Mark Bell's Power Project - Josh Emmett: The Brutal Path to UFC Greatness || MBPP Ep. 1104

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

In Episode 1104, Josh Emmett, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about where Josh's Striking Power comes from, the role that Wrestling played in his career and who he wants to fight when he steps back into the UFC Octagon Follow Josh on IG: https://www.instagram.com/joshemmettufc/   Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below!   🥜 Protect Your Nuts With Organic Underwear 🥜 ➢https://nadsunder.com/ Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 15% off your order!   🍆  Natural Sexual Performance Booster 🍆 ➢https://usejoymode.com/discount/POWERPROJECT Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!   🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎 ➢https://emr-tek.com/ Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!   👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶 ➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject   🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!   🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!   Sleep Better and TAPE YOUR MOUTH (Comfortable Mouth Tape) 🤐 ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained:      ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Become a Stronger Human - https://thestrongerhuman.store ➢ UNTAPPED Program - https://shor.by/JoinUNTAPPED ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Podcast Courses and Free Guides: https://pursuepodcasting.com/iamandrewz ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz/ ➢ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

What do you think that wrestling mentality has done for you? The famous quote is, once you've wrestled, everything in life is easy. When you're trying to just physically manhandle another man and pin them, that is very difficult. Like I'd much rather punch someone. Where does punching power come from? I was tumbling.

I was doing acrobatics at a very young age. Who's your boxing coach? Yeah, Joey Rodriguez. And that's where obviously a lot of the power comes from. He's helped me so much just with timing and just putting punches together and combinations and mixing up the tempo and things like that. Anything from like a strength training perspective. Lower reps, but we're doing like heavy, heavy weight.

I think it does transition over into the power. You did have two losses and at your level, that could be so difficult. First time in my life, my career, I lost two fights in a row. I was like, I will fight anybody. Then they offered me Bryce Mitchell. Seeing everyone in the lineup right now, who would you want to be your first matchback?

Yeah, it's uh... Alright man, Josh Emmett. Thanks for coming out to the show again. Appreciate it. Yeah, it's great to be back. And what, I just uh, seems like being a UFC competitor is a tough way to make some money. I would say so, you know, it's, uh, but I do love what I, I love what I do. And, you know, I've been an athlete my whole life and I love the lifestyle of being your own boss and just getting to work out and like, I know you guys enjoy

that and love it too. So you can relate. It's your whole day day just working out, like working on like grappling, jujitsu, striking, recovery? Yeah, I feel like in camp, it's completely different compared to what it is right now and what it's been. Right now you're being lazy. Right now being lazy, eating fast food and no, I'm not.

Yeah, like for the most part, you know, like right now I'm working on a lot of my weaknesses and things that I need to improve on as a athlete and a martial artist. But when I'm in camp, it's a full-time job with overtime each week and I'm obsessed with my opponent, I'm obsessed with winning and getting better. So I map out my entire camp basically,

the best of my ability. Like I'll sit down with my coaches and eight to 10 weeks out, I can tell you exactly what I'm doing in six weeks at three o'clock, you know, whether it's a training session, a recovery session, when I'm eating, things like that. And even right now though,

you're probably still training quite a bit. Oh yeah, yeah. Even though you got some little time off. Yeah, quite a bit. So right now I've just been focusing on like physical therapy, strength and conditioning, and just doing everything to improve. So when I come back to fighting,

it's gonna be the Joshim at 2.0. And yeah, I literally cannot wait for it. So yeah, working really hard. What's the big things about, cause like MMA is probably the toughest physical sport because of what you're putting your body through. And you've been at it since 2016, the UFC. You've been a martial artist before that too.

I think one thing is even when casual people that aren't in the UFC, they start up martial arts, they're in it for a few years and then they're out just because they can't keep things together, right? So what do you think are some big things that have allowed you to like, you know, I mean, I know you've had injuries here and there, but you're still at it, you have fights coming up, right?

What's allowed you to keep things together? What habits do you have that can have some like longevity for a martial artist? I think have the right team around you, you know? And especially when I was, you know, younger and when we're all younger, it's like, I can just, I don't have to warm up. Invisible.

Yeah, I could just hop into things and I wouldn't pull anything or, but now it takes me quite a while to warm up, but it really comes down to the team. And just like, I'm very in tune with my body. So I think there's a time and place when, say sparring, hard sparring, it's like we would go in there

and I would have wars multiple times a week, which might not be like the best for my brain, of course, but I feel like you have to do that. Even with Jiu-Jitsu, you have to put in the mat time. Wrestling, same type of thing. I've had hundreds and hundreds of hours of, you know, wrestling and stuff like that. So I know how to fight.

So now I just have to fine tune, depending on who I'm fighting. And we watch a lot of film, like other sports, and pick up on tendencies and habits that people won't be able to correct in, you know, eight to 10 week camp that we're hoping we can capitalize on or draw those bad habits out of them.

But yeah, just the longevity of, at least for me, has been, you know, having the right team around me. And I do a lot of, you know, one-on-ones with my coaches where I used to just hop into practices and just go through the motion or, and it's for everyone. It's good. It's like taking any class, but now I'm so specific on what I'm trying to achieve

and also having just access to a lot different people and therapists and whatnot. So if I do have a issue, you know, I have the resources to get better. And it even comes down to diet. Like I feel like I have the best team around me now and the most resources. Every practice I do, I do almost a recovery session or, you know, some type of recovery modality

just to prolong my career. I have a quick question about the sparring thing you mentioned because like for me in jujitsu, I feel like the sparring aspect is so much easier than for someone like you, because hard sparring in jujitsu doesn't require strikes. You know what I mean? There's, you still tap.

I mean, things might be faster. The pace might be faster, but it's still not striking. It's not MMA hard sparring, right? So I wonder, cause like you do see some guys when it comes to MMA sparring, it looks like it's a fight and you're like, how long can you do that, right? But I saw a video recently where this one, it was like this fight guy, he was talking about

how MMA guys are changing the way they spar. And it's like, it's no longer super hard sparring, but they're still sparring, but it's not as hard as it used to be. So they get, I don't know, more out of it and they don't injure themselves as much. Has the way you spar changed, like from when you were younger to now?

Yeah, I feel like, and I know exactly what you're talking about. A lot of people do like, you know, touch sparring and they're working on speed and kind of holding the power. And I think that is great. And I've done a little bit of everything, but I feel like if you get in the habit of, you know, call it like touch sparring or play sparring,

if you're just doing that nonstop, it's like, maybe that's gonna transfer over into the fight and you don't wanna do that. So I have done a lot like outside of camp, I won't spar hard, but I used to, I used to go to like boxing gyms on Fridays. And it's like, those fights are harder than my, or those sparring matches are harder than my actual fight.

And they want to take your head out. Yeah, it's crazy. I would go in there and even one of my buddies, Ruben Torres, great boxer out of Sacramento, and we would fight, we would do like 10 three minute rounds. And the thing with boxing, even though we have 16 ounce gloves and we have head gear, but it's just like, oh man, my body would be sore.

Like how the hell, like when have you ever got, you know, just sore from getting punched in the body? Like I haven't often, but I would go and my ribs would be sore. I'd have a headache and things like that. But I think, yeah, just time and place. Like out of camp, I'm doing a lot of touch sparring, play sparring.

When I am in camp, I still do my hard sessions, but I might just do one hard sparring session a week. I actually like that because it preps me for the fight. It's like a fight simulation. It's the closest thing that you can, the closest thing to a fight. It's like, how do you get better at fighting? You fight.

And my endurance and cardio goes through the roof because I can push that pace for 30 minutes, you know, and MMA is a 15 to potentially a 25 minute fight, which is still a long time to fight somebody. Yeah, if you can gain tons of strength, just lifting lighter weights, that's what people would do all the time, and everyone would be strong, right?

You can get better with lighter weights. You can get stronger. You can practice with lighter weights. So there's a lot you can get out of it, but you can only get so much out of it, and you have to eventually like put X amount of weight on the bar, kind of just to see where you're at. The thing I find interesting about all this

when it comes to like lifting or training for MMA or really any sport is kind of how you accumulate your miles, your mileage and how that kind of sits on your body. So something some people might be doing right now might be in their best interest for exactly what they're doing at this moment, but it might be detrimental down the road.

So I would kind of say like, do what feels right for you at the time and try to learn from those simulations that you're doing in training and then continually grow and expand on that because what you're doing right now might not be the thing to get you to the next level. So you have to constantly judge like, is this worth it?

Maybe my training intensity needs to be doubled for a little while. And then maybe sometimes it needs to be backed off. And I think that's the hardest thing as an athlete to try to figure out. Because you always want to do it because it's fun, because you love it. It's like, hey, you want to spar?

You're like, yeah, sure. And it turns out like, you know, round one, maybe you're kind of boxing and then round two, maybe you're, and then by the third round, you're probably like fighting, fighting. And it never meant to kind of start out that way, but you just both feel good. And if we just go by feel, we're probably gonna mess up.

And that's why we need coaches. Yeah, no, I agree. And I feel like you constantly have to step back and what are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? And the way you're training, are you getting closer to those goals and things like that? But it is nice to,

I always go back to having a great team behind you because otherwise, if you don't have people a great team behind you because otherwise, you know, if you don't have people looking from the outside, looking in at you, it's like, I don't know, you can, you know, like you said, you can hurt yourself or you're gonna, maybe it's gonna, you know, affect you negatively. So yeah, you have to,

instead of just pushing through everything. I'm curious about this. Like how often do you, how often do you do like bag work and stuff? And the reason I asked that question is because something I noticed after I started Jiu-Jitsu, I started getting DEXA scans and an area that started increasing bone density

faster than some other areas that I had pretty decent bone density was my rib cage. And I realized because like the pressure that's being put on it, all the movement on the rib cage, it's my, the density of that area is becoming more dense because it's being used more, right? And I was watching this video of Anthony Joshua talking about his last fight.

And when he put his fist up, it's the first time I noticed how his knuckles, like he has these freakishly large knuckles and it must be because obviously he's punching a lot, right? So it got me thinking about the idea of tempering the body. So, you know, as you punch stuff often, that bone, like it must be building more bone. So how much do you do that type of training?

How much do you do bag work? Is it something an everyday thing now or what's that like? The majority of time when I work with my boxing coach, like I hit mitts three, four times a week with him. And then we always finish on the back. I'd say, you know, three out of the four sessions we finish on the back. But yeah, it's funny you say that because when I'm sparring

and I'm in camp and just fighting consistently, my knuckles, I feel like I could hit a wall and it won't hurt me, you know? But when I, and it's the same thing with sparring, not that you get conditioned to sparring, getting hit in the face, like, you know, you've seen videos where people are hit, but you don't get conditioned,

but you almost feel like are you desensitized to something? Because I feel that when I'm sparring and I'm getting hit a lot, yeah, it sucks. But when I take a long break and then I get back to sparring and the first time I get hit after like six to eight months, I'm like, oh, this sucks. Like, and it hurts, you know? Whereas I can constantly be in practices

and taking blows to the face and it doesn't bother me as much. But it's the same thing with my knuckles. When I'm hitting mitts, when I'm sparring, when I'm doing bag work, it's almost like maybe it is, maybe I'm building up more calcium, or like you said, more density in my knuckles. And then if I take a little time off from doing that

and go back and hit, I'm like, ah, that kind of hurts. So you're probably all right. So much of this has started for you with wrestling, right? And what do you think that wrestling mentality has started for you with wrestling, right? And what do you think that wrestling mentality has done for you? Because I think that wrestlers are famous for kind of pushing through and pushing forward on a lot of things.

Yeah, no, wrestling is a huge foundation to my success. And the famous quote is, "'Once you've wrestled, everything in life is easy.'" And it is true, you know, it's a... Wrestling is such a grueling, just... Such an intense sport. And literally, I started wrestling at a young age, all the way up until, you know, the college, the four-year level.

And when you're trying to just physically manhandle another man and pin them, that is very difficult. Like, I'd much rather punch someone. It's easier to knock someone out or get the finish. Yeah, it's like, but no, it's yeah, wrestling is a, yeah, it's huge. Like I relate, like wrestling has developed me into the athlete I am today and it's helped

with my mindset so much because it is so tough. And when things get, things are hard, it's like with my mindset so much because it is so tough and when things get, things are hard, it's like you learn a lot about yourself as you do in a fight and you have to push through these things instead of taking the easy road out. I think it's kind of cool because a lot of sports are hard but wrestling in particular is like known, it's not so much just what you do on the mat

but the training for wrestling. I mean, everyone's kind of like intimidated by, everyone kind of knows like, hey man, you can go out for football practice and you can try some basketball and you can mess around with some baseball, but do not mess around with wrestling because that's gonna be a serious thing to take on.

And it's like, it's the, you know, all the road work and you know, lifting and the cutting weight. And even when I was younger, cutting weight. Oh my God. I didn't know what I was doing. I was so stupid. And like, or I just, as I got older, I learned and I started working with great people.

And I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I was doing that. Did anyone do it right back then? Probably not, probably not. It's like all the trash bags and sonnets. I remember spitting. I'm like, how stupid is that? Or not eating, not drinking water.. It's like all the trash bags and sauna suits. I remember spitting, I'm like, how stupid is that or not eating, not drinking water. And it's like- And then going and performing.

Yeah, trying to. That builds a different level of resilience. Like I'd be a pussy, I wanna be able to do it. Like I know that. You're being thirsty? No, it's hard. It's actually way harder than you'd even think. Then we give it credit for.

Oh man. Yeah, so with the popularity in MMA now, right? Like kids are kind of getting into jiu-jitsu. They're getting into fitness because they want to become an MMA fighter. I guess, what do you think is the path? Does it start with wrestling? It seems like it starts really early with wrestling, right?

Like if you can build that structure, that base, wrestling's gonna take you super far. But because it is mixed martial arts, even though right now there's a lot of current champions that are just wrestlers, do you think that a young athlete needs to focus on literally everything right from day one? Or can they focus more on one practice and then kind of add in as they go? Yeah, I feel like even with a lot of my friends and stuff, like have your kids play sports, even if they wanna do MMA,

it's like maybe they can still play soccer, they can still play football and so hand-eye coordination, agility. And then I do feel that wrestling jujitsu is, wrestling, me being a little biased, but it's like, it's my foundation to everything. But I do feel like kids, yeah, get in to kickboxing, learn how to strike,

but they do not need to take any blows to the head. They don't need to spar or any contact to their head. But I would say, yeah, wrestle, jiu-jitsu, become obsessed with it, see what they like, you know? Because kids are, you don't wanna force kids too much because I feel like parents that do that, then it's like later on, it's like, those are the kids that not necessarily,

but some rebel or they just absolutely hate that particular sport. So I think be a kid and play everything. And if you do like it, then just, you know, just introduce them to all the martial arts. Yeah. And I don't think there's one specific thing, but I would say, yeah, jujitsu, wrestling, and then you can kind of grow and build on that as they get older. And so when did you start wrestling? Assuming it's super young, but you know,

there are some kids that will get that burnout. And I'm just thinking like, if my parents forced me to do wrestling, cause like I would have been too scared to just like say, hey dad, I want to do wrestling. But if let's say they forced me into it, I would have been crying before every practice, right? So I didn't love it.

But if a kid does get into it and maybe they start to kind of like, I don't know if this is for me, dad, like I kind of, I think I want to quit or whatever. Like what's something that parents can do to make sure that there's kids still like wrestling because it's hard, right? That's going to be the hardest thing that they have to do. How do you keep them motivated? And what was the motivation for yourself to stay in it?

Yeah, for me it was, I had a lot of like friends, like one of my best friends, like his father, he was a wrestling coach. They had a family of wrestlers and we played all sports. So he was kind of like a mentor and a coach to me. And he basically, I started wrestling when I was 12. He's like, Josh, you're wrestling this year. I was like, I didn't want to wear the seamless. I was like, I didn't want to wear the seamless.

I was like, I don't want to wear that thing. But he was my coach. Yeah, single suck. Yeah, for- Throw the head gear on top of that. Looking amazing. I'm like, oh man. But yeah, he was my coach in little league

and other sports and stuff like that. So I kinda, you know, he helped get me into these things. So I didn't really have the, I just enjoyed it. I liked wrestling because I was a much smaller kid. I was small and I liked that there was weight classes. I liked that it was an individual sport, even though I loved all sports, but if I lost, it was all on me at the end of the day.

And I didn't have to rely on anybody else. But you still don't know. Like if a kid is going to, if they don't like something, it's like you can't just keep forcing them to go to practice just because you selfishly want your kid to do something. At the end of the day, it's up to them. But one thing, like my mom raised us.

So it's like, she didn't have all these things like, oh, if you start a season, you're finishing it. But I would just, one of my friend's dads, he always said that. So if I start something, I'm at least gonna finish it. And then I'll kind of reevaluate or do I wanna do it next season? But I've never quit halfway through a season

or just quit just because I didn't like something. I'm just gonna, if I started, I'm gonna at least, you know, set a goal or how long am I gonna do this? And then I can decide. So I think that's a good thing. Like try it out, maybe they'll suck at it. And then they're gonna get better and better and build that self-confidence and feel better. And then maybe they wanna continue down that path.

Where does punching power come from? Maybe it's, I did start out like, obviously playing all sports growing up. And then I was tumbling. I was doing acrobatics at a very young age. So that was kind of like my first, it kind of like the first thing. And, you know, I had a six pack when I was in first grade and I was like, I was all riffed, but yeah, I think it's just from being an athlete my whole life and I was like in- You've been explosive. Lifting weights and things like that, so.

And you have a ninja turtle back, so that helps probably. Sure. I just think some of these conversations are interesting because you know, I have to hear it all the time that this guy over here and Seema's born with it. We hear people say that about him all the time. He hit the genetic lottery and so on. And I think that people don't realize

how much of our epigenetics, how much of our environment and what we do, how much is controllable. And they kind of sometimes say like with heavy hands that you can't really train it, you can't really coach it. But I would say that it's probably combination, right? Like there's probably something within you that allowed you to be explosive and strong. Yeah. Holy shit.

Just the... But I do think, I think that like, obviously maybe it is some genetics. I didn't get the genetics and Seema got, but it's a combination of everything. It's just like being an athlete and yeah, I've just been, you know, I've always had like a super strong core and that's from acrobatics. Yeah, there's so much that's going into like

what you're doing as we're watching some of these. There's a lot of rhythm, there's a lot of timing. There's a lot of like even, you know, setting up and the manipulation of like the way that you're moving your shoulders and your trunk and even maybe, you know, doing feints and making it look like you're, you know, going for a single leg, but you're actually, you know,

throwing a hook. So that way the guy's like, you know, trying to maybe protect himself from something else. So there's so much more that goes into it rather than just throwing like this haymaker bomb, like I hope this lands. Yeah, because I feel like when I, when I do try to force something

and load it up, it's like they see it coming and maybe it hurts, but that's not the one that knocks them out, you know, unless they had their hands down. It's like a video game, like the hand actually lights up and the other guy can see it, right? No, for sure. That's funny.

And then what about training? Like who's your boxing coach? And what have you guys worked on? Yeah, Joey Rodriguez. Man, we've been together, let me think. I think since I was like three and oh, as a professional in the regional scene. So yeah, him and I are super close.

Like even just like we know the timing and the rhythm. He can just hold pads. He doesn't have to call out the combos. And I can just, I just throw them. We just have like a good chemistry. He's like, you know, not only is he my, my coach, he's also, uh, you know, he's just like, I don't know, he mentor and he's just like, he's just one of my best friends too. We spend so much time together, like working and working and working year round. That's after the, the old 2020, I have a little brace on my knee.

I think that's just incorporating things after the ACL surgery. And is he pretty like on you? You know, like if you're, I don't know if you're sloppy for the day or like, he's just up your ass and making sure you're doing, I mean, that looks amazing right there. It looks like you're really trying to get the full-

Full of power. Yeah, full hips into it. But yeah, no, no, he stays on me, like out of camp, in camp, he's always checking in. We're always doing things together. And he knows me so well that it's kind of funny in a sense. Like when I'm talking to my wife, like after practice and stuff, and I'm in camp

and I'm dehydrating, she'll be like, drink some water. Like she can tell him my voice, you know, that I'm talking to my wife after practice and stuff and I'm in camp and I'm dehydrating, she'll be like, drink some water. She can tell in my voice that I'm dehydrated. He's the same way. He'll be like, let's take it easy. Or I come in, just he can tell by my demeanor how I'm walking into the gym or up to the cage. He knows me really well and he'll say, okay, we're gonna take the day off

just by looking at me, looking in my eyes or hearing my voice or things like that. So yeah, no, Joey is the man. And, and that's where obviously a lot of the power comes from. He's helped me so much just with timing and just putting, you know, putting punches together and combinations and, and, you know, mixing up the tempo and things like that. And just anything in the gym that you think, uh, like anything from like a strength training and mixing up the tempo and things like that. Anything in the gym that you think, anything from a strength training perspective

where you're like, man, that really made a big difference in my punching power, or have you not noticed anything like that? Yeah, no, I think even just the way I train, I like to lift heavy weights too. So I feel like even where we're doing lower reps, but we're doing like heavy, heavy weight, I think it does transition over into the power.

And I'm doing a lot of, you know, med ball throws. So it's like core to extremities. I'm like super setting like heavy dumbbell presses, and then we're going into like a little, little lighter, you know, med ball path, past where we're just working on speed. You're trying to get healthier and you're probably eating chicken for every meal

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Goodlifeproteins.com link is in the description as well as the podcast show notes You did have two losses in a row and and at your level. It's like that could be so difficult so like what Allowed you mentally and physically to kind of hang in there to get another fight and then get back on a wind streak? Yeah, and obviously the reason why I got into the sport is because I want to be a world champion.

I only wanted to fight for the UFC. And then when I got in there, I moved the goalpost and wanted to be a champion. And I got to fight for the interim title and Perth against Yair. And I, you know, I got to fight for the interim title and Perth against Yair. And, you know, I came up short. So it just lit a fire under me. It pissed me off. It still does to this day. And it like eats at me. And then in my mind, I just like, I just wanted to get right back in there and try to erase it, you know, because I was so upset,

so pissed and then I fight three months later and I fight now the current featherweight champion, Ilya Toporia and it was a war, he's good, you know, but that was the first time I came up short again. First time in my life, my career, I lost two fights in a row and then it just kinda, it makes me even more angry. So I'm like, I wanna get back in there and do it again, erase that.

So, you know, I was gonna fight someone in December and I didn't care who I fought. This one guy was the only person that was available. And then he ended up getting injured two weeks out or something. So at the end of the day, I was like, I will fight anybody. And then they offered me Bryce Mitchell and he was the biggest name, highest ranked guy.

So I was like, yeah, let's do it. And does that win, do you feel like, because there's such a huge difference between a win and a loss. And does that win just give you like a lot of momentum and then maybe make you feel like, cause I think a loss can be so devastating, can make you feel like you're doing everything wrong.

And that's not usually not the case. Like a lot of times it's not the case. Usually it's like, you might just be off on like one or two things, you know? It's not, let's clear out everything and let's change everything and let's get all new coaches and everything, right? I think that's what some fighters might think.

And sometimes that is the case, like you reevaluate things and you see people jump ships or go to different teams or coaches, but at the end of the day, it's on you. Your coaches are help getting you there. And that's my mindset. Like I'm the one fighting. Like if I got submitted, if I get knocked out,

I can't blame that on my coaches. I'm in there, that's 100% I take the full responsibility for that. But no, coming back and getting this win against Bryce, it's like, it doesn't like, it was so long ago too. It was in December. Right, right. But it's also, maybe the momentum was there and I would have

liked to continue and fight, but I just, I had to, you know, kind of step back and focus on myself and I want to get back to a hundred percent. And, you know, like we were talking earlier, it's, you know, for the last handful of years, I have not been even close to my best. So I've been really focusing on that. And I'm really close to being 100% again. And so I'm looking forward to the return and I really don't care who I fight as long as they're in front of me. I'm like, when I do return, I'm like, it's on.

You're gonna see the best version of myself and that's something that motivates me even more. Is there anything that like, you know, as you're going through this process of getting back, getting back to a hundred percent, is there anything that's frustrating you about the process? Especially now that the fact that you're still waiting. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's like when I want something,

I just, I want it now. And it's like, you have to be patient. You have to like go through the whole process. And so even things in, in physical therapy or strength, that's like, I'm able to do things that I couldn't do a year ago, two years ago. That's huge. Yeah, no, it's huge to me.

So I'm hitting these small milestones and these like accomplishments, but it's still like me being me. I'm like, damn it, I want it now, but I know I still have a little ways to go. So that's the frustrating part that it's been so long and I've been working so hard, but I still have some ways to go.

But if I zoom out and actually look at, you know, where I started, I'm like, okay, I am doing really well, but that's, it's still so hard for me, you know, just like, like I want to be in practice a hundred percent doing everything. And I'm not quite there, but I'm getting closer and closer to that. Let me ask this.

If you had your ideal first match back, you know, seeing everyone in the lineup right now, who would you want to be your first match back? Yeah, it's like, obviously if I could just pick, I'm going Ilya, but that's not how that that works So realistically at max and Elio are fighting in October I think Volkonosky they're talking about him getting the you know getting Then he's the next in line Supposedly, so at least the divisions gonna fight each other there. I'm gonna kind of see how this plays out

Who's next in line? It would be Diego Lopez. He's ranked number three. He's been on a crazy streak. You know what I mean? And so I want to fight the person that's going to get me closer to that title fight. So if those guys are taken, the top three guys, give me him, you know? And if not, I'll fight anyone else behind him.

Gotcha. It seems like the last event was at the Sphere, like in Las Vegas. That seems like a pretty cool venue. It seemed like wild. I don't know if the videos and all the different pictures and stuff I saw from that, I don't know if it does it justice,

but it looked like it was pretty nuts. Yeah, I got a, I watched it on TV, just got the pay-per-view. We were in Yosemite, but it looked amazing. It would have been fun to fight there, but I don't think they're ever gonna go back. Just hearing what Dana said and how much money it costs and all these things, but yeah, it looked neat.

And then them even throwing in all the Easter eggs and doing the story of, because it was on Mexican Independence Day and the thing that he was doing for people that were there, it's like, if you could find all five Easter eggs and you get them correct and you submit them to the UFC, like he was giving people $20,000 to people that were actually at the event.

So it would be kind of fun, but I was watching it on TV and I could see the whole screen, I'm looking for these. I'm like, I don't even know, getting close to what one of the hidden things is. Like, I wonder if anyone actually found all five, you know? But no, it seems super cool. And I'm glad I got to watch it on TV though, because maybe being there, it's like,

maybe I wouldn't get the whole, I wouldn't get to see the entire screen and get to take everything in. But, you know, being at a UFC event live is, it's different. The energy is insane. What about when you're in the octagon and there's 20,000 people and you're on pay-per-view, are you someone that, do you like acknowledge that at all

or is that, or you just kind of like just go right through it or, cause I know each guy's different. Some people say they see everyone in the crowd and they see their mom or something like that. And how does it work for you? Yeah, no, I'm kind of in that boat. It doesn't, I love it.

Like I love the crowd. I feed off the energy. It's almost when we get into a scramble or just a flurry and we're in the pocket throwing and the crowds going insane, it's maybe it can kind of hinder your game plan because it's like, I just want to like put on more of a show and I feel like I'm like,

not even though it isn't in the entertainment business, I want to entertain the crowd. And like, even from a young age wrestling, I was always exciting. So even when I'm, you know, fighting, it's like people are excited when I'm on a card because I've never been in a boring fight and I'm always gonna try to take the person's head off.

But I do love it. I can hear some of my wrestling coaches, some of my college coaches still come to my fights and their voice is very distinctive. And me having all the wrestling matches and tournaments and them being in the corner yelling, I was a very coachable person so I can still pick up on their voices in the crowds. Yeah I listen to everything.

Some people just kind of zone out or they don't remember everything but even listening to my coaches when they're saying certain things, sometimes it's going through my head, I'm like, why are they saying that? I think it's kind of funny, you know, I'm like, oh, it's kind of funny that they say that, but yeah, no, I love it, I absolutely love it. Is there anything that helps you get focused?

Because, you know, some people have certain rituals, is there anything that helps you kind of zone in before a fight? I think it's just going through the process so many times and being there, and then just, you know, I'm big on like the mindset and visualization and things like that. So I think that does, it does help me a lot.

Like I don't get super, super nervous before fights, and I never really have. It's just the unknowing that I really don't know what's gonna go on when I get in there, but I've seen it so many times and played out so many different outcomes. Of course, me getting my hand raised and getting different finishes and whatnot.

So I feel like I've done the best I possibly can, but it's like, you don't know what the hell is gonna go on until you get in there. And I like to, sounds crazy, but it's like, you don't know what the hell is gonna go on until you get in there. And I like to, it sounds crazy, but like I like to get in there and get hit because I wanna feel how hard the person hits. I wanna see how fast they are. Because watching films, sometimes I always have

so much respect for all my opponents and even everyone that fights, but maybe sometimes you give them a little too much credit. You're like, oh, this guy's fast as hell or this and this or you don't know. And then you get in there and they hit you. And I'm like, I think he's like messing with me. I'm like, is he serious?

Is he this slow? Does he not hit that hard? Is it, you know, you know, is it, is that his change up and here comes the fastball soon. And then it just keeps going. And then I'm like, okay, he really can't crack. He's not that fast. And then I can just kind of, he really can't crack. He's not that fast. And then I can just kinda, you know,

even like going back to my coach Joey Rodriguez, he's a, he knows like even certain demeanors. When I started doing things, he knows like, okay, like now I know and I'm just in the fight. I'm not threatened by someone's, you know, power, but it still drives him crazy. When I get hit with the jab, he's like, move your fucking head.

Like, I'm like, he doesn't hit hard jab. He's like, move your fucking head. I'm like, he doesn't hit hard though. He's like, it looks bad though. You don't like to hit too many. I mean, they might accumulate, right? It might add up over time. What about like, if you've ever been thrown off by like someone in the audience, like you see the rock or something like that,

and you're like, holy fuck, there's a rock. No, I'd say like probably the biggest, even my last fight, it's, you know, being in the red corner, then you have, you have Dana and Hunter and, you know, all the matchmakers, Sean and Mick, like they're in the red corner. And then you have like the star started, started line up and it was a big pay-per-view event. So like behind me in my last fight was like, it was Kid Rock, Donald Trump. And then back there,

you see everybody. You see Mark Wahlberg, Jared Leto, Mario Lopez, like everybody is there. It's like the biggest fight. I'm opening the pay-per-view. And then when I knocked out Bryce Mitchell, just a vivid moment in my head, I'm like looking over and like Donald Trump's

giving me a big thumbs up. Like it's just, it's like, it was awesome. But for the most part, no, I don't get like thrown off or it doesn't distract me. Maybe it pumps me up a little more, you know, like just like, oh, I'm gonna go out there and I'm gonna perform. Yeah.

I know you've been fighting for like your whole life, right? And you did acrobatics before wrestling. Do you remember if starting to do like a 1v1, like wrestling, did that change anything for you? Because, you know, I played team sports up until I was in my twenties, I started Jiu-Jitsu at 23. And that changed an aspect of me that I was pretty surprised about.

So did you, do you know if like that's changed anything for you? Yeah, like going back to when I would wrestle, and I was like from doing acrobatics, I felt like I was strong from tumbling and things like that. And then when I started wrestling, and I wrestled at 92 pounds when I first started. So I was a tiny little kid, but I was strong.

So I would just go out there, not really knowing a whole lot my first year, and I would just head and arm these guys and pin them all. And I was much stronger and athletic than the kids, but maybe that kind of got me hooked. I just liked the individual sport and going back to like, this is all on me. If I win, it's on me, if I lose, it's on me.

So maybe that did kind of get me hooked and really enjoy just the aspect of just one, there's no one to rely on. You can shift blame if you play a team. Yeah, like playing defense. He had a multiple opportunities to score. You can always blame other people. But then I still went ahead and, you know, played multiple sports growing up. And, but I was always just so damn small, you know?

And so I think wrestling just stuck with me just because, you know, I wanted to be an athlete at a young age and, you know, but I was thinking about football and basketball. And, and then I, I got older, stopped growing. And I was like, that's, that's out of the picture. And so wrestling was my thing, you know? Okay.

And then sticking with wrestling, did you become really proficient at it? You said you pinned a lot of these people when you started out and then as you went through like your high school career, did that become like a thing for you? Yeah, I was still one of the lighter guys. So I was 103 pounds my freshman year,

but I was the only one on varsity. And then I think even training with guys that were, you know, juniors and seniors, and I was at a young age, it's like, they elevated my game. Obviously, you know, I went far too. I think I was like the, I don't know, maybe like the second or third person on the team that went the furthest, you know?

I was just, we went to sections back then, I don't know what they call it now, but it was right before state as a freshman. And then I was varsity all four years and things like that. So, yeah, I don't know. I do feel like, yeah, just going with people that are better than you, it's just gonna only bring you up.

You can't be the best guy in the room. Otherwise it's like, what does that really do? Do you really grow? Yeah. How do you get that kind of training in now? Cause like you're pretty damn proficient at what you do. So how do you find people better? Yeah, so that's what going back to my coaches

and we just do like Joey, great boxing coach. And then I have Danny Castillo. He wrestled and he fought in the UFC at the highest level too. And he transitioned into coaching. And so he's MMA coach, wrestling coach. He does it all. And then Chris Holdsworth, same thing. He's so good at Jiu-Jitsu, stays up with all like, just stays up with everything.

And he's just, he fought at the highest level too, won the ultimate fighter, submitted everyone on the show, was undefeated in the UFC, and then transitioned and has his own academy now. So working a lot of just one-on-ones with these guys and they're constantly learning, evolving, and staying current with everything, it kind of helps my game.

And then we just bring in, you know, training partners or even sparring partners that can emulate, uh, my opponents like the best they possibly can. But then again, you still don't, you still don't know what's going to happen until you actually fight the person. How do you, uh, prioritize, maybe I'll just say some, uh, some like holes or gaps in your game. I know you have a lot of coaches that are probably like, Hey, we need to work here and there, but is there anything else like, what actually do you guys do to help kind of elevate

some of these things that you feel that you might be lacking in? Yeah, like it's even like, even just going to Chris's academy, Jiu Jitsu, he has a black belt. I think his only black belt under him, his name's Lou and man, he's so good. He was obsessed with the sport.

He started jujitsu seven years ago, already a black belt, but he's at home, he's watching YouTube videos, he's going to every practice. He like, so I was just talking to him the other day and he went to, I forget the tournament, but he beat all these black belts that were like 15 year black belts, you know? And he's only been about black belt for seven years.

But I'm like, but the amount of time and hours that you put into it was probably close to what they did over the last 15 years. I'm telling you, three, four practices a day and he works full time, but he is so damn good. So even just going with like being able to go with him and, and he's teaching his own like leg lock series and things like this, like little seminars. And obviously when you start teaching, then you even,

you know, you're saying it out loud, you, you become a better student. So I feel like just, I don't know, being able to work with high level individuals and yeah, and just, we have great training partners in the room too. And that's a thing with, you know, Team Alphamel and what Uriah has created. We have, you know, whether it's,

we used to have like 20 people that are in the UFC or Bellator or like in the gym year round, but now there, we still have so many great guys so that we can just partner up and maybe his strong suit is kickboxing. Like I go with a guy named Slava. He was a world champion kickboxer. Yeah, and he's so good.

So like getting little tricks from him or just drilling with him will again, elevate my game when it comes to kickboxing. So just having the resources and the training partners that I have access to, it just, it really helps with really everything. And when you do a camp, I guess for you now it's a little different because you've been in the UFC for a little bit, but when but when someone's getting started, like how does any of this get paid for?

Cause you got like a coach over here, coach over there. How does someone figure any of this stuff out? I know that's, that's what's hard. Um, you know, a lot of fighters like they have no money, you know, and it's like they want, they want everything, uh, you know, for free or sponsorship, but you have to find a good gym. Like you have to find a good gym and maybe you're just going to the practices then you have to like put some wins together.

Like I did a few amateur fights and then went pro, but going out and like kind of networking and just like Sacramento is great that I would go and get sponsorships just from local businesses, people that I knew that had businesses that they weren't getting a big return, you know, obviously on their investment, but they were, I don't know, they saw potential in me. They wanted to support me and help me out. So it's so challenging, but that's kind of what I did. And you have to make it a business.

Like it's like, I would go out and I would sell as many tickets as I possibly can. I would get those sponsorships. I would make a ton of t-shirts. And I was like, just marketing myself and doing everything I could. Cause I wanted to make the most amount of money even though it wasn't really anything.

But you do some of the people that are like, oh, I just wanna fight, I don't care. I'm like, well, that's not the brightest thing to do. But yeah, you have to start, it's like anything, you have to start somewhere and just put in the time, put in the effort and energy and set goals. And if you want this, get up every morning and bust your ass to do that and work towards that goal. But it's very hard.

It's very hard to get going. And then, you know, what there's like 700 UFC fighters in the world, men, women, all weight classes and eight billion people on the planet. So I'm like, it's very, like if you do the math on that, like it's like the, ah man, it's such a hard thing. And even when you get into the UFC, if that's what you want, it's like, you're still not making that much money

when they're 10 and 10 when you first get in. It's like, if you're losing a fight, you can make a lot more money doing something else, but it's a tough road. Tough career and journey, yeah. Yeah, part of the fight game. If you're someone that's taking supplements or vitamins or anything to help move the needle in terms of your health,

how do you know you really need them? And the reason why I'm asking you how do you know is because many people don't know their levels of their testosterone, their vitamin D, all these other labs, like their thyroid, and they're taking these supplements to help them function at peak performance. But that's why we've partnered with Merrick Health

for such a long time now, because you can get yourself different lab panels, like the Power Project Panel, which is a comprehensive set of labs to help you figure out what your different levels are. And when you do figure out what your levels are, you'll be able to work with a patient care coordinator that will give you suggestions

as far as nutrition optimization, supplementation, or if you're someone who's a candidate and it's necessary, hormonal optimization to help move you in the right direction so you're not playing guesswork with your body. Also, if you've already gotten your lab work done but you just want to get a checkup, we also have a checkup panel that's made so that you can check up and make sure

that everything is moving in the right direction if you've already gotten comprehensive lab work done. This is something super important that I've done for myself. I've had my mom work with Merrick. We've all worked with Merrick. Just to make sure that we're all moving in the right direction

and we're not playing guesswork with our body. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at MerrickHealth.com slash power project and at checkout enter promo code power project to save 10% off any one of these panels or any lab on the entire website. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. When you're when you're not in camp, do you find yourself, I mean, it gets pretty normal for just about everybody. You find yourself demotivated here and there, like, I don't know, like going to the gym,

don't have a match, don't know when there's gonna be a match, you know, so I'll just eat these donuts and sit here and watch some TV. No, it's definitely, it is tough for me, but I stay pretty like strict to my schedule. Maybe I'm not doing three practices a day. I'm just doing one to two. But it's hard when you don't have, at least for me,

when I have a date set and an opponent, it's like that's where I'm just like on. But when you're just training and doing all these things, like extremely, I don't know. Maybe it's just different because like, I have a goal like in mind. So I'm still putting in hard, hard work. I'm just not doing all the, you know,

the hard sparring and things like that. But it's easier when I have a date set to really, I could see it's easier for people, but for me, I do kind of stick to my schedule. I still have like a lot of things mapped out and it's worked to me. So it's like on this day, I'm doing this and this. So I have my schedule mapped out,

but it's definitely easier when you have a date set. I could say. Your coaches check in a little bit like, hey man, where's your body weight at? Or they'll see a picture like, hey bro, like getting a little chunky over there. Yeah, right. Yeah. They always give me a, I used to just in like, I'll always take a month off, six weeks.

I don't care. Like after a fight, like let my body mentally and physically decompress. And I love to eat. So I'll go on these little food tours and I'll go a little crazy and they would always give me a hard time. And especially Danny, call me basketball head. People that haven't been on a basketball head. People that haven't been,

because not only does your face get rounder, but it gets more orange and red. People that haven't been on a food tour, you gotta go on a food tour. It's the most amazing thing. If you travel somewhere, on a food tour, you gotta go on a food tour. It's the most amazing thing. If you travel somewhere, book a food tour. It's amazing. I don't even know what that is.

Cause you just take you around town and they fucking feed you. It's incredible. That sounds amazing. You just went over to Europe somewhere, right? Yeah, I went to France and to Norway. Okay. Did you do a food tour? Oh, yeah.

Of course. In both places. Yeah, you do them everywhere. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else.

And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else.

And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else.

And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take you somewhere else. And then they take talking about the culture and everything. So you get everything with that. So it's amazing. And they get you into places that as a tourist, you may not be able to get into those places. Like that's some of the stuff we do too when we travel. The first day we go on a food tour

and same type of thing, we'll get into all these neat places and delicious food. And then we'll start talking to like the tour guide because they're typically from there. So we're like, what do we have to see? Or where else do we have to eat? Or, and they give us all the insight to go check out all these other places.

And then we'll go see some, you know, different spots and locals will be like, what are you doing here? Because they know we're tourists, you know? I'm like, oh, well, so and so from here told us to come here. And they're like, okay. You want a walking food tour, by the way. Don't be too fat. Don't get driven around.

I'll do them both. Yeah. Let me ask this, man, because obviously the UFC is still the goal, right? But in the future, is there anything in any other federation that's been at all interesting to you? Like, you know, you're a great puncher.

So anything in terms of bare knuckle, is that interesting to you? Like, you know, you're a great puncher, so anything in terms of bare knuckle, is that interesting to you? Yeah, yeah, no, it's kind of funny, Chad Mendez, he did bare knuckle boxing, a friend and teammate of mine, and yeah, no, I would definitely do that. You know, it looks, let's see, optically, it looks bad because, you know, you get cut easy. You know, you get cut, and you see, optically, it looks bad because you get cut easy.

You get cut and you see some gnarly cuts or maybe you hit someone in their lip and their tooth goes through their gut. You see some nasty things, but I feel like it's easier because I'm fighting, let's see, it's five two-minute rounds, right? Yeah, five two-minute rounds with a minute break in between so the max you're fighting is 10 minutes.

Like I'll do that all day. And I know it seems more brutal, but it's like I would much rather get hit with your, you know, your bare knuckle than your elbow or knee or shin to my head. Yeah. You know, but yeah, I would, I would do that. How about boxing? And it's interesting that, you know,

who was the guy that Jake Paul managed to beat the bare-knuckle dude? Mike Perry. Mike, okay, that was interesting. But does anything as far as boxing interest you? Because like you do a lot of striking, right? So, I mean, would that be something you'd be down to? I would do something.

I would do a boxing match. Yeah. Especially these guys, YouTubers, and these guys are getting huge boxing fights. Like I would do something like that. And it would be different. I'd be able to actual box and open up more because when I go into a boxing gym,

we're actually like boxing, but MMA with these little gloves, I feel like you're throwing one, two, maybe three punch combinations and you're in and out because there's a lot more at risk and it's a lot more dangerous for getting caught. Not saying boxing's not, but with, you can actually, I can sit in the pocket and I can just, you just-

You can say a kiss. Yeah, you just trade and I'm actually boxing. So me fighting MMA compared to when I'm actually, if we pulled up some like boxing, sparring in a gym, it looks completely different. So I know I do love boxing and that's something that my coach and I, we were even gonna go that route early in my career because I only wanted to fight

in the UFC and almost got in so many times and almost on the ultimate fighter and it didn't happen. So he was like, let's go this route. We were gonna go down to Mexico and, you know, do like a, do a boxing bout and then train for that. Just kind of see how it went. And then I got the call. So.

What are your thoughts on a power slap? Like would I do that? Like, I don't know if they were. No, no, no. Yeah. That's why I said thoughts on it. No, yeah, yeah. I don't know. It were. No, no, no. Yeah, that's why I said thoughts on it. No, yeah, yeah. I don't know, it's definitely, it's different.

Like, I think there's a lot of, you're just getting sucker pun, like you know it's coming, but your hands are down and some of these guys are so damn big and they're just getting knocked out. I'm like, I don't know, man. It's, and I don't think they're getting, they're not getting paid like what,

a few grand or something to get slapped in the face and knocked out several times. I'm like, I don't know. Like, but hey, maybe if I was going up against someone, my weight class, or we had a, you know. You got the beard for it. Like you see a lot of those guys, you know. Yeah.

Going back real quick, I was curious about this. You got the beard for it. Like you see a lot of those guys, you know? Going back real quick, I was curious about this. You were talking about getting kids into Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. And one thing I've been seeing a lot, especially from people when they talk about Jiu-Jitsu, and it makes sense, it's like, when you start sport Jiu-Jitsu, there's all the pulling guard and I'm a guard puller, right?

But it kind of almost, you're not gonna pull guard in the street. It's self-defense, right? So? But it kind of almost, you're not gonna pool guard in the street. It's, is it self-defense, right? So when you're thinking of like, you know, getting people into self-defense and martial arts, how do you think people should think about it? Because training jujitsu is fun. It builds confidence and you do build a level

of skill in fighting, but you're not necessarily striking. You're not doing a lot of taking down like wrestling, right? There's holes, right? So how would you have people think about that ideally? Yeah, but I feel like from a self-defense standpoint, like I feel like it's great, even if you pulled guard, what is the point not to get hit? So you're still keeping them at distance.

And if somehow you can get a hand to their wrist and pull them into your guard, then you could start manipulating locks and chokes. And as long as you're aware and you know how to at least like tuck your chin and defend yourself, like I think it is good for self-defense, especially like we say kids and especially women.

Because if, I feel like strength and athleticism, it does matter, but if someone doesn't know anything about jujitsu and you have like a woman that's a high level, blue belt, purple belt, or brown or black, like I'll put my money on her all day if they're in a closed space or confined space. Because when you start manipulating things

and choking people, they're getting something broke or put to sleep. But yeah, I think it just depends why. Like why are they getting them into jujitsu? Just from a, are you saying just from a self-defense standpoint or? Yeah, you know, jujitsu is becoming really popular because it's a martial art where like,

you're not getting hit, you know, you can spar and you can kind of, if, you know, if you're smart with the way you train, you're smart with the way you treat your body, you can go through learning a lot of skills and be generally unscathed, right? But getting to striking is different. Getting hit is different.

But that is a part of martial arts. Like it probably would be a good idea to learn some striking too, right? But that's also why I feel like most of, you get into a fight or something, scuffle. It's like, it's gonna to end up on the ground. People aren't standing, even if you know how to strike kickbox or box,

like, and something were to happen, most of the time people aren't going to just stand there and go toe to toe, like a boxing match. They're going to, you're going to see some, like sloppy stuff and try to clench someone and like ragdoll them to the ground. So that's why I feel like being a wrestler and being able to take someone down like ragdoll them to the ground. So that's why I feel like being a wrestler and being able to take someone down

and just literally control them on the ground. Or if you're in jujitsu, you can sweep people, you can mount them, you can do whatever you want from the bottom. So that's why I feel like I think that's so important because, you know, but maybe get introduced to some type of striking. So you see what a punch looks like,

and maybe you can at least block or defend that and then try to get inside and get them to the ground. Gotcha. It's so strange to me. They could just like literally get so close to somebody, they can't do anything to you. Yeah. Like that's an interesting tactic,

but it can be really effective. Oh yeah, and even it's a, especially when someone knows the technique, like, didn't Mighty Mouse? Yeah, he went against a black belt and, or a heavy, or a heavyweight. Oh yeah, and Jiu-Jitsu, right? But I think, I think didn't he go against someone else?

Was it, he was a big influencer that was saying he could beat him up or something. And I think Mighty Mouse, I thought he just like ran a little clinic on the guy. Was this recent? Most likely. A while ago. It was a long time ago.

I know there's Bradley Martin, he's always talking about beating people up. Home 260! But what's even cooler is that, so Mighty Mouse and Mikey Musumechi sparred. I didn't see any tape on it or anything, but on their podcast, Demetrius was just like, yeah, he wrecked me. And he was being nice, like, no, I didn't. And then everybody in the background was like, yeah, he did. So it's just so many different levels, right?

Cause Mikey Musumechi is just, I mean, he's gotta be pound for pound one of the best right now to go up against another pound for pound, but in a different kind of like discipline. It's just wild how many different levels there are. Yeah. Yeah. I think MMA is like, you think it would be better for someone to try to like

start your jitsu or MMA. And the reason why I would, I'm asking is like, could you do, could you train for MMA and like be less banged up? It seems like, or is it just inevitable? Like you're going to get like crushed doing any of these things. I think it goes back to your,

like the school you're at, your instructor doing any of these things. I think it goes back to your, like the school you're at, your instructor, kind of what they allow, your training partners and a lot of things with MMA. And there's so much like ego and there's ego in everything, but I'm saying like ego and like, sure, you know some of the guys in jujitsu that sometimes you have to like swallow your pride and like have no ego and go.

And if someone catches like tap tap like, you know, I would rather just, you kind of learn from it instead of like, I'm not gonna like fight this thing and there's a chance that they're gonna rip my arm or snap something. People don't know how to play nice sometimes. Yeah, but it happens all the time. And that's why it just, it depends, you know?

Like if you have that, like you're saying unscathed and jujitsu, if you're kind of like working with people that you trust that don't, like I even have that when sparring, like I only go with guys that I trust now. And it's like, if they hit me- Especially you, cause you're like a fighter, so guys want to test themselves on you. Yeah, yeah, and so it's like if they hit me really hard,

but it's like someone I train with all the time, I know, okay, it's just an accident. When you're trying to work on speed, power comes behind that as well. But if it's just like, I always let someone set the tone. So when I come out and if they're like, they hit me hard, I'm like, okay, they do it again.

And then I'm like, after a few times, I'm like, then we're fighting, you know? Then I won't be one of the, and you see it in practice, some guys, they'll start arguing, they're sparring, and they're like, why are you hitting me so hard? I'm like, you guys are sparring already. You'll never catch me doing that.

I'll just kind of retaliate. And I'll just like, I'm like, we're just, we're fighting. But it's, but yeah, I think it depends on like the, the atmosphere, the coaches, everything. There's so many factors that go into it. Even going back to being Jiu Jitsu straight self-defense, it also depends on the atmosphere, the coaches, everything, there's so many factors that go into it. Even going back to being Jiu Jitsu straight self-defense, it also depends on the instructor. There's so many hybrid styles now

where they're more wrestling, more top pressure and things like that. Or you go back to the traditional lazy man sports, just pole guard and you're just kind of relaxing on your back and then when you wanna go, you know, you're resting more. You've seen slap jujitsu? Yeah. Have you seen that?

There's also car jujitsu now. Oh, okay. I think I have seen something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Two guys in like in a car, right? And then it's like one has to submit the other in this enclosed space. Yeah.

Don't they do like car MMA and like phone booth MMA and all this stuff? I'm like, they come up with the wildest things. Even though we're seeing- Is it why the cars driving? Why someone's driving? Not yet, not yet. Maybe we could start that. That's amazing.

What would you ever do any slap jujitsu or- Slap stuff? No, no. But you know, what I've been doing is like, I just wanted to just start striking. Cause like one thing I've realized is guys who strike, they have a different bone density. And you can train that on your own if you have a bag.

So what I've been doing is I've just been hitting a bag. Oh, nice. Been hitting and kicking a bag every day. And I've just been noticing it's getting a lot easier. Yeah. You know what I mean? So it's just, I'll probably want to get some coaching for striking, but I don't plan on getting in a ring.

Not yet. I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, congrats on your black belt too. That's awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that. But yeah, it just, as I've learned about that,

just like what striking can do, it just seems like such a good way to strengthen your body. We're lifting so much, then what else can we do? Yeah, and it's hard. Like even you kicking the bag too. And obviously a lot of Muay Thai fighters, they kick, kick, kick, and then you get that density in your shins.

And then you see them, they can kick trees and poles and nothing, like it doesn't. And they have the bags that you can stuff with sand. So it's obviously like, it's harder at the bottom. It's almost like concrete. And then they start high, just light, you know? And then after you build up, then they're just like, they're kicking it like, oh. Can't break that leg, bro.

Yeah, and then it's kind of scary. Then when they kick an elbow or something, it doesn't affect them. Or they kick a knee, they just, they'll kick through and they'll keep kicking and kicking, but they're, yeah. Some of those Muay Thai guys, it's like, it is insane. Just like how they, you know, the density in their shins and Thai guys, it's like, it is insane. Just like how they, you know, the density in their shins and their elbows, it's like, you do not want to get hit with those.

It's a weapon. It's a steel bar. I think we had a question or two that came through on Instagram. I think you screen captured one of them at least. Yeah. So this one's actually from our boy Melvin. So he's been coaching boxing and he's got a fighter that's about to make his MMA pro debut. Apparently he's also a purple belt as well. So he's saying his strength is striking

with great power in his hands. But as a boxing trainer, what would be the best way to program his boxing training to make it more applicable to MMA? What has been working for Josh at the elite level. But his fighter is a purple belt. Yeah. And he's having his pro debut.

Yeah. It's like, that's a strong suit. Go in there, take the guy down and, you know, submit him or control him, especially get the wins, get kind of the, do you know if he's had any amateur fights or anything? I would assume so if he's already going pro, yeah. Yeah, and it's so different.

It's like, just get the feel of it. Like, you know, you wanna see how it feels to get in there and just see what the nerves are, if there are any, but yeah, just do what kind of got you there and like, for me, it was always like wrestling. I would always take people down and, you know, hit them on the ground, TKO them or submit them. And then I get to the UFC and find success in my hands

and knocking people out. And I'm like, wrestling is hard. I'd rather just do this. But my coach is my, Joey, he's like, I couldn't get you to stand and knock someone out. You know, you say you're gonna knock them out, you get hit and then you're shooting a double leg. And he's like, now I can't get you to take a shot.

But it's like, do what got you to the show. But obviously just continue to work on everything, but he doesn't need to practice anything, obviously in the fight, go out there, get the win, do what he's good at. And then you can evolve and work more on striking, maybe get him into sparring or working with different high level strikers.

Necessarily not saying he needs to go in there and spar super hard, but just work with some people and drill and then just kind of build off of that. But yeah, you don't want to definitely work on anything in a fight, just go out there and get your hand raised and then he'll learn a ton still from what things he could have done better in a fight, just go out there and get your hand raised and then, you know, he'll learn a ton still from what things he could have done better in the fight and things he could definitely improve on in the fight and then just build. Andrew, I sent you a clip of Tyson, if you can pop that up.

I just want to kind of get your reaction to this video here. Like if you wasn't, if you wasn't a boxer, what sport you think you'll play very well outside of boxing? If I wasn't a boxer, I'd be a criminal. I don't like any other sports but fighting. If you had one shot. So I don't think I'd be a criminal, but hey. Born to do one thing, I guess.

Yeah. No, I definitely, like I said, I enjoy the lifestyle. I like what I'm trying to achieve, but I would just put a lot of the time and effort that I have into fighting into something else and probably be good at that, but besides being a criminal. What about after fighting? Have you given that a whole lot of thought? I know it's, and I get asked that quite a criminal. What about after fighting? Have you given that a whole lot of thought?

I know it's, and I get asked that quite a bit. It's, I think I want to stay somewhat in the sport, so whether, like I would love to try to do some type of like commentating or something like that, but if that isn't the case, because there's only, there's a handful of guys and there know, there's probably a long list or a long line that, you know, people that actually want to give that a shot or try it out.

Do something in the sport and not necessarily coaching. Like I'll go in and help out when I can and help the younger generation of fighters, but maybe doing something, I don't know, maybe working with like my management team and not necessarily negotiating contracts, but just like helping fighters during fight week or whatnot and you know, I'm managed by a big agency.

And so I'm, maybe there's some, there's some room for me when I am retired, but I would like to be involved in the sport because I can go get a job and, but I would like to be involved in the sport, because I can go get a job, but I want to enjoy it and be passionate and really enjoy what I'm doing, instead of just working to get, make some money. How about potentially maybe just competing in Jiu Jitsu,

like Mighty Mouse, and then Luke Rockhold competed at CJI. It's just like they still have that competitive spirit and it's just something else that they can continue to do essentially forever, so long as no like major injuries happen, but maybe something like that. Yeah, no, and I've talked about that and thought that would be fun to just like throw on the ghee and just like try to get belted

because that'd be a huge accomplishment. But then again, I'm like, that shit is hard, you know? And you have to like compete and do all these things, but it's definitely been on my mind. I think that would be amazing to walk into Casio's and see you there, Nagui. I think that would be inspiring. It'd fire up a lot of people.

Some people might take it too far and be like, oh, this is my opportunity. Right? Like, calm the fuck down. Here they come. Yeah, I gotta talk. But I think that would be sick. I'll make sure I wear my white belt when I go in there. There you go.

I'll be terrifying. There is a question that came in from our board, Serell. He's like, what's the thing that you do or have done that contributes to this knockout power that's different than others? Because you do have a way different knockout power. Is there anything that has helped? No, I think going back to kind of what Mark touched on,

I think it's just being an athlete, my entire life lifting acrobatics, like the foundation of maybe a little bit of genetics and my boxing coach, you know? Like just like the timing, the tempo, just the placement of punches and just literally just the power that I can generate. Because yeah, it's like, yeah, I feel like I've had some knockouts early on, like even

my first amateur fight had a bad, bad knockout. And then it's like, you go a little while without them. And then I start having these, you know, just like walk off KOs and stuff like that. And I think it is too, when I'm not forcing it, when I'm just like, you have to be calm and patient and just, I have to go in there and fight and then it'll come. But I think there's a lot of things

that go into it with, you know, just, I don't know. Just, yeah. Yeah, throw a strong ass punch. Yeah. Okay. Your last opponent, you know, just, I don't know. Just- Yeah, throw him a strong ass punch. Yeah. Okay. Your last opponent, after you hit him, it seemed like he kind of convulsed afterwards, right? Is he okay?

Yeah, no, he's good. And even after the fight he went and got checked out, everything was fine. And yeah, he's doing good. So that I'm aware of. So he's taken some time off, which is probably smart. But yeah, he was, he's good. I'm assuming he'll be in there sooner than later

just because it's been almost a year. He just took one punch. Just one. Who's your favorite fighter? My favorite fighter, like as a fan, was always Tito Ortiz. I was like, I was a huge fan of a lot of the pioneers and legends like Couture and Liddell and all the, so many guys, BJ and, but I don't know.

I just, Tito was like, that was like my favorite fighter growing up. So. He always stirred the pot. He was talking a lot of shit all the time. And I think from California, he came from, you know, wrestling background and he used to, you know, take people down and just have some vicious ground and pound

and me being a wrestler and starting watching the UFC so, so early, you know, I felt like, I feel like that's why I just kind of related. But if I got into it later on, maybe I'd be like, Ladell was always going in knocking people out. And so it's like, there's so many pioneers and greats and legends that I loved watching growing up. And now just the evolution of the sport is the athletes are getting more insane. So sometime next year probably and in the beginning of next year is when you'll fight again? Yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to. Yeah, sometime early next year. That's the plan.

Great. Well, thanks for coming on the show again. Appreciate it. Yeah. Anytime. Thank you guys. Thank you. Where can people find you? Like all my social media is just Josh Emmett, UFC. And then you can also check out joshemmett.com. Awesome. Strength is never weakness, weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.