Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "High Altitude Gladiators" with MMA coach "Donnybrook" Cody Donovan

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"High Altitude Gladiators" with MMA coach "Donnybrook" Cody Donovan · Caught on the Mike...

0:31
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what is happening in Denver, Colorado, and surrounding areas.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Elevation fight team is easily one of the top three MMA teams in the world today.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: And I am lucky, very lucky, to have one of their coaches and owner of high altitude martial arts on the podcast today.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: You may have seen him in the corner of Curtis Blades or Aleister Overing, but today coach and professor Donny Brooke Cody Donovan is getting caught on the mic.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk about the road that brought him here.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is caught on the mic.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I am sitting with Coach Extraordinaire, my friend Cody, Donnie Brooke Donovan.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: How the hell are you, man?
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, bro.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: So you had some exciting news drop through your social media yesterday, didn't you?
1:32
SPEAKER_01: I did, yeah.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: My my wife is pregnant, uh, and you know, we've known about that for a while.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, we did like a gender reveal on Halloween, and uh, I'm gonna have a son, which I'm super excited about.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: I I have two daughters, and I mean I wouldn't have it any other way, bro.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I love being a girl dad, uh, but I'm pretty excited about having a boy.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, man.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: You know what's funny?
1:56
SPEAKER_00: I was listening to a podcast you were on almost exactly a year ago, and you and the guys were talking about whether or not you were gonna have a third, and you were kind of on the fence, and they were pressing you a little bit if you were if you wanted a boy, and here you are, man.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you know, these things happen.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: We weren't uh, you know, we we weren't necessarily planning this, right?
2:20
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of like uh it's like, oh, uh, all right, all right, you know, now I'm like, all right, I gotta get, you know, two kids is amazing.
2:27
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure three kids is gonna be awesome.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I could do four.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
2:31
SPEAKER_00: So totally, totally.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about your origin story.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Without any further ado, why don't you introduce yourself and tell my listeners a little bit about who you are and your background?
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: So my name's Cody Donovan.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: I was uh I was a professional fighter for about 12 years.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I I wasn't I wasn't a big name, but I was in all of the rooms that were big at that time, right?
3:00
SPEAKER_01: So I was a I was you know, I was basically a professional training partner.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: I was, you know, I was a training partner for Nathan Marcourt and Rashad Evans and Elliot Marshall and you know uh Brendan Schab, all of the guys that came out of the T SKO Grudge team, um did a lot of cross-training with uh you know Jackson's MMA and all of that stuff.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, I at the end of my career, I was able to get signed with the UFC and it was kind of a little like uh too little too late, but but it was a good experience.
3:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh and then um, you know, after my last fight in Ireland, made the decision to to transition fully into coaching and into uh you know uh business and things like that, and and that's what's happened.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, now I now I'm one of the owners of High Altitude Martial Arts, uh, which is a big gym here in Colorado.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: We're we're an affiliate of Easton Training Centers and got about 700 students.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: Man, it's it's just absolutely crazy in there.
3:53
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then I coach on Elevation Fight Team, right?
3:56
SPEAKER_01: Which is what I, you know, uh High Altitude Martial Arts, I have a lot of great employees that are smarter than me, and they basically run that place.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, so that I can I can be with the fighters all day, man.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: And that that's what I love, that's what I do.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I was reading a little bit of your background information.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: You were active from 2008 to 2014 as a fighter.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: The thing that I really enjoyed what your first UFC fight was overseas.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: It was in Australia, wasn't it?
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a crazy one.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, injuries and fights falling through and and uh making more money being a traveling training partner than being a fighter, all that kind of stuff, just kind of prevented me from ever really uh and also uh you know, a lack of courage sometimes, opportunities that I didn't take, things like that.
4:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh just had me kind of thinking maybe the correct the fight career was done.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I remember praying about it and being like, you know, God, put me where you want me.
4:50
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not supposed to be fighting anymore, put me where you want me, right?
4:53
SPEAKER_01: And I and I was fully committed to transitioning into whatever was next in life.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: And uh my manager at the time, Brian Hamper, uh called me one day.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: I was at the grocery store, and he's like, How much do you weigh?
5:06
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, uh, you know, we had had this call plenty of times.
5:09
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I don't know, 235 or something like that.
5:11
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, okay.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you think you can make 205?
5:15
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I don't know how many days do I got?
5:17
SPEAKER_01: I think it was like seven or something like that.
5:19
SPEAKER_01: But this is how he said it.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: He goes, he goes, he goes, not yeah, he goes, he goes, nine days, but you really have seven.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So I'm thinking like Japan or something.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, where are we going?
5:28
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Australia.
5:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Australia?
5:30
SPEAKER_01: What's in Australia?
5:32
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, are you sitting down?
5:33
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, UFC?
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, yeah, bro.
5:36
SPEAKER_01: He's like, if you can make weight, if you can make weight, you can take this fight, right?
5:39
SPEAKER_01: This uh, this guy who used to fight at heavyweight, Nick Penner, he had his opponent drop out and and they need a replacement.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yeah, obviously.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, let's go.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: So uh, so just cut all that weight, uh, which was was hell.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: That was definitely the hardest cut I ever had.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, you retain a lot of water on a flight, but particularly like that kind of flight, you know.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: Um so me and Elliot, me and Elliot Marshall, we head out there, and it was a fun week, you know, but the nerves were pretty big, obviously, when you're about to fight the UFC.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: And we were somehow able to get through that and just got to this cool place.
6:15
SPEAKER_01: And the uh the day of the fight, I was the first fight on the card, and that my fight took place at 7 a.m., right?
6:22
SPEAKER_01: So I woke up at five, I walked down to the beach, Gold Coast, Australia, man.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: I watched the sun come up, uh, and and the ocean was vicious that day, dude.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: It was like it was like the ocean was trying to eat Australia or something, and it just gave me some gave me some good energy, man.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: These nasty waves, and I was like, let's go do this.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Um but that cut really took its toll on me, bro.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, I if you watch the fight, the first time he touches me, I fall down.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: I get up, he touches me again.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, bro, I swear to God, at one point he hits me and my head hits the mat.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: And to this day, what I remember is like sinking into like some soft clouds or something.
7:04
SPEAKER_01: And I was it was like so relaxing.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: And and somebody was like in the background yelling, right?
7:10
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, what are they yelling about?
7:12
SPEAKER_01: And then I could I heard an Australian accent in the people yelling, and I was like, oh shit, I'm fighting.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: And I like got up and like I opened my eyes and I was like in the midst of arm barring him, like somehow in my sleep or something.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyway, I got up and I knocked him out and I won a$50,000 bonus.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, man, it was cool.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: It was like really cool.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: It was a great experience.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: You didn't even know you won the bonus until later on, right?
7:38
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: Correct, yeah.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: So I because I had gotten hit so many times and and and there was just no juice in my brain.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Like you can't, you can't cut that much weight and and like uh rehydrate properly.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: I tried and it just, you know, it just wasn't happening.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: So um and obviously we cut weight a lot smarter now, right?
7:58
SPEAKER_01: But you know, back then we were kind of knuckleheads and we didn't have a lot of the same criteria.
8:02
SPEAKER_01: We could we could use IVs and things like that, which allowed us to get a little more dangerous with our cuts.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: But uh I'm I'm riding, I'm riding in the ambulance with Elliot to the hospital, and I keep apologizing to him apparently.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, dude, I'm so sorry, man.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wish sorry, this camera's shaking.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, ah man, we came all the way out here and I lost and I blew it, man.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: I blew it, I blew my opportunity.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: He's like, shut up.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you won, bro.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: You won a fucking bonus.
8:28
SPEAKER_01: You won.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: He's like, you won.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: So I remember that.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: I remember being like, I did, but apparently that that was like the tenth time that I had said it or something like that.
8:37
SPEAKER_01: So I I I fractured my orbital lobe.
8:39
SPEAKER_01: So we were at the we were at the uh, you know, at the hospital.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: And then one more I said it one more time to the nurse.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: I was like, yeah, it didn't go good.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, oh wait, it did go good.
8:48
SPEAKER_01: Like I remembered, and then and then from then on, I remembered that it went, you know, that it went well.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that is phenomenal.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: That's a great story, man.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: How long have you been doing jujitsu specifically?
8:58
SPEAKER_01: I mean, a long time.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: A long time is the short answer.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: So I started doing jujitsu in 1997 uh with some buddies of mine who at the time were bluebelts under a guy who trained with Hoyce Gracie.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: Something like that, right?
9:12
SPEAKER_01: And this is what jiu-jitsu looked like in the 90s.
9:15
SPEAKER_01: Like you there were two people in in Colorado that were doing it, David Ruiz, uh Amal Easton that had like legit connections, and then there were the Nathan Marquards and the um Clarence Thatches and guys like that that were training grappling, but didn't necessarily have like a direct lineage to like the Gracie's or something like that.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: So um, man, I wanted I wanted it so bad.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Like that as a as a high school kid, all I wanted to do was learn jujitsu.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, I had seen jujitsu.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: We'd go to Hollywood video and we get these UFC video tapes, but we'd have to sneak to watch them.
9:52
SPEAKER_01: It was like we were watching something inappropriate or something like that, right?
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Like our parents would don't watch that, you know, like it was like too violent or something.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: We'd watch it and then we'd slow it down and watch it and watch it and watch it, then we go do it in the backyard.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I met these guys that actually trained jujitsu, Arturo Fernandez, John Fowler, and I was able to train a little bit with them.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward a couple of years, it's like 1999.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: I have a job and I have enough money to like literally I spend my entire paycheck at this job I had driving across town, like all the way across town, hour-long drive or longer, to go jump in and train jujitsu.
10:28
SPEAKER_01: Trained there for like a year and a half, you know, and then college happened.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: During college, I was uh, you know, I was a bluebelt and I thought I was the man, but I didn't step on a mat for like two or three years, realistically, I was just getting in bar fights and being a knucklehead.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh end of college, like uh had kind of a traumatic couple months, broke up with this girl that I'd been dating for a long time, quit my job, moved back to Denver, all that kind of stuff, and was like, dude, I gotta get back into jujitsu.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: And then I've been doing it since then.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: So that that would have been about uh like maybe 2003, I think, something like that.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Sure, but getting into jujitsu in the 90s, you're really getting into the ground level of Brazilian jujitsu.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think people that are kind of foreign to the sport realize how modern or recent Brazilian jiu-jitsu is to the state.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's terribly underscored.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: I remember looking in the old century uh martial arts magazines and seeing advertisements for that first three uh UFC events, and I I've talked with friends in the past, and you know, UFC 1 in particular almost plays out like an infomercial for Brazilian jiu-jitsu to a certain degree.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: And that that's how it was, dude.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: And and studying it at that age, even as uh even as like inadequate as my training was, like not knowing now, like man, we weren't doing anything.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: We were just studying some submission moves and prioritizing exposing the back.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: That was basically all we were doing, right?
11:52
SPEAKER_01: But it was still, in regards to like getting in street fights in college or being able to defend myself or like uh grappling with my friends who are wrestlers and things like that, it was like bringing a laser gun to the Revolutionary War.
12:06
SPEAKER_01: Like they they just didn't have a clue, bro.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: Right straight up, like arm bars and rear naked chokes at will.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Or try like that's how it was, man.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: You know, which might not be the best thing for a young man.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: If I think that I can armbar or triangle choke anyone on the planet at 19, that's probably, you know, probably not the best idea, but uh, whatever.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: You know, it worked out.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: It's the pathway to trouble.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: MMA was not originally your pathway.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Do I recall that correctly?
12:37
SPEAKER_00: Originally you were gonna just compete in jujitsu, right?
12:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I liked MMA, but you know, I was enrolled at the art institute.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh I didn't have a lot of money growing up, so it took a lot for me to get into that college and come up with the finances and stay focused and you build my art portfolio and all that stuff.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: And I was studying to, you know, I was basically studying to be a modeler, like so to build 3D environments, build 3D, things like that, right?
13:02
SPEAKER_01: And I was all in on that.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: So I was doing that, and jujitsu was my hobby, but I was a I think I was a purple belt at this time, probably, and um was a big guy, I was lifting weights and things like that.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: And um Nate Marquort was was you know one of my main teachers.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: He was con he spent most of his time in Albuquerque at that time.
13:20
SPEAKER_01: He was like in on that Albuquerque team, which at that point in MMA history, that was the room, bro.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: That was like that was like the blue mat in New York right now for for jujitsu or something, right?
13:32
SPEAKER_01: Or the blue mat last year uh for jujitsu.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: Like that um being in the Jacksons room, you were you were on the tip of the mountain in the center of the universe for MMA.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: And Nate lived there basically.
13:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I I worked for him at his gym.
13:46
SPEAKER_01: I was I was teaching fundamental jiu-jitsu and things like that, and he asked me to come down to help a couple of his guys who were all in camp at the same time.
13:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh Joey Via Senior and Keith Jardine, two two uh you know pioneers in the sport and uh great guys.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: And I went down there, they just needed like a jujitsu body, basically, and I went down there and just got the shit beat out of me.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: You know, like and I I remember like trying to play bottom game, like jujitsu bottom game, which I was decent at, and these guys were beating my ass, just like pinning my wrists and hitting me, and just it was crazy, right?
14:22
SPEAKER_01: And um, and they gave me some good pointers and stuff, and then I you know I got in the car and I'm and I'm driving back to back to Denver, and that I think that's like a seven, eight-hour drive, and I just decided.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: I was like, well, I'm quitting my job and I'm gonna be a fighter, like this is it, you know.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: Just seeing all of them, seeing I was there for a week and like the the the team atmosphere, the brotherhood, all that, dude.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: It was like um my I probably I probably spent the rest of my life trying to recreate the feeling I had in that room that week, you know.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I gotta commend you because it takes a special sort of person to take that large of a bet on themselves.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel that society as at large right now is willing to bet on themselves as much as you just described on that drive from Albuquerque back to Denver.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, so it's one of these things like this.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: It's like the first couple days of the week, I'm getting the hell beat out of me.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Right.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Right?
15:17
SPEAKER_01: And then I get a couple of pointers, and I'm like, and then I start doing okay.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: Not great, you know, but okay.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Catching a guy here, doing this.
15:26
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I caught any of the good guys, you know, but like started to do okay.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, Greg and some of the coaches who were down there at that time maybe gave me a pointer or gave me a little bit of like, hey man, you know, you feeling like you're gonna do this or something, something you should do this, something like that.
15:41
SPEAKER_01: So like the right coach saying the right thing to me went a long way.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: But also, like, I think that's one of the things that all fighters have is that um I think that I'm this, right?
15:52
SPEAKER_01: I I think that I'm whatever it is, right?
15:55
SPEAKER_01: And if fighting is like the answer to a question.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, I I think that I'm this thing, and there's only one way to prove it.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: And most of the world wants to walk around and like they think I think I'm this thing.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: But if you give them any opportunity to test it or prove it, they run from it.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: I see this all the time in jujitsu.
16:13
SPEAKER_01: Some big I just told the story the other day, this big meathead comes into my gym like five or six years ago, and he's talking about how he, you know, he wants to be this and he wants to be that and all this stuff.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: And in the course of like the first couple days that he's there, he gets paired up with this uh at the time like a 14, 15-year-old girl named Emma Soho.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: Um, and in Colorado, everybody knows about the Soho's, they're savages.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: These kids are just killers, right?
16:38
SPEAKER_01: I know them since they were little kids.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: And this guy gets paired up with Emma Soho and she beats his ass.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: And she just like embarrasses him, right?
16:44
SPEAKER_01: And she's not even going hard.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: And um this guy does what everybody else does, right?
16:50
SPEAKER_01: We walk back to our car, we sit in our car, and we have that like moment of truth where we're like, well, uh, now I know the truth.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Now I know I'm not as good as I thought I was, so I can come back and get good, or uh I can just walk away from this thing, and in a few weeks I'll believe the lie again, or something like that.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Yo, totally.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: Um Yeah, so the drive back to Denver for me from Albuquerque was that moment of truth.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: It was like, um, okay, I'm not I'm not the badass that I thought that I thought that I was, but I think I can be.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: And I and I want to test myself.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: And ultimately I did, and I got the answer.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: I know I know I know exactly where I'm at, right?
17:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that answer is I was pretty good, but I made some bad decisions uh along the way, right?
17:40
SPEAKER_01: And some good decisions, and uh probably didn't reach my full potential, but even if I had my full potential, wasn't world champion status, and that's okay.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: Um and along that way, I also got the greatest internship in coaching that a guy could ever have gotten.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: I was part of too many world championship camps to even count, and and got to train directly under Greg Jackson, Trevor Whitman, Amal Easton, uh Faraz Sahabi.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the list is like too long to even say.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: So many good coaches, bro.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: So many good coaches.
18:14
SPEAKER_01: Leister Bowling, Brian Bruce, just just dudes that changed my life, changed the way I thought about this sport.
18:21
SPEAKER_01: There's a group of guys that graduated from that group.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: A few of them are still fighting.
18:25
SPEAKER_01: Most of us have graduated to life or coaching, and I truly believe that we see MMA different than 80% of the other teams on the world.
18:35
SPEAKER_01: And I I mean I don't mean that in like an arrogant way, but when I go to like the coaches summit and stuff like that, and I listen to most of the coaches talking, there are a few, there are coaches at some of the other key teams that that we're all thinking the same thing.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: We're happy to hear how far behind the rest of you are.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: They're just they're they're they're literally still teaching the the art the arts separately and hoping that they blend together on fight night and just just things like that.
19:00
SPEAKER_01: So or the hierarchy of positions in jiu-jitsu, right?
19:04
SPEAKER_01: Like that damage doesn't respect that hierarchy.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, you know, things like that.
19:08
SPEAKER_01: So I feel very blessed, is what I'm saying, right?
19:11
SPEAKER_01: That that decision that I made on the ride home from Albuquerque changed the course of my life forever.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's phenomenal because that's the perfect transition to the next question I had for you is you know, the fighting career uh ended in 2014.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: Is there a certain mindset transition when you go from gladiator warrior to training gladiators and warriors?
19:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's tough, man.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's really tough in the beginning, and it still sneaks its way in there.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: And it's this thing like, do you put them first or are you still putting you first?
19:44
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
19:45
SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to get too far into the psychology, but any one of us that fights probably has some wounded little boy living inside him, right?
19:54
SPEAKER_01: That otherwise we wouldn't be trying to, we wouldn't be trying to use violence, you know, as this way to uh justify ourselves or find gratification or whatever.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I gotta really keep myself in check.
20:07
SPEAKER_01: In the beginning it was very difficult, but to this day I still have to, I have to have, I have to have solid awareness and I have to remember that I'm here for these guys because you know the little guy inside me gets triggered and I start making it about me, and that becomes very toxic coaching, you know, which is which is very easy to do.
20:24
SPEAKER_01: Also, when you're a professional fighter, you're encouraged to be selfish.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: Like you should be thinking about you.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: No, nobody else is gonna think about you.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: You have you're you're the business, you're the athlete, you're the everything.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: You have you have to put yourself first.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, God bless all those wives and girlfriends that went through that.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, my my wife, man, is amazing.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: And uh and and God bless the wake of girlfriends that I had before her when I was an amateur fighter and stuff, what they put up with, you know, it's it's just uh you gotta be selfish.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: But when you transition into coaching, you gotta be able to put your guys first.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: Um and that's difficult in the beginning, but you find, you know, you find that rhythm, and I wasn't ready to go right into coaching.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: I thought I was.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: I got done fighting, I started trying for a little bit, and and it was just like I was grinding gears, butt and heads with everybody.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think Leister Bowling was the one that kind of like was like, well, yeah, take a little time off and come back when you're ready.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: When I was ready, he brought me back at Muscle Farm and uh made me an assistant coach, and I got to watch him and Christian Allen and Elliot Marshall and the success that they were having with their guys.
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Um I started working with a couple of guys that were that were working their way up.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: I got to work with Bojan uh Velikovich, who was an absolute monster, right?
21:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh whatever room that guy's in, that guy is one of the most talented guys in the room.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, just a savage.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: And then uh Leister, we had this.
21:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Bojan fights.
21:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Bojan makes his UFC debut in Croatia.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: And while we're out there, another young man made his UFC debut debut.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Debut and it didn't go well for him.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: It was Curtis Blades.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: He fought Francis Nangadu.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: His eyes swelled up real bad.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: He was out there just kind of like crossing his feet and just it was like he had two left feet.
22:10
SPEAKER_01: He had his buddies, you know, and like a manager or something in his corner at the time.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: And things just weren't, they things didn't go his way, right?
22:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I did have a conversation with him that week where I was, and he doesn't remember it, but I was like, hey, buddy, you should come out to Denver.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: Ironically, his manager at the time, you know, who changed the course of his life, uh, got in contact with Leicester Bowling and was like, yo, you should come to Denver.
22:32
SPEAKER_01: So Curtis came out to Denver, Leicester, Elliot, and Christian, they had too much on their plate.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: They were already working with a bunch of guys in the UFC, were traveling constantly, and they said, uh, you know, let's get let's give this guy to Cody and Vinny.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: Let's see how Cody and Vinny do with uh with this guy.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: And that's been one of the most rewarding relationships so far in coaching, man, is is is that the relationship of me and Vinny and Curtis.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: And there are lots of examples of that now.
23:00
SPEAKER_01: We have that relationship with lots of guys, but that one's been very special.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Right.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: A lot of what you were describing is the manager versus leader mindset, too.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, where a manager says and a leader does.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of times, you know, whenever I'm mentoring people, that's one example that I like to personally give is on day one of leading somebody, I say I pick the hardest task in the room and I do it, so everybody sees me doing it and they know that I'm not willing to ask them to do something that I'm not willing to do myself, if that makes sense.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that you haven't already done.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly, exactly.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Let's go down the roster of guys that you've worked with in recent years because elevation in 2020 won MMA junkies fight team of the year, and I think deservedly so.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about that a little bit.
23:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 2020, 2021, um were pretty crazy years.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Man, there was a little rip there where I think Vinny and I, and the you know, coaching together in our coaching pairing with certain athletes, do we came close to winning like 20 fights in a row or something crazy, dude?
24:08
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, that that's cool.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: That that lets you know that you have something special, that you're connecting with your guys, that you have good buy-in, that that you all believe in each other and things like that.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: And you know, nothing like that lasts forever.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: I know it that it certainly with the guys that I work with on the team, it it got rocky.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: We've had some rocky patches, but good, good, man, good.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: I I think that uh when when things get rocky, uh we get better.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: You know, it helps help yeah, it helps us focus on the things we need to focus on.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: But some of the guys that I was able to um have the privilege of working with during that time, tons of guys on the amateur scene and up and coming guys, but on the big show, man, uh you know, Alistair Overeem is a huge one, right?
24:52
SPEAKER_01: I I mean Alistair Overeem coming to us and and uh you know, we we fought Alistair, uh me, me, Vinny Curtis combo, and uh Austin was in the corner as well.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: We went and fought Alistair and we beat Alistair in a pretty spectacular fashion.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: And then Alistair immediately reached out, wanted to come train.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, Alistair met Christian and some of the other coaches when he was out here and um and just went all in.
25:15
SPEAKER_01: And you know, that that was really cool, man.
25:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I almost got one, I was a security guard at the hospital at a hospital in college, and I almost got fired one time because I snuck into this.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: We there was this doctor's office like after hours who had internet and he didn't have a code on his on a you know on his computer.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: I'll just go use his internet at nighttime.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: And my manager comes in one time and I'm I'm literally watching a live Alice Romring fight on the internet, like in Japan, on some you know, thread that I'm stealing or something, and I almost got fired, you know, and then to turn around however many years later and to be his head coach, that was that was pretty cool.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah plus just the the rip we had with him.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Like, if you count out, you know, him getting knocked down with no seconds left in the fight by Jarzinho, uh dude, think about the the resurgence that we had with Alistair.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: That is really special, man.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: And and like Alistair had this reputation of not being coachable and not wanting to listen to guys, but I found it the opposite.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: I found him like he wanted to study, he wanted to get better, he was like all in, and it was really, really fun.
26:20
SPEAKER_01: It was really fun.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, bunch of main events and cool stuff like that.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: But you know, Neil Magney, right?
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Neil Magney is an absolute monster.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: I've been able to work with him his last few fights.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, Austin Hubbard, you know, we got to we got to grow Austin to get to that big show.
26:37
SPEAKER_01: That's been huge, you know.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: That's been a really fun journey.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, man.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, tons, tons of guys.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: Right now we're building this guy, Zach Poundger.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: I say building, building up, right?
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm really excited about him.
26:50
SPEAKER_01: He's like uh Me too.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: I I'm I'm I'm a nerd, right?
26:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm a gamer.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: I play like tabletop war games and things like that, and Zach does too.
26:59
SPEAKER_01: But um nerds are able to like figure out uh you know, testing a game and building rules and building building strategies and stuff like that.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: So it's very working with him is very rewarding because I get to share that part of it with him.
27:13
SPEAKER_01: I know he gets that, um, which I think makes him a very cerebral fighter.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: He he I think I think he's gonna do really well.
27:20
SPEAKER_01: I I really do.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: I agree.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: When I got to talk with Zach, I was super, super, super impressed with the guy because he's so level.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: It's like he's level and he's humble.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: He's accepted life wins and life losses, and he's done really well with it.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: And I'm really excited to see where his career goes next.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, you know, he's he's open about the fact that his ego had gotten the best of him in other sports, right?
27:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
27:43
SPEAKER_01: He's he talked about it.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: And we get sometimes we get to touch on that, right?
27:47
SPEAKER_01: If his, you know, if he starts feeling himself a little bit, like it's okay to feel yourself, but if he starts kind of like mouthing off and getting, you know, then we can be like, hey bro, remember where this got you last time.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Let's stay humble, let's work together, that that kind of thing.
28:01
SPEAKER_01: And he's able to just like uh he's able to keep it really level-headed.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's also able to like um one of the most fun things about him is I have some athletes that keep wanting to add more.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: They're like, let's add more, let's add more.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: They just they think that the answer is like um, and this can be tough because if you're if you're a student at a martial arts academy, that's what you do.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: You come to more classes, you learn more stuff.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: You now you're invited to the intermediate classes, now you're invited to the advanced classes, you keep getting more information.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: But more uh is the opposite of what you need in combat, right?
28:33
SPEAKER_01: One of, you know, one of Jocko's like principles of combat is simplicity, you know, simplicity, man.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: And Zach gets that.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: We are constantly trying to reorganize and simplify uh his his system, his fighting system.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm I'm a huge proponent of simple fighting systems, so that's one of the things that's gonna go a long way for him.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: That last fight of his, my wife was out of town, and my wife and kids were out of town, and it's 11:30 my time, uh, because I'm in Nebraska, right?
29:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm 11:30 my time.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm watching the Cage Warriors event.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: I can't even sit down during the second round.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm like five feet away from the TV.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what the fuck's gonna happen next, man?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: So, dude, he made really good, he made some veteran adjustments in that fight.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Like uh Yes, he did.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: What he did in the third, because you know, it was it was a close fight.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: What what he did in the third with utilizing um where he was standing versus what he was landing, right?
29:32
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, generals have been doing this for thousands of years.
29:35
SPEAKER_01: If you can control where the battle takes place, then you can control the output of your opponent, you can control the decisions they make, all of this stuff, right?
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:44
SPEAKER_01: When Zach decided in that third round to control the center of the cage and to keep Marcus in the outside six feet of the cage, Marcus's output went down drastically.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Um, Zach's output didn't necessarily go up, but he was still outscoring Marcus.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it was it was a great choice, and that's hard to do, man, especially in the third round when you're fatigued and you got cracked once or twice, you know.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: Also, like moving someone into the outside six uh usually ends with a very close zone.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: It ends chest to chest, right?
30:16
SPEAKER_01: Like a car crash.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: So Zach's ability to pressure Marcus backwards, but not overcommit and get clinched up where we weren't winning, uh, even though it's actually good there.
30:26
SPEAKER_01: Marcus was uh was doing well in that position.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: So um had to make that adjustment as well.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pretty pretty cool stuff.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was great.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: It was great.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: What's next?
30:36
SPEAKER_01: Trying to find an opponent for Neil.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh Neil has like a he's signed an agreement to fight on a certain date, but doesn't have an opponent yet.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: So we're trying to find an opponent for Neil.
30:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh we have Razak coming up in January.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh Razak just started working with us.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: So Razak came out with uh the Usmans, right?
30:53
SPEAKER_01: So I I work with Mo Usman, who is the bigger little brother of uh of Kamaru.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Those guys were friends and training partners in Texas.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Um he's out here, his last camp went great.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: Kid's got great work ethic.
31:08
SPEAKER_01: He's an absolute stud.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Somebody told him he was a striker, but he's actually a grappler.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: He's a black belt and judo.
31:14
SPEAKER_01: He has an amazing top game, he's really good at getting up.
31:17
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I'm pretty excited about him, man.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: As far as like um, you know, if we're building monster cars and somebody brings the Razak chassis into your garage and they're like, what can you do with this?
31:27
SPEAKER_01: You're like, anything I want.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: You know, I can do a lot with this, right?
31:30
SPEAKER_01: So uh really, really excited about him.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: And he's just got a good attitude, he's a good person.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's fighting in January.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: I think that one's been announced, right?
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Has that one been announced?
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, cool.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so he's fighting uh Joaquin Buckley.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: So a lot of studying happening there, trying to, you know, solve that puzzle.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I mean, just lots, lots going on, right?
31:51
SPEAKER_01: We just had Corey fight last weekend, you know, so I know Corey will be back in the lab with Christian and his coaches making the right adjustments and stuff.
31:59
SPEAKER_01: Um because what a talented kid he is, man.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: That that kid is just uh he's just a stud, man.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: And he's got he's got a few more little things to tweak, and I think some um, you know, in my opinion, some there's there's this structure part of mixed martial arts that it's this fine line.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Because a guy that's able to do what Corey does in the in the ring, in the cage when those big lights are on, that takes a little bit of like not giving a shit about the structure.
32:31
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
32:31
SPEAKER_01: Like you gotta you just gotta be free to be able to move like that and do what he does.
32:36
SPEAKER_01: But you also have to have respect for the structure and the rules and all of that stuff in order to secure a victory uh or in order to win a round, to win, you know, because there because there are rules, there are judges, there are points, all that kind of stuff.
32:48
SPEAKER_01: And I think these last two fights are are helping shift him in that direction.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: And once man, once he locks that down, dude, what once Corey is able to play play the points game and have the damage output and the intelligence that he has in there, um, I think he's gonna be able to make late adjustments and you know, make adjustments to his style in later rounds and things like that, and I think he'll be unbeatable.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: I really do.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: And you know, it's the road looks a little bit different for everybody, so yeah, he didn't get there this time around, but I don't think that means shit.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: I I think good, good.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: When he does get there, he's gonna be twice, he's gonna be that much better, in my opinion.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: So some fun stuff.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Is it true that your wife took up Brazilian jiu-jitsu on a bet?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: And what part did you play in that bet?
33:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't even remember exactly what the bet was now.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, she lost a bet, she had to start doing jujitsu.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, she said she she says that, but I know she wanted to do jujitsu um because our daughter was about to start doing it.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh her sister, right?
33:51
SPEAKER_01: Her sister is is Bobby, and uh Bobby's a you know one of my best purple belts and has been training jujitsu for a long time and is like a savage, you know, one of my favorite students.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: Right, so when we have Bobby and Cora, my oldest daughter, and like, you know, we're a jiu-jitsu family.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: So she says the bet made her do jujitsu.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: I I don't I can't remember right right now.
34:12
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember exactly what the bet was.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: She did lose a bet, she did have to come try a jiu-jitsu class.
34:17
SPEAKER_01: But after that, she was all in.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Like, I wasn't at home going, babe, you need to do jujitsu today.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: She was telling me, like, hey, can you pick up the kids?
34:23
SPEAKER_01: I have class.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, wait, what?
34:24
SPEAKER_01: You've like her training became an inconvenience for me.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
34:29
SPEAKER_01: But I was really happy.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was really, really, really happy about it.
34:32
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, she's not training right now because she's pregnant.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: Right.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm excited for her to get back to it.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: So, what are some of the unique skills and unique mindset unique to you that has helped you be successful in your fighting career, in your entrepreneurialism, and as a coach?
34:48
SPEAKER_01: You know, in in coaching, I think the unique skills would be that as a jujitsu guy, like I kind of said earlier with the Jackson story, as a jujitsu guy first that wanted to be good at MMA, I had to learn quickly all of the parts of jujitsu that basically were useless in MMA.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
35:09
SPEAKER_01: And and that helped me create it helped me create this like list of patterns that uh one could assume most people with baseline jujitsu skills are going to do, right?
35:22
SPEAKER_01: So, like most blue belts follow this line of thinking, right?
35:28
SPEAKER_01: And that has allowed me as a coach to create a a damage-based system that um I think breaks jujitsu pretty good.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: I think I can take, I think you can give me a uh you give me a decent wrestler, and I can probably have him finish in top-level black belts in a fight, a fight fight, you know.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a unique a unique thing to me.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: As far as the entrepreneurial stuff, um, yeah, I don't know, man.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not I'm not really scared to try anything.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: I've had like, because of the experiences in my life where I had a plan and I was like, this is how it has to go.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: And then it didn't go that way.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it just blew up in my face altogether, right?
36:08
SPEAKER_01: Like I blew my shoulder out real bad when I was a fighter and had this huge layoff.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: And during that layoff, Nate asked me to manage the gym.
36:16
SPEAKER_01: So I learned, I didn't know shit about business management.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: I started managing the gym, and and then uh now I own a big, successful, awesome gym.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
36:24
SPEAKER_01: And um successful in that it, you know, it changes the lives of lots of people, you know, lots and lots of people get to come in there and make their lives better.
36:33
SPEAKER_01: I also found out that that that you know that happened for me or early on in life.
36:38
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really know what I wanted.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: And um, I thought that like more money was gonna make me happy or something like that.
36:44
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, jujitsu saved my life, and I think it can save yours, and I tell that to people every day, and and I I think we do it every day.
36:52
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I know we do it every day, you know, stuff like that.
36:55
SPEAKER_01: So I think maybe just doing things for the right reasons.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: I guess I would say God's plan, I call it God's plan, um, is just basically that the way that I wanted to do things rarely works out.
37:05
SPEAKER_01: So when it doesn't work out, I don't panic as much as I used to.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, cool.
37:09
SPEAKER_01: Then there's this other, obviously, there's something I'm not seeing.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: And nine times, I mean ten times out of ten, like the worst things that have happened to me have always turned into the best thing.
37:20
SPEAKER_01: They've always turned into the best thing.
37:22
SPEAKER_01: And um, I guess just my ability to see that and have faith that that is going to continue to happen uh gives me the courage to just keep pulling the trigger and keep trying stuff and all that.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: Um, one more thing, coaching-wise, I came from a world uh in the jujitsu world, you learn a move because somebody taught it to them and somebody taught it to them, and there's always all there's almost always lineage in the move.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: Like this series came from this guy, sometimes it's named after that guy or whatever, Gordo, Half Guard, things like that, right?
37:53
SPEAKER_01: I came from that world where if it if it hadn't been stamped off and approved by your predecessors, then it at you weren't actually learning something.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: And then I met Greg Jackson, right?
38:04
SPEAKER_01: Greg Jackson doesn't give a shit about that.
38:07
SPEAKER_01: Greg Jackson says, I have an idea, let's try it.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being in a room the first couple times, and he'd be like, I don't know about this, but I think I want to try this thing because I've been thinking about it.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: And I'd be like this, like, be like looking around the room with the other guy's faces, like, are we gonna let this happen, man?
38:21
SPEAKER_01: He's just gonna make this shit up right here.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: But I'd see them like all in studying, and I was like, oh, oh shit, this is how it's done.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: This is a damn genius thinking outside the box and not having to teach some shit that he learned from somebody else.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: Seeing that as a young man, dude, that changed my life, dude.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: That changed everything for me, you know?
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Phenomenal, phenomenal.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: So earlier you briefly mentioned Jocko, and I've gone through your social media feed before, and I see all these awesome quotes in your social media feed.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Who are your heroes?
38:55
SPEAKER_01: None of what's mine.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, none of it's mine, right?
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Who are some of your personal heroes?
39:00
SPEAKER_01: Well, I sit in this chair that I'm in right now every morning at 6 a.m.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: and I read uh a little Jocko, I read a little Daily Stoic, I read the Bible.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those three things, and if I can when I can find parallels and stuff there, that's always like a magic moment.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, those are three go-to's, that happens every day.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, heroes.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, man.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: I always try to be the hero of my own story.
39:25
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
39:25
SPEAKER_01: Like I I uh I was a little kid that got beat up a lot and spent a lot of my life thinking that I wasn't valuable and I didn't have worth.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: And as much as I'd like to look up to other heroes and stuff like that, the man that showed up in my life and rescued the little boy uh was me.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: It's me.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: I rescued me.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: So I I think if I have a hero, if I have a man that I look up to, I it's parts of me looking up to parts of me, if that makes any damn sense, you know.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, it does.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: And I love that answer.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, sir, the world is a better place with you in it.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: I love the work that you've been doing.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: It is no accident that elevation is easily in the top three worldwide, and you're a good portion of that.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Where where can my listeners find you online?
40:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, so the only place where I'm active online is Instagram, and that's uh just Donnybrook Cody, uh my my old fight handle, Donnybrook, and then my first name Cody.
40:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh that updates you know other social media platforms, but that's the only place where I actually post anything.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: I I try to not uh be too you know, yeah, I'm trying.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: I I I I like to say the internet is not a place, so I'm not gonna go there.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, but uh but you know, you know, you know, and I would recommend if you're not following them, whether you live in Colorado or not, I would still follow high altitude martial arts and elevation fight team on all forms of social media.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of my favorite follows, my personal favorite fight team, uh, some of my favorite people a part of that.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show, man.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thank you, bro.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me on.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: So so am I an honorary member of the team?
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Come down, bro.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: We'll get you some gloves, bro.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: What practice do you want to jump into?
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Way back in the day when I was playing in rock bands, I was a nerd about the minute regarding the music business.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: And I have found that I'm starting to get that way about the fight game.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: This episode was nothing short of a treat.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: I want to thank Cody Donovan and my hookups at Elevation Fight Team once again for making another episode awesome as can be.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you are giving them a like and follow on all forms of social media, Elevation Fight Team and High Altitude Martial Arts.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: And while you're giving them a like and follow on social media, make sure you're following Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any place where you find a social network.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: Also, I ask for that five-star rating on Apple Podcast App.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: It always helps to push us to the top of the search queue when people are looking for new content to listen to.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Please visit www.cotonthemic.com.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thank you.