Latest / Caught on the Mike... / "The Future Moves Fast" with MMA Featherweight Carlos Calderon
Transcript
- 0:02SPEAKER_01: Warning due to some language and subject matter.
- 0:05SPEAKER_01: Listener discretion is advised.
- 0:20SPEAKER_01: Seventeen seconds.
- 0:22SPEAKER_01: That is all the time it took for my next guest to finish his last opponent in March of 2022.
- 0:31SPEAKER_01: He's a young fighter with big ambitions and a baby girl at home that drives is passion for what he does.
- 0:39SPEAKER_01: He trains with some of the best on elevation fight team at high-altitude martial arts in Aurora, Colorado.
- 0:47SPEAKER_01: And rumor has it that some of his peer mentors are hyped up and excited for what's to come.
- 0:55SPEAKER_01: For my new friend, Carlos Calderón.
- 0:58SPEAKER_01: He's an MMA featherweight with so far an undefeated record.
- 1:03SPEAKER_01: This is a short episode, but it's worth every second.
- 1:07SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Caught on the Mic.
- 1:16SPEAKER_01: Nothing I would rather be doing on a summery June day than talking to my friend Carlos.
- 1:23SPEAKER_01: How are you?
- 1:24SPEAKER_01: I'm doing good, my friend.
- 1:25SPEAKER_01: How about yourself?
- 1:26SPEAKER_01: Good, good, good.
- 1:27SPEAKER_01: Hey, so are you prepping for another fight?
- 1:30SPEAKER_01: Because your last one was back in March, right?
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: And uh so just had a lot of life things going on, kind of readjusting to some new things and uh trying to get a camp going right now.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: I'm barely getting back into shape, you know, doing all the extra extra miles and stuff.
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: But yeah, man, I'm trying to get something for July.
- 1:46SPEAKER_00: Good.
- 1:47SPEAKER_01: Because uh, to my listeners, if you get a chance and you do a little YouTube search, uh your fight was over in what 17 seconds back in March?
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: 17 seconds.
- 2:00SPEAKER_01: So without any further ado, why don't you introduce yourself and let's talk a little bit about your life journey?
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of course.
- 2:07SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm Carlos Calderone, uh a professional MMA fighter out of uh Elevation Fight Team and uh mainly high altitude martial arts.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: Uh I've been here all my life.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: I have a uh beautiful girlfriend, Judith, and a beautiful daughter, Gamali, who's right here asleep next to me.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: And uh that's about all there is to me, you know.
- 2:27SPEAKER_01: So how did you get into the fight game?
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: Uh so I mean I've always kind of been interested in martial arts.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: Like I think everybody kind of has those moments where they uh, you know, they they wonder about like what the human body is capable of.
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: For me, that came in the form of like asking my friends, hey, you think you could take a chimpanzee?
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: Or oh, you think, you know, like you know, and it's always just kind of like uh intrigued me, just what what the body can do.
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: So uh, and uh so like seven years ago about, I uh I had a friend who took me into the first gym I ever stepped in, and I mean the rest is history, man.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: So what was that gym?
- 2:59SPEAKER_00: The ATT.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: It was American top team, uh, not the big building that they had on on uh what was it on Peoria before, but it was uh the smaller building that they had on uh Quincy and Parker.
- 3:12SPEAKER_01: What was the first discipline you you started practicing?
- 3:15SPEAKER_00: I would say just like kickboxing.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: Uh I I I dabbled in jujitsu, but I didn't really train jujitsu for like the first year of my career.
- 3:23SPEAKER_00: I probably just rolled, you know?
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: And I I I got decent in doing that, but um like uh what what jiu-jitsu I did get?
- 3:30SPEAKER_00: It was from uh my my first coach, Alexander Huddleston.
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: Shout out.
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: Nice that's awesome.
- 3:37SPEAKER_01: And you're training out of high altitude martial arts right now, yes, sir.
- 3:41SPEAKER_01: What kind of benefits do you get from training there?
- 3:43SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it you could go in any day of the week and find somebody who's world class and something around the room, you know.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: It's like it's such a diverse group of human beings who uh I mean, like not only them is the martial arts on another level, but just like the the mentality in there, you know, like uh everybody knows where we're going.
- 4:01SPEAKER_01: Two of my most favorite interviews were with Cody and Vinny.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's dope.
- 4:06SPEAKER_01: And I tell you what, man, it's like uh whenever I I'm talking to my friends, and you know, of our age, my age, I'm I'm a lot older than you, but uh when I'm talking to my friends, I'm like, if you want to get motivated to get your ass back into the gym, like listen to this episode with Vinny, listen to this episode with Cody and Zach too, because I yeah, hey, Zach's a beast.
- 4:29SPEAKER_01: I think that dude's gonna be huge.
- 4:30SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
- 4:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
- 4:32SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to see what happens with him.
- 4:34SPEAKER_01: So you're training out of high altitude martial arts, you're a member of Elevation Fight Team.
- 4:39SPEAKER_01: Have most of your fights been with Fury organization then?
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: Uh, as a professional, yes.
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: I want yeah, I want to say yes.
- 4:47SPEAKER_00: Uh I I signed a multi-fight deal with them, like uh to start my career.
- 4:52SPEAKER_00: But uh just talking to my manager, you know, kind of surveying the options, he kind of figured that uh being a free agent right now would be the best thing.
- 4:59SPEAKER_01: So you are pursuing something else then?
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, sir.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm definitely trying to go for July.
- 5:05SPEAKER_00: If not, yeah, you know, I'll be patient, I'll wait for August.
- 5:08SPEAKER_00: But uh I definitely got some in the books.
- 5:10SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 5:11SPEAKER_01: But I mean, a contract with another organization.
- 5:14SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh we'll see.
- 5:16SPEAKER_00: Uh like if the numbers are right, if everything matches up, you know, like uh you know, like everything's possible.
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: But uh right now we just kind of want to keep the opportunities open because uh yeah, just want to keep that stock growing.
- 5:26SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
- 5:28SPEAKER_01: So what goes into a camp for you?
- 5:30SPEAKER_00: Um, so I mean, right, so I I train, let's say like two hours every day, and uh during a camp, I'll probably just add more cardio, you know, like just focus in uh well, like obviously adding more time too, but uh focusing in on certain things that I feel like will be important for the fight specifically.
- 5:48SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what are those things?
- 5:49SPEAKER_00: Uh it just depends on who I'm fighting.
- 5:51SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes I'll f uh this last camp, I uh focused mostly on striking and uh specifically out of my southpaw stance because uh uh my knee was pretty jacked up for that whole camp.
- 6:03SPEAKER_00: So I did like zero grappling for that.
- 6:06SPEAKER_00: And um yeah, I I couldn't kick with my left leg, so I'm thankful it was over pretty quick.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: That's funny, man.
- 6:15SPEAKER_01: So you've lived in Colorado most of your life, yes, sir.
- 6:19SPEAKER_01: Tell me about your upbringing.
- 6:21SPEAKER_00: So I was born in LA.
- 6:22SPEAKER_00: Uh I got a big family.
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: I got four uh two brothers, two sisters.
- 6:26SPEAKER_00: Um, we well well, my parents have been like back and forth from uh El Salvador since they got here, but uh they so they uh we set we settled down in California first, and we were actually living in a really small spot over there in California, and it was uh that was when I was still a baby.
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: And um eventually we came here to Colorado.
- 6:47SPEAKER_00: Uh our first spot here was also a small apartment, and uh it was like seven of us sharing it, you know.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: And it it's just things like that that kind of make you think, you know, uh where you're going is all the more important, you know, because it's like it's something that we've never seen, you know.
- 7:01SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
- 7:02SPEAKER_01: It's a lot about the journey and yeah.
- 7:04SPEAKER_01: I talked to a lot of people about how uh your upbringing and little challenges like living in the say a small spot with seven people can really define who you become later on in life.
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, seriously.
- 7:19SPEAKER_01: So, what are some more defining moments that you've had in your life on your journey to becoming a fighter?
- 7:24SPEAKER_00: A couple of them I don't feel comfortable talking about yet.
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: Like maybe down, down the line, you know, the like like years and years, but uh sure.
- 7:32SPEAKER_00: I would say uh one of the more recent ones was having my daughter for sure.
- 7:37SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 7:37SPEAKER_00: Because uh before it it's like something told me, you know, like God gave me this ability, and it would be a shame not to use it, you know.
- 7:45SPEAKER_00: And because I know how far this ability can take me, and not pursuing something like that, you know, I wouldn't be able to live my life like that.
- 7:53unknown: Right.
- 7:55SPEAKER_00: Like on top of that, when I had my daughter, it didn't just become, you know, like, oh, I was given this ability so I could prove something to myself.
- 8:04SPEAKER_00: It's I was given this so I could provide for her, so I could prove to her that anything is possible, you know.
- 8:09SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: And I was actually gonna ask you that because I know when uh my ex-wife was pregnant with my daughter, uh, my first kid, I I was playing music for many years and playing in bands and then touring and all that stuff.
- 8:25SPEAKER_01: But whenever she was pregnant, I was like, this is time to pull the plug and I gotta I gotta change course, course correct, start working a nine to five, you know, put in 40 hours a week.
- 8:36SPEAKER_01: Did that ever cross your mind?
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: So it actually is so here's the thing too.
- 8:42SPEAKER_00: Uh so when my girlfriend got pregnant, it was during COVID.
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: So everything it was a clusterfuck anyway, you know.
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: So it's right, right.
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: Uh so I just so everything was kind of unsure.
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: So I I mean I did get one of uh like a full-time job, you know, I was working like 50 hours a week, six days a week, and uh, but that didn't stop me, you know.
- 9:02SPEAKER_00: Like I started doing that uh I think around before my pro debut, but um it was definitely hard, but uh recently I've made the transition to I'm starting a business for myself and uh where I'm just gonna be like personal training people, and I'm trying to make it adapt that way to open up a lot more time.
- 9:23SPEAKER_01: That's that's good because sometimes your why can doesn't necessarily change what you do, it's how you perceive what you do.
- 9:30SPEAKER_01: Um the postscript, the postscript to my own story is the fact that uh once my daughter was born, I looked at myself in the mirror and I had spent like nine months getting fat, eating wings, watching TV, and I was like, man, I gotta get back out there.
- 9:49SPEAKER_01: And then I ended up being in the most successful band that I had ever been in for five years after that.
- 9:56SPEAKER_01: So it's funny because you think that having kids is like a bookend to your life, but a lot of times it's really just the sparked fire.
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: It's a bit so yeah, I'm not gonna lie, I still get like those moments where I look in the mirror and I'm like, damn, I got fat.
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: You know what?
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm kind of having one of those right now, but it's like that's why I'm hopping back into a camp.
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, hit 145 drug coming again.
- 10:18SPEAKER_01: So what do you walk around at if you don't mind me asking?
- 10:21SPEAKER_00: Uh so typically I walk around pretty light, like 160.
- 10:25SPEAKER_00: Right now, uh, I'm having one of those moments, 65.
- 10:31SPEAKER_01: So if you had a strategy for cutting and you had to make a cut fast, what what do you do?
- 10:39SPEAKER_00: It depends.
- 10:40SPEAKER_00: If it's like I only have like two weeks, I'm gonna probably do it pretty unhealthy.
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna just, you know, cut the water weight, you know, maybe I'll stop eating or something.
- 10:48SPEAKER_00: Like for a little, like uh, but if I have a good amount of time, like four or five weeks, uh, my weight cuts to 45 are actually really easy, you know.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: Like, um, yeah, um, this is gonna sound ridiculous because it sounds ridiculous to all the people I tell it to, but the day of weighing, like, I'm still eating, I'm still drinking.
- 11:06SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man, it's uh oh shit, that's a crapshoot, man.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: Hey, but I mean it's been working.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: It's like I feel that I still feel energy fight day, I still feel energy weigh in day.
- 11:18SPEAKER_00: So it's like if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess.
- 11:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just uh I tell you what, the thing that you have working in your favor is that you're young, so you metabolize things a lot quicker.
- 11:28SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm probably gonna have to change that up.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
- 11:31SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say, man, you cross once you cross that 30-year-old mark, you're gonna be like, holy shit, why is it taking me two weeks just to lose five pounds?
- 11:40SPEAKER_00: You know, and well, another thing too is I've always sweat a lot, you know.
- 11:44SPEAKER_00: Like I used to be real self-conscious about it, but now I'm like, Yeah, yeah, I sweat a lot.
- 11:48unknown: Right.
- 11:49SPEAKER_01: Not the hyperhydrosis where you're like, I can't wear bright colored shirts because it's gonna look like I'm sweating all the time.
- 11:57SPEAKER_01: Seriously, though, man.
- 11:59SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but eventually you just start getting like after so many training sessions where you're just drenched and everybody's like, damn, you sweat a lot.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: You're like, Yeah, yeah.
- 12:08SPEAKER_01: So, what's your favorite part about training and uh practicing in Colorado?
- 12:13SPEAKER_00: There's a lot there, man, because I uh not only do we have such a talent pool healing here in Colorado, like the guys that I get to work with, but I mean just even the altitude, you know, like something that we take for granted every day, you know.
- 12:26SPEAKER_00: The cardio that we get here is just we go anywhere else and it'll be good.
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: It'll it'll hold on.
- 12:32SPEAKER_01: You know, that has been the most consistent answer I've gotten from all the elevation guys.
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: It's like it's the altitude, it's the altitude training.
- 12:41SPEAKER_01: Like like Zach going back to talking about Zach, he described going from Colorado to San Diego and how he felt like a superhero when he was in San Diego because his cardio was so good, because he trained in altitude.
- 12:54SPEAKER_01: So, do you do a lot of outdoor training then?
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I'm getting more back into running.
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: Uh uh now that it like uh because now that I have Gamali, like I would usually just when my mind hit it, I would go, you know.
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: But now that I have a daughter, it's not always like that.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: So uh I've I just you know I'm opening up the time for it, just opening up the time for more training sessions, and uh well yeah, man, uh I get a lot of just like a lot of my cardio just comes from training too.
- 13:18SPEAKER_01: So when you're around a lot of guys, like bigger guys, guys that are are bigger than featherweight, you know, heavyweights, light heavyweights.
- 13:26SPEAKER_01: Do you find a little bit of an apprehension to utilizing a lot of cardio in training and instead doing like your traditional weight training?
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: No, not really, because the thing is like the way I see it is everybody's good in their own window of you know, like their own window of talent.
- 13:41SPEAKER_00: And it's like I'm not gonna fight the heavyweight to be stronger than him, you know?
- 13:45SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, so at the end of the day, I'm I'm gonna be good at what I'm good at, and it it takes me far, you know.
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: The reason I asked that is because I live in Nebraska and we I train around a you know, I work out around a lot of football players, and you know, and that's what Nebraska is known for, is is football and wrestling, and and you know, you get into these gyms and you get a lot of guys that'll shame you for doing too much cardio.
- 14:08SPEAKER_01: They're like, bro, you need to be lifting.
- 14:11SPEAKER_01: Why are you doing all that running and shit?
- 14:12SPEAKER_01: It's like because I'm gonna outrun your fat ass eventually, you know?
- 14:17SPEAKER_00: No, uh honestly, like, because I I don't go to the gym much, so I don't get many of those people in my ear, but like uh in the training room, everybody has their own way of doing it, you know, and nobody's wrong, nobody's right.
- 14:28SPEAKER_00: So it's like, well, obviously there's some people who are right, you know, you got Sandhagen and fucking Gagey in the room and Usman, they're pretty right.
- 14:34SPEAKER_01: But it's I was just gonna ask you, who are some of your most favorite guys to train with?
- 14:39SPEAKER_00: Uh Sandhagen for sure.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: Um let's see.
- 14:43SPEAKER_00: Uh I got like my whole click over at Hama.
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: Shout out like Daniel, Miguel, I got Elias, I got uh Carlos, I got Richard.
- 14:52SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, we we got a whole crew over there going, man, and uh it you'll see you'll see us coming soon.
- 14:59SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
- 15:00SPEAKER_01: The thing is that I I'm always impressed with when talking to you guys is you are all like a tight-knit group and a tight-knit family.
- 15:09SPEAKER_01: Um I and it's something that I've complimented pretty much everybody on.
- 15:13SPEAKER_01: It's like even doing my show on a regular basis, it makes me feel like I'm part of the team because you guys have such a such a humbling spirit, you know.
- 15:23SPEAKER_01: And whenever I talk to people that listen to my podcast, because I interview everybody from you know the music world, doctors, lawyers, whoever, but uh, but I interview a lot of fighters because I think your guys' stories are the most interesting and that people can take the most away from a fighter's journey.
- 15:42SPEAKER_00: I think part of it is just that uh uh you know, you have to be a real I'm gonna say crazy individual to choose this as a lifestyle, you know.
- 15:50SPEAKER_00: Like uh normally people wouldn't want to sacrifice something like, you know, just chilling with your family or you know, like watching a movie on a day off or something for something as rigorous as a training session or a fight, you know?
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: It's just interesting.
- 16:05SPEAKER_00: People people love to see people fight.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, that's that's funny.
- 16:10SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I live in a football state, and while all my other friends are watching Husker games, I'm usually watching whatever an MMA is phone watching the UFC, uh that's exactly what it's like.
- 16:20SPEAKER_01: We will be at the bar and everybody's watching like a Husker game, and I'm off in a corner with my phone plugged into the wall watching you know ESPN Plus going, but hey, I'm I was uh I forget what concert it was, but I was I was at some big concert and uh Corey was having a fight and everybody was over here jamming out.
- 16:41SPEAKER_00: I was trying to find Wi-Fi for how I was gonna yes, yes, yes, yes.
- 16:47SPEAKER_01: Is Corey still instructing at uh Hama right now?
- 16:50SPEAKER_00: Then yeah, so he teaches uh uh MMA classes.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: Uh and he's not doing like striking program anymore, but you know, he he's always helping the people who he trains with out.
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: So uh it's not like taking a class, but you when you're around the guy, you're always taking a class, you know?
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh it seems like a very iron sharpens iron environment around there.
- 17:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
- 17:13SPEAKER_01: I I'm really impressed by that.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: I actually I messaged uh Vinny and Cody and Bobby uh just yesterday and let them know I'm coming out uh first week of July.
- 17:25SPEAKER_01: So I'm hoping to, yeah, I'm hoping to stop out at if not for any other reason to high-five some of you guys and be like, hey, thanks for doing the show, you know.
- 17:35SPEAKER_01: But uh what is your advice for making the world a better place right now?
- 17:40SPEAKER_00: Man, just uh do what makes you happy and try and do your best to stay out of other people's happiness.
- 17:46SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like like I I feel like there's just too much going on for us to really like I I don't know, you know, like we just we just gotta do it.
- 17:54SPEAKER_00: It's a tough world out there.
- 17:55SPEAKER_00: We gotta do what makes us happy.
- 17:57SPEAKER_00: And if you can and if you can do your best to stay out of the way of other people's happiness, then do that, you know, because it's like but it can only it it's a tough, you know, that's a tough question.
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: Because I'm in a sport where it's like my happiness does stand in the way of somebody's happiness.
- 18:13SPEAKER_00: But it's like but it's like at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it's like um just do your best.
- 18:20SPEAKER_00: Do your best.
- 18:21SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: So one year from now, where do you see yourself?
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: I would say three or four more fights, however long that takes, probably about a year.
- 18:30SPEAKER_00: I will either be on the roster or in the eyes of the UFC.
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: And the they're either gonna know my name or they'll be signing their or they'll be signing my checks.
- 18:39SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
- 18:40SPEAKER_01: Well, sir, thanks for taking a little time out of your day to be on the podcast.
- 18:46SPEAKER_01: Uh, enjoy that little girl beside you.
- 18:49SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll do.
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: Uh that's that's what life's really about.
- 18:54SPEAKER_01: And uh, man, I tell you what, the world's a better place with you in it.
- 18:57SPEAKER_00: Hey, I appreciate you, brother.
- 18:58SPEAKER_00: The world's a better place with you in it, too.
- 19:00SPEAKER_01: Man, I tell you what, there were a lot of laughs in a short period of time there.
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: I want to thank my friend Carlos for being on the show once again.
- 19:08SPEAKER_01: Make sure you give him a follow on the Instagram.
- 19:12SPEAKER_01: Make sure you hit up highaltitudema.com.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: That's highaltitudema.com.
- 19:19SPEAKER_01: That's highaltitude martial arts website.
- 19:22SPEAKER_01: Give them a follow on all forms of social media.
- 19:25SPEAKER_01: Follow Elevation Fight Team on all forms of social media.
- 19:28SPEAKER_01: And while you're doing that, make sure you give me a follow on all forms of social media.
- 19:34SPEAKER_01: The summer is getting hot and the podcasts are only getting hotter, so I would appreciate that five-star review on the Apple Podcast app.
- 19:42SPEAKER_01: And you can review me now on Spotify.
- 19:46SPEAKER_01: Make sure you hit up my website at www.caughtonthemic.com.
- 19:52SPEAKER_01: This has been Caught on the Mike with Michael Clark.
- 19:56SPEAKER_01: I'm Michael Clark.
- 19:57SPEAKER_01: Until next time.
- 19:59SPEAKER_01: Thank you.