Latest / Drawn of History / The UFC_s Ethyn Ewing on Fighting with Finesse(M4A_128K)

Transcript

The UFC_s Ethyn Ewing on Fighting with Finesse(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The joe rogan experience.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Well it's finesse and you fight with a lot of
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: finesse you know um so we should start from your
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: ufc debut because uh that was when you really burst
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: onto the scene you fought this guy malcolm wellmaker who's
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: a killer vicious knockout puncher and had a ton of
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: hype behind him because of his performance was it the
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: contender series we had the big performance uh it.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Was all three of them yeah contender series you knock
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: that dude out fly and then uh I don't remember
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: who was second, but then it was Chris Moutinho was
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: the third one that he knocked out like that.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And you put on a show, man, and nobody had
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: heard of you. And that's one of the craziest things
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: about this sport is that there can be a guy
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: like you that's learning and growing in the shadows. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: then they get the call. And on, I think it
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: was two days notice.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So two days notice, you fought above your weight because
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: you're a bantamweight normally and you fought a featherweight. Dude,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: it wasn't just that you fought a guy who was
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: this vicious striker. It was the calmness and the technique
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: and the smoothness of it all that was so impressive.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: I was like, this guy's different. The way you fight
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: is very intelligent, and I love that. I love watching
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: a guy who's just all technique and movement, and you're
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the epitome of that.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it. That's something I pride myself on. That's,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: I think, maybe it's because I've, I've delved into more
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: of a boxing realm with perfecting the striking and really
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: focusing on, um, that, that technical aspect, that style. But yeah,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: it's to me to watch guys go in there and
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: just brawl it out and say, uh, you know, let's
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: see who can take more punches before the other guy
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: drops is, is just silly to me. It's, it's like
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you said, I like to fight with finesse. I like
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: to hit and not get hit and champions don't take
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: return fire. So, I hope to have a lot of
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: longevity with this game, and yeah, that's why I fight
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: that way.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: That is the formula for longevity. I was having a
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: conversation with Fedor, the guy who's sitting next to us,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: who's one of the best pool players in the world.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: We just got back from Ways to Well, so shout
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: out to Brigham and all the people at Ways to
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Well for taking care of us. But he and I
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: were talking about fighters and about It's very similar to,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I think, everything, whether it's pool or golf. And there's
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the people that really focus on technique and fundamentals and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: really objectively look at what they're doing and refine it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: And we were talking about guys who just stand in
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: front of each other and blast each other. I'm like, look,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: the crowd will cheer. They will love to see you.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: But your career will be shorter and the end will
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: be bad. The end will be bad, and then you'll
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: probably fight past the time where you should, and no
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: one's going to stop you. Maybe you have one or
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: two close friends that will tell you when you're going
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: to hang them up, but a lot of coaches let
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: guys fight way too long, and I think the organization
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: lets guys fight way too long. There's a few guys that,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: in the past at least, I've seen them on the
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: lineup in an upcoming fight, and I'm like, oh, God.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And then I see who he's fighting, and I'm like, oh, God.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Like I don't want to see this guy take any
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: more punishment. I don't, you know, enough is enough. And
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: those styles of just face first, just attacking boy, the
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: audience loves you.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And that's a trap, right?
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: That is a real trap.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. And I think that's,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: it's almost a little frustrating that the general public gives
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: that kind of energy to that kind of a match. Sure.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: I get it. It's exciting. You want to see blood spilled? Like,
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: people just really enjoy the chaos of all that and
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: all the movement and the energy that goes into it.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: But yeah, you're, you're foregoing that whole technical aspect, like
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: the perfection of controlling the dance from the beginning to
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: the end and everything in between, you know, it's, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: it's almost just like a, like an educated street brawler.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: You're getting in there and just swinging and going crazy.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: And to me, that's not what martial arts is. I mean, it's,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: it literally is the, the chase of perfection to it of,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: you know, like, The hit and don't get hit, that
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: is the art of boxing, but the art of striking
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: and martial arts. You want to be near perfect in
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: the way you engage in this. Land the damage and
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: be able to cut those angles, move your head, pull
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: out the distance, and not take any of that in return.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: A lot of guys get cheered on initially, and so
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: it's unfortunate that maybe it's not unfortunate, but you just
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: see it a lot that Yeah, those guys get hyped
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: up at the beginning, and then all the other things happen,
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: like you said.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, they are exciting. I love when
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: guys fight like that because it's just crazy to watch.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: But I have to set aside the rational part of
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: my brain that says this is not smart. It's not
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: a good thing for them.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: And there's no future in this. Eventually, it's going to
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: catch up to you.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, if I watch these guys,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: you know, get after it like Roman Puga versus– His
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: opponent on the Dana White Contending Series this last Tuesday,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I believe it was.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, that was crazy.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Dude, I mean, I've trained with Roman a little bit
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: here and there. He's from the same area as me. And, yeah,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: the guy's very skillful. But at the end of the day,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: both those guys walked out of there just busted up.
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: I mean, they went straight to the hospital. And it's
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: fantastic to watch. But from a fighter's perspective, at least
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: for someone who's engaging in this on the same level
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: as they are, yeah, I don't know. That's why I
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: like Roman. You know, a little bit more of that
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: precise style with the boxing specifically, I guess. I've really
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: drawn a lot of aspects from it.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. I mean, there's an art to, like,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: a fighter that fights with style and a fighter that
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: fights with finesse. Like, I always go to Izzy in
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: his prime. Adesanya in his prime when he was just
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: styling on dudes. I mean, it was a beautiful thing
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: to watch.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: It was like a dance. It was almost like he
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: was coordinating them. You know, he was moving them into
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: his strikes and everything was like feints. They were all
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: like very specific to gauge reactions. And he put it
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: all into the computer. And the next thing you know,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: he's tuning you up. Right.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, he's dancing his way out into the
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: octagon and then he's dancing in there, you know? Yeah.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: And I think the other thing that the general public
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: doesn't understand about this game is that it's a smart
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: man's game. It's not a tough man's game.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: talk to you because I've seen a lot of your
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: quotes online. I've seen you talk. You're obviously a thoughtful person.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And I think you have to be to have that
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: kind of a style because it does take a lot
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: of thinking. It takes a lot of like what you're
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: doing in there by constantly overloading your opponent's nervous system
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: with movement and constant counters and being like, Right out
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: of range, but then right in range, and then right
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: out of range. There's a lot of intelligence involved in that.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: And for someone like me who really loves the art
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: of it, I love watching a guy like you fight.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Because I really wish young fighters would emulate people like you.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Young fighters would see a guy like that, like, that's
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: what I want to fight like. I don't want to
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: be this guy who goes in there, and at the
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: end of my career, my face is just a roadmap
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: of scars, and I got CTE, but... boy, people remember
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: back in the day when I knocked that guy out
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: or when we had this fight of the night.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's taken a lot of experience, a lot
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: of growth, a lot of seeing different things because when
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: I was a wrestler, it was the I would style
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: of wrestling that I emulated and that I hope to emulate,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: which is just get in your face, break you down,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: break your spirit, break you physically, just completely wipe you
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: out with just outstanding pressure, you know. And I think
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I suffered with the finesse, with a little bit of
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: the technicality of setting things up and being smooth because
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: I was just clubbing on your head, snapping people down, going, going, going.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: And I refined that. I've pulled back from that almost
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: too much, I would say, to where if I'm striking
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: with someone, I don't even want to engage in a
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: battle of physicality. These guys try to push and move
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: and get up, and I'm like, you know, I'll sit
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: and I'll dance and I'll roll up and I'll shut
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: them down real quick. And I'm steering them off and
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: I'm throwing really quick. And they try to get physical
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: where they're really trying to make it a high pace
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: and just more physical. I don't want to engage with
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: that at all. I want to steer from beginning to
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: the end. I want to keep my heart rate as
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: low as possible. I want to land shots. And then
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: I want to be back to sitting and, like you said,
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: covering a distance, controlling everything where possible. I can sit,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: I can take my breath, and I can see what's
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: coming next, and I can move accordingly.
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• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to ask you a question. Do you think that it
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: was a benefit for you to lose your first two fights?
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Do you think there's maybe something to that? Because we
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: were talking about your first two opponents in the UFC
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: being undefeated until they fought you.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: They had never experienced loss as a professional before. And
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: then they get on this crazy big hype thing, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: there's something about being undefeated as well, especially when you're
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: a guy like Wellmaker, who's not just undefeated, but a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: knockout artist. People get really, really jazzed up and excited
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: about that. Do you think that maybe having that bad
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: feeling of loss earlier in your career maybe grounded you more? Yeah, certainly.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: I went 6-0 undefeated as an amateur. But I can
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: tell you at that time, I was not living a
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: fighter's lifestyle to the fullest. At that time, I would
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: literally go to practice in the morning and then I
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: had to go to work at night or whatever. But
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I was like, man, fighting is the best. You just
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: go wake up, practice once. You get to kick it
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: the whole rest of the day. You get to go
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: fight and make all this money and live your dream.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: That's all it takes. This is cool. And I went
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: in all these amateur scene fights, which that's what the
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: amateurs are for, for learning and getting your experience. But Um, yeah,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: it really showed me that there was change that needed
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: to be, to be made in what I did with,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: with fighting and what I did outside of fighting and
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: outside of fighting was, was arguably more important. You know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: there was a lot that I needed to change, uh,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a lot that I needed to refocus on and make
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: right by. And it wasn't until I did those things
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: that I saw this, this drastic change, you know, it
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: wasn't until I, that I, erased all the negatives and
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: then filled it with all the positives that I'm able
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to be on a 10 fight win streak doing what
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: I'm doing now, because who knows? I mean, maybe, maybe
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I would have changed that, but I don't think it
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: would have been as drastic if I hadn't experienced those
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: two losses the way I did.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So before those two losses, your first two professional fights,
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: were you kind of fucking off?
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. What were you doing? Just everything. Drinking, partying.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: Smoking, drinking, being a delinquent, being not the best partner.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: How old were you back then?
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: I came back from college in 2017. I tore my
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: meniscus in a dual meet, and then my coach was.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Same knee?
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: My right knee. Different knee. Coach was an asshole about it. Snap, crackle,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: popped all the way through the rest of the season.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: It wasn't until after I got checked. Coach was an
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: asshole about it?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: In what way? Like you didn't want to admit.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: He just ignored it like completely. He just pretty much
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: told me suck it up. Like.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, what a great coach.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: And yeah, exactly. That's why I didn't go back. I mean,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: it was a lot of things. I was in Bristol, Tennessee.
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: So it's like, there's not a whole lot to do
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: out there coming from SoCal. So that was a culture shock.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: I was on my own for the very first time.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: And then, yeah, I got hurt. So then I started,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Everybody else is out there partying and stuff.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I never partied.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: I grew up very religious. I was very strict. I,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: All throughout high school, I didn't touch anything. I didn't
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: look anything. I didn't want to partake in anything. I
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: just wrestled. My only drug was wrestling back then. That's
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: all I did. And I had a lot of success then.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: And it wasn't until I deviated from that course and
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I started finding fun or enjoyment or maybe just trying
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: to fill time and numb some of the things that
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I was thinking about or worrying about or that wrestling
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: thing of it. it might not have been the biggest
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: thing to people, but for me, like that was my
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: first time experiencing where I had just placed like eighth
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: in the California state. I was fifth at the national tournament.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: I was just, just doing everything right. You know, I
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: had won the U S open for my age division.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: And then I go to this and I'm on my
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: own for the first time. And I have all this
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: adversity and it's just like, I don't know. I just
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: felt like, like, why is this happening to me? You know,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I felt like, uh, I had been abandoned at that
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: point and maybe, maybe other people would have recovered from
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: it better, but that was a first time experience for me. So,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: but yeah, I was barely 19 years old around that time.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I think I probably started fighting around in the amateurs
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: around 20. So I was, I was relatively young, but.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: So that's when you started partying.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: I was, as soon as I tore my meniscus, I
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: finished out the wrestling season. And then I remember like
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: even school, like slouched off. Like I didn't, I wasn't
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: really caring about school too much.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: We had finals.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't really even try too hard. And, Then I
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: went– I remember that day as soon as the last
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: final was done, we all went to my buddy's house,
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: and that's the first time I ever got drunk, like ever.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: And it's not to say that those things are like
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: the end of the world if you're controlling them, but
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: I certainly wasn't. I had like a lot of compounding
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: things being first time, and that carried over. It was
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: like that all the way up until– yeah. It was
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: after that second loss. I was probably still not doing
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: what I– needed to be doing to be a disciplined athlete, um,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: a respectable, just like, you know, good person, really. I wasn't,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: I wasn't being a good person. And, uh, yeah, there was,
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: there was a lot of change, a lot of growth.
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: You know, I had a lot of people guide me
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: back into that. And as soon as I made those changes, yeah, now,
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: now I'm here, haven't been able to live and experience
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: it because that's the best teacher out of all of them.
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: You know, I've You can go and watch a YouTube
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: video on how to do something, right? Like fix a car. Oh,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: I know exactly where the alternator is. I know where
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: this pump is. I know how this connects to this.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Then the second you open it up, it's like, okay, well,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: I didn't know I needed this tool. And wow, this
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: is way harder to pull off. And it's the experience.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: It's the hardship and experience that teaches you things. So 100%.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: If I hadn't gone through that, who knows where I'd
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: be and what I'd be doing right now.