Latest / Caught on the Mike... / UFC's "Lucky" Lauren Murphy

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UFC's "Lucky" Lauren Murphy · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I've got Murphy joining me on the podcast today.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been training with my friends in Colorado.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I've been wanting to talk to her for quite some time, and I'm glad we finally got to make this happen.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is caught on the mic.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I am blessed with the presence of the toughest woman in MMA as far as I'm concerned, and the toughest person from Alaska that I've ever met.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I think you might be the only person from Alaska that I ever met.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lucky Lauren Murphy.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, my friend?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really well.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I it's been a long time coming.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have been a fan of yours for a while.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just recently had Sean Madden on the show, and uh, we had nothing but great things to say about you and your fight career.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you introduce yourself and let's kind of start talking through your origin story?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, my name's Lauren Murphy.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am from Alaska.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was born and raised there when I was 26.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my son was eight.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I really wanted him to be involved in martial arts and kind of get all the benefits that you get from any martial art.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna build confidence and make friends and learn some discipline and you know, hopefully uh get in shape and have some fitness.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Any that's you know, the benefits are just amazing.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so I took him to a Gracie Baja, which I had no idea what a Gracie Baja was or what they did.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: And the woman there was like, I was like, Well, what is this?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Well, it's like submission wrestling, it's on the ground, you know.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, uh, I don't really know about that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I don't think I'm into it.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I want to learn how to fight, you know, and she it well, anyway, I was like, I want my kid to learn how to fight.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: I guess that's a little Freudian slip.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I did want to learn how to fight though.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, you know, most fights end up on the ground.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought about that, and I thought about all the fights I'd seen on YouTube and like high school and shit like that.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I was like, damn, she's right.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like most people do kind of clinch up and fall over, and then nobody knows what to do.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, well, we'll give it a shot.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so I took Max in and I took a class, and I just remember thinking, like, dude, if I do this, you know, I'm 26, like I'm too old to like go anywhere or be anything, but at least a year from now, I won't like wish that I had started a year ago.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I took the first class and like I just loved it, it was so different than anything I'd ever done.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And um people kept telling me they were like, You're so strong, like you're natural.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, You're gonna be really good.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I had some instructors that were super kind, and um, I just didn't really have any idea what was happening, but I knew that I liked it, and so I kept going, and uh, there was a fight team there at that gym, and this is a fight team in Alaska, so it's not like they're not like world renowned, you know what I'm saying?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was like some local fighters in Alaska, and uh to me they were just the biggest, baddest motherfuckers I'd ever like laid eyes on.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was like in awe of them, and I was I the idea of being in a fist fight terrified me.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like the idea of violence was really quite scary to me, and I didn't like that because I felt like I felt like that meant people could pick on me, and sometimes people did, you know.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I felt really vulnerable.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I didn't like it, but I didn't feel like like I wouldn't know what to do if somebody tried to physically confront me and so basically I just wanted to know like if I could do it.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I wonder if I could get into a fist fight, like I wonder if I could keep my calm and I wonder if I could like get into a fist fight and and have that aggression and be like that.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I wonder if I could be that tough.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that's why I took my first fight because I just wanted to try it really.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've been training for like I don't know, four months or something like that, or five months, and you know, you don't know anything, and so anyway, uh that was how I ended up taking my first fight, and that's really the whole reason I got involved in it was because I just wanted to know if I could do it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you have done it, yeah.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The one part that I love just kind of breaking down everything you just told us within a six-month window, you went from taking your kid to a jujitsu class to taking your first amateur fight.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, it wasn't amateur, it was pro or it's pro fight, yeah.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's insane.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Women weren't allowed in the UFC.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: This I didn't even watch the UFC.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: This I definitely did not start this like because I wanted to go somewhere with it.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't planning on making this a career.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't there was absolute forget fucking money, but there wasn't even any respect in it.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like right, it was like there was nothing, you know.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: I literally just wanted to know if I could do it.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in Alaska at the time, we didn't even have an amateur league, and so all the fights were five-minute rounds, and they were just reported to Sure Dog as a pro fight.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, because I I didn't care, I was like, I didn't even know what amateur was, to be honest with you.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I was well like several fights into my pro career before I even learned that there was such a thing as like an amateur, and then I didn't understand why you would do that.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, why the fuck would anybody fight and not get paid?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, that is so dumb.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was so stupid, you know.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: I just had no idea that that's like, you know, eventually, like, I mean, we're talking, I had been fighting for like four years, and somebody like sat me down and they were like, listen, this is what an amateur career is for.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I just had no idea.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: It never occurred to me that I would uh want to practice before becoming a professional, you know, because I just wasn't planning on going anywhere with it.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna do one fight and just be done, you know.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, what brought you to the lower 48?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Did you continue training in Alaska as you like made your way into Invicta and the UFC, or did you move down to the lower 48 and then kind of work your contract that way?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I lived in Alaska and I met Joe and he was in the military.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: And um, like I said, like I wasn't gonna do another fight, but the first one it only lasted like 17 seconds, and the girl was not good.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was like, well, I was like, well, that don't really count.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's not really a fight because it it wasn't back and forth, and like there wasn't really any pressure.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I want to know if that's what I can handle.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I did another one, and that one went into the second round, and it was much more back and forth.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I got hit in that fight, and like I just had the time of my life.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly had so much fun in that fight.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, this is a blast.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I won that fight, and I really was not gonna fight again, except that um this woman walked into the cage when I was done, and she was like, Oh, you think you're so tough?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, why don't you fight me?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: And she was the champion of the promotion, you know, of the Alaska Fighting Championship.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: She was the pro she was the champion, and I probably would have honestly said no, except there was a bunch of people standing around.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: We were like in an arena.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I was like, Yeah, we can totally fight.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're gonna fight.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I I swear to God, I was just terrified.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I would not have agreed to it if there had not, like, if we had been by ourselves, you know?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so um, anyway, I trained really hard for that and uh I beat her.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was kind of like, damn, maybe, like, maybe I'm actually kind of good at this.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I am having a lot of fun and I really like this.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: I loved being on a team, I loved the confidence that I was building.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I liked that I liked being tough.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I was like, damn, I'm like three and oh, you know, like I won all these fights, I feel so badass.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I feel great.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so anyway, I met Joe and we were dating, and he got stationed um in Florida.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: So he was moving out of Alaska, and I was like, Well, I'm I'm fucking going with you.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't even really have a like a plan to keep fighting.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, No, I need to be with Joe.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I didn't care if I kept fighting, I just wanted to be with him.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I moved down to Florida with him, and there was a coach from Alaska that I really liked, and he had he had moved to Texas, so I drove from Florida to Texas to get my blue belt from him.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I was still a white belt, you know.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so I drove to go get my blue belt from him, and uh he gave me my blue belt, and that's when that's right around the time Invicta got started, and so they were having shows, and he was like, You need to write to those people.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, You really could go somewhere if you wanted.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, You need to write to those people.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I wrote to Invicta, and I was like, Hey, I'm three and oh, or I was four and oh at the time.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm four and oh, I'm a blue belt, I've won two jujitsu tournaments.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you guys think about signing me?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and they did, they wrote they offered me a contract, and it to me it was a huge deal because Invicta was the shit at the time, it was the only place for women, you know.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: There was no female league, and so Invicta signed me, and um, I did one more fight for Legacy.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: They like let like Invicta let me have a warm-up fight, and so um I fought for Legacy, even though I was signed to Invicta, and uh it was the first televised women's fight that Legacy had ever had.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was the first like female fight they'd ever had on a main card.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I won that by TKO.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was five and oh, and then I went into Invicta and um fought in Invicta for about a year.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's amazing! When was it that Dana finally brought women's MMA to the UFC?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it around 2012?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was late in the game.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was January of 2013, I think.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep, okay, yeah.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: I knew it was around that point in time.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So how long, how long after being with Invicta did you make your way over to the UFC?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: God, I wasn't with Invicta very long.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I remember I fought for like I fought for Legacy in February, I fought for Invicta in March, and then I fought for Invicta again in July, and then again in December.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my entire run with them because I went I won all the fights, including the Invicta Championship.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I was the I was eight and oh with six finishes, and I had the Invicta belt.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: And at this time, the women's division in the UFC had just opened up that year, right?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: So they'd taken like the first wave of fighters from Invicta, they'd taken like Shana Baszler, Sarah McMahon, obviously like Rhonda Rousey was never in Invicta, but um they had taken like all these fighters from Invicta, and I was I was kind of like the second wave that they took over or something like that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: So um I asked Invicta to release me because I I really wanted to go to the UFC and I was afraid that if I kept fighting, I was gonna lose one, and then the UFC would like never sign me, you know.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was like terrified of it.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I I really wanted to be undefeated.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And like looking back now, I wish that I had gotten more experience in Invicta because that's a tough promotion.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's the matchups have always been tough in Invicta.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: It would have been such good experience before going to the UFC.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say that is probably a very astute business decision, you know, running parallel.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like your work ethic with some good decision making, you really are lucky.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I am really lucky, but I do work really hard and like God blessed me with a very strong work ethic, I think, you know, and I've always believed a lot in hard work and like it's always paid off for me.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I really don't think that like I was the most talented athlete.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm definitely not the most talented athlete.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I did start this sport really late.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think that the reason that I made it so far is like number one, because of my work ethic.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent it's because of my work ethic.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh two, a lot of it's just being in the right place at the right time, which is pretty lucky, you know.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like when you work hard, the more you the harder you work, the more often you're gonna find yourself in the right place at the right time, you know.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: You had a quote after your last fight that has stuck with me like none other.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that quote was my adult life has been a dream.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I have to pay for that dream.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think about that in many different avenues of life, and I I think that's a very all-encompassing thing, right?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, like when I said that, what I meant was like sometimes you pay the price, you know.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have lived a I have lived a dream of a life.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's been amazing.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I accidentally stumbled into being a professional athlete for the entirety of my 30s, like the prime of my adulthood has been spent as basically one big fucking party.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And like, I can't, I couldn't be more grateful, you know.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: It has been hard, but it's been really, really fun.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I've gotten to experience like more than I deserve.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, there's so many athletes out there that train their entire fucking lives from the time they're like kids, and they don't get to do like a lot of the stuff that I've gotten to do, and they don't make it as far as I've made it, and something about that just seems terribly unfair to me, you know.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so it really is, you know, there's so many like people that would just love to do what I've done and be where I've been, and um, they work hard to get there, and then like for whatever reason, just like fate has it that they don't ever get to where they want to go.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like I literally like stumbled into it almost by fucking accident.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so sometimes, you know, you pay the price.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like sometimes you're gonna end up fighting somebody like Jess Vendraj, and you're not gonna have a good performance that night, you know, for whatever reason, and that's the price you pay to have such an awesome life sometimes.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: What did you make of some of the critique of that fight afterwards and the aftermath of it?
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you mean like people saying it should have been stopped or like that bullshit?
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh honestly, it's like people get jacked up about stuff.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I like I was fine.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was just as beat up or more beat up after I fought Andrea Lee in Houston.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: I looked really bad, and like you know, my whole face was swollen, and like um nobody was fucking concerned then about any kind of damage.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like nobody was, you know.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so to kind of go through, I think it's just because it was so unanswered.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I really froze up in that fight.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, it just this is not the sport you can afford to freeze up in.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: You just cannot, you know, you end up getting 30, 25 a couple times down in Brazil, it's not a good time, you know.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know, people are gonna say what they're gonna say, and like Rhonda Rousey said it best once.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: She said that people's memories are as long as their Twitter timelines, and I found that to be true.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but it's like if I if I let other people decide for me how I'm gonna feel about myself, then it's you know, my life would be meaningless.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that, and there's a lot to be said about the durability that you put on display in that fight.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was what it was, but I don't think it changes anything.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: My career as a whole has been pretty good, and like there's been some epic fuck-ups, but it's fine.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, not that it's fine.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: We never want to have epic fuck-ups, but it's like, like I said, sometimes that is the price you're gonna pay.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna miss the game-winning shot, you're gonna fucking freeze up during a really important fight, you're gonna forget the words to the Star Spangled banner, like whatever it is, you know.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes nightmares like that happen, but I don't think that it takes away from the entirety of my career, and it certainly hasn't taken away from my experience, like the last decade of of being a fighter, you know?
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: So absolutely, absolutely.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: You look at your last handful of fights, there's there's only two losses in there, and I don't know.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's I you know, I go back to the September 2021 fight.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: You were under a little bit of duress in that fight camp leading up to that, weren't you?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that makes me so sad.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's like MMA it's not fair sometimes, it just makes me so sad because it's like that fight didn't have to take place on that day.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: It really didn't.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't have to be like that, and like I think as you know, any coach in the game knows that fighters are gonna try to fight kind of no matter what, and for a coach to manipulate a fighter and to deliberately hurt an athlete is fucking insane.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I think it should be I think it should be a lot more punishable than it is, you know.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it just makes me really sad.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like, but I'm glad that the world knows about it.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad that like people know who that guy is, they know what he did, and um, you know, it just it makes me sad.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only time in my career that I was ever finished.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that that had to happen, certainly.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: But right, it also prevented me from like it also prevented me from really like learning things that I could have learned, you know, because when I look at that fight, it's like, man, I was sick when I went into that fight.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: I never should have fought that night.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't do that again, then the fight won't go like that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like I really probably could have taken more from that fight if that big glaring fucking problem hadn't been in the way, blinding everybody, you know.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that makes sense, but no, it does.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, looking back after this last fight with Andraj, I can really look back and like be like, okay, here's where I went wrong, here's where I went wrong, I did this wrong.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: We need to improve on this.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it makes it easy to look back on how you can improve, you know.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: But when you have a situation like what happened in that Shipshanko fight, it makes it really hard to learn from it because um stuff went wrong like deliberately, like somebody on the team was fucking drilling holes in the boat while everybody's trying to row it, you know?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can't really assess like what the problem with the boat is when you've got one guy in there that's trying to sink it, you know.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: And let's talk about how some of these perspectives have changed and some of the things that you've changed.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're training in Colorado now, you're training with some of the elevation fight team folks.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: How's that experience been for you?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love it, I love it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I love training with um the women, especially because I don't get to train for a lot of women out here, and there's like a whole stable of badass women out there, and then like like we were just talking about, this is like one of the things I fucked up was that there's a lot of really good guys to train out there with as well.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I probably should have invested more time into that in my last bike camp.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just so excited to train with so many good women and like have have so many good female relationships in the MMA space and like enjoy my training with other females, and we get each other and we're buddies and all that shit.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I I really didn't I wasn't as disciplined with my sparring partners, I think, as I needed to be.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so, anyway, like I said, like we can learn from it and take that, but the the relationships that I've formed with the women in Colorado is like invaluable to me.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's second to none, and it really picked me up after that fight with Valentina.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was kind of in a bad place, and like meeting all those girls and training with them really picks me up, and it did something for me that I don't know if I would have got it anywhere else.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I love all of those people, like they are some of my most favorite people on the planet.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've had Claire on the show, I've had Miranda on the show, I'm gonna have JJ on in a few weeks.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I know the people that you're running with, and they are phenomenal.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Funny story.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh back July 8th, 2022, I was at high altitude, your last day of camp.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just hanging out, just watching everybody.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: I made the trip to Denver.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: I made the trip to Denver and you know, just visiting friends and such, and I was like, oh shit, there's Lauren Murphy.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't get a chance to introduce myself to you because everything was going on.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: It was your last day of camp right before the Misha Tate fight.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's cool.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a pretty cool vibe in there, man.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really cool vibe, and um, yeah, it was a cool vibe even for this last camp, too.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like just having so many, so many good bodies in there, so many good women and just positive vibes.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Neil Magney was getting ready to go down to Brazil.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was all, yeah, I think that's super necessary in a fight camp.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: You want to the sport is hard enough.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: You have to enjoy your training and you have to enjoy the people that you're with, you know.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really interesting room, and I absolutely love it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you able to speak about anything that could be in the works?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because there ain't shit in the works right now.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, we could talk about all you want, but honestly, um, like right now, I've fine.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: I've I'm trying to open a business out here called Deep End Fitness.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're we're working on that in Houston.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Joe's opening up like two jujitsu schools out here.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we kind we kind of got a lot going on, and for sure I want to get this business going before I fight again.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like we got to start thinking about what we're gonna be doing after fighting.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna be 40 this year, and it just seemed like this is such a good opportunity to really invest my time and energy in something that I can continue to do, like when I can't continue to fight.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the concept of deep end fitness because as I said before we started recording, I was cruising your Instagram and I ended up going to the deep end fitness uh Instagram profile and Pretty damn interesting concept.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit about it.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a program that trains your mind and your body, and it increases performance and confidence in and out of the water.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it it just it's a really amazing program.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: It it gives it's really good for anybody that's in like a high pressure, high performance um kind of job.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: So professional athletes, obviously, high pressure, high performance, but we're also talking like first responders, EMTs, um, the law enforcement community, um, teachers, um who else?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like movie stars, famous people, just anybody that's you know, um in a high pressure, high performance type position.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then obviously it's gonna give benefits to like the general public too, like um, you know, your I don't know, regular accountant or somebody that wants to come in and is and wants it, just like they do with jujitsu.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: They want to forget about their shit for a while, they want to participate in something that's fun, something that challenges them.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, anyway, so it's it's a really great program.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's done in the pool.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um we do a lot of workouts in the pool, a lot of different exercises.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so what ends up happening is you're training your mind and your body um to be more resilient.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so we do different things, uh carrying weights underwater, doing like Olympic lifts underwater, a lot of breath holds, um, different types of swims.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: We do like, you know, carrying bricks across the water, pushing bricks across the bottom of the pool, things like that.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: And as you get stronger and more, you know, adapt more to it, then your tolerance for CO2 goes way, way up.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so your ability to handle stress also goes way, way up.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: In some regards, isn't that kind of like duplicating some of the benefits that you get from going out and training in altitude in Colorado?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it does replicate some of the benefits.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's like a one-for-one crossover because the air, you know, the air is thin, but it definitely increases CO2 tolerance, which um has just incredible effects on everything from like your conditioning to your confidence, uh, like I said, to your ability to handle like the pressure of a moment, you know.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: We talk a lot about breath work, um, how to recover when you're tired, how to move efficiently.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: These are all things that are like involved in flow states as well, you know.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: So my hope is that by bringing this program to athletes in Houston, that it increases like not only their cardio, not only their confidence, but it's gonna increase their focus and their ability to flow and find a flow state while they compete.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's one fight that you want that you haven't had yet?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Let me think about that for a sec.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because for a long time it was Misha Tate.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, like if you had asked me this a year ago, I'd be like, I've always wanted to fight Misha Tate.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that one we did.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: So let me think about that for a sec.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: How sweet was that victory when you got it?
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, that was probably the best performance of my career.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the it's to this day, it's the only fight that I've ever had that I was like super, super proud of.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like all even my other wins and stuff, I always found a way to like not be proud of it, or like we'd be like, Oh, like I didn't do that good, or they weren't that good, or something like that, and kind of talk myself down about it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And this, like that fight with Misha, it was like, nope, nobody can say shit.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, she's a good fighter, she was in shape, nobody was injured.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we both came on point.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: She's you know, a former champion, and like I I did it, I outclassed her, you know.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's the first time I've really walked away from a fight feeling like, god damn, I'm good, you know.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: So uh kind of, I mean, it's good, it's good to feel like that, but it also kind of bit me in the ass because I tell you, it made me a little complacent.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, like when I, you know, and like literally, I've just never experienced this before.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like we said, I wasn't an athlete growing up, I didn't have an amateur career.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is the first time I had a fight where I was like, Oh, I'm the shit.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so I, you know, it did.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: It made me a little bit lazier and it made me a little complacent.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I fell into some of those traps because I wasn't looking for them.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um, now I know.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now I know that a good win has that effect on people.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'll know next time it'd be like, man, don't be such a lazy piece of shit after a good win, and maybe you'll come back look even better the next time.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you've always been this self-aware before you were a fighter, or is this something that you've developed over time?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I developed it over time.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: When I was younger, um, I was a bad alcoholic and a drug addict, and I went to a 12-step program for a really long time.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people in my family are involved in 12-step programs.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And a big part of like a 12-step program is being pretty self-aware.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: They do they do a lot of like looking inward and um analyzing themselves and clearing up their side of the street, trying to do no harm, trying to apologize when you do wrong.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's a pretty self-deprecating program, you know.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I learned that when I was really young.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I think that's just always kind of stuck with me.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: But uh working with Carrington Banks has also made me a lot more like aware of myself, you know.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I really liked working with banks.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I I still like working with banks um for that exact reason.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: So so do you have that one fight?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have that in your head now?
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I think like I'd like to rematch JoJo.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: That would I think would be a fun fight.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: If I could pick any fight, if it was like no limits, no hold barred, I would obviously fight for the championship again.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: So that that would be like if it was like you could have any fantasy fight you wanted, I would say, okay, I want to fight for the UFC championship again.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Would you uh want to run it back within Draj?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: We could.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think anybody's interested in seeing it, you know.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's really the thing, is it's like it's not like it was a fucking back and forth deal, you know.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I I do think that like I froze up and I just kind of choked in the moment, and and that sucks.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: I had a really good opportunity to like show the world who I am and um kind of let the moment take me over instead of me seizing the moment.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like, like I said, like it just sometimes that happens at a high level, and you have to look at why and you have to go fix it, but it's not it's not the end of the world, you know.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: So no, the fight with Andraj, I think, is a done and gone thing, and you just gotta learn what you can from it and try to apply those lessons to the to the next one, you know?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta tell you, I have like chuckled more having this conversation with you than I have with any other fighter I've had on my show.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love how real and how raw you are.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is amazing, and I think that is a testament to who you are as a fighter, too, and it's why you're also one of my most favorite fighters.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's definitely gotten me into trouble more than more than a few times.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh girl, but I do.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: I just try to keep it real, it's much easier that way.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what I was just gonna say.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Real recognizes real.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: If I gods recognize gods.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, given all the shit you've dealt with in your life, your fighting career, your string of luck, everything that you're doing, this is the question I ask in every single episode of my show, just because I love to hear people's perspectives.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: What is your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is today?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Change yourself, baby.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta change yourself before you can change anything else.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's it.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: That I love it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: I love it, and I cannot wait to see what's next for you.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a lot of fun, and I hope we can do it again sometime in the future.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, I hope so too.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me on, Mike.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: This was a blast.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: The world's a better place with you in it, Lauren.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Seriously, running that episode back was so much fun to listen to while I was editing it.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to send a big thank you to Lauren Murphy for being on the show today.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: She's a lot of fun.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: She's a hell of a good fighter.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't paid attention to her career before, you need to educate yourself on your MMA history and pay attention to what's coming next.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Give her a follow on Instagram.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: She is at Lauren MurphyMMA.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And while you're following people on social media platforms, make sure you give CotOnthemic a follow on TikTok, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Instagram.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can also visit me at www.cotonthemic.com.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Send any email questions, gather requests, or anything of the like, do cotonhe at gmail.com.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I will try and respond as quickly as I can.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: This has been caught on the mic with Michael Clark.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.