shit today and you know it and you dogged it and that was crappy and we need

to fucking do better than that and that's why that's more of the training that's why i love karen because he'll tell me exactly where it went wrong or when it went wrong because he knows me that well. He's like, well, I think you threw this one jab and you hypersent your elbow and everything went to shit from there. You're 100% right. But that used to be me. Now can we hypersent our elbow in that jab but still have a good session?

Can we get taken down and just get back up? Can we have a bad round and switch that you know that's uh it's it's fighting man it's fighting and like you were talking about like fighting is completely different like you have two people and they're fighting for for money fighting for glory they're we're not playing basketball we're not playing football we can't rely on the team yeah you, you have a team, but it's still you in there against yourself and against the other guy. You know, it's... No, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

Do you think that, like, that's a natural progression, like, for a fighter? Like, you said you did use the anger, and then now you're, like, an assassin. So if, like, there's a younger fighter listening, they look up to you, and they're just like,

well, shit, I'm angry, and that's all I know. Does that mean I don't have what it takes? Or do you think like, it's kind of like I said, like a progression that it needs to happen? I believe that it's all about balance. And the more you're in the game, the more you figure out yourself, you know,

the more you find what works and what doesn't work for you. Yeah, some people need that. Some people need that. Like, yeah, I want to, yeah, I want to beat the shit out of this guy. I want to beat this guy and we all want to beat the other person, you know,

but some people use the anger and channel that. And some people, it works better for some people, that emotion, that raw. And some people get caught like that because they can't use it. I'm one of those people. I can't have emotion like that in the gym.

I need to be, I need to be clear minded and I need to be focused and I need to know exactly where I'm going at all times. Have you been able to beat anybody in your belief like that was better than you just because you maybe got in their head or they were nervous about your elbow or they were nervous about a particular style of fighting that you bring to the table? Well, that's all fighting is essentially. You want to beat people who are just as good as us or better. You know, and in any given day, that person can be better than you.

And in any given day, you can be better than them. You know, what are we bringing to the table on this specific day, you know? Yeah, because you may have, yeah, if you fought five times, it could be some different results, right? Or, yeah, or you know exactly how they fight. They fought, you know, they fought your teammates or they fought someone that you know and you've watched all their fights and you know you're better than them. But maybe on that specific day you're not. And you see that all the time in fighting.

Whether it's the UFC, Bellator, or anywhere. You see that all the time. It's just about being able to stick to your game plan and make your opponent fight their B plan. That's it. That's what fighting is. If you can stick to your game plan, then you can. Have you had that happen before in the ring where you're like,

fuck, this ain't working? All the time, man. All the time. I have rounds like that. Coach, yo, like, hey, we talked about this. It's not working. Yeah, and we talk. I mean, my last fight.

That's got to be kind of scary, actually. My last fight was I felt good. I felt really good. I mean, a lot of people say I won. I don't care about that. I don't care about, you know, like, at the end of the day, I felt really good. I mean, a lot of people say I won. I don't care about that. I don't care about, you know, like at the end of the day, I didn't win. You know, I'm like, what do we need to do here? What are the adjustments?

I felt good to this point. Yeah, when some lose some, who's to say, well, it doesn't really matter. You got the L and you got to try to move on. Exactly. It's not moving on. It's just like, okay, what led to that? What led to that loss? What do we need to work on from it. Exactly. It's not moving on. It's just like, okay, what led to that? What led to that loss? What do we need to work on

to improve? And that's something that, like I said, self-accountability. It can go all around in all aspects of life in all sports. It's all about

self-accountability and being able to look at your own shit. I know that there's not really, I guess, a formula, right? But coming from a fighter

i want to know your opinion on this obviously you started with muay thai so you started as a striker but when you look at all the different martial arts that are compiled into mma how would you on the broad scheme of things rank like maybe what's the most difficult thing to learn or maybe what are the maybe the most important skills in terms of these different martial arts to have how would you rank them in terms of effectiveness i mean rank i you can't i don't think it's something that you can rank you can't rank you can't rank i mean what do you prefer to bench or squat uh squat okay okay you're making this really complicated now. I get what you're saying, though. I get what you're saying.

You get what I'm saying? What's your better lift, you know? I understand, though. You understand what I'm saying, though, right? It's like Israel Adesanya. He's a super skilled striker. He's an assassin. Yeah, and you have two different...

In any given day, it can go all around. You see, it can go either way. Fucked up his analogy man i know you fucked it up even stole his nickname now you're the dream killer damn like that be like that sometimes two seconds yeah but i get like when you when you when you watch fights it's like you know sometimes like even though another guy's really good at grappling the striker just pieces him up you know so you can't say grappling is better. Styles make fights, man. That's the thing. Styles make fights, and whoever's better prepared

for that given night is what's gonna win. Who can execute their game plan the best? I think I have a better one for you, then. This one, I think I can give a clear answer. Okay. Out of all the martial arts that you've been learning, which one was the hardest for you to pick up? I know you've been doing striking forever, but what do you think's

like, just the weirdest? Jiu-jitsu is really hard, man. Yeah? Jiu-jitsu is really hard. Grappling, that grind that comes from grappling is definitely really hard. At least for me, coming from being a striker and being able to punch and box and kick and everything. And Seema has been saying before that

jiu-jitsu doesn't really make any sense. It doesn't... If we were to fight, I could make some sense of, like, hey, if I square up against you, if my shoulders are square to you, you got more targets to hit. So let me turn to the side. Let me try to throw a jab. Let me try to keep my hands up.

Like, all those things make sense. But once you start doing jujitsu moves, it's like a totally different language. And you have to learn it. You don't all of a sudden, you don't just know it. Whereas you might kind of know decently how to throw a couple punches and how to protect yourself yeah well it just depends i mean the boxing stance can get you you know if i'm if i'm way too bladed i'm gonna get calf kicked you know but i can land a really good jab that's what makes mma so fucking hard exactly mma styles make fights man stylists make fights and you know grappling is really

is really hard and like I said I feel like it's a never a never ending journey when it comes to grappling like if you see Jiu Jitsu guys like it's there's so many positions

and so many and I think that's all around in martial arts you never stop learning you never stop evolving and that's at the same time that's what makes it so beautiful, man.

Because you're never done. You're done when you want to hang him up. But even then, you're never done because then you're a coach. And then you're transferring that knowledge. And that's beautiful, too. And also to this level, with this amount of money that's in the game now, this is all new. So fighting is going to continue to evolve massively over the next several years i mean you've seen how different it is now versus like 10 15 20 years ago like

when hoist gracie first stepped foot into the ufc octagon i mean i know there's a lot of fighting before that there's a long history of it but i'm talking about like the monetization and it being in america and the ufc and all that kind of stuff. No, definitely. And, of course, it's blown up. But also you don't see a really good jiu-jitsu guy not have any striking or any wrestling. You have to be well-rounded. It's a different game. And I believe that's something that's happened in sports in general. Sports have evolved completely.

Technology, I don't know what it is, but I don't know. Everyone's an athlete out there now. If you look at a soccer field, you got 22 guys that they can all run the same. They're all tall. They're all muscular. And then fighting, same thing. The top 10,

they're not going to have any holes. As you're training each aspect of MMA, how are you able to stay present for that one thing? Let's say you're going up against a good striker, so you're learning some defense or something. How are you able to just really focus in on that one thing and not worry like, ooh, is he working on his ground game right now?

Am I doing the wrong thing? Am I focused on the wrong thing right now like to me i just feel like i mean the thought of fighting another dude just would terrify me you know like that's not something i'm like it is terrifying it is terrifying i mean i'm telling you i go in there all the time it's terrifying yeah fighting is terrifying so with that like scary it's a scary thing to do you're in there and you're like all right this page is logged in and we're going yeah we're fighting so so like yeah how are you able to like really like zone in focus and so every fight every week every training session you know uh at least me and karen we talk about things we we talk about we have a schedule we have uh and we have a lot of

training sessions together obviously whether it's sparring or pads or and then i'll talk i'll talk to him about it like hey today went great today didn't today didn't go so great and today maybe i need a day off today tomorrow let's go let's go let's take the afternoon off and go harder tomorrow um yeah it's just about i mean and then what happened in each fight you know where where are the holes you know we just it's a game of trying to fill in different holes you know so you're you don't have any holes and you can be that you know that top 10 fighter that top five fighter eventually that champion that's that's the that's the goal you know we're prize fighting what's it like having a fight lined up now when everything was so weird a little bit ago with like covid and stuff like that and the gym's closing down like it's got to feel good to

like concentrate on something and have a mission. Well, definitely. That was the first thing, man. When COVID hit, it was just, gyms are closed, everything's closed. You're like, what do you do? You run outside, and then you have the smoke coming up, and you can't even run outside. All hell's breaking loose.

All hell's breaking loose. There's nothing you do, you know? I bought a Nintendo Wii, so I'm playing Mario Kart the whole time. I'm still training, obviously. I didn't stop training at all because I have access to the gym. But it changed, man, because, I mean, you don't have as many training partners. Some people are still really scared. And regulations, you know, every county is different.

But having something to look forward to, November 19th, Bellator MMA, CBS Sports, that's what I'm looking forward to right now. And that's, you know, every day, every day there's, you know, a certain amount of goals, trying to get those goals and do things. And then, you know, everything's towards that date. And that's what we're looking forward to right now. Is it hard to have any sort of balance in the rest of your life when you're in like a quote unquote training camp? I mean, that's everything revolves around that training camp.

So everything else is kind of shut down for you. Everything's kind of shut down, like going out, friends, everything's training. Especially right now, I'm driving a good amount compared to what I've done in previous camps. I'm going to Half Moon Bay to train with Adam Piccolotti and his coach, Raul Castillo, and doing that. Coming here to Sacramento at least once or twice a week.

Going to San Mateo, as I mentioned before. So there's a good amount of driving that's happening there. So, yeah, everything else gets kind of shut down. It's just about the training sessions. And at your level, shut down it's just about the decisions and at your level though it's just about whatever it takes and it's not whatever it takes for somebody else it's whatever it takes for you so for you it might take meeting with these different coaches someone else might have it easier because they're naturally talented or whatever it might be but it's it's for you and that's something that i love about uh working with karen that he uh he can

he he's like he's that kind of person that we like okay this is what we need to work on and maybe you can't work those things with me so we're gonna go here we're gonna go here we can go here and that's huge having a coach that can put their ego aside and their pride aside like that and be like no you need you should work with them you should work with this person you should work with this person. You should work with this person. And he's still the head coach. He's still, you know, he's still my dad,

but you know, he can, he can do that for me. And a lot of coaches can't, a lot of us coaches are not, if you're not working with me, you're not working with me. You work with me or you don't work with nobody else.

So I found, I'm finding that balance right now between my training camps and everything that this recipe is working pretty good for me right now. I feel really good. I feel probably the best I've ever felt when it comes to grappling or takedown defense. I'm working. I'm progressing. It's striking me, and I feel really good right now.

As we crack open this outright bar, I've got to ask you a question about your nutrition because I've seen you walk in here with some monster energy and a couple of bars and stuff. Let us know what you think of the bar first. Give us a drum roll, Andrew. Oh, good job, Andrew. I tried.

I didn't know you could do it. I've never had cookies and cream peanut butter. That's really good. Yeah, right? That's really good. Shout out to Mark Lobliner in the Outright Bar. Thank you guys for setting us up with some of these bars. No sugar alcohols.

I like it. Yeah, it's basically just honey and peanut butter slapped together. And some protein. I love it. You did a good job. It was a good job, yeah. We're just going to eat the rest of the show. I just...

You do the rest for a little bit, man. I'm just going to enjoy this bar. He's got to wipe off a little bit. It makes me drool really bad. That's what I meant. It does do that. It's terrible terrible so what's your nutrition like so to make 145 i've never had to i've never had a huge cut um and i've always been very i've always ate clean um i've never had to follow anything too specific until the last couple weeks um so i've always just kind of being an athlete about it

just like i'm hungry eat i always i know how to eat clean i've always say i've worked with my in the past i work with a lock heart as well um now i'm gonna start working with perfecting athletes uh because i'm doing a little a little bit of a weight cut i i fought my whole career um in muay thai 140 pounds so it it was 63.5 kilos or something like that. And that's where I felt best at. But the weight classes don't go like that. There's no 140 weight class. But my next fight will be at 140, which I'm really excited about because I'm going to be

doing the catch weight. Essentially the goal is to make it down to bantamweight. The one time that I made it down to bantamweight, it didn't work out so well. Little story. I was an amateur. I was supposed to fight at 142. My opponent pulled out maybe three days before.

So I have to make 142. So I'm probably walking around 150, 152. 10-pound cut, no big deal. Nothing major. I'm used to cutting 10 pounds. And then Kieran comes back to me. He's like, hey, man, your opponent pulled out. The only fight I can get to is a one 35 with this guy.

It might've been like three, four days notice. So going from one 52 to one 35 was huge. And I didn't know how to do that cut. I didn't know how to do it right. I wasn't, and I did it. I made it.

Long story short, my nervous system wasn't ready to take no punches. All I knew is I woke up and I got knocked out. dude can i i'm curious about this man because like you hear about fighters doing weight cuts right but how long typically do they have before the fight because don't guys like they get to that weight and then once that's it they rehydrate and they can get maybe up to 15 to 20 pounds heavier on fight day yes 100 so i when i've stepped in the in the scale at 145 the next day i'll be um and i actually have a pretty funny wake-up story to tell you guys uh overseas but i i'll step in the cage at 160 161 pounds

jeez so that's a 16 to 15 pound and some guys do it even bigger than that. That's the thing. But I don't cut too much weight. So getting there is not hard, but I'll still have that rebound. But I feel like at 135, I can really be the very best version of myself. If I can do it gradually and I can do it the way that I want to. And I think I have a little more knowledge now than back then when I was like, yeah, I'll do it. I'll make, I'll fight, man.

Like, you know, meathead back then. Just like, yep, let's do it. I'll fight. And Karen's like, yep, cool. Sounds good. But yeah, I'm looking forward to that, to that cut. I'm looking forward to like being able to make that weight and actually rehydrate and actually do it properly. But yeah, I mean, all these guys now, everyone's got someone that they're working with.

And there's so many companies out there. And like I said, I've worked with Dolce before. I've worked with Lockhart. I've never had to do an extensive, like an eight-week or a seven-week, this is what you're eating. But that's probably what I'm going to have to do to make 135. But I'm fine with it.

I have the discipline to do to uh to make 135 but i'm fine with it i have the discipline uh to do that so and do you let me as an athlete i'm just curious about just your thoughts on it um would you do you think that that's something that should evolve in terms of what athletes need to do to weight could i mean or should athletes just be able to fight at their weight at that class essentially yeah i mean that that will be i mean that's what one championship is doing right now i don't know if you know what one championship is yeah so one they don't have any weight cuts they uh they do a hydration test uh the week that throughout the week or something like that i heard some people still cheat the system they'll still cut weight because there's always ways to cheat the system right uh but yeah

they don't do they don't supposedly they don't do weight cuts over there essentially yeah that i mean yeah that would be the best way to go about it just having this is your weight class and this is where you stay at and just perform yeah no because like i said i i feel like this is i know this is the hardest sport in the world man having to cut weight having to learn different arts having to keep your cardio up and your strength up um and weight cut at the same time like and having to fight someone as personal as it gets you know finding someone in a cage locked in is i i think it's the hardest sport in the world yeah but there's no none of them uh don't have any weight classes right like the ufc used to not have a weight class i don't think it's was just like, absolutely. Yeah. It was like whatever.

I mean, yeah, there's some jujitsu competitions that they don't have weight classes. And, um, and when, if you go to Thailand, like they don't weigh you in,

I mean, unless you're going to like the, when the lower level stuff, like they're like, they look at you like, yep, you're about, yep.

I think you're good. Yeah. You're fighting. Cool. What's the big advantage of somebody being heavier? They're just stronger? I mean, like. I mean, stronger, heavier.

There's a lot of things. Right, right. Definitely. Like, if I were to fight someone. There's some pluses and some minuses maybe, right? Yeah, I definitely agree with that. Yeah. If you cut too much weight, it will.

I mean, I just told you a story about me getting knocked out for cutting too much weight and not knowing how to do it, not knowing how to rehydrate. I literally remember cutting weight, and I put on maybe two pounds, three pounds overnight. So that's how bad my body reacted to that cut and to that rehydration. And I had cut probably well over the top. I went in there and dehydrated. Think about it. My brain, I've been depleting my brain of fluids and water and, and food.

So going in there and trying to perform, you're like, this is different. So, yeah, I mean, the advantage is like, yeah,

you're a bigger, but it can also hurt you. It can also hurt you really bad. You hear about fighters. I don't know if it was the same with powerlifting or when it comes to bad weight cuts, but when it comes to fighting, people have bad weight cuts all the time. Yeah, it happens with lifting quite a bit.

So in lifting, it doesn't really matter if you're really bloated or you feel like you have a lot of water, liquid floating around. It's not a huge deal. You can kind of stuff yourself during the competition itself and really keep that weight on. But for a fighter, I'd imagine that it might make you feel slow, might make you feel sick to your stomach. So you probably have to be cautious on how you bulk back up, right?

And that was the thing that I really like using the Lockhart. They kept me fed all throughout the week. And I remember the process. Even though I didn't cut too much weight, I was like, are you sure you want me to eat this, man? Because I want to make weight. I don't want to not. Because if you don't make weight, I believe it's 20% or 30% of your purse. Oh, shit.

And that just goes to the other guy automatically. You don't even have to weigh that. That's good. I like that punishment. That's good. Yeah. So, yeah, you lose part. If you don't make weight, I like that punishment so yeah you lose if you don't make weight you lose part of your

you know your earnings but yeah I mean it's just some cuts can go really well some cuts can go really bad and it's just kind of hard to you just gotta know what your body is used to

and how you can go and you got to trust if if you know if you don't know how to cut you definitely gotta hire somebody you know i've done all my cuts with karen as far as the actual weight loss the water loss before the weigh-in uh i cut i can cut 10 12 pounds in a few hours like two three hours wow who decides um whether or not the fight's still gonna happen because like uh let's say like an up-and-comer he has a big fight like they're gonna like oh it's the first test of his career what if he can i mean i would i would doubt that this would actually happen but if he's like well shit i just want to make sure i feel the best

so i'm not gonna be too stressed about the weight because I'm just going to give up 30% of my purse. Yeah. But I'll get the accolades from the win. Like, who decides whether or not the fight's going to still happen? So it depends on how much you miss by. Because there are some commissions that are like, okay, if you miss by over five pounds, you can't fight. Okay. You know?

Or there are some commissions that are like, okay, you missed by two pounds, you have three hours to make the weight. And if you make the weight, you're good. Because there's a window. It's different with all organizations, but it's like from nine to 11, you weigh in. So say you weigh in at nine and you miss by a pound. Okay, you have two hours to come back and make the weight. Some guys are done, though.

I mean, you can imagine. Sometimes that pound won't go man doesn't matter what you do and once you get to that weight loss when you once you get to that point your body doesn't want to lose any more weight you know so uh answering your question is it just depends on the commission it also depends on some people don't want to like some people don't want to fight people that miss weight. And I've seen it happen too. Because if you look at people that have missed weight, most of them win after when they miss weight. I don't know what the numbers are exactly. But most people that have missed weight in the past, they end up winning after. Makes sense.

Yeah. You said that you had a funny story about overseas. Oh, yeah. So I was fighting kickboxing in Italy. Probably one of my favorite fights. It was in a coliseum in Rome. Wow. Awesome.

I leave San Francisco as a foe. I weigh myself and I'm like, okay, I'm like a 153, 15 weigh myself and I'm like, okay, I'm like a 153, 154, and I have to be 145. I'm like, that's not a big thing. I'm always really good about what I eat on planes and I bring my food and I bring

my egg whites, make sure the sodium's low, make sure to keep the water intake, like diuretics, all that, like make sure that it can be as smoothly as possible. For some reason, man, I think I grab like five RX bars and I ate all of them. Why? And you know how much sodium those have. And I don't know why.

I don't know why. I just read like three egg whites. This is like, that's a bad. This is perfect. This is perfect. This is all I need. I get there. I'm 162.8 pounds and I had to be 145 and maybe two and a

half days oh my god so that's like what like 18 yeah 18 pounds yeah and that and there was no normally like there's a pound allowance uh but because it was there's there's like you know you see it all the time like unless it's a championship fight you can make a you know, you see it all the time, like, unless it's a championship fight, you can make a, you know, if the weight class is 145 or 185, you can do 146. Right. Because you get a pound. I didn't get a pound because of kickboxing.

It was like 145.2 on the dot I had to make. And I look at Karen, and I was like, I don't think, I had never cut that much weight. And I had just ran, like,

four miles, and I had, like, I was probably 20 pounds over, man. Honestly, if we have to be miles and i had like i was probably 20 pounds over man honestly if we have to be honest here like i was probably 20 pounds over and i get that i'm like well fuck let's get to it yeah so we get to work man did you make weight i may wait i won the fight but i'll tell you what going back to that like i was really scared to get knocked out and i was fighting a power puncher and but i was really scared to get knocked out. And I was fighting a power puncher.

But I was really scared to get knocked out because I was like, dude, I don't know if my nervous system can take this right now. I really don't know. I don't know if my chin's there like that because I cut so much weight. And that's a thing. But I made it. And in between rounds, I remember I was like, he hits hard. I was like, you're fine. You're doing good.

And I had everything in that fight to finish it. I could have finished it, but I was so cautious. It was still a good performance, but I had that in the back of my head. Which actually, essentially, it made me a better defensive fighter for that fight. Having a counter fighter. That guy's last fight was with Kevin, and he lost a split decision for the belt so i was fighting a uh you know a heavier puncher right you know and i remember like he hit kevin a couple times like and that was in the back of my head but i was still having that in the back of my head and having karen in front of me telling me and i remember

that was it was a beautiful it was a beautiful fight and it was awesome because i had karen and jessica and i don't know if you've seen that picture that i posted and it was awesome because I had Karen and Jessica. Oh, cool. I don't know if you've seen that picture that I posted. Yeah, I'm not sure. It was Jessica holding the ice and then Karen right in front of me. And what I said, I was like, will mom and dad take you to school? That's really cool.

It was awesome, man. It was awesome. It was a great experience. Yeah, I can't wait to fight overseas again. Hopefully soon. Hopefully when things— Are you sometimes surprised that people still get hit by your elbows? I mean, they should be, like, knowing that this shit's coming, right? But remember, you know, Chuck Liddell years ago, he'd throw that haymaker right hand,

and you're just like, how's everybody getting killed by this? Well, when Ronda Rousey came along, she just got everybody in an arm bar. But I guess, you know, when you're fighting and you break someone down, you start to tire them out, it really doesn't matter if they know it's coming. You're still able to get it in there somehow, right? I mean, people see the elbow, but a lot of times the naked eye can't see what leads on to that. There's jabs. There's teeps.

There's different things that I use to set it up. And at the same time, I finish people with leg kicks. I finish people with body shots. That's not the only thing that I have to bring in, especially right now at this moment that I'm trying to develop. Well, it might be overthinking that, and then I get blasted by something else. And, man, I tell you, I have fights that I've tried to land at,

and it won't land. And I'm like, let's go to something. And Karen will tell me in between, I was like, hey, man, this shit's not going to land today. Let's go to this. Let's go to the basics. Let's fall back on the foundation that we have. See if we can find a couple of those, Andrew.

He'll tell me you're not just a spinning elbow. You can do way more than that. You're a much more complete athlete than just a spinning elbow. Sometimes when you have those moments and you have those wins and those crazy like, I've seen this.

I saw this happening. And, yeah, that's one of my earlier highlights in my career. I used to walk out with a bandana like that all the time. Look at that. You think a striker, like they used to say it about Tyson, they used to say a puncher. Boom. Oh!

They say a puncher, in this case a striker yeah that was a 2017 knockout of the year is uh born and not made do you kind of believe something i mean obviously like you you could teach me a bunch of skills and i can learn to punch harder yeah but there is something about these guys that can strike really hard like yourself kevin ross and so on, where it's like, man, I don't know if you can really teach that little extra that you guys put on some of these shots. That was at the SAP Center. That is not nice.

This is not the way you're supposed to behave, okay? This is a little out of control. I'll tell you, man, there's no anger behind that. But I can show you which fights I've been angry in. Those are usually the best ones. That one, I wasn't angry, but I was trying to...

When you're trying to find that knockout, when you're trying to knock people out, sometimes it doesn't happen. You gotta fall back on the foundations and the game plan. That was probably one of my best fights. One of my favorite fights. Dude, he doesn't know where he's at. Yeah, he was probably one of my best fights, one of my favorite fights. Dude, he doesn't know where he's at. Yeah, he's gone, bro.

How are your shoulders and stuff? Your body feel real good? Right now? You know, throwing all these shots in your elbows and stuff. Like, how's everything feeling? I, you know, I've had, from all the elbows and all the little things, I probably have some bone chips in there, but they feel fine right now. I was mentioning to you power lifting and adding some of these lifts into my training and incorporating it i i did it early

on in my career uh when i was making one just 140 and i felt really good me and jessica came up with a plan we were doing five by fives everything i felt really strong um but i still felt a little a little sluggish at that time, because I don't think I did it right the proper way. And now we have, we've come up with a, with a good plan and a good way that it works. And I, man, I, I tell you, man, I've fallen in love with squatting. It's, yeah, I mean, I feel strong. I feel really strong. And I'll agree with you. I hate benching too. You know, I you know I think I think a little bit of training

when it comes to resistance training weight training specifically I think it could just go so far for so many athletes it doesn't have to be a ton though I don't think and I'll tell you

I'll squat once or twice a week and then Jesse showed me how to use the I don't know what is it called the low maybe belt squat

I think it's the belt squat. Yeah. Dude, I love that. I love that. I love that. And it translates so well to fighting. And for fighters out there that are listening, I highly recommend it. You don't have to just do that.

And you can incorporate it. I still run. I still bike. I still do conditioning. I'm the lightest I've probably been in a minute and i'm still squatting um i know it's not huge numbers for you guys but 335 box squat 5x5 dude that's sick that's crazy and you're what 145 155 super strong yeah like and and that was solid like that was just with the belt. Clean reps. Yeah, clean reps. I think I sent you the video.

Yeah. And I feel like I can go stronger now. I can probably hit 350 or even beyond. That's sick, man. Dude, yeah. So, yeah, I've fallen in love with squatting. And it's one of my favorite things to do, actually. You feel it when you're training now?

Or you feel it in the ring? Like when someone goes to take you down or someone kicks you or you kick somebody else? now or you feel it in the ring like when someone goes to take you down or someone kicks you or you kick somebody else i feel i i've never i've never um had my blood taken in like that but i feel my testosterone like just went way up i feel more energized i feel filled out your beard a little for sure for sure i mean no doubt man no doubt but uh i feel really i feel really good though adding those lifts. Just the squatting. I think I mentioned some Romanian deadlifts.

I love kettlebell deadlifts as well. Just two big kettlebells, and it's all core. It all translates. And we do some cleans. We do some benching, some push and pull, some pull-ups. I lift with MJ all the time, too. We have fun with it. But, yeah, my days lifting with Karrion, those days I work in the squat, I pull-ups. I lift with MJ all the time, too. We have fun with it. But yeah, my days lifting with Kieran, those days that we're going to

squat, I love those days, man. I love those days because I know my day is going to just go up from there. It's just going to be wild. I think a lot of times when people are thinking about they're going to add weight training, that they need to be in the gym for two hours or something. And it can be fun. So for those people that like it, then do whatever's

fun for you. But I think you can get away with doing just three to five exercises and have tremendous results, maybe about three times a week, maybe four, depending on the person. But what do you think, Nsema? Because you've been utilizing a lot of strength training and having awesome results on the mat. So what do you think for yourself or for some other people? In terms of what?

Martial artists? Yeah, just how much volume maybe would be a good starting position for them to get better at their game i'd say a minimum of two times a week initially to start like i noticed when i started uh doing jujitsu training i had to lower my training in terms of the gym to two days a week because like all that new fatigue i wasn't able to recover but after a while you get used to i think like most guys think most guys can probably get away with two to three times a week in terms of training in the gym, but they just don't need to go crazy in the gym. Right now with your in-gym workouts, you probably come out feeling pretty good, right? You don't feel beat up.

I don't feel beat up. That's the thing. At first, yeah, leg day will be leg day. But now I'm like, I can train after this, and I feel good, and I feel energized. But I do have a question for you guys. I feel really good when I lift fasted. Me too. I feel great.

I feel stronger. Like, I feel sluggish. I feel just coffee and maybe some AlphaBrain, and, you know, we'll go on from there. But just no food. Have you added electrolytes to that yet? I have not. Dude. I have not.

Dude, add electrolytes. We'll send you home with some today. Yeah, that'll be great. That'll be great. But yeah, how do you feel about it, Mark? Do you think fasted or a little bit of food in you? I've heard both ways. Well, for today, we did a podcast earlier today,

and I was going gonna train after that first podcast and i had the option to eat or just stay fasted and i was like if i eat it's just gonna slow me down like time wise i mean it's gonna take me some time to eat then i gotta kind of digest it and then it's gonna kind of like it's gonna mess up my workout basically because i don't have enough time to let it like sit there you You know, if I had two hours to let it digest, then maybe I would have chose to eat. But I like training fasted. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I think for a lot of people, they just need to be careful that they don't get too far behind on the nutrients that they need.

You know, and Simo was mentioning, you know, electrolytes and stuff like that. It's super important. But I think sometimes there's so much talk about weight loss, I just kind of worry sometimes that people are going too far down that other side and then they're not getting their protein in for the day. If it doesn't affect you in the sense that you're still able to get your protein in for the day and you're still able to get some other good nutrient-rich foods, then you're good to go. So I'll tell you what I did originally before I started my camp.

Obviously, when camp comes around, I got to eat a lot more because I'm putting out a lot of – I'm working every day, all day. So I have to eat. I need those nutrients. You got like 10, 12-hour days or something like that? Not so – I mean, with driving, yeah. It's a full-time job. But I'll be physically active for about five to six hours a day.

And that includes running or conditioning and grappling and striking and sparring and drilling and all the various. It's not all like that for listeners. It's not all that every day. Some days are lighter. Some days are just two hours of tactical training. Many days are at least three different workouts probably many, many times. At least every day, yeah. So what I was doing for a little

bit is I was just saying fasted until about one o'clock, two o'clock, and then the first thing that I would have would be a juice. Just a cold-pressed juice. And I felt great like that. And I could probably go like that until I have my juice and I have my protein.

I started drinking this vegan protein about last year as uh forget this is like organe or something like that a really good protein i really really like it i like the way my body digests this because i i used to get i used to drink a lot of whey and it just it just didn't sit well with me so i stopped doing that but i But I found that I still needed to get my proteins in and my nutrients. So I found that the vegan protein was actually really, really, really good for me. It worked really well for me. That along the juice, I'm ready for another workout. I think it's important to figure out what feels good for you. It's just really important.

What do I run well off of? I mean, you saying that you train fasted pretty often is a good indication that your metabolism is working really well. It sounds like your body is able to say, hey, like, let's use some sugar for this workout. Or if it has to, it can say, hey, let's rely on some fat for this, you know, workout because we don't, he didn't feed us anything. We don't have any sugar. And I rely a lot on, like, my feels, you know, on how I feel. This week it's just been been hectic. I've just been moving. I have not been eating

nearly as much as I should be, but this is kind of like a throwaway week because I was moving and Kieran kind of gave it to me because my thigh got extended and it got pushed back a little bit. So he kind of told me like, hey, come in. We're going to get you hooked up, buddy. We're going to get you hooked up with some Piedmontese beef. We have like some of the best steak.

Oh, yeah yeah it's freaking awesome we'll get we'll get a bunch sent out i'm excited yeah i'm really excited but um but yeah man like those um i have not been eating enough this week because i've been just moving and doing all these things and still getting my workouts in but still getting things done and uh but yeah i found that fasted work i mean my at least one workout a day has to be fasted. And obviously, it's going to be the first one. And it's not like just lifting. It's one of your martial arts ones too?

Yeah. I mean, I love running fasted. I love, and I'm not saying that it's for everybody. Some people don't like it and some people, it's not for everyone. But I like the mental clarity that i get throughout doing just my first workout have you been doing this for a while the fasted workouts a few months now a few months and dolce was huge on on doing a fast some fasted cardio you know but then there's the opposite side of that i will run six miles faster and that's not good okay that's not good right that's

not good i agree that's not good either because then you start breaking muscle fiber and and you know you i would have to say you know it really depends on the style of workout that you're about to do and stuff if you if you could think of things this way if um like let's say you got paid to actually lift weights right like say you got paid to work out and you got paid based off of how you worked out for the day just like you get paid for the fight like with the fight you're not going to choose to be fasted for the fight necessarily. You're probably going to eat, you know, two, three hours ahead of time, make sure your stomach doesn't get weird or whatever, right? If you're to pick up points or make money rather off of like lifting, you'd probably

choose to eat a little bit of food because you would probably have a little bit better performance. You probably would make more money. And so if you think about, it just depends on what you're going to do, though. Like how important is that particular workout for that particular day? And also, what does digesting food, does it slow you down? Is it going to feel crappy when you're trying to do your training? And so all these things, they factor in heavily to whether you should eat or not before you do a training session.

Definitely. And I agree with that because I, and I look at my schedule. I'm like, okay, I have this, this and that. Am I going to have enough time to eat between these workouts or should I eat now and just rest and then go for my workouts? Or should I go faster just all day? And sometimes I just, I'll just have to really be honest with myself and be like, okay, we should eat now or we should eat later. Do you take any supplements, any amino acids or anything like that? I do take aminos.

I do take aminos. One thing I would just suggest is just like your body doesn't really, at least as far as we understand right now, your body doesn't really necessarily store protein or amino acids for like long periods of time. So that might be something to consider is just, you did mention you throw down a protein shake and you have some aminos. So that, that sounds like you're on the right track you throw down a protein shake and you have some aminos. So that sounds like you're on the right track. No, I do.

I do do the aminos. I started doing, I used to do different types of aminos. I think I'm doing Yamamoto Nutrition. My buddy Flex Lewis, I don't know if you guys know who that is. Of course we do. Yeah. Flex is a, he's a funny guy, man. He's really just doesn't have a lot of muscle mass.

He's kind of small. I guess he's moved up in the Olympia, right? He's doing like the heavyweight? Yeah, he's going heavy. He's going heavy. He's like 230 pounds right now. And it just doesn't, you can't even, you're not even sure what you're looking at anymore. I love that guy, man.

He hits me up whenever I have a fight coming up. Hey, man. He is a savage, that guy man he hits me up whenever I have a fight coming up he's like hey man he is a savage that guy I was hanging out with him and we went shopping because we were both in New York for a Bellator fight because he's a monster athlete and I am as well

and we went shopping he's like man I can't buy any shirts because I gotta get my shirts like custom. He gets like a triple XL, but then he has to cut it because he's, he's about,

he's, I think he's a little shorter than me. He's probably quite a bit shorter than you. Yeah, he's like five, four or five.

But he's like, and I was working out and I remember we were working out and he was like, he gave me a little pointers, like,

just like little things, man. Like, like, no, you got to flex a pinky or something like that for just curls. But yeah, he's an amazing guy. He's a really good guy.

He got me hooked up with the, he told me like, hey, if you want some really good aminos, the Yamamoto ones are going to be really good. And they've worked really well. I actually feel a difference throughout my workouts and post-workout. And yeah, I swear by aminos. Another advantage of aminos is they usually have electrolytes in them so oh so maybe yeah yeah you get some of your salt you get some of your magnesium and potassium and stuff like that from some of that stuff yeah and um on hot days i'll i love starting my day out still fasted but i'll i'll just do salt water with lemon. Just to get a little extra

and get those micronutrients in. There's some days that I feel like that too. How about sleep, man? Is it tough to sleep or are you just dead by the end of the day? It just depends. It just really depends. I started using

ZMA. I don't know if you know what that is. I started using ZMA and it doesn't know if you know what that is. I started using ZMA and it doesn't make me fall asleep faster or not, but I do feel a difference in how I sleep and my recovery throughout my sleep. Yeah. I, unfortunately I wasn't able to take it yesterday because all my stuff is packed up and I'm still unpacking at my house. But yeah, I feel a huge difference with that. And I just, you know, I know that the more I train throughout the day, the better I'll be able to sleep at night, even though I'll be tired and I'll be, however I get to that end of the day.

The CMA has actually helped me a lot in recovery. Naps? A lot. Are you able to get a nap in here? I love napping. Yeah. But it's got to be, it's got to be like that yeah but it's gotta be it's gotta be like that like it's gotta be like that 30 30 to 28 minute nap man i'm telling you like anything longer i'm like

i'm sluggish i'm sluggish the pass session is going different uh i do add some crossfit workouts in there um you know so and those are mostly in the afternoon so like if if they'll nap too long I won't wake up, I won't bounce back and that'll mess up my sleep at night too because I nap too long so now I'm going to fall asleep at 1am or 2am instead of at 11. Does your day start pretty early? For the most part for the most part and

regardless it always does like today I start up very early but regardless it usually does time five or six o'clock you're getting up and getting moving on something and then if i have a training early transition i still have to like walk the dog and do all these things and like you know get i don't ever like rushing like i don't like waking up like 10 minutes before work i'm but even though i live right now well i used to i guess because i just moved i live maybe two minutes away from the gym but i always wake up

an hour an hour and a half early because i like to do my cough i like to drink my coffee and you gotta poop because if you drink coffee and walk the dog and i don't like rushing that's one of my biggest like things i hate rushing i hate just being on the go and like that stress that comes from rushing i'll tell you how stupid i am i hate rushing right but i'm always late and i'm always rushing yeah i need to get better still that's the way i'm working on and when i'm rushing actually lately like i've been my grandpa used to tell me this thing that napoleon said napoleon you know he he used to get dressed by his servants and stuff like that i never caught this because i was really young he was like napoleon used to say dress me

slowly because i'm in a hurry and that if you think about that you make the most miss like at least for me i make i forget things i like i go the wrong way like dress like accuracy accuracy you know think about what you're doing think about like it's like it's a big thing stress me slowly so that if we fuck up yeah i don't have any time to come back and change in anything else exactly like being i'm in a rush cautious when you're in a rush is huge and that's something that literally just clicked for me like i was maybe like 10 years old when my grandpa used to tell me this. You know,

but now it's like, wow, that applies to a lot of things that I do now in life. You know, so. Wow. My wife's

old boss, he used to always say, you got to slow down when you're going fast. And he had, he was a New Yorker and kind of had this, you know,

thick New York accent. And he was all about doing everything real fast. And so a lot of other people around him thought, this is the way we do shit. Like you do stuff real fast. But then they would do something and they would do it wrong. And he said, look, you got to slow down when you're going fast.

Meaning it's kind of a similar thing that you're talking about. Like let's bring some accuracy to it, even though I asked you to move quickly. Efficiency. Efficiency is a big thing. And that's being actually a big theme in this camp and this, like just being efficient with my training sessions, being efficient with my days,

being efficient with my recovery and my rest days, being efficient with what I eat, you know, just efficiency all around. Yeah. Andrew, what's the quote from John Wooden? See if you can look that up. He has a quote about, he has a quote about like slowing down or being efficient or something sick.

He's a freaking legendary coach. Good with that shit. I'll find it. As we look that up, man, as far as recovery is concerned, do you do stretching? What do you do for yourself? Cryo. Cryo? Yeah.

Okay. I have it in a minute, so I would be a hypocrite to tell you that I do it every day. But I find cryo to be very, very, very, very helpful when it comes to fighting and everything. I don't get as much body work as I should, but that's probably one area of improvement that I need. Okay. Recovery. Definitely recovery. Yeah, it seems like the cold therapy is huge.

And then if some people do hot and cold, where they go back and forth, and I've had opportunities to do that before. And like, even if it's only for a little bit, which it kind of feels like it doesn't really last that long, but it's a good 10, 20 minutes where you kind of feel like someone, it's almost as if you didn't work out at all for a little bit. The endorphins are, the endorphins and everything is crazy.

Yeah, your legs are killing you and you get in there and it gets rid of all the aches, all the pains, and you're like, wow, that made that big of a difference. That's crazy. So normally what I used to do, I haven't been finding time for it lately, but what makes me feel good is I'll go to cryo, then I use the compression boots, the Normatec,

and then after that I'll do to cryo then I use the compression boots the norma tech then after that I'll do 20 minutes in the sauna and that's just such a huge like I feel really good after that I feel like I can I can go back and do another two three hours is it be quick but don't hurry there you go yeah don't hurry but don't hurry. That's sick. With your fight coming up right now, is it a little bit different for you than some of the other fights in the past? I mean, it sounds like you're maturing and growing and learning so much more about yourself. Does it start to feel different? You know, because you were mentioning like a little fighting with some anger. And I'm sure you kind of want to use that sometimes too, right, to your advantage.

But, you know, is it getting different as you mature? Yeah, I mean, I look at fighting, like I said, it's more of a business transaction. There's still the passion. The passion is always there. And that's what fuels it. And every day, waking up every day and having that goal as we talked about is huge uh but yeah i mean there's always that that that competitiveness that is there and that has to remain you know because you want to be better you want to be better but what i found

is like i'm not trying to compete with anybody i'm not at least now i'm not trying to compete with anyone in the room i'm trying to compete with myself man i'm trying to be better than i was yesterday like can this gaston beat the gaston four years ago can these guys can this gaston be the guy that came he that came in yesterday that's like that's what i'm trying to do i'm trying to progress but i'm not i'm not trying to compete with anyone yeah my opponent is my opponent and that's that's just another opponent but i'm trying to this the the path of self-improvement is the one that I'm on do you get caught up in some stuff here and there where you're like man I'm

fucking wasting my time why am I doing this like social media or trying to capture a selfie like do you find yourself going dude like like we're on a mission here like what the fuck you doing you have to definitely I've been way too cut up and in social media before, and it's affected my relationships with previous girlfriends and people and family. So I finally hit, for the first time, I'm really proud of it, I hit less than three hours on my phone average. Nice. I'm pretty happy about that. Yeah, no, that's great.

I'm pretty happy about it. First of all, I got to commend you on just recognizing it. Yeah. Like, fuck, dude. Like, most people just, they don't want to recognize that it's an issue. What am I doing with my time? What am I, like, this, I'm trying to, if you're trying to do things, you can't be, like, essentially, like, just looking and scrolling. Yeah, you're more interested in your phone than you are.

What are other people doing? Yeah. No, that's huge. Like, just being able to, like, be present. That's a huge thing, too. Like, being present. Like, when you're at your, when I'm at my grandma's house, like, I want to be present that's a huge thing too like being present like when you're your grandma when i'm on my grandma's i was like i want to be present i want to be there when i'm having

conversations with people i want to be present i want to be there when you're in training when you're doing things i want to be present i want to be there i don't want to be thinking about you know who what so-and-so posted or whatever like i want to be present yeah and that's that's way yeah i I understood finally you know and it's still I mean it's still like I mean my phone's like

it's right here so it's right there it's very easy to fall back into it you know but I'm just like I said that awareness well people already know

how good of a fighter you are too so it's not like not like you capturing that extra selfie even if it's with the greatest fighter of all time is going to really yeah but you just get excited you get excited about it, even if it's with the greatest fighter of all time, is going to really. Yeah.

But you just get excited. You get excited about it. So it's an easy trap to fall into. It's just so easy to like, okay, you post one thing and then you post another one and you post another one and you're just scrolling and like you're not present. And you see that with this generation so much. Everyone's on their phone. You see people on dates and everyone's on their phone. And I'm telling you right now, I used to be like that.

And sometimes I can be like that. And just being aware of that is what's helping me a lot. It's helping me a lot because I don't care to be on my phone like that. My phone's a tool. It's getting me to the GPS, texting coaches or whatnot, texting friends. Yeah, 100%, training partners. But it's a tool, and it should be used as a tool. It shouldn't be your whole life.

And it's sad that this generation has fallen into that. And I hope that we revert back a little bit. Because, I mean, to be honest with you, man, I'm pretty pissed that my little sisters have Instagram. My brother hits me up on Instagram and he's 12. I didn't have an Instagram when I was 12. My sister's 10. It's too different. Why do you have an Instagram?

I was out surfing and training back then. I didn't have a phone to worry about. So, yeah. What about, have you ever gotten caught up have you ever gotten caught up uh like trying to over promote a fight like you know we see that a lot these days in the ufc you know like after they win a fight it's like wwe sometimes uh how about any of that stuff i mean yeah i've definitely gotten caught up like fixated on like posting and promoting and like posting myself and like you you can get real like social

media can make you be like kind of like fall in love with yourself a lot too much narcissistic yeah uh i've been posting i've been trying to post less and less and you know i besides my sponsors and things like that like duties that i have you know yeah i love i love connecting with my fans and i love connecting with people and i've been trying to reply to people more uh people that just hey I'm a huge fan this and that and like I love I'm starting to love more like those genuine conversations like people that actually care about you versus just promoting things and just like like throwing things out there in social media you know like I like I like to be a little different than that now at least I I'm finding that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I want to know about this, man, because two things come to mind for me when I think about this.

Like the most devastating types of techniques in the ring, this past weekend, the Israel Costa fight, when he just kept kicking that knee. And then you mentioned that you've like kicked ACLs and just blown them out on people, right? And then also one thing that I saw, it was the Kamaru Usman versus Masvidal when he was stomping his foot.

Do you remember that? That was the first time I've ever seen somebody stomp somebody's foot. It's quite popular, actually, among wrestlers. Among wrestlers, it's quite a technique. What was the question again? I'm just curious, if you're doing that in a fight, couldn't that potentially

just be like, I don't know, career ending? Because I just feel like getting kicked in the knee, it's hard to recover even post fight. It was a calf kick

and calf kicks have become more popular throughout times. Yeah. It started, Benson Henderson was actually one of the original guys

to first do it. It wasn't as devastating but he's the first one that I've seen do those calf kicks yeah uh the more you the more the damage has shown how like how how effective they are the more people are throwing them but it's as simple as just putting your shin out at a at a different angle and that calf kick becomes your kick in the shin ah is it a kick on the outside or inside

don't don't actually kick me it can be it can go on the inside right here or it can kick on the outside or the inside? Don't actually kick me. It can go on the inside right here, or it can go on the outside right there. That would just... And like I said, the shin hitting that calf has become very popular because it makes a lot... How do you condition your calf? Oh, shit. Yeah. No, you can't condition your...

I can condition my shins. I can condition my body. I can squat and get stronger. I can get, you can't condition your... Donkey calf raiser, bro. I can't condition my shins. I can't condition my body. I can squat and get stronger. Like, I can get kicked. I can condition that. But conditioning calves, that's... And that's why they're so efficient. You know?

And the foot stomps, too. How do you condition your... Your toes. The bones in your... You can't. Yeah. I don't know a ton about the fight game, but I've been watching it for many, many years. And I just...

I'm fascinated by it. Like, you know, because as a kid growing up and knowing a little bit about like boxing and then seeing like wrestling and then seeing the, seeing jujitsu come along and just, it was just really fascinating. Like when someone is doing something like a calf kick, you're like, oh, okay, well, I'll just pick my leg up. I got a big deal. Then I won't get kicked in the calf. Oh, I mean, first of all, you're still getting hit.

And then secondly, now the guy can take you down or the guy can throw another fake at you or another move at you or whatever. So it's just like, it just seems like the ultimate chess match and it seems impossible to ever really gain some real mastery of it. And Kieran says he always i remember this like like like i always remember this when i want it when i get a little like when i get into different like exchanges that i shouldn't be in or like play chess not checkers you know you want to be that assassin you want to be cold-blooded in there you don't want to have to be emotional and you don't want to have to

go like essentially you don't want to do things that you don't want to do cold-blooded in there you don't want to have to be emotional you don't have to go like essentially you don't want to do things that you don't want to do you know and like sometimes your ego will get in the way it's like no let's get in the middle and like let's bang let's go instead of being smart and keeping your distance and you know making your opponent fall into your traps you know so and talking about the evolution of the fight game it's crazy every everyone's well like it's beautiful to see uh starting from you know the early days in the ufc when each fighter was good at one thing you know good as a good striker or a good wrestler and they fought with shoes and gis on and and things and now seeing the progression and the evolution of it is beautiful

it's beautiful to see how much the sport has grown it was the first sport live uh through covid i mean that speaks volumes that's the only thing that was on that's huge people need that yeah yeah when you're talking about calf kicks it made me think about an oblique kick why the hell is it called that an oblique kick is completely different than a calf kick yeah no i know, I know. But I'm just saying, like, it just made me think about that. And I have no idea why it's called an oblique kick. Is the oblique kick the straightforward one? The straightforward one.

That's the one that Jon Jones does on top of the opponent's knee. Yeah, I was talking about it. Oh, God. And it's a small move, but that's another thing. You have to see Jon Jones' body and his composition. He's very tall. He's very long. He's not going to put himself in much danger by doing that.

If I try to do that to someone like your height, I'm too close. I'm going to get hit. So different techniques were different for different fighters. Who is your favorite fighter? As you watched fighting over the years and you participated in it, who's the person, maybe you don't emulate someone, but maybe, actually, there's two questions here. Who would your favorite fighter be? But then also, who are the fighters that you look to and you're like,

I kind of like the stuff that they're doing? I might sound like I'm jumping on a bandwagon or whatnot. I love Eazy. Eazy. Israel Adesanya, best striker in the UFC right now. Best striker in the game, potentially. Really? Yeah, he's that good.

And I've seen him go from his glory days, glory kick boxing days, and fighting Muay Thai before that into what he is now. And his evolution is crazy. uh and fighting muay thai before that into what he is now and his evolution is it's crazy it's crazy to see how much he he's evolving how quickly he's risen to the top so yeah he's a fighter i definitely look up to uh in that way but i'm a student of the game and i love watching fighting and i'm always watching it i'm always i'm always what every fight every single not every single fight but obviously i try to like analyze and i at home at night I'll watch different fights too. And yeah, I just, I love the game on this.

Like I love watching things and picking up things and like, wow, that worked for this guy. How come they don't work for that guy? And like, that's, I guess like that's my favorite thing to do is just analyze and, and kind of grow that fight IQ. And, and, you know, is just analyze and, and kind of grow that fight IQ. And, and, you know, with just vision and watching. Yeah.

I think bones Jones is like so ridiculous. You watch him fight. Like sometimes he's like mentioned this before where he's like stole the other guy's superpower or whatever. And you're like, what the fuck is he talking about? But he kind of does like, you know,

whatever the other guy was really, really good at. He just does that back to them and somehow kicks their ass with it. And that's what I'm talking about. He always fights his game plan. He always follows through with that. His opponents are always fighting their B fight. You know?

They got to go to a different plan. You got to go to a different plan. And what if you didn't train for that different plan? And you got to adjust and you're not ready to adjust. And you have a guy that is adamant and consistent with what they're doing it becomes very difficult and especially when they're the champion yeah yeah him and adesanya have been going at each other back and forth on twitter yeah i'm that would be a crazy fight i'd love to see that because i think i think is he definitely has the frame for it to go up if he wanted to. He's gigantic.

He definitely has the frame. And I think he's faster. I think it would be a great fight. I think it would be great for the sport. I liked his response to the steroid allegations. I don't think I saw that. But he was like, I would think I'm on steroids, too, way I like whooped that guy's ass. If you look at Paulo, like, and you look at Izzy,

like if to like the regular, the, the general public, they'll be like, Oh, that guy's going to win. Right. Right.

But what happened? Yeah. Right. But, but real talk, everyone like who's thinking Paulo Costas on steroids, he's six, one,

185 pounds. Like he's not massive. He, he, he's not, he's just really, really lean. It's just like people don't... I've heard on Joe Rogan's podcast that he measures all his food and all he does is train.

And that's all he focuses on. I don't know personally because I never met him. But from what I hear, it makes sense. If you're like that, I don't see why you couldn't get that big and why you couldn't do that. And, you know, genetics play a big part into it.

You know, like, you see people that are at the gym all the time, every day, and their results are in there or they're not eating right or they're not doing the right things,

you know? But if, if genetics and, you know, nutrition and sports and everything and activities, everything lines up together, like, I and sports and everything and activities, everything lines up together.

Like I don't see why you couldn't get like that. Yeah. You know, you know, actually I'm curious about this because a lot of fighters don't really pay much attention to their nutrition. They just focus on the fighting and the training and that's great for you. Um,

because Kieran was always like in your corner, did you always have like a good nutrition going for you? Or did you... No? No, man. I mean, I was a kid when I started. So I would have times that Kieran would pick me up. I'm like, hey, man, we're fighting this weekend.

I'm like, cool. I'm eating ice cream right now. So let's go. Let's go cut five, ten pounds, whatever we got to do. And we would rehydrate and refeed however I needed to. There was no science to it you know there was just and then he started coming up with different things you know and like we you learn it's trial and error like anything else you know you learn and then the higher you get up in the game and the harder it becomes to cut weight and keep that weight down and

the different goals that you have. Like maybe I want to be really ripped or maybe, you know, I want to just get bigger and cut down from there. Like it depends on what goals you have. But yeah, nutrition is a huge factor, huge, huge factor because you are what you eat. And if you're eating like shit, you're not going to feel very good. You're not going to perform very good. And that's at least that's what I found. Do you like coaching people?

I love coaching, man people i love coaching man i love coaching one day um this guy's like he's training for five hours he's like coaching people in between the last time i was at his gym i was like how this how is this possible guy's a savage i find transferring knowledge fascinating fascinating like being able to like have the words that click to a person and seeing that like yep i got it or when it doesn't right or when it doesn't you say something like how did they interpret it that way you have to find different ways or different analogies like i love uh darren oyama he's uh he's uh he uses a lot of analogies with me like surfing he surfs too so he was different like you gotta get up like it's like a wave you know you get and like that clicks for me so me seeing how it clicks for me with it with him or with coach with different coaches that i have is it's fascinating it's

fascinating to like see that it'd be like wow like that click for me and like being able to transfer that to someone else like being able to have that that that's huge. Yeah. Gotcha. That's how I feel about coaching. I love coaching. Uh, I don't have as much time for it as I wish I could, you know, but I do help a few guys in the amateur team and I, I do love coaching practices. When, when Karen's out of town, I'm going to, there's a high chance that I'm going to be coaching, uh, the practice, whatever it is, whether it's a striking or sparring or whatever it is, there's a high chance that I'm, and I love doing it. I love, I love, uh, being able to do that, uh, when I have a chance.

Yeah. Do you think it might be something you will move into, uh, you know, when you, as you get older and can't fight anymore? I don't know, man. Fighters are complicated. Myself included. I, you know, it's a real fighting's crazy. It's a roller coaster of emotions and, and it's a lot to deal with.

Yeah, I would love to one day be able to have a few fighters, but have a huge fight team? I don't know, man. I want to have a family eventually. I want to have kids, and I don't want my world to revolve around just fighting. I want to retire by the time I'm 34. I don't want to keep doing this forever. Gotcha. No, I have goals.

I have things that I want to do. How many fights can you or do you ideally try to take a year? This year, hopefully, I mean, I had that one fight in February. Unfortunately, COVID happened. I'll probably be at three fights now and maybe one more.

Ideally, three to four is ideal. Beautiful. You know, given the camps and the time in between and I don't gain too much weight in between camps, so it's nice. And I don't get out of shape. I live in the gym, basically. You know, I love taking little vacations here and there.

But, yeah, I love the gym. It's what I was brought up in that environment. So that's what I do, you know, whether it's a workout or a crossfit workout or maybe, you know, maybe we'll squat today. Or maybe we just hit some mitts or hit the bag. Like, I've always been, you know, around the gym. So, I deal with three to four fights. Nice. Are your parents excited, you know, like what you've become and what you've been able to

do? That must be pretty amazing for them to have seen your progress. My dad's one of my biggest fans, man. He's, every time, he's always excited. And he gets more emotional than I do. And my mom's always like, I left Peru and I left my mom when I was 13. But we've always kept communication, obviously.

But she kind of didn't realize what I was doing until I was fighting in Peru a couple times and she saw what was going on. She's like, oh. You're signing autograph fought in Peru a couple times and she saw like what was going on and she's like oh you're signing autographs and stuff

yeah and they're like wow okay this is what we're doing now so she kind of like just my mom just kind of goes in with the variety

you know and like she's always like hey I wish you the best you know my grandma's a huge supporter as well she's there for every fight

man my grandma man that's cool she's that's when she was back in the 50s she's like kick his ass she was a flight attendant uh in the 50s and only the prettiest women were allowed to do the job back then uh in peru so that's cool that's what she met my grandpa wow yeah okay and the ladies they don't the the mom and grandma, they're not, like, squeamish about you getting hit?

I mean, my grandma's seen me getting knocked out. She's seen me getting tapped out. Like, she's not tapped out. She's seen me get choked out. Oh. And she's always there after. And she's like, I love you. And, you know, like, she's always, and she, for her to see that.

Yeah. It shows, I think it shows how much, how much of a supporter she can be. You know, my grandma, my mom will probably be like, be like no, my mom won't be able to see that my dad just kind of, my dad gets angry if I lose, he's happy when I win but I've always had great support from my family and obviously Kieran and Jessica

have been my family as well, they've always supported me through all that MJ as well I love when people don't understand it very well and they're like what happened and you're like i got smoked like i don't know like fuck man like shit's hard why didn't you hit him yeah you're like ah just yeah people ask you that all the time and and you learn how to deal with right you know like and things not to piss you off so much because there's people that literally hit you up you're about to

fight two hours like hey where's it what's the address and like dude i'm fighting in two hours like why are you asking hey can i still buy tickets and or after the same thing like what happened for free bro what happened what do you do to him like and yeah people yeah people always trying to get things for free well you trained really well what happened why didn't you do the elbow thing yeah exactly yeah so yeah i mean, you help people understand and you communicate. So, you know, I mean, everyone's come to support you. You know, it's always a beautiful thing. You know, win or lose, you know, you always have that support system behind you.

At least I've always had. And I'm thankful for that. I'm truly blessed that I'm in the position that I'm in. I'm truly blessed that I have the people that I have surrounding me. And I'm truly blessed to be in this journey, man. I'm happy. I love what I do. I wake up every day.

Sometimes I wake up really sore. But I wake up every day, you know, with that passion and that drive. And I hope that, you know, that doesn't go away. I'm trying to keep it there. I'm trying to keep that fire active. And I feel like it's reignited lately. You know, like i'm truly like in a different path now and i'm happy i can't say that i know a lot of fighters but i don't know any notable peruvian fighters so being that like your family's back there are you do you have any plans on doing anything

in terms of peru as far as i had a gym i have a gym i had a gym um if you can pull up philab uh peru uh that's the gym it was a it's a beautiful gym in the 20th floor of uh one of the nicest buildings in in lima wow uh we have a gym over there unfortunately covid has uh hit us a little harder than we wanted to. Things over there were pretty rough. People were locked, on lockdown, full lockdown, everyone for months. And now gyms still can't open, so we're trying to figure out a way. But, I mean, yeah, man, I see myself going in different avenues, you know, with this. And every time I'm in Peru, I always try to do a seminar or a free seminar

or try to bring clothes with or a free seminar and like, or try to bring close with me and give it to the kids that are just getting started. Whether, whether this is their path or not, uh, a little motivation can go a long way for anyone in any, in any given day. So, yeah, I, I love going, uh, I used, I lived in the North for a little bit in North of Peru and it's very poor,. There's a very poor area. Last time I went there, I was able to bring a few of my 20 or 30 pairs of shorts that I don't use anymore. I was just hanging them out.

They were so happy, man. Being able to do that for someone is huge, man. It's huge. It's beautiful to be able to do that for people. That's the kind of person that I want to become and do it in a larger larger scale now that's ideally you know being able to do that in peru and maybe have a non-profit or something like that it's something that can support kids and motivate kids to do that you know that's that's where i see myself going in the future of that have you uh gotten happier over the years like

did you like you've mentioned the word happy a couple times and you feel really good. Previously, did you have a hard time finding that? Well, man, I've been married and divorced. I've been through relationships. I left my mom when I was 13. I've had that. I've had my parents divorced when I was eight.

I was just able to squash that lately with them. I feel like I'm finally at a moment that I can be, like, flowing. Cool. You know, I finally feel like I got there. You know, I'm still working every day. It's a constant work and it's a constant battle every day to not be how you were, you know, previously. You know, I've been a shitty person. I've done shitty things.

And being able to, like, understand that and not just kind of like throw it's fine like no like there's a reason you act different ways so being able to understand that and comprehend that and like i said trial and error and like being able to like actually address the issues is what i'm working towards right now and i'm still working man it's a it's a it's a never ending journey you know much like the martial arts and like they both go so hand in hand life and martial arts and fighting is so it can be so similar you know of the things that can happen to you in life and the things that can happen to you in the gym or in the octagon or the cage um so yeah just trying to like just trying to balance it out, man.

Just trying to find a little balance here. I always think that working on yourself is a full-time job. It's something you got to do every day, and it's something you got to take very seriously, and it can be hard. It can be hard to have perspective. And a lot of people don't want to look in the mirror, man. Essentially, it's hard to look in the mirror, man. Essentially, like, it's hard to look in the mirror,

and it's hard to, like, see and look at those ugly traits and face them on, you know? Much like it's hard to, like, hear that you suck at a certain thing in fighting. Hey, why are you getting taken down constantly? You're getting tapped out. Why are you getting hit with that constantly? Same thing. I got to improve that. Same thing in life, so retirement at 34 what's the uh what's the roadmap look like i mean i'm just giving you a

date you know i mean just give me a number really like i just know i don't want to fight forever i don't want to be a 40 year old fighter you know if things are well by then and i'm still going and i can take a couple fights a year yeah. Yeah, of course I'll keep fighting, but, um, I just don't want it to be my, the center of my life for so many years, you know, it's like,

I want to focus on, on other things. I want to have a family eventually, you know, I want to be, I want to be more of a leader and, and you can't do that while you're, you know,

it's a, you're, you're very self-involved when you're a fighter. Everything's about you. Everything else is just components. But everything, like the camp's all about you, is what can you bring to the table every day, and what are you going to bring to the table when it comes to that fight?

So I don't want to do that forever, man. I want to be a little less selfish later in life. And I feel like for other sports it's it's got to exist but what is it about fighting that people will like straight up live in their cars just so that way they can train like and it's such a you just said it yourself earlier like you're like yeah it is scary like i don't want to go and fight somebody else but to put some for somebody to put themselves through something like that and be willing to give up everything what is it like what is that all about because like i don't see somebody living

in their car to play basketball you know like you don't see that i don't i really only hear about it with fighters well i think it's such a thing like fighting is not something that you do in high school it's not something that you do like it's. It's not something that you do, like, it's not like, you're not brought up on it, you know, like basketball, football, like you do in high school, even wrestling,

soccer. Those are things that you do, like, as you grow, you know, and some people play in college or some people go to college and then eventually professional or not. Fighting is something that you kind of like, I,

most people that I've heard, like, they just find it or it finds them and they fall in love with it. And they're willing to live in their cars and they're willing that, and that passion is there, man. And I'm telling you when that passion is there, it doesn't matter if you're eating top ramen or not,

you're going to show up and you're going to do everything you need to do so you can be successful. You know? Yeah. And I saw that when I went to Jackson wink and just seeing like some of the fighters you can be successful you know yeah and i saw that when i went to jackson wink and just seeing like some of the fighters there they you know they live in like kind of a dorm it's a dorm yeah they live at the gym yeah and it's just they don't they don't care they love it like they i mean they really are they're um they're more than happy to be there like they're

really fucking pumped that they earned a spot to be there. And the conditions that they live in, not that they're gross or anything, but they would be really difficult, you know, to live amongst a bunch of other fighters at the same goal as you. And to kind of, you know, it's almost like the ultimate fighter, like, reality show. But they're living it every day. Like, shit, man, that would be a very competitive environment. And to share a space with so many other people would be really tough. I mean, I've seen people like my friend Diego Lamas

and his wife Mariana Lamas. They're from Mexico. One day they showed up at the gym, like, yeah, we live here now. Not in the gym? No, we just moved here. And they made it work. They made it work. They found a job, they found a here. Okay. And they made it work. Wow. They made it work.

They found a jobs. They found a place to live and they made it work. And there's so many stories like that. Right. People just show up. Because Karen, we don't have dorms at the gym. Karen's like, you want to be here? If you want to be here, you'll be here.

Right. That's how he is. If you want to be here, you'll be here. And a lot of people really want to be there, man. Yeah. Awesome, man. Great having you on the show today. Thank you for coming in.

We got to have you stop by some more because you're coming down to train a little bit, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm here once or twice a week. I've been working with Danny Castillo a lot at Uriah Favors Gym. I know all the guys there. It's been a great addition to my training, man, like I said. guys there. It's been a great addition to my training, man. Like I said. But yeah, man, I'd love to come sometime.

We can do a little lifting as well. Yeah, hit up some box squats. We don't have to bench. I mean, we can bench, but we gotta do a lot of pull-ups too. That's fine with me. There you go. Where can people find you? At Dreamkiller underscore Bolanos on Instagram.

Dreamkiller underscore Bolanos. Instagram Dreamkiller underscore Bolanos B-O-L-A-N-O-S And then who's the guy you're fighting coming up? I think we're still waiting on a bout agreement. We're for sure fighting there's a couple names out there but we're still waiting on the actual bout agreement but I know for sure

I'll be on that card And then do you have a handful of fights that are going to be set up through Bellator that you're going to be doing? I am a Bellator contracted fighter, so my next few fights I have a contract, I have a few more fights on my contract, I don't know exactly how many my manager manages that.

I'll carry it. And then who's the champion in that, in this particular weight class that you're in? 145 is Patricio Pitbull and 135 is my friend Juan Archululeta so i'm still coming down on those two weight classes and trying to figure out where i fit best at uh but yeah have you had to fight friends before have you had to fight like kevin and stuff like that or i mean we obviously in the room obviously training story i know we're almost done, but Kevin beat my ass for years.

Years, since I was 18. Yeah. You know, he came to the gym and, like, that was it, man. Like, every day, get up, get up, get up. And that's what made me, you know, that was another great idea. Like, Kieran brought, I mean, Kevin wanted to be at the gym, but Kieran made everything possible so that Kevin would be at the gym. And that made me a better fighter. And I hope that I can do that for somebody else you know that's cool yeah let's be the guy

that kicks their ass every time but dude it's tough love man like that that's you know that's it's a real thing tough love like fuck i had i had to become better or i like i wouldn't i had to evolve and that was the only way I couldn't just keep getting my ass beat every day by him I had to become better I had to become stronger I had to lift I have to run I have to do all these things so that I can be better I can be a better training partner for that person and not just a uh you know and then you guys never had an official fight together no no no no we never I've never had to fight a friend. Yeah, and I've never had to fight anybody from the gym. Kieran would never allow that.

But, yeah. That'd be a tough position to be put in, I guess. People do it all the time, though. I mean, you see camps like Jackson Wink or American Top Team. They don't care. They'll just do it. It's just part of it. I guess you do spar against each other all the time.

It's just a notch above that. I wouldn't fight anybody that I train with. I wouldn't just why just because no point it's always going to be weird after that yeah did kevin hit you with that i don't i'm sorry i don't know what it's called when he just like sweeps your legs right off oh man i've been swept need like everything and that shit looks brutal when he just like fucks people up and they're just like head over heels all of a sudden. I mean, I've definitely been there before and I'm thankful for it. Thank you, Kevin.

Soul Assassin. Thank you so much. Love you, bro. Both have sick nicknames. Soul Assassin. God. Yeah. Kevin Ross is a fucking savage, dude.

He's actually the one that taught me to spin the elbow like that, the way I landed it. Makes sense. Wow. He taught me that and it ended up sticking a little better with me. But, I mean, he's landed a few fights as well. I don't know if he's ever had a knockout like that or, like, that split like that, but I learned it from him. I applied it differently, but, yeah, I learned it from him. And then I've just been drilling and drilling and constantly with carrying it for all these years.

I can land it in sparring without having to having landed and just getting this close to your face and just pulling wow that's like some crazy reflexes though to be able to pull that back just like right there yeah just being able to show it but that's what helps the timing of it right that's what makes the timing better you can do it but you can that's when i feel like you can master something when you can do it slow and composed but you can also do it really hard you know when you have that technique and when you find that balance of okay this works here this works there yeah and you can actually execute it and you can execute it any way possible whether it's slow and technical and just showing it or whether it's hard in a fight in front of 14 000 people at at the SAP Center. You know, it just depends which one's it going to be.

But if you drilled it properly, if you've done it how you need to do it, you know, it'll be there. Gotcha. Take us on out of here, Andrew. Yes, sir. Thank you, everybody, for checking out today's episode. Thank you, everybody, for the chat room and the live stream. Shout out to everybody that's competing tomorrow at Adamant Barbell,

I think it's called. Sounds right. Yeah, yeah. So I was talking to Brian who's competing. He trains here at ST. So good luck to everybody there. Please make sure you guys

are following the podcast at Mark Bell's Power Project on Instagram, at MB Power Project on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn. We're all over the place. Trying to think

if there's anything else. I don't think so. My Instagram is at IamAndrewZ. And Seema, where can people find you? I am Seema Inyang on Instagram and YouTube. I am Seema Yingang on Twitter. Mark? I'm at Mark Smelly Bell.

Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never a strength. Catch y'all later.