0:00

going in that fight I don't think anybody thought you were gonna well some people you thought you were gonna win

0:05

most people didn't think that you were going to win story of my life right yeah and you you know I look at it now as you

0:12

know really you had the greatest comeback in UFC history

0:20

Dominic Cruz welcome to the podcast cool man you got a nice setup here thanks you

0:26

know we've been working on it for a little while the the team did it I did a

0:31

good job yeah but it's all your stuff so it's like

0:37

weird things you bought over time pretty much exactly so that's what makes it cool and it's all the stuff you like

0:42

talk about the weird things that we buy over time yeah we got a rock a random Rock really fancy

0:49

got some good books you know you like the word bougie right I mean you know when I think of Dominic Cruz I think

0:55

bougie [Laughter] what's funny is I was just talking to uh homie out there I can't remember his

1:01

name um he was like yeah I mean he's got all this fancy stuff in here because he got

1:07

all the the waters the penny Waters in there so he's he's always got all this fantasy I'm like you know we all need

1:13

one of those though because it's like you I'll always be the first to you know oh bougie Ed like watch out with his

1:20

pinky ring right now but I'm not picky ring you know what I mean you know it's like like this everywhere he goes

1:27

um you may Kiss the Ring yeah but at the same time you kind of like I'm always like he's like yeah he

1:32

ordered like a hundred thousand dollars in Marble to put on the walls over there I'm just shaking my head and I'm like thanks Ed because I would never look at

1:39

that marble if it wasn't for you I would never have the nice mansion life or the

1:46

a lot of this because you know some of us just don't I wouldn't say never but it's not something

1:51

it would I would have around me unless somebody wanted it so if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have all this nice stuff

1:56

around I'm sorry I have one of you and all your friends

2:02

and all my friends you gotta have one bougie friend so that I can be like okay I'm not gonna complain there we go

2:08

I'll partake there we go you'll partake I'll partake easily it's a good time right every time every time it's like

2:14

the next fancy it's just a different experience when you go with that yeah well thanks for that wait you still know

2:21

I can sleep on a couch too that's what's cool about you yeah you're a little far away from that now but this might be a

2:28

little it might have to be a Tempur-Pedic couch laughs it wasn't that long ago but I do know

2:35

that guy and he's in there yeah for sure yeah he just goes south Paul now yeah

2:40

yeah so he he throws out the Southpaw uh Dom and I were uh we were you know just

2:48

shadow box exploring and the thing if you've been away for training for a long time like me like you still have in

2:54

the back of your head that you you still got it well I think it's in all men right you

MMA, Reaction Times, Winning through Consistency

3:00

can't give that up you can't like Lodge your ego is part of us and it can't logically give that piece up yeah you

3:06

die yeah that's that's probably yeah that's true but yeah you know we're like moving I feel good you know conventional

3:12

stance but you you change the South Pole and I was like oh you're messing everything up I have no

3:17

chance now well you were like come on come on

3:23

and you did that right after pretty good yeah you're okay come on and you started to do this real hard and and you like

3:29

showing me the right hand and I was like laughing in my head like okay switch and

3:35

you your whole face just like why'd you do that yeah and it's like that's what it feels like in real life yeah that's

3:41

what it feels like it does feel like that you're just like man you just took away everything I was looking for yeah

3:47

you know it's part of it I was actually uh one of my old Fighters I got into

3:52

Lance Patrick has a local school here uh I had him coming over to do private lessons for you know Muay Thai lessons

3:58

with me same thing I was like I'm still you know the same I could at least move and the

4:05

reaction time is just so much slower and um you know I kind of took it for

4:10

granted for a long time I think youth yeah Youth and just you know you don't realize that

4:18

by training every day for most of your life you know you just react differently and then you take 10 years off and

4:24

you're not gonna yeah well that um it like I'll get done with the fight

4:31

and it'll be gone in two weeks it'll be your abs are gone and you're literally

4:36

the cardio the elite cardio that you were in goes down by loads and you become

4:41

human again almost yeah it's very interesting two weeks after 12 weeks of

4:47

consistent Perfection doesn't it doesn't mean anything in two weeks it's gone yeah wow it's crazy it's just like that

4:54

so it's knowing that and feeling that has kept me in a lot of the practices that work

5:00

in my life a lot more once I physically could feel that it only takes two weeks

5:05

to fall off and like actually have the experiential learning of that which is what you were just explaining which is

5:11

like I'll go fight at the highest level of life and win and then two weeks later I'm getting

5:17

beat up by somebody in there because my timing's off they're out jabbing me they're out low kicking me when I try to jab they're timing shots and taking me

5:24

down possibly I'm not saying this happens all the time but like if that happens it's like you feel it you come out and you're like man how in two weeks

5:31

am I getting so winded when I was just doing what I did and then it teaches you like well that's

5:37

all it takes to lose the sharpness literally I mean you just feel it you experience it and then I found over all

5:45

the course of my career you every time you get done with the fight your brain says just keep this don't don't don't

5:50

you don't want to let it go you don't want to let go that level of elite of

5:56

being shredded uh feeling good of feeling on top of the world but then on the other half your body

6:02

just wants to eat and have a beer and relax and take a vacation and it's like

6:07

your body doesn't know what to do but in that two weeks most the time I'll fall

6:13

off and of what I wish that I could do and stay Elite and like you know I'll have a couple drinks and I'll eat some

6:19

of that barbecue and I'll do this and have the cake and then it turns into two pieces of cake over two weeks and then

6:25

you lose it and then you're like man I wonder if I would have stayed on the exact diet for the next two weeks would

6:31

I feel worse or better because I needed the rest and I needed those those things

6:37

or would I still be as sharp or would I fall off like because you know you say you peek and then you have to come you

6:43

have to come down so maybe I'm just declining because I'm supposed to your body can't stay in that Elite

6:50

space for like too long or you just wither away into nothingness but then you don't want to let go of it it's the

6:57

weirdest thing and I don't want to let go of it it's the weirdest thing and I just say we because

7:03

I talk to a lot of other athletes that were and like we talk about that like man I know yeah

7:08

you wish you were but I know you won't like we talked to each other that way and

7:13

um in the end it's like the more times I felt that and fallen off felt that phone and then finally I'll have that one

7:20

fight where I'll stay with it for three weeks right and I finally did it of 26 fights or whatever you have that one fight where you finally stick it out and

7:26

you try to stay Elite and then you feel the difference and you book a fight right away and then you book them and

7:32

then you're like okay like maybe I can just fight more consistently if I can keep this but then just give it a small

7:38

break just don't break all the way just break a little bit right don't don't break off the deep end

7:45

and so that's kind of I've transferred that mentality that's like to me a championship mentality a professional

7:51

mentality um rather than falling all the way off give yourself some perks but not all of the perks and then you can kind of stay

7:58

there without burning at the at both ends you're still getting the fun you're still getting the relaxation you're

8:04

still getting some of the stuff but you're not just giving up and uh surrendering to what the world does

8:10

you know you you do have to have I do have to have a level of professionalism mixed into it so as I follow that that I

8:17

experienced in fighting and then take that to my regular life um it's kept me in habits that maybe I

8:24

wouldn't want to be in because my mind tells me I know I need to do it more to get it so like I'll stay in places that

8:31

a lot of people are like why are you still here doing this right now

8:36

like why you've been here so and it's because I have a mentality of practice of just

8:42

just show up in practice and you stay sharp it doesn't even mean I necessarily need it I mean I've been doing double

8:48

legs one twos back arches stretching my hamstrings since I was born

8:54

and I'm still doing it why would I change that in my regular life with the things that work those so martial arts

Ed and Dominick’s Friendship Backstory, Why Ed Likes Dominick, Dom’s Mindset

9:01

for me has been a I don't call it was fighting in the early times and then it turned to martial arts as I matured and

9:06

I started to learn I was on a bigger Journey when did you figure that one out when I hurt my knees and had to come

9:12

back uh so what year was that like probably man you know I really do need to go back

9:18

and do like a time lapse of all the things because I haven't done that yeah actually I was gonna kind of you know go

9:24

over a lot of that and uh you know in the interview you're kind of breaking that down like I don't know how to do it

9:30

I haven't I'd have to have like internet probably to like say when did this happen because my

9:36

brain kind of looks at everything as one Big Blob of everything well I mean you

9:42

know we first met around we'll do a rounds in around 2007.

9:48

um you were training with Mike Eason who's one of my teammates at the time in

9:54

Maryland not mine and uh yeah I love Mike too just saw it just catered with him recently he's in DC doing good oh

10:00

nice you haven't seen Mike in in years now he's doing great great saw the whole family I love it yeah good good yeah and

10:07

so uh you know and you've heard me tell this story before but I was like ah you know I saw you training with I was like

10:13

yeah he's okay i'm's okay I wasn't that impressed then you know the first time

10:18

and uh but then you know of course get to know you a little better and then

10:25

understood really kind of big picture like what what I think makes you way

10:30

different and you know then we weren't near as close but

10:35

it was still a respect and like I'm always analyzing you're an analyzer I'm an analyzer too like what makes this guy

10:42

so successful and well I wasn't successful in 2007 I

10:48

had actually just lost well this is this is like as I started fall it was the first time I met you though so I wasn't

10:53

impressed when I first saw you but you turned into you know one of the

10:58

greatest champions uh ever I mean you had the greatest comeback of all time there's not even a

11:04

close second to your story you've overcome more adversity to become a champion than any fighter uh that I know

11:11

of um but I guess at the time I was looking at like you know what what do I think makes you

11:17

uh a champion and it was you know obviously your work ethic is as good as

11:23

anyone's but it's kind of like what to me what makes you a great uh commentator

11:30

too is your ability to analyze and break things down in logical ways

11:36

and then take that information and do something with it um so I say all that because you were

11:44

just kind of breaking down a minute ago of a bunch of things has your brain always

11:50

work that way were you able to analyze and put things into into place

11:58

um possibly like for me I didn't really see it as a gift like like you're kind of meant I see it like you're framing at

12:04

someone is like a nice thing like a good thing right but going through school it didn't really work good for me like that

12:10

I needed to know steps and like a lot of school was didactic learning which was

12:16

read do the do the like in my reading comprehension wasn't high and so like I

12:21

always called myself like I always had to tell myself like I'm not dumb I'm not dumb I'm not dumb

12:26

I'm not dumb I'm too smart for that I'm too smart I'm too smart at work like I had to always tell myself

12:32

because it was very difficult for me in school so growing up I had a because I used Hooked on Phonics growing up and

12:39

like so I already since young had that thing in my head I didn't learn to read till I was like almost in third like

12:45

halfway through second grade and Hooked on Phonics worked for me it

12:51

really did and like uh taught me to read but then from that moment on I don't

12:56

know if it was a belief that I had or whatever but it was hard for me to read like it was I remember going through

13:01

second grade and the teacher like not knowing what to do and so my mom added that to my curriculum on her own

13:07

so I learned to read and I don't know if that always like stuck with me but my reading comprehension was low so going through

13:13

school I mean I just had a really hard time keeping a 3.0 that was the goal keep a 3.0 all the way through high

13:19

school because you want to go to college and get a scholarship excuse me

13:25

and so I kind of didn't I don't know if those steps didn't work well for me in the early parts of my life that were talking that work well now as an adult

13:32

but to me those are like problem solving abilities and those aren't

13:39

very well utilized in school systems like I have to use that to make a an

13:45

assessment and then use it that works really well in life as an adult but as a kid you have to follow the

13:50

lines and stick within the boundaries and that was really difficult for me um the the school system so I kind of

13:57

thought I was like not smart for a long time interesting and then I graduated high school

14:03

and started coaching uh wrestling immediately because I didn't get the scholarship because I had to work

14:09

full-time so you know you couldn't go where you couldn't go to college pay your own way

14:15

and be on the wrestling team because it took so much time to be on the wrestling team I couldn't work and go to school so

14:21

I had to pick one or the other because I didn't have a scholarship so

14:26

with all that you know you just kind of um I started college for one semester and

14:34

then decided while I was in this transition Point am I going to work three jobs go to college and become a

14:41

firefighter EMT or am I going to just go this other route which was at the same

14:46

time I was fighting on the weekends training during the week coaching wrestling and those were my jobs but I

14:52

like loved them like I just loved being in those places more than any of the other stuff I was doing school

14:58

and all that I hated and so I found that

15:03

um the school route which was like the

15:09

firefighter EMT the smart route white picket fence like the way that is is logical that's the way everybody said go

15:15

that route don't go become a prize fighter I don't know it just it was always so

15:20

hard for me it felt so difficult it felt like going uphill every step because the

15:26

school was really difficult so I have so much respect for people who you know get through and get their education in

15:31

College of course like it's hard um but I think it was more just as I

15:37

grown up and and moved into my own way of being I think it's just the type of learning

15:42

that matters for each type of person because I now know that I excel in so

15:48

many other areas that a lot of people even in college don't sure and so it's like

15:53

I jumped right into these jobs and I'm doing pretty well and I didn't have a college education I only have a high

15:58

school education and some are like where'd you go to school and I didn't you know and

16:04

I think it just has to do with what you're saying using my using analysis and you know problem solving skills

16:10

articulating them and then using them in real world situations my mom was always

16:15

real analytical and she always made me talk through everything growing up and I always hated it and she made me do it

16:21

yeah I do really she's special but when you're growing up it's just [ __ ] annoying you just like leave me

16:29

alone I don't want to answer these stupid questions and I get it now because that's how people feel with me sometimes as an adult we're all just big

16:36

kids that have grown up in our traumas yeah and I feel like you know and so like

16:42

having my mom talk me through all these things I think really kind of put me into that

16:47

frame of mind as well but my mom on the other hand was very good at school she you know college educated

16:54

um learned Spanish in school extremely smart like very high IQ was um in the

17:01

she was a synchronized swimmer went to Nationals Junior Olympic team and synchronized

17:07

swimming very athletic very stubborn and tough and strong and so I think a ton of

17:14

my traits of the stuff you're asking me about my intelligence definitely come from my mom

17:19

for sure she just she's very smart her asked a lot of questions and made me talk through

17:25

everything all the time whether it's punishment or good decisions bad decisions there's always a discussion

17:30

like we're doing right now sit down and fit and talk about it so from Love

17:36

so um that stuff I think really I think that's part of it but

17:42

I I'm just trying to say that I didn't always look at myself as like a smart person like I've had to give myself the

17:49

grace to understand that there's different areas that I feel smart in different areas that I don't and it

17:54

could be the way I'm ingesting the information or it could be because I just don't get it and that's not my thing but that's why it makes me so much

18:03

feel more connected with everybody because you see some somebody else come into that position that I can't feel and

18:08

just do it with it with their eyes shut and it's like man is a real truth to we're all supposed to be connected you

18:14

using our own gifts where we're supposed to like I can't do everything and there's a reason we're all supposed to

18:19

work together I feel like so even that like gives me a p a place of Grace for

18:25

people who maybe I'm like man they're not so smart they don't seem real smart or what it's like maybe they're just in

18:31

a different intelligence than I am like I could show up really stupid in so many areas so just all these questions that

18:38

you're asking me like all the different layouts no I haven't always seen myself smart yes the analysis has supported me

18:45

but it also has put me in a place where it's giving me a lot of Grace to where I

18:50

can say man not everybody's smart everywhere and it's built that way yeah no I mean I do you see yourself as smart

18:56

now overall yeah I do okay good yeah you're yeah really smart just different like because if you because if you do an

19:03

IQ test some would say I'm dumb right you just there's so many different um because I haven't done one but I'm

19:08

saying like who knows maybe I flunk it I just don't know does that make me dumb now so it's like who's smart who's dumb

19:15

and who drew the line for it that's the hard part to me I wonder you know because I I was the same way in school I

19:21

couldn't sit well for me I couldn't sit in school I would it was driving crazy I didn't like the way

19:26

you know we learned I was I was miserable sitting in a classroom uh but you know I look at it now and I

19:35

wonder if it's just interest so for instance for instance like my experience of you is if you find

19:42

something you're interested in you can learn it and I feel like I'm the same way as well you know if I find a

Dom’s Start in Fighting and Martial Arts, The Early Days of Fighting

19:48

subject that I'm really interested in uh but there's something about that attention and focus that's needed

19:54

for me to learn I like how you worded that I think that's exactly the issue

19:59

and you're right that's what I look up to people who can go to college because I know they're learning things they

20:04

don't want to learn and I'm like how do you do this every day like how did you just write a 200

20:10

page paper about something that you don't care about and you just told me you don't care about it right

20:16

right how did you do that like it is just no it's like there's what's in it

20:23

yeah I I don't know it just it's tough for me to create from that space yeah yeah I mean and then you know

20:30

when you started like when did you start uh fighting like when did you know that

20:35

you want to be a fighter um I actually didn't know until I saw

20:40

like a business opportunity out of it to be honest it was a business opportunity The Ultimate Fighter okay yeah watching

20:47

that start and I think uh the season that it was

20:53

Chris Lee been and Nate Diaz I don't know what what season exactly that was

20:58

but um I was fighting over I had already had a couple Pro fights by that time so I

21:04

started at that time you know I think it's 2006 I started fighting um so

21:11

but I wasn't deep into it you know at that point like it was still illegal in every state in the United States

21:19

and we were fighting on Indian reservations and considered human cockfighting oh yeah

21:25

Gladiator weird people honestly like that's literally the that was the thing

21:31

you know um John McCain said that and I like John McCain too that's what's great

21:37

um so like during that time there was only 155 pounds and up so I'm carb loading

21:43

and putting on weight eating as much protein as I can and lifting weights because I don't even you you're not even

21:50

thinking that there's going to be 135 145 pound weight class at this time Sean shirk is the champion at 155 pounds and

21:57

my goal is to beat him and I'm like how am I going to do this there's no way I can beat Sean's shirt

22:03

he's so big and he's so fast and he was so good you know and then that's when BJ

22:08

Penn and all these guys were still the the best in their top in the elite killing people and it was so cool Rich

22:14

Franklin was fighting Anderson Silva during this time Chuck Liddell era that Randy Couture when you could still talk

22:20

nice about him and they still saw his fights like this was then you know I mean you can't even see a chocolate elf

22:26

like or a granny Couture fight if you tried anymore gone they cease to exist really yeah go look one out I didn't

22:32

know that I won't find it wow um so I mean that's an Olympian that you can't see his fights so it's like this

22:40

is a time when people don't even know existed yeah and now it's gone because the internet wasn't at its peak like it

22:47

is now social media wasn't at its peak it was there but it wasn't at its peak

22:52

like it wasn't working in the fluidity that it is now so then

22:58

um I'm just gaining weight and seeing the ultimate fighter and I'm like man well at this time I'm still going to

23:06

school and I'm still working three jobs while to pay for my school and to pay for my house because I'm I moved out of

23:12

my own when I was 18. so I had to start college right away and I had to work three part-time jobs to pay for the

23:18

college and to pay for my rent to pay for my car payment Basics right just normal human stuff

23:23

but um I'm fighting on the weekends to get it all out of my system I was just so pent

23:31

up so miserable so angry I'd get I was just working to get the week done and to

23:36

party on the weekends at that time you know you're 18 19 20. and I'm living like I'm 35 year old dad because I'm

23:42

trying to get trying to have things I just want to not be paycheck to paycheck anymore so I'm just

23:49

grinding grinding grinding well on the weekends I was my outlet like you're telling me you're gonna pay me all I

23:56

gotta do is drive up to Phoenix you're gonna give me a couple hundred bucks I just gotta get my Medicals done and I

24:01

can just beat somebody to death and nobody's gonna arrest me and it's legal

24:06

because remember it's still illegal in every state so it wasn't even a thought that it was going to be what it is today

24:11

at this time so it was just an outlet for me and I was having fun with it that's all it was I just enjoyed getting

24:17

to beat people up on the weekends instead of doing it in the streets because that's what was happening

24:23

I was noticing I was fighting every weekend on the streets After parties and stuff when I was young I was like all right I got to

24:29

start coaching wrestling this is getting started coaching wrestling and then I was I got in such good shape getting these guys ready that I was like you

24:35

know what I'm just gonna take a fight on the weekend and see how I do because I was just already wrestling at a high level and standing running these guys

24:42

everything and I kept taking fights on these weekends random weekends while I work

24:47

while I did all this stuff and I kept winning and I got to like 5-0

24:52

in the region and I'd beaten a state champion in that in that region that was in wrestling and so I was like wow I

24:58

just beat a guy in wrestling that was way better than me at wrestling he was a state champion I just knocked him out

25:04

right this is weird I like this sport like I can cheat you

25:10

know I can they might be good wrestler but I learned that I was like I can cheat the whole time and

25:15

this is cool it's like wrestling but you can cheat that's what I meant like wrestling is the first martial art in my

25:21

opinion so getting to do that on the weekend gave me a taste of this like freedom and fun

25:28

and who I was inside but then I'd go to work go to school

25:35

getting ready to be a firefighter EMT you know want to get married have a house that's this other side and it's

25:42

like I had to like it was weird it was like they were one was smart one was stupid

25:47

but they but one made me way happier than the smart one the dumb stupid idea fighting on the weekends training

25:54

wrestling with these guys and then just working to maintain that lifestyle seems

25:59

stupid it's like that's dumb it's not even legal it's not even a thing but then

26:05

when the ultimate fighter came it's like this is not gonna stay little and stupid I could see that there's no way this

26:12

doesn't take off I just I just knew it it's boxing took off why wouldn't this

26:17

right it's just simple I just knew it I didn't have any doubt in my mind once I

26:22

saw the ultimate fighter that that sport was going to explode and so I was literally at a time where it's like

26:28

I could go and just start gaining weight try to fight Sean's shirt

26:33

or I could continue going to school and be miserable and I was like I'm young enough

26:40

hacked all my [ __ ] up and went to San Diego while I took a fight I took my sixth fight this was it actually

26:47

and I was getting ready to fight in Colorado I said I got to 5-0 on my own in the region and I said okay if I'm

26:53

going to take this serious and quit going to school and doing all this I need to win this next fight and I'm going to leave my region and then that

26:59

will get me somebody who cares about me who will Coach me who will manage me because at this point I have some friends that would come around and they

27:07

would like hold pads for me and gather us and then like a guy who would help me lift and like you get a guy who'll be

27:12

like okay today I can hold for you but you know you couldn't get pad holders you I

27:18

didn't have a because I'm 5-0 I'm doing it on the weekends and I'm not like committed but I'm also not like you said

27:24

he doesn't look very good so you said it yourself so all that being said that's

27:30

that was the General Viber about me and so I knew that that wasn't true obviously

27:36

but I needed to get out of the region to prove it because nobody in the region gave a [ __ ] and was going to support me

27:42

or help me or coach me or give me a free like you had to pay 65 for pads nobody's

27:49

gonna hold for you for free so how did I get pad work oh my gosh like that's where this sport is people don't

27:54

understand like all these guys coming in and just getting like no you have to pay for bad words somebody's doing work they

28:01

don't care about me yeah I'm a janitor I'm cleaning the mats and the toilets right now right seriously and then

28:07

working three jobs when I'm done and I'm cleaning and janitoring so that I can pay my membership because I can't afford

28:13

it so it's like this is where the sport was when I started it

28:19

now it's like if you don't hold pads for me then you don't care about me like what yeah and go hit a bag pad

28:25

entitlement you know so anyways I look at this and it's like crazy how big the

28:30

sport has gotten that's how fast it exploded but

28:36

I knew if I got out of the region I'd be set so I went to um

28:41

I I set up a fight in Colorado at 155 pounds against a champion in the

28:47

organization I can't remember the name of it I think it was King of the cage actually in Colorado

28:52

and I can't remember the guy's name but the whole event gets canned not just our

28:57

fight the whole event gets canned two weeks before the fight and I was like training with Drew Fickett at this time and we had a whole group of guys in at

29:04

this time if you can get a group of guys to all be training for fights at the same time it was a gift because you had

29:09

training partners that were good they weren't just like off their lunch break trying to [ __ ] you up and you gotta I

29:15

used to have to like line up six guys to beat me up because they weren't in shape and they weren't good and they didn't know what they were doing but six of

29:20

them are hard to beat so it's like I had to do that instead of

29:26

having like now I've got a team of guys that one guy's enough like I can train with one guy he's good

29:32

so when I was training with Drew ficken this squad we called ourselves team scrub uh thanks Drew

29:39

um I was prepared and he's on and I and I was going to go to Colorado and fight this fight and

29:45

when it got canned I went to Drew and I'll never forget this is a huge point in my life one of the biggest true Fickett

29:51

man he's got he's just he's got fights in the UFC for those who don't know beat Josh Koscheck he's just he's a crazy

29:58

dude but awesome was it was an awesome guy has a big heart and uh I said hey I can't this fight got

30:05

canceled but I got a fight on two days notice that um I got a call that I can go to San Diego and fight in

30:13

um total combat it's called which was Eric Del farro's organization at the time with Diana

30:18

they owned it together and a call I got on the phone with Eric

30:24

and he's like yeah not gonna lie the guy's good he's not a chump it's the co-main event you'd be saving the show

30:30

it's at 145 pounds 145 that didn't even exist so I'm like I was fighting at 155

30:36

at altitude so you're gonna give me a fight at 45 at sea level

30:43

I'm good yeah like I can and it was only three rounds not five so I'm like wow this like could work out perfect like

30:50

I'm in shape for five rounds at altitude and this is three rounds at sea level

30:55

yeah I'm in shape even if this guy is good I'll gas him out is what I was thinking it doesn't even matter I'll

31:02

just gas him out and so I said I got off the phone and

31:09

well I said yes and I got off the phone and I was just nervous I was like ah I had just ordered lunch and I remember I

31:15

gave away my lunch I was like all right you guys can have my lunch and I was working at Sherwin-Williams at the time so loading paint in the truck I was a

31:21

paint delivery driver and I told all my guys I was like dude I gotta fight next weekend they're like what and uh I was like yeah I'm gonna go to

31:29

California and get this fight so I got I got my days off my boss gave it to me he's like good luck and I left I left my

31:35

regular job and went and I showed up um I went to air or to to

31:41

Drew the next day after I said yes to the fight and I was like man can you come with me to the fight I took

31:46

a fight on two days notice I'm ready he's like ask me the logistics he says oh yeah you're ready it's three rounds

31:52

and you've been ready for five rounds and you've been training hard you're ready and I'm like okay so you can come with

31:57

me he's like do you have money to pay for my flight and I said no and he's like will they pay for my flight he's like no he's like yeah you don't need me

32:02

you're good he's like you're fine man just go

32:08

you're good and I looked at him I was like I don't know he was so serious and

32:13

didn't Flinch and didn't and he was a UFC fighter that had won at the highest level multiple times not

32:19

once like he was good and I he just strangled everybody out on our team all the time so you respect him

32:24

right so I was like if he says I'm good I'm good and I believed him ignorance is

32:29

bliss wasn't good went left

32:35

showed up um and Eric loved me because I didn't there was no he didn't have to pay for a

32:40

cornerman and I was on two days notice and he had all that stuff he had to pay for before so he ended up saving money

32:46

on me oh the fight game yeah and flying Me In

32:52

by myself and I'll never forget a guy named RJ picked me up and he's like all right just you head you got no one with you

32:57

and I'm like no he's like you're [ __ ] crazy you came by yourself and I'm like yeah he's like

33:03

okay and we're we're getting the car yeah and I'm

33:09

like I'm good in my head but now I'm like you start yeah you start second guessing I've heard the story because

33:15

everybody's so shocked that you start I started second guessing myself yeah a little bit you know tiny bits but at the

33:22

same time I'm from Arizona at this time I'm like yeah I don't know whatever at this time like they don't know who I am or what I've been through like it's all

33:28

good they just don't know and they don't know Drew and like you just make all these weird stories out that make it why

33:34

you're gonna win even though none of them are true right um so

33:40

um I'm still cutting weight because remember I was gaining weight for 155 so

33:46

I had to lose about uh 20 pounds in two days oh wow yeah and I did it and so I'm

33:53

dying of starvation and thirsty as [ __ ] right and we go away in at Hooters and

33:58

we keep on weighing in and I ordered 50 hot wings and I ate the whole place

34:04

and a Theo and a pitcher of water and he watched me do and he's like I've never

34:09

seen anybody do that in my life swear to God he's like you're disgusting

Figuring It Out, Showing up Solo to a Fight, Going Blind in The Shower After the Fight

34:15

and he just this guy just met me and I'm just remember like he's putting all these weird thoughts in my head like I

34:21

don't know I'm doing stupid [ __ ] I'm 5-0

34:26

you know what I mean like right and the Sport's not big there's no there's no slate there's no wrong or right way to

34:33

do anything people like everybody at home you're hearing this now going what an idiot I don't know then nobody knows

34:40

that there's a right and a wrong way like you just get it done right right just you're hungry you eat you gotta

34:47

lose weight you lose the weight there's not like a I need to go see a rocket scientist and figure out how much weight

34:52

I can lose at a time you just do it so I'm just at that point doing it I don't

34:59

know what I'm doing but I'm doing it and I'm here because what else do I have and I don't give a [ __ ] [ __ ] all of you none

35:05

of you are here for me I already know because you're from California you're here putting me against a HomeTown

35:10

favorite so I came in already like I don't give a [ __ ] what anybody says or thinks about me I already know you

35:16

brought me here to lose no question I'm here to lose I already knew so I was already kind of just

35:22

water off a duck's back type of thing by myself like [ __ ] it

35:28

and I go and we're getting ready and the commission

35:34

comes in and goes who's your corner I don't have one that you have to have cornerman so they went and got like a

35:40

guy that just two random people that I've never

35:45

met before and they put them in my corner and one guy started holding pads for me he was holding pads in the back for another guy so I'm like yeah just I

35:53

throw I had to tell him like what I he's like what do you do you pick do you watch

35:58

I like it just just give me some boxing and I'll warm up and like we did it I

36:03

warmed up wrestled the [ __ ] out of somebody because at this point I'm mostly wrestling did you ever see these guys afterwards never had pad work by

36:09

the way remember I can't afford pad work so this is the first real you get a little pad work here and there when

36:14

people will be nice enough to give it to you yeah but I don't really have a lot of patterns so this is a gift I'm

36:20

already happy did you see these guys afterwards by the way like did you oh yeah we have a relationship afterwards and it doesn't go pretty okay they all

36:28

become scumbags that's what's even crazier is the two the guys that were there at the beginning ended up being

36:33

some of the slimiest meatballs in my life as I come up in California oh man crazy

36:38

and uh I won't even say their names that's why I won't say their names because jerks not bad people just mean

36:45

decisions you know uh so long story short

36:51

I go out there and I [ __ ] win on a split decision oh broke my nose for the

36:57

first time in that fight and it was like completely shattered that one hurt

37:04

and I broke all the I broke a couple ribs on his side his name is Dave hisquardo and yeah it was a war you

37:11

dropped me once or twice I dropped him it was back and forth and uh he had just beaten a guy named

37:18

Crazy Horse right before I fought him that's what he was known for triangling Crazy Horse and if you know crazy horse that was a

37:25

big deal so for me to beat this guy was a big deal not just for me to prove to

37:30

myself that this is so I'm not a I'm I am good I can do this I'm I could be high level at this but it was also

37:37

just big because um I'm out of the region finally out of the region I'm just this

37:43

nobody from Tucson that got brought in to lose and I won on a Coleman event on the town favor I'm

37:50

6-0 now now I get done with the fight my nose is broken

37:56

and this is the first time I learned don't blow your nose go home go to the shower get in the

38:02

shower getting ready for the after party because I'm not going to the hospital because I don't have money for that so I

38:08

blow my nose in the shower and both my eyes completely go completely shut all the blood shoots into my eyes and I go

38:14

blind in the shower I can freak out I grab the side I'd knock the shower curtain down I fall out of the shower

38:20

I'm like freaking out because you're going from regular to completely blind and you don't know why and all you did

38:26

is blow your nose but it's not blind you just you're I can kind of see no you're blind because it feels it swelled all my

38:34

it just shut them like this I've seen swelling yeah it was disgusting and then I just calmed down for a minute and then

38:40

gather it and fade it out walked across the street to the uh we had the after party was at a strip club

38:46

and I got I I got hammered all night and that's how I went to the hospital instead ago in the hospital that's what

38:51

I did and I was 6-0 and he brought me back for the next flight and then that's when me and Eric met so it's just like I

38:58

thought when I went and fought that fight I met somebody who wanted to manage me and I met somebody who wanted

39:03

to coach me and who believed in me um and so that was Eric delfiero well

39:10

what's so interesting about him is he didn't offer me that right away he just said I'm gonna bring you back for

39:15

another fight you're awesome and he bonused me so he gave me like 300 Xbox I made 1700 for that fight nice it was

39:21

good back in the day most money I ever made so I was like whoa there's a future right

39:27

and so I go back home to Tucson and I go to work on Monday and they made me go home because I was so beat to [ __ ]

39:34

couldn't work that day so I lost like 150 bucks and I needed

39:40

that so that was even just another thing I remember like needing that 150 bucks at work and couldn't work at

39:46

Sherwin-Williams because my face was so battered that was another weird reality check like man no these jobs don't work

39:52

together like what am I doing um but that started the relationship with

39:57

Eric which he brought me back to win two more times and by the second win in total combat he said you need you

40:04

haven't showed up with a corner or a manager the last two fights he's like do you need one I'm like that would be

40:11

great and he said I'll help you can you come to California and then he uh booked the

40:17

Uriah Faber fight for me in the wec with Reed Harris right after I said yes I

40:23

would train with him okay and then I packed all my [ __ ] up in Tucson my my best friend at the time I was living in

40:29

his house Dylan Van Echo um picked me up at the bar at two in the

40:34

morning because I was too blasted drunk to leave I didn't pack anything I just went to the bar and got hammered

40:41

and he packed all my [ __ ] up put my eclipse on a U-Haul for me put

40:47

everything in my in my car picked me up when I was blacked out and then drove me

40:53

to San Diego oh that's a good friend great friend well best best friend I'd still talk to him today love that guy

41:00

um and he's like I know it's hot because he knew where I was going man like it wasn't going well for me the decisions I

41:06

was making you know hearing hearing your story up to this point um

41:12

I'm trying to figure out how to talk about it because I've seen it so much with fight it's a fighter thing it's

41:18

it's hard for people that aren't in the fight business to understand where you

41:23

were at that mentality like kind of do whatever it takes we'll see you will sleep on a couch you know you'll sleep

41:29

wherever you can yeah uh you you know even the mentality of going to

41:36

California without a coach you're like [ __ ] it like I'm gonna have nothing yeah

41:42

it's just a fighting it's me and him anyway and that's the whole thing the wars in the smaller shows

41:48

I mean they're memorable because you you know I mean you can always feel it even

41:54

you know but it's a different emotional to think back about it to be honest it is yeah it was a lot

42:02

well even sitting here talking about it uh you don't realize like how much of it

42:08

you skip over because of how much traumatizing it actually really was like you kind of just

42:14

keep going you know yeah yeah we did that and everybody did that right yeah but what was it like I mean okay so

42:20

you're you know you have this corner guy that you you know you don't really know these guys at all but at least they're there to kind of help you

42:27

so you have somebody that's a little relief it was yeah it was great a little relief well I had nobody before yeah for

42:33

five fights so I'd have like a guy but he would work

42:39

he had jobs and made money and you know like he was friendly and he would help me his name was Rocco but in the end

42:47

that guy like ended up everything was a lie too you know a lot of what he was shown up as is just everything around me

42:54

was just not it was just me surviving yeah so you you go into this fight uh got two Corner guys you don't really

Fight Breakdown, Fighting with Nothing to Lose

43:00

know but at least you got somebody and you know this guy beat Crazy Horse to

43:07

you it's a giant opportunity it's a huge opportunity yeah it's like the biggest one I was gonna get yeah so you know

43:13

this you're like screw it I'll go here without a corner I don't care I'm gonna fight this guy I

43:18

know I'm in better shape here's my game plan I'm gonna gas this guy out uh

43:23

going to that first round what I mean he said it was a war I haven't seen I watched the fight what was what was the

43:30

can't find that fight anywhere what was the combat like total combat uh did not

43:35

sell their stuff to the UFC so those fights are gone I see they're just poof

43:40

in The Ether somewhere so I'll never I don't know if I'll ever see that fight um but your question was what what was

43:47

that what was the combat like what was the fight like yeah yeah first round first of all it's a good point a lot of

43:52

people don't know what we went through and stuff like you said the couch and all that but at the same time I feel

43:58

like I don't tell this story a lot because I only hear about only people who went through that so it's like a

44:04

broken record for me so like for me to say it's not like a big deal for me it's like yeah I did that yeah I did I'll

44:10

have 20 people that did the same thing in front of me around me every day yeah those are all that we're all the same so

44:18

I'm talking to you about it like it's I mean it's not I don't talk about it because it's so not something you talk

44:24

about because they all went through why would I talk about it yeah but when I talk to you about it it almost I feel like I shouldn't

44:31

right is weird it's like I feel like a guilt to talk about it like I went through that and like that didn't happen

44:38

to me it happened so much for me at this point that I feel weird saying it like

44:44

it wasn't I don't know it wasn't bad it sounds bad when I say it it wasn't bad but it's it's hard for people to understand the

44:51

emotion there's a lot of emotion pain over I mean it's good you overcame adverse you beat this guy that you

44:57

weren't supposed to beat but there's a lot that goes into that people don't understand that Fighters go through yeah

45:02

that's what I'm trying to get at okay that day uh was was just terrifying because

45:10

um I just know I'm there to lose and I don't know anybody

45:16

so going back into it um I think what helped me the most was

45:22

having nothing yeah just like I'm 5-0 which is nothing

45:29

um I'm working three jobs I'm coaching wrestling my family has no

45:36

history of money and if I need it if I had an emergency right now no but he could spot me or support me

45:42

like to get me through a rough time or my mom or my brother or if anybody that

45:47

I loved more than myself got hurt I and nobody else would support them either so it's like what why not go at that

45:55

point it's like things have to things have to be different they just can't I can't keep going paycheck to

46:02

paycheck and watching my mom and my grandma go paycheck to paycheck their whole life and never get a break ever

46:09

like that no way so stuff like that goes into your head I guess

46:14

I'm stronger I'm faster I'm in better shape and I want it more I don't mind that was my mantra I would say that

46:23

thousands and thousands and thousands of time and just take that big deep breath that you just heard me take

46:28

[Music] stronger and faster I'm in better shape and I wanted more

46:34

and those things would usually be enough until you get to that guy that's the

46:39

same yeah and then uh so you went through it you broke your nose for the first time

46:46

you had a war uh in the middle of fight were you what

46:51

were you thinking were you in like uh survival where you focused what was what

46:56

was that like I was shocked how in shape he was

47:01

horrible it's a bad feeling when you figure it out yeah I was like God you're in shape like me yeah like you're in

47:08

just as good as shaping I did not expect this it's horrible and you're not going away he's a mean tough Mexican just like

47:15

me horrible yeah it was a mirror match and I didn't know it and turned out he was a

47:21

35 year old prison guard that ran the prison guards he was the

47:26

leader of all the prison guards at the local prison I found out later so all he did was get them in shape he

47:33

was the guy that got the prison guards in shape that bastard he said Denzel I guess he could run forever and that's

47:39

why he was submitting he could he was obviously a really good black belt under Charlie Kohler okay at the time

47:46

and uh yeah his scaredo he hasn't gotten enough of a shout out he definitely kind of turned me into a man that day yeah

47:53

that's awesome uh after you won what was that what did that feel like nothing nothing horrible why

48:01

because my nose was shattered and I hurt and it wasn't that much it didn't mean

48:07

anything really you just about to go to the strip club that night I guess and have some fun but like when

48:13

you get home you've still got three jobs and you still got to do everything you had to do the day before and nobody gave a [ __ ] yeah and it was illegal

48:20

so you're actually looked at like a freak yeah why did you do that to

48:25

yourself like what are you doing is that really what you want to do that's what you get when you come home yeah so

48:30

you're kind of it wasn't really a big deal it was just like for me it was literally like oh I got it out

48:36

but it still felt like you know you kind of feel like uh like a what's the word um

48:44

like a party you know you get done partying the night before and then you wake up the next morning

48:51

what's it called party depression or post party depression let's postpartum

48:58

post party depression it feels like that like when you drink too much and you do a bunch of stupid stuff yeah and you

49:05

wake up the next day and you gotta live your normal life like a regular adult yeah and you realize you did all this

49:10

stuff because in that in my context too remember it's not like a law body citizen doing these things right you're

49:16

you're an idiot well yeah that's like the whole mentality of in the smaller shows I

49:23

don't know what it's like now I've been out for 10 years but the mentality is you work really hard uh you know

49:29

training for your fight you go to your fight the reward is 500 a thousand bucks generally you know 500 to show 500 to

49:35

win you know those days and uh afterwards everybody goes the after party and that's kind of the thing that

49:40

you always do that was it um and that was the reward really the after party was a reward it was like yeah we're at

49:47

the after party and you definitely black out yeah there was a lot of that a bunch of like neanderthals just so happy to be

49:55

drunk that we gotta fight it's almost like it was like a

50:00

I swear it might sound crazy but it's like you I felt like I beat the system yeah in a weird way how did you beat it

50:07

well because I got paid to [ __ ] somebody yeah and you're not putting me in jail

50:12

I was doing that already yeah and I was scared every time I had to run yeah doing dumb things like I'm not running

First Big Show Fight in Vegas, Realizing How Far He Had Come At Dinner in Vegas

50:20

around doing it often but you're doing dumb ratchet stuff yeah I guess you'd say when you're 18 19 you're just not

50:25

making smart decisions absolutely I wasn't horrible but I wasn't smart yeah

50:30

I mean yeah I was just looking oh that's all good and then you'd mess up around that testing myself is how I see it yeah

50:37

you know testing it so uh after after that fight uh I guess you had another

50:44

fight but then you went to the weec and

50:49

fought Faber and that's when that was the first fight to BC what was that like going to that let's call it the Big Show

50:55

because it was the Big Show at the time for that weight class what was that like well I had won two titles at that point in total combat I won the 145 pound

51:02

title the 155 pound title and I was 9-0 so I felt good I was confident

51:08

and then I went into that fight and that was the first time I'd had cameras on me

51:13

and like been to a big show where it's like well first of all I just explained to

51:20

you how ratchet little illegal and stupid fighting was now there's a camera

51:26

on me this is a televised thing on versus Network so it became no longer

51:34

the comfort zone of fighting in the streets type of feel like getting away

51:39

with one now it became like oh [ __ ] like a responsibility all of a sudden like a

51:45

weird responsibility I was in Vegas for the first time I'd I had just I turned 21 years old on the

51:53

ninth and the fight was March 7th so I was 20 years old fighting in Vegas

52:00

and I'll never forget I was with like um my manager at the time named Matt Stancil I remember Matt

52:08

good guy yeah had a separation because you know work wasn't getting done or whatever but

52:13

loved that man did a life did a lot for me took me to a dinner with a friend he had and I'll never forget like this was

52:21

the manager taking me to a dinner it was weird just that you know what I'm saying I didn't have a manager so I'm

52:27

9-0 I'm on a big show I've got a manager I'm in Vegas I'm like I made it I'm here

52:34

and then I get to the dinner and we sit down and it's a steakhouse and I hadn't been to a steakhouse like that I mean

52:40

maybe one maybe a couple times but not really and not present you're kind of there because your parents took you

52:46

there right which is whatever you're not there because you're there which is where I

52:52

was at at that point I'm there and we're here because of me this is we just made weight and now we're celebrating the weight

52:58

make and that's for me and so I'm in the middle of the table and we're all around and

53:04

I'm I open it and I see the I'm literally the story of the guy that you see all the forks and the knives and

53:11

you're like what the [ __ ] is why are there two cups like why is there all these knives and forks

53:16

no clue what I'm doing here I think it was not it was at the ghost bar at a steakhouse at the ghost bar in Las Vegas

53:23

I think it was nine maybe um something like that anyways very nice and she orders a lobster she's like yeah

53:31

we'll take a lobster and I'm looking the steaks for 65 to 100 a piece the sides are twenty dollars a piece

53:37

and I'm doing the math according to my life up to that point which was my mom bought us had a rule that you know you

53:44

get a value meal you share the drink you share the fry and we each get our own meals because they're 2.99 birth 3.9 299

53:50

burgers with the value meal we share this the soda and the fries I mean my whole life that was just what you do you

53:56

don't order your own separate meals you never need it you don't need it um and then stuff like uh

54:04

shoes were 65 and you got one pair every six months not more there's your your

54:09

limit is 65 and you you each get a pair so that's 130 dollars for my mom to dish

54:14

out at that time with no child support so that's actually a lot so

54:19

went to pay less you know things like that that uh and we're sitting in I'm

54:24

sitting here eating a 65 steak and it just doesn't my brain can't add up that

54:30

that's a that's six months of um that I'm eating in a weird way yep

54:35

and then the lobster was a hundred dollars and I'll never forget it was a full Lobster and you know they break it

54:40

open but it was the whole thing on a play it was beautiful [ __ ] had to leave and I went out and

54:47

I broke me like I started crying and this was the night before the fight wow and I had to call my mom

54:54

I had to tell her like it was crazy it was like

55:00

I'm here

55:12

come to think of it was a big deal yeah ah

55:20

so yeah what did you what did you tell her

55:27

what did you find it I was so happy like it was 100 I was telling her how much

55:32

the lobster was [Music] a mistake and then I said a prayer with her

55:38

and then I got to go inside and and I helped me enjoy the meal yeah

55:46

a lot to be grateful for us oh man it was overwhelming and it was so

55:54

overwhelming and like so fast and like too fast and and my brain couldn't

56:00

comprehend why I deserved this so now yeah because what was different

56:06

yeah nothing was different I was the same person I always was I

56:12

just said well because I won a couple fights now I'm this I have a hundred dollar Lobster so

56:20

uh it was a reality check for me at the time I I guess I never really thought about it that deeply like I said you

56:26

kind of brush over these things you kind of just go through life you know but that was a that really hit me hard

56:33

obviously like it did right now I felt very similar and um you brought me back

56:40

to the emotions that I had in that time it was all the math doing the math the money and my mom and

56:47

like so yeah it's cool that you you called her too you know it's like I'm very

56:53

close to my mom too as you know and uh when you have these experiences for the

56:59

first time it's great to have someone to share a mom to share it with yes

57:07

so yeah but that hit me man and then I had to go to fight the next day don't forget

57:12

I haven't made it to the fight yet so like yeah I did it I wasn't like quite

57:18

I was shook like with all the fame that it looked like was coming and then I see Faber and he's just like he's used to it

57:25

and he was much a little bit older than me about like six or seven years I think

57:30

and we always resisted each other but I hated how much everybody loved him and how no shot they gave me and they didn't

57:36

put my face on the poster and I was already mad and I was just put your name on the post yeah so yeah they didn't put

57:42

my face on it so like they put my name like down on the bottom and fine print and then they put his big old face so I

57:47

signed like a mustache across the space my signature oh that's good and uh they made a rule now you can't do

57:55

that I know it's a correct thing to do it was because of you yeah it's a prick thing to do I get it but at the same

58:01

time it's like a great thing to not put I'm fighting a co-main event on this event or main event we were the main

58:06

event yeah whole main event and uh you know like I need my name out there as

58:11

much as you do so yeah anyways those little things stood out but it was a lot

58:17

all of that everything I just said was on my brain him where I was at where he

58:22

was at the comparisons the learning that this is what it's going to look like for the

58:28

rest of my career this is the highest level you can get to so losing that day

58:33

I lost my Guillotine I I felt so good with him until I I broke the game plan

58:38

that wasn't the game plan what I did was to wrestle because he could grapple we knew he had a good Guillotine so as to stay striking and keep him on his feet

58:45

and I kind of shot when I got uncomfortable because I never felt that level of all that stuff in one moment in

58:52

that first round and it did I wasn't you know the they say the shell shock or the lights and all yeah that's where when

59:00

they talk about that in the UFC and they talk about that like I experienced that on that night the the over stimulation

59:06

of like the show and the lights and the money and you're special now when you weren't before and the all this stuff

59:13

like gets you and um got me and um

59:19

I lost and then he like he like I was in the back and I

59:25

was bummed and he like well he's like he did that and like smiled at me did this stupid thing and all and I was like I'm

59:30

gonna kill him I just in that moment yeah that was it like he signed his death

59:37

wish fire for laughing at me after that I don't know it was weird it's like I knew it though I wasn't sometimes you

59:44

don't know it but I knew I was gonna have a long thing with this guy it wasn't gonna go away I wasn't I was too

59:49

young you know yep and he was good so right then I was like okay all I got

59:55

to do is be able to beat him and nobody will beat me for a long time easy easy enough I was right there I saw

1:00:02

how uncomfortable he was until I wrestled and gave him the win and so like that's how I molded the confidence

1:00:08

to keep going and I started Jiu Jitsu tournaments did nothing but Jiu Jitsu tournaments for a year after that

1:00:13

nothing but Jiu Jitsu with Barrett Yoshida oh nice uh in San Diego and then

1:00:19

that started the the next 10 years of not being not losing after that I didn't lose again for 10 years after that

First Title Fight in 2010, Quitting Job to Fight Full-Time, San Diego Life

1:00:26

yeah I mean I guess that was 2007 I know you're not good with all the years but that's uh after that fight with Uriah uh

1:00:35

how many fights did you have before you fought for the title I thought Uriah

1:00:41

this is where you need the computer guy I thought you're right I thought uh

1:00:46

Charlie Valencia which is one of his teammates if uh Ian McCall which was one of his

1:00:52

teammates give me a call yeah I thought um after that

1:00:58

Ivan Lopez was a kickbox Southpaw kickboxer

1:01:03

and then I fought Joseph benavidez I beat him was not for the title

1:01:09

[Music] no okay I was at that that was to get a title shot against Brian Bowles Bowles

1:01:16

was okay so six fights later I get a title shot against Brian Bulls in 2010. I see so six fights or so maybe more in

1:01:25

the WC it's 2010 by this point um I fought

1:01:31

yes I fought six fights in a year about a year and a half at this time

1:01:37

to then get the title shot against Brian Bowles who is on a five fight winning streak with five finishes yeah at the

1:01:43

time as a title holder he'd just be knocked out Miguel Torres Miguel Torres he was the man back he was

1:01:49

all these guys were the man like they are now right and then now we're here and like everybody forgets there was

1:01:55

this then there was these people this level of athlete that everybody was

1:02:00

talking about was then too yep so it wasn't just how it is now this was then yeah and people just let go so that's

1:02:07

the other thing I know is like all these people that are here just doesn't last long no you gotta hold on you gotta

1:02:13

appreciate it while you're here because this all these people that are the best now won't be the best in five years

1:02:18

nobody will even talk about them again just gonna be forgotten because you got to promote the next five years yeah no

1:02:23

no good about it it's very interesting a lot of those older names uh Miguel Torres he was an absolute Beast Man

1:02:29

absolute Beast um and uh yeah so you had all those guys he fight

1:02:35

bowls you win the title at what point were you like okay now I've now I made

1:02:40

it well I quit my job okay that was it so now I got to quit working so I was

1:02:46

now I think like I don't know what my record was but it took me to get to like at least 13 14-0

1:02:53

14-1 before I got to quit my job so this whole time I'm still working so that I can pay my

1:03:00

bills so um I'm living in a one bedroom Studio

1:03:06

with this amazing family that let me live back there in a little Casita I got

1:03:11

to share their washer and dryer that's cool amazing families in San Diego yeah in San Diego

1:03:17

and um during that three years where I got all

1:03:22

this streak until I won my title that's where I lived so I had no bills really it was 750 a month excuse me I had no

1:03:29

car I ran to the gym every day so for four years I ran to the gym and did nothing but teach 19 classes a day for

1:03:36

twenty dollars a class so or 19 classes a week

1:03:42

um and Train full time so then I got to quit the job the gym

1:03:49

job finally when I won my title in 2010 I said okay you're a title holder now

1:03:54

you made the you made a decent paycheck so uh I bought a I bought a Honda Civic

1:04:00

SI brand new is the first brand new car I bought and

1:04:07

lived in that that studio for another two years I think

1:04:12

and did you did you fight Benavides again yeah fight him for the title that was defend the title okay that's yeah I

1:04:19

thought bulls and then I fought benavidez for five rounds to defend the title against him

1:04:24

and then I fought uh I don't remember man like Jorgensen or

1:04:32

Jorgensen was the merger Jorgensen was the first time the UFC was uscwc came

1:04:38

together okay and I think that's what people don't get like remember how I was saying 155 and

1:04:43

up was the only thing that existed well all this story that I told you since then was the 135 pound lineage

1:04:50

that's where it started that's what it sounded like that's what it looked like that's what it is

1:04:56

because I'm the first champion of it so it's like that's how I had to go through that thank God for Faber because without

WEC/UFC Merger, Big Wins

1:05:02

our rivalry these divisions wouldn't maybe might not add as much steam right

1:05:07

we hated each other like just there's just the timing yeah

1:05:12

it really was I mean he's still a dork but I like him kind of you know like we're cool I you know I'll tell him that

1:05:20

to his face he'll tell me to my face we say the same exact things we always did but just you know

1:05:25

beat the [ __ ] out of each other it's good we're good yeah it's gone like that thing you know the

1:05:30

anger isn't there I'm not he doesn't annoy me he just did too much um

1:05:36

but yeah that I'm proud to say that you know that lineage really those guys really pushed me to be they made me so

1:05:42

mad they really pushed me to to be all of them it made me really good yeah so when you were done with uh

1:05:48

when you had to merger with the UFC what was it was there was there a change did it felt different when it was the UFC

1:05:55

from WC no it's not the same the competition was the same sure so that's

1:06:00

what other people don't get it's like oh now you're in the real big league oh yeah no I was I was always always

1:06:05

started it yeah and never changed none of the opponents changed I knew who was the best I was already fighting the best

1:06:11

in the wec and then it was so reliable to say that that every WC Champion

1:06:18

became UFC champion that year yeah exactly that's crazy or every W every oh

1:06:26

every champion in the wec came over and became and and won like was able to win that UFC title like

1:06:33

Vincent Henderson at 155 pounds oh I see I forgot that it was I was just thinking

1:06:38

130 because there was other weight classes in the wec yeah cowboy Cerrone you had Benson Henderson you had Chael

1:06:45

son and you had um all these other weight classes all the way to 205 yep

1:06:50

uh Brian Stan yeah so Brian Stan was a champion in the WC beat the rhino

1:06:58

remember the Rhino the right what was Rhino's name no it was just just a random guy that Brian Stan beat to win

1:07:04

the title and then chael's son and uh smashed somebody too and like I don't know these are the guys that were there

1:07:10

and they all crossed over and became champion of the UFC even though those weight classes that even though those

1:07:16

weight classes existed in the UFC they came and beat them that's how good the wec was interesting so it's like uh

1:07:24

it was the UFC it was the same thing yeah it was just that no one knew because the UFC's name value is so

1:07:30

perfect yeah um yeah there were some killers that came from WC obviously yeah yeah they

1:07:37

came over on the titles it was awesome I didn't remember that I wasn't something I was we were all really proud of to be

1:07:42

honest like I remember talking like other Showtime Anthony Pettis all these

1:07:48

guys like when we crossed over like man yeah like we always because you all you get asked until you get to the UFC like

1:07:54

these guys who cross over all you get asked is when are you gonna be there yep and even though you know

1:08:00

you're facing the best guys in the world in pfl Bellator

1:08:05

yeah the only thing they're going to ask you when you're Champion there is when you're going to be championed in the UFC

1:08:11

and they all know and they're tired of hearing it too yep I hate it and I get that because I felt it too I

1:08:18

was in the W you've seen everybody wanted to know when I was going to be in the UFC and they didn't even have my weight class so imagine that yeah

1:08:25

yes that's interesting because you know same thing with strike four same thing with

1:08:30

Bellator it's always compared to the UFC and people always wonder if you're going to go to the UFC or if you could be the

1:08:37

the guy the best guys in the UFC you're like yeah well it's you gotta I mean it's no different in a lot of other

1:08:42

sports that's why I don't mind mentioning it look at NFL football yeah like any football league you're in

1:08:47

that's not the NFL nobody cares right you just don't care you could say you're the best indoor League champion league

1:08:53

on Earth nobody cares until you're in the NFL I mean I guess people sort of care I mean like Bellator is pretty

1:09:00

impressive Strike Force is pretty impressive wwc is pretty impressive but it's not prior to the at to the to the

1:09:06

everyday fan it probably isn't so I'm using strong words I care

1:09:12

I think the masses do care yes the reason I say don't care is because

1:09:18

the only question you're gonna get is when are you going to be in the UFC right yeah that's what I mean by don't care yeah so you care

1:09:24

to us on you know to an extent up against well that's sweet that's cool

1:09:30

yeah but and anytime you hear that but it's not enough yeah so yeah no one cares that's what I mean I get what

1:09:37

you're saying um you know so for you you emerged the UFC

1:09:43

um and you're at what point did you fight Faber again

1:09:49

the first time I don't remember the year I think uh 2007 and then 2012 I think

1:09:56

yeah so so you beat him and then it's clear that you're the best to keep the

1:10:02

title yeah and to defend it I had beaten it was Jorgensen that was that was with the UFC though right so I was in the wec

1:10:08

and the and we fought in Phoenix Arizona Benson Henderson got the title that night and I got the title that night in

1:10:15

Arizona cool and then my next fight was Faber in the UFC

1:10:21

rematch against Faber okay and you know after that I remember it was it was

1:10:27

clear I was like okay no question because before I was like well but can he beat Faber yeah you know can he beat favor and Faber was because I was the

1:10:33

guy that beat me he was the only loss I had so I had to Revenge my only loss yeah become champion and then you

1:10:40

beat Faber decisively um which I don't think people understand

1:10:45

like he had beaten me and it was hard so like all that years all that him

1:10:50

looking at me all that that was from 2007 to 2012. so five years I had been

1:10:57

thinking about beating that guy and I'd beaten all his teammates he'd thrown all his teammates at me to beat me yeah I

1:11:03

finally got there so to win that was just like that was that bigger to you than the title it Phil Phil bigger to

1:11:13

beat him yes yet well yes it just

1:11:18

uh it was because like my own mentality with that was you gotta remember he was

1:11:23

like that whole team like I said how important it is to have people to train with I had to build my own guys and

1:11:29

bring people in he had a team that worked together in my mid and I had to face all of them that worked together so

Beating Uriah Faber, Demetrius Johnson Fight

1:11:34

I felt like why join him if I can beat him I want to beat the whole all of you guys and so it felt good to say that I had

1:11:43

beaten him the leader of all the people I'd beaten to get to him and then beating him at the top like it was the

1:11:50

way it happened because I knew he was trying to he had been sending other teammates to fight yeah Joseph benavidez

1:11:56

twice Ryan Bowles trained with him Ian McCall trained with him Charlie Valencia train with him or talking [ __ ] the whole

1:12:01

time too all the whole time and so that whole time all these guys cross training

1:12:07

with him I'm the guy that no one likes right in that time the bad guy or

1:12:12

whatever you want to say beat them all though and then yeah until I until you don't that's the his that's what war is

1:12:18

yeah because it goes and goes and goes until doesn't yeah I'm reminiscing about you

1:12:25

know I'm remembering what that was like uh at least uh from my perspective and it was a big deal it was it seemed like

1:12:32

a bigger deal when you beat Uriah uh because it was like no question Dom's

1:12:37

the best you know there was always then yeah in 2012 yeah I was pound for pound yeah number two I believe yeah the only

1:12:46

person oh I had fought Demetrius Johnson in the middle of that too yeah and at that time I was ranked number two pound

1:12:52

for pound behind Demetrius Johnson who I had beaten and Demetrius is one of the greatest of

1:12:58

all time no question one of the toughest fights one of the tougher fights I had made me make some real adjustments crazy

1:13:04

adjustments so nothing but kudos to to these guys incredible athletes Demetrius still winning still fresh

1:13:11

still nasty today still like so proud that I got to fight him and have you know a good fight with

1:13:18

him he's a good human like so that's mixed into there too I beat be

1:13:24

Mighty Mouse and then um you know around the time that I beat

1:13:29

Faber I think I defended my title after favor against Mighty Mouse one month or two months later okay that's where I got

1:13:36

my GTR because I they wanted me to make a quick turnaround defend my title after I beat Faber and they asked me to defend

1:13:43

my title right away against Demetrius Johnson and they'd give me a GTR if I did it right away on the next show what's GTR

1:13:49

a Nissan Skyline GTR my car oh the car I see yeah they gave me my car like it has

1:13:55

a dream car I always wanted that's all so I was like so they gave me the purse and then they gave me that

1:14:00

card and I was like okay I'll do it okay and then I turned around and made a really quick turnaround and fought on a

1:14:06

main event on versus which wasn't gonna get a lot of eyes and I wasn't gonna get pay-per-view money so that's why I got

1:14:11

the car I see so that was the the way to make it even

Facing Big Injuries, Broken Hands, Injured Knees, & Torn Ligaments

1:14:17

because it wasn't a big Network at what point you know your champion and then you get

1:14:23

injured well I beat Demetrius and then I

1:14:29

I'm uh get it and then I think after that I get injured

1:14:34

I've been getting ready oh The Ultimate Fighter for the third for the trilogy the book

1:14:42

after I beat Demetrius uh I've defended titled successfully twice now

1:14:47

I cleaned out the division at that time because I had beaten everybody before I got there

1:14:52

um I'd beaten all the top five in the division and so we put me on The Ultimate Fighter against Faber

1:14:59

then it was the first and only show they did live so it's three months long oh

1:15:04

wow so I had a coach and train myself for the fight simultaneously

1:15:09

so it was that's why they never did it again yeah it's not not too easy it was super

1:15:15

hard super hard so I would have to do two a days and then train them twice a day on TV it was brutal and I was I was

1:15:23

in sick shape though I was in super good shape I was gonna kill him so sad I didn't make it to that fight I was so

1:15:29

ready but just so much my life at this time wasn't working outside of fighting

1:15:34

fighting was the only thing working yeah life was in shambles it was a mess

1:15:40

she had no life skills to deal with all the things that I was allowed to have now that I had things

1:15:46

yeah I just didn't have skills to deal with it I mean you know you don't have the skills to deal with

1:15:52

it and then you get injured and well I got injured because I didn't

1:15:58

have the skills to deal with it that's the responsible version of the conversation okay for me well so you get

1:16:03

injured and uh if you get injured you get injured you get injured multiple times every time

1:16:10

you go to come back basically what was the first injury that you got in that period my hands

1:16:16

I've fought all my titles with broken hands pretty much I think they were just

1:16:21

shattered I had 10 hand surgeries in that span before I even hurt my knees

1:16:27

um I tore the ligaments that it's called the extensor tendon ligament on both my middle Knuckles here

1:16:34

um and they slice it and they take this uh tendon that we all have that we don't

1:16:39

need anymore and they took a chunk of that and they replaced that tendon right there sewed it together so now this tendon's

1:16:47

twice as thick in my middle knuckle as my other one so that'll never shatter again I'll never break it'll never sever

1:16:52

again and that's the one that lifts your finger so you can see how this hand kind of stays a little bit up yeah compared

1:16:59

to this one because this surgery failed so they had to do it twice oh man this one only once and that's how good they

1:17:06

did what an amazing surgery they did on this one he took out the tendon here and he looped it around

1:17:13

and got it just got the extensor tendon to stay so he didn't have to pull a graph out on this side tried to do it on

1:17:19

this one and it failed so then he had to do the graph so that ended up take adding another three surgeries two

1:17:25

surgeries and then I went back to training too soon and I was sparring with one hand and I had just gotten the

1:17:32

stitches and so I just wrapped it up and put a boxing glove on it with a cast I had the

1:17:37

cast on still I and I just put a boxing glove on it and

1:17:43

then I was just boxing I was kickboxing live spying with one hand and thought the glove would like and somebody threw

1:17:49

a high kick on me like they weren't supposed to because I was beating their ass and they got mad and threw a high kick and I blocked them

1:17:55

exploded my hand had to go back into surgery so that took another surgery so like a lot of dumb things by just not

1:18:02

surrendering to the outcome that things were sure but you said you had around 10 surgeries on your hands uh and then

1:18:10

we'll say seven to go let's say seven surgeries on your hands yeah and then

1:18:16

you blew your knee out was that that's what happened uh for the The Ultimate

1:18:21

Fighter the live one I blew my ACL MCL ACL MCL yeah those two tendons yeah I

1:18:26

blew it on the show that still hurts my heart yeah there's a lot of money on the table that was going

1:18:32

to be my big payday I was going to get pay-per-view buys on the chill Sun Anderson Silva fight oh man I was gonna

1:18:37

get pay-per-view money on that and I pulled out because I couldn't even walk yeah of course well um

1:18:44

so after you you blew your knee you had surgery

1:18:50

um some people say look I want to go back to that some people say like maybe I should have fought

1:18:58

and not giving the show up right but it's like I can't even put a show on for what oh yeah just to get smashed and

1:19:03

around what would be the point of that the reason I moved on but it's it's just

1:19:09

because I know you I'm like I know you wouldn't like you want to win yeah I just don't get the I can't eat my

1:19:14

brain I'll go ahead and give a little space and say okay maybe I could have been in a hard spot and somebody was

1:19:21

dying in my family and I needed the money but I don't know I still might have just said look we're gonna figure

1:19:27

this out I'm gonna come back and get the money when I'm healthy yeah it's not it doesn't show Integrity me to me to go in

1:19:34

there hurt like that where I can't even walk right I could do something yes like I fought with broken hands because I

1:19:39

could do it yeah well I mean you could shoot them with Cortisone and then you don't feel them and now you can fight

1:19:44

but a knee it was like walking on glass well I guess in Integrity for you is to

1:19:49

not go out there just to collect a paycheck it's to go out there and put on a show yeah absolutely that's what I

1:19:55

mean well that's what you're paying me for you're not paying me to go flop yeah that's what I mean by Integrity so it's like yeah I could have been the tough

1:20:03

guy and gone out there and saved the show that's a hypothetical thing too where it was weak to pull out right some

1:20:10

would say but I mean that would hurt your legacy though man everybody see that that's making it about me but even

1:20:16

at that moment I'm like dude I still have two I still have another month and a half left teaching these guys plus I'm

1:20:22

doing a live show I can't do that with a blown ACL so it was like totally different circumstance but I look back

1:20:28

on it and it was a very very very very very hard miserable time to have to pull

1:20:35

out of that yeah that's horrible it still bothers you I hate it yeah it can imagine I mean it's millions

1:20:42

of dollars it's not even that you know it's just it's like

1:20:47

opportunity it's such a um yeah opportunity and it's just such a letdown of to Dana the organization

1:20:56

like it's you people are counting on you you make it it's like you're oh yeah how many times

1:21:01

I had to call Dana and tell him I was hurting he just goes you have to you know one of the times we had I called

1:21:07

him like blew my knee out man they gotta pull out for The Ultimate Fighter he goes you've

1:21:12

got to be the most unlucky person I've ever met in my entire life and knowing Dana now that's funny because he's such

1:21:18

a gambler like no I know I'm like that's hilarious because at the time I go Dana what am I

Overcoming Losing the Title, Beating The Odds after Injuries, Fighting Depression

1:21:24

supposed to do with that information that you just gave me you would ask him that I said that and he just goes I

1:21:29

don't know I'm like I know so what do I do like

1:21:35

what do you want me to do I'm hurt and he's like all right well and told me what we were

1:21:41

gonna do they made the the interim champion and then morale fought Faber

1:21:48

man favor lost to Burrell got Beat to Death by brow and then Ralph thought dilshaw and then I had to during that

1:21:54

entire time mind you I get to commentate about how great all these guys are while I'm on mending my

1:22:01

blown out knee so that was difficult too but that's also the blessing that it became gave me

1:22:07

it gave me something that I love I'm doing I've been doing commentary for 11 years now because of that yeah and you

1:22:13

were out though because you you lost the title because you kept getting injured well I lost the title because I blew my

1:22:19

knee out two times in a row yeah so I did six months and I was on my way back and then I blew it out again and they're

1:22:25

like okay we gotta strip you and I'm like yeah that makes sense I'm aligned like I'll let's go what's that like you

1:22:31

know the the well that's what I'm ashamed of that's what was so hard that's why I'm like oh I hate it because you're having the talks with the

1:22:36

business owners and they're disappointed in you I understand that but like the mental struggle because that's business

1:22:44

part there's also the part where you're at home you know probably by yourself

1:22:50

uh fighting depression I don't know you know like specifically but like there's

1:22:55

got there's a lot of demons that come with injuries and long waits like that and a spotlight of being a world

1:23:00

champion um what was that like

1:23:05

[Music] um well like I said it was miserable because

1:23:10

I had a girlfriend that was like real we were I was in a real toxic relationship at that time in and out in and out just

1:23:17

a lot of drama and so that wasn't there for me when you know surprisingly and I didn't create

1:23:25

the space to allow them to be there I wasn't the type of human to have an environment where I would let you come

1:23:31

be there for me when I'm in the lowest points of my life I shut everybody out and then

1:23:38

act like I can handle it while I fall into a little puddle of nothingness that's where I was at I didn't know how

1:23:44

to be vulnerable I didn't know how to ask I didn't you know and when I would be vulnerable it was so scary because it

1:23:50

was over the top it wasn't like uh calculated I'm doing this because I need to it was like I'm out of control

1:23:55

vulnerable lost it I've lost everything so I think it was just heavy to be

1:24:02

around me at that time it was I feel for anybody who had to be around me at that time I'm sorry friends

1:24:08

uh it was really hard I was really hard on myself I was really hard on the people

1:24:14

around me and it was it was it was dark yeah I

1:24:21

there was even a it was it was um I fought it I fought the first one

1:24:26

fought it I'm gonna be back faster and then you blow it out again that's when you hit that's when it hits and then I

1:24:32

was good actually I make it another six months before they Strip Me mind you so the UFC stuck with me and that's why I

1:24:37

love I have a lot of respect honestly and I mean

1:24:42

because they they kept they kept with me they were trying to make it work I hadn't lost you know so it was hard to just throw me out

1:24:49

but then blowing it out twice and then I blow my quad out getting ready for brow that's what it was I was getting ready

1:24:54

for brow and then I tore the quad off my bone and that was a three-month injury to to let it reconnect shoot stem cells

1:25:01

and or shoot I had to do PRP in that they're stabbing the [ __ ] out of it was horrible so like that took three months

1:25:07

and then that's when I kind of like let go of control I was like okay dude you may never come back I blew my knee out

1:25:13

twice and then I blow my quad out from throwing kicks while I'm getting ready for a title fight against brow then they

1:25:18

take that fight away and they strip the title and then I'm like okay this is it you've just been injured so much you might never come back yeah

1:25:26

and that's where everything started to work because I surrendered that's where

1:25:31

I learned about surrender that I was trying to control the outcome I was trying to control the injury I wasn't accepting what is which is your hurt and

1:25:38

you may never do this again like I was not accepting that I was going there's no way I'll work through it I'm too

1:25:44

strong like there was just no level of let go it was just only control get

1:25:49

through a control control that's not what the injury was there to teach me and I wasn't receiving what it

1:25:55

was there to teach me so then when I blow the quad out and they Strip My Title I finally surrender

1:26:01

and give up that's when I'm like okay I lost everything they took the title like I've been hurt so much I lose Faith too

1:26:09

that I'll be okay like my body just doesn't want to do this anymore

1:26:14

and so I said you need to find another way to live this life like you love this

1:26:19

what can you give was the question that it came to me I don't know why that's what came to me but it did

1:26:25

what can you give back to the sport that gave you so much up to this point that's what my question was and it was

Becoming a Fight Commentator, Healing From Torn Quadricep, Blowing out Knee

1:26:31

like well I've always thought the commentators kind of suck they never know what they're doing maybe I could do that and

1:26:37

so that was literally what was in my head they're not that good I think I can do that like maybe I and what I meant

1:26:43

was I was mad about my own fights I heard Herky jerky a lot I heard weird I

1:26:48

heard different and it's like all I'm doing is martial arts in a new way and instead of explaining it that way

1:26:54

they're making up phrases that aren't martial arts because they just don't know and that's okay

1:26:59

but I was pretty frustrated about that so I needed to it was very important to me at that time

1:27:05

when I heard the breakdowns of my own fights and how little they knew what I was doing they couldn't explain what I was doing

1:27:12

to the masses that bothered me I was like okay I can do this I need to be able to explain to the world

1:27:18

the nuances and the real setups and like how much is actually involved

1:27:24

in the in this game it's not just two people being there's so I'm so many levels ahead these guys don't even

1:27:30

they're not explaining that I'm step I'm taking two steps for this reason I'm doing this for this they don't know so I

1:27:36

can do this and I'm Gonna Fill This Gap and I gotta try out on Fox

1:27:41

and this is after I blew my quad out and I had those three months to heal and I gave up and thought I might never fight

1:27:47

again I went on Fox and did a couple tryouts and then I started doing some TV and I

1:27:52

was just like okay I'll just do this and I'm making money now so my anxiety went down because at least now

1:27:58

I've got income coming in because my sponsors had left me which my new monster stuck with me

1:28:05

love Monster for that always will monster Hans can suck it and I still want to fight him but Monster Energy

1:28:11

drink I'll always love and respect and they did a lot of great things for me um but

1:28:18

when it comes to to that whole situation like it was nice to have money it's nice

1:28:23

to get paid and that took away my anxiety and allowed me to focus full time

1:28:29

on uh fighting and getting or excuse me allowed me to

1:28:37

focus full time on TV and then just be with that and then I was doing rehab for my quad

1:28:43

but I didn't have like a thing to come back to and I didn't have an expectation of a elite level of performance that I

1:28:51

had to go face when I came back that's what gets you is like when I come back this guy's training every day and I'm

1:28:57

laying on the couch and you're thinking about that every day while you're rehabbing yeah just what all the rest of

1:29:02

the division is doing while you're just nothing you can't even lift your leg and it just eats at you so like to have that

1:29:09

weight off my chest while I was champion this is why people retire that's what I

1:29:15

learned that's why you get guys who get the title and retire because they don't they don't like the pressure they can't

1:29:21

handle the pressure of being a champion and so they retire it and then they come back and say they're the best but they

1:29:27

they let themselves off the pressure I got to feel that through injury not by choice I felt the relief of the pressure

1:29:34

it was just like oh I don't have to like even when I if I do come back if it's even possible who

1:29:40

knows the guy won't won't be you know your right Faber or Henry barao it's gonna be somebody I can

1:29:48

probably figure it out so no big deal just calm down make your money heal yourself so I did

1:29:55

and then uh this and then uh I healed so fast and that was one of the fastest

1:30:01

healings I've had and I still made the money and then I had my fight against Takaya mizugaki yeah he fought mizugaki

1:30:07

and I'm remembering basically his head against a cage you knock him uh TKO them

1:30:13

I got him in a minute and then two weeks before that fight I had taken a

1:30:20

antibiotic called cipro starts with the c oh yeah Cipro

1:30:26

I mean at this time I don't know you just kind of trust the doctors know what they're doing which they don't most the time unless you really check you have to

1:30:32

make sure and they'd given me an antibiotic that said on the directions so the

1:30:37

responsible version of the conversation is read the directions don't just trust the doctor so I should have read the

1:30:43

label and it says weakens tendons for up to six months after use so you take Cipro and it weakens your tendons for up

1:30:49

to six months so I fight I take it two weeks before the fight so

1:30:54

it hadn't weakened anything yet it just got rid of the staph infection that I had before that fight so I get cured of the staph infection

1:31:01

fight when but then three months later my knee blows out throwing a high kick

1:31:06

all I'm doing is balancing I'm balancing on my right leg and I'm throwing a left high kick I just switch throw a left

1:31:13

high and my knee shifts and it just blows no contact nobody ran into me

1:31:19

there was no wrestling there was no pre-injury before I just threw a high kick so now that's both knees so now

1:31:25

it's my other my right knee and I'll never forget I just start I knew it was busted because of the familiar feeling

1:31:31

of the sweat you get when it pops it's a certain pain it's not horrible but it

1:31:37

hurts like hell and then you just start sweating like you drink a whole bottle of wine and

1:31:44

it just all comes out like it's crazy and you just like panicked like and I sat down and I looked at Eric and I said

1:31:50

I blew my knee out and he's like no come on man no way no end I was like I did 100 it's like don't worry nine months

1:31:56

we'll be back I don't know is the weirdest thing I

Surrendering to Suffering, Transforming Suffering, The Mindset of Certainty

1:32:01

remember saying that that day knowing I know how to do this now because of the Quad when I surrendered it clicked I

1:32:08

swear to God I had no fear it was the weirdest thing yeah and I had so much practice from the first two

1:32:15

that like I knew what to do it was like oh easy I know exactly what to do like

1:32:21

to a t I'm gonna do nothing I'm out

1:32:26

and then I'll just heal it and I know all the rehab and I'll be fine it was weird that is weird After all

1:32:32

you've been through you know just like oh nine months I'll be back I was in the middle of practice when I did it but you

1:32:37

can't I had done it so many times I already knew you can't do anything else yeah that's the thing about it yeah but

1:32:43

it's it's wild that your brain was in a a place after

1:32:48

so much suffering to allow yourself to surrender to the suffering

1:32:54

that you're about to go through for nine months well see this is what's funny about it is it's not suffering because

1:33:00

training is suffering so it's like I'm either gonna train or I'm gonna train

1:33:05

either way I'm training yeah it doesn't change the game has changed I guess uh you know and maybe

1:33:12

you're in a better mental placed in but you know I guess suffering you know yes in the training but you know the the

1:33:18

suffering of the mental game of the recovery the thing is I had already

1:33:24

been through it so it wasn't that to me anymore yeah I had a sister you're okay with it yeah that's what I'm trying to

1:33:30

say I had a complete system so it didn't hit me like the end of the world anymore God I knew I had money

1:33:36

had a job I was going to do TV for the next six months yeah in a rehab for the next six months and not do one sit-up

1:33:42

and one squat or one curl or one Burpee I wasn't gonna do anything other than what the physical therapist told me to

1:33:47

do for my knee and that's it so I was gonna get fat out of shape and live life like a retired fighter that was my goal

1:33:54

how do you be retired or you're gonna have to figure this out eventually that was literally my mentality like

1:34:00

you're not gonna fight forever so you have the opportunity here to know what it's like to retire and lose everything

1:34:05

before you retire you could still come back what a gift yeah well absolutely and I really like solid that way because

1:34:11

I knew what I had been facing already I had a clear such a Clear Vision that it's like retirement

1:34:17

and I was like oh it's just practice now you're practicing retirement yeah what would you do what are you gonna do when

1:34:23

it's all over what are you gonna do when you lose your passion anywhere in

1:34:28

life you're just gonna quit and give up or you can adjust and adapt yeah not the species that's the smartest that

1:34:34

survives the species most adaptable to change yeah Darwin so it's like

1:34:39

I don't know that stuck with me yeah no that's real that's that's interesting

1:34:44

because um actually you called me with that quote during covid uh love that guy that's a good one sixth grade teacher

1:34:51

got me into Darwin yeah that's that's a really good one but you know so you recover for nine months and then you

1:34:57

come back and you're fighting for the title against TJ Dillashaw right how did

1:35:04

did that fight was it planned I don't remember did it just kind of happen where you were filling in

1:35:11

in a minute blow my knee out again now I'm out for another year yeah so then I do the rehab work

1:35:17

I'm six months through that Rehab on a boat with my friend Seth bazinski and

1:35:24

I'm drunk and Sean Shelby calls me because this is where you learn that they the doctors know your timeline

1:35:31

because you're using the UFC doctors so you got to start finding your own doctors so you can keep your own

1:35:37

timeline another thing I learned um they called me on the six month week

1:35:43

which is when you know the rehab the doctor goes well six months I mean he can start he's cleared to now start full

1:35:50

contact so they know that now so they know I'm going to start rehabbing to come back in their next three to five

1:35:56

months so they call me to right away because you got to think you've got a hen and morale that just got beat up by

1:36:03

TJ Dillashaw twice how do you promote the division with the

1:36:09

ex-champion just losing the belt getting stripped not actually uh not actually losing it

1:36:15

so it wanted to make that fight to make you know TJ legitimate probably he's a

1:36:22

he was The Ultimate Fighter champion so they had already dumped a lot of time

1:36:28

and money into that brand to build it on the ultimate fighter

1:36:34

and then you dump money into building me so it's easy fight you know make it and

1:36:39

uh so they I said yes on the boat that day mind you I was 175 pounds and on

1:36:46

antidepressants literally like because I talk about how I knew how to handle it

1:36:52

right I didn't I just knew I had to stop exercising so it's like I knew that and I knew I

1:36:59

had a job but then you still got to deal with life for the next nine months without exercise when that's the only way you've lived your life your entire

1:37:05

life and then there's scientific proof that when you exercise your brain releases dopamine another uh chemicals

1:37:12

that keep you happy they're literal antidepressants so without those chemicals that I'm used

1:37:19

to flooding my systems I hit a deep depression and I think that's what happens to so many athletes you need

1:37:24

tools to deal with these things and I didn't have them and so did the best I could and

1:37:31

that's where I I do believe that antidepressants can be there to support you but I don't believe they're the answer I believe I look at

1:37:37

antidepressants as a very viable source of like a floaty if you're in the ocean and you're drowning floaty doesn't save

1:37:44

you it just keeps you floating a little bit you know and that's how I see those and so I'm grateful that they were there

1:37:49

that my doctor could prescribe them to me and during this time in my life because I was just very lost and didn't

1:37:55

know what to do with my emotions and after that nine months

1:38:02

or six months I start I after that call I like now I'm nervous

1:38:08

so you start training and SSL sports science lab with Gavin Millen helped me so much during these

1:38:16

times where I just really could up the training and get my leg to where I needed it he made my hamstrings strong all the things that mattered at sports

1:38:22

science lab trained with him got my body strong again started training and then

1:38:28

you know so he called me at the six month mark

1:38:33

I trained uh uh for two more he gave me to I think

1:38:39

after that moment I thought I think five months later

1:38:47

so going into that fight huge Underdog

1:38:52

yeah yeah I was a big Underdog and I had been talking about TJ a lot so everybody knew

1:38:58

his style and then he had been emulating my style to prepare Faber and all his team to

1:39:04

beat me and so he moved just like me in a lot of ways and that was super cool because

1:39:12

you know the thing about TJ is he he was a good Champion it's just it's the part

1:39:18

that sucks about what happened is it kind of messes up like nobody knows what version of him we got you know

1:39:25

because of the dirty testing which you know whatever it's just that's what usada comes and does it comes in tests

1:39:32

and to keep everything clean and when that happened I think that's what offends everybody about him but he is still like has the skill set he was

1:39:39

still a good great Champion he was still in the scent in the terms of fighting itself like he was extremely lethal

1:39:46

opponent and so um

1:39:51

yeah he had defended the title and to beat him was going to be a is going to take a lot but I I knew his style

1:39:57

because he'd built it off of me so I had a lot of confidence and you got into it into his head before the fight too well

1:40:04

because I knew he was basing his style off me so it's easy to do that if you know what

1:40:11

I mean is like what had worked for him to become Champion was acting like me in the gym

1:40:17

he had beaten up all his teammates with it to prepare for me they had prepared

1:40:23

them for me he had been acting you know because you get partners to move the way your opponent moves well he was the one

1:40:28

that could do it best and he did it and it it was incredible he used a lot of the tools it wasn't exactly the same

1:40:34

though and I knew what was different because it's footwork it wasn't I

1:40:40

uh Dwayne Ludwig didn't have the same ideals that I did in what I thought of

1:40:46

to build it and I knew Dwayne Ludwig was a typical Muay Thai guy so he had ideas

1:40:51

and as a typical Muay Thai base still though and Muay Thai fights in straight lines so I always had that in my head is

1:40:58

like I knew Ludwig was this Coach man who Ludwig didn't know what I was doing and so like it helped me also with the

1:41:04

support of that like I just because I knew Ludwig was fighting in the UFC while I was coming up so we were kind of

1:41:09

like around the same age me and his coach yeah a little older than me Dwayne was a good

1:41:15

fighter he was sick sick more TIE fighter he was a great coach too but I also just knew that those two together

1:41:21

weren't smart like they're not I knew I could get um TJ to

1:41:28

mess with Ludwig because Ludwig was looking to live a life vicariously

1:41:34

through TJ well I mean you know you uh like the trash talking was really good before

Fighting TJ Dillashaw, One of the Greatest UFC Comebacks of All-Time

1:41:40

that fight I mad I I enjoyed it I still get back every now and then watch the interview because I think it was funny

1:41:46

where uh you were like sitting across from from TJ and he said something and

1:41:52

you're like what you you basically said you got to sit here and talk to me what do you mean you're not listening to me or whatever it was just like this

1:41:58

awkward you almost feel bad for the guys that was going on but yeah that was fun it was like you had you had that mental

1:42:05

Advantage there and you could kind of tell it there like you it's bothering him more than it should and you know you

1:42:11

could use it to your advantage but uh you know going in that fight I don't

1:42:17

think anybody thought you were gonna win I should have been some people you thought you were gonna win but uh most

1:42:22

people didn't think that you were going to win and story of my life right yeah and you you know I look at it now as you

1:42:30

know really you had the greatest comeback in UFC history you know you were

1:42:35

champion uh before you lost your title due to injury you blew both of your knees out

1:42:43

one knee you blew out twice you uh tore your quad uh you know you'd broken your

1:42:51

hands multiple surgeries seven surgeries and you came back

1:42:57

and won the title again I mean that's incredible if you really

1:43:02

think about it it's freaking incredible um and you know do you have do you

1:43:09

realize how incredible it is well first thanks for saying that and actually like saying it it's nice to hear when someone

1:43:16

knows that what I did was not as easy as it may sound just by saying it it's like

1:43:22

to say it's one thing but to go through it was like I I when I talk about it as you can

1:43:28

see I cry because that's probably why I don't talk about it it was very hard but also I'm grateful for it you know so

1:43:36

it's like I I try not it's a weird line you play because you could sound victimy telling it when really I don't feel that

1:43:42

way at all so I don't talk about it a lot but I know it was difficult I know it was a

1:43:49

lot I just comparison is a thief of Joy right so I can compare to so many people

1:43:55

in the world who've been through so much and kind of sometimes take away the what I've done I think I do that sometimes

1:44:02

but um when you look at how would you how would

1:44:07

you put a water line on what you're saying that that was a lot and that was hard well when I when I can do that I

1:44:12

would have to look at other sports and see who's done what I've done in other sports and there's not a lot so that's

1:44:17

how I can look at it like you look at football players not a lot of football players with triple ACL reconstruction

1:44:24

um and seven hand surgeries stuff like that coming back um

1:44:29

basketball soccer ing like you just don't hear about it

1:44:36

there's a couple I could I looked them up Derrick Rose is one of them but even him he wasn't at that he didn't

1:44:41

come back to win a championship after his after he did that to his knee

1:44:47

and Adrian Peterson was somebody I really was looking up to because he had blown his knee out at the time and I

1:44:52

think it was the second or third time for him and he came back and was hitting record numbers that season yeah Adrian

1:44:59

Peterson was smashing people on the football field after he'd come back and so that was really inspiring for me

1:45:05

there was little people here and there that I remember looking uh for feedback from yeah and they

1:45:12

supported me but yeah not a lot of people I didn't have a lot of people to lean on GSP had hurt and had blown his

1:45:17

knee out and come back but not three times um three times in three years yeah not

1:45:23

that plus a quad right yeah so it was a lot and um no I didn't have a lot of people to lean on

1:45:29

and ask questions and experience most the time it was what Dana said you're the most unlucky person I've ever met in

1:45:35

my life that's usually all you'd hear yeah I don't hear I don't hear it talked about as much and maybe it's because you

1:45:40

don't talk about it that much but I've always just found it you know you're my friend too but

1:45:46

it like I don't think that people really understand what you did because it's one

1:45:53

thing to win a UFC title which is amazing you know I I couldn't have been a UFC champion

1:45:58

but when you do it and you have everything against you you have three knee surgeries in three years you

1:46:06

know and you have the the quad issue you have you overcome that and you're still able

1:46:11

to compete at that level because you're not as fast as you were 15 years ago you know that's like

1:46:18

there's no there's no way that you can have uh the same speed as before you had your first surgery

1:46:24

or your second service after three surgeries well that's what they say but that's actually not true well I mean

1:46:30

there's not true I mean I'm telling you it's not I don't think that you were to say ring rust was

1:46:37

a real thing too well I don't think that you were as fast against us Shaw I do well we'll disagree on that one yeah but

1:46:44

as I was against two uh as you were against Faber yeah first time yeah I don't I mean you

1:46:51

the SEC the first time I won yeah in 2012 first everyone yes so five years later when I I think I was only two

1:46:57

years later well it is 2014. yeah and I understand you don't think you're so there's nothing wrong with being a

1:47:02

little slower I mean you get older and you have I just don't think I could have beat him if I was slower because TJ was faster than paper

1:47:08

yeah but there's explore papers too man and there's that you're what what you have is a crazy will to win you hate

1:47:16

losing more than just about anybody now um and you're super strategic so it's

1:47:22

not just all speed you know what you might have lost in speed you gained in all of these other things experience

1:47:28

understanding that you could overcome adversity to the highest level to fight for another title even just to get to

1:47:34

that point you're uh breaking you know uh all the odds so uh and I I've always

1:47:41

thought it's just it's an incredible feat when you really break down all of those you know all of those things and

1:47:49

uh I think what's hard for me is just how how impossible it was said to be while I

1:47:56

was about to do it and then how little people say about it when it's done well I think that's what blows my mind the

1:48:03

most about humans yeah like all I heard for years was how

1:48:08

there's no way you're going to come back the same you're going to be slower reading rust is going to mess you up and

1:48:13

all I said for years was what you're saying right now is not true and what they were saying then wasn't true I know

1:48:19

I'm as fast as I was then now I'm not than I was now I'm not because I'm 38

1:48:24

then I was only 20

1:48:30

so it's like I knew for me I had even with my knee surgeries with what I was

1:48:36

doing at sports science lab I was positive I might have been faster interesting honest to God not slower and

1:48:44

my knees are stronger now just like my hands than they were originally yeah

1:48:49

because my what you learn when you do a rebuild the way I've done so many times

1:48:54

is you strip the muscle completely to the Bone every time you you do a rebuild so when you strip something down to the

1:49:01

bone it's like take a car and gut it and put brand new stuff in it like

1:49:06

doesn't mean it's slower it's the same frame it's just you put new stuff in it so it's like

1:49:13

I I came back more flexible with better range of motion and stronger legs than

1:49:19

when I got hurt originally yeah and then all the rest mixed into it I think it really like my legs feels my

1:49:27

knees feel great they're a little achy here and there on certain days but

1:49:32

stability wise they're stronger than they ever were so I don't you know I don't I don't have an actual way to

1:49:38

prove that you're wrong or that I'm right I don't really care but it's more like I don't know if that was true that

1:49:43

I was slower you know either way whether you were a warrant to me you were if you weren't that doesn't even matter really

1:49:49

it's just the point that you know you overcame all that and Against All Odds

1:49:55

doing something that I mean to me if I were just to be a UFC champion one day

1:50:00

I'd been like oh my God you know but to do it after all of those injuries it's

1:50:05

like not it's not I don't think most people I don't think most people know what you went through like to the point

1:50:11

of how many surgeries even me I was like how many was it before we you know we've gone over we've talked about a lot of

1:50:17

this stuff before but honestly you need to go back and look at my medical history because I stopped trying to no

1:50:24

yeah you just don't want to know anymore and I stopped counting it like 10 11 12. we have seven on my hands so

1:50:33

many on my knees I've had shoulder reconstructive surgery since then I've broke my nose

The Power of The Human Mind, Going Through Hell and Back, Appreciating True Grit

1:50:39

second time since then I've broken my ulna

1:50:44

I've broken my feet my ribs and I have a

1:50:51

bone spur in my neck and my ankle so those are like after that have added

1:50:57

have had to my fight career sure after I won the title yeah and I'm still here so

1:51:03

it's like I think people need to know how tough the human body really is yeah like it and that's one of the things I

1:51:08

Really they drove me too is like you guys are all don't know what you're capable of honestly what is it so it is

1:51:15

the human body but it's also you know the human mind because you've had to have a really strong mind to even

1:51:23

you know even overcome all of those things I appreciate that you notice it and like

1:51:29

because like not a people that's kind of what I mean you've been through so much yourself Ed that it takes somebody who's

1:51:36

been through hell and back to see somebody who's been through hell and back and that's the irony of the situation and there's so little people

1:51:42

like that these days that a lot of people don't notice what I've done I agree you have to go through hell like you've

1:51:49

scooped [ __ ] out of toilets and taking them up flights of scare stairs to have your dream come true not a I don't know

1:51:56

how many people have done that I'm not saying they haven't but I don't know if the numbers are higher on average of

1:52:01

people who have gone for it at the level that I've seen you go for it I could say the same stuff about you with your

1:52:07

business so it's like we're mirrors for each other and I think that part of the difficulty about doing

1:52:14

impossible great things is there's not a lot of people around you who will notice you're doing impossible great things unless they've done it themselves with

1:52:21

you or around you or near you because we're all mirrors for one another and if I can't see myself in you then I don't

1:52:28

know if I can see it it's hard to see it because I'm looking through my own scope yeah and it's like

1:52:34

all the greatness I see in you have seen it somewhere where did I see it first

1:52:40

and yourself usually from my experience in humans we it starts with us and then

1:52:47

and then we we give it to other things but realistically we're the source of everything we create so it's like I

1:52:52

think that all the greatness I see in you all this fancy stuff all this is all stuff I see in me I just haven't taken

1:52:59

the steps to go create and I'm grateful that you have done it because you pushed us to create it

1:53:04

little things like that but it's like how would I see these things how you

1:53:10

like these things they're special to you but I've been through enough stuff that I know how hard it is to get a little C

1:53:16

thing like that it probably costs five grand that looks expensive I would never pay five grand or something like that like you know what I mean like you just

1:53:23

it's because I've been around these things that I know how difficult it is to have the things you have yeah and to

1:53:29

have built the business you built to be sitting here and do this podcast with you like

1:53:34

you went through hell yeah hell we did it wasn't easy man but you know so

1:53:40

that's I think that what I'm trying to say is that's why you see it so I don't know I can expect we I can't do all this

1:53:46

to expect people to see it no I know that I I just well just so you know I see it and you know Scott your close

1:53:52

friends see it and um you know I do wish people other people could see it or just

1:53:58

really know because it's inspirational when you really because you downplay it or really you don't make a big deal of

1:54:04

it but it it's it's just if people could realize that the body and the mind can

1:54:13

do these incredible things you weren't just a UFC champ most you were a UFC champion before the injuries maybe a

1:54:20

couple injuries along the way but you know but after three years of surgery is

1:54:25

Non-Stop and depression and frustration and anger and all of these things loneliness

1:54:31

you're super lonely then Super and I created all of it you did but you overcame all of that

1:54:39

and became Champion again yeah I you know I can't think of another story either like like yours uh where where

1:54:46

it's been done and you really you know it is inspirational because you know it's it's proof that you can do anything

1:54:53

if you put your you know put your mind to it well thank you hearing you say it

1:54:59

makes me realize why I'm ashamed is because I'm also the most hurt UFC champion in history the most with the

The Power of Gratitude, Dom’s Epiphanies, Giving Back to The Community

1:55:05

most injured yeah so then there's always like a double-edged sword right and so

1:55:11

like when you're someone like me that's why I don't talk about it because I don't like talking about all the stuff

1:55:16

that I failed at in order to be cool or whatever like inspirational I wouldn't even be inspirational if I hadn't like

1:55:22

who knows what I would have how many times could I have defended the title successfully if I didn't I wouldn't have lost for you go all those years routes

1:55:29

you know you win the loss for years but um you know the

1:55:35

it's the cards that you were you were dealt with yeah yeah you get what you get um in a way you wouldn't have it any

1:55:41

other way because it's made you who you are today yeah exactly grateful you know and yeah same with you and your business that's

1:55:47

why I've it's been cool to watch you succeed as well yeah man it's you know somehow grateful I think gratitude is

1:55:55

underrated you know I really do I think that like living in gratitude all the time is

1:56:03

something that people could could learn a lot from and I know that that you do it uh you're pretty much

1:56:09

kind of always grateful which is really I'm not gonna say it's changed the last few years but you're you're constantly

1:56:17

living outward focus and ingratitude and aware of what that means yes

1:56:22

um when you hit depression the way I have you gotta find new ways that make to make things work

1:56:28

and that's probably one of the biggest things that I've been able to adjust is just creating my own experience through those

1:56:34

those things responsibility gratitude trust love vulnerability these things like I never would have used in a sense

1:56:40

in my life about six years ago and now I use them every day otherwise

1:56:47

I'll die I won't I'll see what it creates it created a lot of pain in my life and so

1:56:52

I had to shift different ways of being I had to shift who I was being I you know if you want if you want flowers and rose

1:57:00

bushes all around you then you've got to be the environment that that can sustain flowers and rose bushes and if you're a

1:57:06

desert then you're gonna get scorpions snakes gila monsters cactuses

1:57:12

1000 degree heat and no water in my past I would say I was coming from

1:57:18

a desert and today I'd say I'm coming from something a little bit more fruitful I don't know if it's to to

1:57:23

accommodate a rose bush but I think you get what I'm trying to what I'm getting at is like I have to be the source of

1:57:30

the environment that I create around me and then I create the environment before I think I was kind of waiting I was kind

1:57:36

of blaming life for happening to me in a lot of ways I was saying that

1:57:41

[Music] um the world was the desert and I'm the rose bush and I don't belong in this

1:57:47

world when really I was the desert trying to force rose bushes to grow

1:57:52

and they didn't belong there until I changed yeah and uh you know

1:57:58

really with that shift and kind of changing to be aware of all

1:58:04

that and being outward focused um you know what would you say like

1:58:10

what would you say was the Catalyst uh like the aha moment like within there

1:58:17

um probably seeing a

1:58:23

like when I started giving back to the community more I didn't know there was

1:58:28

like I um I started really tapping into people that were doing bigger things than me

1:58:34

and and that I looked up to much older than me like 60 70 year olds that had just lived 30 years longer than me 40

1:58:41

years longer than me and they just kind of knew what I had gone through and I got to tap into them and have them put

1:58:47

me in directions and then when I started following these directions instead of like them giving me destinations that I

1:58:54

needed to be at and that would be right it was just going this direction and see what could be created when I started

1:58:59

going in these Positive Directions I came to the culmination of this that uh

1:59:05

you know like everything in our life is about relationships like quality of our life

1:59:11

is the quality of relationships and I wasn't building any of them I had shut myself separate from the world to win

1:59:17

and when you win you're on right Island you're right you're winning but there can only be one person on that island

1:59:23

with you because you're right and you're winning and there's only one way to win and only one right way and so nobody else is invited it's just you and you're

Quality of Life and Relationships, Loving Others, Personal Accountability, Emotional Intelligence

1:59:31

right and you got all the things that come with being right but you're alone

1:59:36

so I started to learn like I can be right or I can be with I have a choice

1:59:42

so choosing to be with and start building relationships and be that environment by reaching out to build

1:59:48

relationships with other people and being a source of love and giving to

1:59:53

other people and then getting them to stand for themselves and their own dreams and the things that they want getting people to

2:00:00

follow the stuff that they want the way that I followed what I want because maybe they didn't have the mindset for it or they didn't think they could do it

2:00:06

giving those things back to the community filled that hole that I had inside of me which was you know I need a

2:00:13

hot girlfriend and I need a Lamborghini and I need a mansion and I need uh a

2:00:18

billion dollars in my account and then I'll be happy well I mean I had a point where I didn't have that much but I had all the things

2:00:24

that I thought I would need and I wasn't happy and so I realized okay that's not it that was the blessing of being a

2:00:30

world champion and then losing everything and then getting it again and then losing it again is like you get to see the differences

2:00:36

and I realized that the quality of your life through all those ups and downs of having the title and all that is the

2:00:41

quality of your relationships who you have to share all those things with who you have to and you hear this all the time from people but that's you're

2:00:48

asking me what I learned and this is where the joy comes from is when you start to when I started to figure out that I I get to give before I and then

2:00:56

that's everything um and by giving that means just like

2:01:01

having people understand what they can have that they're not giving to themselves and ex supporting people and

2:01:08

giving themselves the love that they deserve to have for themselves that even makes sense yeah no it does and you know

2:01:13

uh another thing that you kind of talking about earlier you hit on was you you're a victim to your circumstances

2:01:20

for a minute before and you've you know you're now responsible for everything

2:01:26

I know why is that important what does that even mean um

2:01:31

well coming from what I've learned like is that uh coming from responsibility is

2:01:36

a choice it's not an actual fact so it's like I can't actually factually always

2:01:42

be responsible because I'm a human as a human I'm not always going to be responsible we have times where we go

2:01:48

out and we blame right it's just the human condition to be in survival and blame others before we take

2:01:54

responsibility I get that but as I've chosen as a clear intention to always

2:02:00

come from responsibility I can notice when I'm not and choose responsibility anyways and that's a huge huge huge it's

2:02:07

been a huge life-changing experience for me because I always have the power to shift and change things now it's like

2:02:14

that was the biggest thing for me is being able to always have the power in my hand it just that notion shifted

2:02:20

everything for me is knowing it's not a fact I'm not saying Ed like if I was to

2:02:25

tell you I'm not saying you're always going to be responsible that you can factually always be responsible but you could choose to always be responsible

2:02:31

right to about everything why would I do that I'm not responsible for everything in the world I get that hypothetically

2:02:38

I get that but that's where I'm saying I got my power because now that I am responsible for everything I always have

2:02:43

something I can do no matter what happens to me like let's say right now

2:02:49

you stand up and slap the [ __ ] out of me in the middle of this interview and we start fighting I'd win well

2:02:54

that's the thing you slap me so we don't start fighting unless I come from victimhood okay that's what I'm that's exactly what I'm

2:03:01

getting at yeah so like let's say you slap me you stand up you slap me in the middle I wouldn't have any idea why you did that right my first reaction is kill

2:03:08

you because I'm a victim of you slapping me but what I've learned is I'm kind of

2:03:15

dangerous sometimes and so I can't always choose that you go to court you go to jail you'll lose one that's just

2:03:21

one indication but beyond that it's like I don't have any power now now because you slapped me I'm gonna lose control

2:03:27

which now gives all my control to you because you triggered me you got me to

2:03:33

beat you up I didn't beat you up because I wanted to I beat you up because you made me by slapping me so when I started

2:03:39

to realize like it's actually me handing you my power by beating you up after you slap me because that's what you wanted

2:03:46

I stopped fighting you I stopped giving you my power I'm responsible for how I react so if you slap me I sit down here

2:03:52

I go I'm not gonna lie I've killed people for less I'm gonna have to understand why you just did that to me

2:03:58

and you would say well you said something that really offended me and anybody who said that word last time I

2:04:05

slept okay what was the word well the word was the okay so you slap anybody who says the

2:04:11

word the hey why and we get down into it long story short we're not fighting I'm

2:04:16

responsible for my reaction I no longer hand my power over to you it's a tiny example that

Closing Remarks and a Friendly Farewell

2:04:22

sounds silly but factually I should be punching you factually

2:04:27

I have the right and I'm right that you deserve to get stomped out

2:04:32

no question everybody in the world would agree with me but coming from responsibility I get to choose like all

2:04:38

right how did I create this yeah how did I create you slapping me not you just slapped me because you wanted to what

2:04:45

did I do to create this well you did say something about guys with curly hair being a little bit weird

2:04:51

looking earlier maybe he heard that I you just never know where it goes

2:04:57

right so it's like that's a joke obviously but it's like man I don't know what how I could have created it so for

2:05:03

me being responsible has given me all my power and then it it

2:05:08

allows me to not get triggered by other people so much it allows me to not just

2:05:14

lose my crap lose my [ __ ] on people like yeah that's awesome

2:05:19

um well man it's been great hanging out and talking to you kind of going over everything it's been

2:05:25

fun watching you evolve all these years and uh you know really bring something you know not only to the fighting world

2:05:31

that's different with your style we didn't get to talk too much about your style which it's a whole other genius

2:05:36

level I think that of your game uh but you know your mindset we get to talk

2:05:41

about your mindset and the evolution of that to where you are now uh and um you

2:05:48

know it's it's gonna be fun even to see what you do in the future I mean it's the future is bright you're going to do good at

2:05:53

whatever you do I'm still fighting obviously but um yeah it's just been

2:06:00

it's been fun being your friend all these years doll damn man it's been cool watching you build the business and I

2:06:06

always say like I built it fighting you built it in an actual business you build all your success all this and it's like

2:06:11

that super difficult so I love that we have that to share that we can lean on each other and two

2:06:17

completely different parallel universes and learn so much from those universes and they work together in a certain way

2:06:23

too absolutely so that's what yeah I enjoy having a cool friend like you that still winning and being bougie for the

2:06:29

rest of us all right thank you brother thanks man