Mark Bell's Power Project - MBPP EP. 643 - Overcoming All Obstacles Using Visualization ft. UFC Featherweight Josh Emmett

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Josh Emmett is an American professional mixed martial artist. Emmett currently competes in the featherweight division for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A professional competitor since 2011, Emmett has also competed for King of the Cage. As of December 13, 2021, he is #6 in the UFC featherweight rankings. Josh's website: https://www.joshemmett.com/ Special perks for our listeners below! ➢Vertical Diet Meals: https://verticaldiet.com/ Use code POWERPROJECT for free shipping and two free meals + a Kooler Sport when you order 16 meals or more! ➢Vuori Performance Apparel: Visit https://vuoriclothing.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order! ➢Magic Spoon Cereal: Visit https://www.magicspoon.com/powerproject to automatically save $5 off a variety pack! ➢8 Sleep: Visit https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro! ➢Marek Health: https://marekhealth.com Use code POWERPROJECT10 for 10% off ALL LABS! Also check out the Power Project Panel: https://marekhealth.com/powerproject Use code POWERPROJECT for $101 off! ➢LMNT Electrolytes: http://drinklmnt.com/powerproject ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150 Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Subscribe to the Power Project Newsletter! ➢ https://bit.ly/2JvmXMb 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 ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢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 on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell

Power Project family, this episode is brought to you by Piedmontese Beef. Now, we've been eating Piedmontese Beef for a very long time now, but the amazing thing about their steaks, and we like to call it diet steaks, is that number one, they have a lot of cuts that are very high fat, but they have a lot of cuts that are low fat. So if you're dieting and you're not eating a lot of fat, you can still enjoy some wonderful tasting steak. Andrew, can you tell them how to get it? Yes, absolutely.

You guys got to head over to Piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com at checkout. Enter promo code POWERPROJECT for 25% off your entire order. And if your order is $150 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Head over there right now. All right. Well, we got this guy on the show

who punches people in the face for a living. Yeah, right? Damn. Dude, who's the biggest, not really the biggest, but who's the most mutated dude in the UFC? Because we've seen a lot of amazing athletes come through there,

especially over the last couple of years, has been the talent level of the UFC athletes has been like before it was like kind of, you had like the tank Abbott, you know, and you had some dudes that just had some heavy hands and knew how to threw bombs. And,

and of course there was hoist Gracie and there's really talented individuals, but now we're starting to see some really just crazy athleticism in the UFC. In your experience, who has been the person that you've been around where you're like, I just don't even know what that's about? Yeah, it's kind of challenging because the sport has evolved so much. And there's a lot of, instead of just one-dimensional fighters now or, you know, when you're talking about athletics and stuff, it's like there's so many of them. So it's, I don't know, I would say Yoel Romero though. He's a freakish athlete. And I want to say he's in his mid 40s

and he's still, you wouldn't know. So I'm always wondering like, hopefully I can be like that when I get into my early 40s. So I'd say Yoel Romero for sure. How old are you? I am 36. I'll be 37 in the beginning of the year. Where'd this all start, man?

Man, just, I think, you know, I've been an athlete my whole life. I've been a fan of the UFC since it was around, you know, like, or when it started back in 99, I was watching the UFC events with my best friend before it was around. Or when it started back in 99, I was watching the UFC events with my best friend before it was mainstream, always saying that I could do this. I could beat the guys in there right then.

And I was like... What were your friends saying about that? Yeah, they didn't believe me. Like, no, bro. And at the time, I would have got killed. That's when it was like Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz and Liddell and all those guys, Randy Couture. When I went into my first MMA practice, that was a humbling experience for sure. Then I realized right then, yeah, these guys in the UFC would have killed me.

But now fast forward, here I am competing with some of the best in the world, and it's insane. It's been a wild ride. Did you, as a kid, get into fights and stuff like that? Is that kind of what gave you the confidence when you watched it? Like, hey, I can kick these guys' ass or something? No, not really. I would get in little scuffles here and there, but nothing too serious. I've never stood on a playground or at school

and fought someone standing up for five minutes, you know, you know, just little, little, little scuffles here and there, but it's just the, I don't know. I think it's just being an athlete. And, you know, I played every sport growing up, even though I may not look like I can do a whole lot, you know, I was good at everything, but I excelled at wrestling. And, um, yeah, like I said, I was always just such a fan of mixed martial arts just because it's like the truest form and truest sport. Like it's two men in there and you're literally trying to hurt the other person. You're trying to finish the person in front of the world. And it's like a barbaric times. It's like gladiator times.

it's like a barbaric times. It's like gladiator times. It's, it's crazy when you see the fans and everything, how, how passionate they are and how, how just crazy. If you think about everything that goes into it and like, they're cheering us on,

like back in the Roman times, like to the death, like it's fucking wild. Like, um, yeah. What always, what I've always kind of been wondering about was when you get into a ring

like as a usc fighter um that's when you get to really fight right uh but when it comes to sparring like you actually i think you won nogi worlds as a blue belt in jujitsu right but when you spar in jujitsu you can go out 100 but you can't spar m 100%. So how do you truly get ready for a fight? Because you can't strike your sparring partner like you would the other guy you're trying to actually fight in the ring, right? No, you're right. And some people do. For me, I think when you're first getting into the sport, you need your rounds. You know, like with wrestling, you need your mat time.

Jiu-jitsu, same thing. You need to box. You need to spar those hard rounds. And the, you know, like with wrestling, you need your mat time, jujitsu, same thing. Um, you need to box, you need to spar those hard rounds and the guys will go a hundred percent. Like say boxing sparring, you have 16 ounce gloves on, you have headgear, things like that. Um, when we're doing MMA sparring, it's a little more, we played a little more safer, you know, we'll have bigger gloves on as well. Um, but it's like, we won't put on four ounce gloves and spark. Cause then that's when you won't put on four-ounce gloves and spar because then that's when you can seriously injure your sparring partner or teammate, and you don't want to do that.

I got a lot of hard rounds early in my career, and I've wrestled since I was a young child all the way through college and stuff like that. I haven't sparred that much in the last few years, just like not that hard. I do a lot of like, uh, like technical sparring where I'm holding a lot of speed and we're just kind of holding the power. Um, but I've put in the time, so I know I can fight. I just have to be in the tip top shape. And one of, I feel like one of my, um, one of my friends, he's a professional boxer. I do a lot of boxing rounds with him.

And it's just a different look. It's like boxers throw punches in bunches. They hit a little different. Like the punches do not stop coming. Whereas MMA, it's like one, two, maybe three strikes. And then you can kind of reset circle and we're worrying about everything else. But when I put in the time with Ruben, his name is Ruben Torres. He's out of Sacramento. And it's just on another level. So then I go in there and I get hit by someone with a four ounce glove and I'm just like, man, that's it. So it gives me like the confidence and I felt comfortable just staying in the pocket

and exchanging punches and even, yeah, just like blocking and countering, always firing back. Yeah. Has there ever been anything you've seen from an opponent where, like, even before the fight starts, like, because there's kind of like, I guess, the mental game of it, like, does any of that ever work? Like, has anybody you ever faced ever done something in training, working out, or, like, have you ever seen anything that like intimidated you where you're like man i don't know

i don't know what this guy's going to be about when i get in the ring with him yeah i think it's um i don't know it's just my preparation so i feel like if i'm i'm prepared and i put in all the work and um then i'm confident you know what i mean And I've been from team alpha male, you know, I've been with some of the best fighters in the world since the beginning. So even before I was in the UFC, before I was even fighting professionally, I was, I was the main training partners for, you know, some of the biggest guys in the sport, you know, and I didn't even have a pro fight. So I kind of knew where I stood at that moment and I, how I competed with them in practice and just everyone in the world coming around to train with us and I would go

with them. So it's like, I know, or I knew where I stacked up. Um, it just took me a little longer to get there. But as far as like intimidation, I don't know, it doesn't, I don't really look into like who I'm fighting. I watch a lot of film and I, I try to pick up on things that they, um, tendencies that they do that I can capitalize on because they're not going to be able to fix that in a six to eight week training camp. They've been doing it their entire career and most of their fights.

So it's a little more like mathematical rather than being like, Oh man, my opponent's so strong. I don't know what to do. Yeah. It's like, okay, he has a lot of strengths, but let me see where he's weak and I can pick, maybe I can pick them apart here

or there. Yeah. Or if I just see the, the, the, you know, the strike that they throw and maybe their hands down me, I can hook off it, maybe land something, um, when, when they, when they go to that, that exchange. But other than that, it's, uh, you know, I'm, I'm prepared. I'm, I'm so prepared and I can fight and anything can happen. You know, you're fighting the best guys in the world and it's just like, it's inches. And I also say there's a little bit of luck when you get up there, you know, it's like you have to have a little luck on your side, but for the most part, I'm, I'm ready to go as long as I'm in tip top shape. How did you build, like you mentioned that you did a wrestling in high

school or you wrestled when you were young. So it means you had a grappling background and grappling is different than striking. But after you built that background, how did you go ahead and build your ability to throw punches, kicks, etc.? How did you build those other martial arts into becoming a fighter? How long did it take for you to get proficient at everything else? Yeah, it was pretty quick. Like I've wrestled since I, I know that's what I'm saying.

My athletic ability is like, I can watch someone do something or if they show me something, I can pick up on things really fast. And so I loved boxing, you know, and I felt like I picked it up fairly quick. Like, uh, the footwork is the same. Maybe you're not as wide of a stance, you know what I mean? But like the movement is pretty similar. And then I, you know, I could just, I could strike, you know, I found my boxing coach, Joey Rodriguez, and we just connected and it's on another level. He can just hold the mitts a certain way. And I know every combo and we just have, we just have a really strong bond and it's, I owe a lot of credit to him, you know, in my, my striking and being able to sit on my punches and, and just started to create more and more power later in

my career. Um, but, but I did pick it up pretty quick and I used to like box and when I was, I don't know, middle school, high school, you know, like when you throw on the gloves and everyone's fighting in the front yard or like these little skate night things you're boxing after. And I was, I'm a small guy and i was always like a really small guy kid growing up and saw it fight like box these big guys so i don't know i just i have that that fire and that fight in me so it's uh okay but but i did pick up boxing fairly quick do you feel like a professional athlete because you know like you if you're around here in Sacramento and, uh, you see a pro athlete, you might see someone from the Kings and they're like a thousand feet tall and stuff like

that. Do you feel like a professional athlete? I don't know. It's because you are, I mean, you're, you're amongst like this tiny percentage of our population that was able to figure out how to be a professional fighter. And then there's no greater thing to reach than the UFC. I mean, it's almost like you're in the Olympics every time you compete. So it's pretty, it's pretty impressive to me. Yeah, no, it's, I feel the same. So I don't feel like a pro athlete, you know, it's like all my friends and family that, that know me, I'm, I'm the same, same old me, you know, it's a, and they and they forget like when i'm when i'm going out somewhere and people want to take pictures with me they're like man i forget like who who i am or

i'm in the ufc you know what i mean it is it is weird because i'm never going to change you know i'm going to be the same person i always have been i do see some people it gets to their head and but yeah i won't ever change oh god i was ahead. I was just going to say, because I've been around a couple of fighters. We know our boy Nico Lasagna. That's what we call him, Nico Lasagna. Yeah. And I don't know. I was just like, you kind of hear some of the people that haven't quite made it yet.

They're just like, dude, if I just get my shot, I know I'm going to kick ass in the UFC or whatever. Sometimes maybe that shot looks a little bit weird. I just wanted you to explain, basically, basically when you got that phone call, what did it look like when you actually had to fight in your first UFC fight? Yeah, no, it's true. There's, I think there's only 500 people in the UFC, men, women, all weight classes. How did everyone in the world, like how many fighters, MMA fighters are in the world? So there's so many people that would do well and succeed in the sport, but they do need the opportunity. They need their shot. And I was one of those. I was

fighting on the regional scene for West Coast Fighting Championship out of Sacramento. And I was one of the top prospects in the country, like the next to go. I had so many opportunities that I was almost in the UFC. I almost got on the ultimate fighter twice. Um, you know, I, I almost got in the UFC when I was five and oh, I was on like this conference call with the matchmakers and stuff and they went with someone else. So I, I thought I was never going to get in, you know, I almost hung up my gloves and I was, I was done, you know, but then my wife talked to me and she's like, give it one more year. If you don't get in, we'll kind of figure things out. Just cause I felt bad that I was, uh, you know, she's chasing

this dream with me and it's like, there's no money like early in the sport. Even now I feel like I'm not getting paid like what we should be getting paid. Um, but yeah, it is the, the opportunity you need. It's like, it's a crazy thing. I made my debut on a four day notice. Yeah. In the Netherlands. You're fighting on Saturday. Like, okay. Yeah. In Rotterdam. So it was like Amsterdam. I was actually training at the time. I got a call from Joe Silva, who was the matchmaker back then. And so I knew I was in. He's like, hey, Josh, you want to fight Saturday? And I said, yeah, for sure.

And then I talked to him for a while and then I hung up and I didn't even realize that I was fighting this Saturday. I thought it was like, you know, 10 days, like a week and a half out. And then my coach is like, man, you need to go home and pack. I was like, what are you talking about? He's like, we're flying out tomorrow to Amsterdam. And so I was like, ah, shit. So I went home. Luckily I had my passport. Otherwise I would not have. Where's Amsterdam? I know, right? It was crazy. So I literally, I went home,

I packed, I hopped on a flight and then I got out there. weight and, uh, I didn't sleep at all. Cause the time change, um, the time change and I was so excited to be there. This is like what I've been working my whole life to, to accomplish. And then I was going up against a tough guy. And, uh, I also had one of the worst hand injuries in UFC history that, that, um, that fight, you know, my, uh, I had a compound fracture and my bone sticking out of my finger and I had to hide it from the ref just so I can, I can keep fighting. Cause I knew I was going to win. I was dominating the fight. He would have stopped the fight if he saw that. And, uh, yeah, you know, I didn't care if I lost my damn finger at that moment, I was getting my hand raised, but that was my shot. You're talking about like, I took it like it's what I worked so hard for. And there

was nothing that was, I don't care if they said, hey, you want to fight in an hour. I would have been there and I would have made the weight and got my hand raised. All right. I'm curious, man. Because how long is the weight cutting process? Because knowing four days out, do you usually give yourself more time to cut weight? Or do you usually do it in like a three to four day thing, get to weight and then do what you got to do? Yeah, normally it's a long process.

And I was fighting at one 55, so lightweight. Um, so, so I want to say I was probably like low seventies, um, at that time. So it wasn't that bad, 12, you know, 12 pounds or so. Um, but, but, you know, flying and stuff, I felt all swollen and puffy when I got over there and then no sleep that affects everything as well. And, uh, yeah, so it worked out well. It's, it was hard, but fighting it featherweight 145 is on another level. That's my, not the one I just fought Saturday, but the, the fight in 2020 where I tore my ACL in the first 19 seconds of the first round. So that's why it's a, you tore your,

so right now you're fighting with a torn ACL. Yeah. Yeah. I've been for a 90 seconds already. It was one of the first exchanges. So you'll see my, my, it's my lead leg,

my left leg. It keeps buckling. It's right there. Oh yeah. So you'll see it. Yeah. It was, how'd you do in this fight by the way?

I won. I got, yeah. Fight of the fight of the night. We were fight of the year candidate. Yeah, so you'll see. How'd you do in this fight, by the way? I won. I got fight of the night. We were fight of the year candidate. But it just wasn't the performance I wanted just because I had no stability. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the things you got to stand on, right? But what did it take away from your game? Did you have something else in mind to try to do

that you had? And then you're like, okay, well, that's fucking gone. Yeah, my movement, I couldn't move as well. I couldn't go to the body, I couldn't wrestle just because it was so damn painful. And not only did I tear my ACL in that exchange, I tore my ACL completely. I tore my MCL, I had my Baker's cyst,

you know, everyone has behind their knee. I ruptured that. When the ACL snapped, my femur and tibia hit so hard that I fractured my femur and tibia. But it's just that will to win. And we were talking about this earlier. I'm like, it's either I have a crazy mindset with like, I welcome the pain. I know it's going to hurt. It's like a, it's like flooring your car into a tree with no seatbelt. You hope things turn out for the best, but you have no idea. And so how many rounds did this go? Three rounds. So it was 15, I thought 14 and a half minutes with no, with that injury. It was just kind of a lackluster performance to me. I don't, I don no he knew and he's a big ass guy

like i thought he was at uh when i first met him a long years ago i thought he was a welterweight but he's huge yeah he fights at 145 he definitely wasn't 45 there no huge yeah well that conversation sparked because you know he's telling me about his his knee and i'm just like what the fuck is it like you guys are just a different pedigree like fighters like dude if I twist my ankle getting out of my seat I'm just like guys sorry we got to cancel the podcast like uh maybe we'll try again in about a month or two when I heal up you know but I mean you're dude like remarkable did that start at us at a different time before you ever got into the cage yeah no it's it's, I work with a mind coach. His name is Joshua Manuel and he's, he works with a lot of special forces and law enforcement officers. Is he local?

No, he's out of Vancouver. So he's, man, it's different. I've worked with like sports psychologists and stuff, but we've been working for five years and it's almost like a hypnosis. Like I do a lot of visualization, you know, the mind's so powerful and he puts me into like these deep trances. And even in the, the fights, you know, I visualize like he puts me in like the locker room. He puts me watching the fight, uh, from my coach's, uh, viewpoint from a bird's eye viewpoint. We fast forward to the after party celebrating with my friends and family and we just go over all these um just different scenarios and i'm always getting my hand raised i'm it's hard to explain like i get it yeah it's it's anytime you've lost uh you have shown up on the scene and like you went to go do your thing and it's

completely different than what you thought it was going to be yeah and like you went to go do your thing and it's completely different than what you thought it was going to be yeah and so you're already playing it out like this is the way it's going to look ish there might be some like different stuff like somebody might forget the tape for my gloves but none of that really matters like we'll fucking figure it out or whatever yeah you just play out every little detail of a warm-up preparation everything all that stuff. And it's even, we've done some stuff, and he records them, too. So it's like the exact same finishes, and I've hit them in two fights, like, dead on.

I visualize the Michael Johnson fight, like, me hitting him with the overhand right, and him just, like, falling straight over, me walking away. Yeah, this right here. You know, and that's the first time he's ever been knocked out and that was nice and like the merced beautiful merced bectic fight i i didn't know like how i was gonna get it done but i knew i was gonna walk away and he was on all fours while the ref was kind of like breaking us up and we've done that as well so it's uh yeah yeah he's helped me a ton. I have so many people in my, like, you know, I say my team, not just team alpha male, but my team, like team Emmett that man, I, I owe everything to them. Like from my, my dieticians, my mind coach, my chiropractors,

you know, it's like literally everybody that just helps me get to where I need to be. And it's like, I couldn't be more grateful for them. When something like that happens to like your hand or with your knee, there's gotta be at least a second of like you taking some diagnostic of like, what, like, okay, what is,

what is that? And then what's the next, what's the next thing you go to? I mean, I would, I would guess like what would happen for me if I was in your shoes, I would be like, dude, you box with a professional boxer all the time. So it sounds like we're just going to stand up and, would guess like what would happen for me if i was in your shoes i would be like dude you bet you

box with a professional boxer all the time yeah so it sounds like we're just gonna stand up and let's see what happens with that yeah and it and it is true because i'm going through all these like i'm like talking to myself you know because some of the stuff is so damn painful and when you when your finger hurts like when i did that and i look down and the bone's sticking out, and it's like... Just want to barf. It's like, yeah, it's like all the way off. So every time I would block a kick, I would see sweat going out of my peripherals,

and I had to keep looking because I thought my finger was getting kicked off. So I kept looking to make sure it's still there because the glove would stop it when it would flap back. But then my knee, that was on another level. And I'm like, there's a reason why you don't see football players finishing the set of downs or finishing the quarter when they tear their ACL or something else, they get carted off. Um, so I'm, I'm, I'm having these conversations with myself, like just knowing me, I could have quit right then. And then, you know, the injuries come out, everybody would have been, yeah, there's the thing. Thanks, Andrew. You're welcome. Everybody would have been

okay with it. Like I would not have been okay with it because if I gave up and, and I had to live with that, like knowing that I gave up, like I was already in like a dark, dark time, just all the issues I had with the knee and I didn't heal and I had to go back and do multiple procedures. This was after the fight or this was before that fight where you tore your knee? Yeah, after the ACL fight. Yeah. So I had a lot of issues with the surgery. And so if I would have just given up, then I would have had to deal with that as well. And I would have got half a check. So even some of the stuff I think about, it comes down to like finances. You know, in my mind, I'm saying, okay, I look at the clock, there's 14 and a half minutes left. I'm like 14 and a half minutes, like fight your ass off. You'll be happy. You'll get

your, your show and your win bonus. And then, you know, that turned into being, you know, fight of the night. So we got another check and you know, so I, so, you know, fight of the night. Um, so we got another check and, uh, you know, so, so I was happy with it, but I was happy after the fact during, I was, I was so pissed, uh, just cause I knew I hurt my knee. I was going to be out for a while. Um, and it was a major injury, you know, and I'm, I'm getting older. I'm not, I'm not young like I used to be. So it takes even longer for me to, to recover and heal and heal. So, yeah, that's kind of where my mindset goes. It's easy to get a little bit of that why me type of thing going on, but then you can also kind of, you know, you're a fucking professional fighter.

You're in a great spot. There are people that would say, I would die to be in your position. Like, I would lose a finger to be in your position. So I guess that's the thing you got to be mindful of is that when, especially when you were younger, you would be that person saying that, right? Oh yeah. I would have done anything to be there. And, uh, I mean, I can't believe that guy gave up cause his fingers hurts, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's, yeah. So no, I, I agree with that. And, uh, yeah, it's, and every time I come back, you know, I, everything works out and happens to me for a reason. I used to be that way, like, man, why the hell is this happening to me?

But then I had to stop thinking about that because if something horrible happens, it always leads me to a bigger and better path. And I think if that didn't happen, I would have went this way and it wouldn't have turned out the way things are going. So I truly believe everything happens for a reason. And for some reason, I'm always like taken care of by something, you know, and blessed in a sense. And even with this knee injury, it took me 18 months to come back. And was that the fight before this one? Yeah.

Yeah. So this was my first fight back in 18 months. Yeah. So it was tough. So I had an ACL reconstruction. I did the patellar tendon for whatever reason, my, my patellar tendon and patella did not heal. Correct. When they took the graft. So I, um, I was doing PT and I was so far ahead of everybody. Like I wanted to be the Adrian Peterson at MMA. I wanted to come back. I wanted to fight four to six months and that had never been done. And I was ahead of a schedule and I was on track

to do that, but I kept having anterior knee pain. Um, and so the PT was like, I said, is this affecting my ACL in any way? And she's like, no. Um, so I just kept going through with everything. I talked to the doctor at the four month marker and kept complaining about that pain. And they're like, let's just get an MRI just in case. So we did that. And, um, he's like, no wonder you're in so much pain because the patella, I had a huge fracture in my kneecap, never healed. And then the patella tendon, you know, right under the, the, the kneecap where they took the graft, it never healed and closed. So it was this huge vertical tear still. And so, you know, I was like, that's why that happened. I have a friend and doctor out

of Sacramento, Dr. Pinero, that he helped me when I had all these facial fractures and bad vertigo from one of my fights. So he took the lead on that and got me the help I needed. He also took the lead on this and he specializes in stem cells. So we went back in and he drilled into my back, my SI joints. They extracted the bone marrow and injected, you know, the stem cells straight through my kneecap and patella tendon. That was another painful thing. So this is last Christmas. and patella tendon, that was another painful thing.

So this is last Christmas. So this is six months post-op. And here I am again, going back in for a different procedure. I had to be back in a brace, no weight bearing, my quad atrophied again. I had to start over basically, but that kind of stimulated the growth factors and started the healing process. And so again, I can't thank him enough

because without him, who knows where I would be, you know? So I started over again a year ago and then been working my ass off. And then I got back with my old physical therapist, Russ Dunning from CHIME in March. And then we put in hundreds and hundreds of hours. He was seeing me five to six days a week, two days, two times a day, just so I could get back to feeling somewhat normal.

Did you talk with your mind coach about the knee stuff and how did that work out? Yeah, I did. And he gave me a lot of little tools and things to, you know, kind of do and visualize. And, you know, it's almost like thinking I'm like little guys or something in my knee and they're in there and they're fixing my knee and doing all this, these things. So I, I had to go through and do that as well. And just, I did a lot of other things just in that, but that's one of the things that just stands out that I can think of. Can you talk to us a little bit more about that? Because there's this guy, he bring it, your mind went there too. Um, there's this dude, Joe went there too there's this dude Joe Dispenza

he had this like bad back accident and literally what he said is that he would visualize like healing and little things going on with each vertebra he would visualize that and after a few months he actually was everything got healed even though he wasn't supposed to be able to walk again right? Oh wow. So what

did your mind coach like have you do and how often would you do that specifically for your knee? How, what did that look like? Yeah, I was doing it. Like I'm, I'm obsessed with certain things that I want. And so all the time, like probably not too much, but I w I was just like all the time I was visualizing this and even he'd run me through, you know, deep trances and stuff like that. And, uh, kind of the same thing, how I was talking about the fights, you know, like seeing it from all angles, uh, me competing at a high level again with like my knee better than it was. And just like, just kind of whatever you

could think of. So I would think of these, yeah, just little characters, or I don't even know really what they look like in my mind, but they're in there and they're sewing. Little robots or something. Yeah, I'm thinking little robots, minions, whatever they are, and they're sewing up my patella tendon and they're like packing the patella with, you know, bone and it's healing. So I just, whatever.

They got some Bondo and shit. Yeah, yeah. Whatever works, you know, just gluing it and piecing me back together. So I would do that all day, every day. And then when I would talk to him, his Instagram and his website, Fight Mindset.

Check it out. Yeah, Joshua Emanuel. He's amazing. How is it now? Actually, by the way, like the knee, like compared to what it was like before the surgery, et cetera,

like how is it now? The ACL is strong. Like we were just talking about like before the surgery, et cetera. Like, how is it now? The ACL is strong. Like we were just talking about this before the show too. It's, everyone's asking before the fight, the lead up, you know, how's the knee? I'm like, oh, it's better than my other knee. But no, it wasn't. It's just not as springy.

You know what I mean? Like, it's definitely getting better, but I feel like people say that it takes about 18 months to two years until you're back to 100%. I feel like I'm a year out just because I had to start over again last year. So maybe in another year it'll be 100%. Somebody says something like, how are you doing, Josh? You're like, it's probably going to take me about an hour and a half

to go over the list of things that are wrong with me right now, but let me just tell you that I'm doing great. It's easier. I like it. It's easier for your mindset, right? Yeah. Because you can probably be like at any time, you can be like, yeah, you know what? My elbow is a little weird and this knee is off and this shoulder hurts.

I got punched in the face last week, so my eye kind of hurts. Yeah. I'm sure there's like a long list of shit you can point out that you're. I feel like scripted too. You know, when people ask me something, I just, I repeat the same thing. not that you're... I feel like scripted too. You know, when people ask me something, I just, I repeat the same thing.

So I feel bad for my wife or like close friends that are with me all the time because they've heard the story a million times. You know, I'm like, sorry guys. I got a new one for you when somebody asks you how you're doing. What's that? Say that you're horny.

I'll turn it. Then maybe they'll leave me alone. That'll turn them in the other direction. You're like, I'm really horny. I like that. They might be like, what? Widen your eyes a little bit, I'm horny. like that it might be like what widen your eyes a little bit i'm horny let's get the hell out of here exactly that's a good one god damn so how's

the knee now uh yeah it's it's doing good you know it's a little sore i'm actually gonna go get a um mri just to play it safe you know i i saw the pt out in vegas heather linden and she uh I saw the PT out in Vegas, Heather Linden, and they think I just kind of sprained my LCL and have like a small hamstring tear behind the knee, but I'll take that all day. That's nothing compared to what I went through. So I'll be good and hopefully back in practice in a week and a half or so.

How do you get the belt? What do we got to do? What do we got to talk to about this belt? So hopefully like what I'm campaigning for my hope my next fight i want it to be a title eliminator you know i'm the only fighter that has not fight like or fought the the top guys the champions the top three guys they've all fought each other multiple times and who are these guys so it's alexander Volkanovski is the champion, you know, Max Holloway. Um, he, he was the champion for so long. Volkanovski beat him twice. They're going to fight again, March 5th. Um, and then there's, you know, Korean zombie.

Um, there's, there's really, I haven't got to fight any of those guys. I think I match up stylistically the best with the champion. You know, he, he's the, he's the best in the world in our, our weight class, but you know, I think I match up so well. And, uh, yeah. So my next fight, I want it to be a title eliminator. The winner of that gets a shot at Max and, uh, Volkanovski. How long does it look like? So you just had this fight, that fight happens in March. So projection wise wise like how long does it look like until if you were able to get a match after that one when would you think it would be yes i'm hoping to fight maybe march or april we'll see get back in there and do the title eliminator and then

it depends on what goes on with uh you know the champion they can have a little longer layoff but sometime in 2020 whether it would be international fight week july uh sometime around you know the champion they can have a little longer layoff but sometime in 2020 whether it would be international fight week july sometime around you know fourth of july or you know towards the end of the year and what does title eliminator mean uh whoever wins that gets the shot at the title so it's it's kind of like the the semi-finals okay have uh i don't know have you has that ever crossed your mind to do like some of the uh like the post-fight antics or even out of the cage type thing like you know like some mcgregor shit where you're talking shit because you're very well spoken so i've in my opinion this is below you

but i don't know has anybody ever said like uh maybe you should start talking shit so you can get that casino more money yeah i've heard that so much but i'm just like man that's that's not me. And like you said, try to be a Conor McGregor. There's only one Conor McGregor and everyone's trying to be like him and I think they look stupid. Yeah, because it's clear.

He made so much money and it's good for him and he brought more eyes to the sport and stuff like that. But a lot of people try to, try to be like him. And, you know, I didn't go to acting school. I didn't do any of that. Like I can fight, man. So it's like, anytime I'm on a card, like the fans are excited to see me fight. You know, they're not excited to see me like, you know, shit talk people. And I don't even know these opponents. So it's like, yeah, I'm just, I'm not going to talk about people I don't know or what's going on in their life and stuff.

So you're in a fight and you tear your knee and you're in a fight and your fingers all jacked up and broken. What happens when somebody just hits you harder than you've ever been hit before? Like what, what kind of, what goes through your mind, especially like a body shot or something? You're just like, whoa, like I better figure out something slightly different to do with this person. Or has that even happened?

It hasn't happened. You know, and I feel like in sparring though, like going back to sparring some of the boxers and Ruben, it's like, it's on a different level. And it's like him and I would go and we used to spar hard on Friday nights. So it was like a damn, it was a fight. We do eight to 10, three minute rounds.

And where now you're talking about someone hitting hard, like whose body bruises, like when he's going to the body, I'll have bruises here. And we're like, we're hurting each other. But I was doing that early on. It's like, I don't need to take that much damage because we're not getting paid for that, you know? Um, but that was insane. We were just bloodied up and that was like a fight. So I haven't been like in a real fight, hit too hard. There was one on the regional scene at West Coast Fighting. He was an ex UFC guy. I fought him and the only,

the hardest hit I ever got hit by was Christos Yagos. He hit me right in the neck. And so that was different. So I just felt like my whole left side just went numb and i felt these crazy like tingle sensation to my head as i'm in the fight um if that would have landed on the chin who who knows it might have been a different story but um so now that i think about there's only one and that's that's the shot but i ended up knocking him out and you know that was the first time he had ever been knocked out and that was that's the shot but i ended up knocking him out and you know that was the first

time he had ever been knocked out and that was a hell of a fight because i got paid one thousand dollars for that fight we would have got fight of the night for sure i would have gotten knock out of the night for sure and it was the craziest fight on like a local scene so it's like i made a thousand bucks where i could have made a few hundred if it was in the ufc you talked to us a little bit before the show about your weight cut. I found it interesting because, one, I'm actually curious what made you go from, because you said I think your first UFC fight was 155.

Now you're at 145. What made you make that decision? And then secondly, it's interesting how you'll cut down to 145 and the next day y'all are like 170 and 180. Do you think that that should be like do you do you find that's advantageous for you since you come from a wrestling background and you're you know how to cut or do you think that there should be something that's that's regulated there because it just seems weird at least from someone looking in you know yeah um yeah so i was fighting on the

regional scene at 155 um i got into the UFC and I won my first two fights. So my plan was always to go featherweight, 145, once I got in the UFC. Since I was undefeated, I was doing well. I wasn't going to change anything. But I actually, in my third lightweight fight in the UFC, I fought a guy, Desmond Green, in Buffalo, in his hometown. And I feel like I got hometown. I feel like I won that fight to the UFC. I fought a guy, Desmond Green in Buffalo, in his hometown. And I feel like I got hometown. I feel like I won that fight to this day still, but he won on the scorecards by split decision. And so, you know, even that I'm grateful for that loss because it made me reevaluate

things. And I'm like, this is the time to make the cut to 145 featherweight. And so I did just that. If I would have won that fight, I would have stayed at 55, you know, so who knows if I would be where I am right now. And yeah, I've, you know, I work with the best dietitians in the country, perfecting athletes. It's Dr. Michelle, Paulina and Denise, and they're on another level. They were the dieticians for the US boxing team. And they work with some of the best boxers too, like Teofimo Lopez, Terrence Crawford, Shakur Stevens, like all these guys, they work with top UFC champions as well.

And so I've been working with them for a few years now. And man, it's amazing. Like we were talking about the cut. I thought I was doing a really good job and knew what I was doing until I started working with them. Like it's literally, I'm working so much smarter instead of harder. Like just the way they have me eat the supplements they have me take, like it's all about recovery and sleep and things like that, which I, which I know, um, and everything about decreasing my cortisol levels. And then the way I cut the water is, man, it's, it's just

something different. And I can't tell people my secrets, but I, uh, I, I, I I'll tell you guys after, but I, uh, I, um, I used to use plastics and sauna suits or I mean, sauna suits and saunas and, and just work my ass off all fight week and stuff, just trying to dehydrate. But now it's like my last two fights, no sauna, no plastics. I'm not really even doing anything fight week and I'm eating and drinking a ton.

And it's really the last like, I don't know, maybe 10 hours. I'm, you know, I, I feel horrible, but I was feeling horrible for weeks leading up to a fight before. So you have enough time to feel good to where when you get back in the ring, you feel amazing and you're replenished and you're, you're good to go. Right. A hundred percent. They, all their hydration protocol, the food they have me eat. Um, I feel so good. It's a science though. It's not like you weigh in, then you eat a bunch of donuts. No, no. Yeah. I eat like what I've been eating for eight to 10 weeks. And then I eat, they, it's like a concierge service too. They come out fight week and you

know, they'll, they'll work on me like physical therapy. Um, they cook all my meals. I'm drinking all these green juice. I'm doing tons of juices and, and just everything. It's like, man, I feel so good and I cannot thank them enough. Like once again, you went from 185 to 145. Yeah. 40 pounds. Yeah. Typically I walk around around like, yeah, 185 when I'm eating good and like loving life. If I like get on a strict diet, I'll be high 70s, you know, 78, 79. And then, yeah, I have some pictures of my 185 to 145 cut. What's any idea on what this deal is with Conor McGregor? I don't know if you've seen all over the internet, he gained 32 pounds. And they're like, he gained 32 pounds of muscle. And he looks swole.

But I think a lot of you guys will look really swole when you're not like, I mean, when you're fighting, you'll look shredded. Yeah. And then a handful of days later, a lot of times you'll blow up and look big, right? Yeah, it's like a physique competition. People say I could do like a physique competition when I'm at 145 because you can see every damn muscle in my body. And then it's more like a bodybuilder as we get bigger. Turned into a power lifter maybe towards the end but it's like but you guys know you can't put on 32 pounds of muscle but he's he's bigger and

right um yeah i haven't really seen too much of that i see that he's huge though like i want what's he weigh right now i don't know he looks like he's like 190 or something he pulled a couple pictures in yeah i'll look for him i was trying to find it almost looked fake like i saw his face and he was so damn big. I was like. Could be. It's the fucking internet. Who knows?

But this is the thing. Like you are doing cardio based training multiple times a week. I don't know. How much do you lift right now in terms of lifting? I do three days a week. Three days a week. But it's more like sports specific training and stuff like that. We're working on like you know speed power like things

like that whereas yeah and if you just slow down but like this is the if you slow down the cardio a little bit and you just chose to i'm just gonna fucking lift weights and eat food you'd be 210 or if i was in here with you guys damn you'd fucking get to 210 and like honest like maybe 205 i'd say you could do that shit in two months. Yeah, I could do it. And that's one thing. I don't have an issue with putting on weight. I used to be, you know, I used to be like watch all like the bodybuilding stuff. And like I was on like Jay Cutler's diet and stuff. And I was eating all the rice and all this stuff back in the day. And I wanted to get up to 200.

I was like 198. And I was huge. Like I remember when I would go do bench. I would warm up with like two plates, hit it 15 times. And I was up to like, I was like 198 and I was huge like I remember when I would go do bench I'd warm up with like two plates hit it 15 times and I was up to like I was big I was wearing like XL shirts and they'd fit me like mediums do right now but it's uh but then I I had no flexibility and I had shin splints and like it was it was horrible my wife's like oh it's like you have a hot dog in the back of your head just like rolling my I don't know. Bruh. I was big.

How long has your wife been with you through all, like has she been with you since the beginning of the fight? Everything. Yeah. We've been together so long. Yeah. 16, 17 years, you know, we've been married for 10. Whoa.

Yeah. We've been, yeah, high school sweethearts. It's, she's been with me since the beginning, like college wrestling, my amateur fight, everything. So it's like, yeah. Where'd you go to college? I went to Sac City College, and then I went to Menlo College in the Bay Area in the Silicon Valley. It's a private college near Stanford in AIA. Dude, Andrew, I think my testosterone's low.

Really? And I also think my cortisol's messed up. Cortisol, what the fuck? And I had a buddy at a gym tell me that my thyroid might be- Oh think my testosterone's low. Really? And I also think my cortisol's messed up. Cortisol? What the fuck? And I had a buddy at a gym tell me that my thyroid might be- Oh, my thyroid. Yeah. Well, you know what, guys? If you've been saying this to yourself from time to time, which I know I have in the past,

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Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Let's get back to this podcast. It sounds like your wife has a lot of belief and confidence in Uh, where did your own belief and confidence in yourself come from? It come from like grandpa or your dad or your mom or family interaction or something? Yeah. A little bit of everything. I think it's just my, my upbringing. I had a tough, tough upbringing, childhood. Um, and even, yeah, just my mom just seeing everything she's gone through and, and stuff like that. And yeah, I could say my grandpa as well. And that's why this last fight was so important to me, just because I had so many things go on in 2020.

It was hard for everyone. But then it's like I lost my older brother. I lost my grandpa, you know, before I lost my father like 13 years before. And it was just seeing like all the pain my mom went through and my family, like the Lowry's, the Emmett's, the Walters. That's what motivated me too. Even though I was going through this knee injury, it's like, that's nothing compared to like, it means it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. It's hard to describe that. Just the pain I saw my family going through and just, yeah, it was, that's what motivated me and that's what got me up. And, you know, I wanted to make them proud and I wanted to dedicate this

to my brother and my dad and my grandpa and my, my family. Yeah, I understand. It's like more, it's more like, uh, when someone dies, it's like more like long-term pain, you know, dealing with pain for like, I don't know, I'm in this ring for 15 minutes. I'll just figure out I'm a fighter. I'll deal with it, right? Yeah, and that's the thing. It's like, yeah, I'm in a controlled environment for 15 minutes. You chose it. Yeah, and that's me.

It's like, that's nothing. It can potentially go 15 minutes, and I have someone there to protect me if it doesn't go my way. It's like, I'm fighting for so much more. And even just today, I had one of my really good friends, his, uh, his cousin that I've known forever. He, he just passed away last night. You know, it's like in a car accident, I'm like, my wife and I are talking, I'm like, shit, life is too short. Like it really is. And like, we take that for granted. And it's just like, that's what I'm saying. Like reach out to people

you've been thinking about. Like life is fucked up, man. It really is. You know? What about kids? Yeah. We, we don't have any kids. We have a French bulldog. We're like, we're like the only ones out of all of our friends that don't have kids. I have, you know, I have my nephews, I have God children. We have, um, that was always the plan five years ago, but now we're getting older and it's like, it's still the plan, but we're, we have, that was always the plan five years ago, but now we're getting older and it's like, it's still the plan, but we're in a weird position.

Like something would serious have to give like my career or my wife's right now. And so we're going to revisit that in like another year and a half or so. And we love our life right now. We've always dreamed of doing these things and we just started to be able to do things we've always wanted to over the last two years.

So I know how hard it is. I see it firsthand. And even though it's your kid and it's different and you create all these memories, we love to travel. When we go travel, it would not be the same. You know what I mean? I don't care what people say. Like I see it. No, it's very smart. There's no turning back. Once you have a kid, you have a kid and that's it. And that, of course that'd be our, our world

and it would be great, but we're, uh, we're just not ready yet. That's for sure. Man. I want like right now with you, where you are, 36 right okay do you feel i know that you had your surgeries or whatever but physically as far as like um you know how fast you move etc yoel you're marrow you mentioned he's like 45 do you feel like you have a lot left that like you're not you're not slowing down because a lot of guys are like oh when you get into your 30s blah blah things slow down how do you feel right now yeah i, I actually, I talk about this a lot. I feel the best I've ever felt. You know, even though I got into the sport later, I had my, my first amateur fight when I was, I want to say like 26 or 27. I've had a lot of injuries too. Like, um, even my first pro fight,

you know, I broke my hand in the, in the first round. So I'm always having these like year layoffs, you know? So I have plenty of time to recover when I go in and I fight someone for 15 minutes and then I take a year off to recover and let everything kind of heal. Yeah, I feel amazing. And now I have everything dialed in with my team, like, and I continue to get better. I still feel like I'm fast. And, you know, I know people talk about with age, you lose speed first, is that right? But you still keep the power. I still feel like I'm getting more powerful

because I'm doing the things I need to do and lifting. I'm sitting on my punches. I'm working on like a lot of technique and I still feel fast. But I think I seriously have like a good two years to make a run at the title. But I feel like my career goes so much beyond that. Like I could see myself fighting till, you know,

in my forties. And I used to not think that. I'm like, oh, I want to be done, you know, before I'm 40. And like, I'm thinking like 38 or so, I'll be 37 in March. And I feel the best I've ever felt. So now it's like,

we're just going to keep adding onto that. And and literally, yeah, just ride until the wheels fall off. You know, that's my mindset. Well, it's a little different than boxing, you know, boxing, maybe you'd have more concern about like head injury. I mean, obviously there's could be head injury and what you're doing, but it seems like most people are fairly skilled to the point where if you are going to get hit, it's a good punch that lands and you're out and you're not taking like, I think accumulation is what probably causes more of that brain damage than anything else. I would say so because in boxing, it's really about who can get hit harder and just keep moving forward. You know, like those guys get dropped, they get concussed.

You have 10 seconds to get back up and then keep doing it. So how many times do people get concussed in boxing? Whereas MMA, like we're not designed to take these type of blows to the head, but it's like if there's a flash knockout or, you know, you knock someone down and hop on them, the ref will stop it. So you're not going to get concussed multiple times. You could, but it's not like boxing, you know? So yeah, I a hundred percent agree with that.

I want to quickly, I don't mean to take us back, but I want to go back to what you were talking about with your mindset coach. And I want to understand you as an athlete, because I don't know how often you're getting on a call with him and he's leading you through these different visualizations, but what has this individual taught you in terms of practices of visualization that you now do on your own? And how often do you do that? Because there's probably a lot of athletes listening and we know how beneficial visualization and all of that can be for whatever it is you're doing as an athlete. So how do you do it on your own? Yeah. So I've always done a lot of visualization like before I started

working with him, but over the last five years, it's kind of going back to my dieticians. It's like, I thought I was doing it right. And I was, it's better than nothing, but he's, he's just everything, not even just in athletics, like this can be in like business relationships, whatever it is. Like all I do is visualize different things. And I'm like always playing like scenarios out in my head and just like for the, for the better, you know, and just super optimistic. And just with some of the tools that he's taught me for fighting, I, you know, I use that, um, you know, for other, um, yeah, just parts of my life and stuff like that. And it's, it's kind of crazy. My, my mom, we used to do these vision boards. You guys

know anything about that? So my mom, she's a naturopath. And so it's like, I never went to a doctor as a kid. So it's like, unless I needed an x-ray, if I thought someone was broken or a physical, of course, to play sports. So she would make all these like Chinese concoctions when I was sick and I, I never went to the doctor. So I grew up, you know, eating really well and she cooked everything. We didn't have processed stuff. And, um, so I'm thankful now, but at the time I would go to my friend's house and they would have everything. And I would like raid their cabinets. And then I was always like, mom, why can't we, we couldn't even have soda in the house. Yeah. Nothing. So it's like,

we would do even like vision boards and like around you know new year's and it's kind of crazy that i would uh i would put these things on this board and then i found one um i don't know it was up in the attic like before i got in the ufc and i had like ufc i wasn't even training i was a fan of the sport i had all these things like and it was like real you know like even just going back to i don't know, you know, like even just going back to, I don't know where that came from, but even just going back to some of that stuff, like I've always done visualization and, and, and put out things that I want, you know? And so just going back to the mind coach, he's, he's given me so many tools that I try to apply to everything. And it's so beneficial and it's just like, and being optimistic, you know, but you have to go and do something about it too.

You can't just think good things. And if you're not working, like that does nothing for you. I think a lot of times when people are lost, they're not, they don't have like a lack of time. They just have a lack of direction and a vision board or something similar or writing something down can give you like a target. And now you got a target and then it's like, okay, well,

what are some actionable things I can do that would line me up with that target? And there's less reasons to get anxious about it and be upset about it when, if you're not fulfilling some of those things, you're trying to lose weight. You're not eating better. You're not walking. You're not sleeping. You're constantly stressed out.

Well, it's no wonder that the scale's not going down. And again, it's not anything to get all upset about, but it's like, how do I take those items and put them back into action and make sure they're happening? And how do I have coping mechanisms with each and every day so I don't get thrown off into bad habits? Yeah. What are some things that your coach maybe shared with you about going through some family deaths, family tragedies? Yeah. And I'm like, I'm very goal oriented too.

So I wrote right all my goals down and then try to, you know, work towards them every day as well. And it's like, yeah, well with that, I don't know. I, it was kind of hard. Cause I, with like the family, I just talked about it like last week during fight week. It was the first time I had talked about something. It was just so hard because when I would think about this

or talk about it, it was just super emotional. And I don't know, it was just hard for me. And that's one thing with me. It's like, I always keep everything bundled up inside and then it's just, that's not good either. You know, but then,. It's like, I always keep everything bundled up inside and then it's just, it's, that's not good either, you know, but then, but it's like my close friends I'll talk to and my, and my wife and it's like who I can vent to. And you know, my, my coaches like Joey Rodriguez and I are, my boxing coach are super close. So yeah, people that have just been there

for me and you know, my best friends, everything. So your brother died from uh he got murdered um oh my god yeah it was he he he grew up um just a lot of mental illness and addiction and stuff like that and it was uh same with my brother yeah it's it's it's a bad yeah horrible thing even yeah my father same type of stuff you know it's just you know yeah it's a shitty shitty circumstance. Yeah. Those things are really hard to deal with. What I try to share with people as much as I can, because I've had to deal with death, unfortunately, many times.

I was a pro wrestler for years, and I would say like half of my friends are dead from drug, alcohol abuse, and different things. My brother's dead. My mom's dead. Like, I've had to deal with it many times over. The only thing I can think of that is any sort of saving grace is maybe you can think of some of the characteristics that your bro had that were good. You know, whatever those things were.

And just play him forward. Have him live inside you. And maybe through that, he could live on in some way. Yeah, and that's the same. Like, some people haven't experienced or been around death, but I'm the same way as you. And, uh, maybe through that he could live on in some way. Yeah. And that's the same, like some people haven't experienced or been around death, but I'm on the same way as you. It's like, I've been around so much death, but it's like, even just when it was, you know, my brother and my, even though he was going through all these issues, you know, in his life, it was just, it was just a different type of pain, you know, and the way it went down. That's why the last Saturday, the only thing I have of his is like, he was in Taekwondo

and he was a second degree black belt and stuff like that. And it's like, the only thing I have is I have his black belt. I have all his belts. And so I like, I walked out with his belt and, uh, yeah, he was always there for me. And I remember things, people picking on me and he, him beating them up and stuff, you know, for that. But it's, uh,

yeah, it is, it is tough, man. It's, yeah, it's, it's,

it's just, some people have a hard time just, uh, cope, coping with life. You know, if I was thinking about my brother and if I was thinking about, uh,

how I would still want him here or my dad would still want him here and my brother, other brother would still want him here. Um, I just kind of think it's selfish cause he just, he didn't have the coping mechanisms to be here any longer. And so, um, unfortunately I think that's, that was his time to go. Yeah. And, and, and I've thought about that cause he's, he's had a tough life. Like any, I'm thinking about what he's gone through and he was, you know, he was homeless and stuff and in and out of all these other programs and

stuff like that. But it's, uh, he had a tough life, like the toughest life. So when I'm going through any, anything that's somewhat tough, it's like, this is fucking nothing compared to what he went through. And, uh, and I was always helping him always like my mom and I were the only ones helping him. And we, we wanted it him to do better. Like we wanted it more than he did all the time. We just, yeah, never. But even the, the good thing about it was like the, I actually talked to him the, the morning of before he died and it was a good conversation. Usually we'd get off the phone, like yelling at each other. Cause I'm like, I'm so frustrated that he's doing this and I just want him to do good.

That was a good conversation. I was like, oh, I hung up happy. I was like, oh, that was a really good conversation. He actually went by my mom's house and same type of thing. He was in a good mood and I'm glad that it left on that note. But yeah. Yeah, it was the same thing with me. My brother, the last thing he said to me was don't be a pussy because, uh, I was competing, uh,

the next day. And I, when I competed, I ended up, uh, doing like breaking all my best lifts and I ended up, uh, winning the competition and ended up, uh, breaking some like all time world records and stuff like that. And then I found out the next morning that he was no longer with us. Wow. Wow. I think some people, you know, it's a weird thing to think about,

but I think some people are, for whatever reason, they're just kind of a tortured soul. And that's heartbreaking. But I feel that that's the way that my brother was. He just couldn't, he had mental illness as well, and he just was super frustrated and didn't know how to express it. And a lot of times it was with anger or violence or rage.

And it just, it just wasn't good. Yeah, and thinking about that, it's, yeah, he, I hate when people say they're in a better place, but he truly is in a better place than he was because there was so much, exactly what you're explaining explaining probably a lot of similarities right yeah well i'm curious about this with all the things that you've gone through as far as injuries right um what are things that you feel or that your coaches have helped you do that are actually beneficial for your recovery over time because you've probably implemented so many different types of, you've probably done fucking

what's the needle shit? Hacking, puncturing. You've probably done a bunch of stuff. But what do you think has actually been helpful for you as far as recovering as an athlete? Yeah, you're doing cold hot therapy, doing stuff like that?

Yeah, I think it's everything. So I'm, I've been doing cryo forever. I'll go to Asha Bathhouse and do like the cold plunges. I love that spot. I like that. And like I float, you know,

have you guys ever heard of Capitol Floats? Like I'll hook you guys up with some floats after this. So Cap Floats, there's one on Broadway and there's also one up in Auburn. That's that float tank isolation

deprivation tank so it's uh i want to say it's like 12 to 15 um ounces of water or not ounces uh 12 to 15 inches of water it has like a thousand pounds of epsom salt so you're buoyant but it has you know it's it's dark i think the best way to do it you can go in there you can listen to music you can have lights but i think the best thing to do is just turn all that off. So there's, you know, there's, it's a pitch black in there. Um, you know, you can't hear anything. Sounds terrifying. No, it is crazy. And you're, you're literally floating though. The water is room temp or body temperature. So you just feel like you're floating and you, cause you are, and, uh,

it's hard cause we're so used to all the distractions and stuff like our phone, our mind. So it's literally just you in there by yourself. And you're like, you have all these racing thoughts, but it's awesome. I do a lot of visualization in there and I truly try to just relax. I always tell people, give it at least like three times,

do three sessions before you make a decision about it because it will get better and better. And there's a lot of like CEOs and executives that float and they, they come out and then they go into like a different room and they'll start jotting down notes or things that have come to them. And it's, and it's, that helps a ton. I don't know what that's like high, just to be honest. That's all I could think about was just taking mushrooms and going. That's what a lot of people, I might be really scared.

A lot of people though, they're like, you know, they'll take an edible and go in there or, hey, yeah, take some mushrooms. They do, they do on some nights, it's like the new moon. I think you can go in there for eight hours. Like I've never done that, an eight hour float, but that would be tough. But that's when you could take your mushrooms possibly eight hours. Like I've never done that, an eight hour float, but that would be tough.

But that's when you could take your mushrooms possibly. Nice. I'm down. That'd be wild, right? Oh, dude. But I do everything. Like I do like in my house, I have a red light therapy, a juve.

You know, I do that every day. I know that too. I just do everything for recovery. You know, my norm, just anything I can do, I do. And I picture your wife being like super supportive in this, like where she's like trying to make sure that you got whatever you need to get to and your meals and all that kind of stuff. A hundred percent. Like without her, like she keeps my schedule and keeps me on track. And you know, I have the excuse where I can say like, Oh, I get hit in the head too much, but like, she's like, she's dialed in and she's, she's an interior

designer and stuff too. So she's creative in her own way, but she's like super, you know, just structured. So she, she holds everything together. And like, I couldn't do it without her. And then a lot of times it's like me, me, I'm like this is you know that's my rock that's like my world she she does everything for me and she's like she's all in on me you know and it's you know that's incredible yeah it's it really is when you have this this uh like vision board thing going on like uh what are some things that you think you need to do is there anything in particular you need to work on or you think it's just a matter of time

before you do get that title shot and before you do have the UFC championship belt wrapped around your waist by Dana White? Yeah, that's the ultimate goal, you know? But then there's so much like I'm fighting because I want to set up my family. I want to set up my friends and family, everyone that's been there, you know?

It's like the better I do, the better everyone does, my coaches. And so that's what I's been there, you know, it's like the better I do, the better everyone does my coaches. And so that's what I'm, that's what I'm fighting for. You know, it's like, they're all helping me behind the scenes, even though it's just me, when I'm fighting, it's like, it's a huge team effort. And I go in there, you know, knowing that and thinking about everybody. And, um, I like that. And it's not from a, it's not from like an overwhelming side because people get overwhelmed by that. Like, oh, I have to go provide for my family. I have to go do all this, you know?

And sometimes people take that on and they feel like kind of nervous or scared about it. You're kind of taking it on as more of like a prideful thing. Yeah, and that's the thing. And I tell people, you know, all the time, it's like, I don't like to fight. You know what I mean? I feel like with my age and stuff.

Oh, you guys say that. No, but I don't, there's some people in there like smile. Like I like the lifestyle, you know, uh, not having a, having a, like a boss over me. Um, but I always say with my age and stuff, I'm in too deep. You know what I mean? It's like, if, if I won the lotto tomorrow, you might not ever see me in there, you know, but I'm in too deep. There's nothing that I can do right now where I can make these big chunks of change. Um, and so, and it's really, I put in hundreds or thousands of hours of training to potentially fight 15 to 25 minutes, you know, and it's like the fight is easy. Like even my, my fight on Saturday, um, maybe didn't go the way that I wanted. I want it to be like a crazy barn burner, all this stuff, but I feel great now, you know, it didn't go the way that I wanted. I want it to be like a crazy barn burner, all this stuff. But I feel great now.

You know, it didn't go that way. It was a little more technical and I played it a little safe just to get my hand raised. But man, it was relatively, it was an easy fight. Like I'm sure he's fine too. You know, I'm like, he had a little cut. I had some marks on my face, but they're basically healed up now

I could literally I could go fight this weekend if I uh I wasn't fighting at 145 yeah you said good chunks of change um I've heard rumors from different podcasts and just like whatever Twitter and whatnot that like uh UFC doesn't pay out very much I remember hearing something like oh your base pays only like four grand if you show up and then you get paid a little bit more if you win without giving your numbers or anything like that. Is there any truth to that? Is there a certain base pay that some of the- Yeah, there was base pay. I think the entry level, if you make your debut, I want to say it's either 10,000 to show and 10,000 to win. So most of people's contracts are, it's like split unless you've been fighting for a while and you have like a guaranteed money or something like that.

But say you were just like, for me, for instance, since I took it on a four-day notice at that time, almost six years ago, it was 10 and 10. But since I was fighting a tough guy on a four-day notice, they gave me 12 and 10. But since I was fighting a tough guy on a four day notice, they gave me 12 and 12, you know? And then whatever your contract is, it's, um, say it's a three or four fight contract. You win. Typically those numbers will move up in your first set of contracts. Maybe it goes up like two and two on each side. Um, but yeah, it is tough. Like if someone made their debut, um, and was, they were getting 10 and 10 say like me, I fought in Amsterdam, those ticket sales were expensive. So you get, they cover yourself and one coach. I have three coaches. So I paid $2,200, um, per tick for two

tickets to Rotterdam, which was expensive. I paid for my wife's ticket 22 and then my best friend because he's, you know, helped me get here. And, uh, so just alone, that was basically my, my show money. Okay. Then I'd get there, Europe, the rooms are tiny. I have to get more rooms. It's more expensive pay for that. Um, if I would have lost, I would have been in the hole. Um, but I won. And so I made a little bit of money, but that was okay. That was a different circumstance. You know what I mean? So it just depends, but I've seen people that get in, you know, and they, they do the same thing I did. They fly across the world. They get their ass beat on TV and they paid. They basically go in the hole three, four grand. That's horrible. But as you get

into second sets of contracts, you're doing better. You're moving up in the rankings. As long as you're winning fights and you're, you're doing well, they will take care of you. I still feel like we should be getting paid a lot more, you know, and everyone, oh, everyone's always going to say that, you know, but, uh, but now like I am grateful for the UFC because I, I've, you know, I was able to travel the world, do things. I always wanted to buy a house, do so much more that I wouldn't have been able to do. It was way worse. It used to be way worse before the UFC. Fighting wasn't even allowed a lot of times.

When UFC came around, they had a lot of issues with it being banned in certain states. They're still working through a lot, but it is interesting. Last night, Kansas City Chiefs uh travis kelsey caught the game-winning touchdown from patrick mahomes travis kelsey uh 57.5 million dollar contract thrown to him by the 500 million dollar man patrick mahomes you know it's just a it's a different sport you know and there's so much behind it and there's so much sport, you know, and that there's so much behind it and there, there's so much, uh, legacy, you know, UFC is like,

it's a baby in comparison to the NFL. And in terms of like, you know, football has been around for a hundred years or something like that in the United States and versus, uh, the UFC, maybe what,

20, 30 years, 30 years of UFC, I guess. Yeah. I'd say so. Somewhere in that range. So it's going to take,

it's, you know, hopefully the fighters and hopefully everyone continues to make more money, but it has helped fighters make more money because I think even going back, like even 10 years ago, people were making a lot less.

And if you go back before the UFC, I'm not even sure, I think you had to go fight for like that pride and you had to go and fight in Japan. And I think it was pretty ugly. I don't think anyone cared about your health either. No, not at all. And at least there's attention to that now.

And now we have like the Performance Institute and they're opening up these institutes all over the world, which are, it's nice if you live in that state or that country because then you have food for you, you have supplements and we can get like, we can get the supplements and stuff. You have physical therapy, some of the best PTs in the country, you know, that they used to work for the Olympic training center. We have some of the really good strength coaches and stuff like that. So it's nice if you live there, but even if I go out for treatment, it's not too much

from Sacramento to fly to Vegas and then just get a hotel room. Then I can access that, um, as much as I want on their dime. And they're actually going to build a hotel. So all the fighters can actually stay there. So you will just have to cover your, your airfare, which, which is amazing. Nice. Yeah. What about, uh, how about any, any ventures outside of fighting? Like I see you're with, uh, Vayner sports, which is pretty fucking cool. We're all rocking the apparel. Where can people get the apparel, by the way? Yeah, so they can go to joshemmett.com. Like everything that I am a part of is on my website.

And yeah, we'll be coming out with some more apparel hopefully soon. Calibus, you know, they're a local company that, man, they helped me out so much with making these shirts for this fight. You know, they took care of everything and shipped everything out. So I just focused solely on the fight and they're going to come out with some new stuff. But I'm a part of, you know, the Capital Floats,

Vibe Health Bar and stuff like that. Some of the local stuff around Sacramento. And yeah, I'm always trying to... Oh, I've been over to that place before. I think I went there kind of a long time ago. They make all different kind of... Acai. Yeah, I had some protein coffee shake thing.

It was freaking awesome. Yeah, smoothies, acai. They got a bunch of food and stuff like that. There's one in Folsom, one on Broadway, and then one on H Street as well. What's VaynerSports? So VaynerSports is my management team. Oh, cool. I'm managed by Lloyd Pearson, Sarah Garian, AJ Vaynerchuk, all of them. So yeah, it's been amazing. I've been with them for 18 months and

yeah, I'm looking forward to the future with them. On YouTube, you hear a lot like YouTubers talking about drugs and different types of sports or whatever right um does it ever like cross your mind in terms of other guys in the ufc because like i think tj dillashaw like was called like epo or some shit and his career got derailed i don't know how he's doing now but does that ever cross your mind in terms of your opponents at all not not so much you know it really doesn't just because going back to the preparation, I work so hard. And if someone's doing something, maybe they just recover a little faster, but I always think it's not going to make you fight better. And I'm in tip top shape, so I can match anyone's

conditioning. And even when they're saying that, you know, this guy has a gas tank or something, I'm always like, I'll, I'll match and beat that gas tank. So not, not really, you know. What about in terms of like for injury, like, are you allowed to take, uh, like certain things for recovery of those, like, um, peptides or anything, or are you just not even like aware of any of that? You just stay out of it? Yeah. I'm so, I'm so nervous. Like just talking about before, it's a lot of people, they're like, oh, that guy's on steroids.

It's only a matter of time. He's going to pop and stuff. I've been tested by USADA so many times. Like I'm getting closer now to getting my Letterman's jacket. I had a while ago, I got my 25 clean tests in a row shirt. At 50, you literally get a letterman's jacket that says

you saw it and has a big 50x on it so i'm getting closer to that you know really do that they do that yeah and so uh that's got to be kind of funny too because like you know for these competitions you're weighing 145 pounds you're like yeah also extremely jacked yeah but i'm small look at you guys you know i mean like you look at your pictures you're fucking jack yeah tv does some stuff and some pictures and then uh but like like i was saying people will meet me and they're like in person they're like oh you're not as big as i thought you were i thought you were like six one 200 pounds i'm like i fight at 145 pounds why would you think i'm six one 200 pounds you know um but but i i don't take anything that's not third party tested that the nsf certified the trusted sport just because i'm so i'm just you know? Um, but, but I, I don't take anything that's not third party tested that the NSF certified,

the trusted sport, just cause I'm so, I'm just, you know, it'd only be, even if it wasn't like a performance enhancement drug and it was something just tainted in a regular supplement. If it's a Josh,

and it failed, you saw it. I won't be like, I told you, you know? And it's like, sometimes I'll play into it. Like people will post like needles on my stuff and I'm like,

catch me if you can just playing, you know, like playing into it. But it's like, yeah, I just get, I just get nervous for stuff like that, you know? So I don't mess around with anything that, yeah. How are things with like sponsors and stuff? Are you guys allowed to kind of freely be sponsored by, you know, kind of whomever within reason and promote supplements and different things like that? Yeah, a hundred percent. Like I can be sponsored by whoever and promote whatever I want. The only time is like actually in the, like fight week now, you know, like we don't have, we have Venom as our sponsorship. So I can't put the person's logo on my trunks or my banner, but I can promote it all fight week and do whatever. It's just, and I'm always looking for

sponsorships and that's been kind of challenging for me. You know, it's like for whatever reason, I just, yeah, I just don't have a whole lot of like sponsorships and I'm looking more like monetary stuff to help cover, uh, you know, a lot of my recovery and, and, and, and training and things like that. So yeah, I'm always open for it and we can have sponsors by whoever. Yeah. It's interesting years ago when the fighters could work on a free to do whatever they wanted and they could put stuff on their shorts and their, but then I think Reebok came in and that changed.

And then I think now like on game day, go into the ring, only a UFC like issued stuff. Right. Yeah. And it's kind of tough. Cause even going back to fighting on the regional scene, it's like I was making more just from local businesses from Sacramento and sponsorships than I

do from my current sponsorship that I can only have on my shorts, you know, because it's on a tiered system through Venom. I think it's like your first five fights, it's like 2,500, then five to 10, it's five grand or something. You know, it's crazy. So it's, yeah, it's not that much, but it is what it is. It's interesting. Yeah, I've seen Bones Jones complain about it quite a bit.

And hopefully things get better. Hopefully the fights, you know, or the fighters get an opportunity to continue to make more money. Because it's great to just see, like, the evolution of the UFC has been crazy. And I think a part of it has been obviously people just want to be

more competitive with each other. But I think having the money in there I think is certainly helpful. Yeah, I know. People recognize they can make a career living out of it, I think is a big difference. What's coming up for you next? Man, I'm just trying to,

I feel a little banged up right now, but I'll be talking with my manager tomorrow and then hopefully I'm just trying to see what we can do next and who the next opponent is and just get me that much closer to the title because I'm so close. I'm just knocking on the door

and that's what I'm trying to achieve. Have some of the guys that you've beaten more recently have, have they tangled with the top three? Yeah. Um, not in featherweight. Like I, I beat Michael Johnston. He was at lightweight, you know, he, he, he knocked out Dustin Poirier. He was, he was always in the top three, um, in the lightweight division. You know, he fought Khabib. Um, he beat Tony Ferguson, he, you know, all the top guys. So yeah, you're right there. Yeah. Right there. And, and even just some of the guys that, yeah, I, I beat a lot of tough, tough veterans and a lot of, they were always the next big thing. They were on like a three, four fight winning streak,

supposed to be the next big thing. And then they fight me and, uh, lose. And then my wife and I have always been saying, I'm the curse. Like if you go and look at like on Sure Dog, if you look at no matter what, win or lose, if they just fight me, they're always winning. And then they go on just a skid, like every single person. That should be your nickname. Yeah. The curse. I got all these other crazy nicknames people give me, but, uh, buzzkill. I do like it. Um, but I, but I hope he gay, I hope he's not affected by that. Cause he's, he's a, he's a good, good dude. And it's like out of everyone that, um, I was supposed to fight someone in front of me and he, he couldn't get cleared in time. So they offered me EGA and some guys further behind him. So I took him cause he's the highest

ranked guy, but out of everyone, I didn't want to fight the guy just cause he's such a good dude. And, and even when I was staying out in Vegas after my surgery for two months, he lives out because he's the highest ranked guy. But out of everyone, I didn't want to fight the guy just because he's such a good dude. And even when I was staying out in Vegas after my surgery for two months, he lives out there. He was always in the PI, Performance Institute. And yeah, we were just talking. I was like, I told him after five minutes, I didn't want to fight you. He's like, yeah, same.

But it was just business. That's got to be weird. Yeah, going in there against someone that you don't want to. Yeah. Yeah, because I don't know any of the guys, but it's like I really like, you know, he just had a kid eight months ago and so on. It's just like, shit, I don't want to. And he's friends with a lot of the coaches and some of our teammates and stuff.

And, yeah. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for coming out, and we wish you the best of luck. And I can't wait to see you fighting for that title one day. Cool. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for the sweats you guys sweatshirt of course thank you this guy on here yo fucking jack he looks 6'1 220 all right andrew take us on out of here buddy sure thing thank you everybody for checking out today's episode uh please like comment subscribe uh yeah for sure

comment let us know what you guys think about today's episode and subscribe if you guys are not subscribed already uh please follow the podcast at mark bells power project on instagram at mb power project on tiktok and twitter my instagram and twitter is at i'm andrew z at the andrew z on tiktok and then also any links for uh anything related to josh please make sure you guys check out the description down below for all of that good stuff and sema where you at i don't see me any on instagram youtube i don't see me yin yang on tiktok and twitter josh uh josh m at ufc And Sima, where are you at? I'm at Sima Any on Instagram and YouTube. I'm at Sima Yin Yang on TikTok and Twitter. Josh? Josh Emmett UFC, so J-O-S-H-E-M-M-E-T-T-U-F-C. Twitter, Instagram, and I have a Facebook fan page as well.

I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you all later.