Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "The Privilege of Pressure" with MMA fighter "Cadillac" Le'Ville Simpson

Transcript

"The Privilege of Pressure" with MMA fighter "Cadillac" Le'Ville Simpson · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a specialized advised.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, yes, it's going on the mic.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, I am talking to my friend Lavelle Cadillac Simpson.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or how does it go?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is the Cadillac the first thing you say?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Cadillac, Lavelle, yeah, we got that one, but you know.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: You went you went deep in the well for that one, right?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing, my friend?
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing good.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: How about yourself?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not too bad.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Not too bad.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: How did the week start off for you?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Started off good, you know.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Uh nice sunny weather, good training, so you can't really complain about that.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you're actually doing like some striking coaching at Vital training systems right now, aren't you?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yes, sir.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: That is correct.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: How long have you been doing that?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I've been employed with Vital for since right about right before the pandemic started.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I did a little bit of striking coaching back when I used to live in Texas.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I used to help teach a kid's class.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I had also in 2014 for a little bit was training and teaching up under the Bang Muay Thai system as an affiliate coach out in Kleen, Fort Hood, Harker Heights, Texas, as well.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been like off and on with teaching and showing people how to swing their body correctly for violence for about since I was 23.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: So eight going on nine years.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice, nice.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Without any further ado, why don't you introduce yourself to my audience and let's start talking a little bit about your life story and your trajectory that brought you to where you're at right now?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my name's Label Simpson.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Did a little bit of growing up in Laramie, Wyoming, before I ended up moving to Colleen, Texas in 2007.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I moved to Texas 2007 with my dad.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Graduated, uh, played football, and one day I walked into a gym out of high school and just started training.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was a 240-pound kid, didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life after I graduated high school.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thought about maybe joining the military.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that was taken away from me due to some charges that came up about when I was younger when I used to live in Wyoming.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Best thing that ever happened to me because uh after I was turned down for the military, the gym owner looked at me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, hey man, you know, he's like, you've been training with the fight team for about a year.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, how about you just fight for a year and see how you like it?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, okay.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: My friend, training partner, old high school teammate, uh UFC welterweight, Jeff Neal, was getting ready for a fight.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, got his nose broke a couple weeks before the fight.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: The gym owner had asked me, he's like, hey, you want to take this fight?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yeah, sure.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I took my first amateur fight on maybe about a month's notice, and I knocked it out in the first round, and that's what I've been doing ever since.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's been fighting ever since.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Nice, nice.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think I heard a story that you took that fight before you really had any jujitsu or wrestling.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is that true?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's absolutely correct.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: The the gym, the gym owner like looked at me, he told me, he's just like, hey, he's like, hey boy, you know, if you hit the ground, you're fucked, right?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah, yeah, I know.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so the crazy part about it is, you know, like adrenaline's pumping, first fight, don't really know what to expect.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then, dude, we're just throwing.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I had him against the cage, and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And next thing you know, he went out.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought he was shooting, so I like I like took off for a second.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was like looking to see if like this guy had like was shooting for a takedown.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the next thing you know, I look, and he's he's just out cold.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Crowd screaming.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I didn't sleep for dude.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I slept that whole weekend after that fight, just saw the adrenaline, and uh, it's a high that can't be replaced, it can't be explained.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been chasing it, just continue fighting and kept going with it ever since.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what's the adrenaline like for you when you're preparing for a fight?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, especially the night or two before, do you have that same adrenaline high where like sleep is kind of you almost find yourself sleep deprived in a way?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not really, because you're more or less a little bit more depleted before the wake, uh, before the weigh-ins, you know.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So sleep comes a little bit easier.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, after weigh-ins, you know, after I get the weigh-in and I start eating, sleep may be a little bit hard, but it's mostly because I'm waking up throughout the night like snacking and stuff like that, but then I go right right back to sleep.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: So like my thing about it that that helps keep me calm, uh, is one, the eating, but two, I take a lot of like hot showers just to help me relax.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: That way I can like I'll eat hot shower, nap, eat, hot shower, nap.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I just wash, you know, rinse and repeat throughout the whole day, keep that going.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: That way I'm able to like sleep.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Feel like the hot water helps with the the digestion.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's scientifically proven or not, but it does something for me up here, so that's all that matters.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another story that I heard, and it you have this great way of telling it where you talk about how MMA found you.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't find MMA and how it may have saved your life.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: You want to share that with my audience?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was like I just didn't have a lot of direction when I got out of high school.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I I had friends that were getting in trouble, uh, people I knew, people I went to high school with, associates, you know, this, that, and the other.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, involved in either shootings, getting shot, going to jail, all sorts of other stuff.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I really didn't know what I wanted to do, especially when I got turned down for the military, you know.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so then yeah, like I said, that first gym owner basically was just like, hey, you know, you can give this a shot and see how you like this.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, you know, you can find anything else that you want to do.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it was crazy because I had like two really good friends.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they had asked me to go play basketball with them one day.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hey, I was I was like, well, I'm getting ready to go train, I'm getting ready to go train Muay Thai.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Getting go to practice.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, all right, well, we'll hit you up or hit us up when you're done training.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, all right, cool.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I got out of practice, I had like 20 to 30 missed calls telling me that my friends were involved with the shooting.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I had just gotten a whole bunch of like different stories.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they were shooting at the cops, the cops shot at them, they shot at somebody, this, that, and the other.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was just a whole bunch of like madness.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there was some sort of shooting involved that day.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was the day I decided that that was exactly what needed to be done, that I needed to.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was in the gym when all this happened.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna go hang out with my friends if I wasn't going to the gym.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but I was so drawn in and I was so like just in awe with martial arts at that point in time because one, it was helping me lose weight, two, it was helping me gain confidence.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was just something I really enjoyed.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, when that day happened, that changed my life completely.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like I literally was just like, all right, well, I was in here uh when that happened, I was in here for a reason.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I should probably stay in this gym, should probably stay in these martial arts, stay training and understanding and learning, and see where this could possibly take me.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And here I am, what 13 years later of training?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Still doing it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is it in particular about the martial arts that makes a person so obsessive with it that they do choose that path?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because your story, while it's uncommon, it's not entirely uncommon amongst people that take that path and become pro fighters.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: That it's so inspiring to hear.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: But what is it about martial arts that becomes that obsessive focal point for somebody?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: I can't speak for everyone, I can't speak for everybody else, but for me, it was it was just the discipline that it gave me.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was just the discipline, it was the the confidence that it gave me.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I I struggled a lot with insecurity growing up, and it just helped me feel better about myself.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: It gave me something to look forward to every day.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Like I would wake up, it's oh man, I gotta go to the gym, you know, I gotta do this.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, then you start buying your own gear, so you're no longer using the gym's loner gear.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: The gym owner had actually bought me my first pair of like mat shoes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So like I would go in there, I would clean the mats before training, I would train, and then I would clean the mats after training.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And this man, his name was Hector Ruiz, gifted me with a pair of shoes.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that was like the coolest thing ever to be gifted a pair of shoes.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it was just more or less like you never know what you were gonna get.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: One day you could go in there and you could have a good day.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: The next day you go in there, one of the more experienced guys would come in, or maybe it was a younger kid that came in uh that had been training from junior high to high school, you know, and then you get your ass kicked by either someone that's really experienced, that's older than you, or someone that has more experience than you, that's younger than you, and it just, I don't know, it just kept me coming back.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody that's coaching others now with your occupation, your day job, what are some of the fundamentals that you have developed that has made you a good mentor for up and other up-and-coming fighters or people that are just now getting into the sport?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I feel it's the wins and the losses that help that allow me to be able to speak better to in person and also having great mentors throughout this uh journey.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I've had, you know, Krukasiv, Jameer Toledo from the shoe box academy.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: I spent a little bit of time up under Dwayne Ludwig, you know, very briefly.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Tony Cummins with Blue Ocean Muay Thai.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: And now I'm up under Vinny Lopez, who's my boss.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my mentor is also bringing me on the strength and conditioning side and helping me understand that science.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And just being able to take everything that all those men have spoken into me and my experiences in combat sports with the highs and the lows.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: It I feel the empathy, the understanding, and the way that you know my journey has gone.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: It allows me to better be able to speak to it.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like there's guys, and I'm not I'm not gonna sit here and discredit anyone, or I'm not gonna talk bad about anyone or anything like that.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel as though a lot of people really don't understand what they're made of until like they've taken a loss.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not knocking anyone that's undefeated.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, do I wish I had a prettier record than what I did?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I was also the guy that never said no.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I took some fights that I probably shouldn't have taken, but you know, that's at the end of the day, it provided me with life lessons.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: It showed me that I I knew how to handle adversity, I knew how to come back from adversity.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm better, and I feel like I'm able to like speak that into people.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, also being up under Vinny now, like I've noticed his eye for detail.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's the smallest thing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, like a lot of people would get upset, like, oh, he's nitpicking, but yeah, he may be nitpicking, but it's the the perfection that he strives for, the way he's mentoring me and that with and striking and coaching me with that and striking and mentoring me with that and becoming an awesome strength and conditioning coach.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think it's taking me to another level.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because now I see myself being able to have that eye for detail, like, hey man, like you're literally like half an inch too wide here, you're half an inch too shallow there, uh, your elbows too high here, or your elbows too low here.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: So having great teachers around me, and then also having had those experiences of wins and losses, I feel is what will carry me and keep me going into this sport and continue keeping me in this sport, even when I hang up the gloves, just because of the great teachers I've had and the experiences that I've had.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that's a value that a lot of people underappreciate is how much struggle can actually influence and make you sharper in the long term.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: People kind of get caught up in their own mindset, caught up in their own bullshit.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: They just they think that the greatest thing on the face of the planet, and sadly enough, not enough people get humbled fast enough to where they can step back a couple of notches and look at things more pragmatically.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: From a personal standpoint, I was always trying to be a rock star, right?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or a famous musician, but it didn't happen.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I tell people now, it's like, yeah, I sacrificed a very conventional life for this unconventional life.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I have is I can pass this knowledge on to my kids.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can like show them how my failures bettered me as a person and and made me more successful later on down the line.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I I get exactly what you're saying, and you're absolutely right, and Vinny's absolutely right.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Small details matter, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's it like working for Vinny?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's I love that guy.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So damn, you would put me on the fucking spot like that.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's stressful, but it's a blessing at the same time.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: It can be stressful, is because there's always the demand for you not to become complacent and for you to keep honing your craft and to be better than what you were yesterday.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I I feel as though some days when I go in there, I'm like, man, like I was at 99% today, and I wasn't at 100%.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I have to make sure that tomorrow I'm at 100%.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's also a blessing being there because being up under that pressure, pressure is a privilege, and he has that written in neon letters.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh these neon uh lighted letters, you know, pressure is a privilege.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: That was a quote in in one of the books that pressure is a privilege.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, I'm trying to think of it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: But that pressure is a privilege because I know for a fact that he doesn't allow any and everybody up under those doors as an employee or as a coach.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: So for me to have that opportunity to do it is it's a privilege.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: The pressure that I feel from having that privilege is the fact that I'm a select few.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm a very select few, and there's always a demand for like, like we said, like honing your craft and being better than what you were and continuing your education from the previous day.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: So and to be able to learn from someone like that, not only as my striking coach, but also someone who's mentoring me on the strength and conditioning side and seeing how scientific and um how well programmed and how in depth the programming is into for his athletes.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking from UFC athletes to the everyday athletes, you know, your people that are working, business owners, entrepreneurs, like when you see the passion that he pours into everything that he does in the life, the only thing it makes you want to do is be able to be better for yourself and for your family and for the business because you see exactly what it's like, you see how a person built a big successful business from the mud.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like he came from the mud.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And to be able to see that and to understand like this work ethic, the experience of wins and losses, um, to be able to like see that and rub shoulders with that every day and be able to pick a person's brain like that on like an intimate level is it's it's really deep, man.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's really deep, totally rewarding.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So shifting gears a little bit, what is your ultimate goal as far as your fighting career at this moment in your life right now?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm enjoying it.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like the most important thing for me out of fighting right now is enjoying it.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: The ultimate goal is to see where it takes me.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to be able to hit a big stage.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to be able to hit a Bellator, a PFL, one FC, UFC.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to be able to hit there.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: But if I don't, if I'm not able to hit that myself as an athlete, I know I'll be able to hit that as a coach.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the journey is never gonna stop for me.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the only thing I can continue doing is going out there and putting my best foot forward, keep improving every day.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have been improving every day.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um finally, like understanding like the confidence and it's okay to be scared while I'm competing has given me such a freedom in these last two fights.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, unfortunately, I didn't get the outcome that I wanted in my last fight.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: But I've had my best two performances outside of that hiccup in these last two fights when I finally like faced the man in the mirror and like acknowledged a lot of things.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I can give a lot of thanks of that to, you know, like some of my teammates who talked about how, you know, they're scared or seeing how they've been scared, you know, talking to coaches about it.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: But really, it was the lockdowns of 2020 that really made me like dig in deep because what I had to sneak around for training, you know, like we would get like a text from certain guys like, hey, like we have these small pods, we have these small training pods, we're gonna meet at this gym this day and we're gonna train.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what I'm maybe only getting an hour or two of training a day.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, on top of, you know, you're unemployed because the whole world's like shutting down if you weren't an essential worker.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I spent a lot of time at the at the house with my now wife and my dog.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes you you're just waking up in the middle of the night.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: You're just waking up in the middle of the night, or and I really had to like face myself and I had to like question, answer a lot of questions that I had for myself about who I was as as a fighter, who I was as a man, and all that other good stuff.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I can honestly sit here and say, you know, you have some people that, and I've seen it like, you know, people that I know personally, the uh the lockdowns fucked them up, fucked them up drastically.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like they don't know how to like come back to society, but I feel the lockdowns benefited me as a fighter and also benefited me as a man, and also benefited me as a partner for my wife, too, as a husband, and all that other good stuff.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I turned the negative into a positive.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And since coming out of the lockdowns, like I said, I've had two really good performances besides that one small hiccup where that punch slipped through and put me out.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's like I said, it's what 12 years in the game was bound to happen.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did you become aligned with team elevation?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Shit.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: I had came out to Denver in 2015.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: I crashed on my cousin's couch.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was still up under the Bang Muay Thai affiliation system.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I was with my cousin for two weeks, driving out, train uh training at Dwayne's or go home, this, that, and the other.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I went home, I fought.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was my last fight at 70.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I lost that unfortunately.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I realized just the two weeks, the little amount of time that I spent here benefited me so much that I was like, all right, I was like, I was like, I need to move to, I need to move to Colorado.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: One, I'm gonna get the altitude, two, there's a whole a whole bunch of opportunities to train with world-class athletes moving out here.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I looked at my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, and I was like, hey, you know, uh, I plan on moving to Denver next year, summer of 2016.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: She was like, oh, okay.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, well, how about you move out there now and you could send for me later?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, nah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I was like, we're gonna go out there together.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I worked, what, three different jobs, saved up a whole bunch of money.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was training with Colton Smith at the time.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: He was on the ultimate fighter with Neil Magney.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I just looked at him because you know he was leaving Fort Hood, Texas.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: He was getting stationed somewhere else, and I was like, Yeah, man, I was like moving out to Denver.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh, he's like, Well, I can get you in touch with uh Lee Stravoli out of uh Elevation Fight Team.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, Oh, okay, really?
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Yeah, man.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Don't worry about it.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I got you.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: So literally, I'm like, it's me and the dog, we're driving, and I think I'm maybe eight hours down the road, and then all of a sudden I get this instant messenger on my Facebook, and it's Lee Ster.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, Hey, you know, Colton told me about you, you know, this, that, and the other, uh, that you're moving out here.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever you get settled in, uh, give me a holler and come on in and train.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And this uh elevation fight team was at the muscle farm factory.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: So we we get out here, I get settled in and all that stuff, and I remember pulling up to this big ass like facility, and I uh I remember seeing the semi, some of the products in it, but it was a semi and it had uh that front kick where Anderson Silva was catching Vitor Belfort on the chin.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when like it hit me.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like I sat out my car for like an additional 10 minutes.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, Oh shit, I'm really here.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I sat out there for a few minutes, got myself together, and I walked in, and then I introduced myself to Leicester, and then the next thing you know, I'm seeing like Neil Magney walking on the mats, and I'm seeing Matt Brown walking on the mats because this is when he was with us, and I'm seeing all these other guys just walking on the mats, and I was holy shit, I was like, I'm really here.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and then yeah, I got my ass beat for the first three weeks.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I got I I literally got it was it would be days where Neil's trying to beat the shit out of me.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Then, you know, he's sending Matt trying to beat the shit out of me, you know.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then Brandon Thatch.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: I remember he kicked my ass one day in sparring, and he was like, hey man, he's like, I'm really sorry about this.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: He brought me a he brought me a recovery drink.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm really sorry about this.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, at least you told me to do it to see if you'd stay on the team.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I literally spent like the first three weeks just every day going and into practice, just getting my ass whooped.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just to see if I would quit.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, then, you know, after like two, three months went by, the ass whoopings came less frequent.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me wrong, I was still getting my ass whooped, but they were like less intentional.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was getting more pointers and stuff now because everyone seen that I was there, you know.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And like I had joked about it when after uh Neil and I had become friends.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, he was like, yeah, man, he's like, I was really trying to make you quit.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, he's like, I was really trying to see if like you had the heart for this and if you really belonged here.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, yeah, man.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you know, I was like, I packed, I packed my whole life up.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: I packed my I packed my uh my lady up.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: We moved 13 hours north.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the last thing I was gonna be able to do was, well, get my ass kicked for about a week and look at her be like, yeah, you know, this shit's way too hard.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: I made a mistake.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's no way I could have done it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, man, it's it's been great.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um May 15th will make it six years that I've lived here in Denver.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh been training.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's this weekend.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it'll be six years that I've been out here and been training with uh team elevation, and this is where I'm gonna stay until the wheels fall off.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing, sir.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: You have a fight coming up May 28th.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about that.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be fighting for uh GCMMA in Lake Charles, uh Louisiana, against Omar Johnson uh in the main event.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm nervous, but I think anyone that tells you that they're not nervous is either crazy or lying or in denial.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And the only thing that I know that I have to use is if I go out there and perform the way that I know that I can perform, the result's gonna handle itself.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: So do you look at this fight as kind of dinner and you're looking at dessert, what comes after it?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do you all do you look one fight ahead?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, never.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um just focus on what's in front of you then, right?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I used to, I can admit I used to about maybe when I was 27, 28, you know, because like, you know, I had been on the team now for a little bit over a year, almost two years.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then no, you you would hear from like guys that are in the UFC or like the coaches, like, hey man, you're like only like one or two more away from like getting to where you want and where you want to be.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly why I asked that.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was I used to have such a destination fixation that I couldn't enjoy the present, which which would cause me to have like these hotter cold moments.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: I could have like a great performance, and then I would have like an okay performance.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: I would have a win, I would have another win, which I eked it out barely, and then I would lose.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then it would, so it once I took this whole destination fixation out, like I said, which I definitely thank the uh lockdowns for, because it made me more or less appreciate this present moment.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, uh once I learned to do that, it's taken the pressure off of my shoulders when it's coming to fighting.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I the only thing that I worry about now when I'm fighting is just performing.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not oh well if I win and I beat this guy, then I'm gonna get here, I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna get that.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's just worrying about the performance.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: If I get the good performance, if I perform the way that I know I can perform, the outcome is gonna be the way that it should be.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's one thing that people commonly misunderstand about you?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know about at this present moment.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe in the past, uh, when I used to live in Wyoming, a lot of people thought I had this bad attitude, or you know, that I was some sort of thug.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was this and I was that.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, it was just a lot of like bullshit that you had authority figures putting in your head because what you're one of the only few minority kids in the school.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you'll have a teacher walk up to you and tell you, yeah, man, you're not gonna do nothing with your life.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, you look like a gangbanger and shit like that.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like, it's like, dude, I'm it's like, dog, I'm only fucking what 13, 14, you know, six, seven years old, and you're telling them I'm not gonna be shit and you're supposed to be an educator?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I could say like probably back then it was people probably thought I just was just a bad kid, I was just misunderstood.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um maybe now if I could think about it a little bit more.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh dude, I have a good mouthpiece.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: I know how to talk to people.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: I like I really know how to talk to people, but does that make it to where like I'm just this huge social butterfly that has uh a humongous circle of friends?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't I have a lot of associates around me.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll tell you that I have a lot of associates, but do I have a lot of friends in this life?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't get to call a lot of a lot of people.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get to sit there and say that they're my friend.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's like one thing that I think is probably misunderstood is oh, he's this big social butterfly, and he's he's got a lot of friends.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have a lot of friends, I have a lot of associates, and I got maybe maybe like 10 friends, maybe if that, if I'm lucky, maybe ten.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just from you know, martial arts or Texas.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I got like maybe one or two I really considered friends from Wyoming, people like that.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, man, like I don't love a lot of people, and I'm a really guarded person.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot to be said about keeping your circle small and impactful.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's true, but shit, man.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we see it every day.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people still don't understand that people of my age group, right?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: Fuck, there's probably there's probably people older than both of us that are still, oh, I got friends everywhere.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, they're dumbasses.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's so true.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's the greatest compliment you've ever received?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: To keep being me and that people love me for me.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: To keep being me and that people love me for me.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then just the fact that just me being me attracts a lot of like people.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: It attracts a lot of people, a lot of people like that playful energy that I can have at times, um in the realness that I have, like I'll tell I'll tell a motherfucker how it is.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like on the drop of a dime, like it it's really hard for me to hold my tongue at times.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like so, if like if somebody like if a friend, like if a friend, even a complete stranger wants the honest truth from me, I will give them the honest truth as blunt as I can.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: So in your friend group, do you spend any time at the champ house playing UFC tournaments?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because Arut talked about this last earlier this week or last week.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you ever get in on any of those?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, so my my group of friends on the team uh that like I kicked it with heavy.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: We call ourselves the Oreo Bandits.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh Curtis Blades, Neil Magney, and Austin Hubbard.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I love I love all three of those guys.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we've we've got our little clique in the uh in the gym.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: We go by the Oreo Bandits.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so Austin and Curtis and a couple of the other guys on the team, they all used to live at this house called the Fight House in Lakewood.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, and then like a lot of us would go over there, like after practices.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: We'd play Madden, we'd bring Nintendo's and shit over there, and we just we just play games.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like a bunch of dudes just hanging out after, beating the shit out of each other, playing games.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, uh what I consider Corey Sanhagen a good friend on the team.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's some times where like a good group of guys will all meet at the park and we'll play spike ball for a few hours and shit like that.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: But like video games, like I don't know.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like I started getting away from video games at like 28 because I started sucking at them.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's so funny, dude.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I keep I could never get into them.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like the only games I play are fighting games.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I started sucking at them at like 28 because I'm up every morning by four o'clock, and then I'm in bed by eight.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, like I'm in the gym and I'm at work.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they're either in the gym or I'm at work.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_01: So then, like, when I came home, like my wife's here.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, she never badgered me about how much I played games, but dude, I never like really like had like the energy or the time to like really like dive into them unless it was like right after a fight.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, then I could like binge and just marathon through a game for about like a week, and then I'm just like, all right, yeah, I'm done.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I need to go handle my shit.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, man, like like I'm really not much of a gamer anymore.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, like everyone's talking about you know the new Xbox or the PlayStation 5 and stuff like that.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: And like I've joked about like, yeah, man, like like I would love to get that.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, but as soon as I get it, I'm gonna I'm gonna play it for like two weeks heavy, and then it's just gonna sit there collecting dust.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I've blown four to five hundred dollars on what yeah, yeah.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Money that could be spent on a vacation, on a vacation, um learning now.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Since like I said, like I've uh Vinny's mentoring me.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Vinny and a couple of well, Vinny and the entire vital training uh vital training system staff, they're mentoring me and getting me coached up on becoming a uh strength coach.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's cool.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: So like I can yeah, now I'm gonna pay four or five hundred dollars for a game system when I could pay four to five hundred dollars to continue that education.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, you know, and then uh or now, well, since the news is out there, uh uh my wife and I were expecting our first child in November.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: Congratulations, sir.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're expecting a son, so it's just like do I really want to just blow money on video games and a whole bunch of other goofy shit, or do I want to like better plan for for my son whenever he comes, and then I'll blow money on video games and goofy shit when he's like five or six.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, exactly.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta tell you, man, I really appreciate somebody that can just kind of tell things the way it is, people that can like lay things out in as raw a form as they possibly can, and you've done that here.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: I am super excited for your fight on May 28th.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can find this fight exclusively on pay-per-view.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you follow Lavelle Simpson on Instagram.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: He'll be posting about it more frequently.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Give a follow to Elevation Fight Team.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show today, man.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, yeah, thank you, and thank you for having me on, man.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really want to thank Lavelle Simpson one more time for being on the show today.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Give him a follow on Instagram.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: He has a big fight coming up, and he will be sharing updates as it gets closer to that state.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: I also want to give a shout out to my friends of elevation flights in the file to martial artists.