This Past Weekend - Dustin Poirier | This Past Weekend #142

Episode Date: October 25, 2018

Sitting down with UFC lightweight contender and fellow Louisianan Dustin Poirier. Support Dustin’s Charity: https://www.thegoodfightgroup.com/ Support Our Sponsors MeUndies https://meundies.com/weekend 15% off + free shipping on your first pair Squarespace http://squarespace.com/theovon 10% off your first purchase or domain Grey Block Pizza 1811 Pico Blvd. Santa Monica, CA http://bit.ly/GreyBlock Music “Shine” - Bishop Gunn http://bit.ly/Shine_BishopGunnSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. Today's episode is brought to you by Gray Block Pizza. Gray Block Pizza, 1811 Pico Boulevard on the way to the beach. Gray Block Pizza. Today's guest is a Louisiana, a fellow Louisianian, a young man that I'm a huge fan of, a man that's, you know, has constantly risen against adversity uphill

towards a single goal. He's a UFC champion in many people's eyes and a title contender right now. I am happy to have Mr. Dustin Poirier. Yeah, I'm from Covington.

That's where I'm from. I think that's between Louisiana and Mississippi. Yeah, it's from Covington. That's where I'm from. Okay. I think that's between Louisiana and Mississippi. No, Alabama. Yeah, it's like heading towards Alabama. Off I-10, if you're heading towards like, you know, if you pass, like I-10 hits like a Jackson exit. Yeah.

And then I think that's I-55. And then if you keep going down there. You're closer to like Obita Springs and stuff. Yeah, right next to Obita Springs. Good brews. Huh? Good beers out there, man. Yeah, right next to Obita Springs. Good brews. Huh? Good beers out there, man. Oh, good beers, dude.

Dude, Obita Springs has this place there where it's like four dead man's curves all come together at once and it's literally like there's a graveyard. So many people have died there.

It's the absolute worst idea. That sounds horrible. There it is, two hours away from each other. Yeah, there we go right there. So what town are you from in Louisiana? I'm from Lafayette Oh, really?

Right there where that red dot is God's country Is it really? Better believe it Yeah? Yeah So do you miss being at home? Because now you live in Florida

No, I moved to Florida in 2012 When I first made the switch to American Top Team And then, you know, I bought a house there Me and my wife lived there for five years maybe almost And then we had a daughter so i sold my house and moved back i live in louisiana oh you do oh yeah oh really yeah oh that's awesome i just go to south florida when i do training camp so i'll go there eight to ten weeks yeah yeah i have an apartment there yeah but my home is in louisiana so are there other fighters that

are down there in south florida like that you get to see when you go there like is like what is that training camp vibe like training camp is correct well first of all american top team is is just a mecca of not only mixed martial artists but boxers come in and out kickboxers jiu-jitsu practitioners i mean it's just combat sports headquarters from people from all over the world so there's a few guys in the stable that live there yeah but there's a lot of people that it's rotating i mean there's new new people in and out so i always have different training partners when i'm there yeah you know lots of guys from like russia come in we have a lot of guys in that pfl tournament right now so a lot of russian guys in right now do the russians something something what is wrong with russian

people man something's different about them huh i don't know man they're hairy for sure yeah dude fucking russian people dude i dated this russian girl for a while bro she was crazy bro she was always trying to do like butt stuff to me and stuff she was something's wrong with her to me like she wasn't lucky yeah i know she was wild um so when you're in those like these training camps stuff are people do you are you just training with dudes all day like is there just constant access to different types of of like you know like if you wanted to do like bow staff fighting or you know or could you do anything yeah anything no i mean uh they probably have some self-defense stuff that they do teach but it's it's normal stuff they

have boxing classes jiu-jitsu classes um mixed martial arts classes but then there's a pro team and we have our own separate schedule so we don't for the most part the pro guys don't train on the normal everyday you know schedule that that the a customer or a family would would come in you know yeah can't have guys in there oh i see what you're saying beating each other up with their shirts off sweating and breathing all over with kids on the mat and you guys will get bloody in there it you know sparring sometimes gets pretty serious now yeah that's a question i have because, like, I'm not a fighter, dude. Like, I'm not even, I don't even think I could really defend myself, you know? Like, if I had a shield, I could.

But I don't think if I had, like, just my own body, I could, you know? So when I see people fighting, I'm like, damn, this shit is wild, bro, you know? Do you, when you guys are doing the practice fighting, the training, how actual is that to what we see when we're watching the cage? You know, younger guys, for sure. It's pretty close to what you see in the cage. Cause these guys are nuts. They're trying to find out if they still, if they are fighters, they're finding out they're, they're soul searching themselves. But guys who have a lot of fights, you know, we, we kind of train smart and train smart and keep it under control for the most part. The grappling and wrestling and stuff is live as hard as it goes. It would be a real scramble in a fight with the grappling and submissions and stuff like that. But when it comes to the kickboxing and boxing and stuff, there are moments where it gets heated,

but most of the time it's pretty under control. So right now you're down in Florida and and your family's in louisiana no so when i go to florida i'm back in louisiana now okay uh when i go to florida my family comes with me because i'm there eight or ten weeks you know i fly my wife and daughter out right because uh i just can't stay away from my family i'm a family man you know i love my girls and and i need them with me especially going through training camp yeah but uh yeah i was supposed to fight nate diaz november 3rd in madison square garden joean, dude, I've called Joe one time, and we're talking about something. I told him, I was like, dude, I'm a Dustin Poirier fan.

He's from the same state as me. He goes, do you want to go to the Poirier-Diaz fight? I was like, oh, my God, bro. I was so excited. I had to work that night in Buffalo. You guys got – so what happened? My hip is pretty jacked up. That's why I'm out here in L.A.

I'll be here until Wednesday. I'm having some stem cells and synovial fluid injections in my hip joint on Wednesday morning. Right. So that should ease the pain a little bit. I have two tears in my labrum. And because of that, it's causing some bone on bone. And it's just really painful, man. Is it?

Yeah. Anytime I get stretched out or overextended in a stride, I just pay for it really bad. Like where do you pay for it? In the muscle or where the muscle hits the bone in the actual joint where the where the oh wow the top of your bone goes in you know the ball and socket joint where your where your hip bones meet yeah because a lot of people have to get those replaced sometimes as they get older yeah i mean i gotta try to take best care of it so that doesn't happen are you worried about like like is that like a bigger worry than just having to step out of this fight um you know honestly talking to the doctors they think surgery is going to be like inevitable

sooner we're going to have it's going to have to happen but this will buy me a few camps this uh stem cell and stuff yeah and let me do do my training a little bit pain you know less pain but uh dude i just if if it lasts me until the world championship then i'm golden yeah that's all i want i just want to be the world championship, then I'm golden. That's all I want. I just want to be the world champion. Then you can cut my hips off and whatever. You can cut my fucking legs off. You can fucking tie me to a skateboard.

You can cut my arms and legs off. Is that the thing? I was actually talking to a friend of mine. I called a friend of mine today who lives down in New Iberia, actually, on the way up here. I was just excited you were coming in. I was like, hey, man, I dustin poirier coming in today and um and we were just talking about um like well i wonder what drives like a fighter at a certain point and do you think that the drive to fight has been different from when you started to where you're to what your kind of drive is now does it evolve because i can imagine

as you get old like as you get older like you know when you're young you kind of like had that frenetic youthful energy and when you're an adult it's you get a little bit more articulate as to like what your plan is has any of that have you noticed any of that in yourself for sure man that's uh definitely a lot a lot changes i had my first mixed martial arts fight when i was 18 years old yeah you know i'm 29 now so 11 years later you know i still have love for the fight but it's just i'm fighting for different reasons you know i've uh found out the the first reasons i was fighting for i've discovered those things and found out more about myself and and now i'm here you know you mature and grow in the sport

and as a person and i'm a father and a husband and stuff things change in your life right fighting still fighting but uh yeah i'm fighting for different reasons now you know i got people depending on me that's the biggest motivation i could ever ever have is it really yeah yeah oh yeah so you feel that like that now you now it's like yeah i wonder sometimes i guess would you have to evolve for different like not passions but different things that drive you yeah and uh like i said man i got miles to feed and i'm trying to leave a legacy. I'm at a point in my career where the next moves is, is, is huge, you know?

Yeah. Do you think, yes. You start thinking about like, you know, Michael Bysping, he's does, you know, he does, I actually, I was watching an interview you did with him the other day, which was pretty funny. It was after one of your fights. Yeah. And he's like, you know, he's works with fox now and does fights like that do you think about that kind of stuff or do you think about like would you like to train maybe in the

future like train younger guys or do you have some of those thoughts uh i'm gonna be in fighting some some way or another but like yeah i mean i am this this is what i am but um everything i every everything i have in my life dude everything i have is from from these two things right here in my brain you feel me i didn't finish high school i had you know low-paying jobs you know and and now everything i have is is an empire built on off of fighting and chasing my dream so i can't turn my back on this i'll never i'll always be part of fighting somehow yeah training people is not a huge passion of mine but being part of the sport is like helping professional fighters is something that i would like to do but um like training families and kids and stuff is in jujitsu i'll have a lot of buddies who open gyms and that's

what they do now and right that's not a big passion of mine but you know another five six seven years we'll see maybe it will be but right now it's just i'm addicted to the fight yeah yeah so d so dude so how were you like i mean were you just devastated when you realized that you couldn't go in that fight, bro? Because that's, I mean, how did you feel, man? Yeah, it was co-main event, Madison Square Garden, pay-per-view. Oh, dude. It's a huge fight. It's huge.

It's like exactly where things were headed. Right. And I took this fight because it was like a fight for my legacy. It's Nate Diaz. He's really hot right now. Yeah. off of um two of the biggest ufc pay-per-views ever before the connor khabib and uh it was just a crazy timing for this fight to come together but it sucks i had to pull out but you know i think that shows maturity on my part you know when i was younger i probably would have kept going i would have wouldn't have said a word i wouldn't have told my manager the ufc that i was injured i would have fought and then you know but now i just gotta look at it as a whole i'm trying to be

professional with this you know i'm injured yeah i can't run sprints i can't throw kicks right now so yeah that's that's a big part of my training that's huge oh 100 man yeah i was watching some of your fights this uh this past weekend and like yeah it's like dude that kicking is fucking crazy like how do you do that? Because you've got to pay attention to somebody's hands, and then they've got their fucking feet. Usually you don't want to throw. You want to put something in their face, throw punches or combinations

or make them think something else before you kick. You don't want to just throw dry kicks. Yeah. Now, what does a dry kick mean? I just call it a dry kick. Just a kick by itself. You usually want to set it up with something. You throw a hand combination or just something to distract him from the kick.

Right. Yeah. Oh, I see what you're saying, dude. Yeah, I watched one. They had a fight that you had done with this guy, Cub Swanson. Remember a while back? That dude looked like he had like nine arms, bro. That dude, it seemed like he was fighting like a –

it looked like you were fighting 40 raccoons. That guy was just – he's like a tornado or something. Yeah, he's a vet, man. Been around a long time. I grew up watching that guy fight. Did you really? Yeah, yeah, in WEC. So is it scarier if you grew up watching a guy?

Do you have any thoughts like that when you go in? Is there any fear about the actual guy? Or is there fear about the cage? Is there fear about the... What is that kind of like when you go into the fight uh there's not a lot of fear it's just a lot of anxious energy you know um the unknown but yeah anxious energy yeah just a lot of anxious energy but but a guy like cub you know i i take pride in fighting those kind of guys like oh yeah guys i grew up watching like him and eddie alvarez my last fight oh yeah dude that guy's a journeyman that guy's fought like 40

times he's like he has every belt of every major organization you know and he's now he's going to one fc and chasing another one jesus but uh i take pride in that and i'm happy with that because like they say you know work until idols become rivals and that's where we're at now you know i'm fighting these guys i've thought man i used to go to buffalo wild wings with my wife and be like oh my god we're watching this guy. And now I'm in the cage with him. That's fucking so cool, bro. That's the same way I feel about comedy.

It's like sometimes I'll be in a green room and Rogan's in there or Bill Burr's in there. And I'm like, damn, dude, this is crazy. And they're not looking at me like I'm a weird guy and I'm at the server. That's crazy. about the server that's crazy so how um so like so you have this moment now where you so you have to step aside from this fight to make sure you're well and then what like so does did you have to talk to diaz before that or how does that kind of break down no i uh speak with my my management and then with the ufc matchmakers and stuff like that yeah but this is a quick uh a quick turnaround for me.

If my body takes good to the stem cells, they're saying I'll be training in three weeks. Oh, wow. And hopefully I'll be a lot less pain and range of motion will be better. And we'll see. But I'm going to keep good energy and have a good mindset about it.

I'm pretty sure it'll help me out. Yeah. Do you feel that... So now would the Diaz fight then be hopefully rescheduled or does he go on to fight somebody else? I don't even know how that works. It's different in every case, but I saw, interviewed Dana White saying he didn't want to rebook this fight. But if they do want to, I'm open for it for sure.

Right. So if they do want to rebook it, you'll just, yeah, if you want to move it to January, whatever, let's do it. Yeah, exactly. That's perfect. Right. Yeah. Damn, January's perfect, bro. january's perfect bro get the holidays out of the way yeah my birthday's january 19th so try to get it in before that it's easy to

celebrate yeah man uh but so when you're at home right now like what's that like i mean you got the family life going on i saw you guys have a beautiful little girl thanks she's beautiful man thank you man um and and you met your wife in louisiana yeah in middle school oh really yeah crazy yeah middle school man i haven't looked there in a while thank god uh but uh and so you guys were just like sweethearts huh yeah yeah um been together off and on all through middle school through her high school while she was in high school and then we got married you know at 20 years old wow yeah dude that's so like south that's so like uh like that's so like kind of louisiana that's so that area you're from people do that man oh that's awesome huh yeah that was uh we were watching some dolphins

in destin florida that was after this last fight we went on a little vacation and does your daughter know that you fight does she think you wrestle like does she have any thoughts? Does she see anything? She's putting it together now, man. Because, like, when I leave the house, she says, Dad's punch, punch. Like, she knows I'm going. She goes to the gym. She hits the bag. She knows about it.

She puts on my MMA gloves and boxing gloves and runs around the house trying to hit me. Oh, that's cool. I don't know if she can put it all together, but she knows I do something with ass whipping. Yeah. I know. That's great. So, now, with the DS thing, man thing man like so you don't reach out did you reach out to him after was there any like communication after did he say that he was

bummed out like he's talking shit saying i'm faking an injury and stuff like that but yeah people are gonna say what they want you know fans and him and whoever else but i have two tears in my labrum like i can't fake this you know this is really really painful and this was gonna be my 40th fight i've never pulled out of a fight or misweight in my life like i'm not scared to fight somebody come on yeah you're ready to fight this is how i eat yeah yeah are you were you disappointed so you're disappointed that this happened of course yeah this is a huge blow to like what i had plans of you know i was going to beat diaz and then challenge for the title beginning of next year sometime i was hoping yeah but uh everything happens for a reason man yeah 100% do you guys have so well this will give

you at least time like over the holiday like I guess over the holidays then you'll be able to like there'll be a lot of excitement probably amongst your family like energy kind of moving up towards the fight yeah and it's you know I don't get to spend a lot of time home I've been fighting so often since we moved back to Louisiana that I'm in the house a month two months and we're back in florida wow two three months and then you know so at least i'll be home for the holidays most likely and um yeah i have a non-profit i'm gonna do something for uh thanksgiving and uh and we're gonna make a donation to that too yeah i saw it on your website so uh that's really awesome and you so yeah it seemed like a lot of that's part of your story like you like you you like like when you think about helping people like is there a certain

group that you think about helping or like where do you think like help is needed when you think about that kind of stuff so my non-profit is just like um whatever we think at the moment that we can help and make a difference in our local community we do it so i don't know you guys were doing backpacks for kids and school supplies this year. That's awesome. We did that after the last fight, 500 backpacks and school supplies for the whole school, the whole middle school that me and my wife went to, actually. Wow.

Yeah, started a little dating club over there, actually, bro. Yeah, speed dating. But no, we just do whatever's happening in the community. And right now Thanksgiving's coming up and I'm back home, so we're going to do full plates for Lafayette is the name of the thing we're doing now. And we're just going to have a pickup a couple of days before Thanksgiving. And I'm going to have, you know, you're from Louisiana. You know what a plate lunch is. Oh, dude.

But I'm going to have thousands. I'm going to shoot for like three or four thousand plate lunches filled with Thanksgiving food. And then people can just come pick them up. That's awesome. Whoever needs it. That's what we're doing next. Cool, man. We're going to make a thousand dollar donation to that.

That's incredible. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. Well, I appreciate it, too. That's what we're doing next. Cool, man. We're going to make a $1,000 donation to that. That's incredible. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. I appreciate it, too. That's so cool. I appreciate you being out here. And I love that, man. Yeah, I think there's a, like, and that's one thing I miss about being at home a lot of times.

It's just like out here everything is so separated, bro. Yeah. It's just like everything is like work out here and you don't get a lot of feeling of familiarity and stuff like that, you know? Yeah. My wife was just talking about it the other day when we got back home because i've only been home for uh a week or you know and i had to leave again obviously to come here but we went to the grocery store and she was saying like how nice people are you know and like oh yeah yeah it's just so different in like miami area or i'm sure out here i haven't been here

long enough but people are just so quick quick you know out there back in louisiana man it's it's people want to know what's going on they want to talk they want to help you out yeah it's just more relaxed yeah for the most part um what do you guys have planned for the halloween well my daughter's finally old enough to to know what's going on and dress up so we're gonna bring her around the neighborhood yeah yeah yeah we were at home last halloween so she was only one years old then but and do you dress up like a fight like in your like fight stuff when you go to halloween so she was only one years old then but and do you dress up like a fight like in your like fight stuff when you go to halloween no i don't do too much dressing up yeah yeah just that's for the kids yes for the kids right on what about when you were a kid what was halloween like when

you were a kid oh we actually got a question right here this came in from this guy looks like you already lost a fight you can see this on the youtube or not here we'll listen to this one real quick hey dustin hey theo big fans of both of you boys. And I was just wondering if you had any good Halloween stories or memories that you'd like to share and what you're going to dress up as this year. Thank you. Good luck to both of you. There you go.

Good timing. Yeah, good timing, man. I'm not dressing up, man. Nah, I'm not dressing up. Now, what if your daughter wanted you to dress up? When she's old enough to ask me and really want me to, then that's a different story yeah yeah and what about stories back in the day i don't really dude i don't never never dressed up nah i mean really no i don't have any memories of that bro really yeah yeah wow but do you remember like halloween like when you know they would not really yeah but they do it over there huh oh for sure big time

yeah yeah i didn't go to a whole lot of school honestly man really yeah so did you like learn a lot at home or what was going on there uh yeah i kind of i started getting trouble in middle school um and when you say trouble were you a five were you just like fighting people yeah stuff like that getting expelled from middle school for fighting and stuff like that but i got put in a alternative program i put back in the right grade yeah and then i went to ninth grade and then i got in a bunch more trouble and did a little bit of ninth grade in juvenile detention and then i just didn't go back to school so so do you think like what caused all of that because because you were probably the dude then if I was at school with you, I'd be like, fuck, that guy's a fucking dick, you know?

Or that guy's like, I'd be scared of that guy. Nah. Were kids like, was it just like a kind of a tough environment or was it like you guys like just like to fight? Yeah, I'm from Northside, Lafayette, Louisiana. It's a tough area. Yeah. But yeah, I was just always getting in trouble and scrapping and doing things I shouldn't have been doing. Yeah.

And school just wasn't your thing? No, it wasn't my thing. And you got out? Yeah. Damn, that's freaking wild, bro. Yeah, man. I'm looking out of here. I actually got arrested for truancy for not going to school before.

You really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When, in like eighth or ninth grade? Yeah. Because there was some point I remember, like after eighth grade, first of all, oh like 70 of the black kids at our school were gone after eighth grade bro like i didn't know where any of them went right if they weren't playing sports a lot of them were out and then yeah and after a lot of kids left like in louisiana i didn't think about that yeah a lot of kids just fucking jetted just start working you know yeah or just get in like especially if

their family had a job or something like that. What kind of work did you get into? I did cement work. I did building decks, construction work. And then when I was 18, I got a decent job with a buildings distribution company. Yeah. And we would go to job sites and, like, deliver doors and just brand new houses, everything they need. Trim doors, windows. I did that for a couple years.

Yeah? Yeah. And at what point did you were like, man, this isn't for me? I was fighting during those times. Oh, you were already fighting? Yeah, yeah. I was fighting when I was 18. But I did that, and I had benefits at the place, so I didn't want to quit the job because, you know.

And do you have your lady with you? Yeah, yeah. Okay, so you had to support that. Yeah, yeah. But I was making, like, such little money that I was just working because I needed the benefits, and I was fighting. Yeah. Damn, bro. I was still working.

I was still working when I was fighting in the WC. I think even in the UFC, I was still working. What was that moment where you're like, okay, now I at least have enough income where I don't have to do a side job? Was that? That was a huge part of my life because I was like, I'm finally – You know people run around and say they're a professional fighter, but they're not really feeding their family and paying their bills being a professional fighter yeah yeah technically they are yeah right it's like you you kind of say you are for a long time but until somebody sees you looking on a real stage on television or something it's just

like but even then i was on television i was still working you know wow yeah um but when i got to finally walk away from my my work and commit 100 to to fighting, it was, you know, I felt like the sky opened up and the sun was shining on me. Like, we made it, you know, we really have a chance at this. That's crazy, man. And the wildest thing about your profession, like, at least, you know, in so many professions, you can kind of be anywhere, you know, there's a billion lawyers, you know, and there's a billion, you know, and there's tens of thousands of comedians, but in your profession, it just keeps getting smaller towards the top until you have the strap. Right. And there's lots of fighters nowadays. It's such a popular sport, and we find out who the best is.

We fight each other and find out who the best is. That's a pretty cool way of filtering out everything. When you look back at a fight that you, if you could have another fighter do one over, it could even be one that you won or it could be one that you didn't. Do you have any that pop in your head that you're like, oh, that one? One that sticks out for sure is the Conor McGregor fight. I just was way too emotional. I just cared too much about everything going on and read too much about what people thought and was he a celebrity at that point really no not really i mean he was he was right a lot of people he had

a lot of hype around him but he wasn't the guy he is now you know right yeah now it's almost like he's uh yeah now he's more of a celebrity oh huge than a fighter yeah or not more than but it's like equal yeah and it's different it's different when people become that or i notice anyway like in stand-up like dave chappelle will come into the comedy club and he's like a celebrity you know when he gets on stage and he'll i mean he's a funny guy but he's but if bill burr comes in bill burr is a comedian like bill burr does his fucking job he murders every time. Chappelle is a little bit more like, oh, look at me, where Bill Burr sneaks in, does his fucking work really good, and leaves.

I feel that. For the love of the craft. Yeah, yeah. Do you start to see that in your line of work, too? Some guys, when they become celebrity, it seems different. Yeah, people change for sure. Start making money. People start running up to them for autographs, and they start getting you know recognition in public and stuff people change for sure yeah the ego is

dangerous huh yeah man do you worry about that nah because i'm in it for the scrap you know i try to walk away from that type of stuff you know right if i think if i see a bunch of guys wearing ufc shirts i'll put the hoodie on and kind of turn you know yeah yeah you just want to win the belt yeah i just want to win the belt man that, I just want to win the belt, man. That's all I want. I just want to be the world champion. And then I'll go back to delivering windows. So is that really that goal?

I mean, is that, so that's the thing? That's the, you just want to be the best? Yeah, of course I would love to stay in this sport for a long time and make a shitload of money. But I just want to say that I did it. I want to have the UFC championship around my waist my waist you know all these years with my wife struggling and and taking food out of the out of the grocery basket because we couldn't afford it and making ends meet and and you know sacrificing a lot i just want to say it was all worth it because once you become the world champion you know that's forever yeah and uh you know that's that's what i'm trying to do honestly damn that's

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throughout my whole career and then um when we moved to florida she was actually in school in louisiana she followed my crazy ass dreams and pulled out of school out of college and uh moved with me to south florida and then started working a normal job and um she worked until she had the baby yeah yeah and does she come to the fights or is everyone really everyone dude my wife used to me and her in louisiana i rode a bicycle to work she we would you we would both use her car she would pick me up after she worked all day And bring me to the gym She used to drive me to Lake Charles At these Motel 6

Gunshots and stuff She's been my dog Has she been? She's an anchor I wouldn't be as far in my career without her What is that? You always have that home That home is

always there it is and uh you know just she just balances balances me out man and i don't know telling what i would be doing you know if i wasn't married all these years i probably been cutting up and getting into trouble and not as focused oh yeah definitely not as focused but i have uh we have a team me and my wife not to sound cheesy with this but we have a team and we had goals that we set right and uh no well look it's working bro yeah yeah no it's a huge part of my my fighting success my wife for sure yeah nick do you have something yeah uh so going first of all i want to thank you for especially the eddie alvarez too and joseph duffy i won a lot of money on you. You were almost a two to one underdog on Joseph Duffy. That was absurd.

So thank you. But going back to that Conor fight, when you were fighting at 145, how much are you depleted fight night? Do you feel fresh by, and now you're at 155. Are you fresh by fight night when you cut that much weight or does it have an effect on your performance? I'm sure it has some effect. I don't feel it as much at 55 even though i'm cutting a lot

of weight to make 55 55 is not easy anymore this last fight with eddie alvarez fight night uh i left the place i was staying at to go to the arena i was 178 so i put on 23 pounds. I'm still cutting a lot of weight. But at 45, I felt really bad. And what is it? You just feel weak? There's not a lot of water in your cells, so you're probably... For me, maybe people's symptoms are different. I just felt a little off balance. I felt foggy in the head.

Yeah. I felt my muscles would get fatigued when I would squeeze. Just a pump would come really quick. It's just a weird feeling in my whole body. I felt a little flat- fatigued when I would squeeze. Like just a pump would come really quick. And it's just a weird feeling, my whole body. It felt a little flat-footed sometimes. Yeah. Like I put the weight on and my muscles didn't suck it up. It was just like in between my skin kind of.

It's a weird feeling, man. It felt jiggly almost. Yeah? Yeah. Have you noticed, are you like really in tune with your body? Like can you kind of like, because you're constantly, I mean, your body is your your it's your occupation almost oh i'm very into my body yeah yeah so you can kind of feel all the time what's going on yeah yeah is it do you are you more weary these days of like pushing the envelope sometimes because you know as you you

know you're 29 now as you get older it's like yeah it's like the years start to become crucial you know in the last few years i've noticed like when i was younger i can train every day three times a day as hard as i want and be fine wake up the next day and do whatever but now like if i have a hard sparring session i wear that that you know bumps and bruises for a couple days after that so my training kind of like a bang over kind of dude like a hang over but for fighting yeah yeah yeah exactly exactly yeah man uh like when you were young you could drink every night wake up and oh start over right yeah you can do whatever you want you could cut your fucking leg off when you were young it was a different time yeah bang over yeah um so so if

this fight so after this stem cell stuff you'll know if you're ready to rock again then yeah i'm going to talk to the doctor again um tuesday they said and then i'll go in wednesday morning but uh everybody reacts differently to stem cells hopefully my body reacts really well to it yeah and uh you know it takes a lot of the pain away and gives me back my range of motion take some of the inflammation out um but i'll be back in three weeks to training wow yeah yeah i got stem cells it's where they take your blood out and then take the cells out of it and inject them into you. That's PRP. Oh, that's PRP. That's what I got. I got that in my hair.

Yeah. Just to keep this fucking class going, bro. Keep that shit up, bro. Dude, I mean, I feel like I'm- Fucking squirrel master. Bro, if I was down by you, I might get hunted. I feel like- Fucking Daniel Boone.

Dude, it's kind of crazy when I go outdoors in Louisiana, if I'm out at night, bro, and I turn around, there'll be a lot of raccoons behind me. Oh, man. When's the last time you've been tiki-tubing? I don't know. It's been a while. What is it? That's right around your area, Denham Springs area. Oh, tiki-tubing? Yeah, man, tiki-tubing. What is that, when people get tiki-tubing and go to... No, no, no.

That would be crazy. I don't know. It's like, I don't know if it's a river or some stream that's miles long. People go up there with their... They have like... Oh, the ice chest and all that? Yeah, yeah. And it floats down. It's like a slow.

Look, there you go. Tiki Tube in Denham Springs, man. Oh, yeah, dude. I've been. I thought you brought that mullet out there a time or two. I was wrong. Dude, we went. You're not from Louisiana.

We went in the Boga Chitter River, right? This is like, which I don't even know if it's a river. I honestly feel like it's an outlet from a business. I feel like it should be definitely shut down, like condemned. And I remember one time we're like going and there's like this bend in the river. And this dude is out there with a girl and they're shooting a gun into the water, right? And they're on a date. It's like this guy.

That's romantic, bro. Yeah, it was romantic, right? You're popping off. So we start coming around this bend and we keep getting closer and they're just still shooting into the water. You know, this guy's obviously trying to fuck. So I'm yelling. I'm like, hey'm like hey bro you gotta stop shooting the gun and the guy yelled back he's like why because there's literally like 20 it's gonna almost be like a game you would see at a carnival where like you know people are trying to get those little ducks or whatever

fucking idiots we had louisiana man we had two being in in wisconsin on the apple river and that was wisconsin's uh mardi gras basically they were just like people had beads and girls got wild and uh for some reason at the end of the river there was always a jack johnson concert it was really weird what do you uh what do you miss about growing up in louisiana like do you miss anything about being young or do you feel like was that the best time of your life is this the best time of your life i mean they're both awesome yeah you know um was y'all's family pretty close my family was my like my mother and uh her mom and dad we were close there but my family was kind of spread out yeah yeah um i i kind of missed the uh the innocence the beginning of my fight career.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. I kind of miss that a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. That was a fun time in my life. But growing up in Louisiana was fun, man. You know, picking pecans and getting into trouble.

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't it interesting that, like, I start to think about that, too. Like, I didn't realize that, like, the journey part of it was, like, the crazy, was going to be the craziest part. Right. You know, now it's going to be the craziest part. Now it's a little bit more like business. It's still fun.

Not to compare them, but it's still exciting. The shows and the preparation and doing the little shows to get to the big shows. I remember hanging my groceries outside. I was in Kansas City one winter and I would buy groceries and then hang them out of the it was freezing outside. So I'd hang them out the window at night to fucking keep cold and then bring them in in the morning to thaw out and then eat lunch, you know. But it was like things like that were going to be the best. Yeah. Yeah, for sure, man. Like the struggle sometimes.

It's a journey, bro. Yeah, the journey. Yeah. The journey is kind of the wildest part. Right. But it's all still fun for sure, man. Yeah. Yeah.

So how many more fights do you have to have to get to the belt? We'll see. I mean, I think I'm ranked number three right now. So it's Khabib as the champ, then Tony Ferguson, then Conor, then me. Yeah. Conor just fought Khabib. Tony probably is going to fight Khabib next, so I'm after that. Right.

Yeah. So why was Diaz the fight that you got put into, then, if he's not in those three? He's ranked 10, I believe. Oh, yeah? It was just a fun fight that, I mean, sometimes you get the right matchups that you know are going to be a banger, and this was one of them, you know? Damn, dude.

I met his brother one time, bro, and that guy was wild enough, man. Nick Diaz. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, man. They got something like yeah yeah man they got something like uh yeah they're fighters man for sure they're fighters no doubt about it do you think about when you go in now is it more about like do you think about like do you prepare for the fighters weaknesses and strengths or is because i'm watching some fights when you were

young and it was almost like letting like a dog loose from one side of the ring you know right like you know uh when somebody's dog we get loose and suddenly it was almost like letting like a dog loose from one side of the ring, you know? Right. Like, you know, when somebody's dog would get loose and suddenly it was fucking coming at you? Yeah, you can't do nothing about it.

You just scream. Yeah, that's it, bro. It was like, all you could fucking do was scream. Like watching a car wreck. Yeah. Oh, shit.

Like, damn, this car's just gonna keep on wrecking, bro. Is there more strategy involved now? Yeah. This is definitely an art now. Back in those days, it was just, it was a fight. And it still is a this is uh it's definitely an art now back

in those days it was just it was a fight and it still is a fight but it's definitely more technical man we we break down footage my coaches do we train specifically for certain guys and that's one good thing about american top team there's so many guys there yeah that like if i'm fighting a diaz we have tall guys who i can spar with we have we have southpaws we have he's you know obviously a really good jiu-jitsu practitioner we have guys who are great in jiu-jitsu a lot of black belts on the mat so like all bases are covered when you're at a big camp like that that's one of the benefits that's one of the values did uh did platinum mike perry ever be down there i've never seen him there no you haven't that guy's wild i think he i think he trains a lot in in uh northern part of florida

maybe yeah he's in new mexico now okay yeah is there any fighters out there that like people don't know about that are like you know like is the toughest guy you've ever met is it is that been in the cage or has that been in the streets you think uh i don't do any street fight i haven't been in a street altercation maybe like the gym or something there's incredible guys that you've never heard of coming from all over man that i run into in the gym um that are you know hopefully they make a name for themselves or get a break and get that moment of spotlight where they show who they are but there's lots of great everybody who's in the ufc has made it there and then they're incredible fighters but there's so many guys out there that haven't made it there yet or that are fighting on smaller shows that are just as good as a lot of these guys yeah

yeah dude do um do so when you say like get a break like what kind of break has to kind of happen like do you have to have a manager that gets you a fight like how much of that kind of stuff goes on behind that's a little bit of politics of course but like beating the right guys um maybe let's just say there's a matchmaker for the ufc who's watching this up and comer and uh you're his opponent you go out there and beat his ass yeah now the matchmakers are looking at you like wow who's this kid like that kind of break just the right matchups the right eyes on the fight yeah the right the right platforms to really show who you are yeah but nowadays man there's so many uh streaming organizations that

are on online and they have fight pass that are giving all these guys a place to fight where a lot of eyes can see it. So there's a lot more opportunities now. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I remember when I was there, they had this thing for a while. It was like gay dudes were fighting at bars, right? And they would set up like a ring or something. And they would have two gay dudes would fist fight.

And people would bet on it and shit. I remember that. Dude, I think that was, yeah, when I was at LSU for a while. I don't know what happened to that shit. It might have got shut down. Cock fights. Yeah, it was cock fights, I think. I think it was like really AAA, you know?

Do you think that you could fight an animal ever, bro? Do you think it's ever going to get to that? What? Like a bear? All right, yeah, I don't know. Like if you think, like I thought. Like a kangaroo with gloves on? Like, yeah, could you fight a couple animals? I fucking bear? All right. Yeah, I don't know. Like if you think like I thought like if you could. Like a kangaroo with gloves on?

Like yeah, if you could fight. Yeah, could you fight a couple animals? I would fucking body shot that thing. Would you really? Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't. Can they kick? What's the rules? I don't know.

That's a good question. What is the rules? Yeah, sometimes I just wondered that. Like if I was a fighter, right? That's what I think about. Like if I was a fighter, you know, and I could fight. And when then I would stop thinking like, oh, would I quit fighting people? Yeah. fighter right that's what i think about like if i was a fighter you know and i could fight and when then i would stop thinking like oh would i quit fighting people yeah and want to start fighting

animals that's the nate diaz kangaroo is it yeah it did look like nate diaz a little pull up the uh nate diaz kangaroo side by side that really was the one was it really yeah are you amazed sometimes how some guys look like they could look like they can't fight and they can totally fight? Yeah, that's one thing I learned early. Like, you know, looks are, you know, if a guy looks strong for the most, there you go. Right. Oh, wow, that's wild. They're identical.

They're very similar. Virtually identical. That is very similar, bro. Yeah, a lot of times, like, you'll see a stringy,y lanky guy not a lot of muscle definition and then you get on the mat with him he's incredibly strong you know or you'll see a guy who's got huge muscles and then you go with him and you're like this guy's not really that strong yeah uh a lot of that's for show i mean most of the time a guy looks big and strong he he is but that's like it doesn't transfer over to grappling and fighting he might be able to lift a lot more

weights than you but like functional squeezing and and technical stuff it's not the same right yeah that one punch is still there like if a guy's really big he's probably gonna have a good shot yeah but uh it won't last long and and then the muscles don't translate when you grapple what was like did you have like a fit do you have like a ever have like a plan when you first started to have a finishing move? Dude, honestly, I trained my whole career just to finish any way I can with strikes, submissions. I never once game plan to go to the judges or win round by round. I just fight.

Most of my fights, I've never really had a solid game plan. Really? I don't like that, yeah. I just like to fight. You like to fight? Yeah, I just like to fight. So for you, it's like you get a feeling you are in a fight. Right. So if the guy kicks a lot, we kind of prepare for that,

but I'm not putting together crazy stuff that we just get ready for a lot of kicks. Or if the guy boxes well, we do a little bit of extra boxing. But I know some coaches go crazy with game plans, like we're going to jab, and then we're going to put him against the fence and take him down. I've never done that. I just fight, and hopefully opportunities present themselves, and I capitalize. And I kind of trust myself in combat. Like I said, said this is gonna be my 40th fight with nate diaz i've got a lot of time in there you know in that right in that yeah in that yeah yeah is it fucking violent bro when they close that shit up have you

ever heard i'm like does it make a sound when they close the cage door oh yeah yeah it's metal so scary, bro. I will fucking look for a trap door. I'm sure like the same thing when you're on stage at a comedy show, like all the lights are on you, right? So the crowd looks really dark. Yeah. So it's like that in the cage.

Is it really? It's like it's really light up. Everything's lit up and you kind of look through the fence. You can't really see anything out that much. You know, you see like the first row, but it's just like spotlights on you. Yeah, it's really similar. That's crazy. Yeah. So then you're just in there you just and you can can you see to do some guys is like can you tell when a guy is lasered in and can you almost see when you look in a dude's eyes

in the ring like can you feel if you think he's been training hard if he's been focused does all that kind of come into that moment or is it still it's different for everybody some guys are like that they're looking at you and they're really intense and all that and you get in there and you whip their ass and then they you know but some guys don't want to make eye contact they're kind of staying to themselves and then the bell rings and they're maniacs trying to trying to take you out right everybody's different i think it's more of a personality and personality thing when you're fighting are you looking somebody in the eyes or are you is it is it more of this kind of this wider kind of view that's going on or something?

Yeah, I mean, eye contact is made for sure, but I'm kind of, like all my senses are engaged. I'm just kind of, the whole picture I'm seeing. And are you, at this point in your career, are you thinking or is a lot more of it like, it's just natural, it's a flow almost? You know, it's just a flow. The only times i really start

to think a lot is um in positions like against the fence if we're both crunched up or like i get a takedown and we're on top we have like moments of clarity in there where things kind of slow down i'm saying oh shit i can hear joe rogan talking right now he's right there wow but then it goes back to the to the craziness um i don't feel like you have time to think you know you're doing what you what you're trained to do There's a tiny bit of thinking But if I can explain it to you Think about this

If you're driving on the interstate Right And somebody slams the brakes And you see red lights Do you say I need to hit my brakes now too No It's too late

You know You don't have time to think You just do it That's kind of what fighting is A guy punch at I don't say Well there's the punch I'm going to slip it and counter You just do it you know i'm just like hitting the

break i just do it i've done it so many times it's muscle memory and my brain and and it's just what i do yeah yeah so do you feel more comfortable in a fight than say like like what's something you would feel like uncomfortable in um uh speaking in front of a lot of people i guess would probably be a big one right um you'd rather be thought i want once i'm doing it i wouldn't probably have a problem but the thought of doing it is like oh shit oh here we go so you'd rather be in a fight than being a public speaker yeah fighting i mean yeah that's fucking crazy to me man the absolute last thing i would ever want to fucking be in as a fight. Dude, I'd rather fist fight a kangaroo than go do a comedy show. Dude, I'm telling you, I'm telling you what's next is going to be a league that travels around,

and it's going to be men fighting animals, dude. What about 40 foxes? You think you could fight 40 foxes? 40? Baker's doesn't, I guess. Give a good shot at it. Let's take another call that came in. For sure.

Theo, huge fan, brother. I wanted to ask, I'm a huge fan. I live in Youngsville, Louisiana, so not far from it. One, what's your favorite place to eat at here in the Laugh-It area? Don't say Eno's because I know that's your boy. And then second, I mean, I know you have the diamond training center but i was curious as to you know i guess future business opportunities that you were maybe looking into establishing here in the lafayette area post mma career so killing it love y'all yeah man what's up what's up yeah dude i live in youngsville

oh do you yeah yeah i'm always at the rouses and uh i love rouses oh dude it's a spot dude rouses is the best man yeah yeah rouses has everything and you think it's not going to be good when it first opened up i was like this shit's all just going to be like but it's good no it's good yeah um i missed it man and when i was in florida for a while and i haven't been back to louisiana and then i fought in new orleans and there's that rouses right by the uh oh yeah oh dude it was so awesome man to just walk back in there and smell that smell that crawfish in the air yeah they got everything in there right but uh i i like uh prejones and caron crow i like that spot but he's right dino's is good pizza man my buddy owns that place um i don't know what business ventures i'm gonna i have the diamond training center but that's like i don't make money with

that that's just a gym a private gym i have where local guys come we open the door train clean the mats and just have fun training um but i really like beer maybe i'll do something with some beer i um i don't know man we'll see i got a cool idea for a tv show oh yeah yeah yeah where i travel around and train at gyms and go to local places to eat oh that sounds yeah yeah i got it up here man i just nobody's done that man that'd be dope hell yeah yeah i wonder what it would be called man it'd be called food fight oh i like that bro yeah bro off the beaten path places too yeah yeah like shit you got to catch with your face to eat you know what i'm saying yeah 40 foxes bro we might have to cut this part out so it's no oh yes you keep your idea too yeah that should be all over it really will man poop fight's a great idea actually i want to do like so say i go to louisiana we go to a boxing

gym then we go to some local spots or we go to new orleans i go to i got a bunch of buddies who have gyms like any gym in the u.s like i'll be able to get into yeah you know just because i've been fighting so long and i know so many people yeah but i'd like to do like what's around that city like if i go to philly we'll go to a bunch of boxing gyms then we'll hit a bunch of cool spots right and kind of learn the gym story and then some restaurants around their story i like that you know and what it's like what at what guys that are training what mma guys are eating what ufc guys are eating you know like well i'd like it to be like not so much the healthy stuff but like the local spots that only these guys who live at this gym and train there know about right like yeah yeah to keep it grassroots um do you uh is there a lot of pride from your area do there's a lot of support for

you dude and it's amazing i mean you know how louisiana gets behind sporting events or athletes do the lsu or anything that's one thing i can say about louisiana that i miss being away is like louisiana supports louisiana yeah like like yeah yeah any if you're from lafayette everybody's behind you everybody loves you um you know it's a good feeling to have that sense of community yeah yeah especially over there where you guys are like my area is more like just rural white kids like our area was just kind of white and black it was you know we had some rednecks but we didn't have a lot of like you know where you guys are i feel like everything is a fucking recipe you know what i'm saying like everything like if water floods in the

house then that's soup you know it's like it's just that kind of place for sure yeah yeah and and family is like and family's super important in louisiana that's another thing right like people don't care like their dreams and stuff are important but some people's dream their whole dream is just to spend time with their family yeah and that's beautiful in itself man yeah but i think that's just the culture there like in latvia at the area i'm from is cajun country you know that's where all the acadians are oh yeah you know so it's just a really good group of people yeah yeah yeah man that area is a lot of fun and a lot of good people from over there no doubt about it a lot of good food a lot of

athletes too yeah for sure a lot of great high school football yeah um yeah man i miss louisiana dude i miss it i love nashville too have you been in nashville never been in nashville oh but nashville's pretty cool yeah yeah it doesn't have like the same kind of it's more like kind of fancy south a little bit but it has uh i mean there's some fucking just i mean it just still it just still has a lot of family first type of stuff. That's why when I get out here, I'm just like, I feel like everybody... I don't know. Family's not as important. But I think it's just because it's more of a city and it's more of a place where people come to work.

It's business. It's business. It's business out here, man. In Lafayette, dude, or Louisiana in general, everybody, like I said, supports local. If you go into a bar and there's Louisiana beer, that's what people are ordering and drinking. If there's homegrown Louisiana food, that's what they're ordering. That's what they want. Yeah, it's just, I like that.

I like that. Do you feel, do people like, do you get a lot of hard heads that come at you because you're a fighter that want to take on Poirier? I don't put myself in those kind of positions, honestly. I don't go to like bars bars and stuff like that that much. Probably out drinking and stuff. It would happen a lot, but that never happened. More on Twitter. There's a lot of tough guys on the internet.

Instagram and Twitter. The internet is fucking filled with idiots, bro. Knuckleheads, man. That'd be another show. Not in person, never. No, never in person, bro. No, it's the worst. Was there ever an injury where you hit a guy

where you were like, oh, man, this feel like you knew it was part of the fight but you're like ah fuck i feel bad about that no never no no that's not it no it's not part of it no it can't be right so so there's no room for that man there's no room for that in now when i get in there yeah i mean i'm that goes back to like me saying i'm not looking to ink out rounds and win a decision when i get in there and the bell rings yeah i'm trying to finish you or you're gonna finish me it's like that's all it is to it this is combat right you know and how hard so how hard is it now to have that patience to wait for that ds fight to wait like you know because that's like that's it's just you know i feel like it's it would just stress you it is but i'm honestly a little proud of myself man when i was younger this would have

felt like the end of the world oh my god this was such a huge fight it's not coming together what what am i gonna do my everything's falling apart oh my god now i'm just like i just more time yeah it's just everything happens for a reason if they want to fight it'll come back together if not we'll move on but we're in a good spot and yeah there's only a couple guys left you can fight. Right. And just take it in stride, man. I just want to not be in pain. Like I said, I have people depending on me,

and I need to give myself the best shot at being a world champion. And to do that, I need to be healthy and be able to train like I need to train. Yeah. So Cormier is from Louisiana. Do you guys ever communicate or no? Really? Yeah, we talk all the time. Yeah.

He's a big guy. I never met him. He's a big guy? Probably not much taller than me. He's round. He's round. Yeah, he's pretty good. He seemed like an Ottoman.

You ever have an Ottoman and you try to push an Ottoman over and you can't really get it over? You know what I'm talking about? The thing you put your feet on? I feel like he would be like three Ottomans just stacked on top of each other, man. a pretty cool guy real cool he seems really really cool man um does uh do you talk to other guys like say like you're gonna fight diaz will you

talk to other guys that have fought him um if there's somebody in my camp who's fought him then we will talk but i don't go i don't go like searching you know or trying to find somebody's input yeah yeah but if like like i said if there's somebody at the gym who's fought him then we'll talk but i don't go i don't go like searching you know or trying to find somebody's input yeah yeah but if like like i said if there's somebody at the gym who's fought him oh they'll give me some input right right um do you uh do you like when you're envisioning it are you just thinking about the fight do you like do you have any like mental stuff where you like envision like after the fight um like do you have any sort of like uh i guess stuff for you kind of like go through things in your head kind of or what's some of your procedure yeah um you know fight week i think i try to focus a lot on being in the moment like tomorrow's gonna come like you

know sunday after the fights i'm gonna go home to my family going to be okay, but I just need to focus on right now. Yeah. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. I just need to be right now in the moment, be aware of everything, be okay with myself, be just, it's a weird feeling, but I know how I need to feel and I know my mindset, how it needs to be. That's a huge part of fighting is mindset. Yeah.

It took me a long time to realize that. Really? Yeah. I mean, the biggest weapon you can have. Wow. Yeah. And so do you see it on some of the younger guys now? You're like, oh, I used to be just like that. All the time. How funny is that? Yeah. I mean, the biggest weapon you can have. Wow. Yeah. And so do you see it on some of the younger guys now? You're like, oh, I used to be just like that?

All the time. How funny is that? Yeah. All the time. And I'm like, just hearing stuff, not only the way they act in practice, but some of the stuff they say. Yeah. I'm like, man, you got a knucklehead.

Yeah. Dude, that's one thing. It's kind of interesting how, like, as you get more up in your field or as you spend more time in it, yeah, just looking back at me like, man, especially when you said like, oh, I would have thought that that was the end of the world. And everything, I can remember when I was a young fighter. I lost a fight or got hurt in practice or something didn't come together. Our sponsor fell through the way.

I didn't think it was going to come. And I thought it was the end. I was like, oh, my God, this is such a huge, what am I going to do? This matters so much. And man, I'm a fighter. Having a daughter has helped me a lot. Put things into perspective. Really?

Fighting is just something I do. I love it and I'm passionate about it and I'm addicted to it and I want to be the best in the world. But at the end of the day, that's just fighting, man. I'm a father and she has a life and I'm a husband and a son. Like that stuff, it took me a long time to realize that.

But that stuff is, and looking at it this way, caring less, you know, caring less about fighting, I feel like I'm a better fighter now. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's powerful, man. It took me a long time to realize that, man. That's powerful stuff. And do you think some of that stuff is just stuff that comes with age? Yeah.

I'm Dustin Poirier. Right. Fighting is just something I do. Right. Right. And I know and i know that now yeah yeah i'm a bad motherfucker though i know that too that's fucking wild bro imagine waking up in the morning and being a bad motherfucker i could never imagine every morning never goes away every morning bro that's fucking awesome dude Fucking awesome, dude. Fuck, dude, I want to fight Nick. When you, after the fight, is there something? I was thinking about this, man. Like, it's so rare, like, in my life that I have things physically that make me feel like alive.

After a fight, whether you win or lose, I was looking at some pictures of you after a fight. One of them, you had like a, like, I think you might have had a crutch or something. I mean, I don't even know. You were sitting on a table or something. Just a couple different pictures, and I was like, man. And I couldn't tell if you'd won or lost the fights, right? I didn't even know which fights they were from. But I was just like, fuck, he looks so alive. Is there something that just, like.

To get in front of, well, I guess any fight, if if nobody's watching it's just so pure combat one on one man on man just you know fighting to the finish nobody's jumping in it's just you you guys are going to handle this business and somebody's going to get beat up yeah and uh that's so pure and like after you go through that it's almost spiritual you know after a fight it's like almost spiritual like i just i'm a i elevated my life i walk away from fights like i'm a different person i have a different view of the world like it's it's weird man it really is i guess i can and it's a rush i can only get from that right yeah win lose or draw the next day i get on that airplane to go home or to go wherever we're going and i just feel like i just went through a spiritual journey you know and that's win lose or draw you feel that same kind of you

have that same moment where wow wow, I went through – You know, winning is obviously the best thing. It's like a trip or something. Like you're tripping. You can have a good trip or a bad trip. Obviously, losing is – you're on a bad trip. Right. But it's just that.

It's just a high that you're on, and you can only get it from that. And it's just – it's a crazy thing to do, man. I could imagine. It seems – yeah, it would almost be like taking a drug or something and back in the day like i was saying about innocence i kind of missed that innocence there wasn't as much on the line i was just fighting for the love of fighting now there's bills on the line and gotta get home healthy to my daughter none of that stuff was in my mind as a young fighter it was just you know let's bleed yeah you know let's put on a show damn for 500 bucks let's just hope nobody dies. Crazy.

But now it's like so much on the line every time I step in there. Yeah. And it's spiritual. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like that. It seemed like it would always be like a native. Yeah.

It almost seems like, yeah, it made me wonder when I look at that kind of stuff. And I just look at the pictures after I was like, man, it seemed like no matter what, I couldn't tell if you won or lost or whatever it was, but what if, yeah, you would learn something about yourself, you know? Yeah. Like they say, adversity introduces a man to himself. Yeah. So when you win, you learn the whole camp, but when you lose, you learn a lot about who

you are too. Wow. And you know, I've lost five times in my professional career. Yeah. What have you learned, man? I feel like every time I've lost, I've lost five times in my professional career. Yeah, what have you learned, man? I mean, were there – I feel like every time I've lost, I've made huge adjustments and explored those reasons I've lost, and I've always learned from it. Really?

Yeah, every time, every single time. So you'll go back and even look at, like, okay, the specific moment or two that contributed to the loss, and you'll learn – and you'll become more aware specifically of that, you feel like? Yeah. you'll learn and and and you'll become more aware specifically of that you feel like yeah and whether it was if it was a technical thing i did wrong then i go back and work on on ways to round that out and make everything smoother not get in that position again but uh sometimes it's mental you know yeah yeah the kicks piss me off dude i don't like when people kick that much i don't like dick kicks really people do that no i mean not supposed to but it happens really oh yeah are there people out there that just do it just that's there's probably people out there who do it to get a breather you know

oh yeah yeah you get one warning right i can burn that bitch i'll burn that bitch at the start of the second round it's like a free time out in there guys start dick kick here let's run up and both kick each other in the dick real fast and take a break get a five minute uh five minute break man uh and there's no timeouts or anything no of course not fuck yeah that's once the bell rings you go yeah oh yeah you go and do you um is there like a moment in the fight say if like a fight goes five rounds right if it goes through all of them is there a mo like is there usually like kind of a flow to a fight or is it different every time there like if it goes five rounds like if it

there's definitely different rhythms yeah in fights you know um you kind of know after me from fighting so long and having so many fights like i know how i'm feeling in the fight how we're matching up what i'm doing what i need to switch things like that um but every fight's different man every fight is a different damn with that uh between three and five round fights are you pacing yourself more in the five are you full speed i think my last three or four fights have all been five rounds scheduled for five and i fight the same you know i uh i prepare differently i try to get there a little bit lighter so i'm not cutting as much weight so like the fatigue doesn't set in over the you know dehydration and stuff doesn't mess me up if we do go four or five rounds um but i i fight from bell to bell whether it's three rounds or five

when you it's so it's different seeing you like some of your more recent fights and your beginning fights it's so different do you notice that when you watch them oh for sure big time and i was a maniac. I was just throwing punches and eyes closed swinging for the fences. One's like watching almost a kid and one is more like watching a man. Do you notice that when you see them? Yeah, and it is that. I grew up

in the sport, so there's fights of me being a kid and there's fights of me being a professional fighter feeding his family. That's wild. Yeah. Do we have any more questions, Nick? Yeah, there's a couple more they're kind of silly but let's take one and then i just have one more question and we'll i'll be able to all right oh i had one more

actually is um are there fights that you've had that were like on a card but they weren't like pro fights that on your record like in louisiana like just in a bar in a cage so everywhere's different um and i didn't know that till i got out out of louisiana um in florida you have to have like they can't knee to the head and you can't all kind of weird you have to have bigger gloves and you have to wear shin pads if you're an amateur so i have nine nine fights in Louisiana that aren't on my pro record that are pro fights. Wow. Right. Yeah, the same rules.

Yeah. Small gloves, knees. Some of them where you're allowed to elbow. So those just aren't on my record. Where? Yeah. And I've never really been out of Louisiana until I started traveling for fighting. Yeah.

So getting on a plane to go fight somebody. Damn. First time on a plane is pretty crazy. It's like the military. It's like Vietnam. It's like a lot of people, the first time they got on a plane was to go fight somebody. Damn. But yeah, here's our last question then.

I was wondering if arguably the greatest high-roll time fighting is weekend. How do you think you must have been yesterday? Thank you and good luck. I was wondering if arguably the greatest fighter of all time fighting this weekend, Artem Lobov, how do you think he must have been? Thank you and good luck. So for those that are only listening, he asked with the greatest fighter of all time, Artem Lobov, coming up fighting next weekend, how does Dustin think you would do against him?

If you want to give a little background on Artem. The GOAT, Artem Lobov, is one of Conor McGregor's training partners. I'm looking forward to watching him fight, man. How would I match up against him? I would stop him. Who do you like to watch fight? I like to watch fighters, fighters, guys like Nate Diaz. I like watching him fight, his brother.

Nick Diaz? Yeah, I like watching both of them. Eddie Alvarez you know Justin Gaethje some of the guys that I've fought are really fun guys that's why I take those fights so

guys who I like to watch fight it excites me that's the kind of fights I want to be part of so that's why I fight a lot of those guys yeah dang dude

so now how many fights will you get presented that you will be and you might be like ah not for me it happens a good bit probably then guys that want to take a shot at you not as much as you think really yeah it's not like they send me a list of five names and say here's a here pick a guy yeah it's just kind of comes together at

times right you know like hey this guy um it seems like it's a decent matchup and he's going to be willing to fight it just comes down to um timing he he wants to fight this month you said you'll be ready to fight this month you want to do this yes or no that kind of that thing it's not like i have a choice that that often but i'll ask for certain people yeah and then that's when they make it happen and do you so say if some come in will you like uh do you decide immediately usually what's your process do you kind of take a beat when they call me with a fight i call my coaches i say hey what do you think about this matchup and then we take the fight fight. I've never turned down one. You haven't?

No. Wow. Pretty fascinating. They got that Cormier-Lewis fight coming up. Yeah, the Black Beast. Dude, it sounds fucking crazy. I can't even believe they're going to let these guys fucking fight each other. Dude, and they're both taking it pretty quick.

Yeah. Lewis just fought, and Daniel was probably- They fought two months ago pretty quick. Yeah. Lewis just fought, and Daniel was probably- They fought two months ago at most. Yeah, yeah. What happens in that? What is a negative about taking a fight quickly? The good thing is these guys are heavyweights, so they're not going to be far off. They can weigh whatever, up to 265 pounds, so they're not going to have to cut weight.

For me, it would be a scramble because I'm obviously going to be a lot heavier than I would be after a whole training camp. So I'd have a lot of weight to cut. You got to go in there and cut it up. Oh, yeah. And I'll be really bad, you know. But you don't get time to train for the opponent. Yeah. You know, you don't get a lot of those sparring rounds and a lot of mat time that preparing for a specific style. There's lots of downfalls to taking short fights like that.

What do you see happening in the in the Lewis Cormier fight? I think Daniel's going to take him down. And he's not going to take the risk of throwing punches with a real heavyweight. Daniel's a big guy, but Lewis is a lot bigger. Yeah. And he's known for knocking people out. I think Daniel's going to wrestle him. Yeah.

Yeah. So if you got a guy that's trying to knock you out, you got to slow him down usually then. Yeah. Or you can break it down and try to counterpunch him. I mean, there's so many things you can do. Were you right-handed or left-handed when you were a kid? Right-handed. And are you both-handed now?

Yeah, I use both hands for different things, but I fight left-handed now. Really? Yeah. Fuck, bro. That's crazy, dog. I realize, like, if I'm, I noticed that it's if I'm gonna, like, do, like, hopscotch, I start on my left foot. Yeah? I noticed that, yeah.

I can go right, but mostly I'm more left, man left man yeah i just don't have that many athletic skills like a sprint you would start with them if a sprint i think i would start i wouldn't sprint anymore okay yeah me either man my hip yeah i would shut it down um if the so the stem cells you'll know in three weeks then well i think i'll know before they said i'll be able to go back to training in three weeks i'll know before then i'll know how i'm feeling like within a week of the shots right yeah they're also doing synovial fluid so my joint is going to be you know lubricated okay get an oil change dog that's it huh yeah so dude and that's just now do you just really need enough to be able to get to that fight is that kind of how you think about it well they told me uh i mean yeah as long as i can have a healthy training camp and then fight whatever happens after that just happens that's kind of

my mindset but i want to do the right things and they told me that this could be anywhere from eight months relief yeah to a year and a half it's hard to tell everybody's different okay so this is kind of like i remember i got a part of my disc taken out once and they give you like the same thing they give women when they're pregnant they give them um epidurals right and so that would make it so then totally like my back would be fine for like six to eight months. And then it would just get kind of bad again. But maybe it's similar. This is a little bit different, I think.

Yeah, maybe it's not even similar. Let's take one more question, man, and then we'll shut it down. Yo, what's up, baby girl? This is Eric calling from denver colorado and i thought you got uh that bad boy the diamonds on your show and i got a question for him sorry i'm talking kind of fast and i'm doing some jokes um cocaine but uh yeah my question is uh what was the craziest street fight he's ever seen or been a part of. And Theo, I think I know yours. It was when you ran into the headbutton champ and it didn't go your way.

But Theo, take care, and I'll try and stop doing cocaine soon. All right, boys. Yeah, take care. Good luck. Good luck. Yeah, good luck stopping doing cocaine, bro. Oh, man. I haven't been part of a street fight. And to answer that question, I haven't been part of a street fight and to answer

that question i haven't been part of a street fight and i don't know how long yeah i don't want to do that i don't want to that's i'm off the clock yeah did you ever see any though have you ever seen some real wild ones dude last one that i could think of that i've been in was uh one mardi gras down in lafayette louisiana i was at my brother's house and it was like a street party you know the whole everybody's out on the street and my wife was leaning over a fence talking to somebody and then guys from next door came over and like bent over her back while she was bending over and put his hand on her stomach and like started talking in her ear and then uh bro you just saw red huh yeah I ripped him off I had a buddy of mine who fights. He started dropping this other guy's people left and right.

Dude, I mean, dude, 100%. Every shot that landed, everybody fell. 100%. He shot 100% from the field that night. Then I started punching this guy, and then he had a lot more friends than we did. My brother is not a fighter, so he didn't run out of the house to come fight. But it was just like people were fighting everywhere. He was a referee.

Yeah, and I ended up getting my back up against a car because they were jumping. I was like, yeah. And I got hit with a bunch of uppercuts. It was crazy, man. Mardi Gras things. Mardi Gras is fun, though. Yeah, yeah. Anything can happen in Mardi Gras, dude.

I love that, dude. My buddy, some guy slept in his truck all night one year. I slept in a portalette one time in New Orleans, man. I didn't have a place, yeah. Like a porta potty? Yeah. I mean, the seat was down, but yeah. That's like the Ritz-Carlton compared to where some people sleep out there.

That's true. It gets a little deep out there, Mardi Gras. Dude, I love, that's one thing I do miss about Mardi Gras, man. Everybody would drink all day and anything could happen. Yeah. You could start a family. You could start a fire. anything could happen. Yeah. You could start a family. You could start a fire. You could start a family.

You could start a fight. Anything could happen at Mardi Gras, man. You'd end up with all kinds of strange people. Yeah. I miss that stuff, man. I think some of what I miss really is just being young and not having those responsibilities. Dude, I remember when I was young, you could take a nap, and you didn't care how long it was. You didn't set an alarm.

No. Like, fuck it, bro. Yeah. I'm going to sleep. I might wake up tomorrow. Don't even matter. Yeah, don't even matter. And now it's just like everything is more just, I guess, adult, you know?

But I guess that's part of growing up. Well, man, we wish you the best of luck, dude. Thank you so much for coming in, bro. This is really, really cool. Thanks for having me on, man. Yeah, man. Wish you the best of luck, dude. Thank you so much for coming in, bro. This is really, really cool. Thanks for having me on, man. Yeah, man. Wish you the best of luck, man. We're going to try and come out and see one of those fights.

That'd be dope, man. If you're ever back in Louisiana anytime soon, dude, hit me up. Yeah. I'll show you a good time. Yeah. We'll eat some boudin crackling. Dude, I'll come over there and do something, bro. Do something strange.

You know what I'm saying? Dude, I'll eat some fucking, I'll bring some fox meat. You know? Fight some kangaroos. Well, they had a couple brothers that lived by me when I was in Baton Rouge. They were always grilling dove outside of my apartment. Dove. Yeah.

And I'd go out there, dude, and these two black dudes was always cooking dove, dude. And I don't usually eat peaceful birds, you know? Right. No, right. But then one day I was like, I'll fucking have some, man. And it was good. Keep it to violent birds most of the time, right? Oh, dude.

I'll fuck a toucan up. You know what I'm saying? Some toucan kebabs. Forget about it. Dustin Poirier, the diamond. Best of luck in this upcoming fight, man. I hope you heal up soon. And we'll see you next time.

Thanks, brother. Yeah. Now I'm just floating on the breeze And I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground Falling like these leaves, I must be cornerstone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found. I can feel it in my bones. But it's going to take a little time for me to set that parking brake and let myself all mine.

Shine that light on me. I'll sit and tell you my story. Well, thanks for watching that video right there. That was a beautiful little segment, I think. But of course, I'm partisan to myself. But you can move on to another video right now. You can check on this video or on this video. That's two different options.

And you can also subscribe to the channel. Check on a new video. Subscribe to the channel. Check, subscribe, check, check, check, subscribe. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite, and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner. The answer may shock you.

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