Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 349: Jake Shields- MMA Legend
Episode Date: August 18, 2016Jake Shields is a mixed Martial Artist, American Jiu-Jiutsu Grandmaster, Outdoor Enthusiast and part of the Kimera Koffee team. Jake stopped by the studio on Monday and spoke with Sal, Adam and Justin... about fighting, coffee, women and more. More About Jake: Jake is a Strikeforce Middleweight Champ, EliteXC Welterweight Champ, Shoto Welterweight Champ, Rumble on the Rock Welterweight Champ & Tournament Winner. Subscribe to our new channel Mind Pump TV on YouTube. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic and the Butt Builder Blueprint (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!
Transcript
Discussion (0)
you know, I was filling our calendar out today.
And dude, how many fucking vacations do you have, Sal?
Who me?
I just got, I just got,
I was like a vagabond.
We just went full time, like what, two weeks ago.
And then this guy is like, oh, hey,
make sure you guys count on to this.
Oh yeah, black this day now and this week.
I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to stay ahead,
but you know, make sure everybody knows ahead of time.
No, you know what I'm doing?
So check this out, you know where you going.
What are you doing?
I'm excited about some of them.
I'm going to Road Trip with my girlfriend
from the second to the 12th, I think, right?
It's about 10 days.
That's not crazy amount of time.
But anyway, I'm excited because we have Maps anywhere.
We have a workout program that I can use on the road
because it's a road trip.
We're going from here all the way up to Spokane and I'm not gonna have access to too many gyms
So I'm gonna completely do maps anywhere the whole way up. Well, this is something that I think that probably the most feedback
I got from maps anywhere when we launched that we originally launched it with the intentions of okay
We talk a lot of shit about like you know insanity and all these like fucking at home programs. All these workouts that are terribly programmed, right?
So we're like, okay, anytime that we do shit like that,
we feel it's important that we obviously fucking deliver on.
Okay, how would we do it if we were going to create an at home program?
So I kind of felt like that was the genre that we were trying to capture.
But really, I've gotten more feedback from the people that already have
other maps programs, but they love to use it for that.
Like, like, it's like the accessory that they bring with them anywhere. So it
really, it's so helpful. It's more of a tool that like, you can integrate in with any
of our maps program.
Well, I've already incorporated some of the movements on there and some of the program
that we put together. And I've only improved my performance in my gym workouts. So I'm
excited because I'm going gonna have basically 10 days
of no gym equipment, very minimal gym equipment,
and I'm gonna be incorporating a lot of the concepts
that we have in Maps Anywhere.
Maps Anywhere is a fully programmed
no gym required workout system, video demos,
blueprints, it's complete with everything you need.
You just get the program, you follow it,
you need no equipment or very minimal equipment, like bands and maybe a stick and you're set.
You can find it at mindpumpmedia.com.
It's also under $100, it's one of our least expensive programs.
If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mind, up, mind, up with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
I feel like that's probably,
that's gotta be the creepiest,
like, that's gotta be the creepiest compliment.
Compliment you could give a girl.
Like, this is a pretty mouth.
Yeah, like, hey, you got a part of me.
It's not just that you're doing the tongue things
that you're sucking back. Yeah, like part of me, you's not just that you're doing the tongue things that you're sucking back.
You're doing it.
Like part of me, you have a very pretty mouth.
I'm gonna compliment somebody like that today
just to see how they're doing.
It's ever pretty mouth.
Like, hey, you know what, something?
Can I stop you for a second?
Yeah.
Wow, your lips are beautiful.
No, you just,
no, that didn't sound that bad.
Yeah, yeah, that's pretty,
a pretty mouth.
You just start wanting to make out with you.
Well, I think that's it.
That would be a normal compliment, right, to say something like that. Nice lips. mouth sounds weird. Yeah, I can that's pretty, a pretty bad. You should start wanting to make out with you. Well, I think that's it. That would be a normal compliment, right,
to say something like that.
Nice lip mouth sounds weird.
Yeah, I can't even be dirty when I try.
Right, you guys.
Or you're an awful.
I tell you what, if you're really the fucking champion,
this is what you do.
Yeah.
Go to, go up to a girl and compliment like something,
like her molars, but like, can you open your mouth?
Like what?
I like your molars.
They're really nice.
You're not a weird serial killer.
Yeah, it's exactly.
Exactly.
I don't know if we're gonna go to South or pick up lights.
Are we, are we, are we, are we gonna do the intro
for our Jake Shields, right?
Yeah, we just had Jake Shields in the studio.
Jake Shields was he-
We're popped.
And we just had, we just interviewed him.
So the episode you're about to listen to
is one of, I, one of of we consider the greatest mixed martial artists
of all time is he's a legend.
He's a legend.
He's fought, who's who in MMA and won most of his fights.
I mean, the guy is a bad ass.
He is an art that he's created, right?
American Jiu-Jitsu.
American Jiu-Jitsu is a thing.
And it's like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,
except he said more aggressive,
I guess more top, heavy,
a lot of no-geat type of stuff.
So we talked him about his fights, about training,
about his diet, the guys of vegetarian,
which I didn't know that.
Life was interesting.
Life long though.
He was born that way.
I have to say one of the things I appreciate though,
being somebody who's a lifelong vegetarian,
he's not one of those fanatical, but he's not preachy.
Yeah, he's not all preachy.
We had to pull that out of him. And even when he talked about, he's like, I of those fanatical. He's not preachy. Yeah, he's not all preachy. And that's way too much.
We had to pull that out of him.
And even when he talked about,
he's like, you know, I can't say what it's like
to not be one.
So I can't say it's so much better than somebody who eats meat.
So I get a very non biased way of talking about it
that I enjoyed, which I was a little worried about one.
One thing I always love about meeting fighters,
especially fighters that are not huge guys,
because he's an average sized guy, but you look at him and if you didn't know any better
besides his collar flower and everything, you know, ear, and you're just walking down the
street, you'd think, normal dude, you would have no idea that he could kick the crap out
of.
You would have no extra strength.
You would have no extra strength.
You would have no extra strength.
You would have no extra strength.
Yeah, out of you and your friends.
Right.
Like, bring your friends.
You're going to get a crap. Um Um, if you wanna find Jake Shields,
I think we should plug some of his social media, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, because he got hacked.
He got hacked.
He lost all these followers on Instagram.
So go on there and follow him.
We need you guys to go follow him.
You can find him at Jake Shields on Instagram.
You can find him his website is jacheeilds.com.
And his Twitter is Jake Shields.
What is that?
A JJ.
Yeah. So you're about to listen to an episode
where we interview the great Mix Martial Art
and Jiu Jitsu legend Jake Shields.
Yeah.
How do headphones fit with cauliflower here?
Actually, they even are fine because they're the big ones.
Some of the like the little ones
that go in the air don't fit in so good.
They're going there.
They're the little ones that you try putting in,
like, yeah, they suck.
It just doesn't work.
These are bigs that go over the air,
so it's not a problem.
So it's all good, yeah. Absolutely good. That's a great way of marketing to athletes. I never even thought about that, right? They should, yeah, they suck. It just doesn't work. These are big, they go over the earth, it's not a problem. So it's all good, feel. It's a good, it's a great way of marketing to athletes.
I never even thought about that, right?
Like, they should, yeah.
Headphones for grass, grassers, yeah.
Right, that's for your cauliflower.
Yeah, exactly.
I don't have, you know, I, those,
I've never been all the way here, but it's just my ear
canals just fucking weird because they fall out.
It's the most annoying way.
You have, you have, you have it to me,
I can't wear my little fizz,
because the cauliflower ear or my ears aren't designed
or what. And I don't have any of that, but my canals are just weird. So when I have a, you have it to me. I can't wear a medal if it's because of the cough area or my ears aren't designed to.
Yeah, and I don't have any of that, but my canals are just weird.
So when I put that, I have to like, I have to like wedge them in.
And then the thing is, a bit of movement, they pop right out.
I think it's Adam, your, your holes are loose.
Yeah, he has loose holes.
That's stretched out.
Yeah, so you need, you need, you need to come down with those, uh, Q tips.
We got to get to the big, my girl says I'm like a good pair of old jeans, dude, and
more in like that. That's what you're saying.
You're comfortable.
Try to put a positive spin on that.
You got holes.
Yeah.
So Jake, you got school up in San Francisco, right?
That you teach?
Or you have?
I teach a little bit of Ghiblin as a gym.
I had a school at Berkeley for a while,
but I had to go to travel and be able to do what I want.
So I kind of gave that up.
It was a lot of, I mean, it was fun,
but it was a lot of work for not a ton of money.
I realized it's easier ways to make money and like having freedom
to take off when I want.
It was the business.
What's the business of being a fighter?
How does that work for you?
I mean, I'm obviously fine.
You get paid.
Yeah, there's lots of business in it.
Yeah, I mean, fighting is obvious and then sponsors and now I mean, investments, you know,
start a small business, started to help launch Camora Coffee, which is the coffee company
which is doing pretty well
We're taking off with the mixing with the tropics. We love it. Yeah, we love it
I've been having it every single morning. Yeah, I'm glad you guys tried it. I mean that's how it connected with you guys
Yeah, that's something we started last year and it's it's nice
Yeah, I shot up in the business in two because fighting you know, it's not that it's bad money
But you got to you got to think long term and other ways for your future. Well, you can't keep fighting forever
That's the thing no, let's start by talking about this a little bit,
because I know that about you,
and I've done my homework on you,
and I know that you're business-minded,
and not a lot of athletes.
Right, so I got in the competing world,
so I went into Men's Physique, I'm an IFBB pro,
and everyone in, like your viewers think that
you just become a pro,
and then also the money comes following in,
and like that's, yeah, so they have this and then also the money comes following in and like that.
Yeah, so they have this goal,
but that's as far as their goal goes.
Like, I'm just gonna be coming in, MMA fighter.
I'm just gonna become a pro and then it just happens, right?
Yeah, they don't realize you have to,
it gives you an opportunity to make connections,
make money, but you still gotta go out and shoot the money.
You know, like we get some decent pay days,
but it's, you gotta look for the sponsors,
you gotta think of business in,
you gotta make connections, you know.
And it is a lot easier to meet people when you're a little bit known.
It's a lot easier to make those connections,
but you still gotta go out and do some things.
Yeah, so the life of a fighter
seems like a very difficult one, I would say.
It's a like, you know, training,
and I mean, what does a typical day look like
when you're in a fight?
It's difficult, not.
It's one of those things at times
that can be really stressful and hard,
and other times it's not that bad.
When it's fight camp, it gets pretty miserable
because we're just rinding, grinding.
Yeah, and locked down, you gotta make sure
you're sleeping good, eating good.
So it can be, plus that's what you're doing all the media,
the stress of the fight, it gets pretty stressful
the month before, but the rest of the time it's pretty easy.
How much do you hate?
Yeah, how much do you hate like the, before the fight,
the hype of it and like having to talk shit
and like really sell the fight and all that?
Yeah, it kind of sucks because you're all stressed out from the fight.
You're exhausted from training and then you're having to sell the fight.
It's, that's all the stress comes on before the fight.
Yeah, I would say, is it, is it safe to say that a lot of that before fight like,
oh, you know, fuck him.
No, that's a lot of that's just kind of selling the fight.
It seems.
It depends.
You know, sometimes you really don't like someone.
A lot of times he's trying to sell fight.
You know, you got this kind of a Gregor talks a lot of shit.
He's trying to sell the fight, but occasionally you get guys that you really don't like and you're like, oh fuck this guy
You know what? You know how?
The victory's awesome though, right? Oh, yeah, it's a lot better
Yeah, let's let's talk about him for a second because he
He's in I mean God. He's an excellent publicist, right? He comes out there
You very flamboyant very, you know, yeah, you know, says a lot of stuff got a mouthpiece
And do you think because he went in when he fought Nate, he was,
he was the favorite, right?
He was favored by big, big favored, big favorite, not fight luckily.
And he, he caught, he got his butt kicked pretty decisively.
I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't really one side.
It wasn't, you know, like back and forth at all.
Yeah.
Do you think some of that weighs on the fact that it's more
favored because he tends to come out
and be loud or?
Well, he put a lot of pressure on yourself doing that.
I think part of it, he was just,
he has a very talented fighter,
but he got a little overhyped
because he was talking so much crap
and people didn't really follow the sport.
And they kind of forgot how good Nate was
and what Nate's done in his career and who he's fought.
And I think it was just,
you know, Conno was fighting a better opponent.
Why do you think guys like Nate and I mean his brother,
Nick tend to get,
they, I feel like they tend to not get the credit
that they deserve with their skill
because when you watch them fight
and you see the guys that they fought,
I mean, they've been in the game a long time.
Yeah, not only that,
but they're fought the best of the best, you know.
It's right, and then they're exciting and all this.
It's just, yeah, I don't know, it's hard to say
at certain times, you will see what push certain people.
And then, you know, I don't think they've really been,
they don't really seem to like nickname that much.
And they're like, little bad boys.
Yeah, they don't really play the game of like,
Kiss and Dana's ass and you know,
Kiss and those guys's ass, they're just who they are
who they are, they're not gonna play that game
so the you see don't put a big marketing push behind them.
And they put a huge marketing push
behind Conor.
They pick certain people, you know,
like Conor, Ron and Rousey, they put that huge marketing push
and the people are good, but when you have that huge market
machine saying they're the best and the best,
a lot of the common fans will start being like,
all this person's unbeatable, you know,
imagine they put the market machine behind Nick and Nathan,
they did behind them.
Exactly.
Yeah, well, fuck talking about those guys,
I'm gonna talk about you because if anyone's experienced
that I would think you, I mean, the amount of big names
that you've beaten in the sport,
and the fact, you're not even fighting for them anymore, right?
Yeah, he does actually,
it's one of the things we never got along in my good,
we never got the marketing push,
and it was kinda ridiculous,
beat their current champ,
and then Damien Meyer,
the number one or two tank guy,
and right back to back,
and then you lose a really close fight,
and the two guys all juiced out,
and they dropped my contract.
One of the things, it's BS,
but it is what it is.
You know, you can't stress over it.
You just got to be like, hey, move on and keep winning fights.
Why do you think that?
Why do you think that was?
Why do you think they don't let they stop having a fight?
You were one of my favorite fighters.
I'm a, I'm a grappler heart.
I've been doing it for a long time.
I like watching you fight because you're very technical.
These the USC's is not real big on grappling, especially that time period.
They're trying to get rid of all the grapplers and it's trying to make it about a show instead
of a, instead of the best martial artist.
They're trying to get rid of some of the grapplers and the uses and excuse.
Plus, I never kissed Dana's ass.
He wants guys to come in and kiss his ass and not really my style.
How much of it do you see is like, it's kind of like resembles WWE.
Like, there's sort of like a vibe there that they're going for this entertainment over,
like, you know, fighters.
Yeah, definitely. They're definitely trying to push more the entertainment aspect than
the fight martial art.
It is a tricky point.
Oh, I grabbed my dog.
He's running off.
He's all over the place.
He's all over the place.
He grabbed him.
Yeah.
He's okay as long as he doesn't choose some of Doug's.
Doesn't choose the expensive equipment.
I'll make him sit here for a minute.
Running all over the place.
Like in like trouble.
Can we let mine roam around here every once in a while when he comes in here?
So it's all good.
Yeah, okay.
So we go ahead, go ahead.
But yeah, I don't say it's a combination
because obviously they got to make money and push it,
but they got to keep it realistic too
and keep the art behind it.
Yeah, I see there's a,
because I remember watching Pride
and some of these Japanese organizations.
And the Japanese fans had a different understanding
of the groundwork because,
you know, they have a long history of judo and so whenever they'd hit the ground, the Japanese
fans kind of would love to watch some of that stuff, you don't see that so much with American fans.
Yeah, I mean, you do a little bit definitely not as much, but like yeah, some of those Japanese
exchange, you know, you get a really technical change from the ground and that's when you get the
biggest applause often. So it's just nice seeing that. And I mean, it's not, there's definitely US fans that understand it, but that's a whole
more of them want to see the wild punching.
And even the stand-up, they're not long-term looking for the most technical best trackers.
They're looking for guys that just come in there and zing them.
So you'll see, we'll highly encourage guys to, hey, go out there and get knocked out.
Don't be the best fighter.
You can just go out there and do it.
Like even GSP, one of the greatest of all time, I think Dana was always giving him shit.
Even though he sold pay reviews,
he just didn't, he was always grinding them,
like not happy with them.
Fucking love GSP.
Yeah, but that's a problem.
He's one of the best fires of all time,
but Dana's like mad, you didn't get a knockout
in this and that, but it's,
when you're not there fighting the best in the best,
you can't always, you can't mean it's nice to be flashy.
I love getting finishes too,
but when you're fighting the best to the best,
like look at my ret resume,
maybe I got somebody that's already in the finish up, but then you actually look who I fought. So it's easy getting a ton of finishes if you're fighting the best of the best like you look at my rett resume Yeah, maybe I got somebody that's already in finish them
But then you actually look who I fought so it's easy getting a ton of finishes if you're fighting a bunch of chumps
But when you're fighting the best the best is tougher. It's true. It's about winning
Yeah, that's the new C2 they'll give certain guys a bunch of like easier fights
So then of course you can go out there and look more exciting when you're fighting guys that are you know
Not top 10, but when you fight, you know five top 10 guys in a row. It's gonna be a lot harder looking flashy against them
It's absolutely true.
That's so political.
Now, I see that you have a tattoo on your arm there
it says American Jiu-Jitsu.
Yeah.
So, what's the difference between American Jiu-Jitsu
and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
Is there a difference?
Yeah, there's small difference.
To be, it's, well, I mean, first off,
never really trained with a G.
So, the Brazilian Jitsu is always with a G.
So, it's always Nogi.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I've put a G on every now and again,
but I'm definitely a Nogi style. And it's more no key. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, I've put a key on every now and again, but I'm definitely a no-gey style.
And it's more of the G2 for MMA.
It's the aggressive style attack,
go after things, try to finish,
not the patient waiting a particular Brazilian G2.
It's basically G2 for MMA
and then really mixing the wrestling into,
because I come from a wrestling background
where it's constantly attacking and pressure.
It's kind of fusion the two styles together.
You know what it sounds like to me?
Cat wrestling a little bit.
Yeah, a lot like that, but it's just, that's what I kind of said.
But a little more, it is a lot of varieties of cat wrestling, but also a little more,
a little more the Jiu-Jitsu aspect.
Cat wrestling is a little more holes in it with not quite as tight as the game.
Yeah, when you started Jiu-Jitsu, where did you start?
Originally with Chuck Lidell, San Luis Bispo.
Oh, you kidding me?
Yeah, I was with him for about a year and a half. I transferred up to she's a graysie up here in San Francisco
So you started in the game. I started well
We actually weren't really doing geese at times kind of weird everyone sooms, you know
I do the geek because she's a graysie because when I came up there they were really
The guys really wanted to focus on fighting so a lot of the guys had trained in the game
But they were all taking the geof so it was you know, it was like that's when Nick Diaz just started
It's guy David Troll who's an absolute killer who was there.
Gil Gioca's Dio who asked for it for the USC title.
It was like all the old school, like, I was like to be on kid there and all these guys were
established bad asses, but they were all wanting to train no gui at that time.
So I just kind of jumped into the fight training.
Yeah, I think, you know, so I competed in Giu-Jitsu and I haven't trained though for about
six or seven years.
And I watched Giu-ujitsu all the time.
I watched competitive matches all the time.
The way it's morphed and that short period of time blows me away.
The matches now, you're seeing a lot of these positions, like 50-50 and all these different.
And it seems, I hate to say it, but it's like, it's not,
it's gotten really bad for spectators, I think,
to watch, I mean, what do you think about some
of those competitive jujitsu?
Yeah, I think, well, I was actually
going through a transition right now.
I think, yeah, a lot of that 5050 stuff,
not that exciting, especially if there's no hill hooks
and a lot of the IBGDF stuff, the problem is you get
too many guys where they're just trying to win off points.
They get an advantage and they just stall.
But there's kind of the new cycle, just who matches
coming in, they're actually pretty exciting, like the an advantage and they just stall. But there's kind of the new cycle just who matches coming in,
they're actually pretty exciting like the the EBI and this fight to pro one,
I just did one with with machita.
I saw that.
Yeah, with my heel hook.
Yeah, the rules are encouraging more for going for submissions,
because like we'll stuff them outside different rules,
but lots of them are like submission only or they're not scoring points.
So you can't just get ahead and stall or EBI they do it at the end,
you know, they try to choke each other out by starting in arm bars.
Or if no one gets a submission, you start on the back or arm bar position.
So it's forcing guys.
So it's forcing guys to hunt for submissions instead of points.
And it's making it more exciting again.
Wow.
Winning by heel hooks.
That must have been pretty tough.
Yeah, pretty tough.
Yeah, I've been working a lot of the heel hook game now.
It's kind of the sports always going through evolution.
You got to keep up.
And I think the current evolution for the no-gui
to get to is people are pushing hill hooks like crazy.
I'm seeing a lot of matches being won by hill hooks.
I've seen some matches being won by some of these off
submissions too, like the Twister
and some of these banana split and weird.
Yeah, I'll be there.
Yeah, the sport is always changing.
You gotta keep up.
You know, people are always trying new things.
So you gotta kind of keep up with what's going on.
And you've been a part of it for such a long time. You've watched it really evolve. change and you got to keep up, you know, people are always trying new things. So you got to kind of, kind of keep up with what's going on.
And you've been a part of it for such a long time. You've watched it really evolve.
I would say you're probably when I would consider you one of the OGs.
I mean, you've been around for quite a while now.
And I think at first start, like 99.
So it's kind of crazy to see the sport just completely transition.
It's, it's cool to watch all the changes that's gone through both.
You get to any of them, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was,
I'm back in first start training.
It was like, you would, you would run into a purple somewhere and you're like,
oh wow, this guy's like bad ass,
but now it's black belt's everywhere.
So it's crazy to transitions.
Now, being someone who's been a part of it for that long,
what are some of the things that you're liking
how it's involving and what are some of the things
you don't like that you see it's evolving?
Well with MMA, you know, I used to love
is how raw it was.
Everyone that fought just really wanted to fight.
There was no fame, no money. They just went out there because they just wanted to fight. So it was. Everyone that fought just really wanted to fight. There was no fame, no money.
They just went out there because they just wanted to fight.
So it was all about just toughness,
no one really caring about politics.
They just wanted to fight.
But then at the same time, that's what I don't like about it.
No money, no fame.
So much better now when you can get paid
and get a little bit of fame.
But it's, so yeah, what I love and don't,
I guess is the same thing.
But it just brings in people that are in for the wrong reasons,
that just not because they really want to fight,
they're not that tough, they're just trying to get on TV.
You see a lot of these guys, you know,
and they're just, their whole goal is to get to UFC.
They're not like trying to be the champs,
they're not doing it for themselves.
They just want to get a quick little splash of fame
and I think they're gonna make money.
And that's the negative side.
And I guess all the politics, the way,
the way they try to push it,
doing it with all that bullshit.
So what do you think about the show, the ultimate fighter?
Are you a fan, not a fan?
What do you think of that?
I think it's great for the sport.
I'm personally not a fan.
I don't really care if you're watching it.
I think I watched the first season
and then the season where Nate Diaz won.
And then that's just not really my thing,
the reality TV.
I prefer watching the actual fights,
but I think anything that pushes the sport,
I mean, especially the first season really helped blow it up.
So overall, that's a huge difference.
I remember the first season took UFC from, up. So overall, I made a huge difference. Yeah, I remember the first season took UFC
from basically to where it is now.
Yeah, so it's great, even though I personally don't,
I mean, I don't watch that much TV.
Actually, I helped assistant coach in two of the seasons
and even watch those.
Oh, that's fine.
I helped with Chuck the Dell,
was 180 to 5 feet, what number it was,
but it was 85s and it helped Gilmolinda's
with 115 pound girls.
Mm, nice.
So, go ahead.
I've watched all of them and I really,
because some great fighters come out of there.
Oh yeah.
I just don't like the drama.
I don't like the drama they put in there.
I don't like, you could tell the stuff at stage.
You could tell when you put two fighters,
they love the sport, care about the sport.
That's all they gave a shit about
and they're being coached to talk shit to each other.
It's so obvious to me, I think.
Yeah, they do coach the shit talking, but the rest of it, they don't to each other. It's so obvious to me. I think.
Yeah, they do coach the shit talking, but the rest of it, they don't try staging anything.
That's good thing about that show.
They actually don't try setting up too many bullshit situations.
They kind of just let it be.
That's what I was wondering.
I think they do say, here's a bunch of alcohol.
Yeah, they try to get them.
When the interview of No, that's probably where they feed the shit talking.
Now, they'll be like, oh, the guy you're fighting, he said this about you.
What do you think about that?
So they do try to instigate the shit talking, but the rest of it, they kind of just
let things be, which is nice.
Oh, that is nice.
Oh, that's good.
So let's talk a little bit about,
because you've been in the fight game for so long,
who are some of the best fighters you've ever been against
or challenging fighters you've been against?
Oh, guys I fought.
Yeah.
I'm a man I fought so many good guys this tough,
with like GSPs, probably the best.
Yeah.
It was an epic setting too, right?
Yeah, but then guys like,
for Hector Longbar, Tyron Woodley, Robbie Lawler, Damien Maya,
Carlos Condon, I fought like the whole, you know,
who's who of a,
a man.
Pretty much everybody.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I was looking to my record a day.
I'm like, damn, even the guys that like weren't big
were still like, you know, great.
No, no one's, they're still like, great winning records
are still, you know, still fought in the USC, like,
Proof of Champs and there. Yeah, like, even like, the no buddies were still like, tough, no, no one's, it's like great winning records or still, you know, still fought in the USC, like, for the champs and there's, yeah, like,
even's like the no buddies are still like tough.
I never got that padded record.
Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty crazy.
Hardest punchers.
I mean, Dan Henderson, Hector Longbart probably.
I mean, I don't know what they're gonna do.
Yeah, I follow these power punchers.
You trained with a little chuck to the del,
he's known as being a man.
Oh, frickin' yeah, he's dropping a hammer.
He's fucking hard.
Just sparring him, I can't imagine.
I think like a body, I mean, luckily he went
like trying not to get me out or anything, but he caught me a Just barring him and he was like, look, a body sh- Luckily he went like trying not to me add or anything,
but he caught me a couple good body shots
and he was like, oh, that sucks.
Yeah.
Is that something that someone's kind of,
I mean, I knew you could train that,
but I feel like you just,
some people just got it in them,
where they just-
That kind of power.
Yeah, it's definitely,
it's like half natural, half half learned.
And there's guys like that,
they just naturally hit hard.
Something that I've always,
so watching, because I know you train a lot
with the Diaz brothers, watching them,
now I know they hit hard, they knock people out,
their accuracy is ridiculous,
but their punches don't look hard for some reason.
They've heard people even say,
like, oh, they don't look like they punch hard,
yet they knock people to fuck out.
It's the way you snap the punches.
There's different types of power.
They got good, they got good like snap.
So like the way it pops your head, it can really hurt.
Yeah, and it's not like, yeah, it's not like the guys
like Tyrone Woody were just so explosive and they're like,
boom, but exactly they're accurate.
They're little like snappy punches.
And then they throw out the combos.
So sometimes it might be light, light, light, hard,
light, light, hard, hard.
They're like mixing the, they mix the tempo.
So you can, they're not too bad.
They're pop, wanna pop you.
And then of course they can take a punch.
Yeah, exactly, they keep coming.
Yeah, they're fun guys to spar or not fun.
I'm not sure.
Of all your victories, what was the most rewarding for you?
A couple of them, but I mean, the first hat to Sakurai, which is, he's not really big
name anymore, but when I beat him, he was ranked number two in the world.
In Japan, I was completely unranked.
I was going to, they brought me in as the guy American to lose on like two weeks notice.
And that was just huge, you know, going out there
and you know, showing that I can compete with the top guys
in the world.
And I was so young, first time leaving the country and all that.
How old were you at the time?
Probably like maybe 23.
Been fighting a couple of years, first time ever leaving
the country going to Japan.
That was, that was really exciting.
And then I mean, of course, Dan Henderson,
that was a, that was a huge fight.
Yeah, you always got to be, yeah. Yeah be mentors. You had mentors in the sport coming up.
Yeah, I looked up Chuck Ladella a lot because he's a guy I started under and then watching him be
successful, so successful. And then staying in some humble. I mean, that guy hit like some,
you guys have made it like minor fame. His fame was crazy. He's still his famous, but like,
his fame for a minute was just insane. So to watch him stay just as humble and not, you know, obviously, you ran
some problems, you know, like, like, we have that kind of fame.
It gets crazy, but seeing him stay the humble person he was was, was pretty cool.
Hmm.
Well, so now when you, you had your school up in the city for a little while and you were
training there, I always wondered this, like, you know, you're walking around.
People know you, you're, you're a fighter, you know, you fight on TV.
You're how tall are you? How much do you weigh?
About 185.
185.
So you're like an average shape guy, average size guy.
Now I know what fighters look like and looking at you from across the street, I would know
like not gonna fuck that guy.
Yeah, I would slumber.
But, but do people ever come in and challenge you in your school?
Just people are like, hey, you know what?
No, I think I can take that.
Yeah, luckily not, you know.
A long time ago, I think we had a few people come in
for like challenge fights, like back when
the first game to Caesar's times were a little different
back then, guys would come in trying to fight.
But now, I think guys know, because the guys that would
do that are the bullies and bullies,
that they're smart enough to know who to fuck with.
Because prize game would always ask,
I'll never pick a fight with you.
And I've never had anyone come up and try to,
and you know, and try to challenge me.
I think those guys just know that they don't want to come
up and challenge someone to get beat up
and they know what's gonna happen.
They might tell their friends,
behind your back all the odd kick his ass.
They're not gonna actually come up
and talk shit to someone that kicked their ass.
It always surprises me when I see,
because we're in the fitness world.
So we've talked to bodybuilders and dudes that are big.
Yeah, it's real strong.
And I can't believe how many times a lot of them be like yeah
you know he's pretty good but I don't weigh him by like 70 pounds so I can totally I know I
could kind of hold my own and I'm like I tell him every time like no you literally can't yeah they
don't realize that they're guitar really fast they don't they don't know the techniques and skill yeah
not those guys have beat up most people they are so strong they'll chuck people around but it's
different story when it's like you know we, we train, this is our job.
We train full time.
People don't, some people don't realize the difference that makes.
I've seen girls, I've seen girls,
and this is grappling only,
but I've seen female, you know, Jiu-Jitsu black belts
with a brand new white belt guy and just fucking tool them.
Yeah, I've seen it.
I've seen it in Rhonda like beating up
like Bloom Purple belt guys. Oh no. Oh shit.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Have you gone against her?
I haven't trained with her, but I watched her train
and she looked tough.
Yeah, I'd like to put on a key and she just never throw me.
Yeah, there's no doubt.
There's no doubt.
There's no doubt.
But you see guys as going as hard as they can,
just like trying to battle her.
Because you usually girls, you know, guys are decent at least.
They're going a little light, kind of playing around,
but you see it happen to happen to fully fight
her.
Yeah, let's talk about nutrition for a little bit.
You know, we know how people eat in our world fitness and whatever.
MMA, what do the diets look like?
Yours is a little different.
Yeah, I like.
I'm a vegetarian.
There's a little different.
I think there are decent my vegetarians in this board actually. I mean, they I love it. I love vegetarians. There's a little different.
I think there are decimavid cherries in the sport actually.
It's starting to come out.
It can make any ideas or are pretty much vegans.
I think they had a tiny bit of fish every now and again.
But it's, yeah, I'm not vegans, so I eat eggs to get the protein and beans and stuff.
But I had really not that strict though.
I just try to, my thing is, I put a lot of processed foods, trying to have a bunch of,
I try to figure as long as there's a majority of my calories through good natural food.
So I don't have an exact diet.
Just, you know, you can kind of feel how your body feels
when you eat and just kind of follow it from there.
Have you been a vegetarian for a long time?
Actually growing up vegetarian, so for me it's easy.
So my body's, yeah, I've never eaten meat.
So for me, my body's totally used to it.
So as people ask me, so people ask me advice
about coming vegetarian, I always tell them to like,
well, I guess you can do cold turkey,
but sometimes it's better to ease into it.
Like if your body's feeling like it needs me,
maybe eat it occasionally to get those cravings
because if you're not getting enough,
because I know how to,
I know if my body's feeling like craving, I know, okay,
I feel like this protein, I'll go with some eggs or beans
or get a protein shake,
but some people might not necessarily know how to fill that.
So it's like, especially if you're an athlete
and you're trying to quit cold turkey,
maybe have fish or chicken
like twice a week and then slowly phase it out.
No, it's great advice.
It's the same advice that we give somebody
that's trying to go through that process
is that your body will go and shock it for you.
Yeah, and if you're feeling like you need it,
that's where a lot of people quit eating meat.
They tell me they have a hard time
like maybe the first month or something
that's still gonna be full a week.
A lot of times they feel better,
but it's like, well, hey, if you're feeling really weak,
maybe you should listen and go eat a little bit.
Don't go pick out and meat and have it all the time,
but maybe you should eat a little bit.
So because me, it's easy.
Have you never eat it?
My body doesn't get those cravings.
Now, Nick and Nate, they weren't vegetarian
or vegan before.
No, yeah, I think Nick has been for a long time.
He kind of switched over on his own.
Was that through your influence?
Just through meeting with you?
I mean, I think I did on his own.
I think probably seeing C&N as vegetarian
probably helped him think that I could do that. I think he's sort of reading a lot about nutrition. And he mean, I think I did on his own. I think probably seeing C&N as a vegetarian probably helps him think that I could do that.
But he's sort of reading a lot about nutrition.
And he's actually more strict than me on his diet.
You know, gluten free.
I'm not gluten free for anything.
He's like, he's very strict.
And benefits?
Do they notice any benefits from doing that?
Or are you better cardio?
Yeah.
I have an eating both.
So I can't honestly say, oh, I feel way better without meat.
But most people that stop eating it say, majority of them say they feel better cardio
cleaner.
But the only thing I have a few people say they feel weaker,
but that's generally, that's generally in the beginning
and then once they figure out the eating,
they say they feel great.
It's sometimes when people first switch their body,
they have a little trouble adjusting.
Well, and now these days, your training wise,
how often do you train?
Is this still pretty often?
Yeah, I train like he's twice today.
Wow, really?
It's the morning, once afternoon.
For what, a couple hours?
Yeah, I've got two hours a session.
Holy shit, so that's four hours.
Only you just got off a fight with Machita,
so you're still on the training mode.
What do you ever take time off?
I do, but not long time off.
I take like a week off.
I think it's important to stay and shape your round.
Best to have a little bit older now.
I think that's the key to kind of
to having those longer careers and never let your body go.
Because staying in shape is not that bad,
but getting back in shape is miserable.
Speaking of what, let's talk about that.
Let's talk about some of the things you do
to keep yourself healthy for this long.
Obviously you're not in some young spring chicken anymore.
Do you utilize cryo, things like that?
What's some of your regimens to stay in healthy?
Ah, actually don't really.
I think a lot of it's just trying to eat good,
you work out all the time, so I stay in shape.
And I mean, I think sleep's important too.
You try to make sure not to neglect the sleep too much.
Yeah, what about like, must anything like massage or stretch?
I do occasionally, but not all the time.
You want it off.
I like to massage during camps if I can fit them in,
but sometimes I get so busy and neglect them.
Yeah, I think what you'll see with athletes
who've been in this sport for a very, very long time
is you'll see the ones that were health was kind of a,
always a priority to them.
Versus people who would get fit for a fight and then get out of shape and don't really
last as long.
Yeah, I think standing shapes the biggest factor.
I think a lot of the guys that are fighting older and not having to assess, kind of staying
shape year round.
Yeah.
What about, how's your joints?
Man, not bad, you know.
Wow, that's excellent.
Yeah, part of it.
I mean, I think the diet probably helps.
I don't know for sure, having not eaten other way,
but I think the diet helps my body stay in shape
and recover faster.
It has to.
Do you incorporate weight training?
Yeah, I do.
I live up about twice a week.
Oh, you do, okay.
Yeah, I like to live, I think it helps.
If I start, that's a thing.
If I'm not left in,
sometimes I start losing weight and getting a little too light
and then I start feeling a difference.
What is your resistance training, Rujim?
What was that?
Yeah, I don't have an exact routine,
but I try to hit the deadlift,
hit a few cleans, some squats,
some bands basically pretty basic.
I'll switch up occasionally,
so it doesn't get totally still,
but I don't have anything stupid,
the basic athletic lift.
You draw those the good ones though.
Exactly, those are the main staple lifts.
Yeah, and then I'll throw other stuff.
Sometimes I'll throw some plios in and mix stuff up.
Nice.
I like, I don't always need to do this.
It's so miserable, but like going out and doing sprints too.
I feel really healthy and strong when I do that.
It's just hard to sometimes it's hard mentally to go out there and hit the track.
Oh, yeah.
It's miserable running sprints, but that makes you strong too.
Do you enjoy cardio now that you, you know, you've been doing it for so long?
Yeah, I don't enjoy cardio.
It's always painfully out.
I enjoy Jitsu, so I do most of my cardio that way. Okay, it comes out in running. I don't, I mean, I don't get the. It's always paining me out. I enjoy Jitsu, so I do most of my cardio that way.
When it comes out and running, I don't get to
do with love running.
I don't hate it.
I used to hate running.
I've learned not to hate it, but I definitely still don't love it.
Yeah, I don't trust anybody that likes cardio.
Yeah, it's weird.
There's more people I love running.
You're like, what the fuck?
Yeah, I'm understand.
Yeah, how do you love running?
That's just miserable.
All right, good.
Didn't you're normal?
Yeah, I'm not that weird.
All right, cool.
So with the weight training, do you notice more carryover
from certain lifts or certain ways of lifting?
Like, okay, when I get stronger in the deadlift,
I can totally tell when I'm, yeah.
I think deadlift, so obviously they're probably,
probably one of the best or one of the best.
You know, the deadlift, the squats,
I like doing the benches and stuff too,
because it definitely helps.
But I can feel the difference when I stop lifting. I just feel a little bit weaker, and it's, you know, the deadlifts, the squats. I like doing the benches and stuff too, because it definitely helps. But I can feel a difference when I stop lifting.
I just feel a little bit weaker,
and it's, you know, you guys can mostly be around a little bit.
So I definitely feel a difference when I'm lifting and not.
I mean, of course, it maybe slows you down a little bit,
but overall, I have that extra strength,
especially in the, the last things where it helps the most
on the takedowns, because it's,
I feel like in the standup,
it doesn't help quite as much,
and the Jits do not quite,
it helps a little bit Jits, not quite as much,
but in the last things where you really, where I really feel it. Yeah, that's where I noticed when I would
When I would be the throws I felt like I could throw harder
Exactly sometimes the big strong guys kind of must them around a little bit of not lifting
So then I'm like so I'll have one of those days and I'll push them around a little bit
I'm like fuck out of me lifting enough. I guess I got to go back to the gym exactly now looking forward
What's the what's the future look like for you both fighting in business
wise? Yeah, most likely, um, be fighting John Fitch and World Series fighting. Oh, right.
Yeah, we've been tracked almost worked out. Yeah. So now is this submission my, uh, this
is an actual fight. Oh, I mean, I'll have a lot of offers for submission fights for these
things, things blowing up. It's kind of cool how, uh, that the sports, I'm very happy about that.
I'm really happy that these easy is your way to make money?
Well, it's easier and plus, I have two kids
and my son does judo at the moment
and I'd like to see there to be
a higher levels of competition with grappling
because really, especially in America,
you can go collegiate with wrestling,
you can go Olympic and stuff like that,
but to make a living doing it
or to actually go even further, be very difficult.
And let's face it, it's safer.
If you want to do it, just a punch is in the face.
And it's great on the old, or I still love fighting,
but it's nice to get some of these in between fights,
just to stay active, stay in shape,
give you something to train for,
and then take a fight every now and again.
Now, Fitz will be an interesting match
because he's also got a very strong rac.
Yeah, very strong.
He's one of those all round guys.
Good wrestling, good jitsu, good stand up.
I think his jitsu is not as good as mine, obviously,
but he's one of those tough.
He's tough, you know, he's mentally tough too,
it keeps coming, so he's not an easy fight.
And he's a local guy for us around here.
Yeah, you guys friends, do you guys hang out?
Yeah, you know, I have a little bit.
We trained with some in the past.
Been a while though.
He moved out to Vegas a couple of years ago.
Oh.
So he's not out here at Dumb.
Oh, I thought he was still here, I didn't know that. Yeah, I know, he moved out on two, three years ago. Okay. I used to see him couple years ago. So he's not out here at home. Oh, I thought he was still here. I didn't know that.
Yeah, I know he moved, I don't know, two, three years ago.
Oh, okay.
I used to see him all the time.
He's got the big lifted Toyota.
I've seen him, I used to see him driving
by my house all the time.
I actually met him a while ago.
Let's see, this was back when,
I don't know if his Mike Swicks still in the area.
No, I think he moved as well.
He's on Thailand.
He opened a gym in Foucai.
Okay, let's ride.
Love him, by the way.
Yeah, no, I know.
All these guys are nice guys.
Super cool guy.
I actually worked with them years ago in the fitness industry.
And anyhow, when Swick was getting ready to fight
you Shinokami, he invited me down to roll with him because I'm a big guy.
And so I went over there and I actually rolled with him and fished.
Now, I'm not nowhere near their level, but the intensity,
because I had that up until that point,
I had only grappled in Jiu-Jitsu schools and Judo schools,
but the intensity at which...
The fight intensity is different, yeah.
Oh, it's just different, they're on your ass.
Like there's no like in Jiu-Jitsu like you,
yeah, if you go intense even,
but you're still kind of playing different games.
Like these guys were like on your fucking ass,
and if they were gonna to be in a position
that was stalemate, they were going to make sure to be on top is what I felt like.
Especially with the rest of like fish.
Yeah, and that's, yeah, you always want an MMA, you always want to be on top.
You never rest when you're on bottom, you know, you got to get that top position because
of those punches are coming in.
It's a, yeah, it's a death people realize they're used to that, that's what I say American
Jitsu because you know that's a mixed that, that aggressive style and,
because in Jitsu it's usually like,
relax, wait for this mission to come,
but in the MMA style,
you wanna be constantly grinding the guy,
constant pressure and,
you're relaxed, you might be getting elbows.
A lot of times you come in there,
these guys use to reg their Jitsu,
also in the training with the MMA guy,
they're like, oh man, this is fucking tiring.
It's just, it's just, it's a different pressure.
I'll never forget, they were just on me all the time.
And I, you know, I tried to play half guard and it was like, why am I here? Like, I'm actually, I'm actually, I'll start peppering they were just on me all the time and I you know I tried to play half guard and I was like why am I here like I'll start peppering a little punches
Yeah, I'm like fuck I don't want to rest
Sometimes do it in the matrix and we'll mind people you know start puffing a little punches where they don't want to rest
Yeah, and I remember I got I tried to get him in like the sweep that I get every freaking time and he just pivoted
His knee puts his head on the ground to balance and it's like this fuckers that go anywhere
He's got great balance from all the wrestling.
That's the thing about wrestlers is you don't want to, yeah, you're very, very difficult
to put the footages.
He just teaches great balance.
Put them on their back.
From a self-defense standpoint, do you think that there's some merit to training a little
bit with the G, to maybe, you know, being on the street with someone who's got clothes
on?
Yeah, I mean, yeah, definitely.
You guys said you'd get in a fight with a guy
with jackets in a jean at the Gia,
you training is good.
I prefer no Gia, but I think doing a little bit
is a good idea.
Yeah, I like the speed of no Gia.
Yeah, me too.
I prefer, you know, I'm a fast paced guy.
So I like the high intensity and the Gia.
The Gia slows it down.
So I get a little frustrated in it.
What are some of your go-to favorite submissions?
I know you're getting good with it.
Yeah, with the leg locks and the boots. Yeah, I've been doing a lot of leg locks. What are some of your go-to like favorite submissions? I know you're getting good with it, you know, getting
the leg locks and the other stuff.
Yeah, they do a lot of leg locks.
Like the guillotine, reurnaked, arm triangle,
arm bars, like a lot of submissions.
Yeah, I'm not seeing a lot of Cameras, Camera locks lately.
Is there a reason for that or just people defending them well?
That's a good question, guys, it's probably,
it's a good lock, but then it's one of the people
who also use the defend.
Yeah, because I've seen, I used to see those quite a bit
in the last 10 of them. Yeah, my go-to. Yeah, I think guys are just a little, there's skills, one of the people who also use the defend. Yeah, because I used to see those quite a bit more. I'll say yeah, my go to.
Yeah, I think guys, there's a little bit of skills,
a little bit of better, so learn how to defend them.
Now, looking forward business-wise,
do you have anything in the works moving forward
for your business, anything social media-wise
or anything you're trying to do?
You know, I actually had pushed in the coffee company,
we're doing really well there.
My social media, just, you know,
actually on my social media got hacked
like two weeks ago.
I heard about that.
Yeah, it's talking about that.
How did that work?
Some hacker somehow got into all my accounts,
got into my email too.
So we actually changed my Instagram account
and Instagram never, I didn't get that back
because Instagram never replied to my messages,
wrote them like 10 times.
No way.
They're like, what's the choice?
But then it was like a robot that replied to me
and never got a human to contact me.
So is this person that hacked your Instagram get to keep it now?
Yeah, because it's a shitting me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no hundred thousand, so barely a hundred thousand, so can't stop. Hold these shit, so someone took it and now has all those followers.
Yeah.
I think he ended up getting a shutdown,
because everyone kept reporting it for abuse,
because he was on there putting stupid shit.
But luckily I got my Facebook and my Twitter back.
But yeah, these hackers, I guess it happens all the time.
Once someone got hacked, it kept hearing a hundred
all kinds of people get hacked all the time, I guess.
It's just one of these things.
Well especially when you get a bigger page,
you're a bigger known person, right?
They tend to target people like you.
It's almost like, yeah, most is like teenagers and shit.
They're just like bored and they learn computers super early
and they find ways to get in.
Yeah, that shit's crazy.
Yeah, I would say that whoever's tacked into Jake Shields
is a cow.
He's got balls and sticks.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm a fucking slap the shit out of him.
I don't care if he's 12, he's getting slapped.
He's in his horseback.
Jesus.
She is fun.
Let's talk though a little bit about, I love when I get guys like you because I feel like
you know, we don't get a chance to talk about business and what it's like, you know,
starting off, you're not known, you're just getting into it,
you're young, then you see this transition now
into this whole social media world.
Like what is that whole evolution been like for you
and what did you have to do and what do you do right?
It's yeah, so many aspects.
I think a lot of it is, you know,
because you do gotta focus on the training first
because if you're not winning fights,
you're not gonna get shit,
but then learning how to market yourself,
learning how to make connections.
A lot of times the sponsors will be through connections you make.
If people like you or not, sometimes guys are just thinking these companies are gonna
pay a bunch of money, but it's like, yeah, they don't like you.
Why are they gonna sponsor you?
If you don't go out and grab dinner with the guys on the company occasionally and treat
them with respect, don't treat them like, oh, you owe me money.
They're the ones paying you.
Some of these kids don't understand that.
This is a business and these guys decide who they want
to sponsor, so don't be a prick.
You know, go out and make connections.
I mean, for me, it's easy, because I'm being myself.
I'm not trying to like, like, I don't like it,
so I'm not going to go to work with them.
I got to actually like someone too,
or I'm like, I'll fuck this.
But I think that's an important point to elaborate on
is that I, being authentic, you know,
I think.
Yeah, because there's been companies too,
where the guys, it's like a douchebag running,
and I'm like, I'm not going to be able to work with this guy. So you can't always like over-chase money either if it doesn't feel like a
right fit. Sometimes it's like not worth it. Maybe if you're like desperately broke you can kiss ask for a minute,
but it's, but for me, you know, I got too much respect to do that. That's how this is how we landed
Chi-Amera was we waited. We had turned down God so many sponsorships because we all did other things before mine. Yeah, so we didn't need this to support us at the time
So we waited and waited until we found a company and somebody who runs the company and that we like their
Yeah, they're cool people. That's why I started working with them like we really hit it off
We met up that's why the company together. We hit off there. I can work with these people like I can't work with if I don't get long
Some of the ain't worth trying to fake it work with them. Yeah, no that's not so.
Yeah, we love the boys.
They're really cool.
Really, really cool.
We're really excited too.
Yeah, that's awesome.
From where we go from here to because we're barely getting started.
We've only been with them for about two months now.
Did you go visit them in the Dominican Republic?
Yeah, after a couple of times checked out where we get the coffee.
Shit, shit, we want to go there.
Yeah, I can check out with the coffee's grown.
It's so cool out in the Dominican.
You see like the fresh beans.
I'm a huge coffee lover.
That's why I got involved.
So it's a short one.
It's great to do something you actually care about.
I think it would be pretty cool if they flew us out there.
Nice out there, yeah.
It's cool.
Content.
Boom.
What other companies have you worked with anybody and got rid of them?
Have you had any instance like that?
What was sponsors here and there?
Yeah, not actual companies that have been part of the business,
but yeah, there's been sponsors, you know,
you have, you guys have not paid you before
and there's all kinds of shit like that,
but overall, things have mostly gone good.
When you're in the UFC too, like,
how do you, what do you feel about the Reebok deals
when I'm getting out here?
Oh, it's terrible.
I just want to get to this.
I'm glad you brought that up.
So break that down for,
because some of our listeners might not be fully aware of what happened with all that. Yeah, I mean, I brought that up. So break that down for, because some of our listeners might not be fully aware
of what happened with all that.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly how to have them,
but Reebok basically, you see me doing Reebok.
So Reebok can be the fighters only sponsor,
but they pay, I'm like, I don't know the exact payouts are,
but they're terrible.
It starts at like, yeah, it starts at like $5,000
for like the new guys, depending on what fight you have.
So you could be a big name, maybe you came from
different show in your big name,
and you're still stuck with the $5,000. Wow. I think up to like 20s, I think the top guys, like the champs depending on what fight you have. So you could be a big name, maybe you came from different show in your big name and you're still stuck with the $5,000.
I think up to like 20s, I think the top guys,
like the champs can only make maybe like 25 grand
of fight or something and it's terrible.
And it's, I mean, obviously depending on what
we're making the fighters as fighters before,
it depends on a lot of how good you were at getting sponsors,
but it was common to me know,
for me to make a 100 grand of fight.
From just under sponsors.
Yeah, we're in a shirt, right?
An extra 100 grand.
Sometimes even more, especially if you're like
champ or something.
So do so to go in, you know, make a hundred grand.
Now that you see, I think they started 2500,
actually not 5,000.
Now they want to pay you like 2500 or $5,000.
For a fight?
Yeah.
For something that you may do what twice or three times
actually, because they're already underpaying their fighters.
So that was a way a lot of us make extra money
through the sponsorships.
Right.
I mean, there's a few fighters making
really good money in there. But that's a whole lot of the guys are just getting by and they're trying to...
That's why you're scraping up trying to get sponsorship money too.
And then you have the UFC taking that away.
It's caused a lot of animosity.
You get to get a lot of guys wanting to leave the UFC trying to switch over at Capellator and World Series of fighting and stuff.
So I listen to Fighter in the Kid podcast.
Brennan Shob talks a lot about this.
Yeah, that's right. So I've been excited to talk to you because I wanted to hear from a fighter right and hear their
Perspective and what they thought about it. So wow, that's that shitty. That's really bad. Yeah, it's pretty bad
So you can't none of the fighters are happy with it like all the guys
I know we're making a lot more than they're currently getting paid so that would so let's say I'm I'm a fighter for the UFC
Yeah, Reebokke is my sponsor.
I can't on the side be sponsored by a Gatorade or something.
You could if it's not in the cage.
So there's a few guys that could,
these really big guys sometimes can get like deals
like outside the cage, you know, I think like Rhonda
may have some deals with some of these companies,
but you can't wear them in the cage.
And not only that, they'll find guys for the stupidest shit.
I think Nate got to find for like me and him, it weigh-ins.
I was going to the weigh-ins with them.
We wore like, they have the A of these stupid looking,
fucking pants to pull over.
They didn't fit us right.
So I think we walked out, we either walked
both out with our jeans,
or one of us might have had a regular tennis shoes on.
If you know what it was, and he got to find,
I don't know, I'm not sure where they find them,
but they probably find like a thousand dollars or more
out of the shitty money they were paying.
But we still had like the hat, the shirt.
If you know what it was, one of us had the shoes, one of us had the jeans, because the shit just didn't fit right. And then the fuck he gets're paying, but we still have like the hat, the shirt. If you go to what it was, one of us had,
I think one of us had the shoes,
one of us had the jeans,
cause the shit's just in a fit right,
and then the fuck he gets fined, you know.
And I know exactly what he got fined
and he's more reading about it.
Like man, that's fucked up.
On top of under paying you, they're gonna find you.
That's terrible.
And you're putting your life on the line
every time you go out there and find me.
Exactly, the people you should be taking care of,
and they give you, they give you gifts socks too,
like these shoes, like, you be running shoes.
I just grab them and throw them away after them.
Like, I get my socks, I try running in and I'm like,
I fucking feed her.
It's like, at least like spend some money
and get us some better gear.
Right.
They get like, I mean, free-bought must make
some higher quality gear, but they give us like
the lowest quality.
Oh, it's terrible.
Because it's all for marketing.
That's all they care about.
Yeah, exactly.
You have these shoes, your feet are all like sore walking
out there, like man, this sucks.
Well, the, I mean, I thought, when the UFC first started,
I used to love, I mean, I remember,
I remember when the brand of Fliction exploded
because of that, you see, you'd see different,
it's cooler looking.
Yeah, it was so cool to see different camps grown.
And you see all these different brands come out
and you're like, oh, that's cool.
It kind of represents that camp.
Yeah, the tap out, it just made all these different brands.
Exactly, there was good money, not for a while,
for the sponsorships involved.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now everybody's wearing this ugly ass triangle fucking rebot.
It's ugly.
And they've just had so many problems.
Like when they released the clothes,
they had a bunch of names for spelled wrong on there.
They just had so many mess ups.
Yeah, it's just because I'm
Dude, how angry are you?
You're a fighter.
You're getting me to walk out. They fucking give you your shirt. Your name spelled fucking wrong. Yeah. Well, Gilbert's just because I do how angry are you you're a fighter you're getting me to walk out they fucking give you your shirt your name spelled fucking wrong. Well Gilbert one day as for my
training partner is his shirt was it say like gibber. I'd be there. Yeah, there's no like no one
was like checking the double checking the stuff. Wow. And everybody just feels held hostage by
Dana White or the company, right? I mean, that's just yeah, he's I mean, Dan is not all bad.
He's just good things for the sport.
I mean, at least his passionate works hard, but he's but he's a dictator.
And he can be prick about things and they're and they're not very fair with how they hand out the money.
Yeah, I think it's because I mean, the UFC for a long time was basically one of the only shows in town.
I mean, pride competed and then pray they took over that.
And it was like, we can do it.
We were big. They bought strike for us.
They did that when they get competition. That's the do they buy it just to kill it. Yeah. can do it very fast. We were, we were, we got big, they bought strike for us.
When they get competition, that's the do,
they buy it just to kill it.
Yeah, and then it just,
and it kind of, you know,
it realizes cheaper than buying a competition
and killing it to get rid of the bidding wars.
Yeah, and it monopolizes, you know, the,
the sport.
And so then these fighters have kind of no choice,
but to,
do you see them keep continuing to do that
or do you think they'll be competition in the sport?
Do you think they're going to monopolize it for us? It's, it's hard, I mean, they're going to try to keep monopolized forever, but it's hard to say, you know, think they'll be competition in the sport? Do you think they're going to monopolize it for us?
I mean, they're going to try to keep monopolize forever, but it's hard to say, you know, if they'll be able to.
Yeah. One thing I will say about the UFC that I've always commended is they're pretty open about,
and they publicly will talk about their athletes that fail drug tests.
Yeah. Which other professional sports don't really do.
Yeah, they have really pushed the drug testing, which is surprising.
They got the, they brought in whatever the organization's called that does really, really
strict.
I think that the strictest drug testing out of any pro sport, maybe, well, it's something
like cycling, I think.
Yeah.
But football, basketball, baseball, I think theirs is all very, I don't know the details,
but I'm pretty sure theirs is all very convenient.
They're not like actually trying to catch guys, they're just doing it.
You're not seeing anybody in the press coming from football.
I think they kind of try burying in this sports
because you know, they're,
and it got baseball for a second,
I think they were kind of testing
because it came the hot thing,
but you don't ever hear about football.
They just, they're probably the most juiced at once.
They kind of just leave it in the rack.
I just not talk about it.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Can you, can you feel when athletes are,
or can you tell a lot of times when you're,
when you're training with somebody like,
yeah, you're on some shots and you can.
It's hard to be 100% but often, you know, and you fight someone like, like, actual on
bar, I fought him.
It was like very, very clear.
The guy was juiced out of his mind, you know, and then the next fight when he gets popped,
like, okay, that was pretty obvious.
Let's talk a little bit about what it's like being a fighter and trying to have a relationship,
dude, what's your, can we get in that little relationship?
Yeah, no, it definitely can be tough. I mean, actually, now I do have a girlfriend, but. What's your, can we get into that little relationship? Yeah, no, yeah, no, it definitely can be tough.
I mean, actually, now I do have a girlfriend,
but it can be tough with all the traveling,
and it does make it.
Yeah, but they must be throwing tang at you,
it does make it a lot easier to get laid.
So it's hard when you're traveling,
and there's constantly girls.
And you're a better looking guy,
compared to a lot of these guys are fucking ugly as shit,
but you're not a bad looking guy.
It took me a while to have a girlfriend.
It was just too easy getting laid.
I had to take advantage of her a while. I would regret it, you know, due to get a little bit of fame, and then not a bad looking guy. It took me a while to have a girlfriend. It was just too easy getting laid So I had to get management for a while
I would regret it
You know do to get a little bit of fame and then not take advantage of it
It's like you can't waste it good for you though for admitting that you know, it's where I feel more awesome
The guy who gets married right away then becomes famous. You're so I would hate it myself
Don't take words
Exactly because otherwise act you're gonna break at some point if you do that and end up running
around cheating.
So it's better to get out of your system first.
So what type of girl do you have to have in order to date?
What does she have to be able to, I imagine?
She's got to have that.
I didn't even hear stories.
I'd be possibly possibly.
Yeah, I don't think I'd be chill, cool, and understand that your life is a little crazy
that you do travel.
And then before the fight, you're gonna get a lot more stressed out
and you gotta be chill those times.
But it's, do you abstain from sex before a fight?
No, fuck that.
That's a bad question.
That's a bad question.
Well, that's a bad question.
I mean, you hear about that, you know?
Yeah, I think that all the, yeah, the youths always say that,
but I think all the news tests are done.
So I think it actually lowers your testosterone.
You're not having sex.
So now the other thing opposite, there's better two have sex. I would just be more angry. Exactly.
I've tried it a few times like a week or two and you're like fuck this and break it. I just
mad all the time. If I lose it's worth it. Yeah, I ain't worth it. What's the point of fighting?
So one last question I want to ask you about dirty fighters that you've had to fight against.
Guys that have done, because there was one in particular, I took a red bike for,
I mean, I fought a few dirty fighters actually,
but if you guys ripped their hands in my mouth,
then I, but by far the dirtiest was Paul Harris.
Oh, fuck.
You know, and he's a routine,
dirty, routine cheat.
Yeah, the worst part with him when I fought him is,
you know, he think the referee would be watching him,
and I'm in there fighting him, you know,
taking him down, just beating him up,
and he's taking his thumbs,
just trying to put my eyes out, you know,
so I take him out, I'm in mount, trying to punch him.
He has his thumbs, not like just casually,
if I had guys casually put their fingers
in my eye kind of like raking,
which is annoying as fuck, but this guy has his thumbs,
literally trying to gouge my eyes out.
My eyes are just bloodshot red.
I'm yelling at the ref over and over,
and he's just feeling like,
I'm gonna handle it, don't worry.
Any other ref, any other ref would disqualified him
right away and into the fight,
but this guy just kept digging my eyes out.
It was insane.
He didn't do anything to stop.
He didn't do anything, you know.
So he ended up losing the fight.
Third round went in there, couldn't see, broke mentally,
he's going in there, can't fucking see, frustrated the
ref went and do anything.
It was, uh, so you had to react to that.
Yeah, it was, it was ridiculous.
And then I ended up punching the guy afterwards and they,
and they tried to spend, to me end up not getting
spend, but first they were going to spend me over it.
I'm like, some other fuckers, like,
gouging my eyes the whole time.
He was known for, he got, he was known for,
he was the other people.
He kicked out of the UFC for,
he did everything that I gouging,
but he was kicked out of the UFC
for mostly holding submissions after a guy tapped,
you know, he was just, yeah, the guy is,
the guy is the clear sociopath.
Yeah, dirty shit, especially if you're not,
he's not able to control himself.
I don't know, something's not wide right with that guy.
That's what I was saying. Well, hey man. It's been a pleasure having you on the show brother
Great man. This is like absolutely. Yeah, and I'm sure we're probably with being a legend man
Yeah, with Kai Marin some of that will hopefully be doing this more often. Yeah, sure come back down
So now I can consider you like back up so someone's a fight
Yeah, bro
Yeah, I'll come down but hey, I need your Santa's here right now
All right guys on my way good shit. Good shit. We're building the squad. Thank now. All right guys, on my way. Good shoot, good shoot.
We're building the squad.
Go to them.
All right, thanks a lot guys.
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