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MMA Bantamweight- Justin Wetzell - Elevation Fight Team · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Disclaimer.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: 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 they represent.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion is advised.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: He was an undefeated amateur now with a professional record of 9-2, originally failing to run the state overtown as his teammate Austin Cover, now residing in Denver, Colorado.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Joined me on the show today.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: He has been on a terror, just recently shocking up a win at UFL United Fight League 3 in Mesa, Arizona.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he will once again start representing the elevator in December for UFL 4.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's rolling deep with that fight team spirit, letting everybody know that this won't take long.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, this is caught on the mic.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me fresh off of his victory at UFL United Fight League 3 in Mesa, Arizona is Elevation Fight Team Bantamweight Justin Wetzel.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Justin, how the hell are you, man?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Sub Mike.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing great, man.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, fresh off of victory, feeling good.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ready for December 16th, baby.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we still got a ways to go, but I'm feeling good, man.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's one of those things when you have a date in mind, I imagine it feels like forever away.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then once it gets there, it's like, where the hell did all that time go, right?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, every single time, dude.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, now I'm kind of used to it.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's I think 15 weeks away, or maybe even 16, but it's uh people be like, oh, you're nine weeks out.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like, uh, you still have a lot of time.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know, you know, nine weeks, nine weeks turns into seven, seven weeks turns into five, and then before you know it, it's like shit, we're two weeks out.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Where the hell all the time go?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You and I are just meeting for the first time.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some familiarity with the fight team and whatnot, but I kind of get by the way you and I have been communicating to get this episode going, you are a preparer.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You are a person that likes to be ready for shit.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Am I like totally off base there?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: No, not at all, man.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I like to be prepared, I like to be ready, especially, especially bro, when it comes to fighting, because uh you're putting everything on the line, right?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're uh you're getting half naked in front of a crowd.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: You could things go really things go really well or things go really, really bad.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I want them to go as well as possible.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: So preparing, uh, get those percentages up, right?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: To make things go well.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Without any further ado, why don't you take the reins, introduce yourself, and let's talk a little bit about your origin story, how you got to where you're at right now.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I started out as uh probably a shitty high school wrestler, um, not very good, pretty, pretty below average.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And uh me and a couple buddies went out, we were playing uh mini golf with some girls.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Probably we were badasses, teenagers.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking shit to these kids in front of us.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: These kids left, they came back with like 30 or 40 people, bro.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: I swear to God, like cars of people.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't do anything to us, but they punked us hard, jumped up, like circled us, made us feel like little cowards.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we're like, dude, we need to learn how to like defend ourselves or something.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be like the beginning of me wanting to learn like how to throw a punch or a kick or something like that, you know.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: But looking back on it, I was like, bro, even if even if I was in my state now in that position, you're still gonna get your ass beat by 30 people, right?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you fast forward that a little bit, graduate high school, not as shitty of a wrestler, still pretty eh.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I immediately got into jujitsu and muay um following high school and really just kept grinding it out on the amateur scene.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh went 10-0 as an amateur up till about 2015, turned pro, 2016, went one and one as a pro, lost my second fight, and I still remember it to this day, man.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Neil Magney was at that fight, and um I had visited Elevation to like just check it out and train there.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: I had my fight, lost my fight, and Neil Neil came up to me.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, this is uh this is like this is a turning point for you, man.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: You can let this loss break you down, you can feel sorry for yourself and kind of just fade off into nothingness, or you could move out to Denver.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you can stay at my fighter house, and you can never ever let this happen to you again.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I've never let that happen to me again.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I love that fun fact is you are from Sterling, Illinois.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh same place as one of your teammates, right?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, hub.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So did you and Austin grow up together then?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we're both graduated the same year.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: He went to uh Sterling Newman, which is like the private school.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Sterling Public Schools.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um we knew each other were from like wrestling and stuff, um, but we didn't really like uh meet each other until after high school.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we were training at the same gym.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we started at Combat Zone in Sterling, Rock Falls, Illinois.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Just a small, small group of people, man.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: Me, him, and probably like two other people, honestly.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for years and years and years, we would travel up and train at Militage Fighting Systems up in uh Bettendorf, uh, go to Rufusport in Milwaukee, uh, travel up there.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh we we uh we had some connections from teammates, uh Barb Honjak, she was really good friends with Kat Zanganu.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And uh Kat was like, hey, you should, you know, if you got some guys on Militic that want to come out and check it out, we got this great muscle farm facility.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Barb hit us up, like you guys should go out there.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: We checked it out 2016, moved out here 2017, really haven't looked back, bro.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when was it approximately what year was it that you really kind of started to get your feet wet in MMA?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like if we were to back it up even further.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Shit, dude.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I had my first MMA fight with gloves, mouthpiece in high school.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um me and uh me and uh me and a wrestler teammate, uh I was telling him that I was like in the summertime, I was like uh doing some training.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Training would be watching YouTube videos, right?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'd be like, uh, you know, yeah, I want to fight someone.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I got a friend that you know he trains basically, he watches UFC.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um so me and yeah, right.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Me and him met up at a park, uh like 50 kids from school were there.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was a fucking crowd, bro.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um crowd there, I get there, the the kid that I'm gonna fight is already wearing like some Walmart Everlast gloves.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: I got my pair of Walmart ever everlast gloves.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we went out there and it was like three one-minute rounds.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: I took him down and submitted them.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that feeling of winning, though, because like all the nerves and shit before were were there.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm nervous, like I'm about to fight this kid.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I've never fought before.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when I choked him out, he tapped that like adrenaline feel, that high up winning.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's still dude.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I want to do this, like I can do this, I want to do this.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, man.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that was kind of the first like taste I got.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because still to this day, you know, I just fought the Saturday, and that thrill of victory.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's that's a lot bigger now, uh, you know, much more at stake, but I it's still like it's just a bigger like uh family member of that that that feel that high of winning, man.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, greatest feeling in the world, bro.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the reason I asked that question is I think about MMA in terms of how audiences and casual fans or even die hard fans perceive the sport, and it feels like MMA at large, you said you moved to Colorado in 2017.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like the sport has had this huge evolution in the past six or seven years from a perception standpoint, from an athleticism standpoint, and from a the standpoint of preparation and how it's treated as a whole.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Have you experienced that?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I dude, I was just talking to someone uh yesterday about this.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to add on to that, the judging aspect of evolving now, right?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's now becoming, which I think is how it should be, um, more damage-based, right?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like the person that's inflicting the most damage kind of wins it, whereas they're not scoring.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, me being a wrestler and stuff, like obviously I love takedowns and control time, like to win fights, but they're not given as much credit with that anymore.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you got a takedown, but you did absolutely nothing with it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Dude got to his feet, tagged you up, he won that exchange.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, everyone too is getting so good now.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not like someone has a style or they're this and that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone is like decent everywhere, and then maybe they're really, really, really good at one area.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's becoming more common.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the new gen, right?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's 22-year-old kids on my team that like I'm having like trouble keeping up with, or like some days they're getting better than me, but they've been trans since they were fucking 12 years old.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, goddamn.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: That generation is now starting to come into light, and you're seeing that even in the UFC.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's exactly where I was going with that.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, as a parent of kids that are involved with martial arts and as a musician, there's a duality to it where I see kids that have grown up with YouTube as an apparatus to learn how to play music, and kids that have grown up with MMA as an established sport.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: The skill set and the talent level of this next generation of kids is huge, and it's leaps and bounds over what it was even as little as 10 years ago.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you think that is going to affect the sport long term?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd like to say that it'll be become even more of a young man's game, like you're only gonna see people in the 20s, but um, I there's always people that get through the cracks, right?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're just gonna see much more well-roundedness, much more just complete fighters everywhere.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're not gonna see as many like specialist, one-dimensional type fighters.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: They'll still be out there, like I was saying, but you're gonna see complete, full like mixed martial artists.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Kids that aren't just doing like wrestling practice or boxing practice, they're doing full MMA practices.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was uh I was on UFC um Fight Pass just watching some old fights, and I seen the I this banner weight fight at 135, and it was from like 2014.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, holy shit, like this sport is past these guys.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember who the who the guys were, but the sport is completely past like those guys' boss.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I wish I was fighting those guys right now.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was like uh straight, they they had skills everywhere, obviously.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: They trained everything, but one guy was like more of a wrestler and he was just looking for shots, and the other dude was like just looking to like land strikes, and it was like whoever could implement.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Verse now, like you're seeing well-rounded and people that can adjust on the fly.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, my plan A isn't working, I'm going to my plan B, which I'm also good at.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: My plan B isn't working, I'm going to plan C.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: MMA is such a humble community, whether people realize that or not, and I think that's because a lot of the aggression gets left in the octagon.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, from your perception, you get to work with a lot of veterans and a lot of people at different skill sets and different levels.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: How do some of the veterans interpret that vantage point?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I feel the same way.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: I will go back and I will watch older fights and I'd be like, Man, I want to respect these legends, but at the same time, yeah.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a big testament to their ability to like evolve because it's it is evolve or die, right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you either keep up with the new gen and then the way things are going, or you fall behind.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, in MMA, once you fall behind, you usually get left behind.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: You don't really see too many people that fall behind, and then they like make a resurgent years later.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you have to keep up, have to keep up.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a big testament and credit to uh to people like that.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh good example is Neil Magney on my team.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: He's fighting this weekend against Ian Gary.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: He's been around for a while, but man, but he's still out there, he's still winning, he's still uh he's still evolving too.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, his last few fights he's changed things up, he's made things work for him, and he's gotten the wins.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, again, that's kind of where I go back to the sense of humility, too, is because you can't have an ego and progress.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be able to self-assess and uh evaluate and figure out ways to do better the next go-around than you did your last effort.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Win or lose.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely, man.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, ego is good for the fight itself.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: This guy, this guy, this guy hurt me.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: I can't let I gotta get that back.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can't let him hurt me like that.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: But as far as like the training room, yeah, um, there's really it, you're gonna get humbled.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna run into a bigger fish.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: You might be a bigger fish one day, but then the next week you're tired or something, and this dude drank an extra Red Bull and he's got your number, he's got your number for today, right?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's back and forth, man.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, if you're the top dog that's crushing it every single time, that's probably not a good sign.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I always ask people that are not native to Colorado that bless me with their presence on my show, how has your body adapted to the elevation of being in Colorado?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you think that that has improved your fight game?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a great question, man.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh to make a simple make a really simple answer, it's helped tremendously.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time my first practice here, oh fuck, dude.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: I uh we got we we got in the cage, dude.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was like a wrestling day, wrestling practice.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: After like 10, 15 minutes, it was like uh we start against the wall, new person comes in on you, rotate, stuff like that.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: After 10, 15 minutes, you know, huffing and puffing, it's like you take a big deep breath of oxygen, you get like 5% back.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, it's like my lungs are white hot.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty well adapted now, man.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I I have really good I've always like conditioning's always kind of been like a weapon for me, even before I moved out here.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but being out here has definitely elevated that more.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when I when I fought in other shows that are like at sea level or significantly below it, I can feel a difference, man.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I like try to get try to get tired more so and just like wow, like there's extra oxygen.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: This feels great.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I'd love to fight at at elevation against somebody that's uh you know coming from sea level, that'd be a massive advantage for sure.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's so that's funny.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: The very first episode I did with uh Zach Pauga, he was talking about whenever he went to San Diego uh to fight for Cage Warriors one time, and he was just like it was like superhero difference after training in elevation and going and fighting in San Diego.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine it's maybe not as extreme, but it was kind of a little bit of that going down to Arizona to fight from Colorado.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, Arizona, we I think it was 1300 feet elevation, so that's that's quite a dip off from 5280.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, my fight, my fight only lasted two and a half minutes, so I didn't get really tested out too much.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: But um before the fight, we were you know cracking pads, hitting pretty hard, and uh my lungs felt great, man.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: I felt I felt in superior, just really good shape.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I always try to make myself in good shape before the fights, but yeah, I uh I loved it, man.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: I my lungs felt great.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about some of the things outside of the octagon.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: What motivates you as far as who Justin is outside of being a fighter?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, man, I I wasted a lot of time in my early twenties and my childhood.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I feel I feel like anyway, um just like I feel like I squandered a lot of time um doing regular shit that probably kids do, playing video games, watching TV, doing whatever.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and not like trying to be the best version of myself I could be, whether that's like having skills, being athletic, being you know, stuff like that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um but going back to like the fight club stuff, the first time I ever like won a fight, that feeling of it was so fucking addictive.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like I love that feeling.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I know I want to make money fighting, I want to be able to take care of myself and family.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's certainly one, but that's not the main reason.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um it the sport is so pure, man.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: The sport is so pure, and I can say like becoming a better fighter has made me a better person.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Just not just not in the cage, but outside of the cage in life, too.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's taught me so much discipline.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just taught me so many different things, and um I guess the best way to say it is just being the best version of myself.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that motivates me, man.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And fighting the stuff I have to do to become a great fighter, the stuff I have to do to be in the best shape possible to enter the fights like makes me a better person of itself.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like the things I have to do.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have to do things right, I have to do things by the book, like if I want that.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I never felt like I was like a supernatural talented athlete.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've had to work extremely hard to get the things that I want.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that that's that's probably my my biggest motivation, man.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: Just being the best version of myself possible.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that, and I noticed that there's a sense of consistency in what you just gave as an answer amongst all of your teammates, and I take this opportunity anytime I have any of you guys on my show to point that out, that the values that you guys emanate as a team are are awe-inspiring.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like there is a difference between the elevation fight team group versus a lot of other guys.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think that is?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that's kind of uh marked by your leadership?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think it is marked by the community that you guys have built as a team?
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think I actually have a really good answer for that.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it's um a lot of elevation man is a lot of my teammates are not from Colorado, right?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of us packed our shit up and just moved out here with at least for me, I can only speak for myself.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I cashed out all my 401k, my stock things for the company I worked for.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had no plan whatsoever.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I put all my shit in a car and moved to Neil Magni's Fighter House.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when I got to Neil Magni's Fighter House, it was uh me, Curtis Blades, Austin Hubbard, uh Cheppe Moresco, Machine Gun, uh Jimmy Zydex, Slobodon Maximovich, uh no one from Colorado.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, uh like four out of the six of the dudes were from Illinois, right?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a camaraderie sense when it's you know, we're all from different areas of the country.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm trying to think of there's there's not many homegrown like Corey, Corey's Hanhaken, he's from Aurora, Colorado.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's like all I can really think of, though.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's a couple of younger amateurs too from the area, but for the most part, we're all from different parts of the country, but we've all come under the same route for the same thing.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So there's like an unspoken like respect there.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're you know, we all we're all here together to make each other better, but we're all here for ourselves at the same time.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I was following your guys' fight journey this last week, and both you and Claire um on the trip to UFL 3, and you guys were rolling deep.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: In team elevation.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who all was there?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just yeah, just I've seen pictures of everybody.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, we have a crew out there, man.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: So on my end, we had uh Miguel Perez, Bory Sanhagen, uh head coach Carrington Banks.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then with uh Josh Marsh, we had uh Arut Pagoshin, and then Banks and Corey cornered him as well.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then with Claire, we had Chepe and uh Aaron Porter.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Aaron Porter's uh the strength conditioning coach for elevation two.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's uh he's over at Landau Performance and coaches a lot of us, man.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I mean, I I really I'll say first off, um I'm not a big fan of fighting on the same card with teammates.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just be straightforward.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm not.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was cool for this one though, because I fought first.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: So totally cool.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Right, but man, I've I you know it it's it was a good example, right?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm unfortunately I was the only person that won this weekend, but I I've been on fights with other people where we've all won and it was fucking sick, right?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's a it's as good as it gets.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's cards where like you know, you see your teammate walk up walk out, and then they walk back to the locker room and they're fucked up, their faces closed, their eyes, they got a black lip, they're crying, which is you know, totally natural.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's how it's gonna be when you lose, but like it sucks to see, dude.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: It really sucks to see.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I had never considered that.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: I never that's that's really interesting because you know, from from a vantage point as a fan and a friend of a lot of these people that you've mentioned, it is it's like, man, this looks like it's a good time, but I had never thought about how it could impact your mental game, whether you See your your teammates win or lose.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it uh like I said, when you all win, yeah, man, it's fucking it's the best night ever, right?
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: We're all high on a win, but um like I was uh Josh, Josh Marsh, he fought right after me, man.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I fought, you know, went backstage, got my clothes on, sat down, he was in the cage.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm watching it, man.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm high off my victory, right?
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Fuck yeah, like let's go watching him fight.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: He's dominating his fight, he's doing amazing.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: He loses one exchange and the fight's over.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I went from up here high as hell to just down like it was like I lost the fight, dude.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, oh, like it's just it sucks, man.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's I hate watching teammates fight.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I love it, don't get me wrong, but like you know, when you watch when you watch a buddy fight, like right before it happens, that nervous, terrible feeling, like I don't know what's gonna happen.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oof, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's even been a couple of times where you know, a couple of friends from the team have been on cards and it didn't go their way, and I've been here at home, and it's like like I just shut off the TV right away, and my wife is like, Well, I know not to talk to him.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's a little and it's not even it's not I'm not angry, it's I'm sad.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's how you experience a loss in this sport.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's not like football where you get angry because it's a team sport, you're sad for your friend and for your teammate and somebody that you saw put a lot of effort and a lot of their heart into to try and accomplish a goal.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you know, it's not just like losing the ball game, right?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like they might have fucked their knee up really bad, they might have broken some something, they might it's like they might be out for six months.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, ah, dude, it's so devastating.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm getting goosebumps like I'm getting goosebumps thinking about that, man.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's yeah, it's it it is it's cliche and you hear it all the time, right?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: But it really is the highest highs and the lowest lows, man.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody else make a really good analogy of it.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's also really not your opponent you're fighting in that octagon, you're fighting yourself, you're fighting to be the best version of yourself you can be.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your opponent is just a pawn in that game.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: I always like to say, like, uh, if you're fighting somebody and it's gonna be competitive, uh, usually after the first round, you're probably both gonna be tired.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's gonna be like, who wants it more?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Who wants to win?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that battle of who wants to win comes from right here, right?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, your opponent could land something and shut your lights off, and there's nothing really you can do about that, but a lot of it is like, what decisions are you making up in your head to continue on?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna like accept this or are you not gonna accept this?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna dig deep or you're not gonna dig deep?
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So to your point, yeah, a lot of it is a battle against yourself.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: So UFL 4 is gonna take place in December.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is your I don't want to ask what your game plan is, but what's your long-term goal for that fight itself, and then beyond that if you were to think past that?
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's a loaded question.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair, man.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so yeah, I'm fighting Amun Cosme.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's uh he's a good fighter, man.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've uh I've seen him fight early in the tournament, seen some of his other fights, he's well rounded.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um to kind of make it broad, I just my game plan with him is to be better than him everywhere, um, put the pressure on him, um win the striking exchanges.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh I've seen some things in his his game that I like that I think I can take advantage of.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: But uh that's gonna be five rounds too, my first five-round fight.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: So training camp's gonna be a little different for this, you know.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're gonna be training to go five rounds instead of three and become the first UFL banner weight champion, man.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: And as far as afterwards, you know, um I'm not sure.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be 10-2 after I win this tournament.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be the champion of this promotion.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um I don't know.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say for a doubt that it's the UFC after that or or what.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I really like the way the UFL is um marketing this and has their promotion structured.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: They've taken excellent care of me, man.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um they're an extremely, extremely professional promotion, the best promotion I've ever fought for by a long shot.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, not even close, man.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they have a lot of big plans for the future too.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: They're trying to they know they know you know UFC is up here at the higher level, they know where they're at, but they're trying to get to that level too.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, if if UFL wants to extend their hand up to me after this year and you know, maybe offer me something nice, I I can't say for sure I'd take it, but I can't say either that I would, you know, reject it either.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um they've done good by me, man.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And uh if they want to take care of me for another season, um I might be down for that, man.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think the world could probably use a few more organizations because competition really only drives business in the grand scheme of things.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: Competition is a great thing.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna hold you up too much longer, but what is your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than what it is right now, given your life experience?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't rely on your anyone else or any entity to make something better.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: If there's something that you want to change, you have to fucking go out and change it yourself.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be the change.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: As cliche as that sounds, like voting for something or like having a group of people like doing something to change something is not enough.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go out and you have to be that active change you want if you really want to see change.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, I said this before we started recording.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that shirt.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um thank you, bro.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna make are you gonna make that available for sale?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, actually, I do have a couple for sale right now.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I got a bulk order made.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, if you if you want, um hit me up, I can I can get them get them out there, man.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking uh for those listening right now, the shirt says this shouldn't take long.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: I I made them and got them.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, fuck.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: I probably look like a cocky son of a bitch wearing this shit.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta I gotta go out there and uh take not that I'm putting emphasis on I gotta go out there and finish them right, but you know, if I finish them pretty quick, it'll look good.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you know I didn't think about that either.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I uh I I I was saying before this fight too because uh Brandon Lewis, he's uh he was six and two, and his only two losses were on the contender series against really, really good dudes.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he fought Daniel Marcos, who I think is like 15, 16, and oh, and that went to a decision.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my prediction was like, is this gonna be a decision fight?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um he's not gonna give anything up to me.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to fight hard for 15 minutes, and you know, God be with me.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: I put him out in less than how under half a round.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm very grateful for that.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Where can my audience find you online?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, check me out.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my social medias, uh Jay Wets MMA is my Instagram.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's probably where you'll find most of my uh stories and like uh behind the scenes stuff.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I've got a Facebook too and a YouTube page, Jay Wetz, Jay Wetzel MMA.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh working on the YouTube, trying to get more uh more stuff up there.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: But check out Instagram.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm being more active on there, putting behind-the-scenes stuff, training, just interviews with other people, just random bullshit shenanigans we do.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: So uh just try to keep the fans more more involved.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you guys listening to this can go to his Instagram page and see this t-shirt that we're discussing uh in this grand selfie that was taken after uh after the win this last Saturday.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Justin, I am so glad we got to make this happen, man, especially on short notice.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, man.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed talking to you, bro.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And and I tell you what, we got to do this again in the future.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just let me know, dude.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, whenever you want, man.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I got I got a lot of time.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Justin Wetzel, the world is a better place with you and it, my friend.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for doing the show.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, brother.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: That was a fun conversation.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to have Justin back on the show sometime again in the not too distant future.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, give him a follow on Instagram.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's JWetz MMA.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can find that link in the episode description on Instagram.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Give Elevation Fight Team and High Altitude Martial Arts also a follow on Instagram.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And while you're being generous with the follows, make sure you follow Caught on the Mike on all forms of social media or visit me at www.caughtonthemic.com.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am on threads, I'm on TikTok, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Facebook, I'm on Instagram.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Instagram is where I'm typically the most active.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Michael Clark.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.