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"Return of the Zac" with UFC's Zac Pauga · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Disclaimer, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities today represent that listener discretion is advised.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: We are on the 25th episode of his last appearance.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: He has fought in Fate Warriors events.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: He's a member of Elevation Fight Team and following season 30 of the Ultimate Fighter that he not only appeared on, but he was a finalist in.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: He now has Zach UFC contract.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: Joining me on the podcast today is somebody I am proud to call a friend, Zach August.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's time to recap a crazy year.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mike.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: So sitting across from me is the first ever two-time guest of Caught on the Mike, and it's so appropriate because we're on the one-year anniversary of his first appearance on the show, and a lot of stuff has happened in this last year.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's Return of the Zach.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: What's up, buddy?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: Not much.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: How you doing?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: Good, good, man.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing this on such short notice.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, no problem.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I I love being on your show.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I like listening to it too.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's always fun for me to be on a show that I actually listen to.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome, man.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it's I tell you what, man, it has been an honor just kind of watching you over the course of the last year.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it seems like we've kind of had growth in tandem with one another.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've both been doing our thing, man.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it has been cool to see.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: It has been cool to see.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk about everything that's happened since you were last on the show, both personally, professionally.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's kind of all-encompassing, isn't it?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think I don't remember the last time I was on if that was after my first Cage Warriors fight or or my second one.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, since then everything I talked about was what we've been doing, what I've been doing.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I took a another fight at the end of that year with the UFC vet and won it.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then it went on uh the ultimate fighter, went on the reality show, applied for it, which one thing they don't really talk about is the application process.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: That that was harder than the show itself.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was just getting on the show, but yeah, started the application process, started in December.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: I had to do like a I don't know what you call it, like a like a interview in front of producers, like not in front of not in front of fighters or coaches or or Dana White, and they didn't care about how good I was at fighting.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was like an audition, it was a TV, an audition is what you call it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had to do like an audition and convince these guys that I would be interesting on TV.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that part was super weird, but obviously made it through and then you know, got on the show, lived in Vegas, trapped in a house with no internet for seven weeks.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, did well, made it to the finals, won two fights in the house, made it to the finals, debuted in the UFC, you know, exactly what we were what we talked about on the last show.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my UFC debut.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, unfortunately it didn't go my way, but just trying to grow from there.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a crazy year.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: It has been a crazy year.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Sure it has.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and we could kind of nitpick some of the minutia of that stuff, because I know when I've talked to I talked to Neil Magney, he talked very similarly about his experience when he initially auditioned for the ultimate fighter, how it was just a very awkward process, if not anything else.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't really have so if you're not a good fighter, you're not gonna get on.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like they it's not like they won't that they it's not like they don't care about your fighting, you're not gonna get on if you're not a good fighter.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But they don't just want good fighters, they want people that are gonna make good TV, make interesting television, and that's what you have to prove to them.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't they're not even gonna talk to you if you're not a good fighter, but then you have to sit there in like I think my audition was like 45 minutes long in front of four dudes.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea who they were, just trying to convince them that people want to watch me on TV.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: Your last appearance on my show was August 22nd of last year, 2021, and I asked you where you saw yourself six months from now, and you said in the UFC.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I it was funny, I did the math and I was like, holy shit, it came to fruition.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta speak into existence before before anyone believes in you, you gotta believe in yourself for sure.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just how how it you have to do it when you're when you're shooting for to be more than just you know a guy sitting in a cubicle.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that last Cage Warriors fight before that came into fruition, was that a short notice fight for you or for your opponent?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it was for both of us, I guess.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had agreed to fight someone else on that date.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and he wasn't a a UFC vet with 20 fights, the guy that I agreed to fight, and that guy didn't show up, just didn't even show up.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the only person that would take the fight on short notice was this guy who had just Marcus Perez, right?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: He had he had had eight fights in the UFC and he had just been cut.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: This was his first fight outside of the the UFC, and uh he was took it on short notice because he's trying to get back into the UFC.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense because I I remember it was short notice for somebody, I just didn't remember exactly how that process worked out.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: So, since that fight and kind of predicating the uh the ultimate fighter audition, did you change up anything in your training stature or anything else?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Just kind of any switches kind of get flipped before you started moving into that audition process?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not really.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that was an interesting fight because it was a difficult fight.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: He was it was a big step up in competition, and it was just understanding that you know, for me to have success, like a lot of my early career, I was trying to imitate Curtis Blades.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he's my main training partner, he's an amazing fighter.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was trying to be him, you know, in in every fight.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And with Marcus against Perez, you know, I went out and wrestled heavy the first round, and he was a better wrestler than me.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not something Curtis has to run into, right?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that fight, I I had to like realize okay, this guy's a better wrestler than me.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I need to do something different to win this fight.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I changed to the striking, won the fight on my striking, and after that, the training and then how I went into the show was just a new mindset.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not Curtis Blaze, I'm not gonna be able to just throw everyone on the ground and beat them up from sitting on top of them.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: My striking has to be tight, my jiu-jitsu has to be tight.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have to focus on my my more well-rounded game.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: You made the transition from light heavyweight to heavyweight for the sake of the show, and I kind of want to attack this from two points of view.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: First and foremost, is that where you plan on staying?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Or what's the plan?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's let's address that first.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I do plan on eventually going back to light heavyweight.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: I like not cutting weight.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's really nice.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um at this point, you know, they're not really they don't really like advertise it, right?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: They say we're fighting for a contract, you know.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I I still have a UFC contract, I'm still contracted with the UFC.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's whatever they offer me.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: If they want me to fight it light heavyweight, I'll fight it light heavyweight.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: If they want me to fight it heavyweight, I'll fight it heavyweight.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are there are pros and cons to both, you know.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I like being the faster, more in shape fighter.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had success on the uh on the show at heavyweight.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I really liked it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, for the people that that watched my fight, watched the finale, you have to deal with a different thing at heavyweight.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Someone can put your lights out just by grazing, grazing your chin.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's, you know, it's a tough game at heavyweight.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I tell you, one of the things that I saw, I think it was on Twitter in particular, a lot of the compliments that were thrown at you about that finale fight was you were moving around like a damn middleweight, man.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like for being a heavy.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's my game.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's my game at heavyweight and light heavyweight is speed and athleticism.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have the wrestling background, I don't have the combat sports background that that a lot of guys have, but I have an athletic background.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've been moving my body for for longer than anyone here, you know, in the UFC.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that that's just how I fight, and that that's you know how how I like to approach fights.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it was working for a while until you know, six inches, you know, my my hand being here instead of here.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's all it was.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: So we'll we'll talk about that in a minute, too.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: That first round, holy shit, man! Like you were moving like none other.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: That is strategic advantage, like just that speed that you pushed forward.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that was you, like I said, that's my game plan, that's my my strength, and it was also a uh, you know, opponent specific.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to put the pressure on Mohammed as we know, he's hit super hard.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to make him miss.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to put the pressure and have him feel the speed early, and and you know, it went well.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great round one.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you you won that round definitively.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: I had a basement full of guys watching.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we we had a little party, we had we had some uh pulled pork.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: I grilled everything up.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: You had the uh you had the Zach fan club in in Mike Clark's basement.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I appreciate it.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, I appreciate you, man.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is uh I I I've really enjoyed interacting with you over the course of the past year because I one thing I pointed out in the last episode is there was just something that clicked with me listening to your story, and I even said this in the uh epilogue of the episode that I recorded, where I just said, I feel like I'm kind of party to something here that's gonna be much bigger than we can anticipate.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, talking with Bobby last week, I talked with Bobby Maximus, and he said the same thing.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: He said the same thing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Caitlin has said the same thing about you.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: How does that make you feel, knowing that your peers view you in that same light?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it obviously feels good.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I do appreciate them, and especially for people that I think highly of as well.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's you know, it's if you're doing what you're supposed to do, this is like you have to be ready for pressure to be put on you, and that's just how it is.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: I have people talk to me about all the time.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I was talking smack in the lead up to this fight, doing doing all that stuff, and people are like, Oh, but you're putting so much extra pressure on yourself.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I I want that pressure.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's I welcome that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I am searching for.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm seeking that out.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I try and live a life that people look at me and and expect, man, this guy's got to do something.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: He I hope he's he's headed somewhere, you know.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you know, I'm glad that that's how how people that I think highly of view me.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just the life that I'm trying to live.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm trying to live a life that's worthy of expectation.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And isn't that a saying in uh Vinny's gym as well?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Pressure is privilege or something along that.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Pressure is a privilege.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's in a neon neon sign in Vicky Gym.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, that's what Laval told me.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's like that is fantastic.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: I I even named his episode off of that.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, God, that's genius.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: That is absolute genius.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's true.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is, absolutely, absolutely.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: And the the thing that I think people kind of lose sight on, really typically, is nobody is gonna put as much pressure on you as you are.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and if you're if you're trying to live a life worth living, I think a lot of people today are are skating around trying to avoid pressure, trying to avoid expectations, just trying to lay low and they do that for 20 or 30 years and just realize they're very unhappy.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I value, I have to clarify this and put this qualifier out there so I don't come across as insensitive to anybody that's struggling with mental health because I'm a huge advocate for uh people keeping their mental health in check.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: But people use anxiety as an excuse a lot of times anymore.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: And they use it in place of work ethic as a replacement for work ethic sometimes.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I couldn't get it done because I I I just had so much anxiety, and it's like, well, then use that damn anxiety to your advantage and you know, use use that to push yourself further.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every everyone nowadays likes to talk about traumas, you know, my these this trauma, that trauma.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I that's my trauma, so I can't do that.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: We all we all have trauma, and it's the people that do great things are the ones that use that trauma and use it to fuel themselves.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, absolutely.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I repeat myself about this multiple times, but I'm in several podcasting groups on Facebook where I'm interacting with other podcasters and such, and I swear to god, everybody's a damn life coach, or everybody claims to be a life coach, and they're like, Oh, I specialize in trauma.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like we all specialize in trauma, it's called getting up every morning.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit more about the show, like some of the relationships that you made in the house.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was fun to watch the show in tandem with watching social media at the same time because you could see you could see there was a little kayfabe happening, there was a little bit of conflict on social media, but there was also a different element on the show.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: One thing that Claire, Bobby, and Caitlin kind of all relay to me is you're only seeing a certain percentage of what's actually happening.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk about some of the relationships you formed in the house.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: And are are you still carrying those relationships with you today?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so me and Bobby obviously became very close in the house.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we still talk almost every day and have stayed close since getting out of the house.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we were just both.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm happy that Bobby was on the show because if not, people would have been talking about how old I was on the show.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I was 34 and the oldest guy in the house, other than Bobby Maximus, who is 43.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he got all the old jokes, every all the old stuff was pointed at him.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But we were both like men in the house, you know, we both had kids, we both have you know, had stable careers that we left to to do this, so we just immediately hit it off and really connected and have stayed great friends this entire time, right?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, other than that, you know, me and Caitlin were tight just because she was she was, I feel like the only other person in the house that kind of understood that like we're making a TV show here, you know.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't none of this is real, right?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even the training, even all this, none of this is real.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And she had fun with it, and we would we would like roast each other back and forth a little bit, and we were both having fun of it.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: No one was there getting their feelings hurt, so I you know, we still talk on social media every once in a while, and and she does help me out on social media sometimes because we've talked about it.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm trying she her her and Bobby are both all-stars at social media, and I'm trying to get better at it.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, tell me about it.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: They both helped me, yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because I I brought that up with both of them.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: I said, I said, man, after the show was over, Zach's social media game got fire.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: That was awesome.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like the whole, like, you're the dad of the house and Bobby's the creepy uncle bitch.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: That was the shit.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I loved that.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, Caitlin was like, I said, so was this due to your help?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: And she gave all credit to Bobby.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, no, I I think it's a combination of both of you.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, they they both help like I'm so bad, I literally don't even know what like the green screen app is.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll I'll have to like text her and be like, hey, how do I how do I have a picture, but then put my face over and talk?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, Oh, that's called green screen, just search it.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, thanks.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's they they've both been super helpful and and super just great connections after the house.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if if you left the house with no connections, then you really there's only two winners, right?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, I wasn't one of them, but you had to leave that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone had the opportunity to take something from that house.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you beat up a couple of Nebraskans, and that's right, and I raised issue with this because I didn't want to fall in line and say, hey, listen, people, Zach is not against all Nebraskans, just a few.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I just I was just being funny.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: I was just being funny, and people got really upset.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, a lot of I I got I'm talking hundreds, hundreds of messages from random Nebraskans wanting to fight, calling me all these names, and they and they don't realize that just that just makes me want to do it more.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: That just makes me want to do it more.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dude.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And the thing is, is you almost need to take a fight against a Nebraskan and just and walk out in Husker gear just to throw it in their face.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, well, I would never do that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, because you don't want to walk out Husker gear.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would never, I would never purchase Husker gear.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, people ask me all the time.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Are you a Husker fan?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I have to wear it because it's my state issue uniform, but I don't follow the Huskers.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: My very first Husker game that I went to, I shit you not, I wore Colorado Buffalo's gear head to toe.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I was gonna get my ass beat, but uh probably.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: So funny, man.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, how's the family reacted to all of this?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's been it's been good.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: My kids don't really get it.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, my daughter tells people that I was shooting a movie, you know, they they don't really get it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So her teachers think I'm an actor.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um but they they you know they still love me.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: My wife has all she's always my biggest supporter, and she's trying to, she doesn't like the trash talk either, and she's trying to like deal with you know supporting me, but also being the wife of of a guy that's kind of seen on as a jerk on on social media every once in a while.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it's been it's been great, and it's just been like a learning experience.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I've I've had to remind my wife too, because it's not always easy, it's it's hasn't been easy the entire time, but I've I've had to remind her like this is what we wanted.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: These these are the problems that that we wanted.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you saw to waking us up at five in the morning for drug tests, doing you know, 15 podcast interviews in one day.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, these were the problems we wanted.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is this was the life that that we a year ago when I quit my job were we're hoping to have.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I remember on that last episode of the podcast, you talked about the fact that your parents hated that you were fighting.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: Have they come around at all?
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, especially after, especially after the last one, you know.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: They but they have, and this is I don't know if I said this in my last or not.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I had had a loss in my amateur career, or maybe even in in my pro career early on, if it wouldn't have affected getting to where I am now, just so that my my parents and my wife would understand that this isn't this doesn't end at one loss.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not fighting until the first time it doesn't go my way.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is my my life and my career path now, and that's that's what I'm doing.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the loss is a chance to get better.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: So they're dealing with it now.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, they got saw their son get knocked out on on national television, eat an extra punch after after the bell.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, so what are we done with this?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are you are you I don't want to see that again?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, we're not done.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you don't see it again, but we're definitely not done.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're just getting started.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny, man.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, it it is, I think the thing that we need to keep in mind is sometimes the greater the setback, the better the comeback, right?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, and that's kind of the road that you're on after that loss.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: So let's talk a little bit about that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: As uncomfortable as it may be, let's get comfortable with being uncomfortable for a few moments.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: How did you deal with that mentally in that week after?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's so it's it's frustrating, it's super frustrating because after a KO, you you can't go right back into the gym.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to do.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be back in the gym on Monday and train again.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, you have to you have to be smart, you have to take care of your brain, and then I'm doing things all the right way, and so I'm just trying to do as much mental work as I can.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've watched the fight a million times, and you know, I I tweeted about this after the fight, and it blew up.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I wish this like it was kind of cool to see it blow up, but I wish I didn't have to, you know, lose for it to happen.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I tweeted that if if I were to just say I was doing great and I got caught, you know, that's not a I'm I'm denying myself a chance to get better.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was Boxing with a heavyweight with my hands down.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: That is idiotic.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like for for that's an that's egotistical, and that's something that I have to clean up.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: I have to do the work, I have to do the mental work of keeping my hands up, keeping them exactly where they're supposed to be, and not thinking that I have such a speed advantage that I'm going to be able to dodge these pun every single punch before they hit me because a heavyweight only takes one.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, that level of self-accountability is one of the reasons you have earned my respect tenfold.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you can't self-analyze, then why are you even doing this?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: It would be easy and it would feel good to just say, oh, I was winning and got caught.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: I win that fight nine times out of ten, all that stuff.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: But it but it's not the truth.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you know, in my opinion, martial arts and and individual sports is all about is finding the truth, developing the truth.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Mohammed was better than me.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: He found the crack in my defense, and now it's my job to get better.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then, like I said, we're not done.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: This wasn't I fight until I lose, and then I quit forever and talk about it.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we are gonna get better and come back, and that's all you can do anytime you you stumble in life is look and be truthfully honest about what went wrong and fix it.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you had to call your shots right now, would you run that fight back?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of people have asked me that too.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: This question has come up.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would absolutely 100%.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that it is just the way things work.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: We will probably never see each other again inside the cage.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just, you know, I would love to.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to, but that's just I the way just the way I see things now.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I do see the push for for light heavyweight being um what the UFC probably wants.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: But who know who knows?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: So the thing that made me gave me now, now I I talked about anxiety earlier.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm actually gonna use I'm gonna actually personalize anxiety.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that gave me anxiety following that fight was seeing the clip replay over and over and over again.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: Being the guy, how do you deal with that?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm it doesn't bother me.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's if I I like to think that I'm you know a super honest and genuine person, right?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if the if the roles were reverse, I would want it played every at the beginning of every sports center until the end of time.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't bother me.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've lost this is the first fight I've lost, but I've lost football games.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've been on the wrong side of you know ESPN top 10 before, and it's just part of the game.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like you'll like how many interceptions is Tom Brady throwing?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you think he gets upset when they when they show the uh him throwing interception?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: It it just is what it is, it's a part of it's a part of the game, and it doesn't bother me.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, I think it bothers the people that know me and the my friends more than me, but it's you know, live it up.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: He he did what he had to do, and I'm not upset about it.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I just gotta get better.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's all it is.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nice little reminder for me.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: I actually have I have the uh picture of the ref waving the uh the fight off and me knocked out.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's my phone screensaver right now, and that's just what anytime I look at my phone, anytime I want to open my phone, that's what I have to look at before before I open it to do whatever social media scrolling I want to do.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus, you masochist.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a reminder, it's just a reminder that we can always get better.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I tell you, do you feel that that sense of psychology about it came to you from you know the rugby days and from the football days?
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is so it came from a few things.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: It came from rugby and football, and just individual sports are so weird, and fighting is so different that guys that have only been wrestlers and only been fighters they view things a different way.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is is do or die, you know, the be the end, there's everything seems so finite, you know.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: I won one bowl game my entire college career, but people would still tell you that I was a great college football player and had a great college career.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just different with in football or in team sports, it's a different mentality of you do lose.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's no there's no NFL team that has never lost, right?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and they just try and get better for every season and and take life in seasons.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's times to get better, there's times to perform, and then after both those times, you have to assess and say, was I good enough and did I perform?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: So, how do you take that mentality and apply it to your training moving forward so you can throw another one back in the win column?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, so now I have I have a very specific um you know hole that needs to be filled.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: I need to make sure that at no point am I boxing with my hands down, that my hands stay up, even if I'm winning, even if I'm I'm I'm doing better than my sparring partner, than my than my opponent.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and I do, I also think that there's a piece of like you know, old school training that can be applied that that we I we don't really do as mixed martial artists and and you know new age fighters, but if you look at you know what Ollie did, what Tyson did, all their training records, you read their old like training modalities, and it almost doesn't seem real.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like right, you know, 10 rounds of shadow boxing before sparring and then bag work afterwards.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you we gotta build those muscle memories, we have to make it so it feels awkward for my hands to be down, and that that just means doing those things that it's not gonna take anything extra physical for me, it's gonna take a little bit extra time and a little bit extra intention for me to add to my to every single day.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, I'm a huge fan.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: I love high-level jujitsu, so I'm gonna throw this qualifier out there, but I am a bigger fan of really good striking game.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's that's kind of the the equalizer that you know determines an exciting fight.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the difference between an exciting fight and well, that was a good fight, you know what I mean?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and absolutely and and I think you're you're dead on by using Tyson and Ali as examples.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's I think the training is a little bit different if you're gonna make striking your specialty.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, and it's it's especially if you're planning on trading, which is hard to do with little MMA gloves.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's different than boxing, but there's there's just at this point, there's no reason not to do it.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's not gonna, it's not gonna tax my body anymore to add, you know, five rounds of shadow boxing in the morning, but it's gonna hopefully get me to that spot where I'm not throwing a jab with my right hand down, which which you know was the issue here.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: I gotcha.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: So we've talked about the actual physical psychology of the fight game.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk more about the social psychology that's kind of been involved with this past year, because that had to flip a switch to have so much happen in such a short period of time with you.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: Does it feel like you're kind of making of this connect the dots picture where you're just kind of anticipating what the hell's gonna come next?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it I do like things have happened so fast that it is hard to be like, what do we do next?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what I you know told my my managers and and stuff when I went on the show, like at this point, everything's gonna take care of itself, right?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: They no longer have to try and get me in the UFC.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get myself in the UFC.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: The fights are predetermined, they don't have to try and get me good matchups or anything like that.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm trying to do now is is use this platform to expand every other piece of my you know brand.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that has been like I was talking about earlier with the social media, it's been difficult, and it has been like the the guys like popping off and chirping at me from the show actually made it easier for me.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: That made it fun.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, I can now we have something.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't have to make up content.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now now I've got content.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good at talking trash.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we can do this, I can do this.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: So every every few weeks when I would say something on the show that someone didn't like, and then they would come at me on things that made things easier for me to to try and get it get it rolling.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, because they're they're just they're basically serving your next piece of content to you on a silver platter.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly, dude.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, for sure, for sure.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's a weird thing, and that's a big difference between now and say even 20 years ago is how vital social media is for branding and trying to figure out how do you jar an algorithm loose?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: What the hell is an algorithm, you know, type stuff.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: So no, exactly, and it's I don't try and focus too much on that, on the deep, deep part of you know, algorithms and posting times and stuff like that.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: I just try and have genuine, authentic content.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing that I that I never want to do is is post because I wrote down we post on Sundays at four.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want it all to be real and genuine.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't endorse any products that I don't actually use, I don't try and push anything on anybody.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: My goal is just like if you think my life's interesting and and want to peek into it, here it is.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here you go.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: And in the past year, you have uh so are you being endorsed by first form then now?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yes.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: So you've picked up the endorsement from first form, you've become a proud Traeger owner.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um grilling the rib eyes all day.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, grilling the ribeyes all day all long.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um what other opportunities that you didn't see happening a year ago have presented themselves to you?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, those are the two big ones.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, first form is what they gave us in the house, and it's you it's all you saw to approve, third party tested.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super fortunate to to work with them because it's great products that that I would be buying anyway.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, it it's it's so great.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love their stuff.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: So and then this is exactly what I was talking about.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't, I did have other supplement companies, you know, reach out to me that I didn't know about, weren't you saw approved, any of this stuff.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not gonna just push their stuff because they're giving me a paycheck.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: I literally use my own money to buy first form stuff.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I take it every single day, and that's why it has been amazing to work with them and now be like a part of their team.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Traeger stuff, that's I, you know, I don't necessarily want to get too crazy on my diet, but I do like a pseudo-carnivore-esque diet.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm grilling meat twice a day, every single day, and the Traeger is just the best way to do it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why that and it's another one, it's the same thing.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm already using it, and now you know, having those guys support is is just amazing.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, I'm sure you heard it, but Bobby said if you say his name into the mirror three times after dark, he'll appear.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I told him that I would do that, but I'd have the Traeger fired up.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_02: He he told me I had to have 85 WAGU, though.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Bob Bobby is he is, you know, he was a great friend and and a really great mentor on the show.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he's yeah, helped me out a lot, and a lot of this carnivore stuff came from him, came from working with him, but he cooks a great steak, he cooked all our steaks on the show.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was awesome.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I am I'm a believer in you know anecdotal evidence.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: If yeah, if you're a 43-year-old dude and you're still ripped and jacked, and you're not on steroids, and you can come fight on the ultimate fighter, and you say, Oh, yeah, I do this stuff, I'm gonna try it out.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not I don't care if if someone in a lab coat says, Oh, actually, I have these studies that were done not by me, but by someone else that says everything he says is wrong.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: That I'm not super interested in that.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a a lot of the stuff I do comes from Alistair too.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Alistair over him.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a lot of weird uh like voodoo magic stuff, but listen, it works for him and and I believe in it as well.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, yep, absolutely.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about mentors for a moment because one of the highlights of the show for me was watching Vinny go off after that Jordan Heideman fight.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: How dope was that?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it was it was so great when they when they came up.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: So so one part that they didn't show is that they we were gonna split the coaches.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it wasn't just right away Juliana was like, Oh no, we're not we're not coaching against either of you.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, pick call your hometown.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: At first, they came to us and they're like, we're gonna split up the coaches, you'll pick Juliana won't coach, but you'll pick the assistant coaches and and they'll help you get ready and all that stuff.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I said in in front of everybody, I said, Listen, I'm going out there to hurt him.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want whoever's gonna feel okay with me turning this guy's lights off.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, any of you who feel okay with that, just let me know, and you're on my side.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they were all like, Oh, well, when you put it like that, none of us feel okay, none of us are okay with that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so that then they they're like, All right, we're gonna get your hometown coaches, and it was amazing.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, they didn't really get into it into the show too much, but Vinny has been with me since since the beginning, since like since the beginning, he taught me how to fight.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: I I knew jujitsu, I've been doing jujitsu for eight months before I got introduced to Vinny because I said I wanted to do MMA, and that's he has been my head coach ever since then, and everything that I do and know has been because of him.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it was amazing to have him there at that moment.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this experience that's another thing that I've observed over the course of the past year, and I don't know if it's always been that way or if it's just been become more transparent, is how tight you guys have all got, like the whole team, like the your your whole guerrilla gang, if you will.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it is it's amazing to watch that because I think there's something very unique and special to that that I don't necessarily see with other fighters and other teams, you know.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm talking about Vinny, Cody, Curtis, yourself, Ben.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's fantastic.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, how is that added to your game?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it honestly happened during COVID.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we used to be just like every other team, you know, like the the Jacksons, Sanford, MMAs, everyone came to practice at the same time, a hundred guys in one big room, you know, coaches running around and trying to get eyes on the guys that they could or paying special attention to whoever had a fight.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then when COVID happened, but the UFC didn't didn't stop, didn't close down, we had to split off into small groups.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: They they said you have to pick four training partners, and then that's all you're gonna train with.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: You will come at a at a certain time, you're you four, the coaches will be there with you, and that that's just how things are because Denver had you know crazy knockdown rules and and all this stuff during the during the height of COVID.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it I think it worked for everybody that that everybody got better, but for me specifically, there there came a moment when they when they opened it back up and were like, all right, guys, the regulations are off, you're just coming back.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: That I talked to Cody and Minnie.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I said, listen, I've gotten way better in this small group setting, and I don't want to go back to the big group setting.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they all agreed, they all agreed.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: We all agreed.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: All our our big guy group, you know, the guerrilla gang, Cody's wants to call us the juggernauts now.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Our big guy group, um, we all got so much better, and we all agreed we're still part of team elevation, we're still gonna be part of the team practices, but we're gonna keep this special small group and make sure that all four of us are getting together at least three times a week to just keep doing what we've been doing.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: And and that for me is why I think I was able to climb so high.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think Curtis is the most special athlete in MMA, he was gonna be champion with or without that.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: But for me, that was like two years where dudes weren't training, guys weren't getting better, and I was rocketing forward.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that is where I caught up.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's where I caught up to the MMA world was during COVID.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cody's got some funny ass stories about training that I will not repeat on the podcast.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, he he explained why the why the uh why the windows were blacked out.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: But people don't understand, people don't know that like Colorado MMA, Cody, Vinny, these guys, this is this is MMA royalty.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, they don't realize that these guys were the training partners for you know Rashad, uh John Jones, all these dudes came came through the you know the grudge elevation group that Vinny and Cody come from.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: So so people don't realize the the lineage that we have at Team Elevation.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: My best friend from high school, Quentin, when we came out uh back in July, early July, and we stopped by practice, we left and I was like, dude, my neck's hurting.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, why?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, because I kept fucking whipping my head around every time I turned, some other badass was walking through the door.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: That was awesome.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: It was awesome getting to see you guys, you know, do your thing in person, and uh that was a special experience.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I was I feel very privileged to be a part of that that day, by the way, in case I haven't just oh no, absolutely.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's great, it was great, great having you out there to see it in person and not just on on you know social media all the time.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I have to make uh a better habit of making more trips out to Colorado.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: I used to come out two to three times a year, but it it's been funky since COVID.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like we said, so so yeah.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I gotta tell you, man, you've got a very special support circle around you.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, your teammates, your coaches, um, your wife.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: I had the pleasure of talking to your wife when your shirts came out, and I was like, yeah, I need one of those shirts.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: So so I so I got one of the shirts, and dude, I hope you realize how proud of you everybody is.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like win, lose, or draw, you you did your damn thing this last year, and it's it's been a privilege to follow along with man.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, man.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and like I just want everyone to know I appreciate everybody that that supports me, and and I'm not done yet, you know.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't the end of it.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: This is just the beginning.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how exciting is this?
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: And this is just getting started, man.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_02: This is just getting started.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have something kind of in mind, or you're or is there anything that you're able to talk about at this point in time?
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, so like I said, I I'm still contracted by the UFC.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have to get medically cleared after the knockout.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would I personally would like to fight before the end of the year, but you know, that just based on the medicals we got to look at, I don't know if that's gonna happen.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I would like would like to happen.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, and the truth of it is, you know, nobody go, you don't go 0-2 and stay a UFC fighter.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like my next fight is for my job, and so it's gonna be you're gonna see the best version of me in this next fight.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I am excited and I want it to be here now, and I just have to play the waiting game and and get healthy and and improve and fill the holes and be be able to say yes when the UFC gives that call.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so is that the medical suspension as they call it, is that a required six months for a knockout, or is it it's not um it required.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the state of Nevada is 45 days, but but the uh it's I'm obviously not fighting 45 days from now.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do I have to pass some like neurological exams and I have to be cleared by a doctor.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think the medical suspension is is called they call it indefinite, and it's like until a doctor clears you to perform again.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: Gotcha.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you just got back into training this last week, correct?
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so no, I I'm still just uh okay down, and then I'll start on this coming Monday is when I'll be back.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha, dude.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's exciting.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's this is the worst time.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is the worst time where I'm not allowed to.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Train the loss is still there.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still thinking about it, but I'm not allowed to I can't actually make any improvements yet.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want to be in the gym working, and it's just part of the game.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a lot of dad time, man.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just a chauffeur.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm a personal chauffeur, is all I am right now.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Taking two kids out from two different schools, you know.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and what one of them started kindergarten this week, right?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: She started doing kindergarten.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exciting was that.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was great.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was bittersweet, you know?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: She's getting so big and so smart, but it's just uh, you know, I'm just trying to hold on to every little moment that I can.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, and and savor it all.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: Savor it all.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my three girls all started their sophomore year uh this week of high school.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, God, how when did I get so damn old?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're gonna be driving soon.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are they driving yet?
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: So uh my stepdaughters actually, so my twin stepdaughters, their birthday is in two weeks.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, they'll be driving.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um my daughter still has a whole other year yet, because my stepdaughter started started school a little late, but they're you know, they're all three the same age, so that's great.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, dude.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you were to sum up this past year, um, in your words, sum it all up.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of kind of in encapsulate everything that we've discussed.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't um I don't do New Year's resolutions, I do a New Year's mantra, like a one word that is that is supposed to uh be the theme of my year.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the my my mantra for last year was execute.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I had the skills, I had put the work in, I had put the time in, but now it was time to to execute.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was time to get done what I needed to get done.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: And and I I believe, you know, other than stumbling at the finish line, I believe that I did execute.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I ran I won three fights on the regional scene, being a UFC vet, got on the show, did everything I had to do, you know, impress those producers, got on the show and did well on the show.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's all about exactly what I said, execution.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not just about having the background or putting in the work.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: You have to put in the work.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get there if you don't put in the work, but then once you're there, you also have to be able to dance under the lights.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, I love that because I'm the same way.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: My word this year was discipline.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_02: It was to try and get myself back into my normal disciplines.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because, you know, I and I think we may have talked about this on that last episode.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, COVID wrecked me.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then the year after I had a career change, and that kind of kicked me in the nuts again.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, this year was like, okay, this is my year.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_02: Discipline, discipline.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: Get back into the routines and discipline that you find important.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta tell you, it has been a personal honor for me to get to know you.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: I am proud to call you a friend, and anytime you have to make that trip, and God, I hope you don't have to, I because I would rather be in your neck of the woods, but if you have to make the trip to Nebraska, you know there's a seat for you and your family at my table.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, man.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it, and it's been I appreciate everything that you've done for me as well, and just get my name out there.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and I like I said, I I truly enjoy your show.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think you do make a great podcast, and it's been fun as hell to be on it twice now.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Man, listen to us.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're giving each other the respect talk, and neither one of us have had any alcohol to drink.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm drinking tea.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: All right, Zach.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you very much for doing the show again, man.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's a pleasure as always, brother.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome, thank you.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: Zach was the second member of Team Elevation to ever do this podcast.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: And since that time, I've had his coaches Cody and Vinny on, Curtis Blades has done the show, Neil Magney has done the show, and I make it a point, aside from the fact that I greatly admire these guys, to interact with as many of their social media posts as possible, even to the point of making me look like a stalker because I know how the dumb social media algorithms work.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: My point being, if you are not giving Dak and team elevation a follow on any of the social media networks yet, please do so as soon as humanly possible.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: They deserve our support.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: I love those guys.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: Also make sure you're giving a follow to high altitude martial arts and vital training systems as well.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: If you're feeling generous with the social media follows, make sure you follow Caught on the Mike on all social media platforms.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate the support.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: Please interact with as many posts as possible.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: This has been Caught on the Mic with Michael Clark.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, thank you.