Latest / Coffeez with Joe Shalaby / UFC Fighter Giga Chikadze on Discipline, Fighting Mindset & Never Giving Up | Coffeez for Closers

Transcript

UFC Fighter Giga Chikadze on Discipline, Fighting Mindset & Never Giving Up | Coffeez for Closers · Coffeez with Joe Shalaby

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, we are on site at a brand new facility in Newport Beach called Giga Kick.
0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are sitting down with the founder of Giga Kick, Giga Chikatsu.
0:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is known as one of the world's foremost
0:15
[SPEAKER_01]: expert strikers, a UFC legend, a multi-world champion kickboxer and karate specialist.
0:24
[SPEAKER_01]: This guy is an absolute ninja and one of the most humble people you will ever meet.
0:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Please welcome the one, the only, Giga Chikatsu.
0:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to another episode of Coffee's.
0:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Giga, it's a pleasure, it's an honor to hang out with you.
0:41
[SPEAKER_01]: You're such a special human being, a very, very humble guy.
0:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very impressed with your new dojo.
0:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's beautiful and you're attracting some of the world's best talent.
0:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I like to open up every single episode.
0:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The same way I ask everybody, what's your morning routine?
0:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, morning and routine is waking up, jumping in the shower,
1:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Then making the coffee, you're playing the little breakfast, which most of the time is very limited and preparing my bag and heading towards the gym.
1:21
[SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty, that's when I'm in a camp, it also depends on timing.
1:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, I'm mixing up with my kid to drop one of them at school, depends time, and they're always heading towards the gym.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you don't hear a crazy morning routine when your whole life is training.
1:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I skipped the supplements as well, because when I'm doing the supplements, it's not just
1:57
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty much like the couple of glass, full glass of different type of the vitamins, different pills.
2:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'm sure your supplement stack is pretty intense.
2:11
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to be on time and do multiple times per day.
2:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of the time when I'm in a camp, I really follow that plan.
2:20
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm not in a camp, because I'm all I live in a camp.
2:25
[SPEAKER_00]: That's something that I've been doing since I was a little kid four or five years old.
2:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And always had the tournaments with competition and I was preparing for some tournaments or the fights.
2:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It's your four years old?
2:40
[SPEAKER_00]: These hours of four or five years old.
2:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I stepped in on the karate dodger and that's how I started there.
2:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, like, I was just talking to your doctor here.
2:52
[SPEAKER_01]: He was like, yeah, did you see what Georgian kids look like as kids?
2:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They're all ripped.
2:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Every single kid.
2:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, yeah, you know, that's what RFK is trying to do to American now.
3:00
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, trying to bring America back to how we looked in the 60s, you know, in the JFK era.
3:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you guys are already there in the Georgian era now.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like all the kids are competitive, they're athletes, and we see it now, and UFC, those multiple fighters coming out of Georgia.
3:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Georgia is doing so good in UFC, and it was just a matter of time.
3:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm glad I had to do my part to help that little low to come up.
3:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Here we are, we got two champions right now at the moment one.
3:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It was only like 3 million people and it's insane how much of the mixed martial arts is loved inside the country and how all the new generation are involved in martial arts.
4:01
[SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing and I think you've been a big contributor to that, you know.
4:06
[SPEAKER_01]: put them on the map as the first official.
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I did a little part of it.
4:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, God bless you for that.
4:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's jump into it now.
4:13
[SPEAKER_01]: You've been in martial arts now for 30 years.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: That's crazy.
4:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, over 30 years.
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, who were you before the UFC?
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what was life like before the center stage, before the notoriety and the fame, and the following, et cetera?
4:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so I signed in US, I signed with the U.S.C.
4:39
[SPEAKER_00]: to sell the 19, to sell the 18.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I had the content to share this chance to get to U.S.C.
4:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So I already had some relationship with them.
4:50
[SPEAKER_00]: and Phil Dan that was like 2,000, 18, 19 and I came here first time in 2,000, 14 just to check it out in 2015 I moved here.
5:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So I spent like three years working really, really hard, really tough to get to the US.
5:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And while I was
5:17
[SPEAKER_00]: In these years, I was fighting the kickboxing to the biggest stage, called show called glory.
5:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I was headlining the shows in Madison Square Garden, in Stappell Center, in multiple different areas, different states, and the biggest kickboxing show.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I was invested all the money into my grappling wrestling to
5:42
[SPEAKER_00]: get smaller steps to make it to the UFC, because all that is was the very necessary to get to UFC.
5:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, even you are the, I was like ranked number one featherweight kick boxer, and I left that show old glory.
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: UFC won't sign your straight if you don't have some experience of MMA, even keep boxing in mix MMA so close to each other is like whole different sport and you have to be ready for that.
6:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to have a couple of fights on the record and it's funny that I was fighting one day on that show, like the biggest show in keep boxing and three-four days after I would come and
6:31
[SPEAKER_00]: do some local show.
6:33
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a nobody in MMA and yeah, in MMA they all knew me all the fighters public wise you know the people they didn't know so I had to prove it that I was ready for UFC and it was the same time I had to do like competition in jujutsu and stars was white belt, blue belt, purple belt and
6:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Travel around the tour.
6:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you Black Podgejitsu, or just no, I stopped when I got to purple.
7:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I never trained with GIFTER, which was seven years ago or six, yeah, seven, seven years.
7:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The requirement now in UFC is jujitsu, right?
7:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to have some jujitsu experience.
7:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to know jujitsu and you've got to know the kickboxing as well and wrestling.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that one thing only, you can't do it just one thing.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I had the CEO of LFA on my show a couple weeks ago about a week ago and he said that
7:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Hoyscreacy came in and proved that jujitsu is the superior martial art, and he was one little tiny guy, your weight, 150 pounds going up against 300 pound fighters, and since he proved that, now look at UFC, they're requiring every fighter to know jujitsu, to compete.
7:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So, it's become such a difficult sport now because everybody knows jujitsu, so to be a champion,
7:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you really got to put an extreme amount of effort in every martial art.
8:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's how the sport evolved.
8:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this is only like what?
8:11
[SPEAKER_00]: 35 years, 30 years old sports.
8:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is only going to grow more and more and more.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And we just started.
8:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm super excited to see in the future, like back in the days, there was like karate versus wrestling, keep boxing versus boxing or you're just who was somebody so there was all different type of martial arts going against each other.
8:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But nowadays you can go in one gym and you can bring your kid inside and have wrestling and grappling with kickboxing and karate and
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: All that together they are they're gonna grow someone like well, those kind of gyms don't exist, and then we talked about this when we met The concept of giga kick.
8:58
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the inspiration for starting giga kick when I trained and when I have a camp When I really want to train was one of the best
9:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Try King Jin, one of the best wrestling, so if some big fights coming up, I want to get all the experience, be till my fight.
9:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like almost impossible, it was impossible before to get the sound one who's one of the best grappler, one of the best striker, one of the best
9:35
[SPEAKER_00]: All that they all have little egos it.
9:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm a best wrestler.
9:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be separated with everyone.
9:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I want my thing to have then.
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You have grappling that I'm the best grappler.
9:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do traditional this way.
9:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's only way I'm going to do it.
9:54
[SPEAKER_00]: In my case, so I was driving around in one gym and LA for boxing almost two hours, just one way and come back.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Doing 45 minutes to unahame and come back, so 45 minutes back and then to different areas in Urvayan and in other areas and then after all that, me driving and spending the six
10:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, you know what?
10:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's the right time to do something for community, but nice dodge over here, bring my all-day experience, help the fighters, become the better strikers, better fighters, and to the community to build up the traditional martial arts as karate, jujutsu, and bring
10:51
[SPEAKER_00]: mixed martial arts, more easier for community and kind of like build something special because you come in this place and you have everything the best, best karate, best
11:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, you made somebody the young kid who is anologist of the full mixed martial arts in one place.
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a good concept what we do.
11:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the concept because finding a boxing gym, you gotta go to a boxing gym, you gotta go to a jujitsu gym and we discuss, I got kids, you know, and I want them to learn to strike, but then it's like, I gotta take them to a striking gym and then we belong to a jujitsu gym and, you know,
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: like having daughters that they got to learn a strike before they got to learn a get to you know and and you get to is a long process you know it's striking like
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: If they come to a couple striking classes, we know that they could defend themselves.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a couple classes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to train years.
11:55
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to train arm bars.
11:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, just finding something where as if even as a parent that I could rest assured that my kids can properly defend themselves quickly is awesome.
12:08
[SPEAKER_01]: But then to learn all of the arts and an intense environment like this where you have some of the best fighters in the world training here, we just witnessed it.
12:18
[SPEAKER_01]: on camera here.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like you're already attracting the most elite talent here already.
12:24
[SPEAKER_01]: The gym just opened.
12:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And the best fighters are already coming here.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: How in the world did you attract the best fighters on the planet that quick?
12:34
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the gym name is Gigic.
12:37
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a reason why they call it Gigic.
12:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So, when I was a young kid, started training with karate.
12:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I developed this skill that I could transition my direction of the cake from the different areas, while I was aiming high kick to switch the body kick or body kick to high kick.
13:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was really sucks.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So then I moved to kickboxing and I moved in the lanes traveling around the world, 14th Island and multiple multiple different countries.
13:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And I used my kick.
13:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Once I got really stuck a lot of success in kickboxing, people started to call this kick, Giga's kick.
13:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So, time to time, then there are some people just skipped ass and it became a giga kick.
13:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So, after that, there's not only one kick I do, I do multiple different kicks and some people thinks that that's a giga kick, some people think the other one is a giga.
13:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
13:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, in mixed martial arts today, people know me as one of the best keycaring of the game.
13:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have something that not too many people have it.
14:01
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe only couple of and all that experience what I have in the kicking and striking game and transition and karate to kickboxing, kickboxing to mixed martial arts, finding the right chances, right kicks, right techniques for the striking.
14:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's just something that attracts one of the best fighters to come and train with me and take something from here, you know, because what I find for mixed martial arts, it's not came just like that.
14:44
[SPEAKER_00]: For all you just mentioned the over 30 years of experience,
14:52
[SPEAKER_00]: practicing the all different striking sports.
14:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been practicing the a lot of high level boxing trainings as well.
15:04
[SPEAKER_00]: He walks in Dutch style, he walks in Thailand, Moetai, karate in different style.
15:11
[SPEAKER_00]: There is Kyoku Shin, there is Goju, there is Shito Rai, there is
15:16
[SPEAKER_00]: She'll talk on all that different type of carols.
15:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So that kind of gave me the ability to help other fighters, find rare or find for them the real and right techniques, plan their strategy for the fights, and not only in MMA, obviously in kickboxing and we type fights as well.
15:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's the smart thing to come here and hang out with us and train.
15:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's why they figured it out by themselves, you know, because we just opened.
15:50
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been only like 15 days.
15:52
[SPEAKER_01]: 15 days and there was like five UFC fighters here, champions here.
15:58
[SPEAKER_01]: 15 days and they're coming.
16:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard them talking and they're they're driving like an hour two hours And how many hours was the training session like it was two hours they come for two hours and they train And they're gonna train again because these people are training in the middle of the day So they're all professional fighters Yeah, a lot of most of them they have a fight coming up
16:18
[SPEAKER_00]: like yeah okay one kid has been in two weeks the title fight coming up in other yeah 15 days three weeks UFC fights four weeks UFC fights all packed yeah it's amazing I mean I I just come here and I see all these shredded dudes that's like fighting in the middle of the day it's like they're all fighting
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: coming up.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just I've never seen that.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never saw professional fighters in their element training in their training camps here and they're just, you know, I'm like,
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's 12 o'clock, you know, these guys are off-road, it's not like it's a it's a few way they work out in the morning, they're not here for a workout, they have their workout.
17:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, they're going to go and take a little nap and in one more hour, they're going to do the same thing in a different place for conditioning or something like that.
17:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's unbelievable, it's so cool, 15 days now you're attracting, I mean,
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it going to be like here?
17:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you're in a prime location.
17:20
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the first time I've ever seen a fight camp area.
17:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's in the most famous part of Newport Beach right on Newport Boulevard.
17:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're getting a million views.
17:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably more than a million views a day.
17:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to get, you know, every probably 10 seconds, there's some UFC fighter being turned on to this place.
17:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I foresee this place as being like a hub for the world elite athletes coming because there is nothing like this and we're in the most prime real estate on the planet.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be fun that we're on.
17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: professional high-level fighters and serious kids can get together in the same mat, get the same energy, get the experience for kids from professional stars that are around on TV and for all that professional fighters, they
18:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It will be more like a unique place because in the back, back here, we're building the ice baths, sauna, some private area for the gym as well, or say that is someone has a special camp, and we don't want nobody to see the training.
18:39
[SPEAKER_00]: That will be in that room.
18:41
[SPEAKER_01]: So you can have like the world famous, like number one champion in the back, nobody notices here.
18:47
[SPEAKER_00]: We're probably going to direct him here as well because all the kids are going to have fun to share that energy, you know, it's always good to see someone who is role model, but yeah, it will be something really special there in the behind.
19:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the idea that you've made it, like, with a focus on the children, you know, like, because you got the pros coming in the afternoon, training in the middle of the day, the world elites, and then you got kids in the evenings.
19:23
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my challenge, what's my challenge in reality, you know how
19:28
[SPEAKER_00]: The late last 25 years around Karate has a better reputation around that you see the very young age kids with black belt and most of them they don't know how to use it and let's say some incident happens and they cannot defend themselves.
19:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You watch karate tournament and it's all about belt or not all of them, but most of them, you know?
20:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm trying to bring real traditional karate back again.
20:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So my challenges to...
20:12
[SPEAKER_00]: get that Japanese traditional martial arts back to popularity and teach them the real karate in general.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what I want to bring because you see there's so many jujutsu jims around here and so popular become right?
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And imagine that we bring the karate back again in the same popularity with the right instructors, rights and says, then this kid's going to be unstoppable.
20:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I was talking with a dad, actually, who's at Arjuna Tsugim that, you know, Tsugitu now is the karate of like the 90s, you know, where there was a karate gym on every corner.
20:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and in my country back then, it was even illegal to drink one.
21:03
[SPEAKER_00]: It was illegal.
21:04
[SPEAKER_00]: My parents and their brothers and cousins, they would drink right into the separate, like the closed area in Karajis.
21:14
[SPEAKER_01]: The gig kick, it's an up-down kick.
21:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it could be, can we get a, like a demo of what it looks like?
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, it's like going into the body and then the high kick or high to the body.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Was there a moment in your career where you had to rebuild mentally?
21:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Not just physically to keep going.
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You really had to just get through that barrier mentally because this is a very taxing.
21:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah multiple times, you know, like the first thing, you know, I got married during I was 18.
21:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I was a wall champion in karate, and I'm like, hell, what am I going to do?
21:55
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I don't want to be just there.
21:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Back then, I wanted to be a fighter, and Karate would not pay any salary, so I had to figure out what to do, so I moved in Holland, I moved in Netherlands to join the Kickboxing team and Kickboxing, and because back then there was a league called K1, and K1 would pay some money.
22:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that fight, there was always like,
22:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it was mentally tough, but because my, I had a new wife, she was pregnant very soon as well, and we had the baby on the way, we moved in, did it called Breda first, and then later in Amsterdam, all that things like,
22:47
[SPEAKER_00]: fights were like only 200 euros they would pay so I had to fight Friday I was for a fight Saturday and Sunday to survive every other weekend you know, so we would outfight in Belgium in Germany and in Holland and travel around in a close-by countries.
23:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So after time to time I made my name there and everything changed and
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: yeah there was many ups and downs with it besides that my mom and the health issues while I was in Holland and it was really hard to be there and supports my mom somehow right and
23:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Then she passed away from cancer.
23:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Lots and other big change was in my life.
23:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I was very young, I was 24.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was a time that kind of destroyed a lot in my life.
24:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Then was another
24:07
[SPEAKER_00]: big change removed from George, so from Holland we moved to Georgia and from Georgia we moved back in U.S. My wife was like, again, we're going to do this again, you know, we settled in Holland finally, we're good, everything is great and now we're going in the U.S., but actually she actually loved that idea as well, because
24:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, first I traveled here.
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I came down.
24:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I was invited from one of the Philadelphia's boxing gym to start boxing career, but I checked out Philadelphia, I traveled in New York and DC, and the last stop was LA, and when I came in Cali, I was like, that's the right place to come.
24:56
[SPEAKER_00]: The weather is a big game changer, you know, so what's the weather like in Georgia?
25:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, in Georgia, we got the great poor season.
25:04
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a very nice summer.
25:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we got a beautiful Ottoman spring when the nature is changing, not called, or something like that.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have the winter when some time has some snow in a city, but nothing crazy, it's not like Russia, like freezing and stuff, no, no, like that.
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a mountain in, you know, co-casous mountain that you can go and have skiing when it's beautiful, snowboarding, it's amazing.
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever leaves clothes by all the regions,
25:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They know that the skiing resorts are in Georgia.
25:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So while we have a black sea, we also have a mountain as well.
25:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it sits right on the ocean on the black sea.
25:52
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very nice, yeah.
25:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So what was that transition, you know, moving from a beautiful place like that, then you're coming over to these random states in the U.S. finally landing in the most beautiful part of America and Newport Beach.
26:04
[SPEAKER_01]: But then before that, you know, the transition, you're like, did it feel like a downgrade?
26:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, did America feel like the place that you wanted to be?
26:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there was a really different, because we loved Europe, we loved Amsterdam, when we went first.
26:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We slowly worked, we worked on a seven years to settle well there.
26:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were very happy in the end.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And...
26:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Somehow something didn't click, you know, I was already one of the biggest naming and keep boxing in my weight division category, but the price wise, that was not what I dreamed of, you know, I wanted something much bigger and that's, I felt like some talent I was wasting into is something different.
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Because financially, to even till today, keep boxing, it's not saying what it used to be 20 years ago in Japan.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't drop no attention.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're known as one of the most technical.
27:05
[SPEAKER_01]: fighters in the UFC.
27:07
[SPEAKER_01]: What does what does elite level striking demand that fans don't fully understand?
27:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Because what I witnessed right now from your striking was like, that was crazy.
27:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think fans really understand what it takes to be an elite level striker.
27:25
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to know so much.
27:27
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to train
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: lots and get a lot of experience of, you know, the boxing, the one thing kicking is another thing.
27:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Mixing up these two things, let's say you are good kicker, but you're not good boxer, or your good boxer, you're not good kicker.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You can use your hands to distract your opponent and then
28:01
[SPEAKER_00]: All that mixing the combination, mixing hand to hand, knees and whole leg, it's very something that people don't understand how much it takes it to get like a habit, you know.
28:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, people train like 10,000 kig.
28:22
[SPEAKER_00]: and they do well these or good boxing forever but just put the box in into the MMA or kickboxing and you'll see how quick they're going to fail or someone who's let's say type one to fighter you bring in kickboxing and even a karate fighter who's
28:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Ghosts try to keep boxing without experience.
28:47
[SPEAKER_00]: They fail it's very quick.
28:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So mixing up all the techniques it's something that takes time and people don't understand today how much it takes.
29:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all about experience.
29:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I mean people are now not valying striking
29:14
[SPEAKER_01]: as much, you know, as ground and pound type of stuff, you know, they want the, it's all, the, I think there's a resurgence now and striking.
29:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And really, that's, you know, if fans witness the UFC, I mean, I think striking is obviously the most entertaining.
29:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Most exciting, definitely, most entertaining.
29:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And we were just having that discussion like,
29:39
[SPEAKER_01]: for kids it's obviously the most like exciting for them to do it versus like you know the technicalities behind digits and a lot of the fans don't don't understand how technical jiu jitsu is and how much brain power goes into it
29:55
[SPEAKER_01]: versus like striking.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like the same.
29:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We see punching.
29:58
[SPEAKER_01]: We see kicking.
29:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more fun.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not looking at the mental chest.
30:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yes.
30:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I know it's as a striker.
30:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's definitely still mental chest.
30:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they can still have fun even if they don't have much experience.
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's much easier to start baby steps.
30:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, walk us through.
30:21
[SPEAKER_01]: a real fight camp, okay, a really high level fight camp.
30:25
[SPEAKER_01]: We see these fighters in here right now.
30:27
[SPEAKER_01]: What's happening behind the scenes that the public never sees?
30:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the people are like, fight camp, like, I don't even know what the heck a fight camp is.
30:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what is a fight camp?
30:36
[SPEAKER_01]: What's a high level fight camp?
30:38
[SPEAKER_01]: What's happening?
30:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, how do you guys become the ultimate fighters in these camps?
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there are so much that has not really seen on TV or publicly like a lot of times people say that Oh, I don't watch my opponents but I don't care whoever he is, I'll fight anyone and I'll do this and that
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: We all watch our opponents fight, we try to learn their skills, what type of shapes they are, who they are training, it's something that kind of helps you to understand that we will be fighting, right?
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a lot of fighters they have a habit that, after they punch, they drop the hand, or after they do left,
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: We really study our opponent very well, at least like we try high level fighters as well we do.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We got, you know what's one of the most hardest in a camp to stay healthy.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: because you come here, you saw it here and all the MMA james when there are high level fighters camp going on.
32:02
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times people get injured.
32:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So to stay injured free for a whole camp, that's the most challenge.
32:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, these weight cuts are nearly like you're probably rolling around
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now I'm 185 so.
32:17
[SPEAKER_01]: 185.
32:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So you dropped 40 pounds for a fight?
32:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, last time I started Campos for 191.
32:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So 45 pounds over.
32:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to drop 45 pounds for your next fight?
32:32
[SPEAKER_00]: next yeah so far forty probably yeah yeah you guys gonna not gonna recognize me when I when I'm when I make the wait but next day yeah what is dropping forty cut and you're you're fit already
32:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, what are you going to do to drop 40 pounds?
32:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you already seen every- Right, nutrients follow my daily routine.
32:56
[SPEAKER_00]: How I told you about my limited breakfast and the right supplements, train multiple times per day.
33:04
[SPEAKER_00]: walk because walking is a great for burning the fat.
33:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you run, you train, nothing happens, you cannot break their weight on the scale.
33:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just doesn't come.
33:20
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting that it's just a slower, like a little higher pace walking.
33:26
[SPEAKER_00]: for 45 minutes to hour could be so much helpful to burn that low fat inside the part, all that makes much easier weight cuts.
33:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So we all do that.
33:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We try to net between trainings, otherwise you will feel really tired and none of the training will be so helpful.
33:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that part, you know, their recoverers are multiple different facilities that we go and use to red light therapy.
34:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We do Hyperbury Chamber, Seavoc therapy.
34:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, if mechanically, like some injuries we have, we go see massage therapy,
34:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I forgot in my daily routine and when I wake up I start with the ice person as well.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: When I'm starting with an ice bath?
34:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Every morning.
34:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You put your whole body in the ice bath.
34:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like five days a week, I jump into 40, 40, 40, 40, and get to a state at least three minutes.
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You have an ice bath at the house.
34:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So every morning you start with that, that's, you do do the cold planch.
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I do.
34:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Every morning.
34:48
[SPEAKER_00]: in a camp okay not not normally normally I try to kind of relax a little bit which doesn't last for long okay so walk me through a morning routine during camp my bedroom when I sleep when I mean a camp it's filled and I have an altitude's chamber where I sleep every single night
35:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So you come in my bedroom and it's like, like a big tent and you plug it in, there's a big machine, generates the altitude.
35:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's high altitude over 8,000 feet.
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: In your room.
35:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you do your room here?
35:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, are you leaving somewhere?
35:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You're doing it here at your normal house?
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: In the house in my bedroom.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: They flew, they did all that here.
35:41
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it do?
35:42
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, helps me to have benefits of my condition.
35:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, amazing, you say.
35:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I do that every
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Not very nice sneak out from my tent, but I try to stay there every night.
36:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
36:02
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not easy.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The first two, three days.
36:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And then start your nose kind of sometimes bleeding.
36:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Depends how we feel.
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like a higher... Yeah.
36:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I remember taking my kids just to call around on high altitude, they all had bloody noises.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: There are the fights in Colorado, there are fights in Mexico City.
36:23
[SPEAKER_00]: When people go there and if they don't use to it, they get tired in one round.
36:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And whoever lives there, if they just come from there and fight in Vegas or somewhere else, then those guys get extra cardio abuse.
36:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's fascinating.
36:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so you're opening up Gega Kick.
36:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what kind of culture are you intentionally building inside this dojo?
36:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we see a culture I love when we chat in the first time.
36:50
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you're the first person to bring like an icon of St. George from Georgia in martial arts theme.
36:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been driving by this for a long time and yeah, it's the first time I've seen something like this where you're really intentionally building a very unique culture.
37:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So that this place, as you guys can see, it looks very traditional, very old school, Japanese culture influenced.
37:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Same time, I want to bring something from my country, or from my culture, which is based on respect.
37:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And...
37:31
[SPEAKER_00]: We have in our Christianity the same George which is like a role model for a lot of people around that it's what it translates it's like
37:47
[SPEAKER_00]: since George battling with evil, it's pretty much similar as in Yann, in Yann and Yann.
37:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Asian culture, right?
37:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like your inner good and inner bad, so you pick your path, which way you're going to go.
38:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So...
38:06
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the artists, John Gallang, he did posters for UFC, he worked for Nike, Reebok and he's very famous, he flew from New York and stayed here for two weeks and when he came up with that painting mural made my, I don't know, like one of the dream come true as well that I wanted to do something here.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I want that painting in my house, I want your fabric, you know, publicized that painting in release?
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, those two things also, he doesn't operate.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
38:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was later done.
38:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was a little earlier.
38:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah.
38:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's something that
38:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to show the kids and teach the kids that everything you guys decide into your pads.
39:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to pick the good or you want to pick the bag.
39:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to help the kids to choose why they should pick the good ones, you know.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I'm trying to build the way this gym is going to run.
39:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not going to be just a gym.
39:24
[SPEAKER_00]: We call it Tojo, where when they come, they do bow, and when they live from here, they do the same thing.
39:32
[SPEAKER_00]: It will be about respect, everything here, and respect the higher balls, and all theirs, and trying to share the knowledge.
39:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we're going to do something really weird.
39:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe it.
39:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to be something really special.
39:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I have a couple last questions for you.
39:51
[SPEAKER_01]: What's a personal goal that you have for yourself this year?
39:56
[SPEAKER_01]: What's a family goal that you have for your family?
39:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And what's a business goal that you have for giga-kick?
40:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Personal goal.
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Personal goal besides the business-wise,
40:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Get my sports career, get going back again, I have to come back with a nice, nice tabloo that's something that I'm looking for.
40:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you say the family dream?
40:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't family go.
40:36
[SPEAKER_00]: This is family go.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The personal family go.
40:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Family go.
40:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, family goes.
40:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very simple, right?
40:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's torture who's studying high school and make her, make her see success at school at the moment.
40:58
[SPEAKER_00]: My sound plays football, train is here, so we want to see some competition, we want him to make it.
41:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually I want to see him happy, you know, the happy he's already very happy and even happy in the future so that's something that I'm not really pushing to him, he picked the side that he wanted to train here, so I'm happy to see what he stands for and what he wants to do.
41:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And for my wife together we have
41:39
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think we made the one of the dream come true that we started to business here together.
41:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the main author of this dojo that looks like this Japanese style, very minimalistic.
41:56
[SPEAKER_00]: He is very involved in pretty much everything, marketing to sales, to all the stuff.
42:10
[SPEAKER_00]: family dream is like more business dream this at this moment for this year to get the gym going get multiple members in the gym right community and going from there and have a personal
42:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm very gut believer person, so I believe every single morning when I wake up and sun shines, something's good, it's gonna happen, so I'm just trusting in the gut's plan and following it, and on the plan, I mean, I always like to plan it,
43:00
[SPEAKER_01]: live in positivity in every day.
43:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do my 100% whatever I can do every day.
43:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, something good is always going to come up.
43:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, last question for you, when you're in front of the early gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?
43:20
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope not so many bad things I'm going to hit about me.
43:27
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope I'll hear something one thing that makes me happy that I did the right thing.
43:36
[SPEAKER_00]: and we are all sinners here and we all are working on that to make the way up there with him.
43:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.
43:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I probably inside me we all I know what I'm doing good or bad and hopefully when I go there
44:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be ready to face it.
44:10
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we all pray for, man.
44:11
[SPEAKER_01]: What about you?
44:13
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when I go and I was just thinking about this, I think about this every time I ask the question, it's like, is you can tell me, well done, good and faithful servant?
44:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Is you can tell me, like, you could have done better?
44:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I give it my best, and I fall every single day, every day.
44:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow my face, and I just get back up, and I fight again, every single day.
44:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So, for me, God knows my heart, and He knows I exist for one thing and one thing only to do his work.
44:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet, I fall into the same temptations and the same issues, but I'm here as a servant.
44:51
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
44:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And this chance of probably changes every time I think about it.
44:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to tell me, you should have done better.
45:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm going to kill him.
45:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to kill him.
45:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm barely, barely, I'm going to kill him.
45:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to a visa.
45:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Give it to God, say.
45:13
[SPEAKER_01]: If people want to find you or find out more about your charity or get in touch with you, how do they find you?
45:19
[SPEAKER_00]: our website for the jim called ggacic.com.
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides that I run my social media, my personal and for charity, they contact me on no-cout cancer on Instagram, and we just opened a new account for jim in all social media ggacic as well for the jim.
45:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So I
45:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's it, very simple.
45:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, thank you.
45:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Twitter, like, on the axles, he gunned this quote, Chikaze, and Facebook, he got Chikaze.
45:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much.
45:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Chikaze, make sure to follow him, check it out, and check out this gym.
46:01
[SPEAKER_01]: It's gonna revolutionize martial arts.
46:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.
46:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go.