Latest / money loyalty legacy / Belal Muhammad: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sean Strickland Beef & UFC Title Shot

Transcript

Belal Muhammad: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sean Strickland Beef & UFC Title Shot · money loyalty legacy

• 0:00
  It's it's a blessing. And I think that people forget
• 0:03
  about that because you're always chasing that goal.
• 0:05
  You're always chasing that dream.
• 0:06
  And you're like, I didn't get this today.
• 0:07
  I wanted $1,000,000. Why?
• 0:09
  You know, I got $1,000,000. But you don't appreciate the
• 0:11
  fact that you have a car, you have a clothes, you have heat in
• 0:14
  your house and there's people starving out there that don't
• 0:17
  have nothing. They don't have this or begging
• 0:18
  for a fraction of what you have. So my mindset is always like,
• 0:22
  there's a reason for it. There's a reason for it.
• 0:24
  When I get that belt, it's going to make sense.
• 0:27
  And for the people out there that follow me, that push with
• 0:29
  me, no matter what, we're going to get it.
• 0:31
  There's no denying me. It's not going to happen.
• 0:33
  It's going to happen for sure. It's 100% it's going to happen.
• 0:36
  And when I do get my hand raised, it's it's all going to
• 0:39
  be worth it. All this waiting, all this
• 0:40
  patience, everything, it's going to be worth it.
• 1:01
  Our next guest hails from our home city, Chicago, IL Remember
• 1:06
  the name of Bilal Mohammed, a very dear friend.
• 1:08
  Matt, take it away. What in the fudge are you
• 1:10
  talking about there? Chan Bilal is the innovator of
• 1:15
  the word fudge as far as replacing it with the other
• 1:18
  word. Some know him as remember the
• 1:23
  names, some know him as Bully B. We know him as an amazing
• 1:28
  podcast guest and a future champion in the UFC.
• 1:32
  Dana, give him his title shot. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
• 1:35
  Money Loyalty Legacy. My name is Matt.
• 1:38
  Any with your Boy Ross AKA the Champ.
• 1:40
  Today we have a very special guest, former Titan FC champion,
• 1:44
  host of Remember the show UFCESPNMMA just voted him the
• 1:50
  best MMA fighter at his age at a young 35 years old #2 ranked UFC
• 1:56
  welterweight in our opinion, the number one welterweight
• 1:59
  contender. A devout Muslim, Chicago's very
• 2:02
  own and a dear friend. Please welcome Bilal.
• 2:06
  Remember the name Mohammed? I like that introduction, right?
• 2:15
  Yeah, talk to talk to my boy for me, would you?
• 2:19
  You know, let's get right into it.
• 2:20
  So you have a very fascinating story.
• 2:23
  You know, you started MMA at 23 years old, right?
• 2:28
  For people who don't know, how did you go down that path and
• 2:31
  what led you to where you're at now?
• 2:34
  Well, honestly, it was like, I never like, expected myself to
• 2:38
  be here when I was younger. You know, you play basketball
• 2:40
  and you're like, I'll make the NBA to realize you're not black
• 2:43
  and you're like, yeah, I'm not growing any taller.
• 2:45
  Sure. You're like, I maybe sports are
• 2:47
  out of my league right now. So I went to school Southside
• 2:51
  Chicago, Bogan High School, wrestled there for like 2 years.
• 2:55
  The first year I was like trying out for the basketball team and
• 2:59
  my brother and cousin, they came in and bro, you're they're not
• 3:01
  going to play you. And I was like bro, I'm a beast,
• 3:03
  I'm good. And I was like a freshman.
• 3:04
  They're like no, I just come to the wrestling because they said
• 3:07
  they have a freshman team. So you're for sure wrestle and
• 3:09
  it's like one-on-one. So if you're good, you'll
• 3:12
  continue to wrestle. So I wrestled my freshman year
• 3:14
  over there and we had like a pretty good coach, a pretty good
• 3:16
  team, Charles Ken Bringy and you know, my cousin, my my my
• 3:22
  brother was on the team and just couple other like friends.
• 3:25
  So it was it was fun and you know, I liked it a little bit.
• 3:30
  And after the freshman year the Ken Brig he left.
• 3:33
  He like got a a job at Brother Rice High School.
• 3:38
  So I was like, he's like, yeah, the the city school don't care
• 3:41
  about us. They just care about the
• 3:42
  basketball team or the football team.
• 3:43
  So they weren't giving the rest of the team any money.
• 3:45
  We had to wrestle in the hallways.
• 3:47
  Like people are walking on the match with the shoes on.
• 3:49
  So like we just didn't get no respect.
• 3:51
  And he was a a high caliber coach.
• 3:53
  He was really good. So he's like, I'm just going to
• 3:55
  go to school that respects me. So he left and then my sophomore
• 3:59
  year I had a new coach, Louis Taylor, and, you know, he was
• 4:03
  like a younger coach. So he was like very cool.
• 4:07
  So he was like, you know, I think he was like early 20s at
• 4:09
  the time. So he was that coach that was
• 4:11
  like that cool one I always want to hang out with, listen to him
• 4:14
  and things like that. And then after sophomore year,
• 4:17
  he was like left and not even know like where the heck he went
• 4:19
  and didn't say goodbye or anything.
• 4:21
  So like junior, they changed our wrestling coach to security
• 4:25
  guard. And I'm like, bro, I'm not
• 4:26
  wrestling with security guard as a wrestling coach.
• 4:28
  Yeah. He like didn't teach anything.
• 4:30
  And yeah, I just stopped wrestling after that, was just
• 4:33
  going to school. I was like, wanted to be active.
• 4:36
  So I was always like lifted weights or I played high school
• 4:39
  football, but really didn't do nothing with it.
• 4:42
  And then I went to school to U of I, and my plan initially was
• 4:46
  to do be a lawyer. So I was going over there for
• 4:49
  that. My first time moving away from
• 4:52
  home. So my cousin was down there.
• 4:54
  He's like always looked out for me.
• 4:55
  He was like one year older, so he already knew the ropes over
• 4:59
  there telling me everything. So just being away from home,
• 5:01
  I'll just come home on the weekends and wasn't thinking
• 5:05
  about anything. I would watch fighting like UFC
• 5:08
  Ultimate Fighter randomly here or there, but never anything
• 5:11
  crazy with it. And then I one day I just saw a
• 5:15
  newspaper in Chicago. Louis Taylor was fighting for
• 5:19
  Strikeforce. And I was like, bro, this is my
• 5:21
  old wrestling coach. So then I just slid in his DMS
• 5:24
  on Facebook and I was like, bro, you're a fighter.
• 5:27
  And he was like, yeah, I'm a fighter now.
• 5:29
  And it was just like the craziest thing.
• 5:31
  He's like, yeah, you want, you want to come to the gym and
• 5:33
  check it out? And I was like, Oh yeah, for
• 5:35
  sure. Just 'cause you know, Rekendo
• 5:38
  talk with them, see where, see where the heck he's been and
• 5:41
  went to the gym and I was like, bro, whatever happens to you,
• 5:44
  He's like, bro, I was young at the time and you know, I'm
• 5:46
  training with you guys and bro, I'm not, he's like, I'm not an
• 5:48
  old coach. So he said he like he would
• 5:51
  wrestle with us all the time. So he was still at very athletic
• 5:53
  and he's like, I got to do something more with my life.
• 5:56
  And he used to train with Rampage Jackson.
• 5:59
  So then he like used to see Rampage fight all the time and
• 6:02
  pride. He trained with Matt Hughes
• 6:03
  before he used to wrestle in college with like Rashad Evans,
• 6:06
  Brock Lesnar. So all those guys went to MMA
• 6:09
  and I think that was what made him go to MMA.
• 6:11
  And you know, he was just like, yeah, anytime you're here for
• 6:14
  the weekend, come down, I'll I'll train you to work out,
• 6:16
  learn some new things. And I just started falling in
• 6:19
  love with it. And while I was in U of, I
• 6:21
  transferred down here my junior and senior year to UIC just so I
• 6:24
  could be close to the gym. And yeah, ever since, just fell
• 6:27
  in love with the sport, started learning more and more.
• 6:29
  And after I got my first amateur fight, it was literally like a
• 6:35
  maybe like a backyard bra, literally in a freaking bar
• 6:38
  room. And it was just like, there's no
• 6:41
  technique or anything with it. I just went in there like it was
• 6:43
  a school fight. But I won and it was the like
• 6:46
  the best feeling ever. That's crazy.
• 6:49
  So, you know, it's amazing from starting at 23 years old and
• 6:53
  then, you know, now being in the UFC, number one contender, we're
• 6:56
  going to say it all day, OK, I'm not doing this.
• 6:58
  Number two, you're #1 contender. You know what we all know and
• 7:00
  everyone watching knows it was it.
• 7:04
  Then you won the belt, you know, then he became pro and then you
• 7:06
  end up winning the belt for Titan.
• 7:08
  And then when you first got into the arena for the UFC, was it
• 7:12
  just a whirlwind kind of what was explaining people how to
• 7:15
  felt the first time you walked out?
• 7:18
  Honestly, for me it was I always like expected it because like
• 7:22
  whenever I do something I feel like I never had the mentality
• 7:25
  is like I don't belong here. I shouldn't be here.
• 7:28
  When I started winning and I was like on a nine fight winning
• 7:30
  streak and I was nine and O and I just had like that undefeated
• 7:33
  mentality. Like I was bulletproof and I was
• 7:35
  like, man, when are they going to put me in the UFC?
• 7:37
  When are they going to put me in the UFC?
• 7:38
  I I need my call because I even tried out for The Ultimate
• 7:41
  Fighter show when I was three and O and then I was like 6 and
• 7:44
  O and I tried out again and I was just like, I want to know if
• 7:47
  I'm good enough to be there, right?
• 7:49
  So I was even when I was fight locally, I'll tell the
• 7:51
  matchmakers, give me the best guy.
• 7:52
  I don't care. Nowadays you'll see a lot of
• 7:54
  these guys outside of the UFC where they only want to fight
• 7:57
  like cans or bombs so they could build the record just so to get
• 8:01
  to UFC undefeated. My mindset was I don't want to
• 8:04
  make it to the UFC unless I'm good enough to be there.
• 8:06
  So I want to be tested outside of the UFC first.
• 8:09
  So that's why I always fought a lot of better guys outside of
• 8:12
  the UFC. And then once I finally got
• 8:14
  there, it was like short notice during Ramadan and it was
• 8:17
  against Alan Joe Band. And I was just like, I'm going
• 8:19
  to win. There's like no other option for
• 8:22
  me but to win. And even after going in, there
• 8:26
  was a fight at night, like I didn't like live in the moment
• 8:30
  at all. It was my my mindset's always
• 8:33
  what's the goal is to win. I don't really care bright
• 8:35
  lights, yadda, yadda. Or man, I just want to fight of
• 8:38
  the night. Like I didn't care about that at
• 8:40
  all. And Lou, who's always with me,
• 8:43
  he was just like, bro, you, you got to appreciate the moments
• 8:47
  more because even though we lost, it was still fighting the
• 8:49
  night. We had fighters like Max
• 8:51
  Holloway run up to me and Diego Sanchez literally right outside
• 8:55
  the cage like, oh man, great, you're a beast.
• 8:57
  You're this. And my mindset was just like,
• 8:58
  I'll put my head down. I want to cry because I lost.
• 9:01
  And I didn't care that it was a great fight or a great comeback
• 9:04
  or that there's I had a million excuses that I could have made
• 9:08
  for why I lost that fight. But it was just like I hated
• 9:12
  losing so bad that I forgot about how hard it is for people
• 9:16
  to get there, right? Because there's fighters all
• 9:18
  over the world that are great, but they never get their
• 9:21
  opportunity. Even Lou never got his
• 9:22
  opportunity to be in the UFC. So for me to get there, get that
• 9:25
  opportunity, like I missed out on that moment of my life or
• 9:29
  that that precious like, you know, memory to have where it
• 9:34
  was like the standing ovation people coming out to you.
• 9:36
  This is and that because I was so butthurt about losing.
• 9:40
  No, it's really important to talk about to maybe we were
• 9:42
  talking about this in the way here, your mindset, you know,
• 9:45
  Matt, do you want to jump in on that?
• 9:46
  Because I know that you're really big on mental fortitude
• 9:50
  and things of that nature. Yeah, I mean, you said before
• 9:53
  it's 90% mental, right? For you as one of the best
• 9:59
  fighters in the world, you know what I mean?
• 10:01
  In the hardest profession in the world, hardest sport in the
• 10:03
  world, how do you program your mind and how could people like
• 10:08
  watching at home, How could they utilize your discipline and the
• 10:12
  way you're able to control your thought patterns?
• 10:14
  How could they use that in every every aspect of the life, their
• 10:17
  mental discipline and the fortitude, you know what I mean?
• 10:20
  Is there anything you can kind of instill in people?
• 10:22
  Yeah, a lot of times for myself, it's setting myself up with
• 10:28
  goals, right? There's a million people in the
• 10:30
  world where they'll be like, I want to start a diet or
• 10:32
  something and a big I'll start Monday.
• 10:33
  I can't start in the middle of the week.
• 10:34
  You can't do this in the middle of the week.
• 10:36
  Has to be the start of the month or something.
• 10:39
  Like everybody's always looking for excuses.
• 10:41
  For myself, it's I never look for an excuse and I always just
• 10:44
  try, hey, once we commit to something, that's what we're
• 10:46
  doing with it. Even I've taken at least 4
• 10:50
  fights in the UFC on short notice and my mindset always was
• 10:53
  never, oh man, I I shouldn't have did this or I had this
• 10:57
  ankle injury or something going into a fight with it was always
• 10:59
  like we said, yes, that's it. We put her name on a contract
• 11:02
  that now whatever happens, it's on us because you already agree
• 11:06
  to it. And there's a lot of fighters
• 11:07
  out there and I think a lot of people where they like to blame
• 11:10
  others for like misfortunes or even if you lose a fight.
• 11:14
  My mindset was always the thing about I love about fighting is
• 11:17
  it's, it's all on you because you could go to practices, you
• 11:20
  could train and you know, you could have the best team in the
• 11:23
  world. But if you're not using the, the
• 11:26
  stuff outside of the cage to set yourself up with discipline of
• 11:30
  like my diet needed to be disciplined.
• 11:32
  My strength training needs to be discipline.
• 11:34
  My, my cardio, my schedule, my practices, my skill training.
• 11:38
  It's like fighting is the hardest thing to train for
• 11:40
  because there isn't one right way of doing it all.
• 11:45
  Like it's a new sport, so people are still learning in general.
• 11:47
  There's not like a booklet of, hey, if you do exactly this
• 11:50
  stuff, you're going to win your fight.
• 11:51
  I could have the best camp of my life and then I can still get to
• 11:56
  fight week and I can get knocked out in 5 seconds just because I
• 11:59
  zig when I should have zacked. But my mentality is always God
• 12:03
  first, God's plan and putting God first above anything and
• 12:08
  knowing that whatever he has in store for me, it's like, and you
• 12:12
  know, in the Muslim religion, it's like we have the same, it's
• 12:14
  called like tire camel. And then trust God because it's
• 12:18
  like you still have to do all the extra stuff.
• 12:21
  And then whatever God has in store for you, that's what's
• 12:24
  meant to be. It's like, I still have to
• 12:26
  train. I still have to eat, right.
• 12:27
  I had to still do this. And then if God still wants me
• 12:30
  to, to win, then I'll win. But if God wants me to to lose
• 12:34
  and I have to learn a lesson from it, then I just have to
• 12:37
  accept it because there's a reason for it.
• 12:39
  There's a lot of guys out here nowadays where, you know, they
• 12:43
  don't know how to take a loss mentally, they'll break.
• 12:45
  But for myself, I've taken losses in the biggest stage in
• 12:48
  the world, Madison Square Garden.
• 12:49
  I thought I was going to be the the next big thing.
• 12:52
  I still came into the UFC undefeated, lost my debut, but
• 12:55
  then I won my second fight and then I was like, I'm right back
• 12:57
  to where I started. Then I go to Madison Square
• 12:59
  Garden, then I get knocked out and you're like, why?
• 13:02
  This wasn't supposed, this wasn't in the book.
• 13:03
  This was the reason for it. But now that I look back at it,
• 13:07
  all the stuff I changed because of that loss, it made me to
• 13:10
  where I am today, where I'm the number 2 fighter in the world
• 13:12
  and bought the fight for the belt.
• 13:14
  But if I would have gave up and be like, you know what, I just
• 13:16
  lost him. I'm embarrassed.
• 13:17
  I'm done psyched. Maybe it's not meant to be and I
• 13:20
  just quit. I think that's where a lot of
• 13:22
  people get it wrong, where you, you see that that meme all the
• 13:25
  time where the guys like digging for for gold and the diamonds
• 13:28
  are right on the other side. And right when he's about to get
• 13:29
  it, that's when he gives up. I think that's where a lot of
• 13:32
  people in this world need to start looking at that picture
• 13:35
  more deeply, right? Because a lot of people are so
• 13:37
  close to where they want to get our goals or everything's in
• 13:40
  reach, but everybody just gives up because they don't want to do
• 13:43
  the work to get there, right? Fair enough.
• 13:45
  A lot of people go for cloud chasing.
• 13:46
  They say wild things to get attention, to get the fights.
• 13:49
  You know, I think a a lot of longtime fans of the sport of
• 13:54
  MMA and the UFC and martial arts really respect you for the fact
• 13:59
  that you let your work do the talking, you know what I mean?
• 14:01
  You're not you're not going out there doing all that what those
• 14:04
  wild antics like a lot of other fighters, you know what I mean?
• 14:07
  Real martial arts and real fans of the sport that have been
• 14:10
  watching it, you know, since its inception, pick up on that.
• 14:13
  You know what I mean? New fans or people are just
• 14:16
  drunk at the bar watch and go. He's no token smack.
• 14:18
  He's not, you know, wearing a clowns who doing all stuff.
• 14:20
  You know what I mean? People really respect that you
• 14:22
  let your work do the talking. How do you, how is it for you in
• 14:26
  in that world where a lot of people that do the wild antics
• 14:29
  get a lot more of the attention? You know what I mean?
• 14:31
  How? How do you how do you deal with
• 14:33
  that? For myself, I, I never wanted to
• 14:35
  sell myself or, you know, because I have close friends and
• 14:39
  family that I know look up to me and I'd rather have the respect
• 14:44
  than, you know, say the dumbest stuff in the world or get
• 14:47
  outlandish and have the the crowd that, oh man, look at this
• 14:50
  guy. He said this crazy stuff where
• 14:51
  you look at nowadays where who's the most popular, people are
• 14:55
  Shawn Stricken, who says the dumbest things in the world and
• 14:57
  people just like him because he says that dumb stuff.
• 14:59
  So now he just continues to look for dumb stuff to say.
• 15:02
  But it makes the sport look dumb in general.
• 15:04
  And the first sport that's trying to be like the NBA or NFL
• 15:08
  or MLB, we got to hold ourselves to higher standards.
• 15:12
  And as an athlete and as a Muslim, more so than anything, I
• 15:15
  hold myself to higher standards because I do have those younger
• 15:19
  Muslim kids out there that are looking up to me and they
• 15:22
  wouldn't message me. And then when they see me
• 15:23
  praying or something, it's, it motivates them.
• 15:25
  And I'd rather have that more so than, you know, the drunk guy at
• 15:29
  the bar that's like, I bully B's a beast because those guys and
• 15:34
  once you lose, they're going to be the same ones that are
• 15:35
  saying, Oh, you suck. But like the real ones that see
• 15:38
  what you're genuinely about it. You know, the, the Muslims about
• 15:43
  it and, you know, want to learn more about it.
• 15:45
  Those are the ones that are going to like if they, if I
• 15:47
  lose, hey, how'd you take that loss?
• 15:49
  Are you OK? Those are the ones that those
• 15:50
  are the real fans that I care about, the ones that actually
• 15:52
  care about your well-being, not just more so the hype of
• 15:55
  everything. Since we touched on him really
• 15:57
  quick, you know, I know there's another guy he's a bum Cloven
• 16:00
  Covington. We're not going to go over there
• 16:02
  right garbage. You know that we know that.
• 16:05
  What is your beef with Sean Strickland?
• 16:07
  Because you guys had a back and forth thing for a while before
• 16:09
  he was still kind of coming up. And what is it that you don't
• 16:12
  like about him? Because it has to take a lot.
• 16:14
  And I've known you for many years, dude, you're a wholesome
• 16:17
  person. You're a great guy with a great
• 16:18
  heart. He's got to do something to
• 16:20
  really piss you off. Honestly, I had no like I didn't
• 16:25
  have no care about him at all until there was I posted one
• 16:29
  thing about Palestine and it was literally like 3 years ago.
• 16:33
  They're same thing. They're getting bombed.
• 16:35
  And he just commented on there when it had nothing to do with
• 16:37
  him because he likes to just put his nose in his stuff and get
• 16:39
  attention. And he said something like they
• 16:41
  need to just give up and they need a they're going to, they're
• 16:45
  going to end up losing anyway. Then you just need to bend the
• 16:47
  knee. And it was like the stupidest
• 16:48
  statement ever, but he did it just to get attention.
• 16:50
  It's to get a comment out of myself.
• 16:53
  So when somebody like that who sitting there laughing at people
• 16:56
  dying or making making a joke out of it, it just shows what
• 16:59
  type of person he is. He's like a piece of trash and
• 17:04
  even now when you see people recently where he was crying on
• 17:07
  Theo Von about, you know, his dad and why you can't talk about
• 17:11
  my dad. Don't don't bring a family.
• 17:12
  That's that's dirty when you do it, But you're literally talking
• 17:14
  about kids that just got bombed, kids that are dying and you're
• 17:17
  making a joke of it. But when it comes that back to
• 17:19
  you. So he just told you that he has
• 17:21
  a fake tough guy mentality. I always said that that it was
• 17:24
  it was all fake because it was trying to get that clout and
• 17:27
  even now where he just lost the bell.
• 17:29
  So now he's just sitting there trying to get, oh, MGKI don't
• 17:31
  know who this guy. I want to I want to get in a
• 17:33
  fight with this guy. Then you see with Sneako where
• 17:36
  he's wanted to spar with him and he which wants to beat him up
• 17:39
  because he knows it's going to get people to talk about it
• 17:41
  because that's the society we live in now where you're looking
• 17:44
  for that one viral moment. You're looking for the the stuff
• 17:47
  that's going to be trending on Twitter or and he acts like he
• 17:50
  doesn't care about it, but he really does.
• 17:51
  He needs that. And you know, those, that's why
• 17:55
  the people now that are in part of the sport, like John Annex
• 17:58
  said, it's like it's, you know, turning you off from the sport
• 18:03
  because these kids nowadays are they're just waiting for that
• 18:07
  one person to say something stupid or that viral moment.
• 18:09
  And they want the, they rather have the negative negativity in
• 18:13
  this world instead of like the old days when it was the GSP
• 18:17
  where it was just about respect and martial arts.
• 18:19
  Like, I don't think he would be a star in this UFC that we have
• 18:23
  today. People are looking at him like,
• 18:24
  oh, this guy's a geek or this guy's a nerd.
• 18:26
  But in the old days it wasn't about that.
• 18:28
  It was about true martial arts. Nowadays, John Strickland has
• 18:30
  too many followers because they're waiting for that one
• 18:32
  stupid thing he's going to say. And he understands that now.
• 18:34
  So that's why he continues to do it.
• 18:36
  And he continues to play off that role of I'm this crazy
• 18:38
  dude, yadda, yadda, yadda. And I'm going to, I'll stab you
• 18:41
  if you do anything. But he doesn't.
• 18:43
  He's he's not going to do anything.
• 18:44
  He just all talked. What did you think of that?
• 18:46
  Did you watch that video of him boxing that that sneako dude?
• 18:49
  Like what? I was literally there.
• 18:50
  He. Was.
• 18:51
  There. Oh, you were there.
• 18:51
  Yeah, I was there. I was working with Flex Lewis.
• 18:54
  I was holding pads for him because we were there with the
• 18:56
  charity and we were doing like pad work with him, RG3 and a lot
• 19:01
  of the guys were were over there.
• 19:03
  So we're working and I see sneaker walk up and he's like,
• 19:05
  hey, what's up brother, how you doing?
• 19:07
  And he just, you know, converted Muslim.
• 19:08
  So I was hey, what's up brother, how you doing?
• 19:10
  And he's like, yeah, I'm just going to work, get a workout
• 19:12
  with Sean Strickland. And I was like, oh, OK, cool.
• 19:14
  He's like, you have any advice? I said don't inspire him.
• 19:17
  And he's like, yeah, I was like, there's.
• 19:22
  Sure, he should have listened to you.
• 19:24
  Yeah, because I'm like there's guys, you know, that like if you
• 19:27
  go to the gym, there's guys that are going to be like, all right,
• 19:29
  I'm a martial artist, I'm a world champion.
• 19:31
  I know I can take it easy on you because you're a newbie, right?
• 19:34
  And there's a lot of fighters that will do that.
• 19:35
  They'll take it easy on you. We've seen them go with like
• 19:38
  Mirab and Al Joe and, you know, they're like flowing with them a
• 19:41
  little bit more. But like I said, Sean wants to
• 19:44
  have that. I'm a tough guy, crazy guy
• 19:46
  mentality. So I knew that he would do that.
• 19:48
  So Jake Shields, he was working with Jake Shields too.
• 19:51
  Sneako and Jake Shields don't like, yeah, you should have spar
• 19:53
  him, but he wants to you know, you're a YouTube right?
• 19:56
  So you want to get that viral moment for yourself anyway.
• 19:59
  But at the end of the day, it's like you could have got your jaw
• 20:00
  broken, you could have got your orbital broken because this
• 20:03
  moron is he was trying to hurt you.
• 20:06
  He was trying to knock you out. But at the end of it was like, I
• 20:09
  tell you, the kid got pillow hands.
• 20:10
  He can't box. And it made Sneako look better.
• 20:12
  It made him look tougher and. In the end, because Sean was
• 20:16
  throwing everything at him to try to drop him or finish him
• 20:18
  and he still stood up high, he had like a bloody nose.
• 20:20
  And then like 10 minutes later he was still rolling on the mats
• 20:23
  with Jake Shield. So I'm like Shield, you're
• 20:25
  tough. But it could, it could always go
• 20:27
  wrong, right? And I tell my brothers that too
• 20:29
  'cause my brothers, I would train them at UFC gym and I
• 20:32
  would teach them some stuff and they'd be like, I want to get a
• 20:34
  fight. And I was like, bro, you don't
• 20:36
  what do you want to get a fight for?
• 20:38
  Yeah, I can fight, dude. I'm knocked out, friends and
• 20:39
  guy, he has terrible technique and I was sitting there like,
• 20:42
  no, you're not 'cause anybody can get knocked out.
• 20:44
  And especially there's no unless you're all in with it, you
• 20:48
  shouldn't do it because it can change your life.
• 20:51
  One wrong punch or one injury could change everything.
• 20:55
  And it's like you have to be all in in the sport because there is
• 20:57
  no money in it at the beginning. There is nothing else in it but
• 21:00
  the love you have for the sport. Yeah.
• 21:03
  So on the topic of these influencers trying to get clout
• 21:05
  and whatnot, what do you think of that?
• 21:07
  This whole influx of these guys like Jake Paul and Logan Paul
• 21:10
  coming out of the fight game or guys like Dylan Danis that are
• 21:13
  going around just starting crap with the world?
• 21:16
  Like what do you as a professional fighter and one of
• 21:18
  the best in the world and somebody that's disciplined and,
• 21:21
  you know, been training his whole life?
• 21:23
  You know, what do you think of these guys just coming out of
• 21:25
  nowhere and stepping into the fight game and getting all this
• 21:28
  attention? I mean there's certain ones,
• 21:30
  right? Like for Jake Paul, I respect
• 21:33
  him more because now he's starting to fight real boxers
• 21:35
  and he's like, yo, you guys would said I was beating up MA
• 21:38
  fighters and blah, blah, blah. But right now I'm fighting real
• 21:41
  boxers and now it's not getting any attention.
• 21:43
  Like nobody really he's fighting this weekend and not a lot of
• 21:45
  people know he's fighting this weekend because they want that,
• 21:48
  you know, they want that trash talk.
• 21:50
  They want that build up of oh, he's fighting this MMA fighter
• 21:52
  and then they act like it when he wins.
• 21:54
  It's like, oh, you beat that MMA fighter, he sucks.
• 21:57
  I mean, you're never going to please everybody, but guys like
• 21:59
  Dylan Danis, they're just like, that's what's wrong with
• 22:03
  society, right? That's what's wrong with the
• 22:05
  world. Like martial artist that just
• 22:06
  like want a troll, Like he'll sit there and comment the
• 22:09
  dumbest stuff to try to get an attention out of you.
• 22:11
  He'll pick at anybody, tweet at anybody to wait for a reply.
• 22:15
  And that just like, and then when he fights you, he's he's
• 22:18
  just running. He's not doing anything.
• 22:19
  Like those are the guys that are embarrassing themselves.
• 22:21
  Honestly, Jake Paul and Logan Paul, like they stepped up and
• 22:24
  Logan actually watches wrestling a little bits.
• 22:26
  It's fun to watch. He's athletic, Jake.
• 22:28
  You can tell they're working hard.
• 22:29
  Yeah, they're like don't ask is just a joke.
• 22:32
  But like those two, I respect them too.
• 22:34
  Do you think, now that we talked about wrestling, you know, your
• 22:37
  dear friend CM Punk, I've seen you, you know, ringside, Do you
• 22:40
  think you're going to throw your hat in there ever?
• 22:42
  You know you going to go on. There, I mean, I I would do it.
• 22:45
  I used to love wrestling all the time.
• 22:46
  I would watch Stone Cold, The Rock, all of them guys, CM Punk
• 22:50
  literally. And then like even when I just,
• 22:51
  I could just text him and he'd be like, I'm talking texting CM
• 22:54
  Punk, but you don't realize it, but he's like the most downward
• 22:56
  dude ever. He's so cool.
• 22:59
  But yeah, being at those events is funner.
• 23:01
  It's like the complete opposite of UFC because those people are
• 23:05
  so into it. No matter what you're doing.
• 23:07
  Like you get literally throw like a punch or run into the
• 23:10
  ropes and the fans are going crazy no matter what because
• 23:12
  they're real true fans. Like UFC fans.
• 23:15
  It's just like you said, they're most 90% of them are just like
• 23:18
  drunks that don't care about anybody else unless they're
• 23:22
  sitting there bleeding and standing in front of each other
• 23:24
  just banging it out right. And then like tell someone else
• 23:27
  says all the time, if you just want to see them bang, just
• 23:28
  watch kickboxing. But kickboxing is not a popular
• 23:30
  sport because you do want to see that MMA part of it, the aspects
• 23:34
  of it, the grappling of it, the the strategy of it all.
• 23:37
  And just a lot of these people are just like they said, they're
• 23:41
  waiting for that just viral moment, that viral knockout,
• 23:44
  that viral power slap or something Nowadays that could
• 23:47
  just go on TikTok. Yeah, when you were roommates
• 23:51
  with CM Punk at the Rufus Academy.
• 23:53
  Is that correct? We were our roommates, but we
• 23:55
  both trained there together. We teammates there, yeah.
• 23:56
  OK, your teammates there, what was what was he like as a
• 23:59
  person? Like is for people that are, you
• 24:01
  know, fans of the wrestling thing and MMA as well.
• 24:04
  Like how, how was he, you know what I mean?
• 24:07
  What was his demeanor like? Super chill.
• 24:09
  He was like the most donor dude. He's just like a normal guy and
• 24:11
  he was just literally even when he was first coming, he was just
• 24:15
  trying to learn right? And he'll come to the the BJJ
• 24:18
  class, go with everybody else. And you know, obviously when he
• 24:21
  first got there, people started, hey, let me take a picture.
• 24:23
  Let me take a picture and still chill.
• 24:25
  But then he got to the point where he's just another one of
• 24:27
  the guys and now he's just like one of the guys.
• 24:30
  So it's and people will say whatever they want to say, but
• 24:32
  like he didn't have to attempt MMA.
• 24:35
  He didn't have to attempt it. He put it all on the line.
• 24:37
  He didn't take any amateur fights.
• 24:39
  He went directly to the biggest stage and fought in the UFC.
• 24:42
  And the guy, first guy he fought, Mickey Gall was really
• 24:45
  good and he showed he's really good.
• 24:47
  He's still in the UFC. So to go out there and fight
• 24:50
  that guy and put it all on the line early, she's like you got
• 24:53
  to respect it. And if you don't respect that he
• 24:54
  went for something that it's like a dream, you chase.
• 24:57
  And like I said, a lot of these people don't want to chase that
• 24:59
  dream because they're afraid of what could happen or what could
• 25:02
  go wrong. And he didn't, he wasn't afraid
• 25:05
  of it. It went wrong.
• 25:06
  But hey, he took it out of the chin and he's like, oh, let me
• 25:08
  try it again, let me do it again.
• 25:09
  And now you even still trains, still does jiu jitsu, and that's
• 25:13
  what you got to love about it. My for me, it's like, I love
• 25:17
  people that say they're going to do something and they actually
• 25:19
  go ahead and do it. You know, we were sitting there
• 25:22
  and, you know, when you're getting close to the fight, you
• 25:23
  want to see where you're at with sparring and things like that.
• 25:26
  He would have sparring matches in the room and little things.
• 25:30
  And it's like, he could be like, yo, I want to wait a little bit
• 25:31
  longer. I want to do this a little bit
• 25:32
  longer or I need more time. But it was like, Nope, I signed
• 25:35
  my concert for this date. We're doing it this date,
• 25:37
  especially at this time. And a lot of people don't
• 25:39
  understand how hard it is to have a campaign fighting because
• 25:42
  the only way to train for a fight is to actually fight.
• 25:45
  So you go into fights with injuries, little things,
• 25:48
  bruises, and nobody knows about them.
• 25:51
  And you can't pull them out earlier because it's like now
• 25:55
  your opponent knows about it. So you hold it in.
• 25:56
  And then if you say it after the fight, it's an excuse.
• 25:59
  So everybody camp, they're going into a fight with injuries.
• 26:01
  So like CM Punk's going into this fight with injuries.
• 26:03
  It's your debut. It's literally on pay-per-view,
• 26:07
  all the hypes around you. And then you're like, you still
• 26:09
  have to have that moment of Dang, what's going to happen if
• 26:13
  I get punched? Am I just going to get knocked
• 26:14
  out first if I get into this? Like my my first amateur fight
• 26:17
  was the worst fight I ever had because you just had that
• 26:20
  nothing but adrenaline. And so adrenaline dump you swing
• 26:22
  into that. It just like your arms are super
• 26:24
  heavy and you're just like, what the what did I do get myself
• 26:26
  into? It's crazy.
• 26:27
  So I could imagine him having to do that on the biggest stage.
• 26:31
  You know the underlying theme with you is your work ethic.
• 26:33
  You know, your endurance, your mental fortitude and how you,
• 26:38
  how you carry yourself in the UFC.
• 26:41
  There's another gentleman that's out there that's a superstar by
• 26:44
  the name of Khabib. And you, you had, you guys had
• 26:46
  linked up. I, I would imagine you guys got
• 26:48
  along very well. How did that occur between you
• 26:50
  guys? Like, how did you end up going
• 26:52
  over there training with them? And how did you guys, you know,
• 26:55
  get along? I would imagine pretty well.
• 26:58
  I I thought I got a couple cards with Habib.
• 27:00
  I was on a couple of his cards beforehand and I was just like,
• 27:03
  obviously I knew who he was. And then we didn't have the same
• 27:07
  manager at the time, but now we do Ali Abdelaziz.
• 27:10
  So, you know, I would always see him and, you know, both being
• 27:14
  Muslim, it's always you, you, you have to sell them to
• 27:16
  somebody. You have to greet, greet another
• 27:18
  Muslim. So like we'd always say what's
• 27:20
  up and he'd always like check on me.
• 27:22
  And when I'd be on the scale, like, ah, brother, you can go
• 27:24
  155. When I first met, I was like,
• 27:25
  bro, what? Then it'd be like fight week and
• 27:28
  I'd be like, yeah, I'd be like 180 fight.
• 27:31
  It'll be like the Monday, Tuesday at fight week.
• 27:33
  And like, ah, brother, you can go 55.
• 27:35
  And I'm like, bro, how much weight do you guys cut to make
• 27:37
  it the 55 right now? But he was always nice.
• 27:40
  And then, you know, when I became guy with his manager, I
• 27:43
  would like see them at certain events and he'll go, Hey, we're
• 27:46
  going to train. So then I'll train with them in
• 27:48
  a certain room because we're one when one of them fight, they all
• 27:51
  fight. They're all at the fight.
• 27:52
  So they're all getting training in and random rooms, workout
• 27:55
  rooms and stuff. So and it's a small knit group.
• 27:57
  So they don't just let anybody into those groups to work out
• 28:01
  and train because a lot of people just they want to have
• 28:03
  that picture. They want to have that moment or
• 28:05
  they want to just say that, hey, I just trained with Habib's
• 28:08
  team. But for myself, it was like it
• 28:10
  was an honor because like being a Muslim, it's first of all
• 28:13
  looking up to him. And in that manner, the way he
• 28:15
  holds himself and the way he brought Islam into the the UFC
• 28:19
  and more mainstream, that was huge for me.
• 28:21
  So then being able to work out with him was crazy.
• 28:23
  And then to have five weeks with them guys and Dubai was nuts
• 28:28
  because, you know, Islam was on that card.
• 28:29
  He was having his title fight and then Habib recently retired.
• 28:33
  He was still cornering and coaching guys.
• 28:35
  So they were like, yeah, you come down to train with us.
• 28:37
  And I was like, all right. And put me in a hotel.
• 28:40
  Like the the food they had was crazy.
• 28:43
  Like, have you put a lot of money into that camp?
• 28:45
  And just for him to allow me in, there was, you know, like a once
• 28:49
  in a lifetime opportunity. So working out with those guys
• 28:52
  was crazy because every single one of those guys is a beast.
• 28:54
  Like a lot of 90% of people won't know like half of their
• 28:58
  names, but all of them would like probably be ranked in the
• 29:00
  UFC if they're in the UFC right now.
• 29:03
  And I learned so much from them. And Habib would always like
• 29:07
  after every practice, it'll be like the hardest session and
• 29:09
  then just going to cage and he'll work like one-on-one with
• 29:11
  me wrestling or something. And it's like feeling his
• 29:14
  strength and his movement and like humbles you a little bit
• 29:17
  because you're like, like, if I can't move under him, who am I
• 29:20
  going to? Who am I going to be?
• 29:21
  But then you realize just like the best guy to ever do it, in
• 29:24
  my opinion. And I think a lot of people once
• 29:27
  they do feel the strength and I feel the way he grabs you and
• 29:30
  hold you, it's like they understand it's different.
• 29:32
  And a lot of those, a lot of that time working with those
• 29:35
  guys is like leveled me up so much because I realized they are
• 29:38
  different. So they just made me get that
• 29:40
  much better. What is it about because most
• 29:42
  people in America, well, even around the world, they'll never
• 29:46
  really understand or know like what it's like to train with,
• 29:49
  you know, a a camp like Khabib's and with all like elite
• 29:52
  athletes, all killers. What do you think was like the
• 29:56
  definitive factor with their camp?
• 29:57
  Like why do you think they're at they are on a whole nother
• 30:00
  level? There's always been like a
• 30:01
  mystique around people in that camp and you experienced it.
• 30:04
  You know what I mean? What do you do?
• 30:06
  You feel like you, you, you, you have to level up or rise up,
• 30:10
  even though you're already one of the best in the world.
• 30:12
  But when you're around those guys, you feel like you, you
• 30:13
  have to go. You have to reach higher that.
• 30:16
  Do they inspire you to? Is there something different
• 30:18
  that makes them? Yeah, I mean that.
• 30:20
  I just think that in general is, you know, their whole team, the
• 30:24
  discipline they have is crazy and the mentality they have is
• 30:28
  crazy. That's just, you know,
• 30:31
  straightforward with everything. It's like, yo, hey, you suck
• 30:34
  here. You got to get better here.
• 30:35
  So many nowadays you have so many teams or coaches that are
• 30:38
  like, baby, they're fighters or the stars of the team.
• 30:40
  And I was like, you know, I don't want to embarrass him.
• 30:42
  I don't want to go with this guy.
• 30:43
  Let's let's just go with this other guy so he could keep
• 30:47
  getting, you know, getting that confidence up of beating this
• 30:49
  guy in the room and that Jim over there.
• 30:52
  Everybody there is a killer. So there's not going to be that
• 30:54
  one round where this is my easy round.
• 30:56
  This is my round off. There is no rounds off in their
• 30:59
  room. And they don't like try to hurt
• 31:02
  you. They're not trying to embarrass
• 31:03
  you. They're trying to help you get
• 31:04
  better. So like I've gotten tapped out
• 31:06
  by Islam multiple times and they'd be like, hey, stop
• 31:09
  falling for that. Do this instead.
• 31:11
  So learning those little tips are from him, who's amazing
• 31:13
  grappler work with Habib, who the round will be over.
• 31:16
  It'll be like 5 minute round. I was like, the round's over
• 31:18
  with, but I'm still underneath them and they'll just be like
• 31:20
  keep going until you get up. So they make you work until
• 31:24
  you're all the way up. There's not that 5-3 minutes
• 31:28
  left, two minutes left, one minute left.
• 31:29
  Yes, thank God time over. No, it's not.
• 31:31
  It's like you didn't get up. You were on the whole time.
• 31:34
  So we're still you have to work until you get up.
• 31:36
  So we will have rounds where it's like 20 minutes round
• 31:38
  underneath them trying to figure out a way to get up.
• 31:40
  So mentally it makes me that much tougher because it tells me
• 31:43
  like we can't give up. We can't embarrass ourselves in
• 31:45
  front of him or underneath them. And you know, I'm looking at it
• 31:51
  like, Dang, he probably thinks I suck.
• 31:52
  But I, Javier Mendez and those guys tell me, bro, it's if you
• 31:57
  make him work a little bit harder tomorrow, that means
• 31:59
  you're getting better. If he works one at 1% harder,
• 32:02
  that means you got 1%, you probably got like 50% better
• 32:06
  because he does that to everybody and you can't have the
• 32:09
  mentality that man, I suck because he did this because he
• 32:13
  does that to everybody. So it's just I guess got to keep
• 32:15
  the mentality of I want to keep getting better so I want to go
• 32:17
  with the better guy. All right, tomorrow, let's do it
• 32:18
  again. High heel.
• 32:19
  I made him work a little bit. I got up in 9 minutes this time
• 32:23
  and it just made me know that I was in the right spot because
• 32:26
  I've had those moments in my head where it's like, you know,
• 32:31
  I'm going to go back home. I don't I don't think I'm going
• 32:33
  to I'm going to get hurt or something here.
• 32:36
  I'm going to say my mentality is going to my confidence is going
• 32:38
  to be low. And I was fighting undefeated
• 32:39
  Sean Brady. And it's like I can't go into
• 32:41
  this fight knowing that I just got beat up for five weeks by
• 32:44
  these guys. But we just toughed it out.
• 32:46
  We manned up and I think mentally just leveled me up a
• 32:49
  lot and. He was there for your corner,
• 32:52
  Yeah. So how cool is that?
• 32:53
  You meet him, you know, obviously you're a fan, you're
• 32:56
  in the UFC, he's in the UFC. And then Fast forward, you know,
• 33:00
  you get the best part is that we you, you finished the stand up
• 33:04
  guy, you know what I'm saying? And you got him in your corner.
• 33:07
  So him, him being there. And then obviously you have a
• 33:12
  strong mental, you know, you're, you're just tough as nails when
• 33:15
  it comes to mental pushing your mental, right?
• 33:18
  Did that help you having him in the corner?
• 33:20
  Just knowing that that he's there, like just that extra
• 33:22
  little push. Yeah, honestly, it was.
• 33:24
  It was like one of those things I said with my debut where is
• 33:27
  like we lit. We had to live in a moment for
• 33:28
  that one because it was it was like historical.
• 33:31
  It was, I think it was like one of his last fights that he
• 33:35
  cornered that card where I think Islam was probably the last
• 33:38
  fight that he ever cornered. So to have him be in your corner
• 33:41
  and like I said, he's one of those guys where like you look
• 33:46
  up to and for him to 1st agree to corner you because he didn't
• 33:49
  just corner anybody to say yes. And then to be in the backroom
• 33:53
  with them and see their mentality in the backroom.
• 33:54
  It was like there was no nerves. He's just chilling like hey
• 33:56
  brother, how you doing, how you feeling?
• 33:58
  And it's like smiling. And it's like doesn't feel like
• 34:00
  you're about to fight. And it just made me realize the
• 34:05
  same thing because I'm like, a lot of the time I'm super calm
• 34:09
  in the backroom before the fights and I like to just chill.
• 34:12
  And there was, I had moments in my fight career where I was
• 34:15
  like, man, I got to listen to hypo music or I got to punch the
• 34:18
  wall or kick the wall or something.
• 34:19
  Because I shouldn't be this calm.
• 34:20
  I should be angry or something. But it's seeing how they are.
• 34:23
  It's like, bro, they're the exact same way.
• 34:25
  Everybody has their, the ways that they, you know, cope with
• 34:29
  stress or cope with anxiety or something like that.
• 34:31
  And for me, it was just like, I'm not, I'm not more nervous
• 34:35
  about like, Dang, I'm about to get in a fist fight.
• 34:37
  It's more nervous about like I worked super hard for this.
• 34:41
  I had the people that around me that worked super hard for this.
• 34:43
  And I don't want to disappoint anybody or I don't want to go
• 34:46
  out there and, you know, throw a dud out there or go out there
• 34:48
  and embarrass myself or my family.
• 34:52
  So it was never like, Dang, I don't want to get punched in the
• 34:55
  face right now or I don't want to do this.
• 34:56
  It was always that. So like I was a little more
• 34:58
  chill about anything. I never really got like scared
• 35:00
  to to get in a fist fighter or cage.
• 35:03
  And I mean mentality back there is like he says, what's God's
• 35:09
  plan? God, God first no matter what.
• 35:11
  And if you want you to win, you're going to win.
• 35:13
  If you want you to lose, you're going to lose.
• 35:14
  But regardless, we have to accept it and we have to just
• 35:18
  trust His plan is the best plan no matter what.
• 35:21
  Him, what is him and Islam like outside of the training camp?
• 35:25
  Like so you guys go out to eat or something like that?
• 35:27
  Like how how is he as a person? Like humanize him a little bit
• 35:31
  behind the what's he really like behind the mystique of Khabib?
• 35:34
  Like what's he like as a person? What do you guys talk about, you
• 35:36
  know? What I mean, honestly, he's like
• 35:38
  I said, he's normal. It's just like funny.
• 35:40
  It's like one of the guys, him and Islam are both like
• 35:43
  hilarious. Like they're both like they'll
• 35:44
  make in front of each other, they'll make in front of guys
• 35:47
  and they're pranking each other all the time.
• 35:48
  Like videos of this phone. Islam will like be hiking with
• 35:52
  his boy. And I had like a snake and I put
• 35:53
  in his boy's shirt when his boy's not looking.
• 35:55
  And I like, bro post this, right?
• 35:57
  Because like you said, there is that mystique of like, oh, man,
• 36:00
  it's probably super serious and these guys are like this, but
• 36:02
  I'm like, bro, they're hilarious.
• 36:03
  There's like, it's, it's funny to see because you see the other
• 36:07
  side of them. And I just think for them, it's
• 36:10
  more so like everybody's looking for that thing that's wrong,
• 36:13
  right? Everybody wants to point out
• 36:14
  your flaws. Everybody wants to point out all
• 36:17
  look, hey, see, he's not perfect, he's not this, he's not
• 36:19
  that. And they understand that, right,
• 36:21
  Because even with they'll have Will Harris anatomy of a
• 36:26
  fighter, he's like, bro, I have to like sometimes I have to redo
• 36:29
  videos because there'll be something in the background guys
• 36:31
  are talking about and people are just like, hey, this guy said
• 36:34
  this or this guy said that and he's like, who's sitting there,
• 36:37
  you know, micromanaging every little thing that these guys are
• 36:39
  saying or talking about because people are just want to find
• 36:42
  what's wrong with you, right? People just can't appreciate,
• 36:45
  you know, greatness or humbleness or this they want to
• 36:49
  find your flaws. They want to say no, this guy
• 36:52
  did this wrong. This guy is wrong.
• 36:53
  And honestly, there was like one of the most genuine people that
• 36:56
  you could ever meet because when I even after to give a bird's
• 36:58
  fight, he asked me to come down and I trained with the they're
• 37:01
  in California and to train with their cousin ABBA Becker.
• 37:04
  He was he's in the UFC170 pounder welterweight too.
• 37:07
  And we had like a good camp and Abu Dhabi together.
• 37:10
  And he's like, could you come down to help me?
• 37:11
  And I was like, I just finished fighting Gilbert.
• 37:13
  I wanted to take a couple weeks off.
• 37:14
  But it's like, you know, they call you.
• 37:16
  It's like you want to obviously you got you owe them.
• 37:19
  And so going down there, Habib like got me my own like hotel
• 37:23
  room. And he's like, I dropped me off
• 37:27
  and he's like, just wait right here.
• 37:28
  And then like they went and got me groceries like Omar, I'll be
• 37:31
  back at all that they like got me a full free again kitchen
• 37:34
  full of groceries and stuff like that.
• 37:35
  I'm like, bro, you guys didn't have to like I'm, I'm good.
• 37:37
  And he's like, no, brother, we want to make sure you're, you're
• 37:39
  right. You're, you're perfect.
• 37:40
  Anything you need, we got you. And even at the end of the
• 37:42
  thing, he bought me like $600.00 pair of shoes from like, Hermes.
• 37:46
  I was like, bro, I don't even wear like name brand stuff like
• 37:48
  that. We were just went like shopping
• 37:50
  in California. And he just like, I want to get
• 37:53
  you a gift. And I was like, bro, I don't
• 37:54
  want you to give me this gift. I don't need to.
• 37:55
  I don't wear them, but he got me them anyway.
• 37:57
  And then we were like walking outside and he's like, this is
• 38:00
  my store. And it was like North Face.
• 38:01
  And he like bought himself like a couple T-shirts from like
• 38:03
  North Face. But yeah, the way he, like, he
• 38:07
  does so much for so many people and he like doesn't ask for
• 38:10
  anything in return. He just asked for your hard
• 38:12
  work, right? He just asked for you to to be
• 38:14
  there at every practice and give it a your all.
• 38:16
  And it's never like, I did this for you.
• 38:19
  Like you owe me this or that or this.
• 38:21
  It was even with that when he called me to ask me if I come
• 38:24
  down, I was like, oh, you know, my ankles kind of hurt.
• 38:25
  But he's like, oh, no, brother, if you're hurt, you don't have
• 38:27
  to come. It was like, not like, yo, I got
• 38:30
  you a room in Abu Dhabi. You owe me this year.
• 38:31
  Come and help me out. I was like, Nah, it's never like
• 38:34
  that with him. And that's what I love about it,
• 38:35
  because it's like he's a true person.
• 38:37
  While you were in Abu Dhabi, another another individual with
• 38:41
  a mystique about him you had an encounter with.
• 38:45
  We were just curious what your thoughts were and if you had any
• 38:49
  interaction with a gentleman by the name of Steven Seagal.
• 38:53
  Did you talk to him at all or I mean, he's ingrained, he, he's
• 38:56
  tried to insert himself in the in the MMA world over the years,
• 39:00
  right? He he taught Leo to Machida the
• 39:03
  front kick and stuff like that. Did you talk to him at all or
• 39:05
  did you see him? Kevin talked about Kevin
• 39:07
  Devachic, who we interviewed, brought him.
• 39:09
  We talked about him. Just curious your opinion on
• 39:11
  that. Like for me, it was like, I just
• 39:13
  fought. And I was like, man, is that
• 39:14
  Steven Seagal? But he was just like, he was
• 39:17
  like dressed up and I was sitting there like, man, that
• 39:20
  was a mystique about him. I was like, I, I don't know if I
• 39:22
  should talk to him. Like he doesn't seem like he's a
• 39:24
  normal person. Like he seems like the type that
• 39:26
  I'd be like, who are you talking to me?
• 39:27
  Like what, What are you? And it was just like, yeah, he
• 39:31
  was more weird than anything. I was like, man, is that Steven
• 39:32
  Seagal right now, 'cause he was sitting there with his like,
• 39:34
  robot. And I was sitting, I was like,
• 39:36
  what the heck is going on right now?
• 39:38
  I like I just had to get out the room but.
• 39:40
  What was he wearing like? What was he wearing like like?
• 39:43
  Describe. Him like like.
• 39:44
  It's like a ninja out, really. It's the jet black.
• 39:50
  Yeah, yeah. Like back here is that guy was
• 39:52
  like faced with luck. But, yeah, he was like
• 39:54
  whispering. And, you know, like, Lou is the
• 39:57
  type that is always, like, getting me to, like, take
• 39:59
  pictures with people 'cause like, I've never, I'm always
• 40:01
  like, afraid to like, ask for pictures for anybody.
• 40:03
  But like, lose the. He doesn't care.
• 40:05
  He has, like, no shame in his game.
• 40:07
  Hey, hey, we need a picture. And like, you know, he would
• 40:09
  have asked Steven Cigar for the pictures.
• 40:10
  We took a picture with them. Yeah.
• 40:12
  But yeah, if, like, Lou wasn't in there, like, I would have
• 40:14
  just said a word. I would have just, like, stood
• 40:16
  there, stared from the side. And Steven Cigar's here.
• 40:19
  He just like popped up right? Yeah, he just literally, he just
• 40:22
  popped up and I was, I was like, man, he's gonna try to like give
• 40:24
  Islam advice before his. Fight like to get out of here
• 40:27
  with this, yeah. I was like, no.
• 40:30
  He was going to do his own thing to get you out here, yeah.
• 40:32
  I was like, come on, get out. Here, now, there's another guy
• 40:34
  who probably could, I think, beat Steven Segal, in my
• 40:37
  personal opinion. And you met him after one of
• 40:40
  your fights. His name is a beat.
• 40:41
  He's a beast. How's Bula Right?
• 40:46
  That was awesome because he's so cool.
• 40:49
  He's so chilly. He does like doesn't speak a
• 40:50
  look at English, but like when he hits you, it's so funny.
• 40:54
  You're like, oh man, I just got punched by him, right?
• 40:57
  It's an epic moment, but it's crazy, just like how big of a
• 41:01
  star he is. And you like, you see little
• 41:06
  things like for myself, it's in Abu Dhabi.
• 41:08
  I'm like, you know, you go to the mall or something.
• 41:10
  A lot of people want to ask your pictures, but I've even
• 41:13
  Hezbollah, they're a different level.
• 41:15
  They're like there's like stars and then there's like different
• 41:19
  atmosphere, superstar. And I think those two are like
• 41:21
  that type of person, like I'd be.
• 41:23
  But we were, we went to like the police station to like go visit
• 41:26
  them and like nobody said anything to us.
• 41:29
  We're all standing there. It's like me, Islam, Usman and
• 41:32
  Umar were all like standing there in line and like not one
• 41:34
  person said anything. Then Habib pulls up like 5
• 41:36
  minutes later and then every single one of them get up with
• 41:38
  flowers and they're like running up to him.
• 41:40
  And I was like bro you guys had it's not here this whole time.
• 41:43
  Then they're like then they say a word to none of us but then
• 41:46
  like they all like when he stepped up it was like crazy.
• 41:49
  So it's like rock star for him and head balls the same way.
• 41:54
  It was cool. And at first, like I said, lose
• 41:56
  the type that like I want to get a picture with him.
• 41:57
  And the first time we met him, we were like at the hotel, it
• 42:00
  was like midnight and I don't know where me and Lou were
• 42:02
  coming from. We're like jet lagged.
• 42:04
  And then we see him like Hezbollah at the I like, no way.
• 42:06
  That's Hezbollah. So like I'm asking for like a
• 42:09
  picture, but like, you know, I'm not trying to like grab him or
• 42:12
  anything like that. And you know, the, you know, the
• 42:14
  people that are with him like, oh, just pick him up.
• 42:15
  And that's like, I was like, bro, I don't want to pick him
• 42:18
  up. Like I don't know.
• 42:18
  I don't want to get mad at me or something.
• 42:21
  Yeah, they're like, they're that.
• 42:22
  I was like, bro, no, like I but like he was he was Lou tried to
• 42:27
  like he gave Lou that looked like who are you touching me
• 42:30
  right, like relax. But then later on, later on he
• 42:33
  got like to know what's more in new year fighter group and like
• 42:36
  he was just like elbowing Lou, like throwing spinning out.
• 42:39
  Was that a head kicking? And it was like funny, like
• 42:41
  choke Lou out. So it's like Lou has that type
• 42:44
  of personality where he'll like grow on you and he'll be like,
• 42:47
  I, I like this guy. Cool.
• 42:48
  What? Do you guys do when you hang out
• 42:50
  with with with Hezbollah, like, what do you guys like?
• 42:53
  What do you do like? Where do you go?
• 42:54
  Like what do you do together? Like?
• 42:56
  A lot of the time it's like they're they're usually doing
• 42:58
  big things together because there's like 30 people in their
• 43:01
  entourage. So like we'll be like a he'll
• 43:03
  people take us all out to dinner.
• 43:05
  We'll go out to dinner, all of us together.
• 43:06
  Or they play soccer, bro. Like they're in love with
• 43:09
  soccer. So they'll play like
• 43:12
  competitively, they're at the first time they play, they're
• 43:13
  like, yo, you guys like soccer? And then I was like, I don't
• 43:16
  know. But like I know how to kick in
• 43:17
  and run and they're all right, cool play.
• 43:19
  And you know, I'm not Habib's team and lose on the other team.
• 43:22
  And I was like, I think we were down by like 3 points, three
• 43:26
  goals. And like Habib's like yelling at
• 43:28
  me. Like what are you doing?
• 43:30
  Like you literally yelling at me.
• 43:31
  I I think I like missed the ball or like my part like the guy I
• 43:34
  was guarding like got past me and he's like so mad at me.
• 43:37
  And I was like, bro, I'm sorry you told me you.
• 43:38
  Didn't play soccer? Yeah, I was like, he's like,
• 43:41
  what are you doing? And then like the second-half,
• 43:44
  he went out there and he like, killed.
• 43:45
  He scored like five goals and they had like real refs.
• 43:50
  So then, yeah, he scored like five goals.
• 43:52
  And like he usually going against like Umar and Usman who
• 43:54
  are like his cousins. And like they got like so mad.
• 43:57
  Like you're a cheater. You like, you pay, you pay for
• 43:59
  these guys off. And like, I mean, he's like
• 44:01
  talking trash. Like, no, that's what happens.
• 44:03
  We don't lose. That's what happens without the
• 44:05
  beats on this. And it was like, so funny to
• 44:07
  see. But they like played every week
• 44:09
  we were there. And I was like, after that first
• 44:10
  week, I was like, I'm not playing anymore.
• 44:11
  Me and Lou were just like, we were like jogging around the
• 44:13
  track and they never even invited us to play anymore.
• 44:16
  They're like, they're like these guys suck.
• 44:18
  So they were getting like real people from like locals and they
• 44:22
  were getting up to like play with them and they're getting
• 44:24
  like people that are actually good at soccer.
• 44:26
  So it's like real competitive game.
• 44:28
  But I was like after that first game, they're like, yeah, these
• 44:30
  guys aren't going to play with us anymore.
• 44:33
  They like love it. They like even like the FIFA
• 44:35
  game. They're like another level.
• 44:36
  They're like so competitive with everything they doing.
• 44:39
  I mean, like beats them all and everything.
• 44:40
  He's he's like very competitive and chest freaking checkers.
• 44:44
  Doesn't matter. Said I wouldn't no matter what.
• 44:45
  They had like a big ball table at the gym.
• 44:47
  So whenever Habib, obviously he travels a lot.
• 44:51
  So like he'll be like gone one one day at the practice and the
• 44:55
  guys are just like playing ping pong inside the gym.
• 44:57
  I was like, Yo, are we practicing today?
• 44:59
  He's like, no, no, brother, we rest today.
• 45:00
  Khabib's not here. And it's like, I was like, wait,
• 45:03
  what? Like we don't do nothing.
• 45:04
  They're like, Nah, brother, rather you work hard, you work
• 45:06
  hard. So I'm like, all right, cool.
• 45:08
  And I'm looking at Lou like bro, what?
• 45:10
  What are we like? What are we supposed to do it?
• 45:12
  They're just like playing ping pong or chilling.
• 45:13
  So like I'll have like Lou hold pads or something for me, but
• 45:16
  it's so funny, like when Javier's not in the room and
• 45:18
  when he's in the room, like he makes you work so hard.
• 45:21
  It's it's just like he really like pushed you to the limit.
• 45:25
  Like there's points to where me and this summer, like doing push
• 45:27
  ups and Javier's, like all right now get off the squad jumping
• 45:29
  and stuff. Like this guy crazy man, this
• 45:31
  guy's crazy. Like.
• 45:34
  I never like worked so hard but if that was his mentality when
• 45:38
  he was fighting that you understand why he was the best.
• 45:40
  Now do you take that into consideration now when you are
• 45:44
  offered fights, you don't turn down anybody.
• 45:46
  You're always game unless it's some garbage thing they're
• 45:50
  trying to throw at you. You know, some rank guy, not a
• 45:52
  rank guy. Do you think a lot of fighters
• 45:54
  now are intimidated to fight you because you had that ingrained
• 45:58
  in you now? So you always had that no stop
• 46:00
  mentality. You train, you push and now
• 46:03
  you're at another level bro and another level.
• 46:05
  Do you think people when they get in the cage with you, they
• 46:07
  think twice now like this is going to be, this is going to be
• 46:10
  a dogfight, but now this is going to be if I don't get him
• 46:13
  out, we're going and he's just going to drag me to deep waters
• 46:16
  and sink me. Yeah, 100%.
• 46:18
  I think even for like Sean Brady, that when I was fighting
• 46:21
  at that time and it the world like they made a huge thing
• 46:23
  about Habib being in my corner and he was like, Habib can't
• 46:26
  fight for him. It's the what's that going to do
• 46:27
  for him? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 46:28
  Like he's talking trash. But I think now people
• 46:31
  understand it's like different when you're going with these
• 46:33
  guys because you know, you, whenever you're a fighter,
• 46:38
  you're looking for that one room that levels you up everywhere,
• 46:40
  right? Especially when you're in your
• 46:42
  point of your career where you are in the UFC or you are
• 46:44
  ranked, like you have to continue leveling up.
• 46:47
  Otherwise it's like adapt or die, right?
• 46:49
  You have to keep getting better because the the sport's so new.
• 46:53
  It's still growing every single day.
• 46:55
  There's always new things you can learn, always new things you
• 46:57
  can do. And a lot of these guys at these
• 46:59
  same gyms that they've always been at, like they get stuck in
• 47:02
  the mud or they're like satisfied with where they're at
• 47:05
  physically, mentally. And my mentality is always
• 47:08
  trying to find what's going to make me better.
• 47:09
  Always. There's always room for growth.
• 47:11
  And those guys, there's like endless, endless growth, growth
• 47:15
  with those guys because whether it's going super hard and
• 47:20
  wrestling or grappling, who they've been doing it their
• 47:21
  whole lives, the mentality growth is, you know, maximized.
• 47:26
  And I think that's literally one of the reasons why guys like
• 47:30
  Leon don't want to take this fight.
• 47:31
  They want to look for other guys to fight.
• 47:33
  They're I want to fight Gilbert Burns.
• 47:34
  Gilbert Burns makes more sense. Guy that I just beat and I could
• 47:38
  take a fight with Gilbert Burns on three weeks notice because it
• 47:41
  puts him in that mentality like, oh, I'm getting him off the
• 47:43
  couch. I'm getting him this.
• 47:45
  But it still doesn't matter because every camp I'm in, I'm
• 47:47
  leveling up every camp I've had I've I've gained so much even
• 47:51
  when it was I'm fighting a striker like Wonderboy or I'm
• 47:54
  fighting a grappler like Maya or I'm fighting Luke who knocked me
• 47:58
  out before. It's like every single one of
• 47:59
  those different growth. And then I get the Habib camp
• 48:01
  and it's 10 times more than that because I'm getting even more.
• 48:05
  And I think for the Gilbert Burns to take that fight, he's
• 48:08
  like, oh man, I got this guy. I'm going to catch him and it's
• 48:11
  going to make me skip the line. It's going to make me get to set
• 48:14
  a fight because he's taking his fight on three notices during
• 48:16
  Ramadan. And there's no way he was he's
• 48:19
  in fight shape. So.
• 48:21
  And I was asking for a 185. I was asking for a catch weight
• 48:24
  because I knew it would be a hard weight cut.
• 48:26
  So for his mentality, he's probably like all of it.
• 48:27
  Yeah, he's probably big right now.
• 48:28
  He's this, he's this, but I'm always locked in.
• 48:33
  But like when I signed a contract, because I'm locked in,
• 48:34
  it's different. And there's like a switch that
• 48:36
  flips and I, I know that I we turn up and I could turn it up
• 48:40
  so quickly, especially when I get a name or a contract, my
• 48:43
  mentality, everything changes. Like I don't even want to like
• 48:46
  I, I need, I need to work out like I, it's not like, oh man, I
• 48:50
  got to go to practice or I got to do this.
• 48:51
  I got it like I need to like I need to get better.
• 48:53
  I need to be like, yo, I need to do this, this and this and it
• 48:56
  just happens once I had that fight and I think a lot of these
• 48:59
  guys, they don't have that mentality.
• 49:00
  They're some of them are comfortable with where they're
• 49:03
  at. Some of them have enough money
• 49:04
  where they don't want to get up and jog or some of them had that
• 49:07
  they've they've had the championship mindset where
• 49:10
  they're like, yeah, I don't it's going to be so hard to get back
• 49:12
  there again. I don't want to have to go
• 49:13
  through that work again. But me, I never had it yet.
• 49:16
  I I'm starving my like my fridge is empty and I still need to get
• 49:21
  food in there 'cause I'm I'm hungry.
• 49:23
  And a lot of these guys lose that mentality once they get to
• 49:25
  the top. Speaking of being hungry and
• 49:28
  maintaining that mentality, I, I'm just, I have to bring this
• 49:30
  up just from an outside perspective, you know, people
• 49:34
  watching at home, You know, Chicago is a close knit
• 49:38
  community, You know what I mean? Ross, Ross introduced me a lot
• 49:41
  of his friends. We were friends in college, but
• 49:43
  I've met, you know, guys like Mike Cannon and Kevin Navacic
• 49:47
  and Warren Warren English. We already knew, but there's a
• 49:49
  very tight knit community, you know what I mean, in Chicago And
• 49:54
  you you fought at a smaller gym, Valley Flow.
• 49:57
  How do you like people don't under including myself, who, who
• 50:01
  who isn't from Chicago? People don't understand that
• 50:03
  tight knit bond with people in Chicago.
• 50:05
  You know what I mean? How is that had an effect on you
• 50:08
  as a as a fighter? And when you all of a sudden get
• 50:11
  called up for the bit, the big leagues, you know what I mean?
• 50:13
  And now you're in the UFC. Now you're one of the best in
• 50:15
  the world, You know what I mean? Do you ever think like, wow,
• 50:17
  like I've come, you know, from from Chicago now I am like one
• 50:22
  of the best in the world and you still are around the same
• 50:24
  people. You know what I mean?
• 50:25
  You still go hit up Tank of Palooza Ross's party over here,
• 50:27
  go to Warren's BBQ. You know what I'm saying?
• 50:30
  I think that's important for people to know at home, you know
• 50:32
  what I mean? Yeah, I think it was always for
• 50:33
  me is like keeping a small circle no matter what.
• 50:37
  And I still train with the same guys that I trained with 15
• 50:40
  years ago. And when I first my first pro
• 50:42
  fight, Kevin Nevada got me my first pro fight because I was
• 50:45
  sitting there and I was, I couldn't find a, a fight.
• 50:48
  And I was like amateur at the time.
• 50:52
  And I was like, man, I need to get a fight.
• 50:53
  But like couple fights fell through and I was like, bro, I
• 50:55
  was like, if I can't get a pro fight, there's no point.
• 50:57
  And then Kevin's like, Yo, I get your fight here, come and train
• 50:59
  with us. So I started training with him
• 51:00
  and Mike and you know, honestly we were just like fighters in a
• 51:05
  room that would just go and train.
• 51:07
  There was like no method to anything we were doing.
• 51:09
  All right, today's sparring day, tomorrow's wrestling day and
• 51:11
  we're just going to keep going back and forth doing the same
• 51:12
  exact thing. There was like not a real coach
• 51:14
  or anything. And I think that honestly that
• 51:16
  toughened me up because me and Kevin had those days where we'll
• 51:19
  spar. Hey, let's do a 10 minute boxing
• 51:21
  match. And it's like stupid when you
• 51:23
  think about it now because we're like literally going non-stop
• 51:27
  boxing each other. Like I got a headache today, but
• 51:30
  it like toughens you up. And as I tell a lot of people
• 51:32
  now, because they're like, bro, do you still spar hard?
• 51:34
  I was like, I don't really spar hard anymore because you don't
• 51:36
  need to take those punches. But I think a lot of time for
• 51:39
  younger fighters, you do got to have some of those hard sparring
• 51:42
  rounds just to know if how you're going to react, right?
• 51:45
  You got to know how it is when you do get punched in the in the
• 51:48
  face or when you are getting beat up really bad.
• 51:50
  You got to have that tough skin. You got to have that tough
• 51:52
  mentality. All right, I'm going to bring it
• 51:53
  right back at you. And I got that for those guys.
• 51:57
  So even with for myself, I like I would, I love to go different
• 52:00
  gyms and train at different gyms.
• 52:01
  But at the end of the day, like my core are my guys that been
• 52:04
  with me since the beginning. And kind of like with Habib's
• 52:07
  crew, who they've been, they've trained together since they were
• 52:09
  kids. It's like me when I got into
• 52:10
  MMA, these are the guys that I trained with.
• 52:12
  So for me to be where I'm at now, where I'm knocking on the
• 52:15
  door fighting for the bell and you know, the guys that I'm
• 52:18
  with, like, bro, Dang, look where we're at.
• 52:20
  Like look back ten years ago when we were in the training
• 52:23
  room at Mike's gym. And it's like, mentally, I don't
• 52:27
  think I would be here. Like right now.
• 52:29
  I would, yeah, I thought I would be in the UFC, but like, I
• 52:31
  didn't think, all right, Dang, we're going to get the gold
• 52:33
  right now. We're going to get there because
• 52:34
  there's there's always that the sport is always like full of
• 52:38
  what ifs, Like what if I took this fight or what if I didn't
• 52:41
  take this fight? Or what if this happens tomorrow
• 52:44
  when I'm fighting or, you know, what if this fight went the
• 52:48
  wrong way? Like everything changes like in
• 52:50
  the blink of an eye. And like, it's so hard to get to
• 52:54
  where we are. It's so hard to get here and
• 52:56
  it's so hard to meet real people that aren't with you because all
• 53:00
  Dang, look at he's a superstar now.
• 53:02
  I want to get money off of I want to get him to do this for
• 53:04
  me. It's like these people are just
• 53:05
  genuinely, they want to see you do well.
• 53:07
  They want to see you no matter what.
• 53:09
  Even if I lose, I've had those people where who I thought were
• 53:13
  true friends that are like, hey, you see, bully lost yesterday,
• 53:16
  like shouting it out to the world.
• 53:17
  But when I win, it's like, maybe I'll give him a double heart for
• 53:21
  his for his win. But like they don't want to
• 53:23
  celebrate your victories, but they're yelling out your losses.
• 53:26
  Like the people that are with me are the ones that win or lose.
• 53:29
  They're like they wanted to care about myself.
• 53:32
  They care about my how I feel, how I'm how I'm doing, how my
• 53:35
  family is. It was never about, Oh, man, yo,
• 53:39
  you got this. So I need a piece of this for
• 53:42
  that. Like Mike is a firefighter.
• 53:43
  He doesn't have to come and help me train, but he wants to do it
• 53:46
  because he knows what the goal is.
• 53:47
  Like we all had the same goal. And if you have a guys around
• 53:50
  you that all had the same goal and the same for you, for you to
• 53:53
  win, that's that's hard to find. I've had those gems where it was
• 53:56
  more so about yo this, It's about how much you're going to
• 53:59
  pay me. What percentage am I going to
• 54:01
  get out of you for this? You're not fighting as much.
• 54:03
  So you can't come to this practice because you know,
• 54:07
  you're not bringing money to the team.
• 54:09
  The the people we have are literally just doing it for the
• 54:12
  love of each other. And that's like, that's one of
• 54:15
  the biggest blessings I've found with with these with this crew.
• 54:19
  Ross, do you mind putting your hands together real quick?
• 54:21
  I just got to cap something off with with what he's saying.
• 54:25
  Make the 1st. Literally, yeah.
• 54:27
  Loyalty. I was like.
• 54:28
  What do? We do with this, Yeah, Honestly,
• 54:31
  that's hard. That's the hardest thing to find
• 54:32
  out, right? Because I've had those guys
• 54:34
  where you think they're cool and then they're like, they're
• 54:37
  waiting for you to fail so they can like laugh or point at it.
• 54:42
  And I think for myself, when people meet me, they understand
• 54:45
  what I'm about. So just like gravitate the same
• 54:48
  type of people around you. And like, I don't like to get
• 54:51
  where they say like no new friends.
• 54:53
  It's that I kind of had that kind of same mindset because
• 54:55
  it's, it's hard to trust people nowadays because everybody wants
• 54:59
  something from you. Everybody wants like, I'll get
• 55:01
  people all the time now or they'll act like you're, hey,
• 55:04
  how you doing brother? Oh, you're the man.
• 55:06
  You're the best. And then a week later, hey, any
• 55:10
  chance you could give me Khabib's number?
• 55:11
  Try to get like, whoa, bro, yeah, yeah, literally, bro.
• 55:15
  And it'd be like, oh, OK. So I like, I don't know, you got
• 55:21
  a message on my Instagram. But like, like that, that pisses
• 55:25
  me off more than anything when people want to, like, use you to
• 55:27
  get him and they, like, assume that you're like, oh, he's going
• 55:31
  to do anything for you. Like Aviv is like all over the
• 55:34
  world. The people that just don't
• 55:35
  understand how big he is, like the guy gets like hundreds of
• 55:40
  thousands of dollars for an appearance or probably for like
• 55:42
  an interview. And people just want to be like,
• 55:45
  they assumed like, man, hey, bro, I was like, I want to rent
• 55:48
  out this venue for you and I want to do this for you.
• 55:50
  I think we have a big event. And yeah, you know, you and that
• 55:54
  beat would be perfect. I was like, oh, Dang, you got
• 55:57
  you got that beat for all you got.
• 55:58
  No, no. I think you you probably can
• 56:00
  message him though, right? Yeah.
• 56:02
  Yeah. Like, come on.
• 56:05
  I don't. Know you might be able to get a
• 56:06
  hold of Khabib before you can hold a cannon.
• 56:10
  Get that guy to show up at 5:30. You'll get there. 615 literally
• 56:13
  like Jasmine right now he's fishing.
• 56:17
  You got to train a blouse like 40 minutes.
• 56:19
  We're like, oh, I forgot. You know, he'll never change
• 56:21
  though, dude. Dude, Side note, I know wrap it
• 56:24
  up soon. Do you don't like to show up at
• 56:26
  a different time just so you know he's going to be late.
• 56:28
  Like train starts at six. We all know like hope, like
• 56:31
  dude, money never answers the phone and like I'll text some
• 56:33
  like 3 hours later like what's up?
• 56:35
  Like dude, I'm past that. Like like yeah, we're training
• 56:38
  at six. We're actually training at like
• 56:40
  5:30 or so, whatever it is, just so he gets.
• 56:43
  There exactly like literally that's what we do like him and
• 56:45
  lure both the same exact way like I'll be like 15 like
• 56:48
  whenever they're early I'm like wait, what the heck you guys are
• 56:50
  you guys are on time. It's like a surprise right, But
• 56:53
  like yeah for for Mike, it's like 90% of the time I'm
• 56:55
  expecting a text before the practice saying that yo, could
• 56:59
  we pull it back? Could we cancel or do this?
• 57:01
  I got a snack again, like if I'm on the way to the gym and I see
• 57:03
  a text from I just won't even like look at it 'cause I know
• 57:05
  it'll be like, bro, yo, this happened.
• 57:08
  It's there's a snowstorm. I got to go sled and I was like
• 57:11
  all right bro, cool, whatever. Shout out to Mike Cannon bro.
• 57:18
  Yeah, he's the topic. I'm a lot.
• 57:20
  Of our podcasts. You know, ultimately, you know,
• 57:24
  you're one of the best fighters in the world.
• 57:27
  I predict to soon to be champion in the near future.
• 57:31
  What do you ultimately want your legacy to be like of your life?
• 57:36
  What do you what's the ultimate message that you want to instill
• 57:39
  on the world? Honestly, for me it was like
• 57:45
  that a normal person who didn't grow up in this sport, a guy
• 57:48
  that started late and what like hard work, perseverance,
• 57:53
  mentality can do for you a kid. I've had so many doubters, so
• 57:58
  many people even now that are still doubting me, hate on me,
• 58:00
  this this and that. It's like the people that you
• 58:04
  surround yourself with really can build you up to where you
• 58:07
  think you could be. And no matter what, whether it
• 58:10
  is trolls or haters or this or that, I still have the people
• 58:12
  that will trust me or believe in me or send you that text or like
• 58:16
  that. My boy's a killer.
• 58:17
  This, that's what really matters.
• 58:19
  Those are the, those are the voices that you listen to and
• 58:21
  just to block out. No, no matter what the
• 58:23
  negativity of the world, because there's so much negativity out
• 58:27
  here, right, there's so many we live in a world nowadays where
• 58:30
  it's cool to be negative, cool to have five troll pages, cool
• 58:34
  to like say the dumbest thing is to hope that yo, I got to block.
• 58:37
  Let me post. Hey, look at bully B blocked me.
• 58:39
  I won, but it's like, bro, that's that's not what you want
• 58:44
  to that's is that what you want out of your life is like that's
• 58:47
  what your goal is. There's like adults, grown men
• 58:49
  that think of that as a win. And my, my mindset is always to
• 58:54
  like, when you see me, I want you to leave with, I want you to
• 59:00
  kind of like level up yourself to where I've had so many people
• 59:04
  meet me in person. Like, bro, wait, you're, you're
• 59:06
  a different person than what we think you are because this guy
• 59:10
  said this or this guy said that. And if you could meet me and be
• 59:13
  like, I want to learn more about the religion of slam.
• 59:16
  I want to learn more about this guy or his background because he
• 59:20
  is down to earth. He's so cool, he's humble, he's
• 59:23
  this and that. That's what means more to me
• 59:25
  than anything. Then, you know, being this
• 59:30
  superstar or driving limousines or driving this or showing off
• 59:34
  Rolexes or anything like that. I don't really care about that.
• 59:36
  Because at the end of the day, it's like, what are you going to
• 59:39
  leave people with? Because we're all going to die.
• 59:40
  We're all going to every, every single one of us going to taste
• 59:43
  death. But you can't take none of your
• 59:45
  stuff with you. You can't take your watches or
• 59:47
  clothes or this. All you can take with you is
• 59:50
  your deeds. What you left people with even
• 59:52
  like a smile on your face that would change the energy in the
• 59:55
  room, could change somebody else's mindset who's going
• 59:58
  through something. If you go in there with just
• 1:00:00
  smile, right, it changes people's lives.
• 1:00:03
  Absolutely, absolutely. I got to say something real
• 1:00:06
  quick. Can the UFC please give this man
• 1:00:09
  his title shot? I'm speaking on behalf of
• 1:00:11
  everybody that's a real fan of the sport, man.
• 1:00:14
  Ross, I see we watch your, we've watched your fights together.
• 1:00:17
  I mean, speak on this, please. It's give him his title shot.
• 1:00:21
  Yeah, I mean, we're over what? Is going on right now.
• 1:00:24
  Like it's unbelievable. I've never seen anything all the
• 1:00:26
  years I've watched, you know, MMA in the UFC, I've never seen
• 1:00:29
  somebody get denied what they should have had a a long time
• 1:00:34
  ago, like all the fighters I've seen.
• 1:00:36
  I've never seen anybody that deserved it more.
• 1:00:38
  Even like a rematch with Leon. It's it's absolute BS and give
• 1:00:42
  him his shot. I hope this goes viral.
• 1:00:44
  I hope the whole this needs to be a movement trending movement,
• 1:00:46
  man, because it's it's it's BS. You know what I mean?
• 1:00:49
  Like it truly is. At the end of the day, you're
• 1:00:53
  going to keep pushing forward and they're not going to be able
• 1:00:56
  to deny you. You know that, we know that and
• 1:00:58
  it is what it is, brother. It sucks, but you just keep
• 1:01:01
  pushing and and that's the thing that they can't stop.
• 1:01:04
  Yeah, and that's what I tell, like everybody, right?
• 1:01:06
  Because everybody has their story.
• 1:01:08
  And for me to get to where I am today, we had a claw our way
• 1:01:12
  here. We had to, you know, we fought
• 1:01:13
  the best of the best. We fought guys that I was
• 1:01:16
  underdogs with where they thought I was going to lose and
• 1:01:18
  people thought I was going to lose.
• 1:01:19
  And you know, we walked through them and we beat them dominantly
• 1:01:23
  and people could say whatever they want, but there was never a
• 1:01:27
  man that was a crazy decision or this or that.
• 1:01:28
  It was like, no, I was certain. Everything was certain,
• 1:01:31
  everything was dominant and I beat the best guys in the world.
• 1:01:35
  So for myself, knowing that, like you said, just trusting
• 1:01:41
  that there's a reason for everything, right?
• 1:01:43
  There's a reason for it. So it may be it's going to make
• 1:01:46
  me appreciate it more. Even when people were like, oh
• 1:01:47
  man, you didn't get 300 the main event at 300.
• 1:01:50
  And they could say this or that or that, but it's like, well,
• 1:01:53
  maybe God wanted to protect me because I had to train during
• 1:01:55
  Ramadan again. And he didn't want me to have a
• 1:01:57
  camp during Ramadan and he wanted me to be more mature when
• 1:02:01
  I got to where I was going to get.
• 1:02:03
  So I'm always having that positive mindset with everything
• 1:02:06
  because he said there's, there's worse things going on in this
• 1:02:10
  world, right? You have to be grateful no
• 1:02:12
  matter what, what you get in this life.
• 1:02:14
  Every day I'm awake, every day I have a house, every day I have
• 1:02:16
  clothes. It's it's a blessing.
• 1:02:19
  And I think that people forget about that because you're always
• 1:02:22
  chasing that goal. You're always chasing that
• 1:02:23
  dream. And you're like, I didn't get
• 1:02:25
  this today. I wanted $1,000,000.
• 1:02:26
  Why? You know, I got $1,000,000.
• 1:02:28
  But you don't appreciate the fact that you have a car, you
• 1:02:30
  have a clothes, you have heat in your house and there's people
• 1:02:33
  starving out there that don't have nothing.
• 1:02:35
  They don't have this or begging for a fraction of what you have.
• 1:02:39
  So my mindset is always like, there's a reason for it.
• 1:02:41
  There's a reason for it. When I get that belt, it's going
• 1:02:44
  to make sense. And for the people out there
• 1:02:46
  that follow me, that push for me, no matter what, we're going
• 1:02:48
  to get it. There's no denying me.
• 1:02:50
  It's not going to happen. It's going to happen for sure.
• 1:02:52
  It's 100% it's going to happen. And when I do get my hand
• 1:02:55
  raised, it's it's all going to be worth it.
• 1:02:57
  All this waiting, all this patience, everything, it's going
• 1:02:59
  to be worth it. Well, I want to end it with
• 1:03:02
  this. I love that passion that you
• 1:03:03
  just showed. It's amazing, It's true, it's
• 1:03:06
  heartfelt. You are an amazing fighter.
• 1:03:08
  You're even more of an amazing man and person in life.
• 1:03:11
  And for Matt and I, we want to thank you for being on the show.
• 1:03:14
  We really appreciate it. And do you have any little
• 1:03:17
  sponsors you want to shout out real quick before we end?
• 1:03:19
  Nah, I appreciate you, brother. Thank you man.
• 1:03:20
  Thanks bro. Man.
• 1:03:21
  Thank you guys. Awesome.
• 1:03:24
  Thank you brother.