The Sevan Podcast - #206 - Alex Caceres

Episode Date: November 17, 2021

25 fights in the UFC - currently with a 5 fight win streak The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I don't got his Instagram right yet. His microphone's all jacked up. But it doesn't matter. It's a role. We own this shit. We run this shit. He can hear me. I can tell. He's smiling. I just can't hear him yet. Is that my fault or his fault? I cannot hear you. Let me see. I think there's my, you're not muted. I think there's my, you're not muted. Hmm. Weird, huh?

Maybe you want to log off and log back on. Are you on your phone? Is it plugged into headphones? You can hear me, right? Yeah. Well, more UFC fighters. I'm telling you, wait till you meet this guy, guys. This guy is awesome.

You got, damn, that haircut is legit. That's not a haircut. That's not a haircut. What are you talking about? Comments are pouring in already. I still can't. Oh, nope, can't hear you. Uh-oh.

I think he's going to try logging back in. I'm putting my socks on. He's logging in. I got one of those fancy coffee makers and uh it needs it needs this process it's called descaling and like the worst thing that can happen to you in the morning is you're trying to descale your oh there i hear something can you hear me you read yeah it is bruce leroy all right all right all right let me just get back now i was gonna get my earbuds but forget it sorry about that is that is that is that fucking up your game to not have the earbuds no no no no i don't need them i don't need them at all like maybe you

got a baby sleeping in the house or something no no not. Are you eating or rolling a joint or making sage bundles or what are you doing there? Rolling a blunt. Ah, good morning. What a show. I had, uh, the carnivore MD on and he showed the, the, the doctor shows up with no shirt on and I have, uh, Alex Caceres on and he's rolling a blunt. Did I pronounce your last name right, Alex? Yes. Casares or Casares, you know. Give it to me with that accent again. Casares. Casares.

Alex Casares. What kind of a name is that? I believe it's Spaniard because when I look it up, it's a city in Spain. Do you have Spaniard in you? Yes, I do. I actually did recently one of those uh 23 and me tests uh-huh and i'm all over the place um did you use your real name or fake name my real name now i got some like second and fourth cousins coming out the woodwork hey we're family um we we got one of my sons done up but we used a fake name and my and uh my wife's just pure

jew and i'm pure armenian so he ended up being a 51 ashkenazi jew oh and uh 49 armenian whatever that means though because i mean that that one book the god book says that we all came from adam and eve so like i don't know where they started to like delineate that shit, but clearly Mexico, there's no, clearly Mexicans are just, uh, uh, native Americans who were raped by Spaniards 300 years ago. There were no Mexicans and now they're the poster child for Catholicism. So I don't know how this shit works. Same thing with like Caribbean black people thinking they're different. It's like, no, you're, you're, you're all from the same place. It's just you were raped and pillaged by different societies. Therefore, you have different cultures. Right. I don't mean to laugh, but isn't that – that's how everyone gets their shit mixed up. Oh, it was a friendly hello and we fell in love.

No, you were raped and pillaged. The dudes came over and got your chicks, and now there's you. the dudes came over and got your chicks and now and now there's you and then we wonder why what happens like with special minorities why we have all this like pent-up like trauma you know that's like underneath and then our cultures doesn't necessarily progress because you got to think about it especially in the caribbeans these were like places where the spaniards and the portuguese and the french were chilling the party and shit they actually breeded women to be more petite and more lithe and in stature just because they made better sex slaves so that's why you got caribbean women that are like five one with huge tits and huge asses wow i didn't even know that yeah they were bred

to be sex machines the same way like in in america the black men are a lot bigger than anywhere else because they were bred to be better laborers. Oh, interesting. I wonder if that's why there's no the ugly chicks in Brazil are still hot. Probably like there's no ugly people in Brazil. It's crazy. Like they're like, look, that's an ugly chick. I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, actually, there's really very few ugly women, period. I totally agree. Honestly, man, I feel like and I damaged ones and unhealthy ones but there's I hardly ever see an ugly woman

I find beauty in their uniqueness of style and character in the first place you know when we all try to mold into the same mediocre shape and form that's when we start to lose beauty and the finer things of life I wish I could say it like that mine is I find beauty in just the fact that

i just feel this deep inherent love to plug into them and did you ever see that movie avatar from like 10 years ago yeah the one with the blue creatures and stuff yeah and they plug their tails into each other oh okay do you remember that part yeah similar like that god it's are you are you're married right yeah yeah are you enjoying that oh yeah i enjoy marriage i was never i guess you can say i was always i always been a one horse cowboy yeah i never it to me is just too much work to try and handle multiple different personalities. For me, it's even hard to handle big, um, big groups of friendships. Like I, I keep my, um, circle tightly knit just because man,

people come with a lot of baggage and problems. And not only that, man, I just, it's easier to be honest than it is to keep up bullshit. Um, then why do you do the podcast with some strange motherfucker who hits you up on instagram don't you hate this shit just meeting random new people and just having to like okay here we go well no it's well it's different from meeting new people and then um hanging out with them every day or having them some type of personal ties where they're calling you up for some type of help or you know they cross oceans for them but they refuse to cross the street for you those kind of relationships those those those draining

relationships doing interviews and meeting new people always opening up eyes or having my eye opened up in different conversations i always enjoy that you never know who you're going to meet but at the end of the day for the most part um the masses of people tend to be ignorant on that end. There is – oh, of course I have my notes on the wrong page. Ah, there is – this is something you said. Everybody is a great reflection of me that I can better myself. And it's a theme that I always talk about in my podcast. It's fascinating to just stumble across this and a ton of great lines in your Instagram, because I always tell people that

there is no, we're not here. We're just reflections of each other. It's just a bunch of mirrors walking around. And then you take it even one step deeper and you say in fighting, that's why you like fighting because it really shows you who you are and and i can't get my head wrapped around i i understand that fear there's another line you have in there and it says um i understand this one one who fears death is one who only fears self because the only time i've really seen myself is when i was pursuing my own death. I got it. I got to get a glimpse of my light. So going back to the, these two things, what did you mean by that? That, um, uh, we'll start with everyone is a great reflection of me that I can better myself. What did you mean by that? Well, and I guess just to like, I get brought, brought in that statement a bit more.

Um, I would say everything, you know, rather than just everyone, every person is, it's definitely more right there in front of you. But like, if you look at a tree and you look at the beautiful struggle that it goes through, sometimes to grow through concrete or on top of rocks and find, dig its roots to find water, reach its canopies up high, weaving through other trees, never hitting their canopies in order to find light. You know, we can find ourselves in these struggles. We can see, we can find ourselves in these struggles. We can see, and the similarity is in these struggles. We can see ourselves as a river,

either a river that runs dry because they never meet the oceans, because they never had the ambition to push through the rocks and the dirt, or the river that actually pushes through everything and draws strength from other tributaries to actually push through the ocean and rejoin the source. So when I'm fighting, yes, of course, I definitely see myself in other people.

I don't ever believe that there is, you know, so it doesn't matter to me who I fight because— You don't ever believe what? You broke up. Sorry, say that again. You don't ever believe what? That there's an opponent other than myself, you know. It's always me against me, and this is the truth because in reality, the stark reality of the fact is that before I get in there, whether the guy wants to talk crap to me or not or anything like that, I don't know you. I don't know your personal character. So the only thing that I know is me in this situation. Therefore, when I come and meet you, you are simply but a reflection of me.

I can't know you well enough to hate you, to be angry at you, to want to hurt you, to want to do good for you, if anything. But in my nature, what I'm doing is simply what I'm doing. And it has nothing to do with you, which is why I never get caught up in trash talking or calling people out, because really, I'm simply here to test myself and to see myself. So I don't care who they put in front of me. I don't care what opponent it is. I don't care what ranking that is. If I have the opportunity to be alive and live, then I'm going to take that opportunity every single time.

Is a way to think about it. I'm not saying that this is actually it, but as a way to think about it, that the person in front of you is just, I't know how to i don't i'm no physicist but just light just photons electrons and and and basically you then then the reason why you're just looking at you is because when you see that person it's just your interpretation of what that light is doing based on who you are well then we're getting quantum entanglement and we're also getting into the double slit theory you um, spooky action at a distance. We're getting into the quantum realm now, of course, because we don't really ever see anything, you know, our eyes, uh, we see the light hitting our eyes and our eyes are throwing it, throwing those photons into our brain,

making up an image and then refracting that light back out through our eyes. So it makes up an image in front of us. So yeah, really there is nothing unless we manifest it. So depending on what you're manifesting, whereas I'm fighting an opponent, I'm fighting another real person, or I'm fighting myself to better myself, then we have two different outcomes or two different interpretations of the outcome, whether we win or lose. So there's losing and then there's learning lessons and then there's winning and then there's just progressing through life. A true wise person doesn't elate himself in victories and doesn't drag himself through the mud and defeat. We simply just be and we continue to go on. And this is what makes a difference between a great

person and a mediocre person, a person that can fall down and get back up and keep moving forward without taking personally or a person that just points his fingers at everybody else and everything else saying that this is the reason why they never made it. Would you let you, do you, do you, do you ever let that expression pass through you? All expressions are always going to pass through you. We cannot stop thoughts from passing through us. Whether we latch onto those thoughts and make those thoughts into us, then that becomes a problem or that becomes our reality in that sense.

But it's like a sculptor. You know, when we're chiseling, like Bruce Lee said, when we're chiseling away our masterpiece, we're not putting on pieces of clay. So all the thoughts we can't attach ourselves to the most we'll just make a blob of clay we have to chisel away all the imperfections let them pass you know let them fall off and then the masterpiece will be shown as it is with our bodies with our minds with our lives with our emotions and experiences the less we have the more we gain um people uh alex is uh 5 945 pounds he has been in the ufc for a long time so what happened was i don't know if it was a month or two ago i'm doing my normal saturday routine really the only tv i ever watch is on saturdays i turn on the ufc and i spend my i try to watch it for three hours

but i have three little boys and it's just yeah we're always partying um and and and i watched his fight and then afterwards i thought i heard the announcer say something that just couldn't possibly true i can't remember exactly what the word that was but basically um there were there were two things that stood out how many fights have you done in the ufc sorry i'm looking at my notes here okay um is it 17 25 what was that number five down here how many 25 yes 25 ufc fights not including the ultimate fighter as soon as you saw that i spotted uh people that's uh i when i heard and then he's on a five fightfight win streak, and I heard those two, and I couldn't – I was like, fuck, the commentator fucked up. There's no one who's been in the UFC for 25 fights.

How could I not know this guy? I watch every Saturday. I mean I know there's like 500 guys on the roster, and he has a five-fight win streak. Like I consider myself like a – Honestly, I don't – I'm not a big media guy. I was a little bigger before but i just i i definitely fell off um um you know like i guess it has to do a lot with life you know trying to start a family i have a couple houses that i still have to pay off mortgage i open a

business um the hidden lotus it's a gym and wellness center so i'm just kind of like and i'm i'm still in the remodel of this house i still i'm kind of breaking down the bath one of the bathrooms to make it into a spa bathroom so i'm redoing that so i'm just kind of caught up everywhere i want to be more on social media so i can promote a little bit more but yeah i feel like i coast under the radar a lot too and i do have a lot of um anti-fans so i don't really what is that what are anti-fans um i guess you can call those people like uh i guess they were casuals you know like like bandwagon hoppers and stuff like that you know when you're doing when you're doing bad they'll they they don't want to help you out

when you're doing good they want to kind of ride the train yeah yeah yeah that's me that's me that's the though that's like me those are the guys who just watch on saturday no i don't mean like that but i mean like like i mean it gets ugly like like like people will like actually start i've actually for after this last fight people were like on the enemy like calling me racist like a racist piece of shit why what did you do what did you do i don't know i don't know i was just after the fight i didn't do shit i i love it that's equality that's what that's what equality is calling you racist i love it yeah it's a good world sorry but like it's the whitest people like they're from like they're from like sweden and shit like you know like they're they're burning in the sun and they're gonna like you racist piece of shit i'm like what did i do to you like

you seriously have no idea what why they're even saying saying that? I have no, I'm like, I'm looking through all my posts. I'm like, did I say some racist shit against white people? Like, did I say some shit that I didn't mean to say? And I'm like, nah, I didn't, I didn't say anything. I didn't, I didn't even do any interviews because I was in the hospital after the fight. Uh, but going back to what we were talking about before, and I talk about this all the time on my podcast, be very careful, people. People, I know why they call them racist. I don't even need to know what he did. They call them racist because they're racist, because they can only see what they are.

That's 99% of these fuckers. As you said, you know, we're just reflections of ourselves. reflections of ourselves. And when we start directing our energy towards a person, we usually speak to ourselves through ourselves to other people. To ourselves through ourselves. That's what you said? Yeah. Yeah. It's fascinating. You'll say something to someone, they'll have a reaction to it, and then they'll respond to their reaction. And I try to point that out to people like, hey, you now know you're talking to yourself, right?

Like I didn't say you read into what I said, and now you're reading into – you're reacting to what you read into. I didn't even mean to say – I didn't – what I said wasn't even your interpretation of it. Yeah. And so I might as well not even be in the room. I'll be back in five minutes. Let me know when you're done talking to yourself. That happens a lot. That happens a lot, especially with people that are close to you. You know, like they feel like there's always some hidden meaning behind what you're saying. And it's like, well, you're giving

it that meaning. I'm just saying what I'm saying. Listen to the words. It's like, oh, but it's how you said it. It's how you interpreted what I said. You know, everybody has their different cadences and talking and different styles of talking. The way you hear me is the way you're hearing your thoughts that you heard inside your brain because your ears didn't hear them. Right. Your brain didn't hear it. It's something outside of your brain and your body completely that heard this and interpret it in one way. Your brain hears a message, it interprets it by the brain. And then all of a

sudden you make that interpretation and you say whatever you say, but then I know it's not your ears hearing it because you can say the same words inside your own head and still hear it inside your own head. Now what? And that's the beauty of a relationship. Is that why you, well, as long as both people are working on that, that's the beauty of a relationship. If only one person is or if no one is, that's where all the miscommunication comes from, huh? Yeah. And then it becomes one-sided. Then it becomes, you know, like someone's definitely going to feel underappreciated.

I'm trying to remember who I had on the podcast, but they had this great quote basically that when you're in a relationship and you're married and you love someone and a problem arises between you, it's not about, um, it's not you against the person. It's not Sevan versus Alex. It's Sevan and Alex versus this problem. Exactly. You got to team up and clear that out. Exactly. That's why communication is super key. And I tell my wife this all the time when we get into arguments, it's like, look, I'm not mad at you. You're not mad at me. It's just like, there's a problem here and we just got to figure it out so that we have this misinterpretation between each other and then get mad at each other over miscommunications and misunderstandings. There's a statement that you say, and it's probably true in your Instagram, but for some reason I just hate it because it fucks with my romantic view of the world. There is no teacher. There's only the enemy. And it goes on.

There's a couple more sentences. But basically, the illustration is, is that your enemy is the one that teaches you that is your teacher from it teaches you the lessons. Or we can say that again. You broke up. The enemy shows you where you are weak and where he is strong. Yeah. You know, and every lesson and every blow from your enemy can be a lesson in self-defense. But you can take that as seriously and subtly as possible.

It doesn't really matter really in the broad direction you want to take it in. But like, let's say pertaining to marriage, you know, there is like, there is only the enemy. There is no teacher. The enemy is the problem. And in the problem and in that it lies the lesson also lies the solution. So that's why, you know, I'm not saying that my wife is the enemy. If I'm getting into an argument with my wife, no, there is an enemy in there and it's hidden, but it's neither my wife nor it's not myself either. It's the problem in that sense. Even when I'm fighting my opponent, the enemy is not my opponent.

The enemy, if anything, is myself because I will get in my own way, get in my own head, and say things about myself or say things about my opponent, which can cause me to come up shorthanded. caused me to come up shorthanded. There's a video on the internets and it's from 2008. You're fighting a guy named Chocolate. Oh, shit.

I want to go back a few... What year were you born? 1988. So in that video, oh, so that video you're 20 years old. Yep. And where were you born, Alex? Miami, Florida. And how is that being raised in Miami?

Is it wild? Yeah. I mean, when I was growing up, it was fucking wild. Yeah. It's calmed down a lot now for sure. But now, yeah, it was fights all the time. Wild shit going on. I mean, we were the murder capital of this country for a while. I'm not getting any, um, uh, stereotypical fucking, uh,

hood rat vibe from you. I'm not, I'm not. And yet that scene that that fight is in is, like I watch the fight and I'm about to turn it off and I'm like, holy fuck. And I watch the next three minutes. I could not be in that situation. I'm not man enough to be in that situation. That whole environment

is scary as shit. That's where I grew up, around there and stuff. So to me it was normal, but I've always been a weird guy in the hood and shit too so i was like that guy in the hood that was watching animes that wanted to know kung fu that was listening to rock and roll and classic rock music and blues and jazz and stuff like that so i wasn't into the regular shit that all the homies were into and shit so i i mean mean, I was still about it, dude. I was, you know, at one point in time, I was selling LSD and weed and shit. And I was, you know, fighting people for no fucking reason, being an asshole.

But I was still into the shit that I was into. I was in the drama club when I was in high school. I was on the wrestling team as well. I was in marching band and in the symphonic band. And I was also, yeah, I was doing everything. Like I didn't care what people thought about me, but I did have, I did have more of a, I guess, like a chip on my shoulder when I was younger, just because of the environment that I was around all the time.

Oh, what did you play in the marching band? Um, I was a percussionist, so I replayed all various percussion instruments. Those are drums, right? St right sticks and drums and do you play hand drums too yeah it looks like i got my drum set i still have to set it up oh yeah that's did you just move into a new place um yeah we moved not too long ago i mean i would say like six months ago but everything was just so busy the fighting and the getting the business open up and everything. So I'm still kind of organizing. You moved from Arizona to Florida. Yep. Um, so, so going back, so, so you're raised in Miami. Is there a specific part of Miami? I don't know Miami at all. Really. I've only been

there maybe like a dozen times. Well, I know at first I, I used to live in a like Northwest, I know first I used to live in a like northwest like close to Hialeah area and then that was like the more crazier part over there and then when I was a little older we moved to uh Kendall which is a more like outskirt suburban area and and and how and how and tell me about how the fighting started, even before then. Did you watch something? Were you into fighting movies? Did your dad used to hit you? How did you get that?

Well, all of the above, but in chronological order. When I was five or six years old, I got bullied for the first time. I didn't know what to do, you know. At school? And I used to go to like a, it was a pretty ghetto school, you know. I went out there and then like, and I was getting like bullied. And like this kid kept taking away my folder, you know. And when I tried to take it back, he punched me in the face.

And then when I told the teacher, the teacher told me to shut up and, like, put me in the corner and hit me with a ruler. I'm like, bro, like, ain't no winning for me right here. So I went home and told my dad. And my dad went and hit me for not fighting back. And then he showed me Bruce Lee movies and started to show me how to throw, like, a one-two punch. And then just basically told me like, you know, you got to get mad when that kind of shit happens. So the next day, the kid tried to do that shit again,

but I made sure I brought like one of those hard binders. And when he tried to take my binder, I just snatched it back and like drove one of the corners into his face like 50 times. I don't know how much times and the teacher beat me again, but I didn't care.

It felt really good. And when I told my dad about it, when he went to pick me again, but I didn't care. It felt really good. And when I told my dad about it, when he went to pick me up, he bought me a fucking coconut yoo-hoo. And I'm like, all right, so this is how it is. So I just started not taking shit from nobody ever. Dylan, you must be rich as shit. You are so generous with your money. This guy always sends me money. Can you see that? He just sent another $ just sent another 1999 this guy is so cool did you know you can do that alex you

can start a youtube station you can have guests on youtube will pay me a little bit of change and then also cool ass dudes like this give me money for my time and my efforts that's cool yeah you need a youtube station do you have a do you have a youtube station i got a youtube channel um i don't yeah i gotta get all this stuff set up yeah that's what i meant a channel i must sound like a fool calling a station no no i didn't know what a station maybe it was something different you know no no channel i'm just old i still got technology as well trust me when did when when did you get formal training? So that was your introduction. And basically what I hear there, especially in the first part of the story, is that just hitting is the solution, right? So you were taught that it didn't matter whether you were right or wrong, just hitting was the solution.

You got hit. You told your teacher. You got hit again. You told your dad. You got hit again. Then your dad told you to fix the situation. You got to hit someone. So you're like, all right, this hitting shit is like is and not

only that i get rewarded if i'm if i'm the aggressor um and then and then how when does that become form and and was it scary do you really do you remember that moment were you scared i was more at five years old hitting him with with a folder. No, not at all. Um, I was just more upset that I was just upset at the fact that like people found it in there, I guess at that time, just to bother you. Like, I just don't understand why, like, Hey, like, you know, I'm not doing anything to you. Like, I'm here trying to, like, listen to what's going on and experience new experiences. I don't want to be, have somebody deliberately get in your way and bother you. I mean, shit, mistakes happen. You know, when you bump into somebody at a store, you don't got to get mad over it.

Right. Are those motherfuckers that are just looking you dead in the eye and looking to bump you down? You know, it's like, you know, like, we're all, we're all in here from together, you know it's like you know like we're all we're all in here from together you know basically like if we're if if you go down if i go down then you know it's only going to ruin your chances and and you gave that guy the mirror that he wanted that and that kid probably got fucking beat at home too probably yeah like and you realize that but even but even so like i'm not i can't sympathize um for the person or with the person i have to empathize with the person you know i'm saying i gotta feel with the person like i understand that you might be going through

some shit but if i allow you to continue to do this shit this is a bad outlet. So I will be that wall that you run into. It's funny you say that. A couple of years ago, I don't even know how long ago it was, I got fired from my job and it set me free and it set me down this pathway. And now I will not tolerate bullies fucking at all. And part of me, the, the, daoist side the the the the water and air side is like hey man you're so fucking beyond that but the other part of me is is like no i have the opportunity through my platform through integrity and through honesty don't think about it as an opportunity a responsibility as a human being to other human beings yes yes so it's a perfect segue i'll give you a perfect example yes thank you for saying that thank you for correcting me i because i'm independently wealthy not rich but because i i'm able to make ends meet and i'm not forced to get

an injection and i'm not forced to play this fucking um this racism game that they're trying to get us to play and i'm not i can speak honestly and clearly about these subjects and you're right. And I do feel that I feel like I'm sitting on a perch and there's some bad guys below and I could totally ignore them, but I have a responsibility to help the people that they're beating. Um, like, like for instance, the firefighters and police officers and nurses and doctors I know who are losing their jobs because they won't get an injection. I have a responsibility to stand up for them because of the fortunate position I'm in. I'm in, I'm on a good perch. And we got to recognize that and immediately try and like have those very people that you're trying to speak for demonize you with word gymnastics in

order to like, have like, like pitch you against each other. And we have to recognize that we're helping each other out. We're helping each other out any way we can and help comes in different forms from different people because everybody is not a a cookie cutter shape you know everybody has a unique um talents and gifts that they can offer so therefore you have to allow them to help in the ways that they can help you can't judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree oh damn um so uh you're you're you have this this first fight do you remember your second fight and do you remember when it became into formal training we're like oh maybe i'll take karate or judo class or i'll take wrestling well no i've been fighting in school up until i was uh 14 and i continued to fight in

school after that but that's these are played these are playground fights after school fights before school fights this is unorganized fighting right just getting into fights i mean some fights were um you know sometimes i'll get into fights i have gotten into a lot of fights in school because it was just a respectful challenge because we heard that we fight a lot of people and we just want to see who's better. You know, which I thought was like the coolest because I played lots of video games and watched lots of anime. So I'm like, bro, this is just like a fucking movie. You know, it's like a comic book right now. But for the most part, I was just getting into random fights, getting in the street fights. But for the most part, I was just getting into random fights, getting in the street fights.

Some guy would like like like beat. I would get into fights because I'll see people like bullying people, you know, or bothering females and whatnot. I'll just and I'll just take it on to my responsibility, one, because I wanted the fight and two, I just thought it was bullshit. So I kind of, you know, fed both both wolves there. But did you lose a lot of fights? Yeah. Yeah, I lost a lot of – definitely, man. I lost a lot of fights. It taught me how to lose okay, you know? Yeah.

So – Do you know who Daniel Rodriguez is? He's the number 15 welterweight in the UFC. He's out of Los Angeles. I might have heard – if I see him, I probably know him. But I just don't watch sports, so it's hard. I don't really keep up with any of the fighters. He's I've been trying to get him on the podcast. It's funny. He's no showed me like three times.

Like we're texting like two minutes before any no shows. But I still want a mom. I'm not hating. But he said this thing that once you're doing street fighting, the UFC is cool. It's a safe place. And because when you're fighting in the streets, win or lose, when the fight's over, you're not sure who's going to come out of the bushes and stab you. In the UFC, there's a ref and a doctor comes and checks you out. And I'm like, holy shit. Yeah, it's definitely a little bit like it gives you anxiety.

You definitely get hyped up. The adrenaline is there. You know, you're still, you know, like there is some worry. There is some excitement and all mixed in together like a nice little cocktail. But for sure, it definitely feels a lot safer. I definitely like, OK, yeah, you know, the fight won't have to go longer than it needs to. You know, if I fight won't have to go longer than it needs to, you know, if I'm in, if I'm fucked up or anything.

And you know, if I'm in a submission, I can always tap, you know, the guy doesn't, you know, and shit like that. So yeah,

it definitely gives you a safety net. Because people have hit you with foreign objects, throwing rocks at you, cinder blocks, broomsticks, bats, chains, bats.

I had knives pulled out on me before too. And guns pulled on me before too so yeah it's just anything happens in the sheets uh bruce wayne says a bit passive aggressive there's seven on me i was being passive aggressive i'm not being passive aggressive i'm coming full tilt i'm trying to pick this guy's brain. What are you talking about? No, that's okay. So from five to 14, a lot of self-taught. You just opened up the book and started learning about fighting. You were teaching yourself. And when does it become formal? Um, the 14, um,

my, I joined the wrestling team on the off season. Cause my brother joined the wrestling team. So I wanted to go join and check it out. I thought, I thought it was interesting when I saw my brother's first match and everything. So then I started wrestling. Then Enrico Coco,

who's my coach right now. Uh, my, uh, and my corner, when he comes out on the fight, see the other dude over there? He joined the wrestling team, and that's where I met him, and he was already training mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu at a place called Faisal Bani Academy. He invites me and my brother and a lot of the teammates to go to train on the offseason, so we go. And I just started training everything from there you've been with the same dude since you've been like 14 or 15

well we're just friends like he's only a year older than me and we're just friends and training partners mostly and we weren't always together like we just always train with each other but now we're like officially training together and fighting and going to fights together and stuff. And that happened, I would say like five, four or five fights ago. Wow. That's awesome. Holy shit.

We always train with each other. It's just like when I was in Arizona, I was training with MMA lab. So I wasn't in Miami, but every time I'm back in Miami, like I always went to his gym, which was called Zen jujitsu, but now we combined our gyms together.

So it's the hidden Lotus and Zen jujitsu. And we're our gyms together so it's the hidden lotus and zen jiu-jitsu and we're in the same building right now god i hope that works out for you seems like mixing business and friendships always gets fucked up more like like he is he's more like he's like my employee under the hidden lotus because the building is still the hidden lotus everything's the hidden lotus okay he just kept he just wants to keep his he wants to get keep getting paid through his business so we just keep him as zen jiu-jitsu as well and not only that he's like a very well renowned jiu-jitsu artist you know like he like uh i think he placed uh multiple times in any cc at he's about to do the trial again right now. And he's really good, man. Like, the guy's known.

Like, he's the guy who made, he's the kid that made ankle locks, all ankle locks illegal in kids' divisions and shit. Because he was just jacking people up. Yeah, he fucking blew out some kid's knee and ankle. So tell me about this fight with Chocolate. Is that your first organized, kind of seems like a paradox here. Organized street fight. No, no.

Um, I, I was having already, uh, like pickup fights because I was already training at that point and it was going on since I was like, I would say 17 when I was in high school too. I would like get challenged by people or I will challenge people, you know, and like, let's say, Hey, let's throw down some money and then we'll just meet up somewhere. But most of the time it was just be like one-on-one, just me and him doing it.

Or maybe just a couple of people watching like money holders and shit. And then that's it. And, but then like I started, I was training at a, at a young tigers foundation, which is now freedom fighters. Uh,

and, and it's ATT. It used to be an ATT Kendall, but now I guess like they closed down that branch, but that's where I met a level Martinez. And he introduced me to the backyard street fights that Georgie Masvidal was doing and all that stuff. And Kimbo Slice. He's like, oh, you want

to do this? And you can make a lot more money. And I'm like, alright, let's do it. And we went over there and he got me some fights. And how much do those fights pay? I was getting I think $300

a fight. Are they legal? No. No, they're not legal. But they still just put them on YouTube. Yeah. And the cops are there policing it and everything. They're just making sure everything goes smoothly.

So they don't even arrest nobody and they know it's legal, but it's better to the way they look at it since it's like, I guess, gangs fighting each other, you know, or represent representatives of that, you know. They rather have them fight organized right there for whatever rights they're fighting for or rather than, I guess, kill each other on the streets. And how in that fight, the one that in 2008 that I saw, is and is that that's someone's backyard yeah that's just a makeshift ring yeah and she was like cooking for everybody too it was she was catering the place and like she's selling food out of her kitchen yeah uh yeah yeah it was i think it was um mothers or grandmothers backyard if i'm not mistaken and then how many people were there man there was a lot of people there man a lot of people turn out to those events like like they show you only like the crowd around the ring but the backyard is is pretty big and like the everything stacked and then you got training in their little sections to getting ready for their fights.

You know, it was kind of like a backyard, like a, like a locker room area. And, and, and after you win the fight, like 10 dudes jump in the ring and start like pounding their chests and they

have like, their eyes are all crazy. Like they're high on meth and they're like, just like going fucking. I mean, the scene is nuts. Yeah. Those are all the guys that that train at the gym.

And so how many people do you go there with? Oh, man. Well, when I get there, we're there with quite a few people, man. It's squatted up because I guess I'm there with Level, and Level Martinez has a whole bunch of people with him. And then we meet a whole bunch of more people over there as well. Does it feel professional, or does it feel like it's edgy, like you could get jumped afterwards? Like, oh shit, if I win.

Or does it feel, no, it feels good. Yeah, yeah, it feels like everybody's on the same mindset. I feel like even all the fighters there have a lot of, I guess you could say honor about the fight, you know, like they're there to fight, you know, they're there to test themselves and prove something. So for sure, like it, it felt when I was there, like I'd have, I, and maybe cause I'm used to like being living in that kind of neighborhood anyway, but like, other than that, I honestly just can say it felt like professional, like, yeah, we're going to go out here and just fight.

When the fight's over, the fight's over. Your coach won't be fighting his coach. It's chill. And just like, hey, man, thank you for the fight. And man, maybe we can fight again and shit like that. I don't know. Like, give respect. You triangled that dude, right?

Yeah. And does anything go in those? Or what are the rules? You triangled that dude, right? Yeah. Does anything go in those? What are the rules? Like, you know, in the UFC, you can't kick a guy in the face if he's down? Sorry, you broke up. Say that again. It's what the people agreed to. So we agreed to anything goes.

So, yeah, you can hit the guy on the ground. You can knee him on the ground. You can do whatever the fuck you want if you have the opportunity and how about his gloves he was wearing gloves no he was just wearing um hand wraps oh okay okay and and and that's okay yeah that's okay bare knuckle hand wraps i was just wearing a like like light hand wraps as well. Damn. You fought Sergio Pettis, Uriah, Krohn Gracie,

Yair Rodriguez. I mean, it's a ton of dudes. Those are just the five dudes I wrote down. And then I realized, I was like, holy shit.

Yair is fighting in just a few hours now. Yeah. Is that a trip when you fight a guy and then all of a sudden you see him fighting again? Or that's just normal? You're just used to that? No, yeah. I don't really think about it. I do think about it sometimes. I know that I'm on a 5-5 win streak.

If I keep winning, I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to get to go fight him again if he keeps winning too. I think about that sometimes. I might get to go fight him again if he keeps winning too, you know? And then I think about that sometimes, you know, like, like, and I don't know, I go on tangents of thoughts, like, oh, like, there's things about like how the story would be and whatnot. It'd be cool. It would be cool. Who do you think is going to win that fight today between him and Max?

I never like to make predictions because I only see like the, I can see the best in both of them. You know, if, if, if one of them and, and, and it's, and they're both,

I feel like all fighters always have a chance, you know, like if everybody comes in shape, everybody comes ready in mind and whatnot, everybody has different styles. You can't say who's going to win or cause you're always going to get surprised. I feel like,

and everybody's good at that level, especially everybody's good. Max Holloway can finish you really quick. Yair Rodriguez can trick you up and finish you really quick. And I haven't fought Max Holloway so I don't know how hard he is. But I fought Yair and I know he's really good.

You know, we went all the way to a split decision. So it's... Was that a five round fight you fought him? Yeah. Why did you fight him five rounds was it a main event yeah damn um do you do you have a preference three rounds over five rounds i don't really think about the the rounds i just think about when i'm in the fight sometimes um three rounds go by and i and i'm thinking oh man am i so like i'm so ready to go the next round just just being ready i don't know but i don't know um i never really think

about the the rounds i just train right now i'm training regularly are you in are you in just insane shape i try to be a wannabe that's what i that's what i think about i always i always try to progress further so right now i was doing stairs for the last camp you know a lot of stairs a lot of stairs now i'm doing stairs with the weighted vests every time so you know i'm just trying to get a little bit better trying to buy a little bit more weight but trying to do it comfortably i don't want to hurt myself um you're you fight 145 what's a 145 guy walk around at? Well, I'm fucking around normally like 160, 162. Wow, really?

Yeah. Man, you hold that well. You look so, even in the offseason, even when you're not fighting, you look so lean. And you're 5'9". I'm 5'11". Oh, you're 5'11"? five eleven yep well then that makes a lot more sense the hair i'm like six one gotcha that that that makes a lot more sense um i want to talk about your garden because i heard you talking about your trees and I got a ton of trees too but before we go there um what is it about fight

what is it about fighting that do you think fighting is some sort of ultimate um facing yourself it's like some um it's like it's like smoking cigarettes I feel always felt was like cheating yoga even though you're killing yourself you know you're focusing on your breath it's like evil yoga um but but I always enjoyed smoking cigarettes when i smoked cigarettes it was like always so fun watching the smoke and watching my breath yeah um is it is there something about fighting that's some sort of like enlightenment hack like a dangerous hack what is it that's like confronting fighting is ancient. Fighting is universal. You know, and in the smallest sense, even when it comes to cells or microbes, you know, they're fighting each other as well.

You cannot have good or bad without contrast. You can't have upper, you know, you wouldn't have a tangible reality matrix like this without contrast, without good and evil. You wouldn't be able to be good. You know, you wouldn't be able to choose to do better if there wasn't worse. Right? Because, how would you say, there's a quote that I read before and it's like, only a person capable of extreme violence is capable of choosing peace. A person that is not capable of extreme violence is harmless. There's a strong distinction. Because then you'll be subjugated to the other person's violence if you can't defend yourself, right? It's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a battlefield. This world is hard. We have to be ready. There is no substitute. There is no excuse.

We're human and we're supposed to always be going ever upwards and trying to be as good as we can and be ready for a hard endurance because this is what's going to come. You know, like look at the world around us. I mean, a few of us are able to make things of ourselves or be fortunate enough to be in a position to be able to make something of ourselves. But a lot of us have to endure a very hard circumstance. So we have to be ready for that and vigilant because there's always people that are going to try and take advantage of the weaker or misfortunate. God, that's so well said. Thanks for doing that. that's so well said. Thanks for doing that.

Um, with these, with these 25 fights is UFC. I heard Dana White say one time that the UFC is a opportunity, not a profession with 25 fights. Is it a profession? Um, I guess you can say it's sort of a profession. I,

I mean, I fight for a living right now, but now i got a business so i'm doing that as well i'm training and training people and helping um the business run smoothly so but yeah i kind of feel like it's not necessarily like i guess you could say it's a profession i don't feel like it's a job at all really i feel like i fight when i want to how does that work so you'll be in the backyard you're like digging a hole for your new avocado tree and then like you hear your cell phone vibrating and you pick it up and it's like some it's like hey dude you want to fight yeah really it's just like that yeah my manager calls me up and he's like hey man

we got to fight for you what What do you think about this guy? And then he gives me a name. I go look at him and I'm like, oh, sure, let's do it. And who's your manager? First round management. So Abraham and Malky Kawa. And how do you choose them? Well, no, they found me, man.

They were my first managers. I met them when I was like right around when I was doing those backyard fights. And they're like, hey, we can get sign up with us and they give you some piece of paper and it's like got some sort of... I met them before. I met them when I was 18 because I had my first fight at 18.

And then it's just a piece of paper that talks about the deal. This is that we'll get you fights. We get you this many here. This is how much money we get. This is how much money you get. Sign here and of paper that talks about the deal. This is, we'll get you fights. We get you this many a year. This is how much money we get. This is how much money you get signed here. And then you're off to the races. No, it was just like 10% for every fight we got you. And then, and then, so the UFC, someone from the UFC just calls this, the people from first

round and says. No, no, no, not at all. Like my brother actually, um, said, Hey man, they're having, um, ultimate fighter tryouts up in North Carolina.

And my dad was staying up in North Carolina at that time. So, um, we're like, okay, we can, we call them up and say, Hey, can we stay at the house for the weekend?

So we can go to these tryouts. And me and my brother just drove up to North Carolina and tried out for the one 55 ultimate fighter GSP and cost check show. And I made it. Our brothers just drove up to North Carolina and tried out for the 155 Ultimate Fighter GSP and Cost Check show, and I made it. Crazy. And then from there, you got your contract. Yep. Is the Ultimate Fighter one of the hardest, you know, touted as one of the hardest things

a young man can go through? Was that hard as shit? Bullshit. I felt it was like camp for grown-ups like we can order whatever we wanted and they'll bring it to you the next day you know there was unlimited liquor there was a pool in the backyard it was a beautiful house um there weren't you couldn't like do stuff like that kept you to yourself so there was but there were interactive games like pool table and this crazy,

like reflex game. And then when you just trained, you know, every day, and I thought that was the point, you know, it was the camp, like a wrestling camp. I didn't felt bad. It was awesome. I got to meet George St. Pierre and Kozchek and, you know, all their coaches and learned a whole bunch of shit and also helped me in my career as well to be a professional. And then, so, and and then so, um, have you ever thought you're going to be cut from the UFC? Yeah, plenty of times. Um, you know, I've been on a couple of losing streaks, you know,

I thought I was going to be cut from the UFC, but, um, you know, uh, the UFC definitely felt, Um, you know, uh, the UFC definitely felt, uh, I either have a good character, you know, and, or saw that, that if I did lose, you know, it wasn't because I'm bad or anything, you know, people get caught and shit. So maybe they saw that I can come back and, you know, believe in that. Yeah. It, it, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm just looking at the website, your history. It's, it's wild there was a point in there where you had a three fight losing streak and now you're on a five fight win streak it's nuts it's it's um it's fun yeah it's a fun trip and your last fight was in october so what is that two months ago last month? October? November? That's last month. Yeah.

And do you know when your next fight is? No. So it could be any time. Yeah, it could be any time, but they just come to me and ask me if I want to fight at this time, and I'm like, and if I feel ready, I'll say yeah, but if I don't, I'll say

how about we do it in this time? And then they'll see if they can find me and fight close to that time. Do you hate saying no? No, I don't feel any type of way about it. I fight when I want to fight. I feel like that's what I would like to do at least. Or I would like to fight close to the schedule that I would like to fight know, and if they can help me out with that, then that's perfect. And if they can't, then I'll take what I can get. No, for sure. But, um, at the end of the day, you know,

I want to fight obviously when I'm comfortable. So I don't feel, cause I don't care about pissing anybody off or somebody that doesn't want to fight me that, that he's scared. No, it's just, I don't care to fight you. If I don't feel like fighting at the moment sometimes i feel like gardening for the next couple of weeks instead of fighting sometimes i got shit to do you know everybody's got lives and mine doesn't revolve around fighting all the time i do martial arts every day but fighting it it does take a lot of concentration and a lot of dedication and energy and sometimes i don't want to expend it at the moment because i do have more serious endeavors to undertake have you ever wanted to quit no ever it's fun so they're never like okay i don't want to fucking get up for this anymore because you do you do talk about in one of your interviews that that it that it, that it, this thing, this fight game requires a ton of will.

I love it though. I mean, I love using my will, I guess, you know, it's, it's hard. It's a, it's always surreal, you know, doing it too. And then, and especially knowing that you able to do it in the highest level it's it's a good feeling as well it's like a dream that you relive over and over again and the pain is passing it is surreal i bet huh like like out of body experience um surreal like you're in there there's people screaming and it's you and this other guy just trying to beat the fuck out of each other? Yeah, for me, it's always, it's always, I always have a weird outer body experience. Like, I always feel like I'm kind of looking at myself from a third person and from a first person view at the same time.

I feel like I can kind of, especially when I get into like a nice zone, like I just feel like I can kind of see a lot of things. Is there anything else in your life that does that to you? Um, I guess like kind of getting into a runner's high to do that, you know, but getting into the zone really in anything, like sometimes when you're working on like small, I like to do a lot of like remodeling houses and stuff and like fixing up stuff so when i get into like detailed work you know like i sometimes i get into that zone where you even forget that you're breathing you know stuff like that as well as psychedelics could do that to you

as well yeah that yeah basically the world's goneishes. Yeah, and it's just you in that moment. How big is, do you have land at your house? No, no, I'm living in a townhouse right now. I'm looking for land. That's what I'm trying to get at least a couple acres around here in Miami, but I got to kind of watch the market because in the middle of Miami, everything's millions of dollars. Yeah. It's funny. I was watching the Daisy Fresh series. Do you know that series, the Pedigo Boys? No.

boys no but basically there's this um this guy uh heath pedigo he he rented out an abandoned dry cleaner uh in mountain vernon illinois and he basically it's like peter pan just troubled boys go there and sleep there and all they do is train jujitsu non-stop and they basically in the last 15 years they basically exploded onto the jujitsu scene and they're just running that shit they're just doing great and all the stories are great scene and they're just running that shit. They're just doing great. And all the stories are great, right? Cause they're just young boys who's had the most fucked up upbringings and have nowhere to go. And if they, if they want, they can move into this old abandoned dry cleaner and, uh, and sleep there and live there and just train jujitsu all day. But, um, where was I going with that? Oh, so it's in Mount Vernon, Illinois. So I started looking at real estate in Mount Vernon, Illinois, and it's like $500,000 for 25 acres, 7,000 square foot home, tennis court, swimming pool. I'm just like, what the fuck? Miami would be, I feel like, you know, that's a place that needs it as well. We have a lot of people that just, I mean, the first is no spot. I mean, not really, I guess you can do it in a

lot of different places as well, but I live in Miami, I guess. I heard, I, for some reason, I thought that you were planting a bunch of trees and you had property. Was that a different house that you used to live in? A lot of trees in my backyard. It's not that big, but I am planting a lot of them in pots right now and I'm starting them because I am looking for land. So I am putting down a lot of trees once I get there because we do want to make botanical gardens and kind of walk through grocery stores.

Yeah, yeah. I moved into this. I live in Santaanta cruz california it's uh like 70 miles south of san francisco and i live in and i live like three miles from the ocean so i live in this pretty sweet microclimate and i planted 100 fruit trees on my property and maybe like 30 passion fruit vines and blueberries and just all that crazy shit grape vpe vines. Basically I heard you say that like, you just want to get ahold of like everything and plant it. And that's what I did. And I, any fruit tree, I go online,

any fruit tree I can find that will stay alive in this climate. I dug a hole for and planted and my parents were like, you're crazy. That's too many trees. I'm like, well, I can always cut them down. But like in 10 years, I'm not going to be upset that I planted these trees. Right? Yeah. You're going to have lots of fruits growing all the time. You feed a lot of people. Yeah.

Yeah. And that is true. And it's fun for the kids. My kids, people come over and yeah, it's cool. Yeah. You just set up like a very cheap farmer's market. And like it shouldn't even. Yeah.

But whatever. Go ahead. No, go ahead. It shouldn't even what? Shouldn't even what? Shouldn't cost Yeah but whatever go ahead No go ahead it shouldn't even what It shouldn't cost that much at all No It's just like we take extra steps In order to waste extra money To justify the fact that it costs this much

And I have a well So I live just on the outskirts of town And so like I still get a well And that makes water just basically free. I just have to pay for the electricity to pump it out of the ground. What is that thing in your hand? Is that like some massage tool? Yeah.

Is it for your hands and fingers, or is it for your back and shit? Everywhere. Everywhere, I guess. Yeah, it's a hard tool. Everywhere, I guess. Yeah, it's hard to. On August 27, 2013, you made a post that said one in 38 boys in the United States are diagnosed with autism. And then you went on to say.

If you go to Amish communities that you won't see, you won't see autism i'm like this is this fucking true and and and my wife didn't get my kids vaccinated and i thought she was a complete fucking wackadoodle flash forward to the current issue and i'm like god bless my wife thank god she was a wackadoodle um and so i go and i start researching Amish communities. There's no autism. Now, I know it's just a correlate. I know it's not proof. But holy shit. And then that took me, I don't know if it was you, but that took me to tonsils. But then even if you look, if you look at like in some untouched indigenous cultures, like some in the rainforest and on islands that they don't have any of those diseases at all either

they're not even diseases they're conditions right we get vaccinated against diseases then then give our society conditions right yeah i mean autism is not a disease it's a it's a is it i mean it's a condition right no i mean um i i if i'm if yeah i guess so i mean like and or what is that what is autism again it's like they put you on a spectrum basically it's a wide spectrum i guess you can be like you can pay attention too much i guess to one thing you can focus too much but i guess some people are like that too as well but like i don't know i guess they never had a term for it like back in the day but like what what would like those artists be like vincent van gogh said like oh i would just close my eyes and see these crazy shapes and stuff and whatnot right what would like what would you

call him would you call him just a regular guy or just a person that you know he was just artistic right i i just i just found, I just, I just found it fascinating that someone, I just found it fascinating that I had never thought of that. Mikey, I don't, I, I, I don't, I'm not, um, anti-vax by any means, although my kids aren't vaccinated and I don't have an issue with people taking vaccines. Of course, forcing people to take vaccines that they're doing now is fucking insane. I read yesterday in Austria that they're going to start lot people. They're not going to let people leave their vaccines that they're doing now is fucking insane i read yesterday in austria that they're going to start a lot people they're not going to let people leave their homes unless they're vaccinated which is i i can't even believe speaking of surreal um but but but then i looked at

tonsils and basically when you remove someone's tonsils you're basically destroying their immune system. It's fucking crazy. And I found all of this basically from sort of like just reading your Instagram. I was like, oh, really? And I started just looking into it. And it's not, I use DuckDuckGo. I didn't use Google. So I got to real medical journals, the American Journal of Medicine, the BMJ. And it took me to the articles and I'm like, holy cow, if you have your tonsils pulled out you're basically fucked against respiratory diseases yeah you're opening the door to all of them and this one article i read is that tonsils are the only is the only part of the body that produces antibodies for polio well that whole generation that our parents grew up in

that was afraid of polio they all had their tonsils pulled i'm just like how is how is no one putting this shit together did your mom get you back did you have a hippie mom no um i mean i got like all like the old vaccines like i did get um me too i got all those yeah um but really i haven't got like all like the old vaccines. Like I did get, um, me too. I got all those. Yeah. Um, but really I haven't got like those anything for the flu ever, you know, and would you get your kids vaccinated and how did you stumble upon this? Like, I think there's things that you do need. Like, I think like, like, like for instance, like a tetanus shot should get a tetanus shot, you know, cause that shit could happen, you know, happen you know right right you know like my wife's a doctor a naturopathic doctor so

vaccines that you do need that just in case but that are not harmful but then again um flu vaccines is just pointless your Your immune system should handle that. Right. Right. If you like, like you said, if you have your tonsils and they didn't take out your, they didn't take out, I don't know what else they do, but yeah,

they fuck with your immune system for sure. Drinking a Coca-Cola will fuck up your immune system. Yeah. They got to make customers somehow. Like they got to, they got to make you come back. You're vegan? Are you still vegan? Yeah.

And how long have you been vegan? Since I went to 135. I would say like, is it almost 10 years? Wow. Wait, so you're fighting, you're not fighting 135 fighting 135 now though are you i'm fighting 145 okay that's okay and um are you happy are you happy being vegan like you like this yeah i don't even think about it like to me right now it's it's how that's how you're supposed to eat right and that's how i eat and it it's just, I don't, like, I don't know. I don't even think about it.

The smell of meat, it's not necessarily grosses me out, but it doesn't smell like food to me. Yeah, like the same way, like I don't eat burning plastic, but you would never ask me, are you happy not eating burning plastic? It's like, yeah. All right. All right. All right. I'm with you. never ask me are you happy not eating burning plastic it's like yeah all right all right all right i'm with you um my wife was pretty hardcore vegan and then she got pregnant and then just all of a sudden everything changed when she was holding the baby she just started craving meat but she

used to tell me the smell of meat was like she couldn't stand it basically it was just burning flesh to her yeah yeah that's fascinating what does your mom think about that about did you get does anyone try to try to ride you about about your diet or it's like fuck they just like well shit this dude's so successful he's healthy he's intelligent he's wise he's beautiful like they just step i guess when i started when i started you know there was a lot of concern and some jokes and stuff like that. But I guess over time, yeah, like you said, they saw how things were going and that it doesn't affect me. It doesn't slow me down. I felt like, if anything, it helped me out a lot.

It helped me gain weight, lean weight. And I don't know, I feel i feel really great i'm an early bird now you know i wake up five in the morning every every day and get started yeah and you're you're 20 you're you're 33 years old you're 33 years old with 25 fights in the ufc god knows how many other fights daniel that guy daniel rodriguez I was listening to an interview He said he said he had probably 200 street fights As a kid I was like holy shit It's like fighting once every five days

Uh And and and you don't seem In your brain seems so you seem so Lucid and like You just draw words you do you have any Damage from those 25 fights? Well, I feel like with my style too, I do move a lot. I do go with blows and stuff.

So I try, maybe that helps out a lot, but I do believe that we are in control on how we heal and how we come back. You know, we are in control of our bodies and it's how we go into things and how we come out of things and what we do with that as well so when it comes to learning martial arts especially when i got really into it i started learning as well how to maintain the body and different forms of relaxation you know that the stretching and yoga um so we really are in control with the mind too. What can we eat that can help out and be honest with ourselves too. Let's not like beat around the bush or just do things because it makes us feel comfortable. Um, if you want to really heal the brain and bring it back, there's a lot of, a lot of

them plant-based foods that restore, you know, help restore brain cells or help maintain them and lubricate them as well as cushion them, I guess, you know, for those strenuous activities. Alex, did you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into the fight game? Like for the young men or women who are just like, i just really want to be in the ufc who are just like aspiring for that well for that you know if you really want i i can't say because i never really want to be in the ufc in the sense you know i was just fighting and i took the opportunity to be in the ufc i just like fighting in general and I like training. But my advice, if you like martial arts, just train. And if you want to compete, then compete and just give it everything that you are so that you can get the best results out of it because you're only going to get what you put in.

And is that part of the mindset of learning something new every day, the get a little bit better every single day? Yeah. You know, you got to you definitely got to put your you got to put your heart in it no matter what. You got to put your soul in it when you're trying to learn something. You got to be completely submissive to that lesson. You know, you can be challenging so that you can dissect it later or and then understand it. And if you find a better way to do it or another or another way to do it, then you can do it that way. But there's no bias towards which way is better because this person can still catch you in this, in his way, you know, when you can catch him maybe in your way. So there, so I don't believe in like, there's a better move or, or whatnot, but you definitely have to be submissive to the lesson or to the master when

he's teaching you those lessons as well. And at the same time, you have to stand up and believe in the lessons that you also give yourself or have dissected and, you know, internalized. Will you, will you watch the fights today? I wasn't thinking about it. Um, I got to go open up open mat in an hour. And then I was thinking about. Setting up your drum set. No, no.

I was going to continue working on the bathroom. So your life is just unfolding before your eyes. You just roll. You just give. You have good habits. You have discipline. And your life's just unfolding you didn't have dreams to be in the ufc you're you don't know you're not hyper focused on your fight

fight fight win streak you're just um it's funny i can remind me myself i'm not really goal oriented i just have one of my habits is making my habits, better habits. And it sounds like that could be a goal. You know, my goal is to keep getting better or to try everything that I walk into or touch better, you know, just trying to make everything better for the, I guess, universal progression of things. Yeah. Yeah. Someone wrote five 11. I wonder what that means. They're trying to tell me how tall you are. Maybe they're behind in the show. They're watching something old. Yeah. Um, you dance with the devil. The devil don't change. The devil changes you. And it's, I told a story about this, like on my podcast the other day, but basically the way I interpret that

when I read that on your Instagram is like, Hey, like if someone's doing something that bothers you and you're always bitching at them about it, when they stop doing that thing or when they leave your life, you've now turned into a bitch because you were always bitching it. You were reacting to what they were doing that you didn't like. And you were like always nagging them and bitching them.

And then now you've picked up a habit instead of just letting them be. Am I interpreting that right? Yeah, you can interpret it in that sense. You know, it's a very general exchange there. You can even interpret it, I guess, like, because it's from Immortal Technique. It's from what? Say it again. Immortal Technique, the rapper.

Okay. It was a line in one of his songs called Dance with the Devil. Okay. And what he was talking about is basically um like just when you embrace a certain lifestyle you know like you're not gonna change it you know from within you know you're it's only going to change you so he's like yeah something but it's similar to what you said yeah um if you give in to those desires or if you continue to attach yourself to those passing moments, then you become a part of that all the time. It's interesting. It's like that with kids. I tell my kids not to whine, but then sometimes when I'm telling them not to whine, I'm whining at them to tell them not to whine.

Will you stop that? I'm like, oh, will you stop whining? And I'm like, oh, you're a fucking whiny bitch. You know what I mean? Like I hear my, I'm like, no wonder they're fucking whiny bitches. Cause they got a dad. Who's a whiny bitch. He's saying like, and it's, it's, it's so interesting. It's such a, uh, it's, it's, it's such a, it's such a truism. I want to read it one more time for people. You dance with the devil the devil don't change the devil changes you so good um uh is milwaukee sponsoring you no oh man they should that was a great little that was a great thing i'm a huge i love my milwaukee tools my cordless shit yeah i love milwaukee tools they're the best uh i tools, my cordless shit. Yeah, I love Milwaukee tools.

They're the best. I think my cordless tools really let me get in touch with my feminine side. The plug-in ones, I don't own any of those. I think those are too masculine for me. conscious of consciousness as opposed to just being conscious what does that mean to be conscious of consciousness

conscious of consciousness yeah there was a lot do you know what I'm there was a I know I was it's not fair. I'm digging through 15 years of your Instagram.

Yeah, it's all good. All right. Well, like you would consider yourself to be conscious, right? Yes, sir. Okay. So like how many things do you do consciously without being conscious of it? you do consciously without being conscious of it you know like so you're not it's not that you're not aware that it's happening but you're not you know conscious of it you're you're you like you almost don't care that it's happening so you might sometimes bad things and we see ourselves doing the

bad thing but we continue doing the bad thing right but when you become conscious of it like oh shit i'm doing a bad thing you should be able to stop right yeah so it's like having a conscience about your consciousness um is is the state of being conscious of consciousness stillness and sorry if i misunderstood you and sorry if i misunderstood you um stillness in stillness in the steadiness of that thought you know where your mind is not being attached by um passing thoughts or desires you know it doesn't mean stillness in the body the body needs motion to maintain itself that's what we forget you know we've we we try to attach theories or philosophies for the mind to the body

but we are not the body the body must move and so must the mind must move as well what must remain still is you is just is the self the one that resides outside of that observing all the movements of the mind and the body so it's able to direct it better and and in consciousness observing consciousness is is that self yes you're a good dude alex uh i am um i am uh very thankful to have you this Saturday morning. I'm just a guy who's a fan of the UFC. I do a lot of podcasts, and I was like, fuck this. I'm just going to pursue UFC fighters and you and a few others. Not just UFC fighters, just fighters in general have been super-duper kind with me.

Even a couple weeks ago, Volkanovski came on with me. That was awesome. There's a guy, Mo Miller that comes on with me on the regular, uh, James Krause has come on recently and I'm just having a blast with you guys. Uh, it's probably has something to do with the fact that, um, I'm such a pussy. And so I spend Saturday nights indulging and watching real men fight. But thank you for your time. Um, uh, you're, you're an amazing guy. Um, you're a gift to humanity with, with your, your depth and your, your insightfulness. And, um, I'll be bugging you again. I got your name in my Google alerts. Um, if I see any news about you in a fight coming up, I'll be bugging you low pressure, but I, but I'd love to jump on the Alex bandwagon.

That's all good. No problem, sir. All right.